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Comment Re:I don't (Score 2) 64

If you want a gimmick watch Casio will do you a nice one for about $30 but I have to warn you that the days of digital watches being cool ended in about 1980 so you won't be getting any Hipsters putting down their skinny lattes in shock and envy by buying a Pebble either.

"The days of the digital [watch] are numbered"
                      - Tom Stoppard, the original script of The Real Thing
                          (he dropped the line in later revisions)

Submission + - Microwave your iPhone to charge it? People fall for this hoax!

pdclarry writes: As reported by Knight News, A series of posts on the Internet claim that you can charge your iphone by microwaving it for 1 minute. Apparently some users have fallen for it, despite Snopes debunking the claim. There's even been a post Apple's support forums, perhaps showing that you can't underestimate the intelligence of Internet users. Don't try this at home, folks.

Submission + - Scientists resolve a 3.5 billion-year-old mystery of life (washington.edu)

vinces99 writes: Most astrobiologists believe that life in some form is likely to exist away from Earth. But new research demonstrates that life as we know it on Earth might never have come to exist at all if not for a key element delivered to the planet by meteorites billions of years ago. Scientists at the University of Washington and the University of South Florida found that during the Hadean and Archean eons, the heavy bombardment by meteorites provided reactive phosphorus essential for creating the earliest life on Earth. When released in water, that reactive phosphorus could be incorporated into prebiotic molecules, and the researchers documented its presence in early Archean limestone, showing it was abundant some 3.5 billion years ago.

Submission + - Internet payment processor Liberty Reserve accused of laundering $6 Bn

pdclarry writes: Liberty Reserve, apparently the Internet bank of choice for criminals, as reported by NY Times and other sources including Wired and Business Week, has been shut down. Liberty Reserve, incorporated in Costa Rica in 2006, “facilitated global criminal conduct” and was created and structured “as a criminal business venture, one designed to help criminals conduct illegal transactions and launder the proceeds of their crimes,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in an indictment unsealed today. The Liberty Reserve site has been seized by the US government. Chatter on criminal web sites show a rising sense of panic as fortunes have disappeared in an instant.

Comment Re:humans (Score 1) 97

why do humans have more oral problems compared to other species in nature?

Could it be because we live longer than other species? By the time I had my first cavity my dog was dead.

It's not even clear that we have more oral problems than other species. My current cat has serious dental disease. And elephants, if they aren't killed by us or disease, usually die indirectly of dental deterioration; their teeth wear out, then can no longer chew, and they die of starvation. Usually around the age of 60.

Comment This is a non-story; I guess it was a slow news da (Score 1) 266

The issues with 6.1 are no different from scattered reports of issues for every release of iOS that has ever come out. There are a few phones after each release that eat battery fast or have other problems, and there are easy solutions posted on many sites as well as Apple support fora. No problems with iOS 6.1 on my phone.

Iphone

Submission + - iPhone "Do Not Disturb" bug hit on January 1

pdclarry writes: As reported in The Guardian and Apple support forums As of January 1 the Do Not Disturb feature of the iPhone's iOS 6 does not turn off. One forum member did an analysis that shows that the bug recurs for several days at the beginning of each year in coming years if not fixed.

Just to add to the embarrassment, Apple chose Wednesday to launch a new advert promoting the iPhone's Do Not Disturb feature. (Replete with tennis's Williams sisters.)

Submission + - The Whole Six (or is that Nine) Yards

pdclarry writes: I'm sure all of us wonder where "the whole nine yards" expression came from, and many of us have argued one or more of the hypotheses (WW II ammo belt length, American football reference, fabric in a kilt, capacity of a transit mixer...). Well, the latest research now says that it has no origin. (paywall warning): The NY Times covers the story, referencing the Yale Alumni Magazine source.

Interesting discovery is that there's been phrase inflation (it was originally "The Whole Six Yards") and that it has no specific reference in real life. Of course, this most recent discovery probably will not end the argument that Linguist Ben Zimmer says is “something of a Holy Grail among word sleuths.” Indeed, there are already new hypotheses posted in comments to the Yale Alumni Magazine article.
Technology

Submission + - A novel project delivers microscope experiments in a Google Maps-like interface

An anonymous reader writes: We as human beings are very curious about our world and the meaning of all of this. We have been developing new devices to explore things that are not visible to our naked eye. We have been using telescopes to explore things that are far away from here and microscopes to explore things that are near of us, but in a scale not catchable for our naked biologic eyes.

A novel website is intended to feed our curiosity about the microscopic world with interactive experiments in Google Maps-like interface. Visiting Zoompy (http://www.zoompy.net) it is possible to explore a collection of experiments constructed using hundred of million pixels of microscopic images.

In one experiment it is possible to see many microscopic details of a hundred dollar bill. In another one, it is possible to realize how printed images are constructed from a series of simple dots. An outstanding feature of this site is the ability to see the proportion of the images in relation to the object in real scale.

Bring on more experiments of this kind!

Submission + - Australia Plans to Drill 2,000-Year-Old Ice Core in Antarctica

An anonymous reader writes: Australia announced Saturday a new project to drill a deep ice core in Antarctica, which may shed light on past climatic conditions in the continent. The project, Aurora Basin North project, will involve researchers drilling a 2,000-year-old ice core, in order to search for the scientific "holy grail" of the ice core.

Comment Re:Not sure about the thesis of the article, but.. (Score 1) 718

Interesting question, but since the advent of the Essex class carrier in 1941 no US carrier of Essex class or later has ever been sunk. USS Intrepid in the course of WW II took a torpedo and 5 Kamikaze hits at different times, and was repaired and back in service weeks after each attack.

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