tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-177200022009-11-18T14:32:59.270ZHistory, Science & Trivia: With a Regular Dose of Factsdwbnoreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1133980754251373652005-12-07T18:29:00.000Z2005-12-07T23:32:56.380Z

It seems that in this day and age, a day does not pass without hearing about flat screen/plasma/LCD TVs, home cinema systems or flat panel monitors. I shouldn’t grumble about these things after all it is the 21st century (I’m just jealous ‘cos I haven’t got £2000 to blow on a Telly). As you are undoubtedly aware, an alternative to the slim line marvels of the digital age is to get a projector,

dwbnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1133871543414605332005-12-06T12:13:00.000Z2005-12-06T12:19:03.426Z

Good morning, just a quick post today about 2005’s top 10 data disasters. In a press release yesterday Ontrack, a data recovery company announced their top 10 most bizarre/funny data disasters for this year:10. A PhD candidate lost his entire thesis when a power spike frazzled his USB pen drive, luckily for him Ontrack recovered it (power spikes frying hardware? I thought that happened a lot).9.

dwbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1133621723768557152005-12-03T14:50:00.000Z2005-12-03T14:55:23.780Z

Miniaturisation has been the cornerstone of technological advance. It has allowed us shrink computers down from the size of a room to something that fits in you bag, allowing us to cram more processors onto microchips, and cramming more microchips into small devices (e.g. the gracefully petite mobile phones of today). Of course, microscopic intricacy can also be found in nature, I often find

dwbnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1133271558611828922005-11-29T13:37:00.000Z2005-11-29T13:39:18.623Z

Before I begin, I feel that I should apologise for the sparseness of my posting lately. The problem is that I am currently rushed of my feet trying to finish part of my MSc that cannot be done at home. Hopefully it will all be done and dusted by the weekend so I can prepare the next instalment of real men of genius for you to enjoy. Anyway until next time, here is a little something about singing

dwbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1132790806826585852005-11-24T00:04:00.000Z2005-11-24T00:22:08.026Z

Today new scientist reported that Chris Voigt and his colleague’s at San Francisco University have successfully created biological photographic film from the E Coli virus. Whilst this bizarre "camera" does take 4 hours to take a picture and will only work in red light, the results are astoundingly detailed. Due to the size of the bacteria, pictures taken have a resolution of 100 million pixels

dwbnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1132705589070785082005-11-23T00:16:00.000Z2005-11-23T00:27:56.843Z

Good evening, today’s post is regarding project paperclip. I know those of you who used to watch X Files will be one step ahead of me, but for those of you who didn’t, let me explain. Sixty years ago, the demise of the ‘thousand year Reich’ saw Germany being occupied by every man and his dog. Russians, Americans and the British frantically scoured post war Germany in a bid to obtain Hitler’s

dwbnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1132501928626660742005-11-20T15:39:00.000Z2005-11-20T15:52:08.643Z

Good afternoon and welcome to this weeks instalment of real men of genius. After last week’s entry about Norman Borlaug who was undoubtedly one of the finest scientists of the 20th century, I felt it was necessary to pay homage to one of the all time greats- Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Just as James brown is considered to be the ‘Godfather of soul’ personally, I consider Faraday to be one of the

dwbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1132408166358628002005-11-19T13:10:00.000Z2005-11-19T17:10:00.386Z

Good afternoon, I hope all is well out there in bloggsville. Just a quick post today relating to biomimetics, which you DWB regulars will be somewhat familiar with, but for those of you who aren’t and want to know more should check out my previous post natures calling. In 2001, a team from MIT came up with a new way of making LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes). The problem with conventional LED’s is

dwbnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1132310099165196502005-11-18T10:31:00.000Z2005-11-18T10:34:59.176Z

Good morning everyone, just a quick post today, its not really science related but fun nevertheless. Below are a few urban legends about rock stars, some of them are true, others are false but I’d like you guys to try and decide which are which.1: Van Halen's standard contract for performing contained a provision calling for them to be provided with a bowl of M&Ms, but with all the brown ones

dwbnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1132163547135359712005-11-16T17:46:00.000Z2005-11-16T17:52:27.146Z

I was feeling a little guilty about my scare mongering yesterday, but thankfully I found a pretty cool article which again involves DNA, but has a much more positive slant. J. Craig Venter, the man famous for mapping the human genome a few years back is turning his knowledge of genetics to trying to solve the worlds impending energy crisis. His new company called Synthetic Genomics will try to

dwbnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1132077842870377192005-11-15T17:59:00.000Z2005-11-15T18:04:02.883Z

The 9/11 attacks in America saw the rapid arrival of the patriot act, the bombings of the London underground led to calls for a national identity card scheme, retinal scanners and other biometric security measures. In addition to these drastic measures Western governments are calling for a ‘slight erosion’ of our civil liberties in order to fight the war on terror. Whichever side of the fence you

dwbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131888389616012032005-11-13T13:20:00.000Z2005-11-13T13:26:29.643Z

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the first instalment of real men of genius. Most of you probably have not even heard of Norman Borlaug, but he is one of the greatest humanitarians that has ever lived and in 1970, Norman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. In 1942 Norman was awarded his PhD in plant pathology and genetics at the University of Minnesota. After leaving college, Norman

dwbnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131704269852148612005-11-11T10:12:00.000Z2005-11-11T10:17:49.866Z

