Scientists Make Water Run Uphill

Toss water on a hot pan and it sizzles and evaporates. Toss water on a really hot pan, and the water beads up and starts roaming around. Now, turn your hot pan into a hot small staircase and watch the water climb the stairs. Researchers did just that, taking an everyday sighting in the kitchen to a new level in the lab.

When scientists heated a piece of brass with sawtooth ridges — a thing that looks like a ratchet — water drops traveled quickly, and in one direction: up.

With the newfound trick, drops could potentially pump themselves, using heat that's already there. "Pumps that don't use moving parts are simpler to make, cheaper and live longer," Linke pointed out. If the droplet pumps prove strong enough, Linke said they could be cooling computers in about six years. ...Read more and watch movie here

Kimmie Meissner Wins World Gold

Add Bel Air, Maryland's Kimmie Meissner to the list of teenage American champions. The 16-year-old Meissner pulled off one of the biggest upsets in World Figure Skating Championships history with the performance of her life Saturday. She joined Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski among U.S. teens who won a world crown, and Sarah Hughes, of course, was the 2002 Olympic champion at age 16.

"I am so happy with myself; it's an awesome feeling," said Meissner, who was sixth last month in Turin. "I really wanted to do my best at the last competition of the season — smooth sailing right through my program."

While Kimmie soared, Sasha Cohen hit rough ice from the beginning, adding to a distressing trend for the U.S. champion. Another free skate with an international gold medal in reach, and another flop for Cohen. "It's frustrating and disappointing," said Cohen, who landed only two clean jumps and fell on her final one, a salchow. She also was credited for a jump combination she never completed. "But I know I gave it my best effort. "A few years ago, I used to cry, but I used up all my tears. I am disappointed."

Meissner was as sensational as Cohen was weak. She landed seven triple jumps, including two triple-triple combinations — the only ones of the day — just a few minutes after Cohen self-destructed. Even before Meissner was done with her final spin, she was smiling widely, knowing she couldn't have done any better. She lingered on the ice, her arms raised to the rafters, where she was certain her mother was sitting "because she can't stand to be too close to the ice."

Meissner carried an American flag around the ice after receiving her medal. She stood at attention on the top of the podium and sang the "Star Spangled Banner," the smile never fading. Standing on the podium and watching the flag, it was such a proud moment for me." ...Read more here

Washington DC Baseball Stadium

Designs for a 41,000-seat ballpark for the Washington Nationals were unveiled Tuesday by District of Columbia officials, a glass-and-steel structure clad in pale stone chosen to complement the world famous skyline of the nation's capital. "The materials that we're using are those that in the monumental Washington, people see all the time," said architect Marshall E. Purnell, who also helped design the Verizon Center and the Washington Convention Center along with HOK Sport.

The ballpark's dimensions are 332 feet down the left-field line, 377 to left-center, 409 to center, 370 to right-center and 335 down the right-field line. The outfield fence will be 8 feet from left to the deepest part of the park, just left of center, and 12 feet high the rest of the way. An out-of-town scoreboard will be built into the right-field fence. The upper deck will extend almost to the fence. "We think there will be a lot of upper-deck home runs," architect Joe Spear said.

The final goal of the ballpark designers, of course, is the inside of the stadium -- the field, the seats and the ballpark experience. From this angle, you can see several important things. One is the round building beyond center field, which is a restaurant that can remain open all year, even on non-game days. Leading to it between the parking garages is a 200-foot by 250-foot plaza that fans access by walking down Half Street to the north of the stadium, from the Navy Yard Metro Station. Next to the round restaurant, on the left, is an open space to be used as a fan picnic or kids' area. Designers said they are trying to figure out a way to put some air under the stands so that they can shake and vibrate like they did at RFK last season and during all those memorable Redskins' games of days past.

There are about 68 luxury suites and 10 more party suites. (The glass at the top of the stadium behind home plate is the press box -- much higher up than at most stadiums.) Other interesting touches include lights that are attached to the stadium roof, rather than extended higher on light poles. This is to minimize the glare on the neighborhood. Also, the right field stands will be slightly lower than the main part of the bowl -- a trick that can be done because the right field area has no luxury suites that take up more space.

