29672711
submission
smitty777 writes:
It was assumed that the rise of the superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) occured due to the overuse of antibiotics in hospitals — a fact which is even mentioned on the CDC website. However, new reserch from Nothern Arizona University is pointing in a new direction: pigs. According to this research, the superbug made the jump from human to porcine farms where they are given a routine course of antibiotics.
FTA: "Price, the study's lead author, said the research was "like watching the birth of a superbug — it is simultaneously fascinating and disconcerting." He said that while this strain of MRSA was discovered less than a decade ago it appears to be spreading very quickly.
"Our findings underscore the potential public health risks of widespread antibiotic use in food animal production," Price said. "Staph thrives in crowded and unsanitary conditions. Add antibiotics to that environment and you're going to create a public health problem.""
29642435
submission
smitty777 writes:
An Australian woman who was being used by a group of Nigerian scam artists stole over $33,000 from the group who employed her. Her bank account was being used to funnel the cash from a dodgy internet car sales website. Irony aside, it makes one wonder how these folks ever got the nerve to go to the police with this matter. Those of you wondering, this article offers some answers to the question of why so many of these scams originate from this area.
28815931
submission
smitty777 writes:
Two separate studies by the Taub Institute and Harvard have discovered the pathway used by Alzheimer's Disease to spread throught the brain. The studies indicate it's not a virus, but a distorted protien called Tau which moves from cell to cell. This article further explains that "The latest discovery, proving the latter, may now offer scientists a way to move forward and develop a way to block tau’s spread in Alzheimer’s patients, said Karen Duff, a researcher at Columbia’s Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s disease and co-author of one study published Wednesday in journal PLoS One.
“It’s enlightening for us because it now provides a whole other area for potential therapeutic impact,” said Duff. “It’s possible that you can identify the disease and intervene (with potential tau-blocking drugs) before the dementia actually sets in.”"
28707371
submission
smitty777 writes:
According to the pentagon, the 37,000 precision guided Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bomb is just too small. Concerns around Iran's fortification of their nuclear program facilities has the DoD seeking from congress something not quite as subdued as the GBU-57, the largest non-nuke bomb operated by the USAF. This "smaller" was just recently won a prize for its abilit to cut through 60 feet of concrete. The upgrades will cost $82 million in addition to the $330 million already used so far to develop the system.
There is some interesting high speed camera footage of the GBU-57 in this video.
28369372
submission
smitty777 writes:
Highlighting another unique way to use cutting edge DNA technology, the US Department of Defense has a new weapont to combat counterfiet parts: plant DNA. This article discusses how plant DNA can be used to make an almost (1 in 1 trillion) unique code for parts identification. This nifty graphic shows some of the ways this could be done; bolts with DNA-marked coating, invisible barcodes, and flourescing inks are some of the possible applications. In a similar but unrelated project, World Micro has a different solution to detect counterfeit items in the military that have been "blacktopped", where items have been re-surfaced to allow remarking.
28078530
submission
smitty777 writes:
The Wall Street Journal is reporting on an some unprecedented steps being taken by major financial institutions to combat online theft. The intitiatives include a new type of data center that would be used to analyze bank data for potential security threats. Additionally, a quarterly round-table between the rivals to attack security issues was proposed. The article notes that "secuirty threats are pushing the big banks to do something that doesn't come naturally for these secrecy-steeped institutions: share information with one another". This video digs into it a little bit more, and points out that the banks will spend an estimated $1 billion on protection this year, which represents a 12% increase.
Technologically, there has been much discussion of a two factor authentification to improve security. In fact, security officials in Singapore are even hinting at biometric solutions.
28005392
submission
smitty777 writes:
Rick Falkvinge, better known as the leader for Sweden's Pirate Party, recommends doing away with copyright laws, since no one is following them anyway. FTA: "he uses examples from the buttonmakers guild in 1600s France to justify eliminating the five major parts of copyright law today. The first two are cover duplication and public performance, and piracy today has ruined those. The next two cover rights of the creator to get credit and prevent other performances, satires, remixes etc they don't like. Falkvinge says giving credit is important, but not worthy of a law. Finally, "neighboring rights" are used by the music industry to block duplication, which Falkvinge rejects."
27964804
submission
smitty777 writes:
China will start to publish air pollution reports, possibly in response to reports from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing which has been publishing its own data. This report is significant in that it's based on the PM2.5 standard, which measures the more harmful particles that are less than 2.5 microns.
This comes on the heels of a separate report that lists China as the worst polluter worldwide. According to this report, China now produces 6,832 m tons of CO2, a 754% increase since 1971. While the US is in second at 5,195 m, this represents an increase of only 21%. This articlce notes "the rapid growth in emissions for China, India, and Africa. This will continue as their middle classes buy houses and vehicles. The growth in Middle East emissions is staggering, a reflection of their growing oil fortunes. "
While we're on the subject of India, their pollution levels are thought to be responsible for a dense cloud of fog that is so thick it created a cold front, and is repsonsible for a number of deaths.
