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Comment It was NOT cannabis they used on the rats (Score 0) 807

The substance was a specifically extracted cannabinoid type pharmaceutical. It was NOT THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis. Cannabis containing THC, taken in daily doses, generally causes an increase in psychiatric disease and also causes a slight to mild memory impairment; this has been demonstrated with many other sedative style drugs in large doses, notably alcohol and benzodiazepines.

Why would MJ hurt memory if taken daily, and yet this newly derived cannabinoid help preserve memory in rats used daily? Cannabis is a complex herbal substance, which probably contains multiple similar components which may be partially agonists and partially antagonists at the same or similar sites in the brain. So it's likely that taking an extractive that helped Alzheimers would be like smoking sawdust for your typical pot user. Most likely it would give them no buzz at all.

The pharmaceutical community is always looking for ways to derive good medications from herbal poisons. This is not really that different a situation.

Comment Re:Simple... (Score 1) 693

Yes, there is plenty of other customer information in the file. This should not normally be a problem. If it is, the following is not simple, but generally works:

---------
#!/usr/bin/perl

use Tk;
use Cwd;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Audio::M4P::QuickTime;

my $backup_requested = "yes";

my $win = new MainWindow;
my $frm = $win->Frame()->pack;
$frm->Label(
-text => "Anonymize Apple iTunes Plus .m4a Files",
-font => "Garamond 20 bold",
)->pack;

my $do_backup_choice = $frm->Radiobutton(
-text=> "Back Up (append .old.m4a to old files)",
-value => 'yes',
-variable => \$backup_requested,
-font => "Garamond 14 bold",
)->pack;

my $do_no_backup_choice = $frm->Radiobutton(
-text => "Do Not Back Up (files will be over-written!)",
-value=> 'no',
-variable => \$backup_requested,
-font => "Garamond 14 bold",
)->pack;

my $convert_button = $win->Button(
-text=> "Convert Files",
-command => \&push_button,
-font => "Garamond 17 bold",
)->pack;

my $exit_button = $win->Button(
-text=> "Exit",
-command => sub { exit 0 },
-font => "Garamond 17 bold",
)->pack;

MainLoop;

sub push_button {
my $write_extension = $backup_requested eq 'no' ? '' : '.old.m4a';
my @file_list = $win->getOpenFile(
-defaultextension => ".pl",
-filetypes=> [ [ 'MP4a files', '.m4a', ], [ 'All Files', '*', ], ],
-initialdir => Cwd::cwd(),
-initialfile=> "getopenfile",
-title=> "Choose Purchased Apple iTunes Plus Files to Anonymize",
-multiple => 1,
);

foreach my $filename (@file_list) {
my $qt = Audio::M4P::QuickTime->new( file => $filename );
if ( $qt->FindAtom("mp4a") ) {
$qt->CleanAppleM4aPersonalData();
rename( $filename, $filename . $write_extension );
$qt->WriteFile($filename);
}
else {
$win->messageBox(
-message => "Error: $filename is not a valid m4a file.",
-type=> 'ok',
-icon=> 'error'
);
}
}
}

Earth

Robot Submarine To Dive Deep In the Caribbean 99

Roland Piquepaille writes "According to BBC News, a new UK autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), Autosub6000, will soon start to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes, located in the Caribbean. Autosub6000 has a range of up to 1,000 kilometers and has a maximum operating depth of 6,000 meters. It is 5.5 meters long, has a diameter of 0.9 meters, and is equipped with a high-performance GPS unit. For these two expeditions, each close to a month long, Autosub6000 will be joined by the Isis remotely operated vehicle, which is able to operate at a depth of 6,000 meters and grab animal specimens. Researchers from the National Oceanography Center in Southampton will lead these missions. They expect that 'one in every two animals they come across will be a species new to science' once the robots reach a depth of 3,000 meters." Specifications for the submarine (PDF) are also available.
Businesses

Open Source Helps New IT Grads Get Foot in the Door 128

Yes, some US IT jobs are disappearing, but Linux.com (which shares a corporate overlord with Slashdot) has a recent story emphasizing the job advantage that involvement in open source projects can give young programmers who aren't planning to ditch their dreams of making a living in the field. The article focuses on one programmer's experience with Google's Summer of Code, which led directly to her job working on the Drupal content-management system. But the underlying message (that involvement in open source projects provides a background of experience otherwise difficult to obtain because of the chicken-and-egg problem of "experience required" job opportunities) is generalizable to many other forms of open-source involvement. Do you have a job that you landed because of your unpaid open-source programming?
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - Sun releases its own virtualization technology

An anonymous reader writes: According to the architect's blog Sun has released the first version of its super secret virtualization technology to compete with VMware and LPARs. They claim the technology enables up to 32 virtual machines to run on a single SPARC processor — and Sun is giving the software away (i.e. free as in beer). This represents one of the biggest technology milestones in SPARC since 64bit support. Uncharacteristically Sun is almost embarrassed to discuss it. Why is that?

