Blackpipers

ONDON (AFP) – A diamond-encrusted skull by British artist Damien Hirst sold on Thursday for 100 million dollars (75 million euros), a record price for work sold by a living artist, a London gallery announced.

The work, entitled “For the Love of God,” is a skull cast in platinum and encrusted with 8,601 diamonds. Carbon dating has shown that the original skull on which Hirst’s work is modelled dates to the 18th century.

Hirst remains best known for earlier conceptual works in which creatures including a shark and a cow were pickled in formaldehyde inside glass tanks.

The diamond-encrusted skull was sold to an group of anonymous investors, a spokeswoman for the White Cube gallery in London, where it has been on display from the beginning of the summer, told AFP.

Death is one of the central themes in works completed by Hirst, 41, who once said that the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States were like a work of art, but later apologised.

Hirst also holds the record for the most expensive work of art by a living artist at auction — his “Lullaby Spring,” a three-metre (10-foot) wide steel cabinet containing 6,136 hand-crafted and individually-painted pills, sold for 19.2 million dollars in June.

Mysterious waves that help transport the sun’s energy out into space have been detected by scientists for the first time.

Researchers hope their discovery of the energetic ripples, known as Alfven waves, will shed light on other solar phenomena such as the sun’s magnetic fields and its super-hot corona, or outermost atmosphere. A new video shows the ripples in action.

“Alfven waves can provide us with a window into processes that are fundamental to the workings of the sun and its impacts on Earth,” said Steve Tomczyk, a space scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Like a wave traveling along a string, Alfven waves run along the sun’s magnetic field lines and reach deep into space. While astrophysicists have identified the waves far away from the sun, they’ve never been detected close to our star-the ripples were too small and too fast to spot.

To observe the elusive waves, Tomczyk and his colleagues pointed the coronal multichannel polarimeter (CoMP) instrument, located at the National Solar Observatory’s Sacramento Peak Observatory in New Mexico, at the sun’s hot, hazy corona. Thanks to CoMP’s imaging speed of one picture every 15 seconds, the scientists captured the waves traveling at about 9 million mph (14.5 million kilometers per hour).

“The waves are visible all the time and they occur all over the corona, which was initially surprising to us,” said Scott McIntosh, a space scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

The waves might help explain how energy is transferred to the sun’s corona, which is millions of degrees hotter than the solar surface.

Tomczyk and his colleagues’ findings will be detailed in the Aug. 30 online edition of the journal Science.

A quick search on Google for tutorials regarding Linux and Windows interoperability, will reveal a lot of guides on how to install (emulate) Windows on a virtual machine inside Linux or how to migrate from Windows to Linux or how to dual boot Windows and Linux, but what I was really looking for was a way to run Windows and Linux at the same time, on the same machine; sharing the same desktop, working with the applications from both operating systems at the same time, without having a virtual machine window open or God knows what else.

So, does your business require for you to work on both operating systems? Why having two monitors, two computers when you can have Windows and Linux running on a single computer like they were born together? Imagine you can open Microsoft Word, write some text and then copy/paste this text in a Linux application, or you can share files between the two OSes or probably you’re a web designer and you have to test your websites on both operating systems: wouldn’t this be a life saver? Well, today I am happy to announce you that all this is possible and it will take about 30 minutes to setup everything in order to have Windows and Linux running at the same time on your computer and to share all the applications from these operating systems without hassle.

According to the first mentioned gaming site, if “you visit Japanese site Amiami with 8,190 yen in hand and place a pre-order for November,” you’re going to be the proud owner of a DOA: Extrme sexy, plastic figurine, which will sit quietly on your nightstand revealing herself to you whenever you desire. She’s been programmed to sit like that, just for you…

And for a million others more, of course. Anyway, in Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2, players are able to play as any of the nine girls currently present in the series, just for the newcomers to know what the video game is all about. Each girl in the game has certain items and hobbies which she likes or dislikes, and these preferences influence her reaction upon receiving a gift. Characters also have an individual favorite color, again affecting their like or dislike of a certain item (and the wrapping paper used to wrap it). Payable characters: Ayane, Christie, Helena, Hitomi, Kasumi, Kokoro, Lei Fang, Lisa, Tina.

Kokoro did not appear in Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and hence it’s a new addition to the cast of available volleyball players.

According to AMD’s chairman and CEO, Hector Ruiz, all important computer manufacturers are now using his company’s chips in their products. He considers this to be a sign that the system integrators and the customers want that the small semiconductor supplier to succeed in its battle with rival Intel.

“The  second quarter confirms our convictions about our industry. First, customers want us to succeed. The unit growth and new customer acquisition just reported are clear indications of this. Large OEMs, distributors, decision makers and users of PCs and other digital technologies around the world agree that competition in the processor industry is good and healthy for our industry. They like what AMD is doing, have a taste for what things are like with a stronger AMD and crave the innovation and choice that we bring to the table.”

During a press conference to discuss the company’s situation during the second quarter, Ruiz said that the computer industry is going through some major transformations and that AMD will be ready and in position to benefit from them. “Our industry is going through a major transformation and our acquisition of ATI Technologies is perfectly timed to help us ride this wave of change in our industry, a restructuring like nothing we have seen before. No longer are customers satisfied with generic value propositions and artificial measures of raw processor performance.”

Casuh is a Korea-based company whose efforts to bring all wireless standards and connections to a common point has finally paid off in the body of the Joyfon headset. We’re speaking about extended freedom here: not only will you benefit from the advantages of the wireless connection that brings music to your ears in absence of any wires, but gives you the possibility to stop mingling with all sorts of transmitters to have your sound delivered to you ears.

The Casuh Joyfon promises a most convenient usage of your wireless sound sources, such as PC, MP3 player, FM radio and so many more. Instead of having to differently tune in to each of such sources’ module (if possible) you will just select them as easy as choosing channels on a radio. We’re speaking multitasking wireless technology here and the Retaw-1 chip.

A realistic robotic fly has spread its wings at the University of Harvard. Despite weighing only 60 milligrams with a wingspan of 3 centimeters, the robotic fly mimics the actions of a real fly contributing to the realism of the mechanical insect. Small robots such as this will be used in the future for spying missions or to enter and explore areas which may contain an element of significant danger.

Robert Wood is leader of the robotic department at Harvard and he believes that flies possess the inconspicuous nature required for such missions, much like a fly-on-the-wall. The robot has been given funding and support by leading military organizations in a conscious effort to develop the fly with respect to implementing it within such circumstances.

The fly was difficult to manufacture due to the intricacy of the individual parts. Existing parts did not exist in a compact enough size so the team had to develop them by themselves. The process used was laser micro machining, which comprises of cutting extremely thin sheets of carbon fiber and polymer which remain accurate to the nearest micrometer. Arranging both the carbon fiber and polymer practical parts could be developed. Each part of the robotic fly can bend and rotate to an extent whilst remaining durable. For parts which react to electricity, electro active polymer is used which alters shape when exposed to a current.