Stirling Newberry - Slashdot User

Submission + - Some in "vegetative state" are aware. (thelancet.com)

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Stirling Newberry

on Thursday November 10, 2011 @07:41AM

Stirling Newberry writes: "It is the nightmare from a dozen horror films: people who are thought to be in a coma, but are really not. The Lancet published yesterday on how this really was the case for a noticeable percentage of people diagnosed as "vegetative." The article shows how an EKG indicated at least some were really aware. The study authored by Damian Cruse et al urges that their method of testing be made standard for patients in such a state. The Spec has an excellent write up which includes a picture of the apparatus. The study grows out of earlier communication by the same authors that looked asserted that some cognition had to occur in the "minimally conscious."

If the findings hold up – always essential to have others be able to duplicate the results – it could dramatically change how people in a coma are handled, perhaps even the ability to allow them to communicate."

Submission + - 23:59:60 Never Again? Leap Second Abolition Advanc (nature.com)

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Stirling Newberry

on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @03:20PM

Stirling Newberry writes: "When time keeping changed from astronomical measurements to atomic clocks, a problem arose: how to keep the calendar in sync with the clock, since the reason for atomic clocks, is that the earth's rotation varies slightly over time, and generally slows because of tidal drag from the moon.

Nature is reporting that the push to get rid of leap seconds is gaining traction. Any system admin knows that leap seconds have their own lore and maybe responsible for hard crashes. Meanwhile others, such as China's central government and some astronomers, are uncomfortable with the corollary of getting rid of leap seconds: clocks and the stars will slowly grow out of sync . Have you seen a leap second crash, or had to make changes because of them?"

Submission + - Italy's Government teeters on brink of collapse, G (guardian.co.uk)

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Stirling Newberry

on Tuesday November 08, 2011 @02:06PM

Stirling Newberry writes: "Berlusconi's government lost by winning: a routine budget vote passed, but only because of abstentions 308-0-321. Without a majority, he has gone to Italy's President, who as with many parliamentary systems has few powers, but can declare new elections.

Meanwhile in Greece al jazeera reports that Lucas Papademos a career central banker, is going to be tapped to be the next PM. An MIT graduate, his academic work included a paper co-authored with Franco Modigliani on how to fight stagflation.

Italy is facing the same bond attack that Ireland, Portugal, and Greece have, but as the Eurozone's third largest economy, behind Germany and France, it is too large to bail out."

Submission + - NASA Captures Radar Image During Asteroid Flyby of (nasa.gov)

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Stirling Newberry

on Tuesday November 08, 2011 @10:10AM

Stirling Newberry writes: "We've all heard by now that asteriod impacts may be the cause of periodic mass extinction events – and perhaps of calls to defend earth against them. Maybe you have heard of comet panics. But near Earth passing events aren't all doom and gloom, in these images NASA and JPL used radar to capture images of Asteroid 2005 YU55, which will be closest at ~324,600 km at 1128 UTC, or 6:26 PM EST. Related NASA video is here, and as you can see, the moon will get a much better view than we will – though depending on the results of the asteroid's close pass of Venus in 2029, it could well pass this close to us in 2041. The images come from the Goldstone Complex in the Mojave desert."

Submission + - More Evidence for Human Effects on Climate (nature.com)

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Stirling Newberry

on Friday November 04, 2011 @11:16AM

Stirling Newberry writes: "While the development of a crack in the ice in Antartica that will be a large iceberg is providing some of the most interesting pictures of the day, and the story about record jumps in CO2 emissions are on many newspaper sites, two new articles are pointing to the subtle effects of human activity on climate. One, in Nature, is focused on how carbon is changing the dynamics of tropical cyclones, the other ,in Science, is focused on Nitrogen fertilizer and its effects on rainforests.

The Nature article focuses on cyclone genesis in the Arabian Sea, particularly whether human carbon emission reduces upper level winds. Of the three components of cyclone formation — warm sea water, unstable air masses, and low upper level winds — the last is what turns small storms into big storms, and allows storms in unusual places. This is because upper level winds shred the chimney effect that storms use to pull warm air from the sea and shoot it upwards. Low winds are like no predation in biology: without upper level winds to tear them apart, all sorts of strange storms can survive.

