Thursday, November 5, 2009
Low-Energy Laser Etching May Replace Fruit Labels
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 05, @07:57AM
from the tattooed-fruit dept.
from the tattooed-fruit dept.
MikeChino writes"How many times have you bit into a piece of fruit only to find that you're also chomping on a sticker label? The small sticky labels have long been the bane of waste-conscious fruit and vegetable eaters, but that might all change thanks to new technology that uses a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam to etch information directly onto produce. No more peeling those annoying labels! So far the technology is being used on a number of fruits and vegetables in New Zealand, Australia, and Pacific Rim countries, and it's currently going through the final stages of review by the FDA. Once the technology is approved in the US, researchers from the University of Florida and the USDA Agricultural Research Service hope that it will be used in Florida's massive grapefruit industry."
Volcanic Activity May Split Africa In Two
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 05, @04:04AM
from the spit-up dept.
from the spit-up dept.
An anonymous reader writes'Volcanic activity may split the African continent in two, creating a new ocean, say experts. This is due to a recent geological crack which has appeared in northeastern Ethiopia.'
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Secret Copyright Treaty Leaks. It's Bad. Very Bad.
Jamie found a Boing Boing story that will probably get your blood to at least a simmer. It says"The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to 'national security' concerns, has leaked. It's bad."You can read the original leaked document or the summary. If passed, the internet will never be the same. Thank goodness it's hidden from public scrutiny for National Security.
Placebo Effect Caught In the Act In Spinal Nerves
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 04, @08:07AM
from the time-to-shut-down dept.
from the time-to-shut-down dept.
SerpensV passes along the news that German scientists have found direct evidence that the spinal cord is involved in the placebo effect (whosediminishing over time we discussed a bit earlier)."The researchers who made the discovery scanned the spinal cords of volunteers while applying painful heat to one arm. Then they rubbed a cream onto the arm and told the volunteers that it contained a painkiller, but in fact it had no active ingredient. Even so, the cream made spinal-cord neural activity linked to pain vanish. 'This type of mechanism has been envisioned for over 40 years for placebo analgesia,' says Donald Price, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who was not involved in the new study. 'This study provides the most direct test of this mechanism to date.'"
New Theory On Fairness In Economics Targets CEO Pay
ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2009) — Chief executives in 35 of the top Fortune 500 companies were overpaid by about 129 times their "ideal salaries" in 2008, according to a new type of theoretical analysis proposed by a Purdue University researcher to determine fair CEO compensation.
Children Who Often Drink Full-fat Milk Weigh Less, Swedish Research Finds
ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2009) — Eight-year-old children who drink full-fat milk every day have a lower BMI than those who seldom drink milk. This is not the case for children who often drink medium-fat or low-fat milk. This is one conclusion of a thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
Firefox Passes IE6 In Browser Share
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 04, @04:52AM
from the die-already dept.
from the die-already dept.
Jared sends word of Ars Technica coverage of Net Applications' monthly browser share numbers. What's significant this time is that Firefox has finally passed IE6 in worldwide share."Internet Explorer remains ahead of the rest of the competition, but since month after month it continues to lose ground to all other browsers, Firefox has now finally surpassed IE6, which is easily the most hated version of Microsoft's browser. ... In October, all browsers except for IE and Opera showed positive growth. Between October and September, Internet Explorer dropped a significant 1.07 percentage points (from 65.71 percent to 64.64 percent) and Firefox moved up a sizeable 0.32 percentage points (from 23.75 percent to 24.07 percent). ... Although IE's decline seems to be unceasing, the real shame is that the old versions have more share than the newer ones (we can only hope that as Windows 7 gains popularity, this trend will reverse)."Ars presents a graph with their own site's browser share picture, and as you might expect it's very different from the general population's.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Skins Funnies
HEADLINE: "D.C. Police are "cracking" down on speeders. For the first
offense, they give you two Redskins tickets. (If you get stopped a second
time, they give you two Nationals tickets.)"
Q. What do you call 47 millionaires sitting around a TV watching the Super Bowl?
A. The Washington Redskins.
Q. How do you keep the Redskins out of your yard?
A. Put up a goal post.
Q. Where do you go in D.C. in case of a tornado?
A. To FedEx Field - they never have a touchdown there!
Q. What do you call a Redskin with a Super Bowl ring?
A. Senior Citizen
Q. What's the difference between the Redskins and a dollar bill?
A. You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.
Q. How many Redskins does it take to win a Super Bowl?
A. We may never find out in the 21st century.
Q. What do the Redskins and possums have in common?
A. Both play dead at home and get killed on the road.
offense, they give you two Redskins tickets. (If you get stopped a second
time, they give you two Nationals tickets.)"
Q. What do you call 47 millionaires sitting around a TV watching the Super Bowl?
A. The Washington Redskins.
Q. How do you keep the Redskins out of your yard?
A. Put up a goal post.
Q. Where do you go in D.C. in case of a tornado?
A. To FedEx Field - they never have a touchdown there!
Q. What do you call a Redskin with a Super Bowl ring?
A. Senior Citizen
Q. What's the difference between the Redskins and a dollar bill?
A. You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.
Q. How many Redskins does it take to win a Super Bowl?
A. We may never find out in the 21st century.
Q. What do the Redskins and possums have in common?
A. Both play dead at home and get killed on the road.
Find DARPA's Balloons, Win $40K
coondoggie writes"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency today offered up a rather interesting challenge: find and plot 10 red weather balloons scattered at undisclosed locations across the country. The first person to identify the location of all the balloons and enter them on the challenge Web site will win a $40,000 cash prize. According to the agency, the balloons will be in readily accessible locations, visible from nearby roadways and accompanied by DARPA representatives. All balloons are scheduled to go on display at all locations at 10:00AM (ET) until approximately 4:00 PM on Saturday, December 5, 2009."
Toyota Develops New Flower Species To Reduce Pollution
teko_teko writes"Toyota has created two flower species that absorb nitrogen oxides and take heat out of the atmosphere. The flowers, derivatives of the cherry sage plant and the gardenia, were specially developed for the grounds of Toyota's Prius plant in Toyota City, Japan. The sage derivative's leaves have unique characteristics that absorb harmful gases, while the gardenia's leaves create water vapour in the air, reducing the surface temperature of the factory surrounds and, therefore, reducing the energy needed for cooling, in turn producing less carbon dioxide (CO2)."
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