Cool
by Fazia Rizvi
13 August 2004, 11:08 AM
Also from WIRED: Biology
Enters Fourth Dimension A paper detailing the new device will appear in the journal Science
Friday. SPIM recently allowed scientists to observe developmental changes within
embryos of fruit flies and observe the beating heart of a living Medaka
fish, providing biologists with some remarkable images and movies. Sweet.A new microscope that lets scientists peer deeper into
living organisms than ever before has been developed by researchers at the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory.
[...]
The technology is called Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy, or SPIM,
and it allows scientists, for the first time, to study relatively large (2
to 3 millimeter) live organisms from many different angles, under real
conditions and with minimal disruption to the specimen.
Battling Over Olympic Coverage
by Fazia Rizvi
13 August 2004, 11:04 AM
In the last several years, lots of discussion has been given over to the
censorship of the Internet by certain governments, China probably being
the best example. User are blocked from seeing zillions of foreign sites. Well, we Americans have our own style now. It's not a communist government
wanting to control our eyeballs - it's corporations. In this case, it's
NBC, whose contract with the Olympics for exclusive coverage in the United
States also means that the BCC and other European broadcasting stations
(that are offering live coverage through video streaming on their
websites) must block U.S Internet users (and even others from outside
their home countries.) More info on WIRED's website: Let the Web
Games Begin. This bothers me. A LOT. Most of my friends aren't bothered by it at all -
they neither follow the Olympics nor particularly care about seeing the
WHOLE show of an event, rather than just the portion the Americans are in.
But that's exactly what has happened with U.S. coverage of the last
several Olympics. I'd get to only see bits and pieces of events - the bits
and pieces that Americans were in - and find the camera cut away to some
other event and American was in, when Indian, Pakistani, Finnish or
whatever country was up next. It was frustrating in the extreme. I love
seeing world cultures together - and U.S. coverage thwarted me at every
turn. I was really looking forward to being able to catch a few events through
the Internet, through streaming video, only to find out that a behemoth of
a corporation has the power to shut off my access to such information,
because they want to make as much money as possible by advertising out
the wazzoo around fragmented coverage. Believe me, I'll be one of those looking for a way around to coverage
online that's complete. I'm sick and tired of the stupid ads and the bad
coverage.
Julia Child
by Fazia Rizvi
13 August 2004, 9:38 AM
Sad news. Julia Child, the grand lady of cooking has
died at age 91.
The Bizzarre
by Fazia Rizvi
13 August 2004, 9:21 AM
You can't make this sort of stuff up: