Le Twittre

I've come to know that there exists an advanced (though don't know yet how much more) version of the mood message in facebook, gmail, skype or other instant messanging services...

It's called Twitter, and I came to know about it thanks to the immor(t)al Penny Arcade online comic.

Essentially, you type in what you're doing at the moment, and friends around the world which are interested will receive a near-istant update on it...

You can write meaningful things such as 'in flight to madrid', or less interesting ones (but not less meaningful) such as 'I am taking a dump' (I am not going to do it, but this is what Penny Arcade gloats about)...

Albeit in its infancy, and a bit clunky (compared to facebook's and other's mood msg) it's got the advantage of being 'postable' on other site via a javascript snippet, so that my blog now has a mood message too. you can also, interestingly, post to it from your mobile (and of course, my guess, read update from it. One step closer, if you like, to that permanently connected society of tecnomadic people The Economist was talking about in the Special Report of last week. (click here to download thefull edition), or 'here' for the Special Report only. Thanks Economist for putting this online for free. We greatly appreciate.

So, where do we go from here? will we become 100% internet freak attempting to digest this sea of essentially irrelevant information about our friends and less close relationship? Or we will learn to ignore as pointless background noise, the same way I ignore the Economist's readers once I dwelve deeply into the work? Who knows?

Microcosm is out!!!

So, if you really want to make me a present, well, you know my address don't you?

I'd be happy with an E. Coli plush toy, if you wish...



The author is touring the US, so if you happen to be close to one of his presentation, please go, as he's a really science writer. The best one around, I dare say.

Infrared photography

I recently heard on the naked science podcast that pointing a remote control to my camera phone I could see it flashing, because the sensitivity of the CCD inside extends to the near-IR.

It wrks! And it gave me a terrible case of cognitive dissonance to look at the remote through the screen, then with the naked eye, then with the screen again and so on. I just could not believe it, PhD in physical chemistry notwithstanding my mind was not prepared to accept it.

Anyway, the cool factor of the thing pushed me to show it to all my friends (real, as virtual) and to look on the i.net for more info about it, and possibly for how-to on how to build a proper IR-camera.

I discovered that few of them IR-capable cameras are sold, mostly for forensic use, possibly because you can see through clothes. In general, CCD are screened against IR not for this reason, but because the color yield is altered by the IR noise.

Anyway, there are plenty of descriptions on line and may be this evening I'll buy a 9.99 EUR webcam to open it and remove the IR filter. I already have a ten diode IR lamp at home, so may be it'll be enough to get nice pictures of my house in human-eye darkness.

More to follow!

House prices from the satellites

Wow, this is very Web 2.0.


a website, http://www.housepricemaps.co.uk/, where you can check how much were the houses around yours sold for. Only if you're in the UK, at the moment. But one day, all this power will be at our fingertips for the whole world.

They are at it again...

I mean, trying to wipe out plasmodium malariae... or, at the very least the disease it causes, by using knock-out plasmodii cultured in live anopheles to create a vaccine. They extract them and inject them in humans. 65% success rate, high enough to make me consider sticking my forearm in one of the boxes where the mosquitoes incessantly buzz.

I wonder why don't they do like this, to vaccine people. I mean, it's not as if keeping mosquitoes alive is any difficult. just stick your arm in the box twice a day and they should have plenty of blood. so the vaccinated themselves shall provide the maintenance. Wanna see that, instead of genociding the anopheles as we already tried and still is advocated by Olivia Judson (who propose to use bio-engineering defective anopheles to do so), the buzzing insects will switch side and become our allies? Now, that would be cool. and perverse, sort of...

We are not happy with wrecking the ecosystem, we're recluting the worst components of it in our own personal army...

I really don't understand the talk of eradication, though. what the hell do they want to eradicate, with a vaccine? It would not be a problem if, like smallpox, the parasite went only from man to man. then, vaccine the whole population and the bug will not be able to jump any longer. But in a parasite which can affect more than one species, as Plasmodium can, what use would it be to vacinate all man? as soon as you stop, the reservoir of bacteria in cows, or camels, or whatever, will kick back. Ditto if you vaccine those species, unless you vaccine them all. I can just picture the hunt for the smallest african mammals in order to vaccinate them...

I am sorry, but it doesn't sound sound to me. I'd side with the 'control' side, for the moment being.

Where do you come from?

I have just discovered (thanks to my new friend massimo) an exciting and massive DNA-testing of people sponsored by the National Geographic: The Genographic Project. In practice, you subscribe, get e-mailed at your place a DNA-testing kit, then spit on it, send it back and they'll let you know where your ancestors came from. Of course you know who your father was, and your grandfathers and so on... But then? This way, if you're italian you'll discover that may be you're one of the few survivors of the pre-indo-europaean populations, or may be a late-comer born out of a barbaric rape following the Roman Empire fall. Who knows? May be this will be my Xmas present to myself. And may be I'll give one too, so that I'll discover when the common ancestor of Marie and mine lived. You never know, we may be cousins (yes, at the 7569th level may be).