Honda ASIMO Conducts Orchestra and Dances

Honda ASIMO conducts The Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Honda ASIMO Dances, Walks, and Runs at Kennedy Center

Canadian Mars Weather Station

• MDA Solution To Look For Clues Of Water Above And Below The Surface Of Mars
• MDA working with Mars spacecraft
• Local invention to be used on Mars

A neat post about the Mars mission (with links) from an unexpected source.

Here is a neat Google Tech Talk video about a 3D live motion video camera (blogged two years ago) that uses LIDAR. I wonder if we are talking about the same LIDAR technology as the one used in Mars?

Seed Magazine

Seed (subtitled: Science Is Culture) is a science magazine published bimonthly by Seed Media Group (founder and editor-in-chief, Adam Bly). "Each issue looks at big ideas in science, important issues at the intersection of science and society, and the people driving global science culture."

Here are some interesting ones,

• Seed Video Feature: Lawrence Krauss + Natalie Jeremijenko (Full Cut, 45+ mins) - The Star Trek physicist enters the Seed Salon to discuss participation, the politics of knowledge production, and seduction with the artist/engineer.
• The Mandelbrot chat
• The artist/filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson enters the Seed Salon to discuss artifacts, presence, and invisibility with the Stanford archaeologist Michael Shanks. - real neat chat
• Marc Hauser + Errol Morris (and video) - The evolutionary psychologist (Hauser) and the documentary filmmaker (Morris) discuss game theory, Stanley Milgram, and whether science can make us better people.

Mandelbrot chats with Antonelli

A wonderful chat between Benoit Mandelbrot (father of fractal geometry) and Paola Antonelli (senior curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, wrote her thesis on "Fractal Architecture").

Love this exchange (emphasis added),

BM: Well, it is very encouraging for me, because I'm an old man and, as I always mention at some point, I never made up my mind who I really was, which allowed me to spend my life on many things. So what you're telling me is that I can just relax, because I won't have to decide!

PA: I don't know. You're very responsible for what goes on right now. I don't think you can relax any time soon!

BM: Well, yes, but at least I won't have to become a specialist, because everybody is going to become a generalist.

Here is a beautiful video excerpt of the chat. (very well done and wonderfully shot. simply beautiful. and great to see Mandelbrot in person in a video chat. very cool.)

P.S. Have a look at MoMA's "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition which Antonelli curates. Very cool and neat.

Richard Florida @ Google & Banff

I was really lucky to watch a CBC National video report and “discovered” Richard Florida tonight. (smile) I am going to pay attention to Rich’s ideas and I have subscribed to his blog. Check out his latest book - “Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life.”

Here is a video of Rich interviewed by George on The Hour.

The following is an hour long video of Rich speaking at Google, NYC.

And if you are really keen and have nothing better to do (smile), then check out another hour long video of Rich speaking at Google, Headquater in CA (essentially the same speech but with a different set of Q&A starting at 48:45).

P.S. On a personal note, Rich reminds me of some of the great U of Toronto professors that I had. Great job in bringing Rich to Toronto. And I am looking forward to listening to Rich live at Banff World TV Festival.

P.P.S. Here is one of Rich’s recent blog post on Jane Jacobs.

P.P.P.S. I wonder if Rich gets some money from this BMW ad? (smile) By the way, I think I actually first read about Rich here in this UT magazine article.

Seeing Hungry, Mood & Money, Bad Belly Fat

Saw these three interesting science news. Enjoy.

