Under The Sun

Astronomers believe that the largest, most detailed map of the Universe compiled so far shows beyond doubt the presence of an all-pervading “dark energy” throughout the cosmos.

The three-dimensional map contains 200,000 galaxies and covers six per cent of the sky. The furthest galaxies in the map are two billion light years away. Such maps are invaluable because the large-scale structure of the Universe reveals the interplay of cosmic forces during the last 13 billion years.

The Chief Technical Officer of Nokia mobile phones draws inspiration from the Harry Potter stories of J. K. Rowling:

JK “is very good when it comes to predicting the future”, according to Dr Neuvo, and “many of the things she is painting in her books can be implemented in phones in five to 10 years. It’s really exciting,” he says.

The ghostly moving people in framed pictures which deck Hogwarts’ staircases, and the mysterious pensieve which shows 3D images of memories are just some of the ideas he sees as a reality.

A Wired article notes that on July 25, the Food and Drug Administration officially recognized the practice of giving supplemental injections of human growth hormone to healthy but short children. It seems that any deviation from some vaguely defined physical ideal is now regarded as a case for treatment. (The title of this post is of course from the ironic song by Randy Newman.)

Joe Average User Is In Trouble…

It took 23.5 tonnes of ancient, buried plants to produce a litre of petrol. In 1997 we burned fossil fuels equivalent to more than 400 times the amount of plant matter produced on Earth in the same year… From an article in Nature

There seems to be no prospect of our profligacy changing, which inevitably means that as oil starts to run out, the effect on international relations and on the environment will be increasingly catastrophic.

Before the invasion of Iraq began, we were promised that developments in precision weapons would ensure that civilian casualties would be kept to a minimum. A report from a US research group estimates that about 13,000 Iraqis, including as many as 4,300 civilians, were killed during the major combat phase of the Iraq war — more than in the 1991 war. It sems that the capabilities of new weapons were used to allow more strikes to be launched, while keeping casualty rates much the same.

One premise of the “new warfare” hypothesis is that precision technologies and new warfighting techniques now allow the United States to wage war while incurring dramatically fewer casualties — especially civilian casualties. Although Operation Iraqi Freedom was supposed to exemplify the new warfare, it provides no unambiguous support for the hypothesis regarding civilian casualties.

The report concludes:

Nonetheless, the promise of a “low casualty” warfare will not be realized in practice if US strategic and operational objectives escalate in tandem with the advance of the new capabilities. Nor will the new warfare capabilities lead to an era of reduced conflict deaths if their promise serves as a rationale to wage more wars.

A study called “Fat Pipes, Connected People” shows that, while the broadband industry is intent on turning internet users into passive consumers, the users are really more interested in connecting with other people and doing creative things of their own. This is hardly surprising, given that these are fundamental aspects of human nature. Sadly, constructive use of the internet is being squeezed between an industry that wants total control over our online activities, and the dark side of human nature in the form of porn, spam and viruses.

The Independant cites a recent report that Britain has one of the highest rates of drinking and drug use among young people in Europe:

Ecstasy use among 15 to 34-year-olds is more than twice that of countries such as Germany and France, and cocaine abuse in the UK has quadrupled in the past eight years. Nearly eight out of ten teenagers have been drunk before the age of 16 - double the proportion of their peers in Italy and Portugal.

The report blames the “binge-drinking culture” that is endemic in this country. I don’t really know how we got to this state; I’m sure the breakdown of families is a factor. It has been suggested that, paradoxically, the temperance movement of the early 20th century was to blame, as pubs became men-only bars where intoxication was the chief purpose. Certainly in recent years the drinks industry has encouraged binge drinking, as traditional pubs and clubs are being replaced by “stand up drinking” venues with music at a volume that makes conversation impossible and cut-price “happy hours” early in the evening, all of which increases the amount of drink consumed, and hence the profits.