The Milky Way and the Mashed Potatoes Mountain

post from Bad Astronomy on 18 June 2012 07:09:10 PM. © Bad Astronomy

Photographer Randy Halverson — whose pictures and time lapse videos have been featured here on the BA Blog many times; see Related Posts below — just posted an epically cool picture he took just last night: The Milky Way looming over[...]

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Drugs in drinking water

post from Sciencebase Science Blog on 18 June 2012 06:57:56 PM. © Sciencebase Science Blog

Rather bizarre extrapolations about the presence of the serotonin reuptake inhibitor Prozac in water and the development of "autism" in fish hit the headlines recently and were quickly debunked by science bloggers around the world. Nevertheless, the presence of pharmaceuticals in the water supply is an ongoing issue and has been during the last two [...]

Drugs in drinking water is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

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Cosmoquest Science Hangout Wednesday June 20 2300
UTC: Ravi Prakash, Curiosity engineer

post from Planetary Society Blog on 18 June 2012 06:32:34 PM. © Planetary Society Blog

I'm hosting this week's Cosmoquest Science Hangout. My guest this time around will be Ravi Prakash, Curiosity Entry, Descent, and Landing Systems Engineer. He'll explain how Curiosity will land on Mars, and why they've changed things since Spirit and Opportunity landed.

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Accelerated Tech News 10 New and Improved Look
plus RoboJellyfish, Biochips and More!

post from Singularity Hub on 18 June 2012 05:56:51 PM. © Singularity Hub

Welcome to the new and improved Accelerated Tech News! With the help of an incredible production team ATN has been [...]

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Music Evolution and the "Loudness War"

post from Physics Buzz on 18 June 2012 05:15:47 PM. © Physics Buzz

Has music really changed over the past 50 years? Ask anyone who grew up with the Beatles, Elvis or even disco, and you'll hear a resounding 'yes.'

But a group of Spanish physicists wanted to mathematically measure the evolution of popular music over the past 50 years, just to be sure. Somewhat surprisingly, they found that music hasn't really changed that much on a fundamental, quantifiable level, according to their analysis of a million song dataset.

Nonetheless, the researchers did find three key trends in pitch, timbre (or tone quality), and loudness that may help explain the qualitative evolution of music. In particular, they found conflicting evidence of the "loudness war" among recording studios over the past few years ? an apparent race for louder music at the expense of quality, according to critics.

The researchers took data from The Million Song Dataset, which includes sound information for a million contemporary pop songs, but none of the audio. The dataset provides song features including data about the song's pitch, timbre and loudness ? the three factors that the researchers investigated.

First, the team analyzed the scientific backbone for the various pitches we hear in music: frequencies. According to the physicists, these frequencies are becoming more uniform with time.

Increasingly, the scientists observed "less variety in pitch transitions," in recent years, much to the dismay of non-conforming hipsters everywhere. To be fair, the Million Song Dataset likely left out a substantial selection of modern day music, which may include non-conformist pitch transitions.

But the scientists found the same trend in conformity for the dataset's timbre. Timbre, or tone quality, is what allows us to differentiate between different sounds such as vocals, percussion, and guitars. Scientists can quantify timbre by looking at the shape of a song's waveform.

Is The "Loudness War" Hurting Music?

While both timbre and pitch appeared to conform over time, songs have also become increasingly loud. Especially over the past few years, music critics and fans have complained about overly compressed songs that are recorded to be louder than ever. Critics claim that this compression for the sake of loudness has sacrificed music quality.

Anecdotal evidence abounds for this transition to louder music, but the Spanish researchers now have scientific evidence of this trend. But there was something important that the researchers did not find.

According to their paper, the "topology of loudness transitions is maintained," over time. The team didn't find evidence that the loudness race was negatively altering the volume dyanmics within the songs ? the changes in volume that make certain parts of a song more distinct. "Loudness war" critics often cite altered volume dynamics as a key factor that degrades music quality

Perhaps there's something else that the scientists overlooked that could explain the supposed drop in sound quality. Or maybe the "loudness war" is overblown. You can decide for yourself by comparing the audio contained in the video below.

The researchers did note, however, that the continuing loudness race could potentially lead to poorer sound quality in the future, partly because of the restrictions of digital media.

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If you want to keep up with Hyperspace, AKA Brian, you can follow him on Twitter.

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The world is a dynamic mass of jingling things

post from Canadian BioTechnologist2.0 on 18 June 2012 04:39:22 PM. © Canadian BioTechnologist2.0

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[mos-ak] [2nd announcement] 10th MOS-AK/GSA
ESSDERC/ESSCIRC Workshop in Bordeaux, Sept. 21, 2012

post from Sedemos News on 18 June 2012 04:15:36 PM. © Sedemos News

[2nd announcement] 10th MOS-AK/GSA ESSDERC/ESSCIRC Workshop in Bordeaux, Sept. 21, 2012
http://mos-ak.org/bordeaux/
Together with the Organizing Committee, Extended MOS-AK/GSA TPC Committee, and the IEEE EDS French Branch, the the technical program sponsor, we have pleasure to invite to the 10th MOS-AK/GSA Compact Modeling Workshop at the ESSDERC/ESSCIRC Conference in Bordeaux, Sept. 21, 2012.
Free on-line registration (open on June 18)

http://www.mos-ak.org/bordeaux/registration.php

The terms of participation, intending participants and authors should also note the following dates:

Preannouncement - April 2012
Call for Papers - May 2012
Abstract submission deadline - July 2012

On-line abstract submission (open on June 18):
http://mos-ak.org/bordeaux/abstracts.php

Final Workshop Program - Aug. 2012
MOS-AK/GSA Workshop - Sept. 21, 2012
http://www.mos-ak.org/bordeaux/

Morning Session
Panel Discussion: "Status and Next Decade of European Compact Modeling"
Poster Session
Afternoon Session

Speakers (tentative list):

Prof. Maria Helena, Universidade Nova Lisboa, PProf. Lidia Lukasiak, TU Warsaw, PLProf. Androula Nassiopoulou, IMEL Demokritos, GRProf. Elena Gnani, University of Bologna, IMunira Raja. Uni. Liverpool, UKMaria-Alexandra Paun, EPFL, CHSadayuki Yoshitomi, Toshiba, JPYogesh S. Chauhan, UC Berkeley, USAPatrick Martin, Minatec, FDaniel Tomaszewski, ITE Warsaw, PL

Further details and updates: <http://mos-ak.org/bordeaux/>
Email contact: <workshops@mos-ak.org>
- with regards - WG (for the MOS-AK/GSA Committee) ??????????????????????????????????---------------- COMON Tranining Course Tarragona (SP) June 28-19, 2012 MOS-AK/GSA Bordeaux (F) Sept.21, 2012 MOS-AK/GSA San Francisco, CA Q4 2012 ??????????????????????????????????----------------

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HiWishing for 3D Mars images, part I

Hundreds of images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter?s HiRISE camera are publicly available, if you know where to look.

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Small Scale Solutions Big Potential Impact

In 2008, the United States consumed an estimated 99.2 quadrillion BTUs of energy. 99.2 Quadrillion. That's 99.2 thousand million million. 99,200,000,000,000,000. 9.92 x 10^16.For perspectives sake, one BTU is 1,055 joules - the amount of energy needed to heat 1 pound of water from 39°C to 40°C

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Con and Prometheus

So a week or so ago I went to the movies and watched Prometheus. While I didn’t hate it unequivocally as a lot of people seem to, I didn’t love it without reservations either. On the Alien sliding scale, it was better than being attacked by a[...]

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