ScienceDaily (July 25, 2008) — UC Irvine researchers have found a molecular link between circadian rhythms -- our own body clock -- and metabolism. The discovery reveals new possibilities for the treatment of diabetes, obesity and other related diseases.
Read More
Friday, July 25, 2008
Science: Apollo 14 Moonwalker Claims Aliens Exist
Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday July 24, @12:48PM
from the truth-is-out-there dept.
from the truth-is-out-there dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Former NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell — a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission — has stunningly claimed aliens exist. And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions — but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades. Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'"
- Read More...
- 1142 comments
- science.slashdot.org
News: Robocars As the Best Way Geeks Can Save the Planet
Posted by timothy on Thursday July 24, @06:28PM
from the at-least-the-parts-we-can-drive-on dept.
from the at-least-the-parts-we-can-drive-on dept.
Brad Templeton writes "I (whom you may know as EFF Chairman, founder of early dot-com Clari.Net and rec.humor.funny) have just released a new series of futurist essays on the amazing future of robot cars, coming to us thanks to the DARPA Grand Challenges. The computer driver is just the beginning — the essays detail how robocars can enable the cheap electric car, save millions of lives and trillions of dollars, and are the most compelling thing computer geeks can work on to save the planet. Because robocars can refuel, park and deliver themselves, and not simply be chauffeurs, they end up changing not just cars but cities, industries, energy, and — by removing dependence on foreign oil — even wars. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords." (More below.)
- Read 867 More Bytes...
- 328 comments
- news.slashdot.org
News: Scientists Find Trigger For Northern Lights
Posted by timothy on Friday July 25, @03:22AM
from the when-aliens-are-tickled dept.
from the when-aliens-are-tickled dept.
daftna writes "The New York Times (registration required) is reporting that NASA researchers 'have identified the trigger for the colorful electrical storms in the polar regions ... Scientists knew two events that occur in the tail of the magnetic field during substorms, but did not know which event acted as the trigger for the auroras.'"
- Read More...
- 60 comments
- news.slashdot.org
Networks of carbon nanotubes find use in flexible displays
Carbon nanotubes may very well kill you (okay, so that's very much a stretch), but you'll have a hard time convincing the dutiful scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to stop their promising research. Put simply (or as simply as possible), said researchers have discovered that "networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes printed onto bendable plastic perform well as semiconductors in integrated circuits." So well, in fact, that the nanotube networks could one day "replace organic semiconductors in applications such as flexible displays." Granted, there is still much to do before these networks are ready for product integration, but you can bet these folks aren't hitting the brakes after coming this far.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Fujifilm, Nintendo bring photo printing service to Japanese Wiis
Not that the Big N hasn't snubbed the vast majority of the world before with these channel releases, but folks holed up everywhere save for Japan have yet another one they can only look longingly at from afar. Thanks to a new partnership between Nintendo and Fujifilm, the Wii Digicam Print Channel is immediately available for Japanese Wii consoles to access, which essentially gives owners the ability to upload images from SD cards and receive customized prints, photo books, business cards, etc. in the mail. We're not [Via DigitalCameraInfo]
Want A Reason To Love Your Lower Belly Fat? It's Rich In Stem Cells
ScienceDaily (July 24, 2008) — Fat removed from the lower abdomen and inner thigh through liposuction was found to be an excellent source of stem cells, with higher stem cell concentrations than other areas of the body, reports a Brazilian-based study in August's Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). This is the first study of its kind to examine whether fat tissues from different areas of the body vary in stem cell concentration.
Read More
Read More
Chinese Earthquake Provides Lessons For Future
I know this is not the kind of thing that Dad's folks do but you never know.
ScienceDaily (July 24, 2008) — The May 12 Sichuan earthquake in China was unexpectedly large. Analysis of the area, however, now shows that topographic characteristics of the highly mountainous area identified the mountain range as active and could have pointed to the earthquake hazard. Topographic analysis can help evaluate other, similar fault areas for seismic risk, according to geologists from Penn State and Arizona State University.
Read More
ScienceDaily (July 24, 2008) — The May 12 Sichuan earthquake in China was unexpectedly large. Analysis of the area, however, now shows that topographic characteristics of the highly mountainous area identified the mountain range as active and could have pointed to the earthquake hazard. Topographic analysis can help evaluate other, similar fault areas for seismic risk, according to geologists from Penn State and Arizona State University.
Read More
The Death of Nearly All Software Patents?
