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I seem to remember some mention of artificial cloud generation ("cloud weaving?") in a thread some time ago. It may just be tin-foil hat stuff, but I remember there was a link to a website that was rather intriguing. I'm not coming up with anything on Google. Anyone know what the heck I'm talking about?

IN a story by Isaac Asimov, three technocrats are sitting in an underground cavern stuffed with electronics discussing how, with a computer named Multivac, they won the war. The attack had come from an enemy that seemed inscrutable - not Shiite fundamentalists or Al Qaeda terrorists but beings from the star system Deneb, a shining light in the constellation Cygnus, who had threatened Earth with weapons of mass destruction. But the earthlings, relying on the help of an artificial, dispassionate intelligence - this sprawling subterranean computer - had ultimately prevailed. Recent reports that the Pentagon is planning to spend tens...

Man-made diamonds are now so perfect they stump the experts. The diamond industry is hoping nobody notices. Feb. 14 issue - Leo, a balding man with an Israeli accent, stands behind a glass counter in one of the hundreds of jewelry shops on 47th Street, the heart of New York's diamond district. Leo makes his living on the strength of his ability to evaluate the authenticity and value of diamonds. He is examining three small stones, each weighing less than half a carat—one pink, one colorless and a third, slightly green, called a marquise. He picks up the pink crystal...

Using an Egg Donor And a Gestational Surrogate, Some Gay Men Are Becoming Dads -- and Charting New Legal and Ethical Territory But most of the time, the single gay executive said, becoming a father using his sperm and eggs donated by a 24-year-old woman he met once in a downtown Starbucks to create embryos that were implanted in the uterus of a 22-year-old surrogate mother he barely knows, absolutely seems like the right thing to do.

A woman who gave birth to a child months before entering a same-sex civil union in Vermont is appealing a court ruling that granted parental standing to her former partner. Cheryl Barlow, who says she no longer is a lesbian, was united with Keri Jones, both residents of Utah, five months after Barlow became pregnant by artificial insemination in 2001. But the relationship ended in 2003 after Barlow discovered Jones was seeing another woman. Jones then sued for parental visitation rights to Barlow's child and was granted favor by Judge Timothy Hanson in Utah's 3rd District Court in Salt Lake...

Choosing a diet soft drink over a regular, sugar-packed beverage may not be the best way to fight obesity, according to new research from Purdue University. But the researchers said this doesn't mean you should grab a regularly sweetened soft drink instead. Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson Download photo caption below Professor Terry Davidson and associate professor Susan Swithers, both in the Department of Psychological Sciences, found that artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body's natural ability to "count" calories based on foods' sweetness. This finding may explain why increasing numbers of people in the United States lack the natural ability...

DAVAO CITY — Over 300 Muslim religious leaders from all over the country announced on Wednesday the official Islamic canonical decision (fatwah) on reproductive health and family planning. The new fatwah allows the use of both natural and artificial contraceptive methods, except for tubal ligation and vasectomy. "The assembly finds reproductive health and family planning program, as practiced under valid reasons and recognized ancestries, are in accordance with the teachings of Islam," the fatwah stated. However, it stressed that family planning for the Muslim community in the Philippines should be anchored on the principles of non-coercion, responsible parenthood, and informed...

<p>DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- With her sparkling blue eyes, wispy eyelashes and demure smile, Hertz is the center of attention wherever she goes.</p> <p>If you're lucky enough to meet her, try to ignore the tangle of wires slinking from behind her face. If you speak with her, talk slowly and loudly. And no matter what you say, don't be offended if she looks at you blankly and repeatedly asks, "What did you say?"</p>

<p>Technically, Stephen Thaler has written more music than any composer in the world. He also invented the Oral-B CrossAction toothbrush and devices that search the Internet for messages from terrorists. He has discovered substances harder than diamonds, coined 1.5 million new English words, and trained robotic cockroaches. Technically.</p>

Italy bans donor sperm and eggs Italy's Senate has overwhelmingly approved a law which bans the use of donor sperm, eggs or surrogate mothers. It also limits the right to artificial fertilisation to "heterosexual couples in stable relationships", excluding gay couples and single women. The bill, one of the most restrictive in Europe, has drawn support and criticism from across the party lines. BBC Rome correspondent Frances Kennedy says that the bill has pitted Catholics against liberals and men against women. The legislation, passed in the Senate by 169 votes to 90 on Thursday, will now be sent back to...

Cyber women test what's real By Jo Twist BBC News Online technology reporter Software cyberbabes, created by powerful computers, sophisticated modelling packages and active imaginations are getting extremely human-like. Rene Morel's 3D model has a very human face Virtual cyberbabes are used in advertising campaigns, hit shoot-em-up games, and the pop industry, from Lara Croft to virtual pop idols, T-Babe and Diki or DK-96. Some of the best 3D models around are currently on show at an exhibition which has just opened in London called Perfectly Real: Women in Bits and Bytes. But they raise questions about what people...

Artificial Development To Build Biggest Spiking Neural Network The first CCortex cluster Palo Alto - Sep 16, 2003 Artificial Development, Inc. today announced that it has completed assembly of the first functional portion of a prototype of Ccortex, a 20-billion neuron emulation of the human cortex, which it will use to build a next-generation artificial intelligence system. Artificial Development will initiate testing of Ccortex in October. The cluster being assembled at AD.com Data Center is a high-performance, parallel supercomputer, composed of 500 nodes and one thousand processors, 1.5 terabytes of RAM, and 80 terabytes of storage. The low-cost software/hardware system...

<p>What was the greatest scientific idea of all time? The answer, I think, is clear: Evolution by natural selection, conceived more or less simultaneously by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-19th century. It was their genius to imagine a way diverse organisms could arise from simple ancestors by purely natural process.</p>

<p>Tim Devor, 57, tries on a prosthesis with the help of Eric O'Guinn Tuesday at Advanced bio-mechanics in Auburn. Medi-Cal would not cover such devices for many users under proposed cuts.</p> <p>A year ago, doctors amputated the bottom half of Joe Svogar's right leg.</p>

Russian scientist Alexander Bolonkin develops artificial intelligence in the USA It was shown in my previous articles about the artificial intelligence and human immortality that the issue of immortality can be solved fundamentally only with the help of changing a biological bubble of a human being to an artificial one. Such an immortal person made of chips and supersolid materials (the e-man, as it was called in my articles) will have incredible advantages in comparison with common people. An e-man will need no food, no dwelling, no air, no sleep, no rest, no ecologically pure environment. Such a being...

WASHINGTON, July 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Ben & Jerry's misleads customers by falsely claiming that some of its ice cream and frozen yogurt products are "All Natural," when they contain artificial flavors, hydrogenated oils, or other factory-made substances, according to a complaint filed today by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The group wants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take enforcement action against the company, a unit of the multinational food conglomerate Unilever. "Ben & Jerry's enjoys a carefully-cultivated public image as an eco-friendly, worker-friendly brand -- the kind of company whose label claims...

"ISN'T THIS GREAT STUFF?" said the cashier at Puget Consumers Coop. "I'm glad we could get it in again." Then he added, sardonically, "It's OK to sell tobacco, but not this?" "This" is stevia, an herb that - depending on who's talking - is an amazing no-calorie sweetener, a diabetic's salvation, a nutritious health enhancer or an unproved folk flavoring with uncertain effects on heart, kidneys and blood sugar, and a possible detriment to female reproduction. In more than a dozen countries, stevia, sometimes called sweet leaf, is incorporated into manufactured foods and used as a sweetener. But in the...