Sun eyes a JavaScript alternative to AJAX

Sun eyes a JavaScript alternative to AJAX:

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(InfoWorld) - Sun Microsystems is working on Web application development technology that presents an alternative to AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), a Sun official said on Thursday.

The company's Project Flair is an open-source project now in development... A version of Flair for developers to experiment with is eyed for release later this year.

Small and simple, Flair presents a 'great vehicle for experimenting with [what] I guess what you would call, sort of, collaborative object development, that kind of thing,' said Ingalls.

'AJAX sort of deals with all of the old way of doing things. It makes it simpler ... but underneath it’s still all this junky HTML, Document Object Model, CSS, all that stuff, where 30 years ago, we knew how to do that stuff cleanly with a dynamic programming language and a simple graphics model,' Ingalls said.

'Flair takes us back to that simple model and adds the collaboration [and] Web access to it,' he said.

Anybody have links to more details on Project Flair?

American's imprisonment in Kazakhstan sends chilling message - International Herald Tribune

American's imprisonment in Kazakhstan sends chilling message - International Herald Tribune:

"Despite all the Western donor money and American-financed projects aimed at reforming the judiciaries here," said Michael Hall, an analyst in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, with the International Crisis Group ... "this is all part of a bigger Central Asian trend to make their judicial systems subordinate to their presidents."

"The result is a significant retreat in America's ability to project its public and business interests in the region," he said.

"Plus, the U.S. has suffered a massive loss of credibility when it comes to talking about the rule of law and independent judiciaries in the wake of the abuses we've been hearing about in places like Guantánamo." (emphasis added)

The last paragraph is a sideline to the main story. But it shows again that it's in the best interests of the United States to treat its prisoners humanely. Any abuse we lay on our prisoners (call them what you will) can be used as a justification for the mistreatment of U.S. citizens.

Duck and Cover: Ancient Mass Extinctions Caused by Cosmic Radiation

Ancient Mass Extinctions Caused by Cosmic Radiation, Scientists Say:

"Cosmic rays produced at the edge of our galaxy have devastated life on Earth every 62 million years, researchers say."

Not all mass extinctions are explained by this theory. For example, the KT boundary event probably has another cause.

But what an interesting idea: our galaxy is moving "flat-faced", like a pie in a pie fight, relative to surrounding material. A shock wave is generated where galactic matter comes into contact with the surrounding hot gases, and cosmic radiation is generated at that same point.

Periodically on its 225-million-year galactic orbit, our solar system rises up out of the galactic plane, closer to the shock wave, where it is exposed to more of the incoming cosmic radiation than normal.

Researchers aren't sure about the consequences of the increased radiation. Greater ozone depletion may allow more of the radiation to reach the earth's surface and into its oceans. Other effects may include changes in cloud cover, etc.

One possibility is that organisms receive harmful doses of radiation from high-energy particles known as muons, which are produced by cosmic rays colliding with Earth's atmosphere.

"Cosmic rays themselves are not really that dangerous," said Medvedev. "They create [charged particles] that propagate down through the atmosphere—especially muons that can go below the sea level."

Russia's former president Yeltsin dies: Kremlin | Reuters

Russia's former president Yeltsin dies: Kremlin | Reuters:

Many Russians initially viewed Yeltsin as a hero for dismantling Communist rule. His finest hour came when, in 1991, he clambered onto a tank and raised his fist in defiance of hardline coup plotters who wanted to turn back the clock.

...in 1989 he was elected to the new Soviet Congress of People's Deputies and in June 1991 he was elected president of Russia -- still within the Soviet Union -- in a landslide.

Two months later, he faced down tanks in the Moscow streets...

Make your own Ghost Map

From Paul Kedrosky: Twitter for Hypochondriacs:

Who is sick? is a clever idea, and similar in many ways to my 'what's going around?' idea. It allows people with symptoms of something or another -- bloody stool! sniffles! cough! muscle ache! -- to add their location and symptoms to a map.

Why clever? Because it is the data-rich beginnings of grassroots epidemiology via capturing the kinds of conversations that usually only happen in doctors' offices. You, know, 'You have a cold. That's going around'.

Gee, it's like a modern, collaborative version of The Ghost Map.

Tastes like chicken

Tyrannosaurus rex fossil gives up precious protein - life - 12 April 2007 - New Scientist

Why it's called "good" cholesterol

Technology Review: Imaging Cholesterol Buildup in the Heart: " Normally, HDL passes through arteries and attaches to low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or 'bad' cholesterol, carrying it out of arteries to the liver."

'Course that's not what the article is about. Researchers have found a way to attach markers to segments of unstable arterial plaque, using altered HDL. As a result, they can better see where unstable plaque has built up in a patient and can better identify problems which increase the risk of heart attack.

Light Therapy Spares the Scalpel and the Chemo -

Light Therapy Spares the Scalpel and the Chemo -

Imagine you could treat cancer by taking a pill, then directing a laser light toward the location of the tumor. The growth would dissolve with no chemotherapy, and no harm to healthy tissue.

It might sound futuristic, but a select number of cancer patients already benefit from the method, called photodynamic therapy. An upgrade for the procedure could save thousands more cancer patients from the horrors of chemotherapy.

Although chemotherapy has improved over the past decade, the treatment still damages healthy tissue and causes other unpleasant side effects like nausea and a weakened immune system. The researchers hope their work will spare patients from chemo's ravages and even the surgery usually necessary to remove a tumor.