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Submission + - It's Time to Build a Real Jurassic Park (theweek.com)

Submitted by jonyen
jonyen writes: Scientists now say they've got enough blood and bone to bring an Ice Age icon kicking and stomping into the modern age. All thanks to a remarkably well-preserved mammoth found in Siberia last summer. "The data we are about to receive will give us a high chance to clone the mammoth," Radik Khayrullin, of the Russian Association of Medical Anthropologists, told The Siberian Times. ...

But even where the necessary genetic material is available, there are still technical issues. Cloning a mammoth would be a more complex procedure than cloning Dolly the sheep. Scientists still need to fully map the genome of the woolly mammoth, a process that is currently around 70 percent complete, before they can determine whether de-extinction is feasible. The chances are good, however, as the revival of the once extinct gastric-brooding frog demonstrates.

But even if it's feasible to bring back extinct species like the mammoth — or even dinosaurs — in the future, would it be a good idea?

Submission + - The Most WTF-y Programming Languages (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: A couple of years ago, developer Sammy Larbi undertook a project to identify which languages had the most instances of the string 'WTF' in their GitHub code repositories. At the time, Objective C topped the list. ITworld's Phil Johnson has updated Larbi’s research using GitHub data from the last 21 months, but instead of screen-scraping GitHub search results as Larbi had done, he queried the GitHub Archive for stand-alone instances of 'WTF' in the comments attached to GitHub commits to weed out cases where the string 'WTF' was legitimately used in the code. The top 3 most baffling languages for 2012/13: C++, Lua, and Scala. Objective C comes in at #16.

Submission + - Solr: The Most Important Open Source Project You've Never Heard Of

Submitted by Esther Schindler
Esther Schindler writes: When Steven-Vaughan Nichols researched a recent article on the open-source jobs most in demand, he was startled to learn that one hot keyword was Solr. Solr? What the heck is that? (We're so cute when the dollar-signs light up in our eyes.) So he investigated Solr: The Most Important Open Source Project You’ve Never Heard Of (which is part of Apache Lucene) to answer the question for all of us. And he ends up with a good overview of what it is and why you might care... even if you aren't looking for a job.

Submission + - GTA 5 Sales Record: $1 Billion, Biggest Entertainment Launch In History

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: aming piracy is a problem, they say, but when you manage to have sales accounting to $1,000,000,000 in just 3.0 days, it really makes you hold on tight to your seat. When I first heard the news that tt took only 24 hours for the latest Grand Theft Auto to earn $800 million, then I realized they are going to break the one billion barrier quite soon. It now has happened, and Grand Theft Auto thus becomes the fastest-selling video game in the world.The game’s publisher, Take-Two Interactive, announced that GTA V has managed to surpass $1 billion in sales, setting another record. Furthermore, the company believes that this actually represents a record not only for games, but also for the entire entertainment industry.

Submission + - iOS7 connecting to Apple in the background? 2

Submitted by trazom28
trazom28 writes: I've got an iPhone 4s that I upgraded (if that's the right word for it) to iOS7. Since then, when I switch from cellular to WiFi, it attempts to connect to one of two different websites so far, appleiphonecell.com or ibook.info — both of which are Apple websites. if I cancel, it brings me to a notification that my wireless is not connected to the internet and would I like to use the phone without internet access. Initially as it would not connect to the WiFi without going through this process, I unblocked appleiphonecell.com. The URL redirects to apple.com. I'm about to unblock the other, but it seems odd that every time I want WiFi the iPhone "calls home". Makes me wonder what else it's doing. Anyone else noted this?

Submission + - 11 Million Users Leave FaceBook (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: Earlier this year, reports suggested that Facebook lost nine million active monthly users in the U.S and two million in Britain. These figures originated from research carried out by SocialBakers in April. The figures come straight from Facebook's API, but is not the same as Facebook losing user numbers, for example. Monthly active users are the number of people who log into their account over a 30-day period. SocialBakers saw a drop in this figure prior to the report in April. Reasons for quitting Facebook were mainly privacy concerns (48.3 per cent), followed by a general dissatisfaction (13.5 per cent), negative aspects of online friends (12.6 per cent) and the feeling of getting addicted (6.0 per cent). That said, psychologist Stefan Stieger from the university recorded each of the 600 participants' responses to assessment measures based on their level of concern over various issues. Those who stopped using social media were more concerned about privacy, had higher addiction scores and tended to be more conscientious.

Submission + - Tesla Working On Autonomous Cars: Musk Wants Teslas With Auto-Pilot

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Do you like driving? Well then, you're going to hate the future, because automakers are racing to beat each other to the starting line of the self-driving car race. By 2020, autonomous vehicles may arrive from Cadillac, Nissan, Volvo, Mercedes, Audi, and even Google. But now Tesla wants to jump into the ring. CEO Elon Musk told the Financial Times that the electric-car maker will build a self-driving car...within three years. You'll note that's much sooner than 2020, which means Tesla would beat other, larger automakers to the punch. For those who fear self-driving cars, Musk said the autonomous Tesla could drive 90 percent of the time, but that in his opinion, a vehicle without a human in the cockpit isn't feasible. Like it or not, our roads will probably be safer because you won't actually be driving--well, OK, that OTHER guy who's texting or talking or drinking a huge coffee or ... you get the idea.

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