ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2008) — Compounds known as "HDAC inhibitors" exhibit cancer-killing activities in cultured cells. While they are currently being tested as anti-cancer agents in clinical trials, just how they execute their effects is unclear.
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Friday, April 11, 2008
Melting glacier in Chile empties a lake, global warming to blame
Recently, the melting of a glacier in southern Chile caused a glacial lake to swell, and then empty suddenly, causing a tsunami of sorts against a river. Fortunately, no one was injured. According to glacier scientist, Gino Casassa, the melting of the Colonia glacier can be blamed on rising world temperatures. The melting of the glacier filled Cachet Lake, and then bored a 5-mile tunnel through the glacier, emptying into the Baker River.Casassa said that temperatures were unusually high during the recent summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and that events like this occasionally take place during the summer. But are events like this one attributable to global warming? According to Casassa, the answer is yes, "the basic cause is global warming."
Gallery: Global Warming in Pictures
Greenimation: Wasted
We can pester you all day long about the benefits of changing your light bulbs, recycling, and countless other ways you can reduce your environmental impact. But sometimes things just make more sense coming from a cartoon. With that, we present Greenimation: a series of fun, animated shorts that take a playful stab at eco-friendly living.
In this episode: Milbert experiences a surplus of environmental disasters resulting in a lesson... that can only be learned by cartoon characters.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
GPS Trackers Find Novel Applications
Posted by Zonk on Thursday April 10, @02:05PM
from the where-did-i-put-that-eggo dept.
from the where-did-i-put-that-eggo dept.
Pickens writes "Inexpensive GPS devices like the Zoombak (which costs just $200 plus $10 a month) have becomes so prevalent that some people are using them routinely to keep tabs on their most precious possessions. Kathy Besa has a Zoombak attached to the collar of her 5-year-old beagle, Buddy. If Buddy wanders more than 20 feet from the house, she gets a text message on her phone that says, 'Buddy has left the premises.' The small size made possible by chip advances over the last two or three years is enabling many novel uses of GPS tracking. An art collector in New York uses one when he transports million-dollar pieces, a home builder is putting them on expensive appliances to track them if they disappear from construction sites, a drug company is using them after millions of dollars in inventory turned up missing, and a mobile phone company is hiding them in some cellphone boxes to catch thieves."
Wooster Follow-Up: Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Sculptures
From Wooster
The response we got after posting the inflatable bear photos last week was amazing. We couldn't be happier to follow it up with these two wonderful videos, shot and sent to us by the artist, Joshua Allen Harris.
After watching the videos, we love the project even more...
Sweet Nanotech Batteries: Nanotechnology Could Solve Lithium Battery Charging Problems
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — Nanotechnology could improve the life of the lithium batteries used in portable devices, including laptop computers, mp3 players, and mobile phones. Research to be published in the Inderscience publication International Journal of Nanomanufacturing demonstrates that carbon nanotubes can prevent such batteries from losing their charge capacity over time.
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New Guidelines Issued For Treating Resistant Hypertension
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — For the first time, the American Heart Association has issued guidelines to help patients and healthcare providers tackle resistant high blood pressure that seems to defy treatment.
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Low-carbon Living Takes Off In The US
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — Cohousing offers a low-carbon lifestyle, and developers are poised for a market that could soon burgeon in the US, according to a new study. Until now, cohousing has occupied a niche market in the US, but the paper by Dr Jo Williams at UCL (University College London) suggests the situation is changing. Cohousing not only helps to halve energy use, it offers health and social benefits for families and older people seeking secure and affordable homes.
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Just 20 Minutes Of Weekly Housework Boosts Mental Health
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — Just 20 minutes of any physical activity, including housework, in a week is enough to boost mental health, reveals a large study published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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Blockbuster announcing streaming set-top box this month?
The Hollywood Reporter is stating in no uncertain terms that Blockbuster is developing a set-top box to stream video into the home. Now the real bombshell: it should be announced "sometime this month." The device is expected to make the most of Blockbuster's access to Movielink's 6,000 strong Movie catalog just as soon as the content is migrated to Blockbuster.com (sometime before June). While delivering movies into the home electronically certainly challenges Blockbuster's brick and mortar business, really, what choice do they have in the relentless face of progress.This ain't your grandaddy's farm - urban agriculture catching on
Have you been seeing a lot of strange people in overalls and straw hats hanging around your block? Tractors parked out front of your apartment building? Banjo music at all hours of the day and night? Your neighbourhood may be part of a growing trend towards bringing agriculture back to the city.