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Seeing Hungry

“Why does food look more appealing when you are hungry? Scientists are finding that the same chemical in your stomach that causes hunger also changes how your brain perceives food, as this ScienCentral News video explains.“

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Mood and Money

“Feeling sad and bad about ourselves is not only unpleasant — it can also be hard on our wallets. Psychology researchers have found that these emotions can cost you three times more for the same item than being in a better mood, as this ScienCentral News video reports.“

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Bad Belly Fat

“Scientists are finding more about how that bulge around your belly is more harmful than the pounds you may have elsewhere on your body. As this ScienCentral News video reports, belly fat may cause blockages in the arteries, and the finding could lead to better drugs to protect against heart disease.“

Links: 2008-04-21

1. Tension Over Sports Blogging - NYT - a note on bloggers from credentialed news organizations
2. What Warren thinks... - Fortune interview
3. Edward Lorenz, father of Chaos Theory, dies
4. Brokeback Mountain director warns Bill C-10 means censorship
5. Filmmaker Ang Lee has no love for 'Canadian values' bill, but plenty for Vancouver
6. New Wii Games Find a Big (but Stingy) Audience - an insightful look at the Wii gaming business
7. Our Top Ten list of Privacy Act fixes - by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner

Links: 2008-04-12

1. Scrabulous - Scrabbling for Legal Rationalism: No Copyright for Games - a nice legal analysis
2. Stars and their silent partners - Production co. co-toppers keep slates on track
3. IBM Research Spins ‘Racetrack’ Nano-Magnetic Memory
4. really cute video of Contortionist octopus. [via Marc]
5. CJR: Dave Marash: Why I Quit [Al Jazeera International] [via Richard]
6. WSJ Law Blog: Chinese Blogger Sentenced to 3-1/2 Years for Subversion, Libel
7. WSJ Law Blog: Administration Declassifies 2003 Torture Memo

Space technologies stay in Canada (for now)

Hot off the press from Globe and Mail (April 10, 2 AM EST) "Ottawa rejects space firm's sale to U.S.". (Note: also see my earlier blog entry about this sale and a link to a legal opinion.)

OTTAWA — The federal government has said no to selling Canada's leading space company to U.S. interests, concluding that the deal would not be in the best interests of the country, The Globe and Mail has learned.

Industry Minister Jim Prentice made the decision to issue an initial rejection of the deal on Tuesday, when he wrote a letter to the potential buyer, Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Edina, Minn., that said the takeover of MDA Corp. would not provide a “net benefit” to Canada.

Under Canada's investment-review law, the company has 30 days to make new arguments to the minister, and Mr. Prentice must then confirm his rejection. But Mr. Prentice's move signals his intention to take the unprecedented step of blocking a major corporate takeover, in an issue that has been fraught with controversy as opponents argued that the sale of MDA could impair Canadian sovereignty.

A spokesman for Mr. Prentice, Bill Rodgers, confirmed Wednesday that the note had been sent, but he was unable to provide further details. When contacted by The Globe and Mail Wednesday night, Alliant officials responded with a two-sentence statement that indicated that they are not willing to declare the deal dead. [...]

The proposed sale of MDA Corp.'s Information Systems Unit has raised nationalist sentiment and fears that Canada could lose control of the data from Radarsat-2 in a dispute over Arctic sovereignty. [K: I agree the Radarsat-2 data has an important role in our national interest and won't trust any US companies (which has to follow US government directives in case of national security related issues). At the same time, I reject the unfair negative implication associated with using words like "nationalist sentiment".] Alliant, also called ATK, is a U.S. weapons and space contractor. The systems unit is responsible for most of MDA's operations and 1,900 employees. [...]

Some of the staunchest criticisms came from within the Conservative Party. Tory MP Art Hanger voiced sharp concerns, and Conservatives on the Commons industry committee treated the sale with skepticism.

One Conservative MP, speaking on condition he not be named, said the sale had raised a surprising backlash among Canadians, who saw it as a point of pride being peddled to the United States – which might possibly use it against Canada's claim to Arctic waters.

I think Minister Prentice did the right thing here in rejecting the sale.

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Update: See report by CBC (with video report) and Reuters.

Canadarm stays Canadian - for 30 more days

Vancouver-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. is an amazing world class company. I know from personal experience as I worked there for a few years in the early part of my career. So it was sad to see negative news of MDA planning to sell its Information Systems and Geospatial Services business (including technical teams and know how that built the iconic Canadarm, the newly launched Dextre, and the Radarsat 2 satellite) to Alliant Techsystems (an advanced weapon and space systems company).

