nabraxas

Using a biologically inspired algorithm, SoftKill demonstrates an exciting new path for large, 3-D printed structures. 1 Comments Behrokh Khoshnevis and Enrico Dini are edging ever closer to developing a 3-D printer large enough to print houses, the technology is still a long way from being widely implementable. That hasn’t stopped architects from designing for it, though--after all, plenty of great architecture is unbuildable.A London design studio called Softkill is leading the way, painting a far-out picture of what 3-D printed architecture could eventually look like. At last week’s 3D Printshow, the team of Architectural Association grads presented a concept called ProtoHome, which imagines a radical new mode of construction based on the strengths of 3-D printing. Their design is in stark contrast to other 3-D printed home schemes, which are either markedly utilitarian or oddly traditional. The spindly, web-like structure is based on an algorithm that mimics the way bones grow in human bodies. It directs extra material to the points of greatest stress within the home, and tells them to form stronger bonds in those spots--hence the rabbit’s warren of micro-columns that form under the home’s long cantilevered deck. ProtoHouse is different from traditional structures in roughly the same way an invertebrate like a spider is different from mammals. It has no exterior facade, meaning that rain and snow would permeate the dense honeycomb shape, and rather than relying on an internal skeleton, its structural components are completely exposed (possible because the building is printed in plastic). The cladding, waterproofing, and insulation are actually embedded inside the structure, in a reversal from typical home detailing practice. Each habitable space is nestled inside a cocoon of flexible waterproofing that’s also 3-D printed, thanks to a new type of laser sintering we’ve written about before. Softkill’s prototypes for the flexible membranes include a fascinating mesh chain mail made up of interlocking 3-D printed rings (similar to those used in a recent 3-D printed iPhone case). The house is divided into 30 discreet sections, defined by the size of the flatbed truck that would transport them to the site. Amazingly, Softkill has modeled each section to interlock with the others--meaning that no additional adhesives would be required during assembly. “The Softkill house moves away from heavy, compression-based 3-D printing of on-site buildings, instead proposing lightweight, high-resolution, optimized structures,” write the designers. In a brief interview over at Dezeen, Softkill partner Aaron Silver had this to say about the emerging technology: One strategy that a lot of people have been experimenting with is constructing a very large 3-D printer on site. The printer is essentially the size of the structure that is being built. But we were interested in working within the constraints of the existing technologies. I think at the moment, as you said, [3-D printing is a specialized, one-off, luxury, rich man’s thing]. But I think there really is an interesting future for architecture and 3-D printing; because you have great cost savings and material efficiency, which architects are really interested in. That’s where 3-D printing is really pushing the discipline. Silver tells Co.Design that plans are in the works for a larger-scale prototype than this (relatively small) 1:33 model. But it’s important to note that ProtoHouse isn’t really a literal design for a "house," so much as a provocation, pointing out that in the face of large-scale 3-D printing, traditional thinking on structures and construction will undergo a transformation on par with the first steel buildings. http://www.fastcodes...ource=twitter#1

like i said, i'm not married to it; however if the primary reason some goes out to pick mushrooms is to make a profit; then i personally think that's not cool. i don't have a problem w/people selling stuff they've grown but someone "dealing" in wild shrooms seems to be turning a generous visionary gift into a commodity to be wrapped into foil bullets & sold by the gram. some people sell pond weed for a dollar a tub on aquarium e-bay, i have no problem w/that or edible field mushrooms sold in supermarkets.

i was joshing, no offence taken or intentended Not that i'm really into all that, but i'm a Taurean.

don't you hummm me. i did say it only "didn't sit right " w/me; it's not like i'm married to it. in the past i've been known to buy & barter shrooms; but it always felt best giving them away, especially at parties.

crank your speakers to 11: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IZc0oa-i0c&feature=related

a glimpse ov the Apocolypse: Ain't no party like an iPhone charging party Some scenes were outright chaotic. “Post-apocalyptic charging station in the Chase ATM. I’m in a disaster movie.” full picture story: http://betabeat.com/2012/10/new-york-manhattan-hurricane-sandy-powerstrip-porn-coworking/#slide01

dunno about anything else but buying or selling the common psychedelic mushroom (& i mean people that go out pick a kilo to try & sell, rather than people growing to sell) doesn't sit well w/me. these shrooms are meant to be shared w/out thought for profit, that's why they're not rare.

