Short update

As some of you may have noticed, there have been no tech posts since Thursday. So, time for an update on what has been keeping me busy:

- One journal paper finally back. A week or so of editing (adding a few simulations and such) should get it to the point of being publishable as a survey paper. The rule of thumb is that two journal papers equal one PhD (in my department), so getting that accepted somewhere is a good chunk of the way to completing my research

- Two more papers currently in review, probably for short papers in a couple of journals.

- One conference paper almost (as of today) completed. First pass editing done and two more co-authors have yet to have a look at it. The conference deadline is soon, so I'm hoping to have the paper into the submission process by week's end. Interestingly enough, as of today, they conference paper is already out of date because I've since improved the method(but have not tested the improvements in the lab)

- On the queue: a second conference paper (data has been collected) which will be written over the next two days. No conference for that one yet, but it will be ready for the next one that comes up.

- I've been bouncing in and out of the lab over the past few weeks, collecting gigabytes of image data to process. So far, the bugs have been worked out of the first part of the method, and the limitations have been identified theoretically and experimentally. Today's work finished the method and one more data collection set should wrap it up sufficiently for me to move on to the next stage.

- In my most recent meeting with my supervisor, we established that if the methods I'm developing can be verified experimentally rather than in simulation, then the simulator can be dropped from the thesis. Looks like I'm back on track to finishing in the summer, if the current rate of development continues.

This was intended to go up on Friday...

Source: National Geographic Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, may have all the components necessary to create some form of life say astronomers. The planet's core is believed to have been hot during it's early development, possibly hot enough to create the material components of life, particularly nitrogen. Combine this with water and a core still hot enough to create geysers of steam and the moon features the bet chance of being a place to find extraterrestrial life, albeit albeit fairly primitive.

Source: PhysOrg A prominent scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem believes that remains claimed in James Cameron's documentary to be of Mary Magdalene are actually the remains of two women. He says that the script was written by two different hands, one part stating that the occupant was a woman named Mary while the second, possibly later, inscription names the occupant as a woman named Martha. He believes that the remain of Martha were added later so that the ossuary, at one point, contained the remains of both women.

Source: ABC News Micromanagers beware, nagging may make it less likely that what you want done will be accomplished. Psychologists have published a study indicating that nagging will encourage the other person to do the opposite of what the nagger wants. The impetus of the research was Psychologist Tanya Chartrand's frustration that her husband had a tendency to do the opposite of what she wanted. He, being a psychologist as well, joined with her into researching the problem. They claim that their study shows that attempts by another person to exert control over an individual results in the one being controlled rebelling against that control. They admit, however, that the results are not conclusive. Her personal response to the research was that, given what they have learned, her husband should be in a better position to "suppress his reactant tendencies" and do what he is told. He sees it as an automatic response to a controlling spouse so it not convinced that it is possible to suppress those tendencies. It appears that they still have issues to work through.

Source: Globe and Mail The RIAA is continuing a crackdown on illegal downloads. In the latest report, 50 Ohio students have been served an RIAA legal notice, using Ohio University as the intermediary, to settle out of court for $3,000 in damages or face a law suit that could cost them $750 per recording that it can be proven they pirated. They have 20 days to respond to the letter before the cases go to court. The RIAA has sued more than 18,000 people since 2003 and intends to send more than 400 letters each month as part of an accelerated program to stop music pirating. More than 13 universities have been contacted and ordered to forward the notices to students they claim are guilty of pirating. Looks like the RIAA has found a cash cow they can milk by acting as police, judge and jury. Says one Globe reader in the comments section: " Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs when a person either obtains money, property or services from another through coercion or intimidation or threatens one with physical harm unless they are paid money or property." While piracy is inherently wrong (not to mention illegal), what the RIAA is doing stinks to high heavens.

Source: Globe and Mail As of March 14th, Revenue Canada's electronic tax system was back in action and processing the backlog of tax returns.