The Toronto Star reports on a company called Toronto Sprouts that's set up a farm right in the heart of the city, growing wheat grass, alfalfa sprouts and other healthy greenness.
The company grow its product in a basement in a busy part of town, using both hydroponics and soil-based techniques, and do a brisk business selling to local juice bars and health food stores. They recently scored a coup by securing a deal with a major Canadian grocery store chain to provide sprouts to two stores, and that number is expected to grow.
Toronto Sprouts is part of a growing trend where people are going ultra-locavore by growing crops in their own backyard, regardless of where that happens to be. Cattle ranching, however, will likely remain a largely rural pursuit.
Experts Hack Power Grid in Less Than a Day
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday April 10, @01:12AM
from the quick-everyone-panic dept.
from the quick-everyone-panic dept.
bednarz writes "Cracking a power company network and gaining access that could shut down the grid is simple, a security expert told an RSA audience, and he has done so in less than a day. Ira Winkler, a penetration-testing consultant, says he and a team of other experts took a day to set up attack tools they needed then launched their attack, which paired social engineering with corrupting browsers on a power company's desktops. By the end of a full day of the attack, they had taken over several machines at the unnamed power company, giving the team the ability to hack into the control network overseeing power production and distribution."
Playing Dead Works For Young FIre Ants Under Attack
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — Pretending to be dead is an effective self-defense strategy adopted by young fire ant workers under attack from neighboring colonies. This tactic makes them four times more likely to survive aggression than older workers who fight back. As a result, these young workers are able to contribute to brood care and colony growth to ensure the survival and fitness of their queen.
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Depression Increases Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — People who have had depression are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than people who have never had depression, according to a study published in the April 8, 2008, issue of Neurology.
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Gut Reaction: Cow Stomach Holds Key To Turning Corn Into Biofuel
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — An enzyme from a microbe that lives inside a cow's stomach is the key to turning corn plants into fuel, according to Michigan State University scientists.
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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
HP Admits Selling Infected Flash-Floppy Drives
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 09, @11:01AM
from the yeah-oops-sorry-our-bad dept.
from the yeah-oops-sorry-our-bad dept.
bergkamp writes "Hewlett-Packard has been selling USB-based hybrid flash-floppy drives that were pre-infected with malware, the company said last week in a security bulletin. Dubbed "HP USB Floppy Drive Key," the device is a combination flash drive and compact floppy drive, and is designed to work with various models of HP's ProLiant Server line. HP sells two versions of the drive, one with 256MB of flash capacity, the other with 1GB of storage space. A security analyst with the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC) suspects that the infection originated at the factory, and was meant to target ProLiant servers. "I think it's naive to assume that these are not targeted attacks," said John Bambenek, who is also a researcher at the University of Illinois. Both versions of the flash-floppy drive, confirmed HP in an April 3 advisory, may come with a pair of worms, although the company offered few details. It did not, for instance, say how many of the drives were infected, where in the supply chain the infections occurred or even when they were discovered."
Climate Change Finally Impacts Important Industry
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 09, @09:41AM
from the mmmmmmm-beer dept.
from the mmmmmmm-beer dept.
Socguy writes "According to a New Zealand scientist, Jim Salinger, the price of beer in and around Australia is going to be under increasing upward pressure as reductions in malting barley yields are experienced as a side effect of our ongoing climate shift. "It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up," Mr. Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention."
The strange and endangered: Lungless frog
There is more than one peculiar aspect to the story of this endangered Read More
Pixar to Release All New Movies in 3D
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 09, @08:58AM
from the break-out-the-glasses dept.
from the break-out-the-glasses dept.
emcron writes "The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday its Pixar animation studio will commit to 3-D by releasing all of its movies in the format beginning with "Up" in May 2009. Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter made the announcement in New York at a presentation of Disney's upcoming lineup of animated movies."
Your Identity Is Worth Less Than $15
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 09, @08:12AM
from the less-than-your-fillings dept.
from the less-than-your-fillings dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "One of the more interesting tidbits in Symantec's Global Internet Threat Report (PDF, 105 pages) is the price sheet, which suggests that someone's 'full identity' is worth in the range of $1-$15. Your email password goes for $4-$30 and your bank account might fetch $10-$1000. With those prices, I wonder how often they pay more for the bank account than is actually in it? There's also an executive summary (PDF, 36 pages)."