plants have no permanent allies, only permanent interests & they take no prisoners.....

i've done some Vajrasattva, some chi kung & a whole heap ov dwugs; & have no problems w/visualisations. the ones i use day to day are the "body ov light", if sick & the "see youself from above & start going higher", if trying to sleep.

isn't it that if causality can be nonlocal, doesn't the whole progression ov cause to effect break down? thus, for example, allowing tachyons to be created in a lab today, moving faster than light back in time 20 years, causing their discovery in the past & hence the search for them & thus their creation today....or something

Oct 31 2012 Quantum entanglement stands as one of the strangest and hardest concepts to understand in physics. Two or more particles can interact in a specific ways that leave them entangled, such that a later measurement on one system identifies what the outcome of a similar measurement on the second system—no matter how far they are separated in space. Repeated experiments have verified that this works even when the measurements are performed more quickly than light could travel between the sites of measurement: there's no slower-than-light influence that can pass between the entangled particles. However, one possible explanation for entanglement would allow for a faster-than-light exchange from one particle to the other. Odd as it might seem, this still doesn't violate relativity, since the only thing exchanged is the internal quantum state—no external information is passed. But a new analysis by J-D. Bancal, S. Pironio, A. Acín, Y-C. Liang, V. Scarani, and N. Gisin shows that any such explanation would inevitably open the door to faster-than-light communication. In other words, quantum entanglement cannot involve the passage of information—even hidden, internal information, inaccessible to experiment—at any velocity, without also allowing for other types of interactions that violate relativity. Experiments have definitively demonstrated entanglement, and ruled out any kind of slower-than-light communication between two separated objects. The standard explanation for this behavior involves what's called nonlocality: the idea that the two objects are actually still a single quantum system, even though they may be far apart. That idea is uncomfortable to many people (including most famously Albert Einstein), but it preserves the principle of relativity, which states in part that no information can travel faster than light. To get around nonlocality, several ideas have been proposed over the decades. Many of these fall into the category of hidden variables, wherein quantum systems have physical properties (beyond the standard quantities like position, momentum, and spin) that are not directly accessible to experiment. In entangled systems, the hidden variables could be responsible for transferring state information from one particle to the other, producing measurements that appear coordinated. Since these hidden variables are not accessible to experimenters, they can't be used for communication. Relativity is preserved. Hidden variable theories involving slower-than-light transfer of state information are already ruled out by the experiments that exclude more ordinary communication. Some modern variations combine hidden variables with full nonlocality, allowing for instantaneous transfer of internal state information. But could non-instantaneous, faster-than-light hidden variables theories still work? To investigate this possibility, the authors of the new study considered the possible experimental consequences. Obviously, one way to test it would be to increase the separation between the parts of the entangled system to see if we can detect a delay in apparently instantaneous correlation we currently observe. Sufficiently fast rates of transfer, however, would still be indistinguishable from nonlocality, given that real lab measurements take finite time to perform (this assumes that both experiments happen on Earth). The researchers took a theoretical approach instead, using something known as the no-signalling conditions. They considered an entangled system with a set of independent physical attributes, some observable, some hidden variables. Next, they allowed the state of the hidden variables to propagate faster than the speed of light, which let them influence the measurements on the separated pieces of the experiment. However, because of the nature of quantum mechanical systems, there was a symmetry between the hidden and measurable attributes of the system—meaning if the hidden variables could transfer information faster than light, then the properties we can measure would do so as well. This is a violation of the no-signalling condition, and causes serious problems for the ordinary interpretations of quantum physics. Of course, one conceivable conclusion would be that faster-than-light communication is possible; this result provided a possible avenue for testing that possibility. By restricting the bounds on the speed of interaction between entangled systems, future experiments could show whether any actual information is traveling or not. However, the far more likely option is that relativity is correct. In that case, the strong ban on faster-than-light communication would rule out the possibility of faster-than-light transfer of information encoded in hidden variables, and force us to deal with nonlocality. Once again, it would seem that local realism and relativity are incompatible notions in the quantum world. Nature Physics, 2012. DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS2460 (About DOIs). http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/10/quantum-entanglement-shows-that-reality-cant-be-local/

good to see Auxin's still hard at it... Wishing well to any American visitors.

like the filthy slut whore she is.

