AstroPhilosopher - Slashdot User

Submission + - Scientists Enable Monkeys to Move Paralyzed Arms (yahoo.net)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @04:56PM

AstroPhilosopher writes: Scientists from Chicago's Northwestern University have developed a technique to allow monkeys to move paralyzed arms. After training monkeys to place a ball in a container, scientists then restrained one arm and anaesthetised the other. After confirming that the monkeys couldn't move their arms, they then activated electrodes implanted in the monkeys brains and arm muscles; bypassing the spinal cord. This has potential impact on humans paralyzed by spinal cord injuries.

Submission + - Global war on drugs has failed, say Kofi Annan, Richard Branson, world leaders (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Hooloola on Tuesday April 17, 2012 @01:52PM

Hooloola writes: A group of very prominent people has come before the U.N. calling for a radical liberalization of drug prohibition. It is the sort of argument that ha been made before, but not by people of such eminence or on such a platform as the U.N.

Submission + - Student Charged for Selling Textbooks (yahoo.com)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher on Monday April 16, 2012 @12:46PM

AstroPhilosopher writes: The US Supreme Court will hear an appeal from a Thai student who was fined $600,000 for re-selling textbooks. Trying to make ends meet, the student had family members in Thailand mail him textbooks that were made abroad, purchased abroad, and then resold in the US. A practice many retailers partake in everyday in the 'parallel market'.

Submission + - Major Networks Suing to Stop Free Streaming (wired.com) 1

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher on Friday April 13, 2012 @08:35AM

AstroPhilosopher writes: In a move similar to Hollywood's attempt to have the Supreme Court ban VCRs back in the 80's. ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and Univision are set to appear in court next month to urge a New York federal judge to block Aereo. Aereo opened last month allowing you to stream everything you can already view for free over the 'airwaves' straight to your iPad.

Submission + - N. Korea Rocket Launch Fails (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher on Friday April 13, 2012 @07:34AM

AstroPhilosopher writes: Touted as a rocket used to launch a scientific satelite by the N. Koreans. A claim refuted by the US and its allies who claim it's a missile test. N. Korea's Unha-3 rocket suffered a malfunction about a minute after lift-off at 0739 local time April 13, 2012; failing to reach orbit.

Submission + - Nanoscientists find long-sought Majorana particle (tudelft.nl) 5

Submitted by boner on Thursday April 12, 2012 @03:47PM

boner writes: In a follow-up of an earlier Slashdot story (http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/03/01/1915236/majorana-fermion-may-have-been-spotted-at-tu-delft), scientists at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, today published their findings that they have indeed found the Majorana particle.

The announcement on the university website provides both a summary and background of this groundbreaking discovery. The page is available in both dutch and english : http://tudelft.nl/en/current/latest-news/article/detail/nanowetenschappers-vinden-langgezocht-majorana-deeltje/

Submission + - New study show Mars Viking robots found life (tech-stew.com)

Submitted by

techfun89

on Thursday April 12, 2012 @03:35PM

techfun89 writes: "New analysis of data, now 36 years old, from the Viking robots, shows that NASA had found life on Mars. This conclusion was published by an international team of mathematicians and scientists this week.

The Labeled Release experiment looked for signs of microbial metabolism in soil samples in 1976. The general thinking was that the experiment had found geological not biological activity

However, the new study approached things differently. Researchers broke the data into sets of numbers and analyzed the results for complexity. What they found were close correlations between the Viking results' complexity and those of terrestrial biological data sets. Based on this they concluded that the Viking results were more biological in nature than just geological processes."

Submission + - Researchers Discover Fungi That Eat Plastics (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher on Thursday April 12, 2012 @02:18PM

AstroPhilosopher writes: Recycling has long been used to attempt to limit plastic waste disposal. However, it does nothing to limit the amount of new plastic we produce along with the plastic that makes it to landfills.

