Geppettofedora

The comic that I posted earlier today has been removed, because I’m kinda dumb.  Thirty minutes after posting it, I was like, “This is bad timing.”  Most of you don’t know what I’m talking about, but for those of you that do, I promise it was just a coincidence.

Anyway, this comic is about what dinner time is like at my house, enjoy.  -Raf

Researchers use Moore's Law to calculate that life began before Earth existed

On this semilog plot, the complexity of organisms, as measured by the length of functional non-redundant DNA per genome counted by nucleotide base pairs (bp), increases linearly with time (Sharov, 2012). Time is counted backwards in billions of years before the present (time 0).

Abstract: An extrapolation of the genetic complexity of organisms to earlier times suggests that life began before the Earth was formed. Life may have started from systems with single heritable elements that are functionally equivalent to a nucleotide. The genetic complexity, roughly measured by the number of non-redundant functional nucleotides, is expected to have grown exponentially due to several positive feedback factors: gene cooperation, duplication of genes with their subsequent specialization, and emergence of novel functional niches associated with existing genes. Linear regression of genetic complexity on a log scale extrapolated back to just one base pair suggests the time of the origin of life 9.7 billion years ago.

This cosmic time scale for the evolution of life has important consequences: life took ca. 5 billion years to reach the complexity of bacteria; the environments in which life originated and evolved to the prokaryote stage may have been quite different from those envisaged on Earth; there was no intelligent life in our universe prior to the origin of Earth, thus Earth could not have been deliberately seeded with life by intelligent aliens; Earth was seeded by panspermia; experimental replication of the origin of life from scratch may have to emulate many cumulative rare events; and the Drake equation for guesstimating the number of civilizations in the universe is likely wrong, as intelligent life has just begun appearing in our universe.

Evolution of advanced organisms has accelerated via development of additional information-processing systems: epigenetic memory, primitive mind, multicellular brain, language, books, computers, and Internet. As a result the doubling time of complexity has reached ca. 20 years. Finally, we discuss the issue of the predicted technological singularity and give a biosemiotics perspective on the increase of complexity.

Obviously it's as lot of guesswork, but the interesting thing here is that if they're right and we could only have gotten to our current level of complexity via a 6 billion year panspermatic headstart, there hasn't actually yet been time for us to be the second generation of complex life, since the Universe is only 13.7 billion years old. It makes this one of the many obvious solutions to the Fermi Paradox seem a little more plausible.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Tickets for PAX Prime are availa... wait, what? Already!? OK, so the PAX Prime four-day pass is already sold out, but individual days for Friday, August 30, through Monday, September 2, are still available.

Last year it took a little over a week for the entire expo to sell out. Given that the four-day pass sold out in under an hour of tickets going on sale, it's best not to delay if you want in. As in: go get your wallet right now and get it done before you move on to the next thing in your day. Fair warning.

Update: The official Twitter now reports that all badges have completely sold out. If you got a badge, we'll see you at the show!

PAX Prime tickets go on sale, four-day pass already sold out [Update: All gone!] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Although Nintendo President Satoru Iwata had no launch date to share on Pikmin 3 during this morning's Nintendo Direct, the company's official press release just sent out notes an August 4 release date. The game will launch in stores and on the Nintendo eShop.

We're following up with Nintendo for confirmation.

Update: Confirmed.

Pikmin 3 dated August 4 by Nintendo press release originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Here’s an internet comic strip despite Wes wandering around in the dark while Tony egged everyone on.

Here’s a comic strip despite Wes getting irradiated while Tony saw through time and space.

There are moments when you must remind yourself that it is ok to go back to camp; that the fieldwork must, perhaps, wait for another day.

Such moments may include when you and your field partners are expelling troubling volumes of explosive diarrhea.

That the surprisingly propulsive excrement is neon orange only strengthens the appropriateness of this moment for such surrender (as does the fact that, after a few cramp-filled hours of following the monkeys in circles, you can’t walk far without running into yet another waist-high, bright orange latrine).

Go home.

On your way, remind yourself and your colleagues that, no matter how long you’ve been in the field, and no matter how acclimated you think your gut is to the local food, eating salads from a kiosk on the Nicaraguan border is never a good idea.

You’re lucky it’s the rainy season…

Things I Learned as a Field Biologist #932

Having a vague understanding of how the spots of a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) might serve as camouflage on the African savannah is one thing…

Seeing one quietly and completely melt into the grass 10 feet away from you is something else entirely.  

Do not get out of the truck.

Festo has technically mastered the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly. Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.

In addition to control of the shared flapping frequency and twisting of the individual wings, each of the four wings also features an amplitude controller. The tilt of the wings determines the direction of thrust. Amplitude control allows the intensity of the thrust to be regulated. When combined, the remote-controlled dragonfly can assume almost any position in space.

This unique way of flying is made possible by the lightweight construction and the integration of functions: components such as sensors, actuators and mechanical components as well as open- and closed-loop control systems are installed in a very tight space and adapted to one another.

With the remote-controlled dragonfly, Festo demonstrates wireless real-time communication, a continuous exchange of information, as well as the ability to combine different sensor evaluations and identify complex events and critical states.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

ZeptoLab is gearing up to launch the third entry in its Cut the Rope series soon, Cut the Rope: Time Travel. This latest adventure follows Om Nom, the critter with a craving for candy, as he gets sucked into a time machine and travels to various periods in time to presumably solve various physics-based puzzles to make it back. You know, that old chestnut.

Cut the Rope: Time Travel will launch on iOS and Android simultaneously, though ZeptoLab tells Joystiq it's currently unsure of when exactly that will be. As far as how time travel will fit into the game, this is also a mystery.

Gallery: Cut the Rope: Time Travel

Cut the Rope: Time Travel lands on iOS, Android soon originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The PostgreSQL project has announced the release of versions 9.2.4, 9.1.9, 9.0.13 and 8.4.17 containing a number of security fixes, including this one: "CVE-2013-1899, makes it possible for a connection request containing a database name that begins with '-' to be crafted that can damage or destroy files within a server's data directory. Anyone with access to the port the PostgreSQL server listens on can initiate this request." The developers recommend an immediate upgrade.

Update: See also the 2013-04-04 security release FAQ. "This is a good general rule for database security: do not allow port access to the database server from untrusted networks unless it is absolutely necessary. This is as true, or more true, of other database systems as it is of PostgreSQL."