Best decal so far for iPad

The Joker gets ahold of an iPad + Batman meets the Justice League
[Via Edible Apple]

Now this is some snazzy artwork right here. The Joker, holding the fate of Apple, in the palm of his hand. The decal is digitally printed and cut from vinyl. You can purchase the sticker for $16 from Etsy.

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You know how so many TV shows cover up the Apple on the back of Apple laptops, etc.? Wouldn’t it be cool if they used something like this instead?

Then they could get both Apple and DC Comics upset about using their logos.

Yeah, I wonder if this sort of use of copyrighted material is actually legal. They also have this one of a tattooed Snow White:

I would imagine Disney might have something to say about this. It was only added on May 18 so get it quick before the Disney lawyers show up.

Customizable user dictionary – one of the better “small” features in iPhone OS 4

by Richard Gayle

Apple’s latest iPhone OS 4 beta adds customizable user dictionary
[Via AppleInsider]

Users will be able to add and edit their own words to the iPhone’s dictionary when Apple delivers the iPhone OS 4 software upgrade to the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS this summer.

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As a scientist, I use some unusual words. If I misspell them a few times, the iPhone thinks that is how I want them to be spelled.

And their is now no way to tell it differently. So it keeps substituting a misspelled word, which I either miss, allowing the iPhone to think the misspelling is correct, or I have to move off of the keyboard and “X” the suggested words.

Being able to delete incorrect spellings from the dictionary would be wonderful.

Fact checking is popular

Memo to David Gregory
[Via Balloon Juice]

Fact-checking can be a good business strategy (Greg Sargent):

Has anyone else noticed that the Associated Press has been doing some strong fact-checking work lately, aggressively debunking all kinds of nonsense, in an authoritative way, without any of the usual he-said-she-said crap that often mars political reporting?

I asked AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier about this, and he told me something fascinating, if not all together unexpected: Their fact-checking efforts are almost uniformly the most clicked and most linked pieces they produce.

Journalistic fact-checking with authority, it turns out, is popular. Who woulda thunk it?

I’ve heard various theories about David Gregory’s refusal to allow fact-checking on “Meet the Press”, but none of them make sense to me.

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The most clicked and the most linked. Real facts are actually newsworthy. Who woulda thunk it, exactly!

It has taken them this long to figure out that a lot of folks just want the facts. Well, at least some journalists seem to have the right idea.Perhaps there is hope for some of the news media after all.

NAS books on climate change

Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
[Via New from the National Academies Press]

Reducing vulnerabilities to impacts of climate change that the nation cannot, or does not, avoid is a highly desirable strategy to manage and minimize the risks, says the book, Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change. Some impacts–such as rising sea levels, disappearing sea ice, and the frequency and intensity of some extreme weather events like heavy precipitation and heat waves–are already being observed across the country.

The book notes that policymakers need to anticipate a range of possible climate conditions and that uncertainty about the exact timing and magnitude of impacts is not a reason to wait to act. In fact, it says boosting U.S. adaptive capacity now can be viewed as “an insurance policy against an uncertain future,” while inaction could increase risks, especially if the rate of climate change is particularly large.

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Advancing the Science of Climate Change

The compelling case that climate change is occurring and is caused in large part by human activities is based on a strong, credible body of evidence, says Advancing the Science of Climate Change, one of the new books in the America’s Climate Choices series. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never “closed,” the book emphasizes that multiple lines of evidence support scientific understanding of climate change.

The core phenomenon, scientific questions, and hypotheses have been examined thoroughly and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations, the book says.

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Limiting the Magnitude of Climate Change

Substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require prompt and sustained efforts to promote major technological and behavioral changes, says Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change, a new book from the America’s Climate Choices study. Although limiting emissions must be a global effort to be effective, strong U.S. actions to reduce emissions will help encourage other countries to do the same.

In addition, the U.S. could establish itself as a leader in developing and deploying the technologies necessary to limit and adapt to climate change.

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Published by our National Academy of Science, these three books detail where the science is and what needs to be done. You can download the summaries for free and also read the books online for free. Somewhat cumbersome but much cheaper than the price of the books.
You can download short reports for each: Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change, Advancing the Science, and Limiting the Magnitude of Climate Change. Read them and understand how we are going to solve this difficult problem. The sooner the better.

