"AN ANTI-MALWARE watchdog has barked that AOL’s free internet client software deceives users and stuffs up computers.
StopBadware.org has advised users to stay away from AOL 9.0 because of the way it tiggers Internet Explorer browser and the Windows taskbar. It also has a 'deceptive installation' and some components fail to uninstall, StopBadware says."
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
AOL 9.0 compared to malware
Monday, August 28, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Nobel Intent: Maybe we don't need embryonic stem cells after all
Nobel Intent: Maybe we don't need embryonic stem cells after all:
"Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have the potential to develop into any tissue, and thus hold promise for repair of damaged organs. Part of that potential comes from being a perfect tissue match to the person in need of repair, but this assumes that ESCs can be made from adults, a process that currently requires using a process that's disturbingly close to human cloning. The alternatives, however, are also problematic. Human ESCs exist, but they will not be perfect matches to patients, and there are restrictions on working with them while using government funding and some ethical concerns regarding their creation. Although adult stem cells exist, they are partly specified, and may not be able to form every tissue that needs repair. In addition, some adult stem cells exist in small populations that reside in hard-to-reach locations—nobody's going to dig around in the heart or interior of the brain of a patient in order to pull out a few stem cells."
Friday, August 25, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List - New York Times
Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List - New York Times:
"Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students."
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
ScienceDaily: Engineers Create Gecko-inspired, High-friction Micro-fibers
ScienceDaily: Engineers Create Gecko-inspired, High-friction Micro-fibers:
"High friction materials can prevent sliding under high loads or steep inclines. The researchers found that the synthetic array of polypropylene fibers could hold a quarter to a glass slide inclined at an 80 degree angle, yet is not 'sticky' like adhesive tape. The fibers, packed 42 million per square centimeter, each measured a mere 20 microns long and 0.6 microns in diameter"
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Joe Rosenthal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joe Rosenthal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joe Rosenthal (October 9, 1911 – August 20, 2006) was an American photographer who received the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic World War II portrait of American troops raising the flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal / Associated Press
/haiku/learn/newsletters/view/64
/haiku/learn/newsletters/view/64:
"Today, on Haiku's fifth birthday, I am wondering if we shouldn't have that same sort of boldness in marketing. The rest of the world is still far behind BeOS R5 in many features. No one has the quality of plug and play. No one has the file system search capabilities and speed. No one has the quality of API, although I admit that is somewhat subjective. Apple is just adding virtual desktops. Windows still doesn't have them. And, of course, neither of those companies can beat the price of Haiku.
It goes further, though. The PC world is really just now catching the vision 'One processor per person is not enough' - something that we knew 10 years ago. Average people are starting to use their computers for more media and entertainment purposes. Convergence is becoming something more than a way to sell high end PC boxes. The vast majority of people are 'computer literate'. But maybe most important to us is that people are looking for a better way to use their computers. I hear, nearly every day, people complaining about their PC with a Seinfeld-esque 'But whaddya gonna do, it's Windows' approach. Most marketers would kill to be in the position that Haiku will be in when R1 is released - millions of potential users who are anxious to switch, if only they could find a product that would do what they want."
ScienceDaily: Carbon Fibers Make Tiny, Cheap Video Displays
ScienceDaily: Carbon Fibers Make Tiny, Cheap Video Displays:
"Desai then built an optical scanner consisting of a tiny rectangular mirror measuring 400 by 500 microns, supported by two carbon-fiber hinges about 55 microns across. Made to oscillate at 2.5 kHz, the tiny mirror caused a laser beam to scan across a range of up to 180 degrees, corresponding to a 90-degree bend by the carbon fibers.
An oscillating mirror could be used to scan a laser beam across a screen, and an array of mirrors, one for each horizontal line, could produce an image in the same way that a moving electron beam creates an image on a television screen.
'It would be an incredibly cheap display,' Desai said. And the entire device would be small enough to build into a cell phone to project an image on a wall."