LED Dog Tail Communicator gives Fido a voice
[Via Coolest-Gadgets]
Carbon Dioxide Removed From Smockstacks Could Be Useful In DVD And CD-ROM Manufacture
ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2008) — Carbon dioxide removed from smokestack emissions in order to slow global warming in the future could become a valuable raw material for the production of DVDs, beverage bottles and other products made from polycarbonate plastics, chemists are reporting.
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Humor Plays An Important Role In Healthcare Even When Patients Are Terminally Ill
ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2008) — Canadian researchers study use of humour in an intensive care unit and palliative care unit
Humour can play an essential role in the most serious healthcare settings, even when patients are receiving intensive or end of life care, according to research in the April issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing.
Old Subway Cars As Artificial Reef
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 09, @02:54AM
from the take-the-a-train-to-the-bottom dept.
from the take-the-a-train-to-the-bottom dept.
Pickens writes "Hundreds of retired New York City subway cars are being sunk sixteen nautical miles off Delaware's Indian River Inlet and about 80 feet underwater, continuing the transformation of a barren stretch of ocean floor into a bountiful oasis, carpeted in sea grasses, walled thick with blue mussels and sponges, and teeming with black sea bass and tautog. 'They're basically luxury condominiums for fish,' says Jeff Tinsman, artificial reef program manager for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Subway cars are roomy enough to invite certain fish, too heavy to shift easily in storms, and durable enough to avoid throwing off debris for decades. Tinsman particularly favors the newer subway cars with stainless steel on the outside to create reefs. 'We call these the DeLoreans of the deep,' he said. But success comes at a price because other states, seeing Delaware's successes, have started competing for the subway cars, which New York City provides free. 'The secret is out, I guess,' said Michael G. Zacchea, the MTA official in charge of getting rid of New York City's old subway cars."
Alligator Blood May Be Source of New Antibiotics
Posted by Zonk on Tuesday April 08, @11:16AM
from the darn-tasty-eating-too dept.
from the darn-tasty-eating-too dept.
esocid writes "Biochemists from McNeese State University have described how proteins in gator blood may provide a source of powerful new antibiotics to help fight infections associated with diabetic ulcers and severe burns. This new class of drug could also crack so-called 'superbugs' that are resistant to conventional medication. Previous studies have showed alligators have an unusually strong immune system; unlike humans, alligator immune systems can defend against microorganisms such as fungi, viruses, and bacteria without having prior exposure to them. Scientists believe that this is an evolutionary adaptation to promote quick wound healing, as alligators are often injured during fierce territorial battles."
Who knew? Study says even a small nuclear war would be devastating
D'oh!
During the Cold War, there was a lot of discussion around the potential "survivability" of a nuclear conflict. Everyone knew that if the US and USSR threw all their nukes at each other, there wouldn't be much left but charcoal and cockroaches, but there was an underlying assumption that a "limited" nuclear war wouldn't be too much of a problem unless you happened to be caught in the middle of it.
Now a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that even a regional nuclear exchange would have devastating effects on the earth's atmosphere and everything that lives in it. According to the researchers, even a few dozen blown-up cities would send enought soot into the air to seriously damage the ozone layer, sending incidences of skin cancer and genetic mutation skyrocketing, as well as destroying crops and eco-systems around the world.
Could it happen? The most likely scenario would be a war between long-time enemies Pakistan and India, both of which are nuclear armed. However, as nations like North Korea and Iran threaten to join the nuke club, we're going to have to work harder to keep the mushroom clouds off the horizon.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Map Exposes Carbon Dioxide Hotspots In The U.S.
Wolfgang Gruener
April 8, 2008 10:41
West Lafayette (IN) - Now we can point fingers at certain
Senate to consider renewable energy tax credits
Last week, Sens. Maria Cantwell and John Ensign introduced the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 as an amendment to H.R. 3221, the New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security and Consumer Protection Act.
The CETS Act, at a cost of around $6 billion, would extend the Production Tax Credit for one year. The credit reduces the tax liability for companies that generate power from renewable sources such as hydropower, wind, biomass, etc. It also would extend for eight years a tax credit for investment in solar energy and credits for energy efficient homes, commercial building and appliances.
