Comment satiric science?? (Score 1) 652
Congress thought what?! sounds like the word "esoteric" was a bit too esoteric for TFA's proofreader...
Comment Re:Whose enemies? (Score 1) 300
Couldn't help but notice : SIEMENS is a near-anagram of ENEMIES. Talk about subliminal messaging!
Paleontologists Discover World's Horniest Dinosaur 109
Ponca City, We love you writes "The Guardian reports that paleontologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient beast called Kosmoceratops richardsoni that stood 16 feet tall with a 6-foot skull equipped with 15 horns and lived 76 million years ago in the warm, wet swamps of what is now southern Utah. 'These animals are basically over-sized rhinos with a whole lot more horns on their heads. They had huge heads relative to their body size,' says Scott Sampson, a researcher at the Utah Museum of Natural History."
Russian Scholar Warns Of US Climate Change Weapon 415
According to Russian political scientist, and conspiracy aficionado Andrei Areshev the high heat, and poor crop yields of Russia, and other Central Asian countries may be the result of a climate weapon created by the US military. From the article: "... Areshev voiced suspicions about the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP), funded by the US Defense Department and the University of Alaska. HAARP, which has long been the target of conspiracy theorists, analyzes the ionosphere and seeks to develop technologies to improve radio communications, surveillance, and missile detection. Areshev writes, however, that its true aim is to create new weapons of mass destruction 'in order to destabilize environmental and agricultural systems in local countries.'"
Apple Sues HTC Again Over Patents 263
recoiledsnake writes "Apple is suing HTC again over patent infringement. Apple is adding two new patents to the 20 included in the earlier case while adding additional details to two patents included previously. Although Android is not mentioned in any of the court documents, many of the patent infringement complaints refer to the software rather than the hardware that HTC manufactures, leading to speculation that Google is the real target, especially considering that Android sales are surpassing the iPhone's. With HTC countersuing Apple, Microsoft siding with HTC over Android, and Apple trying to stop import of Nokia phones, it seems like Apple has set off a patent Armageddon in the mobile space."
Cheap Cancer Drug Finally Tested In Humans 363
John Bayko writes "Mentioned on Slashdot a couple of years ago, the drug dichloroacetate (DCA) has finally finished its first clinical trial against brain tumors in humans. Drug companies weren't willing to test a drug they could not patent, so money was raised in the community through donations, auctions, and finally government support, but the study was still limited to five patients. It showed extremely positive results in four of them. This episode raises the question of what happens to all the money donated to Canadian and other cancer societies, and especially the billions spent buying merchandise with little pink ribbons on it, if not to actual cancer research like this."
Nokia Releases Qt SDK For Mobile Development 76
An anonymous reader writes "Nokia has released its unified Qt-based SDK for cross-platform development for Symbian and MeeGo (plus Maemo) devices. The blurb reads: 'Today sees the release of the Nokia Qt SDK, a single easy-to-use software development kit (SDK) for Symbian and Meego application development. Developers can now develop, test, and deploy native applications for Nokia smartphones and mobile computers. The beta version of the SDK is available for download from today, ready for developers to kick off development for new devices, including the just-announced Nokia N8.'"
Genetic Disorder Removes Racial Bias and Social Fear 319
People who suffer from a rare genetic disorder called Williams Syndrome have a complete lack of social fear. They experience no anxiety or concerns about meeting new people or being put into any social situation, and a new study by Andreia Santos suggests that they also don't have any racial bias. From the article: "Typically, children start overtly gravitating towards their own ethnic groups from the tender age of three. Groups of people from all over the globe and all sorts of cultures show these biases. Even autistic children, who can have severe difficulties with social relationships, show signs of racial stereotypes. But Santos says that the Williams syndrome kids are the first group of humans devoid of such racial bias, although, as we’ll see, not everyone agrees."
Canadian Judge Orders Disclosure of Anonymous Posters 250
debrain writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting that Google and a newspaper called The Coast must disclose all information they have about the identity of individuals who posted anonymous comments online about top firefighters in Halifax. The story in question is titled 'Black firefighters file human rights complaint,' and there are some heated opinions in the comments."
How Artificial Leaves Could Generate Clean Hydrogen 101
An anonymous reader writes "At Imperial College London, researchers have embarked on a £1m project to study, and eventually mimic, photosynthesis. Part of the 'artificial leaf' project involves working out exactly how leaves use sunlight to make useful molecules. The team then plans to build artificial systems that can do the same to generate clean fuels such as hydrogen and methanol. These would then be used in fuel cells to make electricity or to directly power super-clean vehicles."
Reports of IE Hijacking NXDOMAINs, Routing To Bing 230
Jaeden Stormes writes "We just started getting word of a new browser hijack from our sales force. 'Some site called Bing?' they said. Sure enough, since the patches last night, their IE6 and IE7 installations are now routing all NXDOMAINs to Bing. Try it out — put in something like www.DoNotHijackMe.com." We've had mixed results here confirming this: one report that up-to-date IE8 behaves as described. Others tried installing all offered updates to systems running IE6 and IE7 and got no hijacking.
Update: 08/11 23:24 GMT by KD : Readers are reporting that it's not Bing that comes up for a nonexistent domain, it's the user's default search engine (noting that at least one Microsoft update in the past changed the default to Bing). There may be nothing new here.
Update: 08/11 23:24 GMT by KD : Readers are reporting that it's not Bing that comes up for a nonexistent domain, it's the user's default search engine (noting that at least one Microsoft update in the past changed the default to Bing). There may be nothing new here.
Best Mouse For Programming? 569
LosManos writes "Which is the best programming mouse? Mandatory musts are wireless, and that it doesn't clog up like old mechanical mice. Present personal preferences are for: lots of buttons, since if I have moved my hand away from the keyboard I can at least do something more than move the pointer; sturdy feeling; not too light, so it doesn't move around by me accidentally looking at it." What would you recommend?
Comment Re:"little known" ??? (Score 5, Informative) 215
Its been around since at least the 1940s. The building I live in (downtown Austin) uses it and it was built in 1938.
Comment Re:Diminishing Returns (Score 1) 512
Couldn't agree more. Innovations in any given branch, especially science, generally follow a recurring sequence of:
1) a quantum breakthrough -- a novel discovery of / insight into / use of a hitherto unknown or little understood phenomenon.
2) frenetic exploration and/or development of the nascent field; usually follows a near-exponential curve
3) a plateau of incremental refinements till the field reaches relative maturity ...till the next big one.
It seems plausible, given that there is a finite set of distinct essential phenomena in our world, that each iteration of the cycle gets progressively longer and harder, as our knowledge-base of a specific domain increases in depth and complexity.
This would probably explain the apparent slowing down of innovation, if one merely goes by the rather crude metric of the rate of tangible and immediately useful contraptions being spawned.
1) a quantum breakthrough -- a novel discovery of / insight into / use of a hitherto unknown or little understood phenomenon.
2) frenetic exploration and/or development of the nascent field; usually follows a near-exponential curve
3) a plateau of incremental refinements till the field reaches relative maturity
It seems plausible, given that there is a finite set of distinct essential phenomena in our world, that each iteration of the cycle gets progressively longer and harder, as our knowledge-base of a specific domain increases in depth and complexity.
This would probably explain the apparent slowing down of innovation, if one merely goes by the rather crude metric of the rate of tangible and immediately useful contraptions being spawned.
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