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Taiwanese Researchers Plug RFIDs As Disaster Recovery Aids 108

Posted by timothy from the one-way-to-look-at-things dept.
Velcroman1 writes "Scientists tag animals to monitor their behavior and keep track of endangered species. Now some are asking whether all of mankind should be tagged too. Looking for a loved one? Just Google his microchip. Taiwanese researchers postulate that the tags could help save lives in the aftermath of a major earthquake. And IBM advocated chips for humans in a speech earlier this week. The ACLU disagrees. 'Many people find the idea creepy,' spokesman Jay Stanley told FoxNews.com."
Image

NHS Should Stop Funding Homeopathy, Says Parliamentary Committee 507

Posted by samzenpus from the how-am-I-going-to-align-my-chakras-now dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Homeopathic remedies work no better than placebos, and so should no longer be paid for by the UK National Health Service, a committee of British members of parliament has concluded. In preparing its report, the committee, which scrutinizes the evidence behind government policies, took evidence from scientists and homeopaths, and reviewed numerous reports and scientific investigations into homeopathy. It found no evidence that such treatments work beyond providing a placebo effect." Updated 201025 19:40 GMT by timothy: This recommendation has some people up in arms.
Education

Teachers Need an Open Source Education 440

Posted by timothy from the yer-darn-tootin' dept.
palegray.net writes "Teachers are sorely in need of an education in what open source software is, what it isn't, and how it can benefit their students. A recent news story at the Reg discussed the case of a Texas teacher who accused those distributing Linux to students of committing criminal acts. A HeliOS blog entry exposes a 'higher education' culture of apathy, lies, and fear of open source software. Things have got to improve, and that improvement needs to start with misguided teachers getting their facts straight."
Earth

Acorns Disappear Across the Country 474

Posted by kdawson from the curiouser-and-curiouser dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Botanist Rod Simmons thought he was going crazy when couldn't find any acorns near his home in Arlington County, Virginia. 'I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe,' said Simmons. Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill. Simmons and Naturalist Greg Zell began to do some research and found Internet discussion groups, including one on Topix called 'No acorns this year,' reporting the same thing from as far away as the Midwest up through New England and Nova Scotia. 'We live in Glenwood Landing, N.Y., and don't have any acorns this year. Really weird,' wrote one. 'None in Kansas either! Curiouser and curiouser.' The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather and Simmons has a theory about the wet and dry cycles. But many skeptics say oaks in other regions are producing plenty of acorns, and the acorn bust is nothing more than the extreme of a natural boom-and-bust cycle. But the bottom line is that no one really knows. 'It's sort of a mystery,' Zell said."
Power

Submission + - Solar Tree Bears Fruit 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "A solar tree recently passed a key test and went on display on a busy street — the Ringstrasse — in Vienna, Austria providing light during the night-time even when the sun had been covered by clouds for four days in a row. The branches of the solar tree were decorated with 10 solar lamps, each one powered by 36 solar cells.and the tree included rechargeable batteries and electronic systems to measure the amount of light in the atmosphere and trigger the solar lamps to go on. "Not just trees but other objects could be decorated with solar cells and so keep streets well lit at night time," said Christina Werner from Cultural Project Management. Google uses a similar concept to light their parking lots with 3,000 solar panels that provide 10 percent of the Googleplex's power demand."
Social Networks

Submission + - Communities of Mutants Form as DNA Testing Grows (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by GeneRegulator
GeneRegulator writes: The NY Times is running a story on communities that are forming around kids with rare genetic mutations. New technology that can scan chromosomes for small errors is being applied first to children with autism and other "unexplained developmental delays." It turns out that many of them have small deletions or duplications of DNA, and doctors creating a whole new taxonomy of syndromes with names like 16p11.2 and 7q11.23 that refer to the affected region of the genome. Meanwhile, hundreds of little groups are forming around the banner of their children's shared mutations. As new research shows that many of us have small deletions and duplications of DNA that separate us from our parents, and that many of these "copy number variants" contribute to skills and senses the families described in the story may presage the formation of all sorts of "communities of the genetically rare" in the general population, not just amongst the developmentally delayed.

Feed Engadget: HD video: iPhone on-screen effects (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Cellphones, Features

That definitive interface gallery we did? Awesome if you want to find your way around the iPhone -- but it doesn't really do much to show off the fit and polish of the UI. So we compiled a group of our favorite bits of UI elegance on the new device; be sure to download in HD for the full experience.

[MP4] Download in 720p HD (77MB)
[MP4] Download in wide VGA (30MB)
[AVI] Download in 720p HD (77MB)
[AVI] Download in wide VGA (31MB)

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Education

Submission + - Galapagos Islands environment 'in danger'

Submitted by cagrin
cagrin writes: The Galapagos Islands on Tuesday were listed 'in danger' by the U.N.'s World Heritage sites in danger from environmental threats or overuse. From the article: "The Galapagos Islands, an Ecuadorian territory situated in the Pacific Ocean some 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from South America, helped shape Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and in 1978 was the first site placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List." Link: Galapagos Islands, park in Senegal added to UNESCO's in danger heritage list SeaShepherd Info Link: Galapagos Islands Listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger

Feed New Study Examines 'Brain's Own Marijuana' (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
A researcher is investigating the "brain's own marijuana" -- called endocannabinoid -- in the regulation of stress, stress-related behavior and anxiety. The researcher believes this study may lay the foundation for better pharmacotherapy for stress-related mood disorders.

Feed Copyright Suit Against Google Ripped Off Another Suit's Wording (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
The latest in a long string of copyright suits against Google came yesterday when Grateful Dead mandolin player David Grisman claimed damages from certain clips of him performing that appeared on YouTube. Apart from the irony of a Grateful Dead member complaining about fans sharing his clips, it seems that the language in the initial complaint was lifted word for word from another suit against Google on a similar subject. The firm that wrote the initial complaint is not amused, although these things aren't copyrighted, so there doesn't appear to be any legal problem here. As law professor Stephen Bainbridge points out, the real issue here is ethics. Lawyers typically charge their clients by the hour, but if they're just cutting and pasting, then they're probably not putting in as many hours as they claim. Of course, if basic tasks can be done by cut and paste, it would seem to undermine the need for such high barriers to entry into the legal profession.

Feed New nano-glue likes it hot (pheedo.com)

From feed by nsfeed
Composed of a thin sandwich of molecular chains, this high-tech adhesive works at 700C, and could be used to build computer chips, as well as coatings for turbines and jet engines

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