Americans spend a 3.7 billion hours a year in congested traffic. But you will never see ants stuck in gridlock. Army ants, which Dr. Couzin has spent much time observing in Panama, are particularly good at moving in swarms... NYT
Friday, November 23, 2007
Ant Power
Q. Where does that famous ant that can lift something like 20 times its weight get its power? Is it muscle fibers or some sort of hydraulic fluid?
A. Ants’ muscles are not unlike those of a mammal in many ways. They have muscle fibers of various kinds that contract and expand at varying speeds and strengths. The muscles are attached either directly to internal protrusions of its external skeleton, called apodemes, or indirectly, by filaments attached to the connection points. Scientists often note that an ant’s strength to lift many times its weight actually depends on its small size, not on any special muscular equipment. With an exoskeleton, the smaller the insect is, the less burden it has in supporting its own tissue, and thus it can routinely lift proportionally larger burdens.A 1999 paper by researchers in Würzburg, Germany, in The Journal of Experimental Biology, examined the large muscle that closes the mandible of a worker ant. It has two types of muscle fiber: some with long contractile units, called sarcomeres, and some with short sarcomeres. Depending on their shape and biochemistry, the fibers contract either slowly but powerfully or relatively rapidly but less forcefully. The distribution of the fibers, the ratio of slow fibers to fast ones and their attachment and arrangement determine the speed and force with which each species can close its jaws. Link
Scientists Playing God? Depends on Your Religion
Now that biologists in Oregon have reported using cloning to produce a monkey embryo and extract stem cells, it looks more plausible than before that a human embryo will be cloned and that, some day, a cloned human will be born. But not necessarily on this side of the Pacific. American and European researchers have made most of the progress so far in biotechnology. Yet they still face one very large obstacle — God, as defined by some Western religions. While critics on the right and the left fret about the morality of stem-cell research and genetic engineering, prominent Western scientists have been going to Asia, like the geneticists Nancy Jenkins and Neal Copeland, who left the National Cancer Institute and moved last year to Singapore. Asia offers researchers new labs, fewer restrictions and a different view of divinity and the afterlife. In South Korea, when Hwang Woo Suk reported creating human embryonic stem cells through cloning, he did not apologize for offending religious taboos. He justified cloning by citing his Buddhist belief in recycling life through reincarnation... NYT
New Numbers on AIDS
Looks as if the global AIDS pandemic may not be spiraling out of control after all. Instead, the devastation is stabilizing at an unacceptably high level. The United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency and the World Health Organization ate a lot of crow this week for previously overestimating the number of people infected with the virus. As a result of improved methodologies, better surveillance and new understanding of the dynamics of the epidemic, they sharply reduced their estimate — to 33.2 million worldwide from 39.5 million. They now peg the number of new infections per year at 2.5 million, much lower than past estimates... NYT
Wikipedia founder warns against censoring the Net
Founder of Wikipedia, the Wikipedia Foundation and Wikia, Jimmy Wales, recalled how the free, editable online encyclopedia project got started with the radical idea that the sum of human knowledge should be available to everyone on the planet for free... Link
Oracle now the 'IPO market' for enterprise software
Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Oracle still believes that acquisitions are the best strategy for bringing in innovative technology to the company - and are expected to play a big part in the company's future growth... Link
Made in China on the Sly
America’s holiday shopping season, which officially opens today, is expected to yield sales 4 percent higher than last year. This growth is not likely to be seen at discount stores; their customers are feeling the credit crunch. But a big increase is predicted in sales of luxury-brand products like Burberry handbags, Prada scarves and Gucci ties, with prices high enough to make a difference... NYT
Data Leak in Britain Affects 25 Million
British government struggled Wednesday to explain its loss of computer disks containing detailed personal information on 25 million Britons, including an unknown number of bank account identifiers, in what analysts described as potentially the most significant privacy breach of the digital era... NYT
Pay Me for My Content
Internet idealists like me have long had an easy answer for creative types — like the striking screenwriters in Hollywood — who feel threatened by the unremunerative nature of our new Eden: stop whining and figure out how to join the party! ... NYT
