A billion-year storage medium that could outlive the human race A QR code etched in tungsten and embedded in graphene oxide on an optical disc Credit: University of Twente) Researcher Dr. Jeroen de Vries from the University of Twente MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology suggests we could store data for one million to one billion years, using a new storage medium based on tungsten and graphene oxide. He imagines two possible scenarios: Disaster has devastated the earth and society must rebuild the worldWe need to create a legacy for future intelligent life that evolves on Earth or comes from other worlds. Optical-disc information carrier de Vries has developed a novel optical-disc information carrier that he says can store such information for extremely long periods of time, using etching techniques. Left: scanning electron micrograph of the cross-section of the encapsulated lines in the disc test sample; right: scanning electron micrograph of the sample after 1 hour at 200 degrees Celsius (credit: Jeroen de Vries et al. The ultimate aging test References:
TAOA | There Are Other Alternatives Learning languages I wanna talk about learning languages. I’ve lived in many different countries, both in Western Europe, Middle East, and now here in Hong Kong. And during all of that time, I’ve learned five or six different languages, to one degree or another. I love learning languages. Not only are they important when you move to a country, I just find them fascinating. Before I came to Hong Kong, I lived in Barcelona Spain for ten years. Other things that helped me when I first moved to Spain, were watching the typical kinds of programs we see everyday on channels around the world. Other types of program that helped me learned Spanish quickly were things like game shows, where the same thing happens. As well as that, I used to pick up the Spanish newspapers. Anyway, by far the best practice I ever had was just talking to people in the street, or in shops where I'd rehearse in my head what I wanted to say beforehand, before I went in. It took me a long time to develop a good level of Spanish.
Susan George: poteri occulti, la Terra è sotto scacco Se avete a cuore il vostro cibo, la vostra salute e la stessa sicurezza finanziaria, la vostra e quella della vostra famiglia, così come le tasse che pagate, lo stato del pianeta e della stessa democrazia, ci sono pessime notizie: un gruppo di golpisti ha preso il potere e ormai domina il pianeta. Legalmente: perché le nuove leggi che imbrigliano i popoli, i governi e gli Stati se le sono fatte loro, per servire i loro smisurati interessi, piegando le democrazie con l’aiuto di “maggiordomi” travestiti da politici. La grande novità si chiama: “ascesa di autorità illegittima”. Parola di Susan George, notissima sociologa franco-statunitense, già impegnata nel movimento no-global e al vertice di associazioni mondiali come Greenpeace. I nuovi oligarchi, spiega la George nell’intervento pronunciato al Festival Internazionale di Ferrara, ottobre 2013, possono agire attraverso le lobby o oscuri “comitati di esperti”, attraverso organismi ad hoc che ottengono riconoscimenti ufficiali.
Buy Nothing Day - UK - Friday November 25th 2016 The lies behind this transatlantic trade deal | George Monbiot Panic spreads through the European commission like ferrets in a rabbit warren. Its plans to create a single market incorporating Europe and the United States, progressing so nicely when hardly anyone knew, have been blown wide open. All over Europe people are asking why this is happening; why we were not consulted; for whom it is being done. They have good reason to ask. The commission insists that its Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership should include a toxic mechanism called investor-state dispute settlement. Where this has been forced into other trade agreements, it has allowed big corporations to sue governments before secretive arbitration panels composed of corporate lawyers, which bypass domestic courts and override the will of parliaments. This mechanism could threaten almost any means by which governments might seek to defend their citizens or protect the natural world. So where are our elected representatives? Quite right too.
Travel – English Podcast Vocabulary & Pronunciation Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation Podcast 3.4 – Travel Audio Player When we’ve travelled somewhere, we usually want to tell our friends and family all about our trip. In this unit you’ll learn how to do this in English. © Zappenglish.com Download the Zapp! Visit our iTunes channel for Zapp! Related Podcasts: Tagged as: a boarding card, a destination, a journey, a route, a runway, a trip, audio, camping, conversations, course, dialogue, download, e-book, ebook, english, jet-lag, journeys, mp3, podcast, pronunciation, real, the departure gate, to go backpacking, to land, to set off, to take off, transcript, transcription, travel, trips, vocabulary
Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system | Science Peter Higgs, the British physicist who gave his name to the Higgs boson, believes no university would employ him in today's academic system because he would not be considered "productive" enough. The emeritus professor at Edinburgh University, who says he has never sent an email, browsed the internet or even made a mobile phone call, published fewer than 10 papers after his groundbreaking work, which identified the mechanism by which subatomic material acquires mass, was published in 1964. He doubts a similar breakthrough could be achieved in today's academic culture, because of the expectations on academics to collaborate and keep churning out papers. He said: "It's difficult to imagine how I would ever have enough peace and quiet in the present sort of climate to do what I did in 1964." Speaking to the Guardian en route to Stockholm to receive the 2013 Nobel prize for science, Higgs, 84, said he would almost certainly have been sacked had he not been nominated for the Nobel in 1980.