Nybble 2008.01.14

N Y B B L E   M O N T H L Y   N E W S L E T T E R
A Free Ezine about Anything Tech and Everything Else
2008.01.14 Issue No. 196

If you're the paranoid type and are concerned that your Gmail account
will one day disappear or become inaccessible, here's how to back it
up. Basically, you have your main account, and you simply sign up with
Gmail for another account to act as your backup. On the primary
account, under Settings, enable POP for all mail. Select the option to
"Keep Gmail's copy in the inbox when messages are accessed with POP".
On the backup account, also under Settings, configure Gmail to fetch
mail (via POP) from your primary account. Normally, the logical thing
is to leave the original emails on the server. However, this doesn't
work properly, and Gmail comes up with an error message. Just stick
with the default options - the backup account will fetch mails from
the primary one and try to delete them, but the primary account won't
allow the deletion anyway. This is how I've configured my setup, and I
haven't lost any emails so far.

Step 2, under Settings - Accounts of the backup account, add your
primary identity from where to "Send mail as", so that you can still
reply to emails if your primary email account is lost. Also, if you're
using Google's Blogger service, you might want to add your backup
identity as an author and give it admin rights (under Settings -
Permissions), so you can still edit your blog if you lose your primary
account.

Have an answer, comment, suggestion, or violent reaction? Send them my
way by clicking on Reply or join nybbletalk@yahoogroups.com to discuss
a topic. If you think Nybble is good enough, do tell the Google fans
about it. Thanks.

_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* Toshiba Builds Micro Nuclear Reactors
* Self-Charging Spy Planes
* Robots on Water
* Chemical Lasers on Planes
* Toshiba Develops Super-Charge Batteries
* Chimps Better than College Kids
* Flirting Bots on the Internet
* Human Evolution Accelerating
* Nybblets
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh

_________TOSHIBA BUILDS MICRO NUCLEAR REACTORS_________
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-toshiba-micro-nuclear-12.17b.html

Toshiba has developed a new class of micro-size nuclear reactors that
is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks.
The new reactor, which measures only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change
everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a
group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want
more control over their energy needs.

The 200kW Toshiba reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally
automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors,
the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction.
Instead, it uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is
effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are
connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The
whole process is self-sustaining and can last for up to 40 years,
producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half
the cost of grid energy.

Toshiba expects to install the first reactor in Japan in 2008 and to
begin marketing the new system in Europe and America in 2009.

_________SELF-CHARGING SPY PLANES_________
http://snipurl.com/1xct5

The US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in Dayton, Ohio is developing an
electric-powered micro air vehicle (MAV) for extended surveillance
missions. To extend the plane's limited flight duration, the AFRL has
this idea of making these spy planes "harvest" energy when needed by
attaching itself to a power line. The trick is to make these
remote-controlled MAVs flying at 74kph to latch onto a power line
without destroying itself or the line.

In addition, so as not to arouse suspicion, AFRL says the spy plane
will need to collapse its wings and hang limply on the cable like a
piece of wind-blown detritus. Much of the "morphing" technology to
perform this has already been developed by DARPA, the Pentagon's
research division. Technologies developed in that program include
carbon composite "sliding skins", which allow fuselages to change
shape, and telescopic wings that allow lift to be boosted in seconds
by boosting a wing's surface area.
Regardless of the challenges faced, AFRL plans test flights in 2008.

_________ROBOTS ON WATER________
http://snipurl.com/1xct7

Scientists have discovered years ago that water striders are able to
walk on water by using its long legs to help evenly distribute its
tiny body weight. This way the fragile skin formed by surface tension
supports the bug on the water. What's unknown is how water striders
are able to jump onto water without sinking, until now.

A team of researchers at Seoul National University, led by Ho-Young
Kim and Duck-Gyu Lee, has finally cracked that puzzle. By using a
highly water-repellent sphere, which mimicked the actions of the water
strider's highly water-repellent legs, they were able to determine a
small range of speeds at which the sphere or insect could hit the
water and not sink. Too fast, the sphere would shoot through the
surface of the water. Too slow, it would not bounce back and sink.

