Abstract:We identify a process of global pattern formation that causes regions to differentiate by culture. Violence arises at boundaries between regions that are not sufficiently well defined. We model cultural differentiation as a separation of groups whose membersprefer similar neighbors, with a characteristic group size at which violence occurs. Application of this model of the former Yugoslavia and to India accurately predicts the locations of reported conflict to the area. This model also points to imposed mixing or boundary clarification as mechanisms for promoting peace.
vorrei segnalare un articolo che pultroppo é stato praticamente ignorato da stampa e media italiani, su una possibile importante scoperta di fisica delle particelle ad opera di un gruppo di fisici internazionali tra cui molti italiani al Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (USA). L´articolo originale (ostico per i non addetti ai lavori) lo trovate qui , mentre una molto piu didattica introduzione alla tematica é:
dove trovate l’ intervista registrata a Tommaso Dorigo, uno dei fisici sperimentali italiani coinvolti nell´esperimento.
Vorrei inoltre segnalare il blog di T.Dorigo (A Quantum Diaries Survivor - in inglese), e quellodel suo “rivale” teorico Lubos Motl (The Reference Frame ) . Entrambi sono blogger molto quotati nel panorama internazionale dei blog scientifici e trattano anche temi d´attualita e d’ interesse generale.
Proprio a proposito della presunta scoperta é scoppiato nei rispettivi blog piu in altri un acceso dibattito, che a mio avviso, al di lá dei toni a volte un po’ aspri e accesi, ben dimostra come il blog possa essere un ottimo strumento di dibattito tecnico-scientifico serio .
Plastic Logic is a spin-off company from Cambridge University’sCavendish Laboratory, and is a pioneer in polymer transistors and electronics. Production of the Plastic Logic Reader should start this year in Dresden, Germany.
1. number of medals pro population (weighting gold > silver > bronze). Here the table
2. number of world records pro million of inhabitants (ok, I didn’t calculate it for each country, but I am pretty sure no country performed better then Jamaica: 3 world records and 2.8 Mil people - for comparison Australia: 7 WR and 21 Mil people)
One should also consider the kind of gold medals and world records Jamaica scored. (Athletics 100m+200m+4*100m, which are among the top competitive discipline at the olympic games)
Ok, Athletics is only a part of the Olympic Games, and I don’t want to say Athletics is more important than other sports, but how to say.. I am so happy for Jamaica!
Ricercatori del Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Engineering Medicine hanno messo a punto un chip basato su nanotecnologie che dovrebbe migliorare sensibilmente la diagnosi e il monitoraggio dei tumori andando a indentificare le celluli tumorali nel sangue (a quanto pare di difficilissima identificazione, ma chiedo lumi all´ Erborista..).
Il lavoro é stato pubblicato su Nature il 20 Decembre 2007.
I pragarafi seguenti sono tratti daSciencentral.com dell´Aprile 2008 (dove é disponibile anche un video)
NASA.com - Snapshot of the International Space Station
On March 13, 2008, the International Space Station passed across the field-of-view of Germany's remote sensing satellite, TerraSAR-X, at a distance of 195 kilometers, or 122 miles, and at a relative speed of 34,540 kilometers per hour, or more than 22,000 mph. In contrast to optical cameras, radar does not 'see' surfaces. Instead, it is much more aware of the edges and corners which bounce back the microwave signal it transmits. Smooth surfaces such as those on the station's solar generators or the radiator panels used to dissipate excess heat, unless directly facing the radar antenna, tend to deflect rather than reflect the radar beam, causing these features to appear on the radar image as dark areas. The radar image of the station therefore looks like a dense collection of bright spots from which the outlines of the space station can be clearly identified. The central element on the station, to which all the modules are docked, has a grid structure that presents a multiplicity of reflecting surfaces to the radar beam, making it readily identifiable. This image has a resolution of about one meter (about 39 inches). In other words, objects can be depicted as discrete units--that is, shown separately--provided that they are at least one meter apart. If they are closer together than that, they tend to merge into a single block on a radar image. Since this image was taken, the station has expanded and is more than 90 percent complete, including a full complement of solar arrays. Image Credit: DLR Read More
Recent Comments
BelfSleby: Wow - very awesome subject. I am goin to write about it too!!
sandrar: Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.
Klystron: No, I didn’t. Perhaps you’re right and more details are given elsewhere. I just would have appreciated just a little more explanation also in that article. Probably because I’m always slightly more interested in methods than in results… :o)
Massimo: About the methods… have you tried to track other publications by the same authors? probably they gave away some technicalities in other and more specialistic journals. Applying the model to only two scenarios doesn’t mean much, although it can be an interesting exercise. It would be interesting to know what results they got for Palestine, Rwanda, Sudan, etc etc…...
this is a “call for impressions” about the new 
at least for me 
.. and for at least 2 reasons:
