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Government

Submission + - Colorado Decertifies Electronic Voting Machines (denverpost.com)

Submitted by CUShane
CUShane writes: "Colorado's looming primary and presidential elections were thrown into turmoil Monday when many of the state's electronic voting machines were deemed unreliable and unsecure by Secretary of State Mike Coffman," according to the Denver Post. Coffman has decertified voting machines made by three of the four manufacturers operating in Colorado: Sequoia Voting System, Hart InterCivic, and Election Systems & Software. The decision affects 53 counties in Colorado. The only company to pass the certification is Premier Election Systems (formerly Diebold Election Systems).
Math

Submission + - MIT dude disproves Wolfram on 44 conjectures 2

Submitted by blue2
blue2 writes: Fresh out of press from the "Journal of cellular automata" ... geeky author Evangelos Georgiadis disproves legendary Stephen Wolfram on 44 conjectures. Abstract reads: In this note, we disprove 44 claims in [4] on minimal Boolean formula size of one-dimensional two-state nearest neighbor cellular automata as well as set a new lowersize bound. http://www.oldcitypublishing.com/JCA/JCA%202.4%20abstracts/GEORGIADIS.html
Power

Submission + - Scientists propose even less efficient solar power (sandia.gov)

Submitted by
wattrlz
wattrlz writes: "Scientists at Sandia National Labs in New Mexico have proposed a technique for using solar energy to reverse the combustion process and convert water into hydrogen and CO2 into methane and/or methanol.


...Over the past year they have shown proof of concept and are completing a prototype device that will use concentrated solar energy to reenergize carbon dioxide or water, the products of combustion. This will form carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, which ultimately could be used to synthesize liquid fuels in an integrated S2P [Sunshine to Petrol] system... "What's exciting about this invention is that it will result in fossil fuels being used at least twice, meaning less carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere and a reduction of the rate that fossil fuels are pulled out of the ground,"
"
Biotech

Submission + - Artificial Blood Vessels Grown on a Nano-Template (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by
Invisible Pink Unicorn
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "Researchers at MIT have found a way to induce cells to form parallel tube-like structures that could one day serve as tiny engineered blood vessels. The researchers found that they can control the cells' development by growing them on a surface with nano-scale patterning. The work focuses on vascular tissue, which includes capillaries, the tiniest blood vessels, and is an important part of the circulatory system. The team has created a surface that can serve as a template to grow capillary tubes aligned in a specific direction. The cells, known as endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), not only elongate in the direction of the grooves, but also align themselves along the grooves. That results in a multicellular structure with defined edges — a band structure. Once the band structures form, the researchers apply a commonly used gel that induces cells to form three-dimensional tubes."
Idle

Omazing Grace Screenshot-sm 3

Posted by samzenpus from the you-are-the-next-american-idol dept.
samzenpus writes "Are you ready for the worst thing you've heard all day and maybe ever? I can't believe nobody cut his microphone."
Editorial

Journal Journal: Colour Is More Than Skin Deep

Journal by Anti Globalism
James Watson who, together with Francis Crick, discovered the double helix as the structure of DNA, has been found to have 16 times more genes of African origin than the average White European. He has 16% compared to 1%.
Patents

Submission + - Dell announces touchscreen and is immediately sued (informationweek.com)

Submitted by goombah99
goombah99 writes: Dell computer announced their foray into consumer touchscreen tablets using multitouch technology. And they are immediately sued in Texas by a company who's 1995 and 1997 patents cover "Portable computer with touch screen and computing system employing same". The claims seem to cover any touchscreen laptop or computing device. The Latitude XT's base price is $2,499, it has a 12.1-inch LED-backlit screen, a 1.06-gigahertz Intel Core 2 Solo processor, 1GB of memory, and a 40GB hard drive with Vista or XP. Battery life is said to be 5 hours and it weighs 3.5 pounds. The screen rotates from notebook with integral keyboard to tablet mode.
Biotech

Journal Journal: Researchers identify granddaddy of human blood cells

Journal by stemceller
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have isolated a human blood cell that represents the great-grandparent of all the cells of the blood, a finding that could lead to new treatments for blood cancers and other blood diseases. This cell, called the multipotent progenitor, is the first offspring of the much-studied blood-forming stem cell that resides in the bone marrow and gives rise to all cel
Wireless Networking

Submission + - SPAM: CMU: Using 2 types of wireless LANs better than 1

Submitted by alphadogg-nw
alphadogg-nw writes: Carnegie Mellon University has launched a massive upgrade of its campus-wide wireless LAN . . . and chosen two WLAN vendors to supply the 802.11n infrastructure for it. The decision runs counter to almost every large-scale wireless deployment, where a company in effect standardizes on one vendor. "This was definitely a unique decision for us, even having been in the wireless game for a long time," the school's project head says. "In the end, though, I believe we selected two technologies that best address the different usage patterns we see around campus."
Link to Original Source
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook Removes Firewall from Applications (idealog.us)

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "Last week, Facebook quietly removed sign in restrictions that previously hid third party applications from the public Web. In other words, Facebook now allows its third party applications to be viewable on the Web by anonymous visitors and indexable by search engines. Web developers can now build an application using Facebook's platform usable by anyone on the Internet — not just Facebook members e.g. the Lending Library. In doing so, developers can leverage Facebook's login and registration as well its other platform services, which are becoming increasingly substantial. Facebook may be trying to gain advantage as a universal authentication gateway for public Web applications. If successful, it could further hamper efforts to establish OpenID. This will also help the company break out of its earlier AOL-like walled-garden strategy."

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