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Submission + - Valve is Bringing Steam's Game Library into VR with Desktop Theater Mode (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From characters sprinting around levels at inhuman speeds to the player's view being forcibly moved when a game takes control of the camera during a cutscene, it isn't as easy as you might think to make a game work in VR if it wasn't designed for it in the first place. So Valve is striking a compromise that lets players make use of their existing Steam games in VR. SteamVR Desktop Theater Mode, which Valve says is in early beta and will be shown at GDC next week, puts player's games on a huge screen in a virtual home theater setting. Future possibilities for gamers playing together on the same virtual couch are enticing.

Submission + - And the Pulitzer Prize for SQL Reporting Goes To...

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Over at the Stanford Computational Journalism Lab, Dan Nguyen's Exploring the Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer-Winning Medicare Investigation with SQL is a pretty epic post on how one can use SQL to learn about Medicare data and controversial practices in Medicare billing, giving the reader a better appreciation for what was involved in the WSJ's Medicare Unmasked data investigation. So, how long until a journalist wins a Pulitzer for SQL reporting? And for all you amateur and professional Data Scientists, what data would you want to SELECT if you were a Pulitzer-seeking reporter?

Submission + - Mystery company blazes a trail in fusion energy (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Of the handful of startup companies trying to achieve fusion energy via nontraditional methods, Tri Alpha Energy Inc. has always been the enigma. Publishing little and with no website, but apparently sitting on a cash pile in the hundreds of millions, the Foothill Ranch, California-based company has been the subject of intense curiosity and speculation. But last month Tri Alpha lifted the veil slightly with two papers revealing that its device, dubbed the colliding beam fusion reactor, has shown a 10-fold improvement in its ability to contain the hot particles needed for fusion over earlier devices at U.S. universities and national labs. “They’ve improved things greatly and are moving in a direction that is quite promising,” says plasma physicist John Santarius of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Submission + - Perl 5.22 Released (perlnews.org)

Submitted by kthreadd
kthreadd writes: Version 5.22 of the Perl programming language has just been released. A major new feature in this release is the double diamond operator; like the regular diamond operator it allows you to quickly read through files specified on the command line but does this in a much safer way by not evaluating special characters in the file names. Other new features include hexadecimal floating point numbers, improved variable aliasing and a nicer syntax for repetition in list assignment. Also, historical Perl modules CGI.pm and Module::Build are removed from the core distribution.

Submission + - Biologist creates self-healing concrete (cnn.com)

Submitted by Mr.Intel
Mr.Intel writes: No matter how carefully it is mixed or reinforced, all concrete eventually cracks, and under some conditions, those cracks can lead to collapse. "The problem with cracks in concrete is leakage," explains professor Henk Jonkers, of Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. "If you have cracks, water comes through — in your basements, in a parking garage. Secondly, if this water gets to the steel reinforcements — in concrete we have all these steel rebars — if they corrode, the structure collapses."

But Jonkers has come up with an entirely new way of giving concrete a longer life. "We have invented bioconcrete — that's concrete that heals itself using bacteria," he says.

Submission + - Scientists discover first warm-bodied fish (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Researchers have discovered the first fish that can keep its entire body warm, much like mammals and birds. The opah, or moonfish, lives in deep, cold water, but it generates heat from its massive pectoral muscles. And it conserves that warmth thanks to body fat and the special structure of blood vessels in its gills. Having a warm heart and brain likely allows the little-known fish to be a vigorous predator, the researchers suspect.

Submission + - FCC posts its 400-page net neutrality order (cnet.com)

Submitted by jriding
jriding writes: Simply titled "Open Internet FCC-15-24A1," the order runs 400 pages.
The actual text of the new rules is only 305 words long.
Wheeler said reclassifying broadband as an utility gives the FCC its best shot at withstanding legal challenges. The courts have twice tossed out earlier rules aimed at protecting Internet openness. The FCC chairman has said repeatedly the agency does not intend to set rates or add new taxes to broadband bills. More than 100 pages of the 400-page document released Thursday explain that forbearance.

AT&T had hinted it would file a lawsuit once the new rules become public. The company's chief lobbyist, Jim Cicconi, didn't indicate Thursday when or even if AT&T would sue — only that the battle is far from over.

"Unfortunately, the order released today begins a period of uncertainty that will damage broadband investment in the United States," Cicconi said. "Ultimately, though, we are confident the issue will be resolved by bipartisan action by Congress or a future FCC, or by the courts."

Submission + - Highly efficient LED Filament Bulbs look almost exactly like an icandescent.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A recent article posted on a green building site gives a detailed analysis of a creative new kind of LED bulb that has been popping up Europe and Asia over the last year. They look almost exactly like Tungsten filament bulbs, require no heat sink, and offer extremely high efficiencies in the 100-120 lm/W range. The article describes their construction, compares them to conventional LED bulbs, and describes the result of a report by the Swedish Energey Agency that analyzed the performance of several brands of these these bulbs on the European market. Particularly interesting are links to teardown videos.
The Internet

Journal SPAM: Cheap Web Hosting Starting From 99 Cent Only!

Journal by trillionaire
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Feed Science Daily: Reversing The Signs Of Alzheimer's (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Scientists are one step further to finding a cure for Alzheimer's, thanks to the development of a compound which reverses signs of the disease. The biologists have developed man-made compounds capable of blocking a nerve cell interaction known to lead to the symptoms of the disease. The researchers have shown, using a model of the disease, that it is possible to reverse some of the signs associated with Alzheimer's.
User Journal

Journal Journal: 35W Bridge Collapse 6

Journal by dead sun
What a mess. Eight lane bridge, thankfully with four lanes ripped up for construction, plummets into the Mississippi River. I drove over that bridge the morning of the day it collapsed. I'm thankful that I took a different route home, and did so before the collapse. It is odd, and frightening, to think that I've driven over that bridge twice nearly every weekday for at least a couple years just commuting.

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