August 13, 2012 Take a look at the bottle of antibacterial hand soap in your bathroom. Chances are good that a particular chemical is listed among its ingredients: triclosan. The antibacterial substance, which was first developed in the 1960s to prevent bacterial infections in hospitals, has since been incorporated into everything from hand soaps to toothpastes to mouthwashes. Manufacturers see it as a marketing bonus, increasing consumer confidence that a particular product kills harmful bacteria. Even some household products—such as kitchen utensils, toys and bedding—include triclosan. In recent years, though, research has shed light on a number of problems with employing triclosan so widely. Studies have shown that the chemical can disrupt the endocrine systems of several different animals, binding to receptor sites in the body, which prevents the thyroid hormone from functioning normally. Additionally, triclosan penetrates the skin and enters the bloodstream more easily than previously thought, and has turned up everywhere from aquatic environments to human breast milk in troubling quantities. To this list of concerns, add one more: A new paper, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that triclosan impairs muscle function in both animals and humans. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of California, Davis, found that the chemical hinders human muscle contractions at the cellular level and inhibits normal muscle functioning in both fish and mice. “Triclosan is found in virtually everyone’s home and is pervasive in the environment,” said lead author Isaac Pessah. “These findings provide strong evidence that the chemical is of concern to both human and environmental health.” In the first phase of the study, the researchers exposed individual human muscle cells, both from the heart and typical skeletal muscles, to concentrations of triclosan similar to what our bodies experience in everyday life. Then, they used electrical stimulation to cause the muscle cells to contract. Normally, electrical stimulations prompts an immediate muscle contraction—a mechanism that is responsible for the entirety of our muscle activity. In the isolated cells, though, exposure to triclosan disrupted communication between two proteins crucial for proper muscle functioning, causing failure in both the heart and skeletal muscle cells. The research team also tested the effects of the chemical on two types of live animals—mice and fathead minnows. In the mice, heart muscle function was reduced by as much as 25 percent after exposure to a single dose of triclosan, and grip strength was reduced by as much as 18 percent. The minnows were used in the experiment to mimic the effect of triclosan in marine environments. After being exposed to concentrations of triclosan equivalent to those found in the wild for 7 days, the minnows were significantly worse swimmers than minnows that hadn’t been exposed to triclosan, and were less effective in swimming tests that simulated the the act of evading a predator. Using studies with animals to make assumptions about human health is always dicey, but the researchers say the fact that triclosan produced similar results in widely varying conditions with different animals—and the troubling effects of the chemical on human heart cells in test tubes—are causes for concern. ”The effects of triclosan on cardiac function were really dramatic,” said co-author Nipavan Chiamvimonvat. “Although triclosan is not regulated as a drug, this compound acts like a potent cardiac depressant in our models.” He speculates that in some cases, triclosan may be responsible for exacerbating heart problems in patients with an underlying condition. Additionally, the FDA has declared that there is no evidence that using antibacterial soaps with triclosan confers any more health benefits than simply washing with conventional soap and water, and the agency is currently conducting a risk assessment for the chemical. ”Triclosan can be useful in some instances, however it has become a ubiquitous ‘value added’ marketing factor that actually could be more harmful than helpful,” said study co-author Bruce Hammock. “At the very least, our findings call for a dramatic reduction in its use.” http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/08/triclosan-a-chemical-used-in-antibacterial-soaps-is-found-to-impair-muscle-function/

rest ov article: http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/17/14487713-daily-multivitamin-cuts-mens-cancer-risk-by-8-percent-large-study-finds

darren brown styage show. the guy can paint too??? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS0-HkMKXBo&feature=relmfu check out the woman at 8:34, what do you think she's saying?

i actually remeber the "hitler is our hero" story from a few years back. iirc their parents were part ov some Aryan Brotherhood type fuckup.

truck driver needs meth to stay awake: the driver ov the green van does an impressive job ov getting clear

yeah it is all abit "first world problems" innit?