Calling Chicken Little: Clouds Getting Lower

Calling Chicken Little: Clouds Getting Lower: Chicken Licken was right, the sky really is falling. NASA satellite data has shown that the Earth's cloud tops have been lowering over the last decade.

Whitman expects HP Windows 8 Intel tablet this year

Whitman expects HP Windows 8 Intel tablet this year:

Looks like old Fujitsu isn't the only PC-maker looking to get into the Windows 8 tablet business before year's end. Addressing a conference in Northern California, HP CEO Meg Whitman let it be known that her company plans on pushing out an Intel-packing tablet running the new Microsoft operating system in 2012. How about a dual-boot webOS system, Meg? We can dream, can't we?

Whitman expects HP Windows 8 Intel tablet this year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Real Fish Welcome Robotic Overlord Into Their School

Real Fish Welcome Robotic Overlord Into Their School: A robotic fish has sailed across an aquatic uncanny valley by tricking real fish into following it upstream.

World of Warcraft boosts cognitive functioning in older adults

World of Warcraft boosts cognitive functioning in older adults: For some older adults, the online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) may provide more than an opportunity for escapist adventure. Researchers have found that playing WoW boosted cognitive functioning for older adults – particularly those who had scored poorly on cognitive ability tests before playing the game.

Earliest horses show past global warming affected body size of mammals

Earliest horses show past global warming affected body size of mammals: As scientists continue developing climate change projection models, paleontologists studying an extreme short-term global warming event have discovered direct evidence about how mammals respond to rising temperatures. Researchers have now found a correlation between temperature and body size in mammals by following the evolution of the earliest horses about 56 million years ago: As temperatures increased, their body size decreased.

Girls' verbal skills make them better at arithmetic, study finds

Girls' verbal skills make them better at arithmetic, study finds: While boys generally do better than girls in science and math, some studies have found that girls do better in arithmetic. A new study finds that the advantage comes from girls' superior verbal skills.

Replacing electricity with light: First physical 'metatronic' circuit created

Replacing electricity with light: First physical 'metatronic' circuit created: The technological world of the 21st century owes a tremendous amount to advances in electrical engineering, specifically, the ability to finely control the flow of electrical charges using increasingly small and complicated circuits. And while those electrical advances continue to race ahead, researchers are pushing circuitry forward in a different way, by replacing electricity with light.

Blood mystery solved: Two new blood types identified

Blood mystery solved: Two new blood types identified: You probably know your blood type: A, B, AB or O. You may even know if you're Rhesus positive or negative. But how about the Langereis blood type? Or the Junior blood type? Positive or negative? Most people have never even heard of these. Yet this knowledge could be "a matter of life and death." While blood transfusion problems due to Langereis and Junior blood types are rare worldwide, several ethnic populations are at risk.

Funny From my bro

U.S. Navy Receives First Industry Built Railgun Prototype

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday February 08, @10:58AM 

from the killing-pirates-with-magnets dept.

Zothecula writes"Two years after BAE Systems was awarded a US$21 million contract from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop an advanced Electromagnetic Railgun for the U.S. Navy, the company hasdelivered the first industry-built prototype demonstrator to the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren. The prototype launcher is now being prepared for testing which is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks."

New Technique Promises Much Faster Hard Drive Write Speeds

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday February 08, @09:37AM 

from the sharks-in-my-drives dept.

MrSeb writes"Hold onto your hats: Scientists at the University of York, England have completely rewritten the rules of magnetic storage (abstract; full paper paywalled). Instead of switching a magnetic region using a magnetic field (like a hard drive head), the researchers have managed to switch a ferrimagnetic nanoisland using a 60-femtosecond laser. Storing magnetic data using lasers is up to 1,000 times faster than writing to a conventional hard drive (we're talking about gigabytes or terabytes per second) — and the ferrimagnetic nanoislands that store the data are capable of storage densities that are some 15 times greater than existing hard drive platters. Unfortunately the York scientists only detailed writing data with lasers; there's no word on how to read it."