Wednesday, January 25, 2012
MIT Media Lab Rolls Out Folding Car
Posted by samzenpus
from the sub-sub-compact dept.
kkleiner writes"You think European cars are small now, wait till the Hiriko takes to the roads in Spain's northern Basque country. The two-seater is about the size of a SmartCar, but when parked, the car can actually fold. After folding the car takes up about a third of a normal parking space. The Hiriko, Basque for 'urban car,' folds as the rear of the car slides underneath its chassis. Every square foot counts."
Turning the Hayden Planetarium Into a Giant Videogame
Posted by samzenpus
from the biggest-screen dept.
pigrabbitbear writes"Remember your first visit to the planetarium? Neil DeGrasse Tyson does — it was what inspired him to become an astrophysicist in the first place. That same planetarium, now under Tyson's direction, is currently undergoing a transformation the likes of which Neil's young self couldn't have possibly imagined: It's becoming a giant videogame."
How long do you REALLY have
A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor's office.
'Is it true,' she wanted to know,
'that the medication
You prescribed has to be taken
For the rest of my life?'
'Yes, I'm afraid so,' the doctor told her.
There was a moment of silence
Before the senior lady replied,
I'm wondering, then,
Just how serious is my condition
Because this prescription is marked
'NO REFILLS'.'
Food Fried in Olive or Sunflower Oil Is Not Linked to Heart Disease, Spanish Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2012) — Eating food fried in olive or sunflower oil is not linked to heart disease or premature death, finds a paper published in theBritish Medical Journal online (bmj.com).
Monday, January 23, 2012
Supreme Court says police must get search warrant to use GPS tracking devices
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jan 23rd 2012 11:30AM
The US Supreme Court ruled today that police must first obtain a search warrant before using GPS devices to track a suspect's vehicle, agreeing with an earlier appeals court ruling but rejecting the Obama administration's position on the case. In delivering the decision, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the court holds "that the government's installation of a GPS device on a target's vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a 'search,'" and therefore violated the individual's Fourth Amendment rights. The case itself concerned a Washington DC nightclub owner and suspected drug dealer, Antoine Jones, who had his car's movements monitored for a month and was eventually sentenced to life in prison, only to see that conviction overturned by the aforementioned appeals court on the grounds that the police did not have a search warrant when they placed the GPS tracking device on his vehicle.New Discoveries in Cell Aging
ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) — Researchers have quantified with precision the effect of protein aggregation on the cell aging processes using as models the Escherichia coli bacteria and the molecule which is thought to trigger Alzheimer's disease. Scientists have demonstrated that the effect can be predicted before it occurs. Protein aggregation is related to several diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases.
Group Settings Can Diminish Expressions of Intelligence, Especially Among Women, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2012) — Research has found that small-group dynamics -- such as jury deliberations, collective bargaining sessions, and cocktail parties -- can alter the expression of IQ in some susceptible people.
The Coda Electric Car at the Detroit International Auto Show (Video)
Posted by Roblimo
from the maybe-enough-battery-life-to-get-you-to-work-and-back dept.
Last week Timothy Lord looked at the Tesla Model S. He also took a quick look at the CODA electric car. Like Tesla, CODA is based in California. Like Tesla, CODA is building purely electric, "plug-in" cars. But unlike Tesla, CODA is making a bland but practical sedan that can go up to 150 miles on a charge and costs about $37,000. That's not exactly a Kia-competitive price, even though Tim says it looks kind of like a Kia. But it's 100% electric and costs less than a Tesla -- really, hardly more than a Nissan Leaf. And it has a fully-usable back seat and a decent-sized trunk. And unlike the Nissan Leaf, it's made right here in the good old USA.
YouTube hits 4 billion views per day, deals with 60 hours of uploaded content every minute
By Mat Smith posted Jan 23rd 2012 7:45AM
It looks like that redesign was worth it. The Google-owned video site has recently revealed that it's now streaming 4 billion videos every day, up 25 percent on daily views from eight months earlier. According to Reuter's report, the site now has to deal with around 60 hours of uploaded video every minute. As long as those education videos are kept separate and the cat content keeps coming, we'll be happy.
Russian Scientist Claims Signs of Life Spotted On Venus
Posted by samzenpus
from the we-are-not-alone dept.
flergum writes"Leonid Ksanfomaliti, an astronomer based at the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences, analyzed photographs taken by a Russian landing probe during 1982 and claims to have found signs of life. Ksanfomaliti says the Russian photographs depict objects resembling a 'disk,' a 'black flap' and a 'scorpion.'"
Nano-Scale Terahertz Antenna May Make Tricorders Real
Posted by samzenpus
from the welcome-to-the-future dept.
MrSeb writes"Researchers from Imperial College London and A*STAR in Singapore have shown off a terahertz antenna that's just 100 nanometers across — about 30,000 times smaller than existing terahertz antennae — and two orders of magnitude stronger than other T-ray beam-forming techniques. T-rays are a lot like EHF (extremely high frequency), which is used by millimeter wave scanners in airports, medical imaging, and emerging wireless networking standards like WiGig — but stronger, faster, and more detailed. Where EHF radiation can see through your clothes, T-rays can penetrate a few millimeters of skin. Furthermore, because atoms and molecules have a unique terahertz-range signature, T-ray scanners can detect toxic substances, bombs, drugs — or even cancerous tumors under your skin. Most importantly, though, due to the nano scale of these antennae, it's possible to create huge antennae arrays on a single silicon chip, meaning hand-held T-ray scanners are now a possibility. In the not so distant future, every household might have a Star Trek-like tricorder capable of detecting cancer or other diseases."
What Happens To Your Files When a Cloud Service Shuts Down?
