innocent_white_lamb writes"Telephone directories are available on the Internet, and many phones even store their own directories. There is less and less demand for a printed phone book, so residential phone books will no longer be printed and delivered in Canada's seven largest cities. Do we now expect everyone's grandma to look up phone numbers on the Internet? Of course, the Yellow Pages, where businesses pay for a listing, will still be delivered."
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Men Who Stare At Airline Passengers, Coming To the UK
An anonymous reader writes, "The Economist's Gulliver reports on a story in Nature that questions the current airport security regimen," excerpting:"Over the past four years, some 3,000 officers in America's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have been specially trained to spot potential terrorists at airports. The programme, known as SPOT, for Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, is intended to allow airport security officers to use tiny facial cues to identify people who are acting suspiciously. The British government is currently launching a new screening regime modelled on the Americans' SPOT. There's just one problem with all this: there's no evidence that SPOT is actually effective. The whole thing is mostly based on pseudoscience, Sharon Weinberger reports in Nature."Happily, Nature's original article is available in full, rather than paywalled.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Spending Time in Nature Makes People Feel More Alive, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (June 3, 2010) — Feeling sluggish? The solution may require getting outside the box -- that big brick-and-mortar box called a building.
OH Senate Passes Bill Banning Human-Animal Hybrids
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 03, @12:10PM
from the no-centaurs-allowed dept.
from the no-centaurs-allowed dept.
An anonymous reader writes"The sci-fi movie Splice seems to have scared the Ohio's State Senator Steve Buehrer. The Ohio Senate has passed Sen. Buehrer's bill banning 'the creation, transportation, or receipt of a human-animal hybrid, the transfer of a nonhuman embryo into a human womb, and the transfer of a human embryo into a nonhuman womb.' So much for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Study Finds That "Extreme Gamers" Play 48 Hours a Week
An anonymous reader writes"Think you're a big gamer? According to a new study from market research firm NPD Group, to be considered among the real hardcore you'll need to play an average of 48.5 hours a week — nearly seven hours a day. This group of gamers is, on average, '29 years old, and — perhaps surprisingly — one-third of them are female. They're more likely to play on consoles than on the PC, and on average they've purchased 24 titles in the past three months — a bill that could easily run over a thousand dollars. But dedicated though they may be, the Extreme Gamers are just a small minority: a mere 4% of the US's 174-million-strong gaming public. '"
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Snails On Methamphetamine
Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday June 01, @02:09PM
from the escargot-on-ice dept.
from the escargot-on-ice dept.
sciencehabit writes"Science answers the question: What happens when you put a snail on speed? From the article: 'The results suggest that meth improves memory, something that has been previously observed in creatures with large, complex brains like rats and humans. But since the snails store their memories in a simple, three-neuron network, the team hopes that studying the meth effect in these gastropods will help pinpoint how the drug's memory magnification powers work.'"
Students Show a Dramatic Drop In Empathy
MotorMachineMercenar writes"Several news sources report that today's college students show a precipitous drop in empathy (here's MSNBC's take). The study of 14,000 students shows that students since the year 2000 had 40% less empathy than those 20 and 30 years before them. The article lays out a laundry list of culprits, from child-rearing practices and the self-help movement, to video games and social media, to a free-market economy and income inequality. There's also a link so you can test your very own level of narcissism. Let's hope the Slashdot crowd doesn't break the empathy counter on the downside."
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Cha Sa-soon, SKorean Woman, Passes Driver's Exam On 950th Try
November 6, 2009 22:48:50
AP:
SEOUL, South Korea — A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test.
Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju, 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Seoul.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
USAF Scramjet Hits Mach 6, Sets Record
s122604 writes"The [X-51A Waverider]'s scramjet engine accelerated the vehicle to Mach 6, and it flew autonomously for 200 seconds before losing acceleration. At that point the test was terminated. The Air Force said the previous record for a hypersonic scramjet burn was 12 seconds. Joe Vogel, Boeing's director of hypersonics, said, 'This is a new world record and sets the foundation for several hypersonic applications, including access to space, reconnaissance, strike, global reach and commercial transportation.' "
Ribbon at Edge of Our Solar System: Will the Sun Enter a Million-Degree Cloud of Interstellar Gas?
ScienceDaily (May 24, 2010) — Is the Sun going to enter a million-degree galactic cloud of interstellar gas soon?
Mutant Gum Disease Bacteria Provide Clue to Treatment for Alzheimer's
ScienceDaily (May 25, 2010) — A defective, mutant strain of the bacterium that causes gum disease could provide a clue to potential treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and a number of other diseases. Researchers from the University of Florida College of Dentistry report their findings May 25 at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.
“Artificial life” created in lab
Written by Will on May 23rd, 2010
We knew the time was coming. The first “artificial” life has been created in a lab. The positive potential to society will be astounding as this technology progresses (as will the potential negatives).
Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA.
The researchers constructed a bacterium's “genetic software” and transplanted it into a host cell.
The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species “dictated” by the synthetic DNA.
via BBC News – ‘Artificial life’ breakthrough announced by scientists.
Below is a video interview with Dr. Venter:
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Can Bacteria Make You Smarter?
