Submission + - Global Warming Debate Overheats with Bad Numbers (wsj.com)
Geoffreyerffoeg writes: In response to last week's discussion of a bug in global warming data that made 1934, not 1998, the hottest year on record, a post in the Wall Street Journal's "Numbers Guy" blog notes that the change is statistically meaningless. Guest columnist Keith Winstein writes, "[A]t least 12 years out of the last 127 can claim to be in a statistical tie for warmest in the U.S. ... 1934 and 1998 have been swapping (statistically insignificant) spots on the ranking for a number of years." It turns out the 0.02 degree Celsius change was actually far less than the 0.47 degree margin of error.
Submission + - German Scientists Claim to Break Speed of Light (telegraph.co.uk)
Evil Adrian writes: German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light. Using Einstein's famous equation, this feat would require an infinite amount of energy — so if this claim is true, it would stand to reason that our understanding of physics might be a wee bit inaccurate.
Submission + - No change in global warming - Y2k wink wink, nudge
bob_calder writes: "Yes folks, that's what we get for getting our news third-hand. Should we buy the VHS tape of "Bloggers Gone Wild" to put on the shelf with our collection of Leonars Nimoy's "Strange and Stupid Mysteries: How the Builders of the Pyramids Caused the Ice Age"?
Herewith, the final graf of the RealClimate article recounting the incident:
But what the hell. It was fun while it lasted. The rest of the article is recommended reading for those of us who are still convinced that there is a vast conspiracy of researchers who will *somehow* profit from it."However, there is clearly a latent and deeply felt wish in some sectors for the whole problem of global warming to be reduced to a statistical quirk or a mistake. This lead to some truly death-defying leaping to conclusions when this issue hit the blogosphere. One of the worst examples (but there are others) was the 'Opinionator' at the New York Times (oh dear). He managed to confuse the global means with the continental US numbers, he made up a story about McIntyre having 'always puzzled about some gaps' (what?) , declared the the error had 'played havoc' with the numbers, and quoted another blogger saying that the 'astounding' numbers had been 'silently released'. None of these statements are true. Among other incorrect stories going around are that the mistake was due to a Y2K bug or that this had something to do with photographing weather stations. Again, simply false.
Submission + - Polar Sea Ice Cap at minimum
Silver Sloth writes: The University Of Illinois has published a report that the polar sea ice cap is at a minimum since satelite tracking began. From TFA
Today, the Northern Hemisphere sea ice area broke the record for the lowest recorded ice area in recorded history. The new record came a full month before the historic summer minimum typically occurs. There is still a month or more of melt likely this year. It is therefore almost certain that the previous 2005 record will be annihilated by the final 2007 annual minima closer to the end of this summer.
Submission + - "Fake Steve Jobs" blogger unmasked
taoman1 writes: Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, admitted he is Fake Steve Jobs after being outed by the New York Times. 'I'm stunned that it's taken this long,' said Mr. Lyons, 46, when a reporter interrupted his vacation in Maine on Sunday to ask him about Fake Steve. 'I have not been that good at keeping it a secret. I've been sort of waiting for this call for months.'
Submission + - Google shows cell phone prototype to vendors
taoman1 writes: Google Inc. has developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications, according to a story published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.
Submission + - Shift Happens, I guess. (mittechnical.com)
joshmilane writes: "http://mittechnical.com/BOSTON-SEO-WORDPRESS/shift -happens-kinda/2007
There is a presentation called "Shift Happens" that I find somewhat troublesome. I think I find it troublesome because a few people around me are reacting as though they just watched an Al Gore film and can never see the world the same way again, are forever believers in some kind of cusp upon which civilization stands, with everything it holds dear at stake."
There is a presentation called "Shift Happens" that I find somewhat troublesome. I think I find it troublesome because a few people around me are reacting as though they just watched an Al Gore film and can never see the world the same way again, are forever believers in some kind of cusp upon which civilization stands, with everything it holds dear at stake."
