Proof of extra dimensions possible next year: CERN | Reuters

CERN scientists say they have already taken research with ions further than those with gold at the long-established Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the U.S. Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island.

 

These experiments have shown the power of the link-up of 140 computing centers around the world known as the Grid which processes the vast amounts of information that ion collisions produce.

On December 6, the LHC will be shut down for servicing and to avoid draining electricity in the depths of winter from the energy networks of France and Switzerland along whose border CERN lies.

It will start up again in February, then run at full blast, with protons, until the end of the year, when it will close down again until 2013 while engineers prepare it for running at double the energy to the end of the decade and beyond.

I know, it’s hip to bitch about that fact that here we are in 2010 and, wha? no flying cars or hoverboards? I get it. I’m with it. But seriously, CERN is great evidence of what nations can do to uncover vast scientific mysteries through diligence and appropriate funding. How do we make this kind of science cool in the US again?

From Isaac Schlueter: TSA Success Story

This is one of those terrific stories that starts with something I bet many of us struggle with:

I was worried that I’d chicken out. No, not “worried”. I was sure I’d chicken out. Of course I would. I talk a good game about incendiary politics and unconventional ideals, but when the chips are down, I generally do the expedient thing like a nice polite citizen. I’m not one of these “talk down the authorities” types, even though I wish I was.

And ends with:

After the first 4 “OPT-OUT” calls, they just passed us all through the regular metal detector. No one got groped.

Information, properly delivered, is power.

I’ve been prepping a post contrasting all the hoopla about Facebook privacy and prissy first-worlders bitching about giving up some personal information in exchange for use of a free service, something that might just scratch my emotional itch for a little perspective, when it hit me that I’m far, far more riled up about the TSA. What’s more, I feel pretty strongly that the TSA thing is far more justified to be riled up about.

So hats off to Isaac for keeping his cool and not reacting like I would, for being prepared and whatnot, and for those crazed about how teens are going to be using their shiny new @facebook.com email addresses on their resumes, grab your 5-year-old and head to the damned airport.

Newsweek and the Gray Lady: Your Future Awaits: Tech News – GigaOm

… there is an argument to be made that when it comes to an online audience, the Newsweek brand name may actually have a negative connotation rather than a positive one. The site won’t be disappearing entirely: Tina Brown says it will live on under its own banner, and links will obviously be redirected so that past content doesn’t disappear.

I don’t know what the big deal is. Look at the two sites in an a/b test and strip the logos? Same site.

Cooks Source Publisher Statement

The bad news is that this is probably the final straw for Cooks Source. We have never been a great money-maker even with all the good we do for businesses. Having a black mark wont help…and now, our black mark will become our shroud. Winters are bleak in Western New England, and as such they are bleak for Cooks Source as well. This will end us. In the end if we did keep going, I would (very gladly) hire someone else to serve as editor and just continue my work with the towns. You should know that I did have an interview last week and the reporter grilled me seriously. I was able to show him all the promo books and articles we receive, all the photos we take and the “clip art” that is free for everyone. I also showed him those emails…

This is one of those it’s sad … because it’s true stories. Sorry for Cooks Source — it’s hard to see any publication have to shutter in this climate. Sorrier for the decisions that were made that got to this point.

A New Way for Consumers to Give | GiveBack: The People’s Foundation

To achieve this vision, GiveBack recruits businesses to offer percentage-of-sale donations that are unlocked upon consumer purchase. The donations go directly into the consumer’s foundation and the consumer maintains complete control over how, where and when their money is directed. In addition, 100% of the money goes directly to the selected charity.

Seems like a smart way to empower giving through complete brainlessness — one of the things that’s consistently in the way actually doing something good with your money in the first place.

I’d like to start a foundation. When I was singing in college I had this idea to donate a building to the music school that was perfect in every way, but instruments would not be allowed. I was, of course, an a cappella nerd. At the time, I thought this was funny.

TUAW How-To: Create PDFs from your iOS device

Fancy. A Dropbox driven solution for using AirPrint to create PDFs on the fly and have them accessible on your iPad. This hack just further cements the glaring hole Apple has in their cloud services right now. How great would Dropbox fit in the Apple stable, I ask you?

LinkedIn Brings Products, Recommendations And More To Company Pages

Anything that makes actually promoting on LinkedIn more useful is welcome. Company pages launched short on vision, slow on iteration to utility. Worth giving company pages a third look about now.

On company pages, administrators can add products and services tab. So an accounting business can showcase various financial services the company offers. LinkedIn is taking it one step further to allow companies to tailor lists of products and services, based on member profiles. So a business owner can showcase one set of products (or services) to accountants in the aviation industry and another to engineers in the shipping industry.

Why the Creator of Google Maps is Headed for Facebook

More in the on-going saga of high profile Google employees heading to Facebook. Cerebral upside: more Google thinking at Facebook changes [my] perception of Facebook.

Rasmussen describes Google as “unwieldy.” And while the energy at Google is “just amazing,” that the size of the company makes it difficult to get things done.

In part, Rasmussen describes his decision to leave Google in terms of the opportunities elsewhere. The offer – one that came in the form of a personal pitch from Mark Zuckerberg himself – was “too good to refuse.”
…
“It feels to me that Facebook may be a sort of once-in-a-decade type of company,” says Rasmussen. It may be, that a decade ago, that is how we would have described his former employer.

Android market share gain coming at the expense of BlackBerry

According to NPD’s Mobile Phone Track, Android was installed on 44 percent of all smartphones sold during the third quarter, up from 33 percent in the second quarter, while iOS saw a slight bump from 22 to 23 percent and RIM dropped into third place at 22 percent.

Makes total sense to me. Here’s what I’m hearing, based on my own “rigorous” empirical research: my Blackberry using friends don’t like the devices and would love an iPhone, but they hate AT&T more than their phones, so they go for Android as the default other choice that’s not an iPhone. I have to wonder what an iPhone-carrying-Verizon will do to that process?

‘I Remember’

Paid for by the International Brotherhood of Bottlemakers Assistance Fund. Fascinating and passionate ad the Democrats have yet to achieve.

Windows XP falls under 60%, IE8 loses share for the first time

At Ars, our readers have embraced Microsoft’s latest operating system much faster. 24.73 percent of Ars readers use Windows XP, 7.89 percent are on Vista, and 28.18 percent have Windows 7.

I know. It shouldn’t surprise me, but it does. Not that Windows XP is still such a stronghold for Microsoft, but that Vista was such an abomination. Regarding browser use, I just had a support call from a client in which it was discovered that the were still running Netscape Navigator.

That is all.

Twitter, Facebook, and social activism : The New Yorker

In other words, Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice.

This is a terrific piece. First, apart from the gut reaction you may have from reading Gladwell’s headline, he’s not all together bearish on social media. Instead, as his pieces are prone to do, he provides effective research and anecdotal evidence that offers a bit of perspective to a discussion that is too easily washed in hype. Of particular note, the connection between strong and weak social ties, their impact on activism (not communication), and the parallels that do and do not exist online.

UPDATE: Today at 3:00 P.M. E.T Gladwell will be answering reader questions live on the blog. I’m not crazy about interactive blogging, but it should be an interesting opportunity to pick the author’s brain.

Jason Schwartzman Introduces The New Yorker iPad App : The New Yorker

Here’s a great example of something I think is going to happen more and more in my daily reads. I stopped taking a subscription to The New Yorker years ago. I couldn’t keep up with the paperness of it all. The New Yorker app on my iPad will have me reading it again.

Full stop.