Unfortunately, the amendment is facing some hurdles.
The $6 billion cost of the amendment doesn't have an offset; that is, it doesn't raise taxes or decrease spending someplace else to pay for the bill's costs. While this isn't so much an issue in the Senate, it will be in the House where Democrats have been fairly insistent on following PAYGO rules.
PAYGO, or pay-as-you-go, is pretty much what it sounds like. When the Congress convened in January 2007, one of the first things the House did was pass H. Res. 6. The House's PAYGO rule requires that legislation affecting spending or revenues (the stuff we take in via taxes) must not increase the deficit (or reduce the surplus) in the current or following five fiscal years.
Of course, like so many other rules, PAYGO can be broken. The House's rule isn't self-enforcing; a member must raise a point of order against a bill. And even that can be gotten around by some parliamentary procedures (if the nerd within is yearning to know the exact details, I invite to you read the Congressional Research Service's report).
University of Texas fires up petawatt laser, HERCULES weeps
Caffeine Prevents Multiple Sclerosis-like Disease In Mice
ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — Mice given caffeine equivalent to a human drinking six to eight cups of coffee a day were protected from developing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the animal model for the human disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS), according to researchers at Cornell University.
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Exactly How Much Housework Does A Husband Create?
ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — Having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women, according to a University of Michigan study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. families. For men, the picture is very different: A wife saves men from about an hour of housework a week.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Astronomers Locate Solar System Very Similar To Our Own
Posted by Zonk on Tuesday April 08, @05:26AM
from the i-think-it-is-awfully-pretty-out-there dept.
from the i-think-it-is-awfully-pretty-out-there dept.
Smivs writes "Astronomers from St Andrews University in the UK have discovered a planetary system which looks much like our own. Dr Martin Dominik told BBC news: 'We found a system with two planets that take the roles of Jupiter and Saturn in our Solar System. These two planets have a similar mass ratio and similar orbital radius and a similar orbital period. The newfound planetary system, which orbits the star OGLE-2006-BLG-109L, is more compact than our own and is about five thousand light-years away. The OGLE planets were found using a technique called gravitational micro-lensing, in which light from the faraway planets is bent and magnified by the gravity of a foreground object, in this case a another star.'"
Birds have to scream to be heard over traffic noise
Here's a sad bit of news: urban noise pollution is not only a nuisance to humans, it's now threatening the lives and wellbeing of city birds.New Scientist reported that background noise (honking, engine revving, construction noise) can "mask both the sounds of approaching predators and the alarm calls that warn of danger," say many scientists who study bird life. They can also affect the success of reproduction by drowning out the calls that male birds make to females.
Even more unsettling? Some birds have had to adapt their tweets in order to be heard over the din. NS claims that many city birds now have higher-pitched calls than their forest friends, which could eventually mean the demise of the species. If city birds get used to the higher frequencies of each others' calls, they could learn to ignore or not be able to identify the calls of those who dwell in the forest, leading to a split in the species.
It's an example of survival of the fittest: and - big surprise - in this case, the fittest are humans and our insatiable need to develop and expand our world, even if it means driving out those species who have been here long before us.
The DIY Tank
Posted by samzenpus on Monday April 07, @01:29PM
from the but-how-much-is-the-insurance dept.
from the but-how-much-is-the-insurance dept.
Will Foster, a Kettering University student, has built his own half sized Panzer tank. It took Will 2 years and around $10,000 to build his mini-tank and he says the process has been "a lot of trial and error...I'd buy a $200 part that didn't work, then go to a $300 part that didn't work before finding a $50 part that did." The tank is about as big as a small car, and can reach speeds of around 20 mph with its three-cylinder diesel engine. It runs on treads, has a cannon powered by compressed air from a scuba tank and parks wherever the hell it wants.
The DIY Tank
Posted by samzenpus on Monday April 07, @01:29PM
from the but-how-much-is-the-insurance dept.
from the but-how-much-is-the-insurance dept.
Will Foster, a Kettering University student, has built his own half sized Panzer tank. It took Will 2 years and around $10,000 to build his mini-tank and he says the process has been "a lot of trial and error...I'd buy a $200 part that didn't work, then go to a $300 part that didn't work before finding a $50 part that did." The tank is about as big as a small car, and can reach speeds of around 20 mph with its three-cylinder diesel engine. It runs on treads, has a cannon powered by compressed air from a scuba tank and parks wherever the hell it wants.