Here are some news about the recent delay and an interesting and seems valid legal opinion from Rideau Institute,

• Ruling on sale of Canadarm delayed - TorStar
• Time to ground space firm's sale - National Post
• Ruling on sale of Canadarm, Radarsat to U.S. arms-maker delayed 30 days - Canadian Press - "Nobel laureate John Polanyi delivered a devastating critique of the sale this week: "There are many forms of short-sightedness. Selling your eyes is a rare form," observed one of Canada's most decorated scientists."
• Legal Opinion from the Rideau Institute - ACCESS DENIED: U.S. Law Will Limit Canadian Access to RADARSAT-2 Data if Sale of MDA’s Space Division Proceeds - PDF file
• Access Denied: U.S. Law Will Limit Canadian Access to RADARSAT-2 Data if Sale of MDA's Space Division Proceeds - from Fox Business of all places
• as an aside and for the record, here is a link to MDA Shareholders approve proposed sale transaction

When asked about this potential MDA divisional sale in Calgary recently, the well respected Senator Roméo Dallaire answered that it will be worst than the sale of the Canadian Avro Arrow. Here is an excerpt from the Arrow Wikipedia entry,

Following the Canadian government's cancellation of the Avro Arrow project in 1959, CF-105 Chief Aerodynamicist Jim Chamberlin led a team of 25 engineers to NASA's Space Task Group to become lead engineers, program managers, and heads of engineering in NASA's manned space programs—Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. This team would eventually grow to 32 Avro engineers and technicians, and become emblematic of what many Canadians viewed as a "brain drain" to the US. Many other engineers, including Jim Floyd (whose design studies at Hawker Siddeley (Avro Aircraft's UK parent) on the HSA.1000 SST design studies were ultimately influential in the design of the Concorde^[20]) found work abroad in either the UK or the United States.

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March 23rd update: Marc Garneau, first Canadian astronaut and former head of the Canadian Space Agency, against sale of space technology - from CTV with video.

March 25th update: Here is a 1st March, 2008 CBC Quirks and Quarks program about Dextre (mp3 audio).

Google Sky, Mars, and Moon

[via Google]

Wonderful space info and beautiful pictures from Google - Sky, Mars, and Moon.

Links: 2008-03-07

1. What Are the Lessons of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Battle?
2. A challenge from the New York Times?
3. Patent Office Will Now Require Biological Deposits Before Publication
4. The Best Defense is a Breast Defense - Too funny to ignore (smile)
5. News of two Canadian companies got picked up and some entrepreneurial insights
6. $100,000 for your thoughts - Bill Gates foundation seeking ‘unorthodox’ health ideas - interesting way to start 60 projects that can lead to ideas to prevent HIV infection or help protect against infectious diseases

Amazing Landing as Wing Hit Runway

I can't believe my eyes when I saw this UK Sun report and video (longer and better video) and AP report and video of a Germany Lufthansa flight's (carrying 131 passengers) wing grazing the runway as it attempted to land amid gusting wind. They were so lucky.

Many people and news media are calling the pilot "hero" as the plane's wing grazed the runway and almost crashed.

Now, I do have question about the first and second landings. Note that I am not a trained pilot and it is probably unfair to second-guess the pilot without full details of the conditions at the time. So I might be quite wrong in the following.

With respect to the first landing, I wander was the plane already blown off course before it got dangerously close to the ground? As the plane looked quite unstable and wobbly based on the poorly angled video. If the wind condition was that bad, maybe a more experienced pilot would have abort the landing earlier and execute a missed approach (see this FAA Decision Makers Guide or other similar international equivalent guide) instead of trying to land the plane? (note 1)

With respect to the second landing, was the pilot worried about the structural integrity of the wing after it grazed the runway and wanted to get the plane on the ground as soon as possible? If thats not the case and since the runway was still in poor condition to land, I wander if the polit has thought about flying to the destination alternate aerodrome (alternate airport) for safety reason? Standard operating procedure should have allowed for enough fuel on the plane to fly to the alternate and not risk the passengers' lives in trying to land in unsafe condition.

note 1: Have you ever wondered why when a plane lands, it always seem to be at maximum power? Well, the reason is just in case the plane can't land and have to execute a missed approach and to fly up again. And to do that, the engine has to be at maximum power, capable of taking off and fly around. Something I remember from a Air Traffic Control training course years ago.