Another cool iPad app for meetings – Keynote

Keynote (with laser) by Richard Gayle

Meetings are the place where I am seeing huge benefits for the iPad, especially if multitasking comes on board. Another area is presenting information, especially in small working groups.

I’ve used Keynote for many years and love it. Keynotes for iPad is not as mature but, after some adaptions, makes a quite good presentation app. I expect it will get better as it matures.

But it is so easy to set up the iPad to a projector, with the connection key. And run through slides. In a smallish group, say 15 or less, it helps maintain an informality that really helps move things along.

Plus Keynote has an included laser pointer! If you hold your finger down on the screen for a few seconds, a red, circular ‘laser’ dot appears that you can move around to underscore the points you are making.

Man, I am looking forward to the time when the Keynote app is really mature enough for very large, theater-style presentations – okay it is now but I want it to be as powerful as the desktop application. That will take a little bit of time.

Anyway, laser pointers are a necessary part of most scientific presentations. Where they are often poorly utilized – usually just random swirling by the presenter – and have a shirt battery life.

Not with Keynote. This laser will always precisely circle around exactly what you want and the battery life is not something to worry about.

Great use for iPad and why SoundPaper is a wonderful app

SoundPaper by Richard Gayle

I’ve been getting a little more comfortable with where my iPad comes in really useful and where I still need my laptop. I’ve found one place where it makes a big difference – in meetings. And with the right apps, the meeting completely changes.

Meetings are now a place where I can place my iPad anywhere at the table, tae up little room and do a better job of taking notes and participating than with a large laptop, tethered to the nearest plug.

I normally sit in many meetings, taking notes with my laptop, and using my iPhone to record the meeting. Now iTalk is a fine app for the iPhone or iPad but I always had a little bit of a problem finding the sound bites that connected to my notes, especially after a few weeks.

No such problem with SoundPaper. This iPad app not only records the meeting but also uses typed notes in the app to bookmark the recording. So you can jump to any part of the spoken record simply by tapping the notes you took at the same time.

It is now incredibly easy to find specific parts in the voice record. In fact, all I have to type is a few words when something really interesting comes up. Then later, I can hear exactly what was said. I can spend more time actively listening and participating, without having to worry about keeping my notes complete.

But where SoundPaper really excels is moving my notes and recording off of the iPad. I may lose the synchronization of sound with text but the app makes it so easy to archive and rework this material on a laptop or desktop computer.

I can email myself the notes and sound. But this app has an even better way to get the notes and sound over to my laptop or desktop – through direct Wifi Transfer!

Tap my iPad and it creates a local web page that I can access using any browser. I get a page that permits me to download either the sound, which ends up in iTunes, or the notes. All without making any sort of hard connection between the iPad and the computer.

Yes, I lose the sync, but I can transfer files via WiFi! No USB connection!

I wish every app could do this. Why don’t the iWork apps? This seems like a really great way to get around one of the few problems with the iPad – moving files between the iPad and another computer.

Anyway, now I can use a single device to take notes and to record the meetings I am in. No more lugging around a laptop to meetings. There are a few things that could make this a better tool:

1) Multitasking (Come on iPhone OS 4). If I have to grab a document in another app, SoundPaper pauses the recording. I’d love it to remain recording while I am looking for another bit of information during the meeting.

2) Rich Text formatting. It would be great to be able to add bold, or italics.

3) Outlining formats – being able to organize the notes as one goes (say for different speakers) could make it a little easier.

So, using an app like SoundPaper helps the iPad become a wonderful meeting tool. Much easier to work with than a large laptop and I do not need to worry about the battery giving out during a meeting, or sitting near the plug!

How about those copiers at FedEx/Kinko’s?

by krossbow

That old copier still holds a picture of your backside
[Via Ars Technica]

The Federal Trade Commission wants to make sure the public knows an important truth: if you photocopy your butt on a modern copier, it’s probably still there, safe on the copier’s hard drive. It exists there along with medical forms, financial documents, and that list of gang members your police department was just about to arrest.

