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Comment Re:seems dangerous (Score 1) 259

by Aciel.Samael (#30419306) Attached to: Microsoft Invents Price-Gouging the Least Influential
yeah man, every system of political influence is economic as much as anything else it might be, and all religions are by definition political systems. consider how Islam specifically affects its adherents in terms of determining what they are and are not allowed to do? remember the plight of the swine herders in Egypt during the swine-flu scare? also: totally not relevant to the point of the previous post.
Earth

The Limits To Skepticism 1093

Posted by kdawson from the sometimes-you-just-gotta-say dept.
jamie found a long and painstaking piece up at The Economist asking and provisionally answering the question: "Does the spirit of scientific scepticism really require that I remain forever open-minded to denialist humbug until it's shown to be wrong?" The author, who is not named, spent several hours picking apart the arguments of one Willis Eschenbach, AGW denialist, who on Dec. 8 published what he called the "smoking gun" — it was supposed to prove that the adjustments climate scientists make to historical temperature records are arbitrary to the point of intentional manipulation. The conclusion: "[H]ere's my solution to this problem: this is why we have peer review. Average guys with websites can do a lot of amazing things. One thing they cannot do is reveal statistical manipulation in climate-change studies that require a PhD in a related field to understand. So for the time being, my response to any and all further 'smoking gun' claims begins with: show me the peer-reviewed journal article demonstrating the error here. Otherwise, you're a crank and this is not a story. And then I'll probably go ahead and try to investigate the claim and write a blog post about it, because that's my job. Oh, and by the way: October was the hottest month on record in Darwin, Australia."
Patents

Microsoft Invents Price-Gouging the Least Influential 259

Posted by kdawson from the free-to-ashton-kutcher dept.
theodp writes "In the world envisioned by Microsoft's just-published patent application for Social Marketing, monopolists will maximize revenue by charging prices inversely related to the perceived influence an individual has on others. Microsoft gives an example of a pricing model that charges different people $0, $5, $10, $20, or $25 for the identical item based on the influence the purchaser wields. A presentation describing the revenue optimization scheme earned one of the three inventors applause (MS-Research video), and the so-called 'influence and exploit' strategies were also featured at WWW 2008 (PDF). The invention jibes nicely with Bill Gates's pending patents for identifying influencers. Welcome to the brave new world of analytics."
Medicine

Submission + - Method to Repair Adult Damaged Nerves Discovered (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers have discovered a promissing method to regrow damaged nerves in adults. Brain and spinal-cord injuries typically leave people with permanent impairment because the injured nerve fibers (axons) cannot regrow http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/scientist-discovers-new-way-to-repair-damaged-nerves/article1396395/. A study from Children's Hospital Boston (Harvard) and Carleton University, published in the December 10 issue of the journal Neuron shows that axons can regenerate vigorously in a mouse model when a gene that suppresses natural growth factors is deleted. Link to Neuron Article (subscription required to view whole article) is http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(09)00937-4
Earth

Submission + - Google Demos Global Deforestation in Google Earth (blogspot.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: On Google's official blog, they claim a 'new technology prototype that enables online, global-scale observation and measurement of changes in the earth's forests.' Ars has more information on what Google unveiled at Copenhagen. If you have Google Earth installed, a demonstration can be found here. A lot of organizations and government agencies are on board with this initiative to put deforestation in the eye of the public. If only they had satellite data of North America before the logging industry swept in!
Science

Submission + - LHC reaches record energy (web.cern.ch)

Submitted by toruonu
toruonu writes: Yesterday evening the Large Hadron Collider at CERN accelerated for the first time protons in both directions of the ring to 1.18 TeV. Even though the 1 TeV barrier per beam was first broken a week ago, this marks the first time that the beam was in the machine in both directions at the same time allowing possibly for collisions at a center of mass energy of 2.36 TeV. Although the test lasted only mere minutes it was enough to have detectors record the very first events at 2.36 TeV, for an example event see http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/public/EVTDISPLAY/events.html.

With this LHC passes Tevatron (the particle collider at Fermilab that operates at 1.96 TeV) and becomes the highest energy particle collider in the world (so far it was effectively just the highest energy storage ring...)
Science

Submission + - How to build a quantum propulsion machine (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: According to quantum mechanics, a vacuum will be filled with electromagnetic waves leaping in and out of existence. It turns out that these waves can have various measurable effects, such as the Casimir-Polder force which was first measured accurately in 1997. Just how to exploit this force is still not clear. Today, however, a researcher at an Israeli government lab suggests how it could be possible to generate propulsion using the quantum vacuum. The basic idea is that pushing on the electromagnetic fields in the vacuum should generate an equal and opposite force. The suggestion is that this can be done using nanoparticles that interact with the vacuum's electric and magnetic fields, generating the well known Lorentz force. In most cases, the sum of Lorentz forces adds up to zero. But today's breakthrough is the discovery of various ways to break this symmetry and so use the quantum vacuum to generate a force. The simplest of which is simply to rotate the particles. So the blueprint for a quantum propulsion machine described in the paper is an array of addressable nanoparticles that can be rotated in the required way. Although such a machine will need a source of energy, it generates propulsion without any change in mass. As the research puts it with masterful understatement, this might have practical implications.
NASA

Submission + - New Hubble Ultra Deep Field in infrared (hubblesite.org)

Submitted by Hynee
Hynee writes: Just in time for Christmas, HubbleSite has released a Hubble Ultra Deep Field redux. The original was in visible light, this version, five years on, is in infrared (1.05, 1.25 and 1.6 um).

The observation is in support of the upcoming JWST which will observe exclusively in infrared, but the newly installed WFC3 does seem to provide some extra resolution over the 2004 visible observations with WFC2.

All the mainstream media has picked up on this, but strangely not even a tweet from NASA or any of its centers. (There's been one tweet in the last 12 hours, I wonder if they're reviewing their tweeting policy. Maybe they finally decided their tweetups were dumb. No text releases either, maybe too close to the holidays.)

Good luck in comparing observations, this new release covers a region about 70% x 70% of the original, aligned with the top left corner (the North corner).
Science

Submission + - Monkeys with Syntax (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
jamie
jamie writes: "It seems the Campbell's monkey has a vocabulary with at least six types of basic call, but they combine them and string them together to communicate new meanings. For example, the word for 'leopard' gets an '-oo' suffix to mean 'unseen predator.' But when that word is repeated after 'come over here,' the combination means 'Timber!' — a warning of falling trees. Scientists have known for some time that vervet monkeys have different warning calls for different predators — eagle, leopard and snake — but unlike the Campbell's monkeys, vervets didn't combine those calls to create new meanings, a key component of syntax. The researchers plan to play back recordings to the monkeys to test their theories for syntax errors."
Medicine

Submission + - New sensory system found in the skin (examiner.com)

Submitted by mmmscience
mmmscience writes: Researches have found a new sensory system in the skin that is completely separate from the traditional nerve network that gives us the sense of touch. The new system, comprised of sensory nerves found on blood vessels and sweat glands, is not nearly as potent, but does allow people to sense temperatures and textures. The research suggests that the system may play a role in chronic pain disorders such as migraines and fibromyalgia, conditions whose causes remain a mystery.

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