Cyber-Terrorists Spam the Eco-Terrorists

Was the Earth Liberation Front Web Site Hacked by Viagra?

Have cyber-terrorists attacked the eco-terrorists?

It appears so, based on a look at the Earth Liberation Front Web site, which should be getting a lot of traffic today after the group was implicated in the arson of a luxury Street of Dreams housing development near Seattle.

The apparently authentic Earth Liberation Front Web sites appear to be a mix of content about eco-terrorism and Viagra.

The meta title of the homepage is even "Viagra Sample Pack - Free Viagra Sample," which could reflect some misguided attempt to capture Web traffic from poor old men most likely uninterested in radical environmental terrorism. The "links" navigation at the top of the page links directly to a full-page Viagra ad, and there are Viagra ads all over the site.

But it doesn't appear to be purely a front site put out by some illicit Viagra purveyor. It's a fairly deep site with believable content about the organization, which is a loosely affiliated group of like-minded individuals hell-bent on bringing down environmentally destructive capitalistic business. Because the group is so shadowy, it's not hard to imagine oversight of the Web page being lax enough to allow for some effective hacking. It's not hard to imagine a sneaky Viagra salesman buying the domain name and content after the site was abandoned.

The domain appears to be for sale, but that doesn't explain who is maintaining the site now.

The ELF press office is, according to the Wikipedia page on the organization, defunct. The Daily Green has contacted the Web site seeking information. But that might well just result in a flood of erectile dysfunction spam.

Welcome to the 21st century.

Original here

140-year-old math problem solved by researcher

A problem which has defeated mathematicians for almost 140 years has been solved by a researcher at Imperial College London.

Professor Darren Crowdy, Chair in Applied Mathematics, has made the breakthrough in an area of mathematics known as conformal mapping, a key theoretical tool used by mathematicians, engineers and scientists to translate information from a complicated shape to a simpler circular shape so that it is easier to analyse.

This theoretical tool has a long history and has uses in a large number of fields including modelling airflow patterns over intricate wing shapes in aeronautics. It is also currently being used in neuroscience to visualise the complicated structure of the grey matter in the human brain.

A formula, now known as the Schwarz-Christoffel formula, was developed by two mathematicians in the mid-19th century to enable them to carry out this kind of mapping. However, for 140 years there has been a deficiency in this formula: it only worked for shapes that did not contain any holes or irregularities.

Now Professor Crowdy has made additions to the famous Schwarz-Christoffel formula which mean it can be used for these more complicated shapes. He explains the significance of his work, saying:

"This formula is an essential piece of mathematical kit which is used the world over. Now, with my additions to it, it can be used in far more complex scenarios than before. In industry, for example, this mapping tool was previously inadequate if a piece of metal or other material was not uniform all over - for instance, if it contained parts of a different material, or had holes."

Professor Crowdy's work has overcome these obstacles and he says he hopes it will open up many new opportunities for this kind of conformal mapping to be used in diverse applications.

"With my extensions to this formula, you can take account of these differences and map them onto a simple disk shape for analysis in the same way as you can with less complex shapes without any of the holes," he added.

Professor Crowdy's improvements to the Schwarz-Christoffel formula were published in the March-June 2007 issue of Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Original here

Be a macgyver: coolest fire making tricks

Below I assembled a list of the absolute coolest ways to make fire, when you have just a couple of weird items! If you’re alone in the desert, playing ’survivor’ with your friends or just wanna impress some girls - this is perfect for you. Also, there’s some very interesting scientific stuff in there, which I’ll expand about later in greater detail. Well, without further ado, here it is - the coolest ways to make fire:

1. Using a potato: potatoes are great. They’re very tasty, and apparently quite helpful when it comes to making fire. All you need is a potato cut in half, some wires and a lot of ambition.

2. Using coke & chocolate: if you don’t have a potato, you can always try a can of coke and some chocolate bars. I know that sounds like a great recipe for a party, but it can also be used to make fire in a really neat way.

3. Without matches or a lighter: Now here’s the real treat. You don’t have matches, or a lighter (or coke, chocolate and potatoes. This means you’re in real trouble and this might actually be useful to you). What you can do is use a simple battery and some fine steel wool. Next thing you know you’re caveman with some amazing fire surrounding you.

4. Using friction (the Masai way): Friction, the ancient method our ancestors used, is still not forgotten. It’s effective, cheap, *always* available and very straight-forward.

5. Using a condom: Mmm. This is the sexy way. If your girlfriend dumped you, or you’re a lonely wolf reading blogs at night, this one’s for you. Finally something to do with the old dusty condoms of yours. Be careful though, it keeps your most important organs safe.

That’s it, now go burn up your house!

Original here