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Hugh Pickens writes writes: "CNN reports that as public outrage reaches critical mass over Casey Anthony's release from jail, trial observers who agree with the jury's verdict say holes in the state's forensic case in a trial based largely on circumstantial evidence help explain why she was acquitted in daughter Caylee's death. "A courtroom isn't a scientific lab and evidence shouldn't come in before it has been accepted in a relevant scientific community," says professor Adina Schwartz. Arguably, the most disputed testimony came from Dr. Arpad Vass, the inventor of a new method of testing air for chemicals indicative of decomposition who told the jury that testing of air samples, carpet, scrapings from the wheel well and a spare tire cover from the car found a handful of compounds associated with human decomposition. "He comes in and says, I have invented this new air analysis system and I can tell this is a decomposing body. He didn't say it was consistent, he said it had to be a decomposing body. That's the kind of grandiose claim that you can pretty much never make in forensic science because we don't yet have the research and facts to back it up," says Schwartz. A rare method of analyzing a strand of hair for signs of decomposition was also presented to the jury, much to the surprise of forensic scientists and lawyers watching the case. "I wouldn't call it all junk science, but it wasn't ready for court, and just by letting it in doesn't mean the jury's going to buy it," says defense lawyer and forensic consultant Keith Murray. "I'm sure we'll see more of this stuff down the road; hopefully it'll be more refined by then. It just wasn't ready for prime time.""
Chas writes: Approximately two years ago, a story popped up on Slashdot about a researcher, David Meyers (aka Twixt) who had supposedly spent time "studying" players in the City of Heroes MMO. At the time, there was a lot of media attention about the subject. After a short time, it dropped and nothing more was heard on it until now.
Apparently one of the players who was upset did more than simply rant on a board. The player, who had some of their own training in sociology contacted both NCSoft and Loyola University to notify them about the ethical violations of experimenting on people (especially minors) without their permission.
Since then the Mr. Meyers has scrubbed almost all reference to his paper from his CV, and a book deal was quietly killed.
GillBates0 writes: "CNN has a nice story about how online collaboration swiftly helped form a centrally organized online disaster effort during Wednesday's Mumbai attacks. India accounts for almost one fifth of the world's cell phone subscribers. At a time when chaos reigned, and voice calls were jammed, a loose collaboration of techies, laymen, and good samaritans quickly collaborated online via social media, Wikipedia, Google docs and other online resoureces to coordinate blood donors, assistance, rides, and other services to help the victims of the attack."
Ailfred writes: "Buffalo Beast has gone — The online news site Buffalo Beast has gone offline after publishing a prank phone call between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and a Buffalo Beast editor who posed as The online news site Buffalo Beast has gone offline after publishing a prank phone call between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and a Buffalo Beast editor who posed as David Koch."
angry tapir writes: "Google has launched a program to certify that staffers at Google Apps resellers have specific expertise, knowledge and experience working with the company's hosted collaboration and communication suite. The Google Apps Certification Program will offer badges for various areas of expertise, including Apps deployment, sales, software development and technical support."
kkleiner writes: Small lightweight microphones are saving the lives of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shoulder Worn Acoustic Targeting Systems (SWATS), developed by defense company QinetiQ, use shockwave and muzzle blast noise to locate enemy gunfire . A single shot is all it takes to give the soldier the bearing and distance to the sniper trying to take his life. A tactical display or audio alert from the device tells the soldier where to look so they can return fire or take cover. With SWATS, you go from sitting duck to well-informed angry defender in less than a second. QinetiQ recently announced that the US Army had ordered 13,500 SWATS units, with the option to pick up 30,000 more.
gabbo529 writes: "After 38 trips, 352 days in orbit and more than 5,600 trips around the Earth, the space shuttle Discovery is preparing for its final launch this week. Since its creation, it has flown to orbit more than any other craft. It has set a number of precedents including first craft to feature a female shuttle pilot and female shuttle commander (Eileen Collins), the first African American spacewalker (Bernard Harris) and the first sitting member of congress to fly in space (Jake Garn).
In its final foray into space, the Discovery will set another precedent when it flies the first humanoid robot to fly in space, Robonaut2."
dbune writes: A new study conducted at the National Institute of Health showed that the metabolism of brain cells is highly increased by the usage of cell phones. The electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones might not be dangerous to the brain.
An anonymous reader writes: Stanford researcher Zhenan Bao has developed a new stretchable, solar-powered “super skin” sensor that is so sensitive it can feel a fly touch down. The flexible electronic material harnesses polymer solar cells to generate electricity and can detect chemicals and sense various kinds of biological molecules. According to Bao, "You can imagine a robot hand that can be used to touch some liquid and detect certain markers, or a certain protein that is associated with some kind of disease and the robot will be able to effectively say, ‘Oh, this person has that disease. Or the robot might touch the sweat from somebody and be able to say, ‘Oh, this person is drunk.’”
Velcroman1 writes: The army's secretive technology division has been collecting dozens of ideas for the design of its in-the-works rescue vehicle via a social-media contest — relying solely on the power of the crowd to get the next big thing built. Local Motors of Chandler, Ariz., is running the competition, officially known as the Experimental Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle (XC2V) Design Challenge, through March 10. It’s not so different from when multiple users edit a page on Wikipedia, Local Motors CEO John Rogers said. “Effectively, we want to co-create all aspects of a vehicle,” Rogers explained. “The Wikipedia method of co-creation is really not far off from the way we talk about it."
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "We've all heard of people who claim to have "photographic memories." Now Joshua Foer writes in the NY Times magazine (reg. may be required) that a "skilled memory" can be acquired and proves it by explaining how he trained his brain to became a world-class memory athlete winning first place in the speed cards competition last year at the USA Memory Championship by memorizing a deck of cards in one minute forty seconds. According to Foer, memory training is a lost art that dates from antiquity. "Today we have books, photographs, computers and an entire superstructure of external devices to help us store our memories outside our brains, but it wasn’t so long ago that culture depended on individual memories," writes Foer. "It was considered a form of character-building, a way of developing the cardinal virtue of prudence and, by extension, ethics." Foer says that the secret to supermemory is a system of training and discipline that works by creating "memory palaces" on the fly filled with lavish images, painting a scene in the mind so unlike any other it cannot be forgotten. “Photographic memory is a detestable myth. Doesn’t exist. In fact, my memory is quite average," concludes Ed Cooke who recently invented a code that allows him to convert every number from 0 to 999,999,999 into a unique image that he can then deposit in a memory palace. "What you have to understand is that even average memories are remarkably powerful if used properly.""
In reference to airline tickets, there really isn't any commission to talk about, for travel agents anyways. The thing with them is the extras; hotel rooms, cruises, all-inclusives, etc. It is a matter of building a relationship with you. Usually if a travel agent is finding a cheaper deal on an airline ticket it is using an odd fare class.
Source: Grandmother owns a travel agency.