The Science magazine piece shows how human generated fertilizer shows up in leaves of trees in tropical rain forests. Since fertilizer is an essential part of increasing agricultural output, and rain forests are key parts of the atmospheric cycle, their study is important to climate stability as well."

Submission + - Fracking Likley Cause of Minor Quakes in UK (sciencemag.org)

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Stirling Newberry

on Thursday November 03, 2011 @09:24AM

Stirling Newberry writes: "Non-conventional extraction of hydrocarbons is the next wave of production, including natural gas and oil – at least according to its advocates. One of the most controversial of the technologies being used is hydraulic fracture drilling, or "fracking." Energy companies have been gobbling up google ad words to push the view that the technology is "proven" and "safe," while stories about the damage continue to surface. Adding to the debate are two small tremors in the UK — below 3.0, so very small – that were quite likely the result of fracking there. Because the drilling cracks were shallow, this raises concerns that deeper cracks near more geologically active areas might lead to quakes that could cause serious damage."

Submission + - Assange Prepares Appeal After Losing Extradition R (telegraph.co.uk)

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Stirling Newberry

on Wednesday November 02, 2011 @12:26PM

Stirling Newberry writes: "The Telegraph reports that Assange is preparing an appeal on the ruling he must be extradited. Under the British Constitution such an appeal requires that larger issues be raised. This comes as wikileaks itself is going to cease publishing material because of what it calls a "banking blockade.""

Submission + - The Northeast Passage Getting Wider (nytimes.com)

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Stirling Newberry

on Tuesday October 18, 2011 @05:46AM

Stirling Newberry writes: "The New York Times reports on the continued expansion of the sea route along the Russian side of the Arctic Ocean. It was only in 2009 that outside ships were allowed to ply this lane, but Russians have used it since the early 20th century. What makes this year a landmark is that the polar ice cap is smaller at its September minimum than before, allowing large container ships and oil tankers–the backbone of sea commerce – to travel between Europe and Asia, saving time and money over the Suez route, as well as avoiding several politically unstable regions of the world. Putin has been pushing development along the route. While the northwest passage is only gradually opening, the opposite side of the Arctic Ocean looks set for expansion. Siberian Riveria anyone?"

Submission + - Paper Disputes Closing Ivins Anthrax Case (nytimes.com)

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Stirling Newberry

on Monday October 10, 2011 @06:38AM

Stirling Newberry writes: "The New York Times reports that an upcoming paper by Martin E. Hugh-Jones, Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, and Stuart Jacobsen – all of whom have long questioned the closing of the case – points to the presence of tin in the spore samples as a sign that the samples mailed had been processed beyond what Ivins, alone could have done. While not disputing that the spores came from Ft. Detrick, Martin-Hughes, who has co-authored several papers on anthrax signatures, contend according to the Times:
it appears likely that Dr. Ivins could not have made the anthrax powder alone with the equipment he possessed, as the F.B.I. maintains. That would mean either that he got the powder from elsewhere or that he was not the perpetrator.

For a good summary of the case from a medical standpoint this article from the Annals of Internal Medicine is an excellent place to start. The review by the National Resources Council that stated that the evidence available was not sufficient to locate the source of the spores is here, with a free pdf download."

Submission + - The Scientist to cease publication? (sciencemag.org)

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Stirling Newberry

on Saturday October 08, 2011 @01:12PM

Stirling Newberry writes: "According to Science Magazine, The Scientist Magazine an influential life sciences publication which just celebrated their 25th year of publication, is to close. They quote an email sent out by Vitek Tracz:
The only reason is economic — we simply could not find a way to make it pay. There is no other reason. It has wonderful and talented staff, an audience that likes it, and it succeeded in keeping high editorial and production standards for many years. The world is turning away from traditional magazines, and our dependence on page advertising brought us to this point. There is alas nothing much more to say, except to acknowledge the original vision of Eugene Garfield, and the work of the many wonderful people over the last 25 years.

So far, no confirmation from the magazine itself. It isn't April Fools, though many would hope that this decision is reversed."