ScienceDaily (May 24, 2010) — Exposure to specific bacteria in the environment, already believed to have antidepressant qualities, could increase learning behavior, according to research presented at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Mark Twain To Reveal All After 100 Year Wait
Hugh Pickens writes"The Independent reports that one of Mark Twain's dying wishes is at last coming true: an extensive, outspoken and revelatory autobiography which he devoted the last decade of his life to writing is finally going to be published one hundred years after his death. Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs when he died in 1910, together with handwritten notes saying that he did not want them to hit bookshops for at least a century, but in November, the University of California, Berkeley, where the manuscript is in a vault, will release the first volume of Mark Twain's three-volume autobiography. Scholars are divided as to why Twain wanted his autobiography kept under wraps for so long, with some believing it was because he wanted to talk freely about issues such as religion and politics. Michael Shelden, who this year published Man in White, an account of Twain's final years, says that some of his privately held views could have hurt his public image. 'He had doubts about God, and in the autobiography, he questions the imperial mission of the US in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines,' says Shelden. 'He's also critical of [Theodore] Roosevelt, and takes the view that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel. Twain also disliked sending Christian missionaries to Africa. He said they had enough business to be getting on with at home: with lynching going on in the South, he thought they should try to convert the heathens down there.' Interestingly enough, Twain had a cunning plan to beat the early 20th century copyright law with its short copyright terms. Twain planned to republish every one of his works the moment it went out of copyright with one-third more content, hoping that availability of such 'premium' version will make prints based on the out-of-copyright version less desirable on the market."
Friday, May 21, 2010
School bus takes wrong students on field trip
LITTLE FERRY, N.J. - Officials say a mix-up led a school bus driver in northern New Jersey to start to take students to an amusement park instead of school.
About 30 Ridgefield Park High School students boarded the bus around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, thinking it was the bus they ride every day. But the driver had shown up early to take seventh- and eighth-graders to Six
The students became worried when the bus reached the New Jersey Turnpike and called their parents and the school when the driver wouldn't stop.
Homeless woman lived in man's closet for year
TOKYO - A homeless woman who sneaked into a man’s house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.
Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man’s closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.
The resident of the home installed security
Toyota Partners With Tesla To Make Electric Cars
Posted by timothy on Friday May 21, @08:12AM
from the is-a-new-tesla-greener-than-an-existing-hummer? dept.
from the is-a-new-tesla-greener-than-an-existing-hummer? dept.
An anonymous reader writes"Toyota just announced that it will invest $50 million in Tesla Motors and the two companies will partner to manufacture electric vehicles to meet California's growing demand for greener cars. Bay Area residents should be especially excited, as this venture is expected to create thousands of new jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is sure to be a boon to California's flagging economy. Tesla fans as well should rejoice as the new partnership will allow the EV start-up to bring its highly coveted, iconic design to into more affordable electric vehicles like the Model S sedan, which will sell for $49,900 and gets 300 miles on a 3-5 hour charge."
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Washington establishing timeline for sales of 'loud' EVs
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted May 20th 2010 3:19PM
Whenever we test drive an EV, we try to bring along a passenger who screams things out the window like "Beware! Silent car!" and "Electric vehicle! Don't get hit!" But we understand that for some of you this might not be an option. Luckily, it looks like initiatives to outfit electric vehicles with warning sounds have been picking up steam, from the Pedestrian Safety Act last year to a new bill that would have the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration establish a three year timeline for auto manufacturers. According to Autoblog, "there's no word as to how loud the noise would be or what it will sound like," although drivers would not be able to turn it off, and it would likely be variable, depending on your speed -- not unlike the system Brabus uses in its Smart High Voltage EV. As for your car-lovin' Engadget editors, we're already looking for one that emulates the growl of the '68 Ford Mustang that Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt.
National Academy of Science Urges Carbon Tax
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 19, @08:04PM
from the let-the-flamewar-begin dept.
from the let-the-flamewar-begin dept.
eldavojohn writes"Moving for the first time from a cautious message to a message of urgency, the National Academy of Science has advised the United States government to either adopt a carbon tax or cap and tradelegislation. This follows their most comprehensive study in three parts released today from the National Academies that, for the first time, urges required action from the government to curb climate change."
SSD power consumption reduced by 86 percent, speeds of 9.5GBps achieved by Japanese researchers
By Vladislav Savov posted May 20th 2010 6:53AM
10,000 Cows Can Power 1,000 Servers
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 20, @03:37AM
from the cattle-computing dept.
from the cattle-computing dept.
CWmike writes"Reducing energy consumption in data centers, particularly with the prospect of a federal carbon tax, is pushing vendors to explore an ever-growing range of ideas. HP engineers say that biogas may offer a fresh alternative energy approach for IT managers. Researchers at HP Labs presented a paper (download PDF) on using cow manure from dairy farms and cattle feedlots and other 'digested farm waste' to generate electricity to an American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference, held this week. In it, the research team calculates that 'a hypothetical farm of 10,000 dairy cows' could power a 1 MW data center — or on the order of 1,000 servers. One trend that makes the idea of turning organic waste into usable power for data centers is the moves by several firms to build facilities in rural locations, where high-speed networks allow them to take advantage of the cost advantages of such areas. But there are some practical problems, not the least of which is connecting a data center to the cows. If it does happen, the move could call for a new take on plug and play: plug and poo."
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Marine Mammals Used to Fight Terrorism
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 19, @11:11AM
from the jones-the-enhanced-dolphin dept.
from the jones-the-enhanced-dolphin dept.
pinkstuff writes"The Navy unveiled its terror-fighting marine mammals at a two-day homeland security and disaster preparedness exercise in California this week. From the article: 'A Navy seal — actually a sea lion — took less than a minute to find a fake mine under a pier near San Francisco's AT&T Park. A dolphin quickly located a terrorist lurking in the black water before another sea lion, using a device carried in its mouth, cuffed the pretend saboteur's ankle so authorities could reel him in.' Queue the 'frickin lasers' jokes."
Students accelerate cubicle arms race with PlayStation Eye-tracked, iPhone-guided coilgun (video)
By Sean Hollister posted May 19th 2010 7:37AM
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The Onion: Google 'whisper ads' detect keywords in phone calls (video)
By Thomas Ricker posted May 18th 2010 3:53AM
P.S. The Yahoo dig at the end is classic.
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