Comment Re:Gizmodo was not right (Score 2) 380
Somehow I'm not surprised. As a gadget blogger, he got in waaaay over his head by speculating about a microbiology discovery.
In other words, typical Gizmodo/Gawker.
Submission + - Speech Analysis Shows All Politics Is Cultural (northwestern.edu)
TimmyDee writes: The rhetoric in Washington, D.C., of late has been rather monotonic. The political landscape seems dominated by the economy, from stimulus bills and consumer protection agencies to tea parties and anti-tax rallies. Yet despite Capitol Hill's singular focus, a new study of congressional speeches suggests the left and the right are separated by a cultural divide rather than different views on the economy. Previous analyses of congressional speeches relied on manually classifying the content, a time-consuming and laborious process. The approach used in the new paper supplants man-hours with processor time, using intelligent computer programs to distill hundreds of hours of transcribed speeches into clarified political ideologies.
Submission + - One in five vertebrates threatened by extinction (arstechnica.com)
TimmyDee writes: Twenty years ago, nearly all the world's nations agreed to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010. (The United States signed the accord but, like other treaties, the Senate has not ratified it.) Well, it's 2010 and we are nowhere near that goal. While the Convention on Biological Diversity is currently meeting to update its targets for 2020, a new study released by Science says one-fifth of the world's vertebrate species are threatened with extinction. But the good news is things would be a whole lot worse if we had done nothing at all. "What our results show is that conservation efforts are not wasted. They are making a noticeable difference," said Ana Rodrigues, a researcher at the Center for Evolutionary and Functional Ecology in Montpelier, France, and one of the authors of the study. The researchers compiled the status of over 25,000 vertebrate species as rated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List. "The rates of decline in the Red List index would have been 18 percent steeper" in the absence of conservation programs.
Comment Re:Thanks for Plagiarizing MacRumors without credi (Score 1) 349
You must be new here. This is standard Slashdot M.O. Just put quotes around what someone else wrote (without citing them), and somehow they think that's OK. It's shockingly prevalent here.
Submission + - Of bouncers and snap decisions on social status (northwestern.edu)
TimmyDee writes: Sociologist Lauren Rivera knows what it takes to get behind the velvet rope. She recommends, 'Know someone. Or know someone who knows someone. If you're a guy, bring attractive women—ideally younger women in designer clothes. Don't go with other dudes. And doormen are well versed in trendiness, so wear Coach, Prada, Gucci—but don't show up in a nice suit with DSW shoes.' No, Rivera doesn't write an advice column for the rich and the restless. But the Kellogg School of Management professor did go undercover to expose how people evaluate status in a glimpse. Specifically, she wanted to know how the meaty doormen positioned outside exclusive clubs—bouncers in nightlife language—determine who enters.
Comment Source journal may give clue to veracity (Score 1) 256
I'm not saying the researchers didn't do their homework, but for something of this gravity, I would have expected Science or Nature to pick it up, not American Naturalist. Not that American Naturalist is a bad journal, but its certainly easier to get a paper in there than other journals (even Ecology, if I'm not mistaken). In light of that, I'm a bit skeptical of their claims.
Comment Re:Other websites knowing your facebook account (Score 5, Informative) 154
I wish it were that easy. I have the "Instant Personalization Pilot Program" disabled on my account, but FB Connect popped up on CNN Money this morning.
What did I do? I specifically blocked any URL containing "fbconnect". Problem solved. OmniWeb let me do this using RegEx, but I'm sure the same can be done with AdBlock.
Comment Fraud? It's looking him in the mirror (Score 4, Insightful) 617
Maybe someone should sue Cuccinelli for fraud. After all, this sounds like a waste of taxpayer money if I've ever heard of one.
Comment Ken Cuccinelli (Score 2, Insightful) 617
What an asshole...going after academics for political reasons. What's next?
Comment Lots of work required...believe me, I know (Score 2, Interesting) 235
I spent a summer doing this in grad school for the Vegetation Type Mapper project at UC Berkeley. I'm not going to lie to you--it was a ton of work. But the results were cool. The site has all the old maps georeferenced, plus ways to download them.
Needless to say, the library was involved in the project, as was a giant scanner. We relied on ERDAS Imagine software to georeference the old maps to current USGS base maps. There was also a lot of accuracy assessment involved to make sure we minimized error in the georeferencing process. Probably one of the trickiest parts was making sure the old landmark you were using as a control point had not substantially changed in the intervening decades.
My professor and her colleagues published a paper detailing the project.
Comment Another achievement? (Score 1) 1582
Can't pass this up. 'Nuff said.
Comment Science Daily...reporting? (Score 4, Informative) 100
I think to say that Science Daily does any reporting is stretching the definition of reporting a bit much. I think "rewritten from a press release" is more like it.
If you want a real news piece, with real reporting, check out the article on the same paper over at New Scientist. They actually talked with the scientist involved in the study (and one that wasn't).
Why Japan Hates the iPhone 884
Ponca City, We love you writes "With a high level of technical sophistication, critical customers, and high innovation rate, Japan is the toughest cell phone market in the world. So it's not surprising that although Apple is the third-largest mobile supplier in the world, selling 10 million units in 2008, in Japan the iPhone is selling so poorly it's being offered for free. The country is famous for being ahead of its time when it comes to technology, and the iPhone just doesn't cut it. For example, Japanese handset users are into video and photos — and the iPhone has neither a video camera, multimedia text messaging, nor a TV tuner. Pricing plans in Japan are also very competitive, and the iPhone's $60-and-up monthly plan is too high compared to competitors; a survey lat year showed that among Japanese consumers, 91% didn't want to buy an iPhone. The cellular weapon of choice in Japan would be the Panasonic P905i, a fancy cellphone that doubles as a 3-inch TV and features 3-G, GPS, a 5.1-megapixel camera, and motion sensors for Wii-style games. 'When I show this to visitors from the US, they're amazed,' according to journalist Nobi Hayashi, who adds, 'Carrying around an iPhone in Japan would make you look pretty lame.'"
Comment More than smells (Score 3, Interesting) 135
I was just at the AAAS conference in Chicago, and there was an entire session on synthetic biology and programming with DNA and RNA. Quite fascinating. Perhaps most intriguing (and promising) is the ability to add logic to RNA sequences, giving clinicians control over cell therapies. I wrote a summary of the session over at Ars if anyone is interested.
Comment Re:iMusic industry news (Score 5, Funny) 146
It would be an iOpener for the RIAA.
There, fixed that for you.