27924294
submission
smitty777 writes:
Given the US's recent drone issues, what is the new recipe for sending a drone over another country of interest? Simple, just take a balloon, and attach a Tempest drone to the bottom of it. Now, attach two more CICADA (sic) drones to that. The balloon climbs to over 55k feet, drops the first drone which can travel another 11 miles or so. It then deploys the CICADA drones. These unpowered gliders slip past the radars undetected and start sending back info. There are future plans to mount many (count hundreds) of the CICADA glider drones to the Tempest in the future. The article quotes the flight engineer describing the process as "straight forward".
27845876
submission
smitty777 writes:
In what is being hailed as a breakthrough in male infertility, researchers from Muenster and Ben Gurion Universities were able to actually grow mouse sperm cells in a petri dish. Researchers feel this is just a short step away from human in vitro sperm cell production.
The precise details of how this will be accomplished are still being worked out. FTA:
"[According to Professor Richard Sharpe], "What this research shows is that it will be possible to make human sperm outside the body. The germ cells just need the right environment. That's the tricky part getting them to think they are in the testes.
Professor Sharpe believes that one novel way may make.it possible. He proposes using a live mouse as a 'host' to make human sperm.
He said: "What you would do is take some human testicular tissue with germ cells and place that under the skin of the mouse and use it to incubate the cells.
"You could then extract any sperm and use it in fertility treatment. But we would have to demonstrate that there were no mouse cells present in the extracted sperm if we were to use this technique and I believe that's possible."
27672936
submission
smitty777 writes:
Forbes is running an intriguing story on a new "Superphone" under development by the folks at Microsoft. According to this leaked MS roadmap document, the plan is to build the Apollo based phone in the 4th quarter of 2012. FTA: "In the end, however, none of this matters. Microsoft’s “peek into the future” is barely a glimpse into what the company may or may not have planned for 2012. While the “superphone” bullet is worth noting, it is not the confirmation of a revolutionary new product. At best, it indicates that Microsoft wishes to compete with Apple by offering a product that is, well, super.". It's also interesting that Sony and AT&T also appear to be working on superphones of their own. All this hype left me wondering what actually does make a phone "super" anyway?
27652784
submission
smitty777 writes:
Unless something bad happens in the next two days, we are on track for having a new record for airline safety. The new record of one death for every 7.1 million passengers beats the 2004 record of 1 to 6.4m. The WSJ also notes:
— Another low is the total number of passenger deaths; as of today that number stands at 401. Though it was lower in 2004, when 344 passengers were killed in commercial aviation accidents, that year saw 30% fewer passengers as well as far fewer flights.
— Western-built planes have fared best, with one major crash per 3 million flights, the best number since the International Air Transport Association began tracking crashes in the 1940s. When factoring in other types of airliners, the crash rate is about two per million flights.
— We are also in the midst of the longest period without a fatal airliner accident in modern aviation; nobody has died in an airliner since an Oct. 13 propeller plane crash in Papua New Guinea. The previous record was 61 days in 1985.
There was also the North American and Russian numbers as well — the only country that saw a drop.
2011 also seemed to break the record for unusual airline travel events as well.
27581372
submission
smitty777 writes:
The recent discovery of the Tower of Babel stele by a team of scholars shows what might be the earliest depiction of the ancient Tower of Babel. The stele belongs to Martin Schøyen, who also owns a large number of pictographic and cuneiform tablets, some of the earliest known written documents. The tablet also contains a depiction of King Nebuchadnezzar II, a time when Babylon was a cultural leader in astronomy, mathematics, literature and medicine. It's also interesting to note the somewhat recent Slashdot article linking the common ancestry of languages to this area.
27547338
submission
smitty777 writes:
The two washing machine sized satellites from the GRAIL program (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) launched in September are set to enter lunar orbit this weekend. As can be seen from this nifty infographic, the probes will monitor the magnetic fields from orbit via the precise distance measurements of microwaves passing between the two satellites. FTA: "The twin spacecrafts are named Grail-A and Grail-B. Grail-A will enter the moon’s orbit on New Year’s Eve, Grail-B will follow on New Year’s Day.
"The purpose of the GRAIL mission is to obtain gravity data on the Moon. And with that data, the scientists are able to determine the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core," said David Lehman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory."
This is similar to the earlier GRACE project, which not only helped map out the magnetic field of the Earth, but also helped drought conditions in the US.
27485552
submission
smitty777 writes:
The NY Times is running a piece on the tug of war between publishers and librariesfor e-book lending. With the In one corner are the publishers, who claim that unlimited lending of e-books "without friction is not a sustainable business model for us". For example, Harper Collins claims in this corporate statement that unlimited lending would lead to a decrease in royalties for both the publisher and the writers. The NTY author further states that "To keep their overall revenue from taking a hit from lost sales to individuals, publishers need to reintroduce more inconvenience for the borrower or raise the price for the library purchaser." Their current solution is to limit the number of readings to 26 before a book license must be renewed.
In the other corner are the libraries, who are happy that e-books are luring people back to libraries, bringing with them desperately needed additional funding. With e-book sales going extremely well this year and the introduction of more capable e-readers, this debate is likely to get worse before it gets better. The Guardian also has an interesting related piece on the pricing practices of the Big Six publishers.
