Great White Sharks Visiting San Francisco

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 12, @03:11AM
from the I-left-my-harp-seal-in-San-Francisco dept.

earth

idle

news

science

Ponca City, We love you writes"Juliet Eilperin writes in the Washington Post that while for years, humans have thought of great white sharks as wandering the sea at random, only occasionally venturing close to shore, it turns out we were wrong. Scientists lured 179 great white sharks to their boat with a carpet decoy designed to look like a seal, and used a lance to attach satellite tags with the aid of 2.3-inch titanium darts to track the sharks and discovered that Pacific white sharks spend months near the northern and central California coast between August and February, foraging among elephant seals, sea lions, and other prey. The sharks were spotted as far inland as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, east of the Golden Gate Bridge. 'It shows you how wild it is off our West Coast of North America. This is Yellowstone,' says Stanford University marine sciences professor Barbara A. Block. The fact that 'a major concentration' of great whites can ignore humans 'shows us the sharks are really minding their own business. The number of interactions with people is very small, considering,' says Salvador J. Jorgensen."

Bing To Use Wolfram Alpha Results

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 12, @12:02AM
from the taking-a-look dept.

microsoft

technology

angry tapir writes"Microsoft is rolling out some enhancements to its Bing search engine, including some that rely on computational information delivered by Wolfram Alpha. That means that people will be able to search for some complicated information, and the search engine will be able to compute the answers. In a blog post, Tracey Yao, program manager, and Pedro Silva, product manager at Microsoft, give some examples."

Ferrari-styled OutRun arcade machine set for crazy scooter transformation? (video)

by Tim Stevens posted Nov 12th 2009 at 7:46AM

If you're a child of the '80s and a gamer to boot you surely remember OutRun, the game that rocked a generation with only some parallax effects and pixelated blonde hair -- though the giant arcade cabinet with gold wheels certainly didn't hurt. Now "contemporary artist" Garnet Hertz (creator of the twitching, crunchy frog server) is proposing to give that very cabinet a new lease on life, and a motorized one at that. Hertz wants to take an arcade machine and merge it with an EVT America Electric Trike, making those stylized five-spoke rims actually move. But that's only half of it. He plans to power the display with an iPhone 3GS and use it to render a sort of halcyon 16-bit view of the world ahead, with every road a 64-color dream lined with palm trees. A recent video showing off some of the tech is embedded below, and while we think this is about as likely to turn a wheel as aTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cabinet is to travel in time, we'll certainly be first in line with four quarters if it ever does.

Avatars Can Surreptitiously And Negatively Affect User In Video Games, Virtual Worlds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2009) — Although often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one's self-representation, or avatar, in a virtual environment can affect the user's thoughts, according to research by a University of Texas at Austin communication professor.

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Green Tea Shows Promise As Chemoprevention Agent For Oral Cancer

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2009) — Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-malignant condition known as oral leukoplakia, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

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Dodge Viper logo is an upside-down Daffy Duck.

Low-Energy Laser Etching May Replace Fruit Labels

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 05, @07:57AM
from the tattooed-fruit dept.

idle

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.

earth

science

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.'

Secret Copyright Treaty Leaks. It's Bad. Very Bad.

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 04, @09:31AM
from the you-gotta-be-kidding-me dept.

censorship

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.

medicine

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.

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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.

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Firefox Passes IE6 In Browser Share

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 04, @04:52AM
from the die-already dept.

msie

mozilla

microsoft

internet

technology

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.

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.

Find DARPA's Balloons, Win $40K

Posted by timothy on Sunday November 01, @11:18PM
from the in-related-news-no-easter-egg-hunt dept.

military

usa

technology

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

Posted by timothy on Monday November 02, @02:08AM
from the better-than-to-cause-it dept.

earth

technology

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)."

Asterisk Vishing Attacks "Endemic"

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday October 28, @11:40AM
from the enter-your-ssn-if-you-concur dept.

communications

security

technology

Ian Lamont writes"Remember the report last year that the FBI was concerned about a 'vishing' exploit relating to the Asterisk IP PBX software? Digium played down the report, noting that it was based on a bug that had already been patched, but now the company's open-source community directorsays that attacks on Asterisk installations are 'endemic.' There have been dozens of reported vishing attacks in recent weeks, says the article: 'The victims typically bank with smaller regional institutions, which typically have fewer resources to detect scams. Scammers hack into phone systems and then call victims, playing prerecorded messages that say there has been a billing error or warn them that the bank account has been suspended because of suspicious activity. If the worried customer enters his account number and ATM password, the bad guys use that information to make fake debit cards and empty their victim's bank accounts.'"