Monday, August 21, 2006
ScienceDaily: How HIV 'Exhausts' Killer T Cells
ScienceDaily: How HIV 'Exhausts' Killer T Cells:
"American and South African scientists working at the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa have discovered how the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) 'exhausts' killer T cells that would otherwise attack the virus. The researchers found that HIV can simply “turn off” fully functional T cells by flipping a molecular switch on the cells. In test tube studies, however, the scientists showed that they could reinvigorate the killer T cells by blocking that inhibitory switch, which is called programmed death-1 (PD-1)."
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ice geysers 'discovered on Mars'
BBC NEWS Ice geysers 'discovered on Mars'
An artist's impression shows the geysers erupting through ice
Saturday, August 19, 2006
: Camera System: Glossary: Learn: Digital Photography Review
: Camera System: Glossary: Learn: Digital Photography Review
This diagram shows the typical sensor sizes compared to 35mm film. The sensor sizes of digital SLRs are typically 40% to 100% of the surface of 35mm film. Digital compact cameras have substantially smaller sensors offering a similar number of pixels. As a consequence, the pixels are much smaller, which is a key reason for the image quality difference, especially in terms of noise and dynamic range.
Sensor Type Designation
Sensors are often referred to with a "type" designation using imperial fractions such as 1/1.8" or 2/3" which are larger than the actual sensor diameters. The type designation harks back to a set of standard sizes given to TV camera tubes in the 50's. These sizes were typically 1/2", 2/3" etc. The size designation does not define the diagonal of the sensor area but rather the outer diameter of the long glass envelope of the tube. Engineers soon discovered that for various reasons the usable area of this imaging plane was approximately two thirds of the designated size. This designation has clearly stuck (although it should have been thrown out long ago). There appears to be no specific mathematical relationship between the diameter of the imaging circle and the sensor size, although it is always roughly two thirds.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Art of sushi - a japanese culture experience
Art of sushi - a japanese culture experience
Sushi originated as a way of preserving funa -a type of fish. The fish was salted and allowed to mature on a bed of vinegar rice, after which the rice was discarded. Before long vinegar rice came to be eaten together with the fish and then other ingredients. Thus the word sushi was derived: the marriage of vinegar rice with other ingredients. Many different combinations of sushi and ways of serving them evolved. It is not surprising that most people mistaken or associate the word sushi to raw fish. It may be because many sushi varieties are prepared using some type of fish or seafood and the raw part just happens to stick in peoples mind. But actually, sashimi means "raw fish". Sushi is the marriage of vinegar rice to other ingredients. Sushi is now one of Japans most popular foods and increasing in popularity all over the world. Listed below are the most common types of sushi.
ScienceDaily: Genetic Evidence Shows Colonialists Pushed Orangutans To Brink Of Extinction
ScienceDaily: Genetic Evidence Shows Colonialists Pushed Orangutans To Brink Of Extinction
A three year genetic study by wildlife geneticists from Cardiff School of Biosciences has shown a population collapse in the Bornean orangutan.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Fastest-evolving human gene linked to brain boost - being-human - 16 August 2006 - New Scientist
Fastest-evolving human gene linked to brain boost - being-human - 16 August 2006 - New Scientist:
"There are only two changes in the 118 letters of DNA code that make up HAR1 between the genomes of chimps and chickens. But chimps and humans are 18 letter-changes apart. And those mutations occurred in just five million years, as we evolved from our shared ancestor.
“That is an incredible amount of change to have happened in a few million years,” Pollard notes."
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Darwin Day at SIUC
Charles R. Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, a birth date he shares with Abraham Lincoln. Darwin's work has had a profound and ongoing effect on our views of humankind's place in nature, and it forms the very core of biological science. Or, as the late geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky put it, "Nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution." We, like many other universities, are using Darwin's birthday as an occasion to educate the public, as well as to celebrate his legacy.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Unknown News
John Loftus, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department's Nazi War Crimes Unit, said his research found that Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a principal in the Union Banking Corp. in Manhattan in the late 1930s and the 1940s. Leading Nazi industrialists secretly owned the bank at that time, Loftus said, and were moving money into it through a second bank in Holland even after the United States declared war on Germany.
The bank was liquidated in 1951, Loftus said, and Bush's grandfather and great-grandfather received $1.5 million from the bank as part of that dissolution.