Submission + - Oldest Submerged City Visualized with CGI and Ster (nottingham.ac.uk)

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Stirling Newberry

on Friday October 07, 2011 @03:54PM

Stirling Newberry writes: "Nottingham University's Pavlopetri project spent months measuring an city that sank beneath the waves 3000 years ago, perhaps in a tsunamai.

The result is a BBC documentary that features a detailed CGI reconstruction. The Independent chimes in about the oldest known submerged city first inhabited 5000 years ago and was rediscovered in 1967. Of course, Slashdot readers will want to dig into the (pdf) how stereo mapping was used to create the map in the first place."

Submission + - Bug Bounties Announced (eweek.com)

Submitted by Stirling Newberry on Thursday October 06, 2011 @08:28AM

Stirling Newberry writes: The article is pretty straightforward:
ExploitHub, which operates a penetration-testing site and is run by NSS Labs, announced a bug-bounty program for researchers to develop exploits for 12 high-value vulnerabilities in Microsoft and Adobe products.

And real geeks care about the CVEs:
Affecting typical enterprise networks, the bugs are not zero-days and have been previously disclosed. The exploits must be client-side remote exploits that would result in remote code execution, and must be for the following vulnerabilities, as identified by their Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) numbers: CVE-2011-1256, CVE-2011-1266, CVE-2011-1261, CVE-2011-1262, CVE-2011-1963, CVE-2011-1964, CVE-2011-0094, CVE-2011-0038, CVE-2011-0035, CVE-2010-3346, CVE-2011-2110 and CVE-2011-0628.

The rate is much lower than vendors pay for exploits — though higher than their usual offering — so it is better to check with the large vendors first. However the bounties are about in line with the existing metasploit rates, which were the subject of a slashdot thread back in June.

Submission + - Dan Schechtman wins 2011 Nobel Chemistry for quasi (nobelprize.org)

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Stirling Newberry

on Wednesday October 05, 2011 @08:34AM

Stirling Newberry writes: "Dan Schechtman gets the Nobel 2011 chemistry prize for quasicrystals.

So what's the big deal? A quasi-crystal is to a crystal, what a transcendental number is to a repeating decimal. A fraction like 1/3 written out never ends, but it never changes, just like ordinary squares cover a flat surface, by repeating over and over again, or cubes fill a space. Quasi crystals fill space completely, but do not repeat, even though they show self-similar patterns, the way pi has order, but doesn't repeat. That is, the tessellate in an ordered way, but do not have repeating cells.

In art Girih tiles showed the essential property of being able to cover an infinite space, without repeating. In mathematics, Hao Wang came up with a set of tiles that any Turing Machine could be represented by, and conjectured that they would eventually always repeat. He turned out to be wrong, and over the next decades, tiles that did not repeat, but showed order, were discovered, most famously, though not first, by Penrose.

Physically, when x-rays diffract, that is are scattered, from a crystal, they form a discrete lattice. Quasi-crystals also have an ordered diffraction pattern, and it tiles the way ordered by non repeating tiles do. Quasicrystal patterns were known before Schechtman labelled them.

So why care? Because crystals have only certain symmetries, and that determines their physical properties. Quasicrystals can have different symmetries, and do not bind regularly, and so different physical properties – which means new kinds of materials. Some examples are for highly ductile steel, and in something that is a bit of a by-word among people who study them cooking utensils."

Submission + - Climate Change Driving War? (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by

Stirling Newberry

on Tuesday October 04, 2011 @02:26PM

Stirling Newberry writes: "You may have heard of The Great Moderation which argues that business cycles are less steep, and the Green Revolution. These, it has been argued have lead to "winning the war on war". But not so fast says a study in Science, it may well be that the periods of war, past and present, can be linked to climate change:
As the Thirty Years' War between Europe's ruling dynasties dragged on during the 17th century, soldiers suffered through the coldest few decades Europe had experienced for some time. Far to the east, armies from Manchuria (present day northern China) swept down from the snowy north and breeched the Great Wall of China. Not long after, a plague swept Europe. Why so much tumult? A controversial new study suggests that most of humankind's maladies—from wars to epidemics to economic downturns—can be traced to climate fluctuations.

"

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