This technology fully exploits the hardware support for virtualization that was added to SPARC with the Niagara family. Their web page is also claiming linux (and presumably BSD) support as well — but without any links or verifiable evidence that this is true. We will have to see if Sun will live up to their hype of championing open source.

We will also have to wait and see if Sun has shared all the secret sauce with their friends at Fujitsu. There is no mention of support for the large machines based on Fujitsu's SPARC64 that Sun will soon be pushing as part of the APL "partnership."

Anyone from Sun want to fill us in?
Media

Submission + - Vudu Casts Its Spell on Hollywood

jshriverWVU writes: Vudu Box The Vudu box looks like a nifty new device for buying digital media and viewing it on your TV. Here is a snipet from the article: Vudu, if all goes as planned, hopes to turn America's televisions into limitless multiplexes, providing instant gratification for movie buffs. It has built a small Internet-ready movie box that connects to the television and allows couch potatoes to rent or buy any of the 5,000 films now in Vudu's growing collection. The box's biggest asset is raw speed: the company says the films will begin playing immediately after a customer makes a selection.
Power

Submission + - Europe's First Solar Thermal Power Online

rohar writes: "According to BBC News, Solucar, a division of Abengoa has brought Europe's first commercial solar thermal power station online. It is generating 11MW using a heliostat flat mirror and central tower solar steam system. A video of the system is available from BBC.

The system design would integrate very well with the SHPEGS concepts and combining this type of CSP plant with seasonal thermal storage and a massive air-coupled solar heat pump has a very strong potential for high summer insolation/cold winter climates like Canada and the Northern US and Europe."
Operating Systems

No Windows (Officially) On OLPC 179

Kadin2048 writes "Despite reports last week in major news sources indicating that the One Laptop Per Child project was in negotiations with Microsoft to bring Windows XP to the low-cost platform, Walter Bender, president of Software and Content at OLPC, said in an interview with Ars Technica, 'We are a free and open-source shop. We have no one from OLPC working with Microsoft on developing a Windows platform for the XO.'"
Portables

Submission + - Newsware, the modern reporter's kit

GadgetMike writes: "Time to bring up another interesting concept. I like to call it the 21st century reporter's kit but its designer, Benjamin Kuhn, made it more simple: Newsware. It's all about a system of wireless connected digital devices, each surprising with an astonishing design and capable of performing simple tasks.

We have a 4 piece set, with a small high resolution digital camera, a voice recorder, a soft and portable keypad and the brain, called the NotePad. It's actually a double sided touchscreen display, capable of processing the data collected for all the other devices and allowing the reporter to complete the article in no time. Together, they form Newsware, a system that would make every journalist in the world drool. I can just hope it won't take too much to see this concept made reality..."
Intel

Submission + - CNet Claims Exclusive On Santa Rosa Benchmarks

LuckyCat writes: CNet has posted what I believe to be the first ever review of Intel's soon to be launched Santa Rosa chipset, "Good news laptop fans, we've got a Santa Rosa laptop, and we've been putting it through its paces for the last few days." One of the most interesting feaures is something called Turbo Memory, "which is designed to speed up boot times and application responsiveness. This is essentially a piece of NAND memory (either 512MB or 1GB in size) mounted directly into the motherboard, or into a special slot should the laptop manufacturer choose."
Graphics

Submission + - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra Sneak Preview

Benchmark Reviews writes: "When NVIDIA originally released the GeForce 8800 series back in November of 2006, the industry was stunned. The performance yielded by the newly minted top-level 8800 GTX nearly doubled the next best offerings prior to their launch. Even the slightly less powerful 8800 GTS managed to post similarly astonishing results, making their release a double-whammy for the competition. At that particular time, the high price tag seemed acceptable for a narrow majority.

But that was then, and this is now. Today NVIDIA Corporation introduced the world's fastest graphics processing unit (GPU), the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra. NVIDIA has quickly moved into production with the new GeForce 8800 Ultra video card, and they are offering it to the most dedicated consumers with a price tag approaching nearly $1000. NVIDIA promises unmatched performance, but what exactly is the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and is it worth the money? Benchmark Reviews offers this insightful sneak preview of the GeForce 8800 Ultra video card from NVIDIA so that you can decide for yourself.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_c ontent&task=view&id=34&Itemid=1"
Networking

Submission + - Homeless man disrupts Internet2 service

MSRedfox writes: A fire started by a homeless man knocked out service between Boston and New York on the experimental Internet2 network. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/050207-inter net2-fire.html "Question: When can a cigarette take down your network? Answer: When you throw it at a bridge and light it on fire." It seems the redundant systems are needed when internet2 services can be knocked out this easily. Does this show that internet2 has a long ways to go before it's ready for prime time?

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