Nearby Star May Have Planetary System Like Ours [Scientific American]

As to how similar, there remain a number of significant questions. For instance, it has yet to be determined if there is any decent Chinese takeout there.

Astronomers scanning the skies for far-flung planets have found that the area surrounding a nearby star is very familiar. A report published in the current issue of the Astrophysical Journal suggests that Vega, located 25 light-years away from our sun, may have an orbiting planetary system that is more similar to our own than is any other yet discovered.

Mark Wyatt of Edinburgh's Royal Observatory designed a computer model based on observations of a faint disk orbiting Vega, which is three times bigger than the sun and is part of the constellation Lyra, the Harp. Images taken in 1998 by the world's most sensitive submillimeter camera, known as SCUBA, showed extremely cold dust orbiting the star. "The irregular shape of the disk is the clue that it is likely to contain planets," Wyatt says. "Although we can't directly observe the planets, they have created clumps in the disk of dust around the star."

The ESA has plans to launch a satellite that can detect extra-solar door hung menus.

11:45:41 PM     leave/read comments []

A reminder of wassup with the world.

Insights into oligopolies

Two smart quotes about oligopolies, from an article in the Wall Street Journal  ("Oligopolies Are on the Rise", February 25, 2002.

The rise of early-21st-century oligopolies echoes the late 19th century. "They are both periods where there was a retreat from government oversight of the economy, a tremendous amount of entrepreneurial activity, lots of new technology -- and it wasn't clear who would be the winners and losers," says Naomi Lamoreaux, an economic historian at the University of California at Los Angeles. "Firms try to put some bounds on the chaos, to control some markets."

While I believe that the new oligopolies are much more self-conscious about these issues, the parallels are strong. While money and politics have always been closely linked in the US, the Teapot Dome and the Enron scandals have lots of parallels. The antitrust zeal of the federal government, kindled in reaction to the late 19th century trusts, has dwindled to a frail echo of itself. Today's Standard Oil and J.P. Morgan have become Microsoft and Citigroup. And, as we have pointed out, fear of disruption as much as greed is the driving force for consolidation.

"The odds that somebody will come up with a successful innovation go up with the number of people who are trying new things," says Paul Romer, a Stanford business-school professor.

One of the problems with the way oligopolies tend to both scare away competitors and also tend to converge, to think alike, is that they slow down the rate of real innovation. Even when technical innovation happens, oligopolies' need to control can either slow them down or make them irrelevant. Take for example, the way in which Microsoft and its cohorts have stifled innovation in the computer industry when they could. Or take the way in which the phone oligopoly held up the adoption of DSL high-speed Internet access until they were forced to by competition from cable.

[Oligopoly Watch]

11:38:29 PM    

ROK-American OD's (Stars & Stripes).

American high school students in Seoul are overdosing on cough syrup. [Nippon Goro Goro]

Wow! Turns out that that little bottle of Robitussin in my medicine chest is a discount trip to see the girl with kaleidoscope eyes!

According to a study by Johns Hopkins University, dextromethorphan causes a high described as a state of separation from the environment or an out-of-body experience. Hallucinations, along with vivid dreams involving vision and sounds, can occur.

Woohoo!

Screw the extra-strength Motrin, I'm gonna be chuggin' cough syrup!

6:14:12 PM     leave/read comments []

Tokyo University Develops Flexible Artificial Skin for Robot [Nikkei BP ] The University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) has developed an electronic artificial skin material that can be flexed and contoured into shape.

Cool!

It looks like C-3PO's!

ow.

5:38:51 PM     leave/read comments []

NYT Magazine looks at iPod on 2nd anniversary. Rob Walker has written an extensive study of the iPod in the New York Times Magazine called The guts of a new machine. In between describing the iPod's impact on the industry and Apple itself, Walker speaks with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and vice president of industrial design Jonathan Ive about the music player. [MacCentral]

I'm too tired to do much today. Not to mention that it hurts like a sonofabeetch to sit at the computer.

Somehow, I pulled a muscle in my abdomen or something and every time I move it feels like I'm getting stabbed in the gut. Not fun. At all.

So, happy 2nd anniversary iPod! Enjoy the six-page article while I try to figure out a way to not wince in pain every ten seconds.

5:08:43 PM     leave/read comments []

Turns out, I'm not the only one in Nebraska asking what the hell am I doing here.

2:13:08 AM     leave/read comments []