Thursday, September 4, 2008
Emu on the PA turnpike
This story is TOOO funny. The emu was running around on the turnpike. They tased it to get it off the road and it kept coming back. The emu died later of exhaustion from the chase. No one knows where it came from or why it was trying to cross the road. Poor, Poor emu.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Virtual Telescope Zooms In On Milky Way Black Hole
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 04, @03:04AM
from the old-bob dept.
FiReaNGeL writes"An international team has obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The astronomers used radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California to create a virtual telescope more than 2,800 miles across that is capable of seeing details more than 1,000 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope. The target of the observations was the source known as Sagittarius A* ("A-star"), long thought to mark the position of a black hole whose mass is 4 million times greater than the sun. Though Sagittarius A* was discovered 30 years ago, the new observations for the first time have an angular resolution, or ability to observe small details, that is matched to the size of the event horizon."
PHILIPS WAKE-UP LIGHT SIMULATES SUNRISE, STILL CAN'T CALL IN SICK FOR YOU
by Darren Murph, posted Sep 3rd 2008 at 11:22AM
Some pretty extreme methods for waking up are out there, but for those of you who'd prefer something a bit more natural, have a passing glance at Philips' Wake-up Light. This admittedly brilliant device simulates the rising of the sun by gradually getting brighter as your [Via UberReview]
Update: Seems this has been around for at least a bit in some parts of Europe. Share the love!
Google's new browser "Chrome" Beta
It seems to be faster than the competition and starts a new process for every tab which has a number of bennies. You can DL it here:
Nearly Half Of US Adults Will Develop Painful Knee Osteoarthritis By Age 85: Study
ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2008) — Almost half of all U.S. adults and nearly two-thirds of obese adults will develop painful osteoarthritis of the knee by age 85, a study based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests.
Read More
Read More
Substance Found In Fruits And Vegetables Reduces Likelihood Of The Flu
ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2008) — Mice given quercetin, a naturally occurring substance found in fruits and vegetables, were less likely to contract the flu, according to a study published by The American Physiological Society. The study also found that stressful exercise increased the susceptibility of mice to the flu, but quercetin canceled out that negative effect.
Read More
Read More
Zombie Network Explosion
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday September 03, @08:50AM
from the want-braaains dept.
anti-globalism writes "The number of compromised zombie PCs in botnet networks has quadrupled over the last three months. Shadowserver tracks botnet activity and the number of command and control servers. It uses a variety of metrics to slice and dice its figures based in part on the entropy of botnet infections. The clear trend within these figures is upwards, with a rise in botnet numbers of 100,000 to 400,000 (if 30 day entropy is factored into equations) or from 20,000 to 60,000 (for five day entropy)."
User Charged With Taking ISP Tech Hostage
Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday September 02, @11:55PM
from the to-kidnap-or-not-to-kidnap dept.
from the to-kidnap-or-not-to-kidnap dept.
User AttheCoalFac pointed us to a interesting tech support story from Canada. Halifax actress and playwright Carol Sinclair was arrested and is now facing criminal charges after a repairman says she threatened to hold him hostage until he fixed her Internet connection. Mrs. Sinclair denies the allegations and says that she merely stated, 'I don't want to hold you hostage, but would you mind hanging around until the other technician arrives so that the two of you can sort it out.' She was arraigned in Halifax Provincial Court Friday and is now free on conditions including that she have no contact with the repairman or any employee from her ISP. Having a lot of experience on both sides of this issue, I'm not sure who I'm cheering for.
More Daytime Sleeping Predicts Less Recovery During Rehabilitation For Older Adults
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) — A new study shows that daytime sleeping during a rehabilitation stay predicts less functional recovery for older adults, with effects lasting as long as three months.
Read More
Read More
Dashing Computer Interface To Control Your Car
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) — European researchers have developed a special dashboard computer to act as a single conduit for all devices emerging in modern cars – GPS, mobile, PDAs, intelligent car technologies. It should mean a better, more relaxed and even safer driving experience.
Read More
Read More
All Types Of Antipsychotic Drugs Increase The Risk Of Stroke, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) — All drugs used to treat psychosis are linked to an increased risk of stroke, and dementia sufferers are at double the risk, according to a study published on the British Medical Journal website.
Read More
Read More
New Sensory Devices To Aid Parkinson’s And Stroke Patients Under Development
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) — People who have suffered a stroke or who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, could benefit from new research at Queen’s University Belfast.
Read More
Read More
Reading Google Chrome's Fine Print
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday September 03, @05:03AM
from the here-be-tygers dept.
from the here-be-tygers dept.
Much ink and many electrons are being spilled over Google's Chrome browser (discussed here twice in recent days): from deep backgrounders to performance benchmarks to its vulnerability to a carpet-bombing flaw. The latest angle to be explored is Chrome's end-user license agreement. It does not look consumer-friendly. "By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."
Playing, And Even Watching, Sports Improves Brain Function
ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2008) — Being an athlete or merely a fan improves language skills when it comes to discussing their sport because parts of the brain usually involved in playing sports are instead used to understand sport language, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
Read More
Read More
Heavy Trucks: Safety Research Identifies Factors That Lead To Loss Of Control, Accidents
ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2008) — Research carried out in Sweden suggests that there are three critical manoeuvres that lead to loss of control of heavy trucks and subsequent accidents. Writing in the International Journal of Vehicle Safety, the researchers explain that negotiating a bend is the main cause of loss of control, closely followed by avoidance manoeuvres, and road-edge recovery.