A separate restaurant and bar overlooking the outfield will include 10-thousand square feet of space. A six-thousand square foot conference center and a 10-thousand square foot picnic area will be available for group sales patrons. There will be a ten-thousand square foot youth training area and a two-thousand square foot arcade. Total of 28-thousand square feet of concession stands will provide refreshments to fans during events. Retail and novelty outlets will offer merchandise from 77-hundred square feet of space.

Planners hope the ballpark will open for the 2008 season, a schedule that may be overly ambitious.

Maria Wins Title at Indian Wells

Third-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova defeated fourth-seeded compatriot Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-2 to win the WTA Indian Wells title. Sharapova, the glamour girl who shot to prominence with her precocious Wimbleton victory in 2004, captured her first tournament title since Birmingham last June.

Blustery winds on stadium court contributed to a stream of errors from both players. Sharapova, who will move up a spot to No. 5 in the world thanks to the victory, said she tried mostly just to keep the ball in court and await her chances to attack.

Dementieva, the world No. 8 who engineered a stunning comeback to beat top-seeded Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne in the semi-finals, won the first two games of the second set, but Sharapova squelched any thought of another remarkable rally by winning the next six games to lift the trophy.

Sharapova gave a sterling 6-3, 6-3 semi-final performance against Martina Hingis to reach the final against Dementieva, wearing her opponent down in long rallies, attacking the Swiss player's second serves and bullying her from the forehand side.

With her 19th birthday still a month away, Sharapova now boasts 11 WTA titles.

Dan Brown Defends "Da Vinci Code"

Dan Brown in a London courtroom acknowledged "reworking" passages from an earlier book for his best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code," but he firmly rejected charges that he ripped off key ideas for his conspiracy thriller. The author spent a third day defending his work against a copyright infringement suit brought by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors of a 1982 nonfiction book, "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail."

The suit is not against Brown, but his publisher Random House, which also published "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail." Random House denies the claims, and Brown says the assertion that he copied is "completely fanciful." "I'm not crazy about the word 'copied,'" Brown testified. "Copying implies it is identical. It's not identical." Brown said "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" was "one of the books in the mix" when he and his wife, Blythe Brown, were researching the novel.He acknowledged "reworking" passages from the earlier book. "That's how you incorporate research into a novel," Brown said.

Both books explore theories — dismissed by theologians — that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, the couple had a child and the bloodline survives. The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Jonathan Rayner James, spent the morning citing passages from "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" that he said had near equivalents in "The Da Vinci Code." "I'm sorry, again, I have to disagree," said Brown, who appeared frustrated at the attorney's painstaking and sometimes repetitive questioning. "These are points of history that were available in a lot of other books we were using."

If Baigent and Leigh succeed in securing an injunction to bar the use of their material, they could hold up the scheduled May 19 film release of "The Da Vinci Code," starring Tom Hanks.

"The Da Vinci Code" has sold more than 40 million copies since its release three years ago, and has turned Brown, 41, into a literary superstar. Brown testified Tuesday that he was certain he and his wife, who conducts much of his research, had read "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" only after he had submitted his synopsis for the novel that would become "The Da Vinci Code" to his agent in January 2001. "I think it would be very unlikely that Blythe would be reading it without my knowledge," Brown said. "I'm very doubtful that she would buy it and I wouldn't know."

Brown has acknowledged that they read "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" while researching "The Da Vinci Code," but said they also used 38 other books and hundreds of documents, and that the British authors' book was not crucial to their work. But in cross-examination and his 69-page witness statement, he dropped a few handy hints on how to become a successful author of code-based thrillers.

You have to have a mathematically minded father, who, instead of leaving your childhood Christmas presents under the tree, makes you solve puzzles and anagrams to find them. You need a wife sufficiently enthused to undertake mountains of research, annotate her findings and put them on your computer. Blythe Brown, who is not in court, is that woman.

