Beaky Beaky, Very Beaky

Ooh, IMDB says that X-Men: Origins is going to have Beak! 

I like Beak.  Beak (for you non-saddo types) is a mutant with... a beak.  That's it.  He's just a gangly guy with a beak.  He can't talk to birds.  Can't fly.  He's just got a honking great beak. 

He's a great subversion of that whole superhero power-tradeoff thing.  Because while X-Men has long been a metaphor for various alienated groups - racism, homophobia, teen angst - the truth is that you don't get nifty abilities just because you're in a picked-on group.  It's not like "I realized I was gay... but at the same time, my ability to co-ordinate fabrics was elevated to fabulous levels!" 

One bit per atom? Pff!

Stanford boffins have broken the one-bit-per-atom storage barrier.  They're encoding data in electron interference patterns - subatomic holograms. 

In this experiment we've stored some 35 bits per electron to encode each letter," says the prof, "and we write the letters so small that the bits that comprise them are subatomic in size. So one bit per atom is no longer the limit for information density. There's a grand new horizon below that, in the subatomic regime. Indeed, there's even more room at the bottom than we ever imagined."

(Article at the Reg, with further links to the hard science.)

Wow.  I don't think even the Singularity freaks predicted this one.  

Snowy Exe

Snowy Exe
Originally uploaded by andygates

Lovely tranquil commute today - crackling ice underwheel, ducks strolling on the ice, only the "waargh!" of minor distress to break the mood. Alas, the fun snow is gone now, but it was nice while it lasted.