Microsoft deliberately wasted energy at data center to avoid fine, says NY Times

Microsoft deliberately wasted energy at data center to avoid fine, says NY Times:

Microsoft's desire to avoid a fine combined with a power company's strict electricity usage rules resulted in the software giant deliberately wasting millions of watts of power, according to the New York Times. Redmond's Quincy data center, which houses Bing, Hotmail and other cloud-based servers, had an agreement in place with a Washington state utility containing clauses which imposed penalties for under-consumption of electricity. A $210,000 fine was levied last year, since the facility was well below its power-use target, which prompted Microsoft to deliberately burn $70,000 worth of electricity in three days "in a commercially unproductive manner" to avoid it, according to its own documents. The utility board capitulated and reduced the amend to $60k, but the messy situation seems a far cry from Redmond's pledge to become carbon neutral by this summer.
[Image credit: New York Times]
Filed under: Misc, Alt

Microsoft deliberately wasted energy at data center to avoid fine, says NY Times originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Climate is changing the Great Barrier Reef

Climate is changing the Great Barrier Reef: Satellite measurement of sea surface temperatures has yielded clear evidence of major changes taking place in the waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef over the past 25 years, marine scientists have found.

Milky Way Is Surrounded By Halo of Hot Gas

Milky Way Is Surrounded By Halo of Hot Gas:
New submitter kelk1 writes "If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it also could be an explanation for what is known as the 'missing baryon' problem for the galaxy [...] a census of the baryons present in stars and gas in our galaxy and nearby galaxies shows at least half the baryons are unaccounted for [...] Although there are uncertainties, the work by Gupta and colleagues provides the best evidence yet that the galaxy's missing baryons have been hiding in a halo of million-kelvin gas that envelopes the galaxy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Food for thought: Do family meals really make a difference for child academics or behavior?

Food for thought: Do family meals really make a difference for child academics or behavior?: Despite popular wisdom and findings from much previous research that suggests the beneficial impact of family mealtime, a rigorous analysis of 21,400 children, ages five to 15, brings a new argument to the table: When researchers controlled for a host of confounding factors, they didn’t find any relationship between family meals and child academic outcomes or behavior.

Ants share decision-making, lessen vulnerability to 'information overload'

Ants share decision-making, lessen vulnerability to 'information overload': A research study with ants shows that collective decision-making proves more efficient than individual selection.

Robot Snakes To Fight Cancer Via Natural Orifice Surgery

Robot Snakes To Fight Cancer Via Natural Orifice Surgery:



Hugh Pickens writes writes "BBC reports that on a robot snake that, guided by a skilled surgeon and designed to get to places doctors are unable to reach without opening a patient up, could help spot and remove tumors more effectively. Robot snakes could be as minimally invasive using body orifices or local incisions as points of entry. 'Surgery is a cornerstone treatment for cancer so new technologies making it even more precise and effective are crucial,' says Safia Danovi from Cancer Research UK. 'Thanks to research, innovations such as keyhole surgery and robotics are transforming the treatment landscape for cancer patients and this trend needs to continue.' Robot snakes could complement a robotic surgical system that has been used for the past decade — the Da Vinci surgical system — that is controlled by a surgeon sitting in a nearby chair and looking at a screen displaying the area of the body where the surgery is taking place. The surgeon manipulates the robot by pressing pedals and moving levers. Natural orifice surgery (warning: pictures of the inside of a person) has the potential to revolutionize surgery in the same way that laparoscopic surgery replaced open surgery. The objective is to enter the abdomen through an internal organ rather than through the skin — e.g. access via the mouth, esophagus and stomach, and then through the stomach wall. 'We are at the earliest stage of establishing the problems and proposing solutions,' says Rob Buckingham of OC Robotics, developer of the robot snake (video). 'Our prototype signals a direction of travel and is a milestone towards exploring a new surgical paradigm.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Best and Worst of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Sci-Fi Optimism

The Best and Worst of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Sci-Fi Optimism: Win a Copy of Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One

Two fans who post the geekiest Star Trek: The Next Generation comments below will score copies of the new bonus-packed Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One Blu-ray collection. To enter, tell us your favorite (or least favorite) Next Generation episodes.