Read More
Read More
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Battling Diabetes With Beta Cells
ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2008) — Scientists replicate insulin-producing cells, providing new hope for diabetics. Affecting eight percent of America’s population, diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, strokes and heart disease. Thanks to Tel Aviv University researchers, a new cure -- based on advances in cell therapy -- may be within reach.
UK scientists: Geoengineering may be our only hope
If the thought of seeding our oceans with iron, or placing giant mirrors in space seems a little over the top at this point, I promise you're not alone. The condition of the planet doesn't seem quite bad enough to risk undertaking any of these creepy geoengineering schemes, but researchers in England say that we need to have a last-ditch plan ready and waiting. According to professor Brian Launder of the University of Manchester, it's like we're in WW2 and we don't have started developing the atom bomb.The position taken by Launder and Cambridge University's Michael Thompson, is that things are worse than we thought. Governments and world leaders are failing to make any real progress and the only way out may be to intentionally alter our climates. In their own words:
"While such geoscale interventions may be risky, the time may well come when they are accepted as less risky than doing nothing."What do you guys think? At what point would you be willing to gamble on a plans to launch relective space mesh or re-ice the Arctic?
IE8 Beta 2 Fatter Than Firefox and XP
Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 02, @11:11AM
from the other-than-that-how-was-the-parade dept.
from the other-than-that-how-was-the-parade dept.
snydeq writes "Consuming twice as much RAM as Firefox and saturating the CPU with nearly six times as many execution threads, Microsoft's latest beta release of Internet Explorer 8 is in fact more demanding on your PC than Windows XP itself, research firm Devil Mountain Software found in performance tests. Accroding to the firm, which operates a community-based testing network, IE8 Beta 2 consumed 380MB of RAM and spawned 171 concurrent threads during a multi-tab browsing test of popular Web destinations. InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy speculates that Microsoft may be designing IE8 for the multicore future. But until your machine sports four or eight discrete processing cores, IE8 will remain 'porcine,' Devil Mountain's Craig Barth says."
Intel talks up shape-shifting "programmable matter," bugs us out
[Via MAKE]
The Sun Has First Spotless Month Since 1913
Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 02, @10:26AM
from the doctor-which-spf-should-I-choose-now? dept.
from the doctor-which-spf-should-I-choose-now? dept.
radioweather writes "August 2008 has made solar history. As of 00 UTC September 1st 2008 (5PM PST) we just witnessed the first spotless calendar month since June 1913.This was determined according to sunspot data from NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center, which goes back to 1749. In the 95 years since 1913, we've had quite an active sun, but activity has been declining in the last few years. The sun today is a nearly featureless sphere and has been spotless for 42 days total, but this is the first full calendar month since 1913 for a spotless sun. And there are other indicators of the sun being in a funk. Australia's space weather agency recently revised their solar cycle 24 forecast, pushing the expected date for a ramping up of cycle 24 sunspots into the future by six months." As one of the links above indicate, there was a "sunspeck" reported August 21/22, though. Reader MikeyTheK adds a link to a story at Daily Tech on the spotless record.
Arctic becomes an island due to melting ice, enters "death spiral"
Mark Serreze, a specialist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, said the images suggest that the Arctic might have entered a "death spiral" caused by climate change. Shipping companies are already planning to use the new routes.
Microsoft patents Page Up / Page Down functionality, April 1st seen lingering in the distance
[Via GigaOm]
Would $10 a gallon gas change your driving habits?
Would $10 a gallon gas make you change your driving habits? At first glance, most of us, would say, "Of course!" But that has not happened in Europe exactly as many experts expected.Not to say the effect has been negligible. According to a recent NY Times article, gas prices have persuaded some residents in Europe to drive less. Traffic on the Eurostar train is up 21 percent, gas purchases in Italy dropped 10 percent and sales of SUVs have plummeted. However, according to Peder Jensen, a transportation expert at the EU's Environmental Agency, while people have changed the types of cars they are buying, he has "been mostly surprised at the lack of a reaction." One obvious reason is that European cars are already far more efficient that those here in the U.S.
Professor Phil Goodwin, at the University of West England, said that while gas prices can influence behavior, "price alone does not win popular support or acquiescence. There has to be a package of different policies, including improvements to public transport, walking and cycling."
As for here in the U.S, the death of the suburbs has been predicted as gas prices climb. On the other hand, maybe we'll just all adjust in other ways.
Defining Video Game Addiction
Posted by Soulskill on Monday September 01, @08:36PM
from the one-more-pindle-run dept.
from the one-more-pindle-run dept.
1Up has a feature discussing where the line should be drawn when it comes to game addiction. The author speaks to researcher Neils Clark about some of the common characteristics of addiction, and how the high level of immersion in many modern games contributes to the mind's ability to drown out mundane tasks. We've discussed game addiction many times over the past several years. Quoting: "If we're not all dribbling addicts, then why are we playing so much? Clark puts this down to a theory proposed by The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien — primary and secondary worlds. The primary world is our own real life. The secondary is the fictional world: literature, film, videogames, and so on. 'It used to be that the imagery and artistic intent had to be fully available before you could really "find" yourself in a written story,' Clark says. 'Immersion has progressed to the point where entering a world [inside a game] is almost automatic. At the point we're at, playing healthy not only means understanding immersion but [also] recognizing that these secondary worlds are designed to be more fulfilling than the primary. Learning to balance them is its own technology. It's something that humankind is in a process of developing, even if on a subconscious level for most gamers.'"
Fingercams / brain scanners to make mice and multitouch displays seem archaic
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)