Monday, September 14, 2009

Free Virtual Tabletop

Incipit de Lapalisse. Meet

BBC2, Miss Italy.
Studio "- our Salsomaggiore sent to the presenter will ask questions, we start with the connection .." Posted
(Carlucci question) "This year we have seen a Miss Italy-female ...."

Wake me for the next edition for men.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

I'm Paranoid I Have Herpes

you also the new leader of the left.

I just finished listening to the speech broadcast by RAI News Fini 24. This has taken a number of pebbles from the shoes, he gave all of the Mason 'Mr B, has spoken of a secular state, protection for immigrants, inequality and proper management of territorial differences. He then denounced the rounds of the idiocy of the Po, the situation of the school, the miserable situation of the elderly and the disadvantaged sections.
I thought it was so I have not heard a politician make a good speech, so the yarn, if I were I would have applauded this several times. Not a hint of national identity, order, scheme was, "let's help at home," anti-Americanism, or other things typical of our history right.

coherent whole, with no ifs and buts, then I Fini noticed that it was talking, I was not dreaming, and then with a shudder I changed the channel.

Pea Sized Lump English Bulldog

Welcome back! On the influence

The first pictures after repairs, those taken with the new "room" with a large opening (WFC-3). Repair / Upgrade 's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was one of the most dangerous and complex missions of the history of astronautics, but to see the results, it was worth really worth. The official site of the HST
found here with the latest photos here .

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Liability Insurance Market Stall

H1N1

I was very impressed by an article, reported via Slashdot, H1N1 influenza: "On Influenza A (H1N1)" di Andrew “bunnie” Huang.
In particolare ho trovato notevoli oltre alla forma e al contenuto anche l'approccio. Questo è per me assolutamente inedito. L'autore affronta problemi complessi di biologia utilizzando i paradigmi della scienza dell'informazione. E la cosa funziona! Ho l'impressione che questo articolo non sia un caso isolato, ma solo il primo di una serie, di una sottocultura nascente.

L'articolo parte da un'idea avuta dall'autore nell'osservare il genoma del virus H1N1. Questi mostra, come con le attuali conoscenze sia possibile modificare un virus, generalmente poco aggressivo, e renderlo molto più letale.

L'H1N1 è un virus RNA codificato in all of 8 genes. 8 pieces of RNA, identified by the following letters: PB2 PB1 PA HA NP NA NS MP ( see here). The genome of H1N1 is freely available and searchable here, for example.
In total there are 13,588 beds. If we encode 2 bits per base, basically there are only four bases, then the whole genome enters 3397 bytes: 3.3 kB.
Not a bad encoding efficiency, especially if we compare the size of the most common computer viruses that clutter almost an order of magnitude more bytes. MyDoom and to get an idea 'about 22 KB.

From literature we know that a mutation of the PB2 gene, namely the position of the 1879th base, makes influenza A viruses, which belongs to the H1N1, much more aggressive.

With the genome in hand, H1N1, and type the company Mr. Gene, the author claims to have the opportunity to implement this change in 'H1N1. It is enough to replace that position with a base of a guanine to adenine H1N1 to get a much more dangerous.
At this point the genome (3.3 kb) can 'be sent to a company like Mr. Gene, the genes to get back beautiful and ready. With some more effort (article 99) , it becomes possible to realize the virus itself.
Et viola, the biological weapon is served.

After reading remains the sense of wonder and a few questions:
1) How many discoveries are possible just by looking with new eyes, given that they know already?

2) Because many discoveries and improvements are immediately addressable to make things a bit 'worse instead of better? E 'fifty years trying in vain a system to harness nuclear fusion., Whereas, in a jiffy, before you even scared, it became possible to cook virus ad hoc, almost in the garage home?

3) I wonder, how many discoveries are still in that data. Who knows how dangerous. For example: For historical reasons, social / ethnic groups of Asian origin have a resistenza inferiori nei confronti delle malattie polmonari, rispetto agli occidentali. Di converso questi sono più vulnerabili ai batteri/virus gastrointestinali. Quanto tempo manca prima che qualcuno inizi a sintetizzari armi biologiche che hanno come bersaglio particolari gruppi etnici?

4) I virus sono nanomacchine, le migliori e le più piccole. Con una comprensione ancora migliore dei meccanismi del motore cellulare, diventerà possibile implementare a piacimento una qualunque nanomacchina. La prossima rivoluzione tecnologica, sarà alla fine quella della nanotecnologia? Drexler sarà il primo futurologo ad essere ricordato per aver visto giusto?