Jim Seaman – web log

For the last couple of years I’ve taken part in a study of bird populations. This count takes place across the US and Canada in February of each year and is performed by members of the general public. It’s sponsored by the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and this year will be taking place on February 17-20. In last year’s count, over 50,000 checklists were submitted, over 600 species seen, and more than 6 million individual birds counted. Why count the birds?
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Volunteer computing is a little known area that has developed on the Internet over the last 8 to 10 years. It is a situation in which large numbers of computers (their use volunteered by members of the general public) provide computing and storage resources to scientific studies. Volunteer computing is being used in high-energy physics, molecular biology, medicine, astrophysics, climate study, and other areas. A couple of the early volunteer computing projects were the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Number Search and SETI@home (analysing radio signals for signs of extra terrestrial life).

I started taking part in the SETI@home project back in 1999. I recently decided to seek them out once more and load the client program on my current computer. I found that things have changed!
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I usually stay away from politics here on my blog but the recent decisions by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran have gotten my attention. This man and his plans for the Iranian nuclear program are a threat to World peace and stability.
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Well, not really a review but rather my totally unqualified opinions. Brokeback Mountain is definitely worth seeing. It will have plenty of Oscar nominations. No idea if it will actually win any, but its a sure thing for several nominations.
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