CBS News did a story last month on secrets kept by digital copiers. Most digital copiers produced in the last five years archive copied documents on internal hard drives, and those hard drives are easy enough to obtain once the copiers are resold or their lease expires. By examining the hard drives of several used copiers, CBS found “a list of targets in a major drug raid” from the Buffalo Police Narcotics Unit. It also scored Social Security numbers, medical documents, and “$40,000 in copied checks.”

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Now, I know that the hard drives on these copiers is not very big and that it is used to spool very large jobs, etc. But do commercial coping companies have a policy for wiping the self serve copiers they have?

(Yes, I’m too lazy to look at their sites to dig that out.)

$120 a year? I’ve got other things to do with my iPad

Hulu subscription plan for Apple iPad to arrive later than expected
[Via AppleInsider]

Originally rumored to launch as soon as next week, Hulu’s planned $10-a-month subscription service for advance content and access via an iPad application remains in the works.

In April, The Los Angeles Times reported that Hulu’s new service, dubbed Hulu Plus, would arrive as soon as May 24. But on Tuesday, Peter Kafka of MediaMemo cited people familiar with the online streaming service who said there is “no way” Hulu Plus will become available next week.

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Nothing here about ad-free or not. At $120 a year, it had better be.

This was the key sentence for me:

It is said that Hulu’s business partners have pressured the service into subscription plans to “train” viewers that they should pay for online access to content.

About the only thing I have used Hulu for recently is to watch some SNL clips. I guess that will have to be some very compelling content.

And it will not be HTML5-based. I wonder how they will make this work. Quicktime?

Now, if Hulu had all the content that was available on cable, then I might be willing to stream something for $10 a month. But until it does, why should I pay for material I can already record and watch when I want?

Just to get it on my iPad? Well, I already have enough things to do with my iPad. This is not yet a compelling enough case.

At what temperature does it become too hot to live?

Heat stress: setting an upper limit on what we can adapt to
[Via Skeptical Science]

It’s widely agreed that warming over 6°C would have disastrous consequences for humankind. Increased drought and rising sea levels are the usual poster boys for climate impacts (and for good reason). However, the direct impact of heat stress on humans gives us a clear climate impact benchmark. Some argue that humans will simply adapt, as we already tolerate a wide range of climates today. But a new paper An adaptability limit to climate change due to heat stress (Sherwood 2010) shows this argument is false. Even modest global warming could expose large fractions of the population to unprecedented heat stress, and severe warming would lead to intolerable conditions over wide regions.

Human skin temperature is regulated at around 35°C. The human body needs to be warmer than it’s environment in order to cool. Specifically, it needs to be warmer than the wet-bulb temperature T_w, measured by covering a standard thermometer bulb with a wetted cloth and fully ventilating it. Sherwood 2010 estimates that the survivability limit for peak six-hourly T_w is probably close to 35°C for humans – any longer results in hyperthermia.

Figure 1 depicts temperature over the last decade (1999 to 2008). The black line in Box A is a histogram of annual surface temperature. The blue line is annual maximum temperature. Of particular interest is the red line, showing a histogram of the wet-bulb temperature T_w. Note the vertical dashed line in Box A – this denotes the critical threshold of 35°C. The map also shows the wet-bulb temperature across the globe.

Figure 1: (A) Histograms of temperature (Black), Maximum Temperature (Blue), and Wet-bulb Temperature T_w (Red) during the last decade (1999–2008). (B) Map of Wet-bulb Temperature T_w.

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If the wet bulb temperature ever gets to be greater than our body temperature, then we can not cool ourselves with sweat evaporation. Hyperthermia can then rapidly progress.

No place on Earth consistently hits this limit. In fact, the paper indicates that the wet bulb temperature has never gone above 31 °C. Climate change might alter this. This paper indicates that increased of 7 °C or more can start producing areas that are unsafe for people to live, because they will not be able to dissipate their body heat.

Most models do not show global temperatures increasing that much anytime soon. But this does indicate there ware temperature scenarios that would not support our ability to adapt.

“Warmest on record”

from NOAA

NOAA: Warmest April Global Temperature on Record
[Via NOAA News Releases]

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for both April and for the period from January-April, according to NOAA. Additionally, last month’s average ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for any April, and the global land surface temperature was the third warmest on record.

