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Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child Screenshot-sm 331

Posted by samzenpus from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Censorship

Submission + - Slashdot removes post about hacked climate emails. (slashdot.org) 6

Submitted by wulfmans
wulfmans writes: When i checked my Google RSS feeds of Slashdot I saw a story that interested me (http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Ltx1dUIvKyA/Hacked-Climate-Emails-Stoke-Debate)
I went to click on it and it gave me a page that said i was not allowed to see the page or the page did not exist. I searched Slashdot but the story has vanished. The story said that the mails leaked to wiki leaks were causing a lot of commotion. Since i was not able to read the full post ( Google only gives me a little bit to see ) I am unable to read about this missing story
Science

Submission + - LHC has first collisions after years of waiting (web.cern.ch)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Only after four days from first attempt to send a particle beam all around the LHC circle have we arrived at the point that today all four experiments got their first real collisions from the machine. This was met by celebrations and champagne as people have been waiting years and years for this moment. It is a statement to the engineering of the machine that collisions were reached already few days after restart and the LHC has already demonstrated ca 10h stable beams and now also stable beams in both directions at the same time. In the coming weeks we now have just to wait for increased intensity and first attempts to acceleration.

Submission + - New Virginia IT Systems Lack Network Backup (timesdispatch.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: Virginia's new state IT system is experiencing downtime in key services because of a mind-boggling oversight: the state apparently neglected to require network backup in a 10-year, $2.3 billion outsourcing deal with Northrop Grumman. The issue is causing serious downtime for state services. This fall the Virginia DMV has suffered 12 system outages panning a total of more than 100 hours, and downtime hampered the state transportation department when a state of emergency was declared during the Nov. 11 Northeaster. Where was the oversight? Virginia's Secretary of Technology while the system was being implemented was Aneesh Chopra, who is now the federal CTO for the Obama administration.

Submission + - Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort (whitehouse.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a speech at the Whitehouse today President Obama launched a new campaign; "Educate to Innovate," designed to get American students fired up about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). "The new campaign builds on the President’s Inaugural Address, which included a vow to put science “in its rightful place.” One of those rightful places, of course, is the classroom. Yet too often our schools lack support for teachers or the other resources needed to convey the practical utility and remarkable beauty of science and engineering. As a result, students become overwhelmed in their classes and ultimately disengaged. They lose, and our nation loses too. The partnerships launched today aim to change that. They respond to a challenge made by the President in April, when he spoke at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences and asked the nation’s philanthropists, professional and educational societies, corporations, and individuals to collaborate and innovate with the goal of reinvigorating America’s STEM educational enterprise. The partnerships announced today — dramatic commitments in the hundreds of millions of dollars, generated through novel collaborations and creative outreach activities — are just the first wave of commitments anticipated in response to his call."

Comment Re:windows marketplace (Score 1) 289

by Nithendil (#30191322) Attached to: Some Claim Android App Store Worse Than iPhone's

I like windows mobile 6.5, it is actually stable and fast IMO. What I despise is the UI, they actually took a step backwards compared to 6.0. However, after killing palm, like with IE they went stagnant, and now have to deal with a dead OS overshadowed by nearly anything else. If they would have "windows 7ened" their mobile OS in time for the win7 launch their mobile OS future might not be so dim. What I like about win mobile is the wide and open (compared to apple) variety of aps, I can install whatever browser or media player I want.

Comment Re:Sci-fi not predicting far enough? (Score 1) 479

by Fallingcow (#30191308) Attached to: Has Sci-Fi Run Out of Steam?

Some of the jokes surrounding the

[SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER]

French character had me doubled over laughing. "Laterre" and "Magna Feeks" or whatever. Hilarious.

Liked the book a lot. The ending fell apart a little (especially the heavily foreshadowed last major plot event/action sequence that never materialized) but it was still pretty good. I think Cryptonomicon is still my favorite of his novels, but Anathem is solidly second.

However, I (finally) read A Canticle for Leibowitz just prior to reading Anathem as I'd heard that they were similar (not so much, as it turns out) and didn't want my reading of the earlier novel to be tainted by the later one, and... well, it's in a whole different class, aside from bearing only a passing resemblance in terms of story. I haven't read everything by Stephenson yet, but I doubt he's got anything that's even close to it. It's one of the few sci-fi books I've read that I could have read right after tackling one of the canonical literary classics without being jarred by the sudden drop in quality of prose and general execution of the story and themes.

