Workers Most Invested in Their Jobs Have Highest Stress Levels

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2011) — A workplace's key employees may be at the greatest risk of experiencing high levels of work stress, according to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

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Mathematical Model Explains How Complex Societies Emerge, Collapse

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2011) — The instability of large, complex societies is a predictable phenomenon, according to a new mathematical model that explores the emergence of early human societies via warfare. Capturing hundreds of years of human history, the model reveals the dynamical nature of societies, which can be difficult to uncover in archaeological data.

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Practical Full-Spectrum Solar Cell Comes Closer

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2011) — Solar cells are made from semiconductors whose ability to respond to light is determined by their band gaps (energy gaps). Different colors have different energies, and no single semiconductor has a band gap that can respond to sunlight's full range, from low-energy infrared through visible light to high-energy ultraviolet.

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Hot Flushes Are Linked With a Significant Reduction in Breast Cancer Risk, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2011) — Women who have experienced hot flushes and other symptoms of menopause may have a 50 percent lower risk of developing the most common forms of breast cancer than postmenopausal women who have never had such symptoms, according to a recent study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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Chopin's Hallucinations Were Probably Caused by Epilepsy, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2011) — The composer Frédéric Chopin, who regularly hallucinated, probably had temporal lobe epilepsy throughout his short life, reveals research published online in Medical Humanities. Hallucinations typically feature in seizure disorders, the study's authors say.

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Two-Thirds of US Internet Users Lack Fast Broadband

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 25, @05:09AM
from the it's-comcastic dept.

internet

networking

usa

technology

jbrodkin writes"Two-thirds of US Internet connections are slower than 5 Mbps, putting the United States well behind speed leaders like South Korea, where penetration of so-called 'high broadband connectivity' is double the rate experienced in the United States. The United States places ninth in the world in access to high broadband connectivity, at 34% of users, including 27% of connections reaching 5 Mbps to 10 Mbps and 7% reaching above 10 Mbps, Akamai says in its latest State of the Internet Report. That's an improvement since a year ago, when the United States was in 12th place with only 24% of users accessing fast connections. But the United States is still dwarfed by South Korea, where 72% of Internet connections are greater than 5 Mbps, and Japan, which is at 60%. The numbers illustrate the gap between expectation and reality for US broadband users, which has fueled the creation of a government initiative to improve access. The US government broadband initiative says 100 million Americans lack any broadband access, and that faster Internet access is needed in the medical industry, schools, energy grid and public safety networks."

Obama Nominates RIAA Lawyer for Solicitor General

By David Kravets  

January 24, 2011  |  

6:32 pm  |  

Categories: RIAA Litigation, The Courts

President Barack Obama nominated former Recording Industry Association of America lawyer Donald Verrilli Jr. on Monday to serve as the nation’s solicitor general.

If confirmed by the Senate, Verilli, now the White House deputy counsel, would assume the powerful position left vacant by Elena Kagan, who was elevated to the Supreme Court. Obama said he was “confident” Verrilli, one offive former RIAA attorneys appointed to the administration, would “serve ably.”

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TankChair deemed too heavy to use on UK streets, disabled man becomes marketing boon (video)

By Sean Hollister  posted Jan 24th 2011 12:37AM

While we figure that giant, tread-wielding wheelchairs have no trouble selling themselves, a disabled man named Jim Starr is helping them along their merry way -- a story about his TankChair being rejected for street use by UK authorities is giving the company plenty of free advertising. That's not to say that we don't feel for the disabled father of two, and hope he gets to use his snow-crushing, beach-mashing wheelchair in peace -- it's just not particularly surprising that a non-standard vehicle would be illegal to use on public roadways, and as you'll see in the video after the break (at roughly 5:30) the law doesn't seem to be restraining him any.

Holocube scales up with life-sized, 70-inch, HC70 holographic projector (video)

By Tim Stevens  posted Jan 24th 2011 7:48AM

First they were little, then they added touchability, now Holocube's holograms in a box are going big time -- in that the company's latest model is physically much larger than the others. It's the HC70, a new version with a 70-inch transparent screen that can be viewed from both sides. It's powered by a Windows 7 Embedded machine with 40GB of flash storage from which it can loop between eight and 18 hours of video, displayed via 1080p projector. You can see it in action below showing a... slightly mesmerizing collection of random bits of footage. Let us know if you can find the hidden meaning.

How Does Anesthesia Disturb Self-Perception?

ScienceDaily (Jan. 19, 2011) — An Inserm research team in Toulouse, led by Dr Stein Silva (Inserm Unit 825 "Brain imaging and neurological handicaps"), working with the "Modelling tissue and nociceptive stress" Host Team (MATN IFR 150), were interested in studying the illusions described by many patients under regional anaesthetic. In their work, to be published in the journal Anesthesiology, the researchers demonstrated that anaesthetising an arm affects brain activity and rapidly impairs body perception.

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