Visible light, like the kind picked up by telescopes is part of the Electro-magnetic spectrum. This light which travels millions of light years until it hits our eyes (or telescopes) has been the basis of the entire history of astronomy. But now in the 21st century, scientists are on the verge of what is hailed to become the greatest discovery of our age. This discovery will (hopefully) be made

dwbnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131623882222114582005-11-10T11:43:00.000Z2005-11-10T11:58:02.236Z

Good Morning Bloggsville!! Just a quick post today to inform you that a new regularly updated series of posts will begin this weekend here at the DWB. The series will be called Real Men of Genius and each week, a single genius who has helped the progress of mankind will be profiled. Since this will be an ongoing thing over the next few months or so I want to generate plenty of discussion from

dwbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131537452109059592005-11-09T11:52:00.000Z2005-11-09T11:57:32.120Z

Good morning everyone, like me you will have undoubtedly noticed the numerous stories about Google print circulating the web recently. These have mostly surrounded the story of the writers guild suing Google over intellectual property rights. I must have personally read at least half a dozen of these stories in the news over the last month and then just now as I began to read another, I realised

dwbnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131451322534408502005-11-08T11:57:00.000Z2005-11-08T12:02:02.553Z

Throughout history mankind’s progress has been charted and referred to by his use of materials. Throughout the stone, bronze iron and steel ages these materials made a major contribution to mankind’s development. But now in the 21st century, we live in the age of materials. For technology to advance further we need to improve all sorts of materials, looking to nature for inspiration.This exiting

dwbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131276779519873902005-11-06T11:23:00.000Z2005-11-06T11:32:59.533Z

Good morning everyone, today I’ve got some interesting facts about hiccups. Hiccups are basically a reflex action. They are caused by irritation of the Vagus nerve (or its branches), which runs from your brain to your abdomen. It is believed that hiccups are usually brought on by common digestive disturbances. Although you probably cant remember, we’ve all been suffering from hiccups since

dwbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131193272459473682005-11-05T12:10:00.000Z2005-11-05T12:25:26.610Z

Since the dawn of civilisation, mankind has had a long running obsession with the concept of love. It has been the inspiration for millions of poets and song writers, from literary greats to cheesy boy band types. Even I, the humble Wogbeast is familiar with the concept of Love. This romantic inspiration is not just confined to humans, as we know many birds sing songs, mainly to attract mates. It

dwbnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131062574863899412005-11-04T00:05:00.000Z2005-11-04T00:05:46.940Z

As you may or may not be aware, Elephants were the tanks of the ancient world. Wild Elephants were stalked by hunters, who incapacitated the gentle giants by hacking large chucks of flesh away from their legs (I know its gruesome but stay with me, it gets worse).Once captured, they were no use to the military due to their injuries and were instead used as breeding animals, lame studs if you will.

dwbnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1131016642245558382005-11-03T11:13:00.000Z2005-11-03T11:17:22.256Z

The BBC today reported that archaeologists in China have found the worlds oldest observatory. The semicircular platform (130 feet in diameter) surrounded by 13 pillars was unearthed near the city of Linfen in the Shanxi province. The remains are thought to be 4,100 years old. He Nu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Xinhua news agency:"The ancient people observed

dwbnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1130977005057596902005-11-03T00:10:00.000Z2005-11-03T00:16:45.066Z

Good evening guys, just a quick late night post to let you know about about a new site i've joined called www.popublog.com.Fellow bloggers might I recommend registering with this site, and pretty soon you'll find your blog rated under the scrutiny of anyone and everyone!Anyway if you like whats being said here at the DWB the please click the vote button on the right..Thats all folksDWB

dwbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1130929961197539642005-11-02T10:55:00.000Z2005-11-02T11:25:06.646Z

Good Morning everyone, I trust all is well in cyberspace. Today I’d like to share some of my thoughts with you about one of they latest crazes going on in the digital world: real estate in MMORPG’s. Now for those of you who don’t know (or can’t work it out for yourself), Wikipedia defines a MMORPG as:A massively (or massive) multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG is a multiplayer computer

dwbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1130842233115532832005-11-01T10:46:00.000Z2005-11-01T10:50:33.126Z

Ah Japan; land of Samurai, Sake, raw fish, bizarre game shows, and of course high-technology. Now those of you in the know about these things will undoubtedly be aware of Japans stance as the world leaders in m-Commerce. But for the benefit of those who are not so savvy: m-Commerce is essentially e-Commerce via mobile phones. M-Commerce has yet to take off in a big way in Europe and the US, which

dwbnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1130757900626747492005-10-31T11:21:00.000Z2005-10-31T11:28:04.106Z

Greetings everyone. Just a quick post today because I have to go and wax my face ready for a meeting with the bank manager. Here’s a few links for all you literary types out there in bloggsville:Firstly, I’d like to draw your attention to the Librivox project. They guys are in the process of attempting to get every book in the public domain converted into audio and available to download, podcast

dwbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17720002.post-1130686904345960522005-10-30T15:35:00.000Z2005-10-30T15:41:44.346Z

Good afternoon guys, here’s another quick post which could save you guys from some unwanted emails. The other day I was looking for some information on web marketing techniques, and I stumbled across http://www.wilsonweb.com/ (I wouldn’t bother if I were you). At first glance this site seemed to offer all the info that I was looking for and promised me that if I subscribed I’d get 5 free E-Books

dwbnoreply@blogger.com1