Posted by kdawson on Thursday July 24, @11:25AM
from the we-can-only-hope dept.
from the we-can-only-hope dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Patent and Trademark Office has now made clear that its newly developed position on patentable subject matter will invalidate many and perhaps most software patents, including pioneering patent claims to such innovators as Google, Inc. In a series of cases including In re Nuijten, In re Comiskey and In re Bilski, the Patent and Trademark Office has argued in favor of imposing new restrictions on the scope of patentable subject matter set forth by Congress in article 101 of the Patent Act. In the most recent of these three — the currently pending en banc Bilski appeal — the Office takes the position that process inventions generally are unpatentable unless they 'result in a physical transformation of an article' or are 'tied to a particular machine.'"
Neat site about dirty car art
I am posting this here for Emmaline but it is worth a peak if you have the chance.
http://www.dirtycarart.com/gallery/index.htm
http://www.dirtycarart.com/gallery/index.htm
Google.org invests $2.75M in Aptera Motors
[Via SMASHgods]
Balance Problems? Step Into The IShoe
ScienceDaily (July 24, 2008) — Your grandmother might have little in common with an astronaut, but both could benefit from a new device an MIT graduate student is designing to test balancing ability.
Read More
Read More
Licking Your Wounds: Scientists Isolate Compound In Human Saliva That Speeds Wound Healing
ScienceDaily (July 24, 2008) — A report by scientists from The Netherlands identifies a compound in human saliva that greatly speeds wound healing. This research may offer hope to people suffering from chronic wounds related to diabetes and other disorders, as well as traumatic injuries and burns. In addition, because the compounds can be mass produced, they have the potential to become as common as antibiotic creams and rubbing alcohol.
Read More
Read More
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Audi pilot program tells drivers how to squeeze the lemon
[Image courtesy of NOLA]
World's Oldest Bible Going Online
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday July 23, @05:22AM
from the what-the-web-is-good-for dept.
from the what-the-web-is-good-for dept.
99luftballon writes "The British Museum is putting online the remaining fragments of the world's oldest Bible. The Codex Sinaiticus dates to the fourth century BCE and was discovered in the 19th century. Very few people have seen it due to its fragile state — that and the fact that parts of it are in collections scattered across the globe. It'll give scholars and those interested their first chance to take a look. However, I've got a feeling that some people won't be happy to see it online, since it makes no mention of the resurrection, which is a central part of Christian belief."On Thursday the Book of Psalms and the Gospel According to Mark will go live at the Codex Sinaiticus site. The plan is to have all the material up, with translations and commentaries, a year from now.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Next Generation SSDs Delayed Due To Vista
Journal written by PoliTech (998983) and posted by kdawson on Wednesday July 23, @02:42AM
from the favorite-whipping-boy dept.
from the favorite-whipping-boy dept.
PoliTech notes in a journal entry that "Vista is the gift that just keeps on giving." "Speaking during SanDisk's second-quarter earnings conference call, Chairman and [CEO] Eli Harari said that Windows Vista will present a special challenge for solid state drive makers. 'As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid state disk,' he said... 'The next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls,' he said. 'Unfortunately, (SSDs) performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we'll start sampling end of this year, early next year.' Harari said this challenge alone is putting SanDisk behind schedule. "We have very good internal controller technology... That said, I'd say that we are now behind because we did not fully understand, frankly, the limitations in the Vista environment.'"
10 Products that never made it
This was a neat read about 10 outdoorsy products that never made it. It is worth a chuckle. I especially like the pre-hydrated dehydrated food:)
Read More
Read More
Apocalypse soon: Are we already too late on climate change?
The voices of climate change denial are fading, and with good reason. First they're scientifically outgunned, and being routinely shot down every time they're forced to debate on a factual basis. Second, when you look around and see the Arctic ice cap dwindling into something you could slip into a gin-and-tonic, half of SoCal on fire, and unflappable old Morgan Freeman taking to the airwaves to prep us for the next natural disaster, it's increasingly difficult to give the thumbs up and say "everything's hunky-dory here!"
I'm sympathetic to the denialists, because I'm really not in the mood for climate change catastrophe either, and if I could prevent it by complaining about Big Green Al or shrieking "conspiracy" I'd be wearing a tinfoil hat and cherry-picking facts along with the rest of the cranks.
However, I can't, so I don't. But is the discussion academic at this point anyway? Do the math and it looks as though it may already be too late to turn the tide of what bids fair to be the biggest catastrophe in human history.
Alarmist? Read how it breaks down and you can decide.
How can we avoid disaster?
The United Nations Environment Program has estimated that by 2050, greenhouse gases will have to be reduced to half of 1990 levels if we're going to maintain some kind of climate stability (usually characterized as a global temperature increase limited to 2C or less). That's conservative; other experts suggest that GHG cuts of 90% will be required. Whichever you want to believe, once we get past the 2C mark, it's likely that we'd careen past a number of "tipping points" and end up in a place where we'd prefer not to be.