Then you have to find the right location. Brown once considered setting a thriller in Canada but found Nova Scotia lacking in mystery. He had been far more enthused, during a holiday in Rome, by a tour of the Vatican and by finding a secret exit through which a pope could escape from his enemies. The secrets of the Eternal City inspired his next novel Angels and and Demons. “Location is a character. After that trip I decided the Vatican would make a great character, ” Brown said.

After that, you have to have the Big Idea. In "The Da Vinci Code" , Brown said, that was the Sacred Feminine, or goddess worship, a notion he claims he first came across in a book called The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, and not "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" . Having had the Big Idea, Brown began to construct a framework for a plot. “The ideas are the easy part; ideas are everywhere. The hard part is getting the ideas to work as a novel,” he said. He sent a synopsis to his agent and suggested two more thrillers on the same theme, provisionally called The Botticelli Code and The Nostradamus Code.

Unwilling to give a precise order in which he consulted his sources, Brown explained that an author was likely to refer backwards and forwards between sources. Sometimes material emerged which set the plot in a new direction. Brown said that one of the themes of DVC was “secret history”, those parts of the past lost or twisted by historical revision or subversion. “I like to write in grey areas; I don’t like the idea of black and white, right and wrong.”

At first he had been unwilling to introduce the idea of Jesus’s bloodline into "The Da Vinci Code" because he found it “too incredible and too inaccessible”. But his wife persuaded him to adopt the theme, which he had read about in many sources before "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" . His statement added: “I remain astounded by the claimants’ choice to file this plagiarism suit. For them to suggest . . . that I have ‘hijacked and exploited’ their work is simply untrue.”

American Idol Dozen

American Idol is now down to the final 12, so it is serious from here on. It is also time to pick who I think the winner will be. The guys were hyped early as being the best this season and that the eventual winner would be a guy. Seems reasonable since the past two winners were girls and only one guy ever won.

There has never been a "white" guy(OK we all know Clay really won and not Rueben) win American Idol. So the best bet this year is either Chris Daughtry or Ace Young. Both are excellent and I could see either winning.

But, I think a girl will win again this year. And I think it could be Kellie Pickler, but I am picking Katherine McPhee to be the last singer standing. Will watch and see it unfold.

Intel Will Have Wi-Max This Year

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp. said on Tuesday it has moved up to this year its expected roll-out of cards that will let computers access the Internet using Wi-Max, a new long-range, high-speed wireless technology.

Wi-Max is seen by many in the field as a successor to Wi-Fi, which provides fast wireless Internet connections in homes and businesses but has a limited range of a few dozen yards.

Wi-Max has a much longer range, varying from a couple of miles in an urban area to 10 miles or more in open country.

Intel, which had previously said it expected to have Wi-Max products in 2007, now plans to have Wi-Max cards for laptops in the second half of this year, Sean Maloney, vice president of Intel's mobility group, told a company conference.

West Wing Reunion

A flock of alumni of NBC's "The West Wing" will return to reprise their roles one last time for the White House drama's final episodes, the network announced Tuesday. Rob Lowe will come back as Sam Seaborn, the senior political official he played from 1999-2003. Lowe was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in 2001.

Mary-Louise Parker, who now stars on Showtime's "Weeds," will return as women's-rights advocate Amy Gardner, who in years past has had an on-again-off-again romance with presidential adviser Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford). Also bringing back their characters: Anna Deavere Smith, Emily Proctor, Marlee Matlin, Gary Cole, Tim Matheson, Timothy Busfield and Annabeth Gish.

"The West Wing," starring Martin Sheen as President Jeb Bartlet, has five episodes remaining before going off the air for good after seven seasons. The program airs Sundays (8 p.m. EST). This year's story line has featured a presidential race between candidates played by Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits. NBC promises that the election will be decided before the series disappears.

The show's alumni will appear on one or more of the final episodes, but not necessarily the finale, which will air May 14. Aaron Sorkin, who created the show in 1999 and served as executive producer until 2003, will not be returning to aid in the finale, NBC said.