"That's where the Bush family fortune came from: It came from the Third Reich," Loftus said.Loftus made his remarks during a speech as part of the Sarasota Reading Festival. The co-author of Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis and the Swiss Banks, Loftus documented the Swiss bank accounts that harbored funds confiscated from Holocaust victims and the participation of Italian priests in smuggling Nazi war criminals to safe haven in Canada, Central and South America and the United States after the war.
Take Back The Media! TBTM Commentary by Dennis Hans
Take Back The Media! TBTM Commentary by Dennis Hans
Here at Take Back The Media, we make no secret of our dislike for George W. Bush and his administration's policies, both foreign and domestic. ...
A quick look at our Flash page shows no less than 10 flash animations poking fun at the Whistle Ass administration on a variety of topics, from the economy to the rollback of civil rights to the lies he told in the wake of Afghanistan and in the run-up to Iraq. It would be an understatement to say that satirizing Bush provides a target-rich environment. ...
From time to time, members of the So-Called Liberal Media "discover" TBTM all over again - mostly when they need a new target of feigned outrage. Last year, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Los Angeles Times went on the attack over a then-current flash animation by Symbolman entitled "Bush Is Not A Nazi, So Stop Saying That!" We were accused at the time of being unpatriotic, anti-American, and unnecessarily critical of a "popular wartime president." The words "disgusting," "ill-informed" and "history-twisting" were used to describe our animation and our web site. We took that criticism and moved on, after taking time to correct the record as we saw it.
The correction that was needed was this - those who criticized Symbolman's flash and our web site were missing the point of the animation. The point was that George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, had the assets of the family business seized by the U.S. Government under the Trading With The Enemy Act of 1941. Much of the Bush family fortune was made by dealing with Nazi Germany - both before and during World War II. Click here for the history.
These facts are not in dispute - but the critics of our web site would not acknowledge them.
Orcinus
"Research into 'authoritarian personalities' began in the aftermath of WWII, as scientists tried to figure out how otherwise civilized people succumbed to the charisma of Hitler and Mussolini and allowed themselves to be willingly led into committing notorious atrocities. The inquiry continued through Milgram's famous experiments at Stanford in the early 60s; later, some of it became subsumed in the work of The Fundamentalism Project convened by Martin Marty at the University of Chicago in the 1980s and early 90s. Long story short: there is now over 50 years of good data on these people coming from every corner of the social sciences; but since almost none of this has been common knowledge outside the academy, nobody on the progressive side has really been putting it to use. Dean clearly wrote the book hoping to change all that.
The bulk of Conservatives Without Conscience is based on the research of Dr. Robert Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba, a social psychologist specializing in the psychology of authoritarianism. Altemeyer received the prestigious Association for the Advancement of Science prize for behavioral sciences for this research, and it is widely accepted in academia (though, as you might imagine, not so much among conservatives!). What follows is my brief synopsis of Dean's brief synopsis of some of Altemeyer's findings.
Leaders and Followers
Authoritarians come in two flavors: leaders and followers. The two tiers are driven by very different motivations; and understanding these differences is the first key to understanding how authoritarian social structures work.
Typically men
Intimidating and bullying
Faintly hedonistic
Vengeful
Pitiless
Exploitative
Manipulative
Dishonest
Cheat to win
Highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, homophobic)
Mean-spirited
Militant
Nationalistic
Tells others what they want to hear
Takes advantage of "suckers"
Specializes in creating false images to sell self
May or may not be religious
Usually politically and economically conservative/Republican
"
Saturday, August 12, 2006
ScienceDaily: Childhood Obesity Caused By 'Toxic Environment' Of Western Diets, Study Says
ScienceDaily: Childhood Obesity Caused By 'Toxic Environment' Of Western Diets, Study Says:
"'Our current Western food environment has become highly 'insulinogenic,'' Lustig says, 'as demonstrated by its increased energy density, high-fat content, high glycemic index, increased fructose composition, decreased fiber, and decreased dairy content.'
'In particular, fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin,' he adds."
