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Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."

Comment Re:Encoding? (Score 1) 284

by IcyWolfy (#29925543) Attached to: ICANN Approves Non-Latin ccTLDs

UTF-8 at the very least is ASCII-safe. if bit 8 is set, then it is part of a multi-byte character (all bytes of a multibyte character have bit-8 set). But if bit 8 is not set, then it's a plain ascii character, no matter it's position. It was this self-correcting portion of UTF-8 that maraks whether you are on a initial byte, or single byte that makes it good for syncronising in stream.

Encodings like S-JIS where the lead byte changes the meaning of all bytes ahead of it, does have the issue you mentioned. But, that's the reason everyone switched to UTF-8.

Comment Re:That's not a good replacement (Score 1) 891

by IcyWolfy (#28544761) Attached to: GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested

I say that they should really just up the gas tax. It's very low among modern countries that actually pay for their transportation.

For example:
Canada: $1.10/Gal + Sales Tax (5% GST)
Australia: $1.44/Gal + Sales Tax (10% GST)
Germany: â2.47/Gal + Sales Tax (19% VAT)
Netherlands â3.58/Gal + Sales Tax (19% VAT)
England: £2.12/Gal + Sales Tax (15% VAT)

And then you have the US: $0.18/Gal + State (Avg 0.28) = $0.46
The US is severely lagging behind in taxing the gasoline to fund transportation projects.
They won't bring it up to European Levels of $4/Gal in taxes.
But Canadian levels of increasing the gas tax 250% certainly is doable, and will help to fund transit, rail, roads.
Software

Apple Claims That Jail-Breaking Is Illegal 610

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the never-underestimate-the-power-of-greed dept.
rmav writes "Apple has finally made a statement about jail-breaking. They try to sell the idea that it is a copyright infringement and DMCA violation. This, despite the fact (as the linked article states) that courts have ruled that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software. I cannot help but think that the recent flood of iPhone cracked applications is responsible for this. Before that, Apple was quietly ignoring the jailbreak scene. Now, I suppose that in the future we may only install extra applications on our iPhones as ad hoc installs using the SDK, and if we want turn-by-turn directions, tethering, and the like, we have to compile these apps by ourselves? Maybe we should go and download the cydia source code and see what we can do with it."
Robotics

Toward Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Technology 137

Posted by kdawson from the fly-by-wire-only-there-is-no-wire dept.
coondoggie writes with a NetworkWorld piece that begins, "Researchers at Purdue will soon experiment with an unmanned aircraft that pretty much flies itself with little human intervention. The aircraft will use a combination of global-positioning system technology and a guidance system called AttoPilot ... to guide the aerial vehicle to predetermined points. Researchers can be stationed off-site to monitor the aircraft and control its movements remotely. AttoPilot was installed in the aircraft early this year, and testing will begin in the spring, researchers said."
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Ultrasound Machine Ages Wine 448

Posted by samzenpus from the I'll-take-the-cheap-stuff dept.
Inventor Casey Jones says his creation uses ultrasound technology to recreate the effects of decades of aging by colliding alcohol molecules inside the bottle. Mr. Jones said, "This machine can take your run-of-the-mill £3.99 bottle of plonk and turn it into a finest bottle of vintage tasting like it costs hundreds. It works on any alcohol that tastes better aged, even a bottle of paintstripper whisky can taste like an 8-year-aged single malt." The Ultrasonic Wine Ager, which looks like a Dr. Who ice bucket, takes 30 minutes to work and has already been given the thumbs up by an English winemaker. I know a certain special lady who is about to have the best bottle of Boone's Farm in the world.
Education

Submission + - Human presence linked to Corel Reef deaths

Submitted by cagrin
cagrin writes: From the article: "Scientists have known for years that humans are killing corals indirectly and directly through global warming, overfishing and pollution. Many reefs off populous coasts have been decimated, while those near uninhabited areas are often thriving. "For some reason, when you put people next to reefs, they die," said microbiologist Forest Rohwer of San Diego State University at a recent symposium at the American Museum of Natural History here. A 2004 study found that 70 percent of the world's reefs had been destroyed or were threatened by global warming and other human activities." Link: Herpes Virus Killing Coral Reefs
United States

Submission + - IT avoids oncall lawsuits by utilizing FLRA

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: For years it has been known that the IT industry has classified IT professionals as Exempt Employees regardless of their salaries. Now days we are more and more tethered to our jobs by Laptops, PDA's, and BlackBerry devices. Being on call 24 hours a day seven days a week was just part of the job. But as more and more IT professionals are growing tired of this attitude without adequate compensation, it seems the Corporations are teaming up with Congress to defeat any efforts to get adequate compensation for our efforts Please note the following articles and see how they relate to you. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210375,00.html Professor: BlackBerry Addiction Lawsuits Likely in Future http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=117336383317 9 How to Avoid Lawsuits by Tech-Driven Employees I believe it is time we tell the Industry and Congress we are tired of working for inadequate salaries and expected to be on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week without being adequately compensated for our knowledge and contribution to all industry by making information more readily available and making sure it is available anytime day or night.
Television

Submission + - Bob Barker's Final Episode - June 15 (cbs.com)

Submitted by IcyWolfy
IcyWolfy writes: After hosting The Price Is Right for nearly 35 years, Bob Barker is to leave the show at the age of 83. The final episode will be aired twice, during the normal daytime timeslot, and during prime time on June 15.
Software

Submission + - Nerdy photo in Vista DVDs thwarts disk pirates

Submitted by maximus1
maximus1 writes: Microsoft says that the tiny photo on the Windows Vista business edition installation disks is an antipiracy feature. The tiny photo of three grinning men — less that 1 mm in size — is one of several images incorporated into the hologram's design intended to make it harder to replicate a Vista DVD, according to Nick White on Microsoft's Vista team blog. "The real story is interesting, but conspiracy theorists will be disappointed to learn that it is not the result of a deliberate attempt to deceive," White wrote.

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