CERN creates a new super-fast internet, invites tons of people to a deathmatch
New Botnet Dwarfs Storm
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 07, @10:30AM
from the that's-a-lotta-zombies dept.
from the that's-a-lotta-zombies dept.
ancientribe writes "Storm is no longer the world's largest botnet: Researchers at Damballa have discovered Kraken, a botnet of 400,000 zombies — twice the size of Storm. But even more disturbing is that it has infected machines at 50 of the Fortune 500, and is undetectable in over 80 percent of machines running antivirus software. Kraken appears to be evading detection by a combination of clever obfuscation techniques that hinder its detection and analysis by researchers."
Computer Games Make Players Less Violent
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 07, @08:45AM
from the obviously-never-been-ganked-in-the-arathi-highlands dept.
from the obviously-never-been-ganked-in-the-arathi-highlands dept.
Stony Stevenson writes "A new study of computer gamers has found that a session in front of World of Warcraft can make players less stressed and more calm. The study questioned 292 male and female online gamers aged between 12 and 83 about anger and stress. They then played the game for two hours and were retested. "There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger, but this very much depended on personality type," said team leader Jane Barnett from Middlesex University."
Instant Messaging For Introverts
Posted by kdawson on Monday April 07, @08:02AM
from the jung-nailed-it-before-meyers-and-briggs dept.
from the jung-nailed-it-before-meyers-and-briggs dept.
adamengst tips an article up on TidBITS that explores the persistent reluctance of many nerds to embrace fully new communications media such as IM and Twitter. In this thoughtful article Joe Kissell explores, from the inside, the mind of the introvert and how this personality style often struggles with new "always-on" media. The result is a sometimes exasperated incomprehension on the part of the more extroverted. Well worth a read.
Researchers crafting hybrid material to hasten computing processes
There's been no shortage of fantasmical ideas to speed up our everyday computers, but a team of researchers from a variety of universities are working to do just that not by encouraging gamers to slap NOS stickers on their cases, but by combining magnetic and semiconductor components. Respectively, each of the aforesaid parts handle memory and logic functions, but this team is purporting that processes could be completed quicker and in a more power efficient manner if a hybrid material -- which combined both functions -- were created. The team has already received a $6.5 million grant from the Department of Defense with the overriding goal being to "explore new ways to integrate magnetism and magnetic materials with emerging electronic materials such as organic semiconductors," and while it's suggested that these so-called hybrid devices would be fairly inexpensive to produce in the future, it's too early to determine how close we are to seeing any breakthroughs slip out to consumerland.[Via Gearlog, image courtesy of University of Missouri]
Meteorites May Have Delivered Seeds of Life on Earth
Posted by Zonk on Sunday April 06, @11:33PM
from the thanks-for-the-lift dept.
from the thanks-for-the-lift dept.
esocid writes "At the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, scientists presented evidence today that desert heat, a little water, and meteorite impacts may have been enough to cook up one of the first prerequisites for life The result of that brew could be the dominance of "left-handed" amino acids, the building blocks of life on this planet. Chains of amino acids make up the protein found in people, plants, and all other forms of life on Earth. There are two orientations of amino acids, left and right, which mirror each other in the same way your hands do. These amino acids "seeds" formed in interstellar space, possibly on asteroids as they careened through space. At the outset, they have equal amounts of left and right-handed amino acids. But as these rocks soar past neutron stars, their light rays trigger the selective destruction of one form of amino acid."
Sweat Ducts May Act As Antenna For Lie Detection
Posted by Zonk on Monday April 07, @03:34AM
from the smells-fishy-to-me dept.
from the smells-fishy-to-me dept.
Reservoir Hill writes "Researchers have discovered that human skin may contain millions of tiny "antennas" in the form of microscopic sweat ducts that may reveal a person's physical and emotional state. This discovery might eventually result in lie detectors that operate at a distance. In experiments, the team beamed electromagnetic waves with a frequency range of about 100 gigahertz at the hands of test subjects and measured the frequency of the electromagnetic waves reflecting off the subjects' skin. Initially, the experiments were carried out in contact with the subjects' hands, but even at a distance of 22 cm, researchers found a strong correlation between subjects' blood pressure and pulse rate, and the frequency response of their skin."
Yahoo responds to Microsoft ultimatum: more money please
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