Cancer Chip

From ScienCentral (with video),

Thanks to new microfluidics and nanotechnology, cancer doctors may be able to design custom therapies for patients by analyzing just a teaspoon of their blood. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Engineering Medicine and its Cancer Center have now shown that they can capture the rare cancer cells shed by tumors into the bloodstream using a new high-tech chip the size of a credit card. Counting and analyzing these wandering tumor cells could mean better early cancer detection and an improved method for monitoring whether treatments are working.

Links: 2008-03-03 1.5 hour with Obama, Nuclear Chinese Nature, Gender Gap, Buffett’s letter, RFID Good Use, Facebook Banishment, rock-solid VoIP call

1. 1.5 hour with Barack Obama - interesting piece
2. Nature scene in Chinese Children's book include nuclear power plant and giant dam
3. The New Gender Gap in Education - Becker, and Posner's comment
4. Buffett’s State of the World: There’s Folly in Wonderland - good for a scan. Of course, reading the original from the master is better.
5. Good Use for RFID Chips
6. Facebook Banishment and Due Process
7. Intel demos rock-solid VoIP call on MID - Love that bit about them crashing the OS deliberately and still have the VoIP call keeps on kicking!
8. Woz finds flaws in Apple's latest offerings - nice frank take on things by Woz co-founder of Apple
9. Google Summer of Code is back

Links: 2008-02-27 Human dissection photos, Sun MySQL, Daylight savings, Phone for homeless, Canada couldn’t say No, Smoking kills Ad

1. Incredible human dissection photos on Flickr
2. MySQL is Officially a Part of Sun
3. Daylight savings time increases energy usage - interesting study
4. Permanent phone numbers and voicemail services to the homeless (GrandCentral’s Project CARE initiative)
5. Canada: The Country That Couldn’t Say ‘No’ - This may not be a bad thing if one believes in free trade.
6. Smoking kills 14,000 people everyday - very creative ad

Venus FlyTrap Growth - Time Lapse video

Beautiful and fascinating Venus FlyTrap Growth - Time Lapse video from Boing Boing. OK, it does look strange but beautiful at the same time.

Bill Buxton to deliver opening keynote at nextMEDIA

It is wonderful to know the insightful Bill Buxton will be delivering the opening keynote at nextMEDIA (June 6 - 8th, 2008 at Banff),

Bill Buxton, Principal Scientist at Microsoft Research will deliver the opening keynote address at nextMEDIA - The Future of Digital Content. In his keynote address Bill will speak to emerging trends around physical computing and a human-centered approach to technological design and innovation.

I consider Bill Buxton one of the Great Minds of Our Time and have featured him in the series. I look forward to attend the keynote.

Here are two of Bill's recent work,

• A Familiar Problem. BusinessWeek.com, February 6th, 2008.
• Surface and Tangible Computing, and the "Small" Matter of People and Design. IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers, Vol. 51, 24-29.

Fran Allen - first female Turing Award winner

Quoting her Wikipedia entry,

Frances Elizabeth "Fran" Allen (born 1932) is an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. Her achievements include seminal work in compilers, code optimization, and parallelization. She was the first female IBM Fellow. In 2006, she became the first female to win the Turing Award.

Here is a link to her 2006 Turing Award Lecture (streaming .mov file) which I quite enjoy.

Self-healing rubber not afraid of cut

From BBC (with video),

A material that is able to self-repair even when it is sliced in two has been invented by French researchers.

The as-yet-unnamed material - a form of artificial rubber - is made from vegetable oil and a component of urine.

The substance, described in the journal Nature, produces surfaces when cut that retain a strong chemical attraction to each other.

Pieces of the material join together again as if never parted without the need for glue or a special treatment.

[via Boing Boing]