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Hottest April and warmest 4 months. North American snow cover was lowest ever measured for April. In fact, the amount lower was greater than for any month, ever.

And, as can be seen, climate change does not mean that everything gets uniformly hotter. There will be changed weather patterns so we also find that China and Tibet experienced some of their coolest and wettest Aprils ever.

The oceans were warmest in the equatorial regions of the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder if this extra heat will have any effect on hurricane season?

LEDs coming big time

by oskay

Energy and Global Warming News for May 17th 2010: LED bulbs for home coming this year; With Solar Valley, China embarks on bold green technology mission; Pricing for utility green power continues to fall
[Via Climate Progress]

LED Bulbs for the Home Near the Marketplace

The prospects of replacing today’s inefficient incandescent light bulbs with long-lasting, low-power LEDs are increasing.

Two of the lighting industry’s three biggest manufacturers, Osram Sylvania and Philips, plan to sell energy-efficient LED bulbs this year that can replace a 60-watt bulb, the most commonly used incandescent lamp.

The third company, General Electric, will sell an LED equivalent to a 40-watt bulb this year, but it will not have a 60-watt replacement ready until 2011.

Beginning in January 2012, federal law will require that light bulbs, or lamps as the industry calls them, will need to be 30 percent more efficient than current incandescent bulbs. Standard incandescent lamps will most likely not be able to meet those requirements. LED makers hope their bulbs will.

Compact fluorescents have been unpopular with consumers, and LED bulbs have been too dim. But Osram’s Ultra bulb, available in August, and Philips’s EnduraLED, which will be in stores in the fourth quarter, will use just 12 watts of power to equal the light output of a 60-watt bulb.

“The 60-watt lamp is the most-sold bulb in America,” said James R. Brodrick, the manager for solid-state lighting at the Energy Department. “These new bulbs should give consumers something to think about.”

The LED bulbs use 20 percent of the power of a current incandescent bulb and last up to 25,000 hours, compared with 2,000 hours for a standard bulb and 8,000 for a compact fluorescent. That’s 17 years if the bulb is on four hours a day.

The companies say that, unlike compact fluorescents, these new LED lights completely mimic standard bulbs. They are dimmable, create light in all directions, and display virtually the same warmth and range of colors as incandescent bulbs. And most important, they work.

“In our research, we mixed up these new LED lamps with regular bulbs, and when asked which was which, most selected the wrong lamps,” said Guido van Tartwijk, a Philips group manager.

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By the end of this year, LEDs could be lighting everything in a house. Of course, no mention of the price. Since they last for 17 years, I would expect that they will not be as cheap as incandescent. The companies have to recoup costs and then some. If every 60 watt bulb is replaced with LED, then there will no more sales – at least for 17 years – and the companies would be out of a revenue stream that they now get with incandescents.

So maybe some nice sales for a few years and then none?

I wonder what the business model is here? Will only government regulation drive this or is there another route?

Using weather radar to track birds

There is a bird in my radar!
[Via Cliff Mass Weather Blog]

During the past few weeks, several of you have asked essentially the same question:

” It’s been completely dry but the weather radar last night showed lots of echos, suggesting it rained all night. What is going on ?“

Well, I can give the you the answer: Birds!

Weather radar can see more than raindrops. It can see the mountains, but that signal is generally removed successfully (terrain clutter) since the mountains generally don’t move. Weather radar can see other objects in the air and the amount of return generally increases by the sixth power of the object’s diameter. (Doubling the size of an object increases the amount of the radar signal scattered back increases by 64 times). Since a bird is much bigger than a raindrop, you can imagine that it would provide a good return.

Another point. The weather radar used by the National Weather Service has two modes: clear-air and precipitation. Clear air mode is much more sensitive and is used when it is not precipitating to get some information on the winds. In this mode, discontinuities in the atmosphere (e.g., where density changes rapidly) and bugs (which get blown about by the wind) can show on the radar (within tens of km of the radar site) to provide some useful information.