Deadline to enter is 12:01 ...

Odorant shape and vibration likely lead to olfaction satisfaction

Odorant shape and vibration likely lead to olfaction satisfaction: A new study lends support to a controversial theory of olfaction: Our noses can distinguish both the shape and the vibrational characteristics of odorant molecules. The study demonstrates the feasibility of the theory – first proposed decades ago – that the vibration of an odorant molecule's chemical bonds – the wagging, stretching and rocking of the links between atoms – contributes to our ability to distinguish one smelly thing from another.

Misinformation: Why it sticks and how to fix it

Misinformation: Why it sticks and how to fix it: Childhood vaccines do not cause autism. Barack Obama was born in the United States. Global warming is confirmed by science. And yet, many people believe claims to the contrary. Why does that kind of misinformation stick? A new report explores this phenomenon, highlighting the cognitive factors that make certain pieces of misinformation so "sticky" and identifying techniques that may be effective in debunking erroneous beliefs.

Climate scientists put predictions to the test

Climate scientists put predictions to the test: A study has found that climate-prediction models are good at forecasting long-term climate patterns on a global scale but lose their edge when applied to time frames shorter than three decades and on smaller geographic scales. The goal of the research was to bridge the communities of climate scientists and weather forecasters, who sometimes disagree with respect to climate change.

People change moral position without even realizing it

People change moral position without even realizing it: Shortly after expressing a moral view about a difficult topic, people may easily endorse the opposite view and remain blind to the psychological mismatch, according to new research.

Sesame and rice bran oil lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol

Sesame and rice bran oil lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol: People who cooked with a blend of sesame and rice bran oils saw a significant drop in blood pressure and improved cholesterol levels, according to new research.

Yogurt consumption, blood pressure, and incident hypertension

Yogurt consumption, blood pressure, and incident hypertension: Adding more yogurt to your diet without increasing the number of calories you eat may help lower your risk of high blood pressure, according to new research.

Many parents believe that letting young children taste alcohol discourages later use

Many parents believe that letting young children taste alcohol discourages later use: One in four mothers believe that letting young children taste alcohol may discourage them from drinking in adolescence and 40 percent believe that not allowing children to taste alcohol will only make it more appealing, according to a new study. The finding is noteworthy, the study's authors say, because early introduction to alcohol is a primary risk factor for problem drinking during adolescence.

Clenching left hand could help athletes avoid choking under pressure

Clenching left hand could help athletes avoid choking under pressure: Some athletes may improve their performance under pressure simply by squeezing a ball or clenching their left hand before competition to activate certain parts of the brain, according to new research.

Rx guide for high blood pressure

Rx guide for high blood pressure: Blood pressure medications are currently failing millions of Americans, who continue to battle hypertension and remain at increased risk for heart attack and stroke.

Diabetes drug could help fight Alzheimer's disease, study reveals

Diabetes drug could help fight Alzheimer's disease, study reveals: A drug designed for diabetes sufferers could have the potential to treat neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, a new study reveals.

Google knows what you did this summer, shares it with the world

Google knows what you did this summer, shares it with the world:

What we wouldn't give to have access to Google's treasure trove of human wonderings. Every day millions of folk tell the search giant exactly what they are thinking about, without even realizing it. It's not all take take take, though, as Mountain View has just released some data letting us all know what we and our (geographical) neighbors did this summer. By compiling popular search terms used in Google Maps between May and September, we can see that, while Canadians and the Spanish were looking for the beach, Britons were more partial to a game of Squash, or a trip around Trafalgar Square. Back home, Death Valley, Redwood and Yosemite National Parks were earning the most interest, while Paintball was the top activity -- but we're hoping the two are unrelated. Want to see how the Dutch like to unwind, or how Indians like to cool off? Jump on the tour bus source link to find out more.
Filed under: Internet

Google knows what you did this summer, shares it with the world originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 08:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ultrasound Waves For Transdermal Drug Delivery