How are we doing?
Very, very poorly. Greenhouse gas emissions rose more than 25% between 1997 (the year of the Kyoto Accord) and 2007. Leaders at the G8 summit earlier this month came up with a climate change statement that was little more than a bad joke, agreeing that emissions should indeed be halved by 2050 (although they declined to say what year they should be half of), but not referencing binding agreements, concrete plans, or any idea of where the $45 trillion in necessary funding will come from.
The G8 still accounts for about 62% of greenhouse gases these days, but they're rapidly being overtaken by developing world powerhouses. China is now the world's biggest polluter, and is opening 2 dirty coal-fired power plants a week as it struggles to keep the economy in overdrive. Government officials in that country have expressed polite interest in combating climate change, but note that ""the responsibilities of the developed and developing countries in this battle have to be different", which can be loosely interpreted as "you guys go first and we'll be along presently."
India derives 60% of its power from coal, and plans to add 70,000 megawatts in the next 5 years. The Prime Minister of India recently said "For us, the foremost priority is the removal of poverty, for which we need sustained rapid economic growth." Doesn't sound like they're going to be leading the charge against climate change, at least not until they catapult about 800 million people into the middle class.
A recent report by think-tank The Stockholm Network postulates three possible future scenarios, none of which are will avoid a temperature rise of 2C or more. The most likely future based on current events is called "Agree and Ignore", and predicts a temperature rise of as much as 5C by the end of the century.
And it's already pretty hot. The National Climate Data Centre says that this year so far is the 7th warmest since record-keeping began in 1880, and last year was 5th warmest.
What will happen if we miss the mark?
Bad stuff, and lots of it. The probable effects aren't fully understood, but climate change impacts will range from drought to flooding to wildfires to storms and tornadoes much more violent than in the past. The most dangerous aspect is likely to be vastly reduced food production, especially in parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America that lack the resources to mitigate climate change impacts.
Even in wealthier nations which might be able to afford new infrastructure to cope with the changes, the future looks nasty. Peak oil, water shortages, and another 2 billion people on the planet by mid-century will test resources to the limit, as will the arrival of hundreds of millions of refugees from the developing world seeking food or a dry place to live.
What can we do?
Assume the crash position... More seriously, whatever hope we have of pulling ourselves out of this fire will rely on persuading politicians with our votes, companies with our dollars, and everyone else with our voices. Before we know it's too late.
Video: ReWalk exoskeleton helps paraplegics walk
[Via MedGadget]
Campus school supplies: Pens and pencils
Being in school can be wasteful when you consider all of the paper, pens, pencils and highlighters that get used and abused. For students seeking a way out of this trend, we've compiled a list of eco-friendly writing options that won't break the bank.Pens
- Woody Pens are crafted from sustained yield scrap wood and are refillable with Woody brand non-toxic ink refills made from a minimum of 30% post-consumer brass. There are no animal bi-products, and no plastic is used. Supposedly, brass ink cartridges last three times longer than ordinary plastic ones.
- Grass Roots has pens made from Mater-Bi, a material derived from corn starch. 100% biodegradable, these pens look and feel like plastic. Whether you dispose of them in your compost heap or a landfill, breakdown will complete in about 12 months.
- Spend a little extra money and support your university by purchasing a reusable, school-logo pen like this one from Queen's University.
- Earth Write pencils are PMA certified non-toxic. Although they are disposable, the casings are manufactured from 60% post-consumer waste (newspapers).
- Consider going mechanical rather than disposable, with Pilot BeGreen RexGrip mechanical pencils. Made from 70% post-consumer material, including the packaging, you'll be able to reuse it for added green value.
- Zebra Eco Highlighters are double-ended, and made from 70% post-consumer recycled plastics from items like cds and cell phones.
Consumer 3D Television Moving Forward
Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday July 22, @02:02AM
from the don't-tag-this-porn dept.
from the don't-tag-this-porn dept.
TheSync writes "Hollywood Reporter claims that SMPTE (the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) will 'establish an industry task force to define the parameters of a mastering standard for 3D content distributed via broadcast, cable, satellite, packaged media and the Internet, and played-out on televisions, computer screens and other tethered displays.' Already, Japanese Nippon BS viewers with Hyundai 3D LCD sets can watch an hour of 3D programming daily. Even your existing DLP TV set might be 3D capable today with the addition of LCD shutter glasses." Reader DaMan1970 makes note of another developing television technology; telescopic pixel displays. "Each pixel consists of 2 opposing mirrors where the primary mirror can change shape under an applied voltage. When the pixel is off, the primary & secondary mirrors are parallel & reflect all of the incoming light back into the light source."