The Korean scientists believe their discovery will help create robots
that can travel over still bodies of water. They say the robots can be
used to explore or monitor water quality. Also they could, and it's
highly likely that they will, be used as a form of spy robot.

_________CHEMICAL LASERS ON PLANES_________
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/22975

Boeing recently installed a 12,000-pound chemical laser in a C-130H
aircraft and will now test the weapon, which will fire through a
rotating turret that extends through the aircraft's belly. Boeing's
Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) which is being developed for the
Department of Defense, will destroy, damage or disable targets with
little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield
and in urban operations.

The ATL is complementary to the Airborne Laser (ABL), which Boeing is
developing for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to destroy airborne
ballistic missiles. The ABL consists of a megawatt-class chemical
laser mounted on a Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft. According to
Boeing, the C-130H transport, which belongs to the U.S. Air Force's
46th Test Wing, will be modified to carry the high-energy chemical
laser and battle management and beam control subsystems.

Both systems employ a Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) that is made
by combining a bunch of nasty chemicals - potassium, peroxide,
chlorine, iodine and other stuff and then fired at supersonic speeds.
Each COIL burst produces enough energy in a five-second burst to power
a typical American household for more than one hour. The system
doesn't so much evaporate its target as melts or damages it rendering
it useless. In the case of using it against missiles, the missile is
typically weakened and then explodes.

_________TOSHIBA DEVELOPS SUPER-CHARGE BATTERIES_________
http://www.dailytech.com/Toshiba+to+Launch+SCiB+Batteries+in+March/article9984c.htm

Toshiba announced that it has developed a new type of rechargeable
battery dubbed the Super Charge ion Battery (SCiB). Initially targeted
at the industrial market, Toshiba representatives hint the technology
may eventually find a home in electric vehicles.

The main claim to fame for the SCiB battery is that it can recharge to
90% of total capacity in fewer than five minutes. Toshiba also claims
the battery has a life span of over 10-years. Toshiba says that it
adopted a new negative electrode material, new separators, a new
electrolyte and new manufacturing technology to bring the SCiB to
life. The SCiB batteries can recharge with as much as 50 amperes of
current and but with capacity loss after 3,000 cycles of less than
10%. Toshiba also says the battery has excellent safety with the new
negative electrode material having a high level of thermal stability
and a high flash point. The battery is also said to be structurally
resistant to internal short-circuiting and thermal runaway.

The first of these batteries will be ready for industrial uses in
March of 2008.

_________CHIMPS BETTER THAN COLLEGE KIDS_________
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/12/03/chimp.memory.ap/

Turns out chimpanzees are better than human adults in tests of
short-term memory. The series of tests were conducted by researchers
Tetsuro Matsuzawa and Sana Inoue of Tokyo University.
One memory test included three 5-year-old chimps who'd been taught the
order of Arabic numerals 1 through 9, and a dozen human volunteers.
They saw nine numbers displayed on a computer screen. When they
touched the first number, the other eight turned into white squares.
The test was to touch all these squares in the order of the numbers
that used to be there. Results showed that the chimps, while no more
accurate than the people, could do this faster. Researchers included
the best-performing chimp Ayumu and nine college students in a second
test.

This time, five numbers flashed on the screen only briefly before they
were replaced by white squares. When the numbers were displayed for
about seven-tenths of a second, Ayumu and the college students were
both able to do this correctly about 80 percent of the time. But when
the numbers were displayed for just four-tenths or two-tenths of a
second, the chimp was the champ. The briefer of those times is too
short to allow a look around the screen, and in those tests Ayumu
still scored about 80 percent, while humans plunged to 40 percent.
Even with six months of training, three students failed to catch up to
the three young chimps.

Researchers think two factors gave his chimps the edge. For one thing,
they believe human ancestors gave up much of this skill over
evolutionary time to make room in the brain for gaining language
abilities. The other factor is the youth of Ayumu and his peers. The
memory for images that's needed for the tests resembles a skill found
in children, but which dissipates with age. In fact, the young chimps
performed better than older chimps in the new study. So the next
logical step is to fix up Ayumu with some real competition on these
tests: little kids.

_________FLIRTING BOTS ON THE INTERNET_________
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9831133-56.html

A word of caution for people who frequent online dating chat rooms.
According to security software firm PC Tools, a program called
CyberLover that can mimic online flirtation and then extract personal
information from its unsuspecting conversation partners is making the
rounds in Russian chat forums.

