Linux-based system tries to tame San Francisco traffic

"McCain says it will supply San Francisco with a new Linux-based traffic controller computer that meets the latest Advanced Transportation Controller (ATC) standards. Built around a Freescale PowerQUICC II Pro processor, the "2070LXN2 NEMA" offers several keypads, an 8x40 display, plus Ethernet, USB, serial, and SDLC connections, says the company.

McCain collaborated with Fourth Dimension Traffic to win the San Francisco bid. The company ported Fourth Dimension's "D4" traffic signal software package to McCain's controller in a process that took less than three months, says the company.
The combined solution enabled the City of San Francisco to migrate its existing "2070" traffic software to an ATC platform, thereby reducing costs, says McCain (see farther below for background)."


Source: http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/McCain-2070LXN2-NEMA-controller-/

Natural Bridge on the Moon

 "Natural bridges on the Earth are typically the result of wind and water erosion - not a likely scenario on the Moon. So how did this natural bridge form? The most likely answer is dual collapse into a lava tube. From the Apollo era, SELENE, and LROC images, we know that lava tubes did form in the Moon's ancient past."

Source: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/277-Natural-Bridge-on-the-Moon!.html

Cameron Diaz: 'I love Alex Rodriguez too much'

Diaz recalled: "We were watching the game, and I was eating, and I was getting down to, like, the last couple pieces of popcorn. And all of a sudden, I see [Alex's] hand coming in.

"Anybody who knows me does not put their hand in my food, especially when it's close to my mouth. I said, 'What are you...?' And then I went, 'You know what? I love you too much, I'm going to give it to you. You deserve it.'"


Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a326141/cameron-diaz-i-love-alex-rodriguez-too-much.html

Giant Globe Made of 10,000 Live-Updating OLED Panels

 "“Geo-Cosmos” is made up of 10,362 OLED panels that display continuously-updating satellite footage of our tiny blue marble, representing what our planet looks like from space in something close to realtime. It replaces an earlier model covered in LED panels, offering museum-goers a full 10 million pixels, a resolution 10 times greater than its predecessor."
 
Source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-06/worlds-largest-spherical-oled-display-10000-panel-globe-updated-satellite-pics

100,000 times hotter than the centre of the Sun

"Professor Geoffrey Taylor, from the University of Melbourne and part of the scientific team involved with the Large Hadron Collider's Atlas Detector, describes the work as an amazing achievement.

"This state of matter doesn't exist anywhere naturally on Earth and is thought to only now occur during the collision of two neutron stars," he said.

"This will help our understanding of the dynamics of the astrophysical processes taking place as a star collapses.

"Looking at how particle jets and subatomic particles like W and Z bosons are created in heavy lead ion collisions compared to lighter hydrogen proton collisions gives us an insight into the conditions that existed in a quark gluon plasma when the universe was just milliseconds old."

Professor Taylor says the results were accomplished in just two weeks of atom smashing.

"These collisions are also generating antimatter, which will help us try to understand why we live in a stable universe of matter when equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created in the big bang," he said.

"It takes our understanding of things that are happening in the cosmos one step further."

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/14/3243341.htm

Images capture moment brain goes unconscious

"Our jaws just hit the ground," said Professor Brian Pollard from Manchester Royal Infirmary on seeing the images for the first time.
"I can't tell you the words we used as it wouldn't be polite over the phone."

"Professor Pollard explained that the brain's structures should not change over a minute-long scan, and so any differences that he and his team see as the patient falls asleep must therefore be due to changes in their brain's activity.
It is hoped that this technique could be used to learn about the nature of consciousness, but it is also likely to help doctors make headway in monitoring the health of a person's grey matter after they have suffered a head injury or stroke."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13751783

Mystery of Egyptian Pyramid's Secret Hieroglyphics Solved

Strange hieroglyphs written in red paint and sealed within the structure for 4,500 years.


"The markings are hieratic numerical signs. They read from right to left, meaning 100, 20, 1. The builders simply recorded the total length of the shaft: 121 cubits," said  Luca Miatello, an independent researcher who specializes on ancient Egyptian mathematics.

 "If the figures are numbers and they are the precise measurement of the shaft, then it's amazing," he said. "It would be a huge, rare clue to what the architect was thinking. For example, why take the trouble to precisely measure and record the length if the shaft was only used for a mundane purpose or simply abandoned?”

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/08/mystery-egyptian-pyramids-secret-hieroglyphics-solved/