Comment Re:can you see me now? (Score 1) 282
Interesting story, posting to undo mod error
Comment This is just getting ridiculous (Score 1) 306
Seriously.
Submission + - Losing the Public Debate on Global Warming 3
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Dr James Hansen, director of the Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who first made warnings about climate change in the 1980s, says that public skepticism about the threat of man-made climate change has increased despite the growing scientific consensus and that without public support it will be impossible to make the changes he and his colleagues believe need to occur to protect future generations from the effects of climate change. "The science has become stronger and stronger over the past five years while the public perception is has gone in completely the other direction. That is not an accident," says Hansen. "There is a very concerted effort by people who would prefer to see business to continue as usual. They have been winning the public debate with the help of tremendous resources." Hansen's comments come as recent surveys have revealed that public support for tackling climate change has declined dramatically in recent years with a recent BBC poll finding that 25% of British adults did not think global warming is happening and over a third saying many claims about environmental threats are "exaggerated" compared to 24 per cent in 2000. Dr Benny Peiser, director of skeptical think tank The Global Warming Policy Foundation, says it's time to stop exaggerating the impact of global warming and accept the uncertainty of predictions about the rate of climate change. "James Hensen has been making predictions about climate change since the 1980s. When people are comparing what is happening now to those predictions, they can see they fail to match up.""
Comment All kidding aside (Score 2) 41
While it would be cool to highlight rapists and muggers with a red status bar, it would be really awesome if it could be tied into medical devices. Say you're a diabetic and you have a little device on your arm that constantly measures your blood sugar. Could help you maintain a more stable glucose level which has long-term health benefits. Or say you have a heart condition that leads to arrhythmias or PVC's? You could get a little readout that tells you that the alarming sensations you're feeling are ok within the baselines the device has set (or vice versa that you don't feel anything but that the device detects some serious abnormality). Something like a hitpoint meter that ACTUALLY shows some useful information regarding your medical condition.
Submission + - Dual-focus contact lens prototypes ordered by Pentagon (bbc.co.uk)
cb_is_cool writes: From the Beeb:
"The Pentagon has put in an order for prototype contact lenses that give users a much wider field of vision.
The lenses are designed to be paired with compact heads up display (HUD) units — glasses that allow images to be projected onto their lenses."
And any mugger within 50 yards will hopefully have a red status bar above their heads.
"The Pentagon has put in an order for prototype contact lenses that give users a much wider field of vision.
The lenses are designed to be paired with compact heads up display (HUD) units — glasses that allow images to be projected onto their lenses."
And any mugger within 50 yards will hopefully have a red status bar above their heads.
Comment Re:Ants with giant freaking heads (Score 1) 80
It wouldn't matter if they got free since soldiers do not reproduce.
Comment Doesn't matter (Score 1) 156
The story came from the Washington Post so all manner of journalists know of it, and internally, word of mouth is almost as quick and just as effective as tweeting, facebooking, etc.
When will governments realize that even their best efforts to control information are akin to holding back an ocean with a leaky sieve?
Comment Easy.. (Score 1) 238
By a really big bag of $5 wrenches
HULC Robotic Exoskeleton MK II Undergoing Tests 72
fergus07 writes "Lockheed Martin is putting an updated, ruggedized version of its HULC Robotic Exoskeleton through lab evaluation tests. The hydraulic 'power-suit,' which enables the wearer to carry up to 200 lbs and run at 10 mph, now boasts better protection from the elements, improved fitting and easier adjustment, increased run-time and new control software."
Meet NELL, the Computer That Learns From the Net 272
bossanovalithium writes "Carnegie Mellon University has taught a computer how to read and learn from the internet.
According to Dennis Baron at the Oxford University press blog, the computer is called NELL and it is reading the internet and learning from it in much the same way that humans learn language and acquire knowledge. Basically by soaking it all up and figuring it out.
NELL is short for Never Ending Language Learner and apparently it is getting brainier every day."
Submission + - Ancient Nubians Drank Antibiotic Laced Beer (blogspot.com)
eldavojohn writes: A new analysis of millennia old mummy bones shows high concentrations of tetracycline which indicates empirical knowledge and use of antibiotics — most likely consumed in beer. The researchers traced the source of the antibiotics to the soil bacteria streptomyces present in the grain used to ferment the beer. Astonishingly enough, 'Even the tibia and skull belonging to a 4-year-old were full of tetracycline, suggesting that they were giving high doses to the child to try and cure him of illness.' The extent of saturation in the bones leads the scientists to assert that the population regularly consumed tetracycline antibiotics knowing that it would cure certain sicknesses.
Possible Treatment For Ebola 157
RedEaredSlider writes "Researchers at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have found a class of drugs that could provide treatment for Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever. The new drugs are called 'antisense' compounds, and they allow the immune system to attack the viruses before they can do enough damage to kill the patient. Travis Warren, research scientist at USAMRIID, said while the work is still preliminary -— the drugs have been tested only on primates — the results are so far promising. In the case of Ebola, five of eight monkeys infected with the virus lived, and with Marburg, all survived. The drugs were developed as part of a program to deal with possible bioterrorist threats, in partnership with AVI Biopharma."
Flight Attendant Quits And Exits Plane Via Emergency Slide 24
You may question his actions, but you can't say that 38-year-old flight attendant Steven Slater doesn't know how to quit in style. After a passenger refused to apologize for hitting him in the head with either a bag or the overhead compartment, Slater got on the the loudspeaker and told those aboard to "go f*** themselves." He the grabbed a couple beers from the drink cart, activated the emergency chute, and slid away into unemployment.
Newsweek Easter Egg Reports Zombie Invasion 93
danielkennedy74 writes "Newsweek.com becomes the latest in a long list of sites that will reveal an Easter egg if you enter the Konami code correctly (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, enter). This is a cheat code that appeared in many of Konami's video games, starting around 1986 — my favorite places to use it were Contra and Life Force, 30 lives FTW. The Easter egg was probably included by a developer unbeknownst to the Newsweek powers that be. It's reminiscent of an incident that happened at ESPN last year, involving unicorns."
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."
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"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." - H.L. Mencken
