iBlackhole

Via Digg, I think, a NASA/MSNBC/Microsoft collaboration to show off the PhotoSynth technology: Space World. I don’t think I ever mentioned it here before: PhotoSynth is an application that can create interactive/3d-like environments from a set of photos. The technology behind is amazing (and promising) but the actual demonstration here is a sort of boring. I was surprised to find out that Microsoft’s engineers been working on a specific Firefox plugin. It works good too.

New Scientist reports that black holes could be worm holes to other dimensions. The article quotes a couple of European physicists who studied some worm holes and were surprised to discover that it’s hard to tell the difference between either worm/black holes. Coming soon: volunteers who’d like to make that daring plunge, or, love to have that extra gravity pull.

I intentionally ignored mentioning anything about bridges and that, particularly after seeing those horrendous images of the collapse of that I-35 bridge (MetaFilter thread, Slashdot follow-up thread on the science of bridge collapsing). Using soundwaves to track down wear and tear in metal and concrete is old news. What do I think caused the collapse? As usual as always: probably the high traffic and a combination of construction work and heat. Not too many old bridges were made for supporting current day’s traffic. Maybe it’s time that governments check out bridges that are older than 20 to 30 years.