180727074
submission
doug141 writes:
Valve is counter-suing a patent troll and his attorneys alleging a bad-faith abuse of the justice system. The case could not be going worse for the troll. It is headed for jury trial next month. The outcome of the trial will likely have far-reaching implications for the parties involved and could set a precedent for intellectual property disputes.
128184680
submission
doug141 writes:
Joy Milne's husband's natural odor changed when he was 31. He was diagnosed with parkinson's at 45. When Joy walked into a parkinson's support group, she smelled the same odor on on everybody. A parkinson's research tested her with blind samples from early stage patients, late-stage patients, and controls. She aced the test.
121828708
submission
doug141 writes:
At least 17 big drones, likely over the FAA limit of 55 pounds, are flying a grid search pattern over NE Colorado nightly between 7 and 10 PM, at 40 MPH at 300 feet. FAA has no information, DEA, USAF, say they don't know, DOD did not respond to reporters.
88809681
submission
doug141 writes:
Astronomers have measured the universe's current expansion rate at about 44.7 miles (71.9 kilometers) per second per megaparsec (3.26 million light-years). This is consistent with a calculation that was announced last year by a research team, but it's considerably higher than the rate that was estimated by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite mission in 2015 — about 41.6 miles (66.9 km) per second per megaparsec. The cause of this discrepancy is unclear.
"The expansion rate of the universe is now starting to be measured in different ways with such high precision that actual discrepancies may possibly point towards new physics beyond our current knowledge of the universe," a researcher said.
46946181
submission
doug141 writes:
A scientist proposes the best way to deal with an asteroid on short notice is to hit it with an impacter, followed by a nuke in the crater. Delta 4 rockets could do the job. Grant money has been awarded and study is underway.
37870157
submission
doug141 writes:
A Colorado county put bar codes on printed ballots in a last minute effort to comply with a rule about eliminating identifying markings. Citizens sued, because the bar codes can still be traced back to individual voters. In a surprise ruling, Denver U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello said the U.S. Constitution did not contain a "fundamental right" to secret ballots, the citizens could not show their voting rights had been violated, nor that they might suffer any specific injury from the bar codes.
27203798
submission
doug141 writes:
In standard solar cells, much energy is lost (as heat) from photons mismatched to the capability of silicon to capture them. A new technique uses a pentacene layer to down-convert each hot (un-captureable) electron to two electrons that can be captured by standard silicon cells.
26508462
submission
doug141 writes:
Scientists are releasing genetically modifies male mosquitoes that produce flightless female offspring. The male offspring go on to wipe out another generation of females.This is similar to the way screwworms were eradicated in the U.S., except with nature itself making more of the modified males.
Field trials are already underway.
21288446
submission
doug141 writes:
GameStop encourages customers who pre-ordered more than a year ago to verify their reservation with their local store. 'Provided the customer has a receipt, we will honor even those pre-orders taken long ago. At this time, we expect that all pre-order customers will receive Duke's Big Package at time of purchase, regardless of when the reservation was made.'