But now we get to the birds. During dry periods the radar is on the hypersensitive clear air mode and during the night (particularly during migration periods in spring and fall) a whole lot of birds are up there. According to my birder friends and a few articles I have read on the subject, a number of birds (like songbirds) like to migrate at night, typically flying into the bottom 10,000 feet of the atmosphere. This time of the year they are flying north and in the autumn to the south. The amazing thing is this migration is really tied to the clock…after sunset, the radar is filled with echo, remains all night, and like magic disappears after sunrise. (Keep these numbers in mind: on May 15th, sunset was at 8:40 PM (3:40 UTC/GMT), sunrise was at 5:32 AM (12:32 UTC).

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Check out the complete set of radar images. Not only are there lots of birds, and bugs, in the air, but their air speed can be determined.

Even when it is not raining, radar can be used to gather some interesting information.

Floods for farmland

by IRRI Images

For the birds
[Via All Today's News - Sightline Daily]

Floodwater would seem to be about the last thing Dave Hedlin would want to see on the field where he grows cucumbers, potatoes and other crops near Skagit Bay.

But for the past three years, the third-generation farmer has taken part in an experiment that contradicts everything he’s known about farming. For a fee, he agreed to flood about 20 acres to provide wetland habitat for migratory shorebirds, a move researchers hoped would also result in more productive farmland.

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Very nice idea. The flooded lands attract lots of birds, which promptly eat all the bugs and worms they can find. They then leave behind lots of fixed nitrogen:

Though no studies have quantified benefits, Cole said farmers have reported higher crop yields, better control of weeds and pests and reduced need for fertilizers and fumigants.

Flooding drives away harmful soil pests and bacteria, and increased levels of nitrogen helps soil fertility.

The program could be especially helpful to farmers who want to pursue organic certification, which requires that pesticides not be applied for three years. About 15,000 acres of private land have been converted to organic through the Klamath Basin effort, called Walking Wetlands, a change that should help farmers fetch premium crop prices, Cole said.

Researchers at Oregon State University are studying benefits to farmers and birds.

And it pays farmers who want to move to organics certification instead of them having to leave their fields completely fallow for 3 years. It would seem that this might be a nice part of crop rotation in some areas.

Of course, water is a huge commodity in some locations so this will not be applicable everywhere. But it is a great example of using a systems approach to solving problems.

I want Oliver Stone’s The Demolished Man. Or maybe De Palma’s

by cdrummbks

Dueling ’20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ Films Surface at Fox and Disney
[Via ScifiSquad.com]

Filed under: News/Reactions

Hollywood is a fickle beast. In the span of mere months the remake wonderland has gone from one new version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to none (Disney gave the ax to McG’s take on the sci-fi classic) and now back up to two. Over the weekend, Disney revealed that they were indeed still interested in the adventures of Captain Nemo and that they were currently in the process of locking down David Fincher in the director’s chair. If all goes to plan, Scott Z. Burns (Bourne Ultimatum) will be penning the script.

Someone at 20th Century Fox took their rival’s announcement as a challenge, it seems, as a day later they too revealed a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea film in works. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox would like to get Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov on board to direct a script from Clash of the Titans’ Travis Beacham. Ridley and Tony Scott’s Scott Free productions would be a part of the producing team.

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So two studios are going to remake a movie. I guess if you are going to spend $150 million (!) why bother doing something original.

The Demolished Man is one of science fictions best novels. It is a police procedural with a twist – telepaths are used in the police department because their abilities to read the thoughts and emotions of others permits them to root out the criminals.

So, how to commit a perfect murder in a world where the police can read your mind? It is a wonderfully complex, but accessible, story and one that should have been made. Especially when Oliver Stone wrote a screenplay. Brian de Palma has said he wants to make the movie.

[I also love Flickr which has the photo of the same cover of the book that I do.]

I guess they won’t be using crackberries anymore

International bank switches from BlackBerry to Apple iPhone
[Via AppleInsider]

Standard Chartered, a British bank with nearly 75,000 employees in more than 70 countries, has switched its standard corporate communications device from RIM’s BlackBerry to Apple’s iPhone.

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Crackberry was one of the best ‘pet’ names for a technical device. Does the iPhone lend itself to anything quite as good?