Raver32 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Star Trek:TOS special effects to be remastered (sciam.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @11:23AM

Raver32 writes: "As I settled in, half attentive, I started noticing something was odd. First off, the crew's uniforms were brighter than I remembered. And wait, why was the image on the bridge view screen so crisp? Even odder, when the ship entered orbit around a planet, it's features, as well as those of the Enterprise, seemed much more detailed. Not only that, the planet was much larger in respect to my favorite starship; the scale seemed much more realistic. Later, in a shuttle bay scene, I could swear I saw figures in the windows of the observation decks looking down on a landing shuttlecraft. Wait a minute, what shuttle bay observation decks? By now I was wide awake. Something had changed. Had I, in my grogginess, somehow slipped into an alternate universe? That would be bad, because it would mean my evil version would be terrorizing loved ones back on my Earth, maybe getting into a low-speed chase with the police, or even more terrifying — writing SciAm blogs celebrating the Creationist Museum. Thankfully, I was in the right universe but just witnessing the new digitally remastered version of the original series. This is an as yet unfinished project being produced by CBS Digital that plans to revamp all 79 original episodes."

Submission + - Does Caffeine Perk Up Memory? (sciam.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @11:15AM

Raver32 writes: "Trying to cut down on your coffee consumption, ladies? Well if you're of a certain age, you might want to reconsider. A new study from France found that women — especially those 65 and over — who reported drinking three-plus cups of java daily did better on memory tests than compeers who drank one or fewer cups a day. "Caffeine is a psychostimulant which appears to reduce cognitive decline in women," study author Karen Ritchie of INSERM, the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Montpellier, France, said in a statement."

Submission + - Astronomers Witness Whopper Galaxy Collision (space.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @07:50AM

Raver32 writes: "A major cosmic pileup involving four large galaxies could give rise to one of the largest galaxies the universe has ever known, scientists say. Each of the four galaxies is at least the size of the Milky Way, and each is home to billions of stars. The galaxies will eventually merge into a single, colossal galaxy up to 10 times as massive as our own Milky Way. "When this merger is complete, this will be one of the biggest galaxies in the universe," said study team member Kenneth Rines of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The finding, to be detailed in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, gives scientists their first real glimpse into a galaxy merger involving multiple big galaxies. "Most of the galaxy mergers we already knew about are like compact cars crashing together," Rines said. "What we have here is like four sand trucks smashing together, flinging sand everywhere.""

Feed Science Daily: European Heat Waves Double In Length Since 1880 (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed on Friday August 03, 2007 @12:12PM

The most accurate measures of European daily temperatures ever indicate that the length of heat waves on the continent has doubled and the frequency of extremely hot days has nearly tripled in the past century. The new data shows that many previous assessments of daily summer temperature change underestimated heat wave events in western Europe by approximately 30 percent.

Submission + - Newfound Planet Has Earth-Like Orbit (space.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Friday August 03, 2007 @12:12PM

Raver32 writes: "The new planet, spotted using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas, circles its bloated parent star every 360 days and is located about 300 light-years away, in the constellation Perseus. The red giant star is twice as massive and about 10 times larger than the sun. Its planet is about the size of Jupiter or larger and was discovered using the so-called wobble technique, in which astronomers look for slight wiggles in a star's motion created by the gravitational tug of orbiting planets. The discovery could help astronomers understand what will happen to our sun's brood of planets when it exhausts its store of hydrogen fuel and its outer envelope begins to swell. When that happens in an estimated 5 billion years, our sun will be so big that it will engulf the inner planets and most likely Earth. But long before that happens, life on our planet will have perished and its seas will have boiled away."

Submission + - Nursing Home Cat Can Sense Death (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by

Raver32

on Thursday July 26, 2007 @08:06AM

Raver32 writes: "When Oscar the Cat visits residents of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, the staff jump into action — Oscar can sense within hours when someone is about to die. In his two years living in Steere's end-stage dementia unit, Oscar has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died, according to Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence. He wrote about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine. "It's not that the cat is consistently there first," Dr. Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Brown University, who sees patients in the unit. "But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours.""

Submission + - Democrats prepare for YouTube debate (thestar.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Monday July 23, 2007 @02:49PM

Raver32 writes: "Campaigning by Democratic candidates was limited to brief photo opportunities Monday as their focus shifted to preparing for the first presidential debate in which the questions are posed by members of public via Internet videos. The two-hour debate, which begins at 7 p.m. EDT, is sponsored by YouTube, Google and CNN and is the first presidential debate of the 2008 race sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. CNN editors will select questions from personal videos delivered to YouTube, where some of the submitted videos were already posted."