Submission + - Mitsubishi Breaks Up Famous Computer Science Lab (xconomy.com)
Andrew Koyfman writes: "Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories is falling apart. Top researchers and scientists are being poached by the competitors, including BAE, Adobe and others. The lab was responsible for much breakthrough research in the areas of computer vision, computer graphics, AI and machine learning. They were the first group to develop the Dimond Touch table, an early precursor to Microsoft's Surface Computing. Now it looks like the famous lab will be no more, at least not in their original glory.
Full story: http://www.xconomy.com/2007/07/31/upheaval-at-merl -mitsubishi-electric-breaks-up-famous-computer-sci ence-lab/"
Full story: http://www.xconomy.com/2007/07/31/upheaval-at-mer
Submission + - Human poker champs beat computer challenger
Galactic_grub writes: NewScientist reports that two top poker players defeated a computerised player, called Polaris, in a landmark competition held at the AAAI-07 Conference on Artificial Intelligence. The set-up was desgined to remove the element of luck — the pair played two versions of the machine simultaneously in different rooms, with the computer and the human playing opposite hands in each game. Although the machine was beaten, the article suggests that poker machines are getting better. At one stage one of the players folded claiming "if that is a bluff, it's over for humanity". Unfortunately, Polaris had been bluffing.
Submission + - MySpace finds 29,000 sex offenders
taoman1 writes: MySpace has identified more than 29,000 registered sex offenders among those registered to use its site — more than four times what the company said in May it had found from an investigation, according to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.
Submission + - Poker pros to face off with computer
taoman1 writes: Poker champion Phil Laak has a good chance of winning when he sits down this week to play 2,000 hands of Texas Hold'em — against a computer. It may be the last chance he gets. Computers have gotten a lot better at poker in recent years; they're good enough now to challenge top professionals like Laak, who won the World Poker Tour invitational in 2004. But it's only a matter of time before the machines take a commanding lead in the war for poker supremacy.
Submission + - Testing Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance'
smooth wombat writes: Travelling to a time in the past is, as far as we know, not possible. However, Einstein postulated a faster-than-light effect known as 'spooky action at a distance'. The problem is, how do you test for such an effect? That test may now be here. If all goes well, hopefully by September 15th, John Cramer will have experimented with a beam of laser light which has been split in two to test Einstein's idea.
While he is only testing the quantum entanglement portion, changing one light beam and having the same change made in the other beam, his experiment might show that a change made in one beam shows up in the other beam before he actually makes the change.
An interesting sidenote is that the money for this project was raised not from the scientific community but from the public at large. His fans have sent him the money necessary to purchase the equipment to test Einstein's idea.
While he is only testing the quantum entanglement portion, changing one light beam and having the same change made in the other beam, his experiment might show that a change made in one beam shows up in the other beam before he actually makes the change.
An interesting sidenote is that the money for this project was raised not from the scientific community but from the public at large. His fans have sent him the money necessary to purchase the equipment to test Einstein's idea.
Submission + - Nicotine is the new wonder drug. (wired.com)
Fantastic Lad writes: Smoking may be bad for you, but Researchers and biotech companies are quietly developing pharmaceuticals that are decidedly good for brains, bowels, blood vessels and even immune systems — and they're inspired by tobacco's active ingredient: nicotine. Nicotine acts on the acetylcholine receptors in the brain, stimulating and regulating the release of a slew of brain chemicals, including seratonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Now drugs derived from nicotine and the research on nicotine receptors are in clinical trials for everything from helping to heal wounds, to depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, anger management and anxiety. Smoking will kill you, but also keep you in good health? Another story about nicotine warding off Parkison's disease here seems to agree. -Who knew?
Submission + - FBI Cracking down on University students (theinquirer.net)
MSDos-486 writes: According the Inquirer the FBI is cracking down on those who are "working late at the campus, travelling abroad, showing an interest in their colleagues' work, or have friends outside the United States, engaging in independent research, or making extra money without the prior consent of the authorities." Basically everything most Engineering/Science students do when they have a Engineering/Science related research venture or job.