Posted by Soulskill
from the apocalypse-and-doom dept.
MrSeb writes"Megaupload's shutdown poses an interesting question: What happens toall the files that were stored on the servers? XDA-Developers, for example, has more than 200,000 links to Megaupload — and this morning, they're all broken, with very little hope of them returning. What happens if a similar service, like Dropbox, gets shut down — either through bankruptcy, or federal take-down? Will you be given a chance to download your files, or helped to migrate them to another similar service? What about data stored on enterprise services like Azure or AWS — are they more safe?"And if you're interested, the full indictment against Megaupload is now available.
CEOs of RIM Step Down
Posted by samzenpus
from the so-long-farewell-aufwiedersehn-goodbye dept.
An anonymous reader writes"After two decades of leading the BlackBerry maker, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balisillie are stepping downfrom their roles as Co-CEOs at Canada's Research In Motion Limited. Thorsten Heins, will now lead the BlackBerry maker as it attempts to beat the likes of Apple and Google."
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Town Turns Off the Lights To See the Stars
Posted by samzenpus
from the we're-going-dark dept.
Hugh Pickens writes"Stargazing skies all over the world are disappearing, as the sky above New York City is Class 9 on the Bortle ranking and American suburban skies are typically Class 5, 6, or 7. But some places are making an effort to preserve their skywatching heritage as Exmoor National Park was granted International Dark-Sky Reserve status in November and people in the Exmoor town of Dulverton were challenged to switch off their lights as part of the BBC's Stargazing Live, demonstrating that you don't need special equipment to see the stars more clearly, if you have a decent pair of binoculars. 'The whole idea is to show that even a small town, which is still quite dark, can give off quite a lot of light,' says astronomer Mark Thompson. The event in Dulverton gained a lot of support from local residents and businesses. 'It needed a bit of organization to get everyone to say yes,' says town mayor Chris Nelder. 'We want people to just enjoy the night sky, to treasure the fact we have them and to look after them,' adds Claire O'Connor from Exmoor National Park Authority."
Jet Lag: What's Causing One of the Driest, Warmest Winters in History? The jet stream controls winter weather, but strange forces are controlling the jet stream this season
A little snow and rain are falling in a few states today, but the 2011–12 winter has been extremely warm and dry across the continental U.S. Meteorologists think they have figured out why.
US Finally Backs International Space "Code of Conduct"
Posted by samzenpus
from the space-rules dept.
coondoggie writes"Perhaps it was the concern that the nearly 14 ton Russian Mars probe would land smack-dab on the White House or maybe they just come to their senses, but the U.S. State Department today said it would indeed work with the European Union and other countries to develop a formal space code of conduct. Of particular concern is the growing amount of space trash and how the world can go about eliminating or controlling the problem. There is also the desire to keep space free of military weaponry."
Supercomputer Cools Off Using Groundwater
Posted by samzenpus
from the refreshing-drink dept.
gManZboy writes"The Department of Energy is no stranger to supercomputers, and its Pacific Northwest National Lab has proven that it can continue to be an innovator in the field by using what the lab calls a unique groundwater-fed cooling system in the lab's newest supercomputer, Olympus. The novel cooling system translates normal groundwater into big savings for the new 162 teraflop supercomputer, which is being used in energy, chemical, and fluid dynamics research. The setup translates into 70% less energy use than traditionally cooled systems."
Spider Silk Cape Goes On Display
Posted by samzenpus
from the 1-million-thread-count dept.
fangmcgee writes"Before anyone asks, no, it's not bulletproof. But that doesn't mean that the glistening yellow cape—the world's largest garment made entirely from spider silk—isn't a massive feat of engineering to be marveled. Now on public display for the first time at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the textile gets its unearthly gleam from the undyed filaments of the golden orb spider, a species of arachnid commonly found in Madagascar."
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Multicellular Life Evolves In Months, In a Lab
Posted by Soulskill
from the selecting-for-extroverted-cells dept.
ananyo writes"The origin of multicellular life, one of the most important developments in Earth's history, could have occurred with surprising speed, U.S. researchers have shown. In the lab, a single-celled yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) took less than 60 days to evolve into many-celled clusters that behaved as individuals. The clusters even developed a primitive division of labor, with some cells dying so that others could grow and reproduce. Multicellular life has evolved independently at least 25 times, but these transitions are so ancient that they have been hard to study. The researchers wanted to see if they could evolve multicellularity in a single-celled organism, using gravity as the selective pressure. In a tube of liquid, clusters of yeast cells settle at the bottom more quickly than single cells. By culturing only the cells that sank, they selected for those that stick together. After many rounds of selection over 60 days, the yeast had evolved into 'snowflakes' comprising dozens of cells."
New Mexico Is Stretching, GPS Reveals
Posted by Soulskill
from the too-many-tacos dept.
Velcroman1 writes"New Mexico's borders are gradually gaining girth, according to the Albuquerque Journal. It's not much, and it's not happening very fast — the state is getting about an inch wider every 40 years — but the state is unquestionably expanding, according to University of Colorado geophysicist Henry Berglund and his colleagues. Using a collection of 25 extra-precise GPS receivers planted across New Mexico and Colorado, Berglund determined that the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe are creeping away from each other. The rate of change seems ever so slow to the untrained ear, described as approximately 1.2 'nanostrains' per year."
Research In Motion To Be Sold, Possibly To Samsung
Posted by Soulskill
from the all-about-the-benjamins dept.
New submitter ve6ay writes"The talk of the tech world over the past day is that RIM, struggling mightilyin these last months, was in talks to be bought either partially or wholly by Samsung. Sources at the Boy Genius Report indicate that while RIM may be trying to sell, it is asking way too much for itself."
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