Submission + - University probes online security threats (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Monday July 23, 2007 @02:28PM

Raver32 writes: "The e-mail appeared to be a routine correspondence between two friends. "Check this out!" it read, then listed a Web address. But the note was fake, part of an online ruse called phishing that has become a scammer's favourite way to get sensitive information from unsuspecting computer users. The catch? The scammers were Indiana University researchers, the e-mail an experiment. "I didn't know I was being used," said Kevin McGrath, 25, a doctoral student at Indiana University whose e-mail address was one of hundreds used as "passive participants" for an experiment to study who gets duped by phishing."

Submission + - Digital music players unsafe in storms (monstersandcritics.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Saturday July 14, 2007 @04:20PM

Raver32 writes: "Following a recent study suggesting the Apple iPod could adversely affect the performance of pacemakers, a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine has warned that portable digital music players can be extremely dangerous if carried in a storm. "Most people hit by lightning get away with minor burns," outlined the report's lead author, Dr. Eric J. Heffernan of Vancouver General Hospital, before explaining that human skin is highly resistant and prevents electricity from entering the body. "It's called the flashover effect," he added in a Xinhua article, "although it can stop your heart and kill you.""

Submission + - VeriSign CFO resigns, restate stock results (canoe.ca)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Friday July 13, 2007 @09:13AM

Raver32 writes: "VeriSign Inc. said Thursday that its chief financial officer has resigned and that the company has recorded $171 million in compensation expenses to account for mishandled stock options grants. Mountain View-based VeriSign, which manages the ".com" and ".net" domain names registry, said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that an internal review found problems with 8,164 stock option grants made on 41 dates between 1998 and 2006."

Submission + - Social Networking for the Deceased (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Friday July 13, 2007 @09:02AM

Raver32 writes: "Respectance.com marks the latest attempt to create a workable website for online memorials. The goal is to create a site where people can post online tributes to the departed; the Respectance twist is to add Facebook-style features to the effort. Some of these are genuinely useful: For instance, given its owner's blessing, anyone can upload photos to a Respectance tribute page. And it must be said that the site is a fair sight classier than many of its overwrought predecessors. But this isn't just a tribute site: It's a social network. This means that, alongside the condolence book and the wall of memorial photos, there's a list of the departed's "friends." If nothing else, it's trendy. To contribute, you first have to sign up for a Respectance account, then request to be added to the deceased's buddy list. Once you're on the list, your name links to your profile page, on which all of your deceased friends are listed, as well as the tributes you've made to each of them. It also means that you can send and receive private messages from other members, and check out their own networks of friends, living and otherwise. (Sure enough, dead celebrity tributes have appeared, thanks in no small part to Respectance itself, which posted dozens to get the ball rolling, leading to an immediate gravitas deficit.)"

Submission + - Website delivers last 'e-wishes' (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Friday July 13, 2007 @08:56AM

Raver32 writes: "In the old days, the family lawyer could be relied upon to handle much of the business of dying. But as modern life gets more complex and families split up or move, death needs more organization, said Collin Harris, 51, the entrepreneur behind the website. A new website, YouDeparted.com, delivers all your last "e-wishes" to family and friends after you pass away, and lets them know where to find important documents such as insurance policies. "There are 70 million baby boomers in the United States alone. The website is a nice organizer for you to put useful information, and when you die it is released to designated family and friends," he said."

Submission + - Major Breakthrough Boosts Stem Cell Hopes (thestar.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Friday July 13, 2007 @08:50AM

Raver32 writes: "A landmark discovery by researchers at Hamilton's McMaster University could radically alter the way scientists attempt to use embryonic stem cells to grow replacement tissues and treat cancer. The researchers found that human embryonic stem cells — "the great grandmothers" of all the other cells in our bodies — build themselves a nurturing cocoon that feeds them and directs their ability to turn into other types of tissues. By manipulating the products of this tiny, cellular placenta, it may be possible for scientists to prompt the stem cells to grow into desired tissues and organs, or to switch off tumour growth, says Mickie Bhatia, the lead study author. The study will appear in an upcoming issue of the scientific journal Nature."

Submission + - Lightning strikes reported by iPod users (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Thursday July 12, 2007 @07:48AM

Raver32 writes: "Listen to an iPod during a storm and you may get more than electrifying tunes. A Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns, ruptured eardrums and a broken jaw when lightning traveled through his music player's wires. Last summer, a Colorado teen ended up with similar injuries when lightning struck nearby as he was listening to his iPod while mowing the lawn. Emergency physicians report treating other patients with burns from freak accidents while using personal electronic devices such as beepers, Walkman players and laptop computers outdoors during storms"

Submission + - Robot unravels mystery of walking (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Thursday July 12, 2007 @07:42AM

Raver32 writes: "Roboticists are using the lessons of a 1930s human physiologist to build the world's fastest walking robot. Runbot is a self-learning, dynamic robot, which has been built around the theories of Nikolai Bernstein. "Getting a robot to walk like a human requires a dynamic machine," said Professor Florentin Woergoetter. Runbot is a small, biped robot which can move at speeds of more than three leg lengths per second, slightly slower than the fastest walking human."

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