Now researchers have discovered a fungus that can eat polyurethane even in anaeorbic environments; along with another that when combined with cornhusks, can be used to create biodegradable styrofoam.

Submission + - TeaMp0isoN Phone-Bombs UK's MI6 Spies (techweekeurope.co.uk) 1

Submitted by

judgecorp

on Thursday April 12, 2012 @12:44PM

judgecorp writes: "Hacker group TeaMp0isoN carried out a 24 hour "phone bomb" attack on the UK counter terrorism command offices of MI6, running an Asterisk script that kept the spies' phones blocked, and engaging them in teasing conversation. The action was apparently in protest at extraditions to the US"

Submission + - Worlds' Passport Security Causing Problems for CIA (wired.com)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher on Thursday April 12, 2012 @10:43AM

AstroPhilosopher writes: Improved security measures including biometrics are causing problems for the CIA and other spy agencies attempting to conduct missions around the world.

In “the old days,” as one put it — that would be before 9/11 — deep-cover CIA operatives could use and discard false passports like hand wipes.
Now: Even crossing the border with a real identity, then donning a fake one in-country, presents its own risks.

Submission + - Non-Newtonian Fluids Fill Potholes (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit on Wednesday April 11, 2012 @02:44PM

sciencehabit writes: So-called non-Newtonian fluids are the stars of high school science demonstrations. In one example, an ooey-gooey batter made from corn starch and water oozes like a liquid when moved slowly. But punch it, or run across a giant puddle of it, and it becomes stiff like a solid. Now, a group of college students has figured out a new use for the strange stuff: filler for potholes.

Submission + - The Weird World of "Remote Heating" (scienceworldreport.com)

Submitted by

fishmike

on Wednesday April 11, 2012 @10:59AM

fishmike writes: "A team of University of Maryland scientists have discovered that when electric current is run through carbon nanotubes, objects nearby heat up while the nanotubes themselves stay cool, like a toaster that burns bread without getting hot. Understanding this completely unexpected new phenomenon could lead to new ways of building computer processors that can run at higher speeds without overheating."

Submission + - Google's Project Glass video forgot adverts (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05, 2012 @04:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: That Project Glass video Google released yesterday looked pretty amazing. But it did forget to mention one thing: adverts. Google makes most of its money from ads, it relies on them almost completely. So you think Project Glass will ship without them? Hell, no. Now watch the remixed version of the Project Glass video for a more realistic view of that using these glasses will mean.

Submission + - Watch the wind across the US in real time (hint.fm)

Submitted by 6 on Monday April 02, 2012 @01:37PM

6 writes: An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future.

Submission + - Why aren't schools connected?

Submitted by

rtobyr

on Monday April 02, 2012 @01:00PM

rtobyr writes: "We use the Internet--E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to communicate with colleagues, friends, and family. When I was in Iraq with the Marine Corps, we used e-mail (secured with encryption and stuff, but e-mail nonetheless) to communicate the commanding officer's order that a combat mission should be carried out. My third grade daughter produces her own YouTube videos, and can create public servers for her games with virtual private network (VPN) technology.

Yet here I am trusting a third grade girl to deliver memos to me about her educational requirements in an age in which I can't remember the last time I used paper.

Teachers could have distribution lists of the parents. The kids' homework is printed. Therefore, it must have started as a computer file (I hope they're not still using mimeograph machines). Teachers could e-mail a summary of what's going on, and attach the homework files along with other notices about field trips or conferences that parents should be aware of.

Teachers could have an easy way to post all these files to the Internet on blogs. With RSS, parents could subscribe to receive everything that teachers put online. If teachers want to add to the blog their own personal comments about how the school year is going, then all the parents would see that also, and perhaps have the opportunity to comment on the blog.

It seems to me that with the right processes, the cost and additional workload would be insignificant. For example, instead of developing a syllabus in MS Word, use Wordpress. Have schools simply not paid attention to the past decade of technology, or is there a reason that these things aren't in place?"

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