Triphop's Universe

Scientists working with the composite infrared spectrometer, which mapped Mimas' temperatures, expected smoothly varying temperatures peaking in the early afternoon near the equator. Instead, the warmest region was in the morning, along one edge of the moon's disk, making a sharply defined Pac-Man shape, with temperatures around 92 Kelvin (minus 294 degrees Fahrenheit). The rest of the moon was much colder, around 77 Kelvin (minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit). A smaller warm spot – the dot in Pac-Man's mouth – showed up around Herschel [Crater], with a temperature around 84 Kelvin (minus 310 degrees Fahrenheit).

The warm spot around Herschel makes sense because tall crater walls (about 5 kilometers, or 3 miles, high) can trap heat inside the crater. But scientists were completely baffled by the sharp, V-shaped pattern.

"We suspect the temperatures are revealing differences in texture on the surface," said John Spencer, a Cassini composite infrared spectrometer team member based at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "It's maybe something like the difference between old, dense snow and freshly fallen powder."

Soon after 1100 GMT on Tuesday, and after two efforts earlier in the day were aborted due to technical glitches, the LHC slammed beams of particles together at a collision energy of 7 TeV, or 7 million million electron volts.

This was three and a half times more than ever achieved in a particle accelerator. The particle beams were travelling at a fraction under the speed of light when they hit each other in a tunnel 100 metres (330 feet) under the Swiss-French border.

...prices for adult admission to 3-D movies will increase an average 8.3% at box offices nationwide, according to market research conducted by investment firm BTIG. Ticket prices for IMAX movies are expected to jump 10%, while prices for regular 2-D movies will rise about 4% on average. 

... using sunlight to split water into its components, hydrogen and oxygen, is one of the most promising and sustainable tactics to escape current dependence on coal, oil, and other traditional fuels. When burned, those fuels release carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Combustion of hydrogen, in contrast, forms just water vapor. That appeal is central to the much-discussed "Hydrogen Economy," and some auto companies, such as Toyota, have developed hydrogen-fueled cars. Lacking, however, is a cost-effective sustainable way to produce hydrogen.

The scientists decided to mimic that natural design in the development of a blueprint for artificial leaf-like structures. It led them to report their recipe for the "Artificial Inorganic Leaf" (AIL), based on the natural leaf and titanium dioxide (TiO2) -- a chemical already recognized as a photocatalyst for hydrogen production.

The scientists first infiltrated the leaves of Anemone vitifolia -- a plant native to China -- with titanium dioxide in a two-step process. Using advanced spectroscopic techniques, the scientists were then able to confirm that the structural features in the leaf favorable for light harvesting were replicated in the new TiO2 structure. Excitingly, the AIL are eight times more active for hydrogen production than TiO2 that has not been "biotemplated" in that fashion. AILs also are more than three times as active as commercial photo-catalysts. Next, the scientists embedded nanoparticles of platinum into the leaf surface. Platinum, along with the nitrogen found naturally in the leaf, helps increase the activity of the artificial leaves by an additional factor of ten.

... Alice said, as she bade him good-night, "Oh, Mr. Dodgson, I wish you would write down Alice's adventures for me."

Dodgson began carrying out Alice's charge to write it down the morning following the boat trip, and over the course of the next seven months he worked up a complete text of Alice's Adventures Under Ground. He then turned with an unskilled hand but soaring imagination to the task of illustrating the tale.

...

Dodgson did not finish his illustrations for the tale until fall 1864, and on November 26 presented Alice Liddell with the manuscript book, bound in green leather, of Alice's Adventures Under Ground. When in 1864, he presented Alice with her book he had already begun reworking the manuscript for publication. He had also come to the realization, again aided by the counsel of friends, that the book would benefit from drawings done by a professional illustrator. Earlier that year he had been successful in securing the services for that purpose of John Tenniel, Punch's leading cartoonist and an established book illustrator.

01. Good design is innovative
02. Good design makes product useful
03. Good design is aesthetic
04. Good design makes a product understandable
05. Good design is unobtrusive
06. Good design is honest
07. Good design is long lasting
08. Good design is thorough down to the last detail
09. Good design is environmentally friendly
10. Good design is as little design as possible

-- Dieter Rams

This guy is too much. From It's Always Fair Weather.