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Medicine

One Night Stands May Be Genetic 240

Posted by samzenpus from the getting-in-your-genes dept.
An anonymous reader writes "So, he or she has cheated on you for the umpteenth time and their only excuse is: 'I just can't help it.' According to researchers at Binghamton University, they may be right. The propensity for infidelity could very well be in their DNA. In a first of its kind study, a team of investigators led by Justin Garcia, a SUNY Doctoral Diversity Fellow in the laboratory of evolutionary anthropology and health at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has taken a broad look at sexual behavior, matching choices with genes and has come up with a new theory on what makes humans 'tick' when it comes to sexual activity. The biggest culprit seems to be the dopamine receptor D4 polymorphism, or DRD4 gene. Already linked to sensation-seeking behavior such as alcohol use and gambling, DRD4 is known to influence the brain's chemistry and subsequently, an individual's behavior."
Earth

Endangered Species Condoms 61

Posted by samzenpus from the make-it-growl dept.
The Center for Biological Diversity wants to help put a polar bear in your pants with their endangered species condom campaign. They hope that giving away 100,000 free Endangered Species Condoms across the country will highlight how unsustainable human population growth is driving species to extinction, and instill the sexual prowess of the coquí guajón rock frog, nature's most passionate lover, in the condom users. From the article: "To help people understand the impact of overpopulation on other species, and to give them a chance to take action in their own lives, the Center is distributing free packets of Endangered Species Condoms depicting six separate species: the polar bear, snail darter, spotted owl, American burying beetle, jaguar, and coquí guajón rock frog."

Comment Re:no upgrades?? (Score 5, Informative) 636

by Mr.Bananas (#31246096) Attached to: Google Android — a Universe of Incompatible Devices
Um... I think by "easily upgrade" you mean "easily upgrade to any level sanctioned by your mobile carrier." For example, the Samsung Moment is stuck at version 1.5 right now until Sprint feels like letting its users upgrade to 1.6. The G1 I think is at 1.6 by now, but only after T-Mobile felt like issuing updates. Meanwhile the Droid is at 2.0 until Verizon feels like rolling 2.1, and the Nexus One is at 2.1, which is currently the latest version.

So... yeah, the article raises a good point. It also highlights one of the benefits of rooting your phone- the *real* open source community behind Android is the modders, which try their best to keep your phone at the highest level of Android the hardware can take. I think the Android OS has incredible potential at the end of the day to really be something special, but standardization may be one of its biggest roadblocks. The steadily loosening death-grip of the carriers needs to completely go away, though.
Earth

Debunking a Climate-Change Skeptic 807

Posted by kdawson from the so-many-notes-mister-mozart dept.
DJRumpy writes "The Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg won fame and fans by arguing that many of the alarms sounded by environmental activists and scientists — that species are going extinct at a dangerous rate, that forests are disappearing, that climate change could be catastrophic — are bogus. A big reason Lomborg was taken seriously is that both of his books, The Skeptical Environmentalist (in 2001) and Cool It (in 2007), have extensive references, giving a seemingly authoritative source for every one of his controversial assertions. So in a display of altruistic masochism that we should all be grateful for (just as we're grateful that some people are willing to be dairy farmers), author Howard Friel has checked every single citation in Cool It. The result is The Lomborg Deception, which is being published by Yale University Press next month. It reveals that Lomborg's work is 'a mirage,' writes biologist Thomas Lovejoy in the foreword. '[I]t is a house of cards. Friel has used real scholarship to reveal the flimsy nature' of Lomborg's work."
Apple

Submission + - Apple Bans the Word "Android" from the App Store (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Mr.Bananas
Mr.Bananas writes: In the latest of Apple's draconian measures to police the iPhone app store, any mention of Google's competing Android operating system is apparently grounds for rejection of an application. Such was the case for the "Flash of Genius" app, which advertised in its description that it was a finalist in the Android Developer Challenge. Apple advised the developer that "it would be appropriate to remove 'Finalist in Google's Android Developer's Challenge!' from the Application Description... to avoid an interruption in the availability of Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab 2.2 on the iPhone App Store."
Space

Pluto — a Complex and Changing World 191

Posted by timothy from the can-imagine-quite-a-bit dept.
astroengine writes "After 4 years of processing the highest resolution photographs the Hubble Space Telescope could muster, we now have the highest resolution view of Pluto's surface ever produced. Most excitingly, these new observations show an active world with seasonal changes altering the dwarf planet's surface. It turns out that this far-flung world has more in common with Earth than we would have ever imagined."

Comment Re:US Intelligence almost certainly monitors TOR (Score 2, Interesting) 161

by Mr.Bananas (#30857166) Attached to: Tor Users Urged To Update After Security Breach
Have a read at this piece of work: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565 While hiding in plain sight has its value, not being able to hide anything can have plenty of harm to an innocent person, especially if they have no control of how their data is used or interpreted.

Submission + - Hulu may begin charging for content next year (google.com)

Submitted by DJLuc1d
DJLuc1d writes: Hulu could possibly begin charging for content as soon as 2010. FTA "Chase Carey, News Corp.'s president and chief operating officer, said at a conference in New York on Wednesday that subscription fees could come as early as 2010."
Microsoft

Submission + - Patent Judge orders MS to stop selling Word

Submitted by lenehey
lenehey writes: Microsoft lost a patent infringement suit, and was ordered to pay $200 million in damages and to cease selling Word. The judge issued a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML," according the plantiff, i4i. The judge refused to stay the injunction pending appeal.
Biotech

Submission + - Reprogrammed Skin Cells Turned into Baby Mice (wsj.com)

Submitted by InfiniteZero
InfiniteZero writes: According to this WSJ story, 'Two teams of Chinese researchers working separately have reprogrammed mature skin cells of mice to an embryonic-like state and used the resulting cells to create live mouse offspring. The reprogramming may bring scientists one step closer to creating medically useful stem-cell lines for treating human disease without having to resort to controversial laboratory techniques. However, the advance poses fresh ethical challenges because the results could make it easier to create human clones and babies with specific genetic traits.'

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