Ultrasound Waves For Transdermal Drug Delivery:
An anonymous reader writes with news of research from MIT, where engineers have found a better way to use ultrasound waves to boost the permeability of skin for the delivery of drugs.
"Ultrasound — sound waves with frequencies greater than the upper limit of human hearing — can increase skin permeability by lightly wearing away the top layer of the skin, an effect that is transient and pain-free. ... When ultrasound waves travel through a fluid, they create tiny bubbles that move chaotically. Once the bubbles reach a certain size, they become unstable and implode. Surrounding fluid rushes into the empty space, generating high-speed 'microjets' of fluid that create microscopic abrasions on the skin. In this case, the fluid could be water or a liquid containing the drug to be delivered. In recent years, researchers working to enhance transdermal drug delivery have focused on low-frequency ultrasound, because the high-frequency waves don’t have enough energy to make the bubbles pop. However, those systems usually produce abrasions in scattered, random spots across the treated area. In the new study (abstract), the MIT team found that combining high and low frequencies offers better results. The high-frequency ultrasound waves generate additional bubbles, which are popped by the low-frequency waves."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Two Teams Win the BotPrize

Two Teams Win the BotPrize:
An anonymous reader writes "For the past five years, the 2K BotPrize has challenged artificial intelligence researchers and programmers to create a computer-game-playing bot that plays like a person. It's one thing to make bots that play computer games very well — computers are faster and more accurate than a person can ever be — but it's a different thing to make bots that are fun to play against. In a breakthrough result, after years of striving and improvement from 14 different international teams from nine countries, two teams have crossed the humanness barrier! The teams share $7000 in prize money and a trip to games company 2K's Canberra studio. The winners are the UT^2 team from the University of Texas at Austin, and Mihai Polceanu, a doctoral student from Romania, currently studying Artificial Intelligence at ENIB CERV — Centre de Réalité Virtuelle, Brest, France. The UT^2 team is Professor Risto Miikulainen, and doctoral students Jacob Schrum and Igor Karpov. The bots created by the two teams both achieved a humanness rating of 52%, easily exceeding the average humanness rating of the human players, at 40%. It is especially fitting that the prize has been won in the 2012 Alan Turing Centenary Year. The famous Turing test — where a computer has to have a conversation with a human, and pretends to be another human — was the inspiration for the BotPrize competition. Where to now for human-like bots? Next year we hope to propose a new and exciting challenge for game playing bot creators to push their technologies to the next level of human-like performance."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New tech stymied by copyright law

New tech stymied by copyright law: From Napster to iTunes to Pandora, the methods by which the public can obtain and share music have rapidly progressed. Future groundbreaking innovations may need to wait, though, as the next generation of technology is being stymied by the very copyright laws that seek to protect the industry, says one expert.

Why America's School "Lag" Has Never Mattered

Why America's School "Lag" Has Never Mattered:



The Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development (OECD), a forum of the top 34 developed economies, has released an annual education report, and guess what? The U.S. has once again ranked poorly in relation to many other developed countries. An article at TechCrunch argues that we needn't worry because it doesn't matter: "However, the report implies that education translates into gainful market skills, an assumption not found in the research. For instance, while Chinese students, on average, have twice the number of instructional hours as Americans, both countries have identical scores on tests of scientific reasoning.

'The results suggest that years of rigorous training of physics knowledge in middle and high schools have made significant impact on Chinese students’ ability in solving physics problems, while such training doesn’t seem to have direct effects on their general ability in scientific reasoning, which was measured to be at the same level as that of the students in USA,' wrote a team of researchers studying whether Chinese superiority in rote scientific knowledge translated into the kinds of creative thinking necessary for innovation."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Self-control may not be a limited resource after all

Self-control may not be a limited resource after all: So many acts in our daily lives – refusing that second slice of cake, walking past the store with the latest gadgets, working on tax forms when you'd rather watch TV – seem to boil down to one essential ingredient: Self-control. But what is self-control, really? And how does it work? Researchers argue that the prevailing model of self-control may not be as precise as researchers once thought.

Official U.S. Poverty rate remains high, middle class incomes decline

Official U.S. Poverty rate remains high, middle class incomes decline: Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau today show that, after increasing since 2008, the poverty rate for the U.S. remained stable at 15 percent between 2010 and 2011.

Very cool on the newly discovered first color movie