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Twitter

Submission + - Twitter jokes: free speech on trial (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On 6 January 2010, Paul Chambers typed a flippant tweet that would turn his life upside-down for the next two and a half years. As the courts repeatedly showed a lack of common sense and an ignorance of technology, for a long time it looked as though our right to free speech was under very real threat. Now it's over, we can step back and take a detailed look at how such an insane case even came to trial. This feature delves deep into the the Twitter Joke Trial: how it happened, what it means, and the epic struggle to balance civility and civil liberties.
Science

Submission + - US colliders jostle for funds (nature.com)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland seized the world record for the highest-energy collisions in 2010, it also sealed the fate of the leading US particle collider. The Tevatron, at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, was closed the following year to save money.

Now, physicists at another US physics facility, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, are trying to avoid a similar end. On 13 August, researchers at the ALICE heavy-ion experiment at the LHC at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics lab near Geneva, announced that they had created the hottest-ever man-made plasma of quarks and gluons. This eclipsed the record temperature achieved at RHIC two years earlier by 38%, and raised uncomfortable questions about RHIC’s future.

Tribble still hopes to avoid having to close any of the three facilities. In 2005, he notes, a similar crisis was averted after an advisory committee laid out the dire consequences of flat funding for the future of US nuclear science. In the end, Congress came through with the budgetary increases required. “What we want to do here is to spell out what will be lost under different budgets,” he says. His committee is planning to hold a final meeting in November, in time to influence the budget requests from US funding agencies for the next fiscal year."
Power

Submission + - Is a nuclear fuelbank a good idea? (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Another roundtable at the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences explores the notion of nuclear fuel banks: offer nations a guaranteed supply of low-enriched uranium if they renounce the right to enrich on their own. So far, two articles have been published in the roundtable.
Cloud

Submission + - Stormy Weather Interferes With Cloud Computing, US Survey Reveals (techpp.com) 2

Submitted by
SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: "In a recent survey performed by Wakefield Research, it has been discovered that the majority of the surveyed Americans are quite confused about the notion of Cloud, when it relates to Cloud Storage/Computing. The most interesting fact is that 51% of the surveyed persons thought that stormy weather interferes with cloud computing!"
Science

Submission + - Calorie Restriction May Not Extend Lifespan (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Slash your food intake and you can live dramatically longer—at least if you're a mouse or a nematode. But a major study designed to determine whether this regimen, known as caloric restriction, works in primates suggests that it improves monkeys' health but doesn't extend their lives. Researchers not involved with the new paper say the results are still encouraging. Although the monkeys didn't evince an increase in life span, both studies show a major improvement in "health span," or the amount of time before age-related diseases set in. "I certainly wouldn't give up on calorie restriction as a health promoter" based on these findings, says molecular biologist Leonard Guarente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Medicine

Submission + - Hantavirus Scare for Yosemite Hikers (time.com)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "Vacationers to Yosemite National Park are getting quite a scare this week. On Tuesday,1,700 visitors were informed by officials that they may have been exposed tohantavirus and were at risk of developing hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a rare rodent-borne illness that has already claimed the lives of two national park visitors.

“We don’t fully know what’s going on with this situation,” says Yosemite National Park ranger Jana McCabe. ”We don’t know if something has changed in the environment, but we do know there are ways people can protect themselves. We are asking people not to sweep up mouse droppings if they see evidence of them, but to contact park staff. We are trained on how to respond to it.”

McCabe says the park has always followed the necessary precautions for keeping rodents out of living areas, but given that they are such a prevalent part of the ecosystem, it’s not always possible to protect campers or hikers.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/29/hantavirus-scare-for-yosemite-hikers/#ixzz24wTnvfF3"
Government

Submission + - At what point do risks justify limits on intellectual freedom? (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by __aaqpaq9254
__aaqpaq9254 writes: Laura Kahn: "Was the H5N1 research, for example, ethical and did its benefits outweigh its risks? The answer depends on whom you ask. Scientists insist that the benefits outweigh the risks, while security experts believe that the risks outweigh the benefits. But it's difficult to judge how strong a case the security experts have, because right now all the decision-making power about the value of an experiment rests mainly with the scientists."
Science

Submission + - Bill Nye "The Science Guy": Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children (youtube.com)

Submitted by timeOday
timeOday writes: BigThink has released a video missive by Bill Nye "The Science Guy" in which he challenges the low level of acceptance of evolution, particularly in the United States. He does not mince words: 'I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that's fine, but don't make your kids do it because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need people that can — we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.'
Medicine

Submission + - The unacceptable risk of a man-made pandemic (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by __aaqpaq9254
__aaqpaq9254 writes: Lynn C. Klotz and Edward J. Sylvester discuss the risks of a man-made pandemic by illustrating what research is happening in the lab: SARS seems to offer the most potential for a catastrophe, either accidental or through bioterrorism: "A quick search of PubMed, the National Library of Medicine database of medical research, identifies 30 labs that are working with live SARS virus and at least 10 using live 1918 flu virus."
Science

Submission + - Arctic Sea Ice to reach record low this August (nsidc.org)

Submitted by
vikingpower
vikingpower writes: "Although it is known that the arctic sea ice melts away, partially, each summer, it will probably hit an all-time low before the end of this month. The previous records, from 2007 and 2005, occurred in september of those years. Data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center show that the melting rate accelerated this august, whereas normally it slows down during this month. The graphs under the link tell an impressive story of diminishing surfaces. Ted Scambos, one of NSIDC's main researchers, clearly attributes this all-time low to human-induced climate change ( The interview is in Dutch, alas ), which is remarkable, coming from a US government-funded institute."
Earth

Submission + - Climate Change and the Syrian Uprising (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This well-sourced article shows the effects of a prolonged (and believe it or not, unusual) drought on Syria: displacement of 1.5 million, agriculture collapse, and civil unrest. As much as people want to believe it's all about democracy, there are other factors. Quote: "The considerations that impel an individual to protest in streets that are known to be lined by armed security forces extend beyond an abstract desire for democracy. Only a sense of extreme desperation and hopelessness can constitute the need — rather than a mere desire — to bring change to a country's economic, political, and social systems."
NASA

Submission + - Scientists set bold plan for future exploration of the Sun (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Our understanding of space weather and the impact of space around Earth has greatly increased in the last 10 years and if the ambitious plan the National Research Council can be implemented, the next 10 years will generate tons more scientific insight. The National Research Council issued its second research recommendation report, "Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society," which represents 18 months of research by more than 85 solar and space physicists and space system engineers and lays out major scientific goals for solar exploration on the next 10 years."

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