Netflix on the Xbox 360 gets demonstrated on video
[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Floating Cities On Venus
Posted by Soulskill on Monday July 21, @11:58PM
from the brain-candy dept.
Geoffrey.landis writes "Some of you may have heard me talk about colonizing Venus. Well, for those who haven't, Universe Today is running story about floating cities on Venus. It's a reasonable alternative for space colonies — after all, the atmosphere of Venus (at about 50 km) is the most Earth-like environment in the solar system (other than Earth, of course). '50 km above the surface, Venus has air pressure of approximately 1 bar and temperatures in the 0C-50C range, a quite comfortable environment for humans. Humans wouldn't require pressurized suits when outside, but it wouldn't quite be a shirtsleeves environment. We'd need air to breathe and protection from the sulfuric acid in the atmosphere.'"
IT Jobs To Drop In 2009
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday July 21, @06:15PM
from the gonna-get-worse-before-it-gets-better dept.
from the gonna-get-worse-before-it-gets-better dept.
ruphus13 writes "A new Goldman Sachs IT report recently released states that IT jobs will be dramatically reduced in 2009, starting with contract and offshore developers. From the article: 'Sharp reductions likely in contract staff, professional services and hardware, and almost no investment in cloud computing.' The article goes on to say 'The CIOs indicated that server virtualization and server consolidation are their No. 1 and No. 2 priorities. Following these two are cost-cutting, application integration, and data center consolidation. At the bottom of the list of IT priorities are grid computing, open-source software, content management and cloud computing (called on-demand/utility computing in the survey) — less than 2% of the respondents said cloud computing was a priority.' Postulating a 'pointy haired boss' problem, an analyst goes on to say, '[Grid computing, Open Source and Cloud computing] require a technical understanding to get to their importance. I don't think C-level executives and managers have that understanding.' But they do control the paychecks ..."
Beijing Pollution May Trigger Heart Attacks, Strokes
ScienceDaily (July 22, 2008) — Olympic athletes aren't the only ones who need to be concerned about the heavily polluted air in Beijing. The dirty air may trigger serious cardiovascular problems for some spectators.
Read More
Read More
Monday, July 21, 2008
Global Warming Stopped By Adding Lime To Sea
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday July 21, @12:00PM
from the but-then-nobody-can-have-a-good-gin-and-tonic dept.
from the but-then-nobody-can-have-a-good-gin-and-tonic dept.
Antiglobalism writes "Scientists say they have found a workable way of reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater. And they think it has the potential to dramatically reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere, reports Cath O'Driscoll in SCI's Chemistry & Industry magazine published today."
Hundreds of dead baby penguins wash ashore in Rio de Janeiro
Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at Brazil's Niteroi Zoo, has blamed the problem on overfishing, which has forced penguins to seek fish further south. This leaves them vulnerable to the strong ocean currents that bring them straight to Brazil's shores. He also reports that many of the penguins they receive at the zoo for treatment are covered in petroleum from the Campos oil fields just offshore. While researchers and rescuers are torn over the exact cause of this phenomenon, most believe it is the combination of these factors.
You can't fix Stupid
This was an unbelievable video of a few people who did not think before they acted.
Watch Documenteries online
This is a neat site that Mom told me about. You can watch documentaries online for free, you gotta love it. BTW, Super Size Me was a good one that is on that site again, for free. Its worth a peak if you have not seen it.
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/watch
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/watch
Computer Mouse Heading For Extinction
Posted by timothy on Sunday July 20, @07:54PM
from the how-much-would-you-like-to-bet dept.
from the how-much-would-you-like-to-bet dept.
slatterz writes "The computer mouse is set to die out in the next five years and will be usurped by touch screens and facial recognition, analysts believe. Steven Prentice, vice president and Gartner Fellow, told the BBC that devices such as Nintendo's MotionPlus for the Wii and Apple's iPhone point the way to the future, offering greater accuracy in motion detection."
HP shatters excessive packaging world record
17 boxes to protect 32 A4 sheets
Published Friday 18th July 2008 10:27 GMT
We've just had an email from a shaken Stephen Strang who this morning took delivery of a very, very large box from HP:
Stephen said: "Imagine our excitement as we opened it, hoping against hope that it might contain a copy of some c-class virtual connect firmware that actually works."
Sadly not. What the überbox did contain was 16 smaller boxes "which in turn [each] contained (wrapped in foam so they wouldn't get broken) exactly two sheets of A4 paper":
Yup, so that's 17 boxes in total to protect 32 pages. A world-class effort there from HP. ®
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)