Friday, August 11, 2006
ScienceDaily: Contagious Cancer In Dogs Confirmed; Origins Traced To Wolves Centuries Ago
ScienceDaily: Contagious Cancer In Dogs Confirmed; Origins Traced To Wolves Centuries Ago:
"A type of cancer that affects dogs throughout the world is in fact a sexually transmitted disease that originated from a single source, according to research by a UCL team published in the journal Cell."
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Pharyngula: Beauty in a speck of dust
Pharyngula: Beauty in a speck of dust
Phosphatized pre-Cambrian embryos are cool. It's amazing that they've been preserved at all, and they are spectacularly gorgeous. We can learn about the evolution of development from their superficial appearance, ...
(click for larger image)
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Lotus Foods - Products - Forbidden Rice® (China Black)
Lotus Foods - Products - Forbidden Rice® (China Black)
Legend tells us that this ancient grain was once eaten exclusively by the Emperors. Today, this medium-size Chinese black rice can be enjoyed everyday and is prized for its delicious nutty taste, soft texture, and beautiful rich deep purple color. High in nutritional and medicinal value, Forbidden Rice® is rich in iron and considered a blood tonifier. Unlike other black rice from Asia, it is not glutinous or rough and cooks in only 30 minutes to produce a superior flavor, texture, and color.
New Scientist News - Waterproof rice can outlast the floods
New Scientist News - Waterproof rice can outlast the floods:
"Now researchers have tracked down a gene in an old variety of rice largely abandoned by farmers that allows the plant to survive complete submersion. They say it could be the first lost gene of a series to be introduced into modern rice varieties to make rice more resilient to environmental hazards.
David Mackill of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and colleagues used genetic techniques to identify the 'submergence gene' in a forgotten old Indian rice variety, known as FR13A, stored at the institute's labs. They then introduced the gene into a modern variety of rice, M202, which is widely grown in the US. The new version could survive total submersion for up to two weeks - twice as long as before (Nature, vol 442, p 705)."
New Scientist Tech - Breaking News - Twin-mirror laser-weapon relay hits the spot
New Scientist Tech - Breaking News - Twin-mirror laser-weapon relay hits the spot
They involved firing a laser with an output power of just under 1 kilowatt at the relay system from a distance of about 3 kilometres. The laser was then successfully redirected to a target a further 3 km from the relay. ...
goal is to develop a high-altitude mirror system that could redirect powerful laser beams at targets beyond the direct line-of-sight of the laser's source ...
The input mirror collects light from the laser and then directs it through an instrument that detects and corrects for changes caused by atmospheric perturbations.
New Scientist News - Escaped golf-course grass frees gene genie in the US
New Scientist News - Escaped golf-course grass frees gene genie in the US:
"A nondescript grass discovered in the Oregon countryside is hardly an alien invasion. Yet the plant - a genetically modified form of a grass commonly grown on golf courses - is worrying the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) enough that it is running its first full environmental impact assessment of a GM plant.
It is the first time a GM plant has escaped into the wild in the US, and it has managed it before securing USDA approval. The plant, creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera, carries a bacterial gene that makes it immune to the potent herbicide glyphosate, better known as Roundup. The manufacturer, The Scotts Company, Marysville, Ohio, is hoping the grass will provide a turf that makes it easier for golf course owners to manage their fairways and greens by letting them kill competing weedy grasses with glyphosate."
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
M307 Airbursting Weapon System / Advanced Crew Served Weapon
M307 Airbursting Weapon System / Advanced Crew Served Weapon
Specifications Weight 50 Pounds (19.05 kg) (Gun, Mount, and Fire Control) Fire Control Full Solution, Day/Night Portability Two-Man Portable & Vehicle Mountable Stability Up to 18-Inch Tripod Height Environmental Operationally Insensitive to Conditions Rate of Fire 260 Shots per Minute, Automatic or Semi-Automatic Dispersion Less than 1.5 Mils, One Sigma Radius Range Lethal and Suppressive Out to 2,000 Meters Ammunition High-Explosive Airbursting, Armor Piercing, and Training Ammunition Feed System Weapon-Mountable Ammunition Can (Right/Left Feed)
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Click for larger Image
Monday, August 07, 2006
Sunday, August 06, 2006
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