The artificial intelligence of CyberLover's automated chats is good
enough that victims have a tough time distinguishing the "bot" from a
real potential suitor. The software can work quickly too, establishing
up to 10 relationships in 30 minutes. It then compiles a report on
every person it meets complete with name, contact information, and photos.

Among CyberLover's creepy features is its ability to offer a range of
different profiles from "romantic lover" to "sexual predator." It can
also lead victims to a "personal" Web site, which could be used to
deliver malware. Although the program is currently targeting Russian
Web sites, PC Tools is urging people in chat rooms and social networks
elsewhere to be on the alert for such attacks. Their recommendations
amount to just good sense in general, such as avoiding giving out
personal information and using an alias when chatting online. The
software company believes that CyberLover's creators plan to make it
available worldwide in February.

_________HUMAN EVOLUTION ACCELERATING_________
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1043228620071210

Researchers discovered that human evolution has been moving at
breakneck speed in the past several thousand years, far from plodding
along as some scientists had thought. In fact, people today are
genetically more different from people living 5,000 years ago than
those humans were different from the Neanderthals who vanished 30,000
years ago, according to anthropologist John Hawks of the University of
Wisconsin.

Many of the recent genetic changes reflect differences in the human
diet brought on by agriculture, as well as resistance to epidemic
diseases that became mass killers following the growth of human
civilizations. For example, Africans have new genes providing
resistance to malaria. In Europeans, there is a gene that makes them
better able to digest milk as adults. In Asians, there is a gene that
makes ear wax more dry.

The changes have been driven by the colossal growth in the human
population -- from a few million to 6.5 billion in the past 10,000
years -- with people moving into new environments to which they needed
to adapt.

Looking at data from the International HapMap Project, short for
haplotype mapping, scientists can ascertain how recently a given
genetic change appeared in the genome and then can plot the pace of
such change into the distant past. Beneficial genetic changes have
appeared at a rate roughly 100 times higher in the past 5,000 years
than at any previous period of human evolution, the researchers
determined. They added that about 7 percent of human genes are
undergoing rapid, relatively recent evolution. Even with these
changes, however, human DNA remains more than 99 percent identical.
Genetic evidence also shows that people worldwide have been getting
less similar rather than more similar due to the relatively recent
genetic changes.

_________NYBBLETS_________
* 'w00t' been named Word of the Year 2007 by Merriam-Webster
* Analysis of data from the Cassini probe suggests that Saturn's
rings may be billions of years old
* MTV to cut down on P2P piracy by offering free South Park downloads
* Toyota demonstrates a 152 cm (5 ft), two-legged robot dexterous
enough to play the violin
* Now 24 years old, the US analog cellular network is scheduled to
shut down on Feb. 18, 2008

_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
Christmas Wonders 2007 Videos
http://christmaswonders.com/2007_Videos.html

ASCII Generator
http://www.network-science.de/ascii/

Top 40+ GIMP Plugins
http://www.techzilo.com/gimp-plugins/

Notpron - The Hardest Riddle Available on the Internet
http://www.deathball.net/notpron/

_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
If Atlas is holding the world on his shoulders, what on the world is
he standing on?

_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes
you a pianist.
~ Michael Levine ~

_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
What was Sleeping Beauty's name?
Sleeping Beauty's name was Princess Aurora. The prince who woke her
with a kiss was Prince Philip.
Source: Arcamax Trivia

_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
Four insurance companies are in competition. One comes up with the
slogan, "Coverage from the cradle to the grave."

The second one tries to improve on that with "Coverage from the womb
to the tomb."

Not to be outdone, the third one comes up with "From the sperm to the
worm."

The fourth insurance company really thought hard and almost gave up
the race, but finally came up with "From the erection to the
resurrection."

_________DOWNLOADABLE DOWNLOAD_________
ASCII Generator dotNET
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133786

HFS - HTTP File Server
http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/

Blogger Backup
http://www.codeplex.com/bloggerbackup

That's all for this week. Nybble is and will always be a work in
progress. Please do send me your comments and suggestions on how to
improve Nybble. Just hit the reply button to you know, reply.