Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Full 2 hr Movie

Here is a scary movie for Halloween. You do have to log in to watch it and I think there are some commercials.

True Spooky: Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA?

… Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and “frisk” people at distance.

The way terahertz waves are absorbed and emitted can also be used to determine the chemical composition of a material. And even though they don’t travel far inside the body, there is great hope that the waves can be used to spot tumours near the surface of the skin.

With all that potential, it’s no wonder that research on terahertz waves has exploded in the last ten years or so.

But what of the health effects of terahertz waves? At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss any notion that they can be damaging. Terahertz photons are not energetic enough to break chemical bonds or ionise atoms or molecules, the chief reasons why higher energy photons such as x-rays and UV rays are so bad for us. But could there be another mechanism at work?

The evidence that terahertz radiation damages biological systems is mixed. “Some studies reported significant genetic damage while others, although similar, showed none,” say Boian Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a few buddies. Now these guys think they know why.

Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they’ve found is remarkable. They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. That’s a jaw dropping conclusion.

And it also explains why the evidence has been so hard to garner. Ordinary resonant effects are not powerful enough to do do this kind of damage but nonlinear resonances can. These nonlinear instabilities are much less likely to form which explains why the character of THz genotoxic

effects are probabilistic rather than deterministic, say the team.

This should set the cat among the pigeons. Of course, terahertz waves are a natural part of environment, just like visible and infrared light. But a new generation of cameras are set to appear that not only record terahertz waves but also bombard us with them. And if our exposure is set to increase, the question that urgently needs answering is what level of terahertz exposure is safe.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0910.5294: DNA Breathing Dynamics in the Presence of a Terahertz Field

via Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA.

True Spooky: Mercury is good for you.

Other than the skin rashes and dermatitis; mood swings; memory loss; mental disturbances; and muscle weakness, that is…

Are you getting what you signed up for from Comcast?

Yesterday I was given a low price of $34/mo for the 16MB Comcast “Blast Package” for 9 months, then $52/mo after that… by a rep at a Comcast  service center.  I wrote it down and confirmed what I was getting as I was standing at the counter. Today they hooked it up. I had 11 MB.

I called Comcast to figure out what was wrong, and my speed cut back as I was talking to the rep to 6 MB/sec.  The rep claimed not to have done anything, but for a good 10 minutes before I called I was getting 11 to 12 MB download speeds, after calling, I had only 5 MB. After I hung up, I was getting only 3 to 5 MB/sec.  I thought perhaps my cell phone was causing interference slowing down my internet connection…

Keep in mind that these tests vary over time depending on network traffic to the particular server you are testing against. But the change in speed happened to the same server.

Test your speed here:

• http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1
• http://www.speedtest.net/
• http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
• http://www.bandwidthplace.com/

The rep on the phone told me I  signed up for the 6 MB/sec package. Bull feathers. I have the paper right in front of me signed by “BBI” and it says 16MB. How was I getting 11 MB/sec with a 6MB/sec package?

The phone rep claims that I have to go in in person to get what I signed up for. Yes, I will. And if I don’t get what I was promised, I will cancel my service.

Now it is Friday at 5 PM and they are closed. Check your speed.
PS. Happy Halloween! No more posts till Sunday night or so.

PPS. After posting this, my speed went up to 8MB/sec.  What the heck? Are these tests accurate?