Canadians Lead Longer, Healthier Lives Than Americans

ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2010) — Compared to their neighbours south of the border, Canadians live longer, healthier lives. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Population Health Metrics has found this disparity between the two countries, suggesting that America's lack of universal health care and lower levels of social and economic equality are to blame.

Read More

NASA's Space Balloon Smashes Car In Australia

"Of more worldly issues, NASA's latest multimillion-dollar stratosphere-bound balloon launch has gone horribly wrong and crashed into a car, turning it over and narrowly missing two elderly people who were observing the launch. The payload fared worse, reportedly being smashed into a 'thousand pieces.'"

FAA Setting Up Commercial Spaceflight Center

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 28, @08:34PM
from the to-the-moon-with-you dept.

space

usa

science

coondoggie writes"The FAA this week took a step closer to setting up a central hub for the development of key commercial space transportation technologies such as space launch and traffic management applications and setting orbital safety standards. The hub, known as the Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation, would have a $1 million yearly budget and tie together universities, industry players, and the government for cost-sharing research and development. The FAA expects the center to be up and running this year."

Cub Scouts To Offer Merit Pin For Video Gaming

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday April 29, @03:40AM
from the be-prepared-to-play dept.

games

Hugh Pickens writes"Fox News reports that the Boy Scouts of America — a group founded on the principles of building character and improving physical fitness — have introduced merit pins for academic achievement in video gaming, a move that has child health experts atwitter. 'It could be quite visionary and exciting or it could be a complete sellout,' says Dr. Vic Strasburger. 'I don't see anything wrong with that as long as they're not playing first-person shooter games, violent games, games with a lot of sexual or drug content. The question is, who's going to supervise the scouts?' Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, and Webelos Scouts can earn their pins by spending an hour a day playing games, teaching others how to play better, and researching the best price for games they'd like to buy."

Nanodots Breakthrough May Lead to 'a Library on One Chip'

ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2010) — A researcher at North Carolina State University has developed a computer chip that can store an unprecedented amount of data -- enough to hold an entire library's worth of information on a single chip. The new chip stems from a breakthrough in the use of nanodots, or nanoscale magnets, and represents a significant advance in computer-memory technology.

Read More

The future of US Army helicopters: pilots optional

By Sean Hollister posted Apr 28th 2010 7:13AM

Five years ago, the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter got a digital cockpit and fly-by-wire controls. Starting in 2011, the US Army would like it to perform missions without a pilot at the helm. In a 140-page "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap" released earlier this month, the Armed Forces reveal that the UH-60, AH-64, CH-47 and OH-58D whirlybirds will all be part of a new aircraft category called Optionally Piloted Vehicles (OPV) -- meaning in future, the flick of a switch will turn them into giantUAVs. If an unmanned Apache gunship makes your boots quake, you're not alone, but you won't truly have reason to fear until 2025. That's when the government estimates half of all Army aircraft will be OPV, and those bots will learn the more deadly behaviors, like swarming. Sikorsky says the unmanned UH-60M will fly later this year; read the full roadmap PDF at our more coverage link.

Alzheimer's Memory Problems Originate With Protein Clumps Floating in the Brain, Not Amyloid Plaques

ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2010) — Using a new mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that Alzheimer's pathology originates in amyloid-beta (Abeta) oligomers in the brain, rather than the amyloid plaques previously thought by many researchers to cause the disease.

Read More

Google Street View Shoots the Same Woman 43 Times

Posted by samzenpus on Monday April 26, @03:22PM
from the get-your-face-out-there dept.

Geoffrey.landis writes"Terry Southgate discovered that his wife Wendy appears on the Google Street View of his neighborhood not once or twice but a whopping 43 times. From the article: 'It seems as if the Street View car simply followed the same route as Wendy and Trixie. However, Wendy was a little suspicious that the car was doing something on the "tricksie" side. Several of the Street View shots show Wendy looking with some concern towards the car that was, well, to put it politely, crawling along the curb. "I didn't know what it was doing. It was just driving round very, very slowly," Wendy told the Sun.' The next best thing to being a movie star-- a Street View star!"

To Learn Better, Take a Nap (and Don't Forget to Dream)

ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2010) — It is by now well established that sleep can be an important tool when it comes to enhancing memory and learning skills. And now, a new study sheds light on the role that dreams play in this important process.

Read More