Disruption Of Circadian Rhythms Affects Both Brain And Body, Mouse Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2009) — A new study has found that chronic disruption of one of the most basic circadian (daily) rhythms -- the day/night cycle -- leads to weight gain, impulsivity, slower thinking, and other physiological and behavioral changes in mice, similar to those observed in people who experience shift work or jet lag.

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The Best Medications For Your Genes

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday October 28, @03:58AM
from the bespoke-drugs dept.
biotech
medicine
science
blackbearnh writes
"Until recently, physicians prescribed drugs to patients with dosages based only on weight, and with no idea if the drug would be effective for that particular person. But as this article on Forbes.com highlights, the same advances in genomics that are letting people know about their likelihood of getting certain diseases can also let doctors know what drugs, and what dosages, will be likely to do the most good. 'Tamoxifen, the much-heralded cancer-fighting drug, has been shown to have little benefit for 7% to 10% of patients taking it. In the past, we would have just said that it works 90% of the time. But now, with our new genomic knowledge under our belt, we can say that it works nearly 100% of the time for people with the "right" version of the CYP2D6 gene, and 0% of the time for people with the "wrong" version, who make up roughly 7% to 10% of the population.'"

DIYer concocts homegrown View-Master, relies on HTC Magic and Google Street View (video)

by Darren Murph posted Oct 27th 2009 at 11:21AM

It's been far, far too long since we broke out the View-Master from the admittedly dusty toy chest, but now we're guessing it'll be at least a score before we get the urge again. Why, you ask? The View-Master 2009. These homegrown virtual reality goggles are surprisingly impressive despite their ragged look, and by utilizing some form of cardboard enclosure, an HTC Magic and Google Street View, the designer was able to mimic that "immersive" environment we've grown to know and never forget. Don't believe us? Have a look at the vid just past the break, and hang in there 'til the end if you're scouting a how-to guide.

Police to auction off nitrous-fueled, motorized La-Z-Boy

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 26th 2009 at 1:07PM

We've seen plenty of strange motorized chairs in this space, including those controlled by Wii Nunchucks and even brainwaves, but rarely do they become available for sale. The handiwork of Minnesota resident Dennis Anderson, this La-Z-Boy mod features everything the manufacturer left out, including: stereo sound system, nitrous oxide booster, parachute, headlights, a steering wheel, and a sticker that reads: "Hell yeah, it's fast." The vehicle, which will reach speeds of 20 MPH, was seized by the state when the driver crashed into a parked car -- he was on the way home from the bar (of course) and 'fessed up to consuming "eight or nine" beers prior to the incident. Anderson may be roaming the streets with a two-year suspended sentence, but his chariot can be yours! Keep an eye out on eBay, where it's due to appear this week with no reserve price.

Microsoft Freeloading In Washington State Courts

Posted by kdawson on Monday October 26, @09:36AM
from the having-it-both-ways dept.

microsoft

court

money

reifman writes"For tax purposes, Microsoft reports that it's earned its estimated $143 billion in software licensing revenue in Nevada, where there is no licensing tax, as we discussed a few weeks ago. However, for legal purposes, Microsoft relies on Washington law and its underfunded courts to defend its contracts as it did in Microsoft Licensing GP vs. TSR Silicon. Application of common legal doctrines such as nexus, the step doctrine, and alter ego theory may lead to findings that Microsoft owes the state more than $1 billion in taxes, interest, and penalties."

Save the Planet, Eat Your Dog

Posted by timothy on Monday October 26, @01:16AM
from the children-too-stringy dept.

earth

R3d M3rcury writes"New Zealand's Dominion Post reports on a new book just released, Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living. In this book, theycompare the environmental footprint of our housepets to other things that we own. Like that German Shepherd? It consumes more resources than two Toyota SUVs. Cats are a little less than a Volkswagen Golf. Two hamsters are about the same as a plasma TV. Their suggestions? Chickens, rabbits, and pigs. But only if you eat them."

Photo Booth Pranks

Light Helps Injured Mice Walk Again

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 21, @09:43PM
from the blinded-me-with-science dept.

science

Mantrid42 writes"Researchers have been able to affect the brains of lab mice using light. Working in a new field called Optogenetics ("optical stimulation plus genetic engineering"), scientists injected lab mice with genes that can stimulate or inhibit neural activity based on the color of the light they're exposed to, and can be targeted to infect only on certain cell types. Additionally, another gene has been added to make neurons glow green when firing, allowing two-way communication between a brain and a machine."