schwit1 sends this news from Businesweek: “After 2,000 years, a long-lost secret behind the creation of one of the world’s most durable man-made creations ever — Roman concrete — has finally been discovered by an international team of scientists, and it may have a significant impact on how we build cities of the future. Researchers have analyzed 11 harbors in the Mediterranean basin where, in many cases, 2,000-year-old (and sometimes older) headwaters constructed out of Roman concrete stand perfectly intact despite constant pounding by the sea. The most common blend of modern concrete, known as Portland cement, a formulation in use for nearly 200 years, can’t come close to matching that track record. In seawater, it has a service life of less than 50 years. After that, it begins to erode. The secret to Roman concrete lies in its unique mineral formulation and production technique. As the researchers explain in a press release outlining their findings, ‘The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock. For underwater structures, lime and volcanic ash were mixed to form mortar, and this mortar and volcanic tuff were packed into wooden forms. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated — incorporating water molecules into its structure — and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more here:
Ancient Roman Concrete Is About To Revolutionize Modern Architecture
Watch then-Senator Joe Biden from 2006 directly refute each point made by his now-boss, President Barack Obama, about the NSA surveillance program at a news conference last week. Dave Maass and Trevor Timm at the Electronic Frontier Foundation write : After a leaked FISA court document revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) is vacuuming up private data on millions of innocent Americans by collecting all the phone records of Verizon customers, President Obama responded by saying “let’s have a debate” about the scope of US surveillance powers. At EFF, we couldn’t agree more. It turns out, President Obama’s most formative debate partner over the invasiveness of NSA domestic surveillance could his Vice President Joe Biden. Back in 2006, when the NSA surveillance program was first revealed by the New York Times , then-Senator Biden was one of the program’s most articulate critics . As the FISA court order shows, the scope of NSA surveillance program has not changed much since 2006, except for the occupant in the White House. Watch this video , as Senator Biden from 2006 directly refutes each point President Obama made about the NSA surveillance program at his news conference last week. 
If you’ve got a powerful desktop, it probably sounds like a jet engine. You could opt for watercooling, but if you stick with fans you’re out of luck. They’re just loud. Until you bolt on some active noise canceling . Read more… 
Sharing a link from Dropbox just got a little easier and faster. Now, when you right-click to share, you’ll see a “Share Dropbox Link” that will generate and automatically save said link to your clipboard. Neat. [ Dropbox ] Read more… 
After you might have read about the new release here , finally there it is! The next MediaPortal 2 alpha release – dubbed Alpha 2 – is out the door. Although progress since the winter-release has been immense, please be aware that this is still an alpha release and therefor not meant to be used on a productive system. Make sure that you read the instructions at the end of this news regarding installation, upgrade and extension compatibility. Summary of changes Server as a Service (# 3823 ): see MP2 Updates thread Improvements of share importer (# 4402 ), media shares are automatically imported once per day Configuration of Server settings from within the client (# 4283 ): Defining the server’s Dokan drive Defining the credentials the server uses to access network shares Installer and configuration improvements Simplified access to installation log files by providing a batch file (# 4329 ) Automatic download and install of LAV Filters during installation by offbyone LAV filters are preferred codecs (# 4364 ) New and improved plugins: New shutdown menu (# 3998 ) Weather plugin improvements by Valk: improved first run experience and a new feature to suggest location OnlineVideos plugin is included in this release News plugins includes new default news feeds per country Experimental 3D support (GUI / Video rendering of SBS/TAB videos, press F12 to toggle modes) ( 3D Video Support for MP2 ) The full change log is available here: MediaPortal 2 Alpha 2 change log Screenshots Installation Before installing MediaPortal 2, you need to make sure all requirements are installed. Then extract the downloaded .zip archive and simply run the .msi installer file. For screenshots refer to our installation wiki . Upgrade notes If you had an earlier version of MP2 installed you might not see your media items inside the libraries. The metadata for the media items have been extended (like the added geographic location support for images). Remove your existing share, then add a new one for the same location. Local cached online data will be kept (like covers and backdrops). Feedback & Support Discuss this release in the official release thread MediaPortal 2 Alpha2 If you are looking for further information please check out MediaPortal 2 wiki first. We are heavily working to improve it. If you don’t find an answer there create a new thread in MediaPortal 2 forums . If you found a bug, please check Mantis & bug report forums first. If it has not been reported already, create a new thread. Download If you would like to support MediaPortal, we would be happy to receive a small donation ! The Team wishes you a lot of fun with this new release! .::. Download – MediaPortal 2.0 Alpha 2 .::. .::. Post a Comment .::.