Comment Re:Lazy Wife phrase ideas (Score 1) 190
Only needs one : "NO!"
Submission + - New Program Detects Alzheimer's 6 Years Before Symptoms With 100% Accuracy (counselheal.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Being able to diagnose people with Alzheimer's disease years before debilitating symptoms appear is now a step closer to reality. Researchers behind Neurotrack, the technology startup that took the first health prize at this year's South by Southwest (SXSW) startup accelerator in Austin, says their new technology can diagnose Alzheimer's disease up to six years before symptoms appear with 100 percent accuracy.
Comment Re:"Towards the northern hemisphere" (Score 1) 398
For a currently green area to become a desert, it would need to stop raining there. My guess is that just isn't going to happen.
Comment /dev/null (Score 4, Funny) 150
isn't a holding-bay?
Submission + - New Research Sheds Light on the Evolution of Dogs
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The first dogs descended from wolves about 14,000 years ago but according to Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods humans didn't domesticate dogs — dogs sought out humans and domesticated us. Humans have a long history of eradicating wolves, rather than trying to adopt them which raises the question: How was the wolf tolerated by humans long enough to evolve into the domestic dog? "The short version is that we often think of evolution as being the survival of the fittest, where the strong and the dominant survive and the soft and weak perish. But essentially, far from the survival of the leanest and meanest, the success of dogs comes down to survival of the friendliest." Most likely, it was wolves that approached us, not the other way around, probably while they were scavenging around garbage dumps on the edge of human settlements. The wolves that were bold but aggressive would have been killed by humans, and so only the ones that were bold and friendly would have been tolerated. In a few generations, these friendly wolves became distinctive from their more aggressive relatives with splotchy coats, floppy ears, wagging tails. But the changes did not just affect their looks but their psychology. Protodogs evolved the ability to read human gestures. "As dog owners, we take for granted that we can point to a ball or toy and our dog will bound off to get it," write Hare and Woods. "But the ability of dogs to read human gestures is remarkable. Even our closest relatives — chimpanzees and bonobos — can't read our gestures as readily as dogs can." With this new ability, these protodogs were worth knowing. People who had dogs during a hunt would likely have had an advantage over those who didn't. Finally when times were tough, dogs could have served as an emergency food supply and once humans realized the usefulness of keeping dogs as emergency food, it was not a huge jump to realize plants could be used in a similar way. " This is the secret to the genius of dogs: It's when dogs join forces with us that they become special.," conclude Hare and Woods. "Dogs may even have been the catalyst for our civilization.""
Submission + - Moscow's speed cameras 'knackered' by MYSTERY malware (theregister.co.uk)
iComp writes: "Malware has infected a Russian police computer network, knackering speed cameras in and around Moscow, according to reports.
Broadsheet daily Izvestia reckons a server operated by the Office of Traffic Police was infiltrated by an unidentified Trojan. The infection disabled parts of the cops' Arrow-ST system used to monitor key highways in and around the Russian capital, we're told.
Cleaning up the mess has been complicated by the transfer of a government contract for the equipment's maintenance: SK Region, the supplier of the kit, handed the reins over to IntechGeoTrans earlier this year.
The cameras should bring in 100 million roubles ($3.2m) per month in speeding fines, but the network apparently hasn't been working properly for at least two weeks. Some reports suggested it went wrong as early as the start of February.
All this has sparked a massive political row: politicians blamed IntechGeoTrans for not sorting out the problem, but the company claimed it inherited a system in a state of chronic disrepair."
Broadsheet daily Izvestia reckons a server operated by the Office of Traffic Police was infiltrated by an unidentified Trojan. The infection disabled parts of the cops' Arrow-ST system used to monitor key highways in and around the Russian capital, we're told.
Cleaning up the mess has been complicated by the transfer of a government contract for the equipment's maintenance: SK Region, the supplier of the kit, handed the reins over to IntechGeoTrans earlier this year.
The cameras should bring in 100 million roubles ($3.2m) per month in speeding fines, but the network apparently hasn't been working properly for at least two weeks. Some reports suggested it went wrong as early as the start of February.
All this has sparked a massive political row: politicians blamed IntechGeoTrans for not sorting out the problem, but the company claimed it inherited a system in a state of chronic disrepair."
Comment Re:More Info Please... (Score 1) 123
photos, or it didn't happen!
Submission + - The Man Who Named Bluetooth (intelfreepress.com)
kenekaplan writes: "Jim Kardach's 27-year career at Intel led to energy-efficient mobile computers, hundreds of patented inventions and the creation of Bluetooth. "Design things to work efficiently, but more importantly, do nothing efficiently," said Kardach just prior to retiring as Intel's chief power architect."
Comment Re:I pay a 'road' tax to mow my lawn... (Score 1) 686
It takes me 2 hours on a 17HP ride-on mower to get most of my lawn done. Running around the fruit trees with a hand mower or weed-eater does a better job, but takes longer. I estimate about 5 litres of fuel - a little over $10. About half that is tax in one form or another.
True - it's much less than I spend for travel, but still unfair.
Comment I pay a 'road' tax to mow my lawn... (Score 1) 686
taxed at the pump for what is supposed to be spent on roads (just goes into the consolodated fund). It's not a particularly fair tax to begin with, but it irks me that I have to pay it to fill my mower/chainsaw/dirt bike... A tax on miles travelled is fairer (implemented here for diesel vehicles) but is still far from fair - even based on vehicle weight. Of course in NZ I can't drive out-of-state - much more complicated in the US.
Comment Re:Not really (Score 5, Insightful) 540
I think our algorithms have sucked, but it hasn't mattered much until recently.
Now we are able to make vast amounts of data available easily, so it matters a lot more.
Processing power still has a long way to go, but figuring out HOW to make use of the data is currently more important than the speed at which we can do it.
Comment Where I come from there are only 12 months (Score 1) 286
you insensative clod! (21/12/2012)
Comment Re:*confused (Score 1) 1719
one of those rare comments that deserves more than +5
Submission + - Alan Alda Challenges Scientists to Explain: What Is Time? (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: What is time? And how would you explain it to an 11-year-old? That's the question actor Alan Alda has posed to scientists in the second Flame Challenge—so named because the question in last year's competition was, "What is a flame?" The challenge aims to spur scientists to think about how they can better communicate with the public. Scientists have until 1 March to submit their answers, which will be judged by 11-year-olds around the world. Organizers will announce the winner at the World Science Festival in New York City on 1 June.
Submission + - 'Marine' Fossils May Instead Represent Early Land Dwellers (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: The fossils of various frondlike and sacklike organisms that supposedly lived at the bottom of ancient oceans may actually represent some of the earliest organisms to dwell on land. That's the controversial interpretation of a new study, which suggests that rocks long thought to have been formed from sediments deposited on ancient seafloors may actually be the remnants of early soils. If true, the finding would push back life's transition from sea to land by tens of millions of years—and possibly by 100 million years or more.
