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Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Music

Will the New RIAA Tactic Boost P2P File Sharing? 309

Posted by Soulskill from the fighting-a-losing-battle dept.
newtley writes "The RIAA's claim that it'll stop suing people may have serious consequences... for the RIAA. When it dropped its attack on seven University of Michigan students, Recording Industry vs. The People wondered if the move was linked to three investigations, with MediaSentry as the target, before Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Now, 'LSA sophomore Erin Breisacher said she stopped downloading music illegally after hearing about the possibility of receiving a lawsuit, but now that the RIAA has stopped pursuing lawsuits she "might start downloading again,"' says the Michigan Daily, going on to quote LSA senior Chad Nihranz as saying, 'I figure, if there aren't as many lawsuits they will come out with more software to allow students to download more.'" What about some of the other potential tactics we've discussed recently, such as the UK's proposed £20 per year film and music tax or the $5 monthly fee suggested in the US? Is there anything the RIAA can do to reduce illegal file-sharing without generating massive amounts of bad publicity?
Education

Submission + - CS Majors: Is the "Where" important? 4

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I'm a high school senior that is trying to pick a college to attend. I've been accepted by two comparably selective schools. One school is a highly regarded tech school, and the other is a highly regarded liberal arts institution. I prefer the liberal arts college, but the computer science program is small, graduating about a dozen students a year. The course load is heavily theory based; programming languages are taught in later years.

Would the tech school vs non tech school matter? Are CS majors from non-tech school considered inferior? What would an HR department think?

Places Feature Cut From Firefox 2 394

Posted by Zonk from the sing-thee-to-thy-rest dept.
segphault writes "Apparently, the new bookmark and history system (called 'Places') scheduled for inclusion in Firefox 2 has been removed from the roadmap and disabled in the builds. An article at Ars Technica discusses some of the implications: 'Since Firefox 2 (and all alpha builds from here on out) will use the conventional bookmark system, those of you that have been using Firefox 2 alphas (the Gecko 1.8 branch) will have to export your bookmarks to HTML in order to preserve them. As a Firefox user and a software developer, I am personally very disappointed with the removal of this innovative feature.'" Update: 05/01 01:16 GMT by Z : Ars link updated.

Comment It just takes time (Score 1) 169

by NickMc2000 (#15165174) Attached to: The Epic Ebert Videogame Debate
The problem may actually be the fact that there has not been enough time for games to develop a statis as artistic. Popular music, for example, was not considered art until the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's. Video games may just need that one game which has an appeal that transcends gamers and is accepted by the masses as truly great.

On the other hand, board games have been around for quite a long time. Even though we have classics such as Monopoly, I have never heard anyone refer to a board game as art. It is true that video games by their nature allow the developer more freedom and vision with elements like story, tone, and characters but it is important to consider that traditional games are not usually considered art.

Mars Rover Spirit Down a Wheel 272

Posted by Zonk from the little-rover-that-could dept.
riflemann writes "NASA is reporting that two years into its 90-day mission, Spirit has lost one wheel and is now running on five wheels, dragging the broken wheel. With this reduced mobiity, the rover still needs to make its way to a slope where it can catch enough sun over the Martian winter to keep it operating. 'Even though the rovers are well past their original design life, they still have plenty of capability to conduct outstanding science on Mars.', says project leader Dr. John Callas."

Shadowbane Now Free As In Beer 50

Posted by Zonk from the you-want-some-ale dept.
Gamaustra reports on the decision by Shadowbane developer Wolfpack to make their PvP MMOG title free for the taking. From the article: "Despite the growing acceptance of [the no monthly fee] revenue model, it's not yet certain that it's the one Ubisoft has chosen for Shadowbane; the announcement makes no reference to any alternate form of revenue for the title. In-game advertising has also been an option for allowing free play in titles including Funcom's Anarchy Online, but Shadowbane's fantasy setting may preclude contemporary ads. The company indicated that a more detailed explanation of the free-to-play scheme will follow shortly."

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