Comment Re:Smokers are repulsive (Score 1) 1078

by MinistryOfTruthiness (#30191228) Attached to: Apple Voiding Smokers' Warranties?

I don't repair these for a living, but I fixed my grandmother's computer, which was regularly exposed to her cigarette smoke. That dust inside you mention? Take that and mix it with tar. It winds up being a thick, sticky, messy, paste that traps heat and even more dust until things overheat and even short out. I wouldn't be surprised if that crap even caused fires. Truly, it must be seen to be believed.

Anyway, boo on Apple for this trick. Replace the unit under warranty and keep your customers happy. God knows they paid enough of a premium and can reasonably expect better service and consideration from Apple than for some $300 Dell.

Comment Re:Not wristwatches (Score 1) 778

by bigstrat2003 (#30191102) Attached to: Ten Things Mobile Phones Will Make Obsolete

Yet Apple released the iphone, because they realised that people weren't going to carry around an ipod and a phone.

Yet I still carry around an iPod and a phone. Granted, it's not an iPhone, but it plays MP3s, and has a SD card slot, so there's nothing stopping me from using just my phone. One could argue that it's because I prefer the iPod's media interface, but even if I had an iPhone, I'd STILL carry both, because the iPod has twice as much storage space as the iPhone. And that's only if I limit myself to the iPod Touch. If I were carrying a normal iPod, the iPhone can't even begin to compete with it in terms of storage space.

Watches are just jewellery nowadays.

No. People wear, and use, watches all the time. Just because you don't use a thing doesn't make it obsolete for most of the world.
Apple

Apple Patents "Enforceable" Ad Viewing On Devices 439

Posted by CmdrTaco from the touch-the-lizard dept.
Rexdude writes "Apple has filed a patent that forces users to interact with an ad. FTFA: 'Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn't simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention. The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing.'" We've been following this story for awhile now but it seems to have broken into the mainstream.
Microsoft

Linus Calls Microsoft Hatred "a Disease" 634

Posted by kdawson from the open-means-open dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "In the aftermath of Microsoft's recent decision to contribute 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community, Christopher Smart of Linux Magazine talked to Linus Torvalds and asked if the code was something he would be happy to include, even though it's from Microsoft. 'Oh, I'm a big believer in "technology over politics." I don't care who it comes from, as long as there are solid reasons for the code, and as long as we don't have to worry about licensing etc. issues,' says Torvalds. 'I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. I believe in open development, and that very much involves not just making the source open, but also not shutting other people and companies out.' Smart asked Torvalds if Microsoft was contributing the code to benefit the Linux community or Microsoft. 'I agree that it's driven by selfish reasons, but that's how all open source code gets written! We all "scratch our own itches." It's why I started Linux, it's why I started git, and it's why I am still involved. It's the reason for everybody to end up in open source, to some degree,' says Torvalds. 'So complaining about the fact that Microsoft picked a selfish area to work on is just silly. Of course they picked an area that helps them. That's the point of open source — the ability to make the code better for your particular needs, whoever the "your" in question happens to be.'"
Media

Browser Vendors Force W3C To Scrap HTML 5 Codecs 640

Posted by timothy from the that's-a-disappointment dept.
snydeq writes "Major browser vendors have been unable to agree on an encoding format they will support in their products, forcing the W3C to drop audio and video codecs from HTML 5, the forthcoming W3C spec that has been viewed as a threat to Flash, Silverlight, and similar technologies. 'After an inordinate amount of discussions on the situation, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that there is no suitable codec that all vendors are willing to implement and ship,' HTML 5 editor Ian Hickson wrote to the whatwg mailing list. Apple, for its part, won't support Ogg Theora in QuickTime, expressing concerns over patents despite the fact that the codec can be used royalty-free. Opera and Mozilla oppose using H.264 due to licensing and distribution issues. Google has similar reservations, despite already using H.264 and Ogg Theora in Chrome. Microsoft has made no commitment to support <video>."

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