The great outdoors—an opportunity to enjoy the eternal bond between man and nature. And vast quantities of expertly grilled burgers. The Automatic Chef motorized grilling—I don't even know what to call it, crane?—will complete your next camping trip. More »
The odd lottery ticket purchase when you're feeling particularly lucky is fine, but when it becomes an addiction then it's time for an intervention. Two artists did just that, showing what could've been bought with the money spent on tickets. More »
Yesterday, we saw a patent for a contraption designed to spin a pregnant woman around really fast so a baby would pop out. Surely, you can do just as well. More »
About seven years ago, I reported regularly on the science of longevity, and the prospect of human life extension, for a site called Sage Crossroads. And then I stopped—pretty much dropping the topic for a while and going on to other things.
So when I attended the Techonomy session yesterday entitled “The Longevity Dividend,” it was a perfect chance to hear just how far scientists think their field has come since I last reported on it closely. And I have to say, I was struck by the difference in tone.
Seven years ago, scientists who study aging—so-called biogerontologists—already thought it was possible or even likely that at some point in the future, we would find a way to retard its rate in humans. After all, there were already numerous studies showing that genetic interventions could lengthen the lifespan of other species, particularly mice and roundworms. And caloric restriction—reducing dietary intake by about 1/3—had also been shown to extend lifespan in a number of animal species. (That’s why some humans themselves are already trying it.)
So there were reasons to think that human life extension was coming—and more specifically, that a means of slowing the rate of human aging would be possible. But most mainstream scientists weren’t so bullish then. So optimistic. In particular, they were very worried about giving false hope, and encouraging anti-aging quackery.
I detected a different tone yesterday….read on…
Google, who's been determinedly digitizing the world's books, thought it might be prudent to figure out just how many books are actually out there to begin with. They made a special algorithm, natch, and came up with 129,864,880. More »
Has to convert B6-1 into B6-2 Source Transport Phenomenon 2nd ed - http://i35.tinypic.com/sxgd39.jpg
It's not just your clumsy leg-kicks that Kinect will understand, with a newly-discovered patent showing that it's actually capable of understanding American Sign Language, or ASL. Is this another way to input text to the game? More »
After years of not being able to sell Wi-Fi-enabled iPhones in China, Apple will begin placing 8GB models on store shelves from this Monday. More »
I use Att for both internet and phone. Here's the problem: On incoming phone calls the call is full of static for 4-5 seconds, then clears up.
More info:
I can hear the person calling in, but they can barely hear me.
This only happens on incoming calls, never outgoing.
It is inte
I just watched something happen that I understand, yet want to make sure I solve it right the next time. I have a crack across a backhoe boom on the same side as the crowd cylinder. In most cases during operation the crack would be under tension. The boom is a fabricated retangular box. The crack ha
What we know: Asus is making a Windows Phone 7 handset. This Asus-branded phone looks like it's running Windows Phone 7. Ergo, this is an Asus Windows Phone 7 device. Right? Well... maybe. More »
SpaceX Unveils Heavy-Lift Vehicle Plan, Aviation Week
"The U.S. government should lead development of a nuclear thermal propulsion system for a future Mars mission and leave new heavy-lift launchers to commercial entities, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) says. Unveiling conceptual plans for a family of Falcon X and XX future heavy-lift vehicles at last week's AIAA Joint Propulsion conference here, SpaceX McGregor rocket development facility director Tom Markusic said, "Mars is the ultimate goal of SpaceX."
Keith's note: These are two presentations from the meeting by Tom Markusic: "SpaceX Propulsion" and "SpaceX overview" (Broken links fixed)
WHAT are the SMC/BMC mold design points ?
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Tired of the faceless urbanites crowding their Google Street Views, computer scientists aimed to remove the pedestrians entirely. The images above show they succeeded, mostly.
The software was developed by Arturo Flores of the University of California, San Diego; earlier this summer he unveiled (pdf) the proof-of-concept. It’s built off of a previous algorithm developed in 2005 that can pick out pedestrians in urban settings. The new program removes the identified pedestrian and covers the gap using pixels from slightly ahead and slightly behind what appears to be someone walking down the street. But it only works in cities (where tall buildings give a relatively flat backdrop), can create a human smear when the photographed person walked at the same speed as the Google camera, and, one could imagine, has trouble in huge crowds–where neighboring pixel-swapping might result in blurry Frankenhumans.
But otherwise, it leaves a non-distracting, relatively “ghost free” image, a university press release says, that will further protect pedestrian privacy. When it almost succeeds, it gives users a good laugh: a post-apocalyptic cityscape including disembodied feet, ownerless dogs, and floating umbrellas.
Related content:
Discoblog: Confused (and Injured) Pedestrian Sues Google Maps Over Bad Directions
Discoblog: And the Survey Says: Google Is Not Making You Stupid
Discoblog: My Name Is Topeka, Kansas, but You Can Call Me Google
Discoblog: Tweet Your Prayers, Google Your Ancient Texts
Images: Arturo Flores
Five years ago, there were six and a half million little brown bats in the Northeastern United States. In 2020, there may be next to none.
This week in Science, a study models the collapse in bat populations brought on by white-nose syndrome, which was first found in 2006 and is seemingly caused by a nasty fungus. Researchers think that bats with the affliction awaken too early from hibernation, messing up their natural cycles and draining their reserves of energy. A team led by Winifred Frick checked the math on bat population decline and found that they could be locally extinct in many parts of the United States by 2020.
The loss of all these bats would be bad for us, not just them, because they like to dine on pesky insects. So far, researchers have little idea how to cure diseased bats or stop the blight from spreading. The U.S. Forest Service last month proposed to close off abandoned mines in several states, hoping to protect the bats who live in them from the disease. For more about the bats, check out Ed Yong’s Not Exactly Rocket Science.
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Related Content:
80beats: Frog Species Are Hopping Into Extinction Before They’re Even Discovered
80beats: Bats Are Dying from White Nose Mold, But Researchers Aren’t Sure Why
80beats: With Chirps and Trills, Bats Sing Love’s Sweet Song
Not Exactly Rocket Science: Pocket Science – lessons from spongy genomes, and a deadly bat-killing disease
Image: Al Hicks, NY DEC
Some people put safes behind paintings. Me, I just want to put my home entertainment accessories behind a secret wall panel. How hidden is it? Here's what it looks like closed: More »
Hi, anyone remembers how to calculate betwen the range and the signal?
E,g. I have 4-20mA signal. It is 50% when the signal given at 12mA? But how to calculate when the signal is at 4.5mA?
Rgds, Hien
Does anyone know who manufactures grade 8.8 bolts with the ID marking 'UM'? I have been searching for a while and cannot find the name or location of the manufacturer anywhere. Thanks
p-trap for wash basin drain will avalble in india hyderaba?
I was gone for the day and on my arrival home, one circuit (on one breaker) in my home does not function. No outlets or lights work on the entire circuit. I have replaced the breaker (which does function to turn power on and off) and the GFCI (one in the circuit) with no change. I read voltage of 1