Move your desktop folders to the wall
Why leave your desktop on your computer? If you like it that much, display it on your wall as well. Not only would you have the folders, but the labels and the pointer as well... more
How to Sleep in an Airport
1. Always Have a Backup Plan
2. Expect your flight to be cancelled and be prepared
3. Bring something comfortable to sit on
4. It's better to arrive than depart
5. When sleep is Impossible6. Act Innocent ... more
ProductWiki
ProductWiki - resource for free, unbiased product reviews and information written and maintained by the community
Babies can tell good people from bad
Babies as young as six months can distinguish between good and bad people, according to a study in which babies observed characters being helpful or unhelpful. Scientists had thought that social judgments developed with language at about 18 months to two years old. But the results suggest that the ability to make moral judgments has innate foundations and is not just learned from parents... Guardian
Facebook hit with privacy backlash
If you're doing your holiday shopping online, there's a chance Facebook knows what you're buying for your friends, and it's telling them too... Globeandmail
Yes, Google Is Trying To Take Over the World
Now, with its recently announced plans to enter wireless communications, Google is making its deepest foray yet into a foreign territory where its allies are few. It faces the challenge of not just entering the wireless world but also converting its inhabitants. Provided that Google has the nerve and resources to try to remake wireless in its image, it'll either prove its greatest triumph or its Waterloo... Slate
Top 5 games to play at Grandma's
Going to Grandma’s doesn’t mean you have to sit around, sucking on hard candies and watching old episodes of “Murder, She Wrote.” Instead, you can turn your next family visit into a party, just by putting on a video game... MSNBC
Amazon debuts Kindle e-book reader
Why are books the last bastion of analog? Books have stubbornly resisted digitization, I think there's a very good reason for that, and that is, the book is so highly evolved and so suited to its task that it's very hard to displace... CNET
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Every Workday Needs a Game Plan
Q. You just finished an eight-hour day at the office and, looking back, you barely got anything done. Now you feel guilty and worthless. What happened?
A. Rest assured that you are not alone. Heightened demands at work, combined with endless distractions and interruptions, are conspiring to make some workers feel scattered, confused and unsatisfied. In response, they are either shutting down and going on eBay, or spinning their wheels by doing busywork that is at most tangentially related to the core mission of their business.
Q. So a lack of productivity doesn’t mean that you’re lazy? ... NYT
How To Evaluate Sources on the Web
The Web does not always contain accurate information. In fact, every once in a while, you might come across something that (gasp!) is not true. Well, that's to be expected, really - the Web is made by people, and people aren't perfect... LifeHacker
Outlook 2007 - Send Email Replies To Another Recipient
Have you ever wanted to make sure that a reply goes back to more than one email address? You might want to have somebody automatically reply to your home and personal address, or you might want to make sure your boss is included on replies instead of having to forward the messages to him... HowToGeek
Windows Live For Your Domain
Microsoft has quietly launched a competitor to Google Apps for your domain, Windows Live Community Builder.The service offers customized versions of the Windows Live suite, including email, photo service, messenger, writer, livedrive and more for businesses or non for profit organizations ” looking to achieve deeper and more engaging connections with their community.”... Techcrunch
China's dirty little secret - e-waste
China now produces more than 1 million tons of e-waste ... CNN
Does Islam have a sense of humour?
Muslims are often depicted as people who can't take a joke. But as a stand-up comedy tour showcasing Islamic talent arrives in the UK, is that fair? "There's nothing better than having a laugh. I love going to see comedy, but people seem to have this impression that Muslims and comedy don't go together; that somehow we can't reconcile humour with our faith." ... BBC
One million homeless in Somalia
One million people are now living rough in Somalia, the UN refugee agency says. The figure includes 60% of Mogadishu residents who have fled their homes - 200,000 in the past two weeks - leaving many districts empty, says UNHCR. People have been forced out by renewed conflict between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces. Kenya's government has been strongly criticised for deporting 18 failed Somali asylum-seekers. "They are being sent to die," a rights worker said... BBC
Users claim iPhone 'phones home' to Apple
Speculation that Apple Inc.'s iPhone is itself "phoning home" to the Cupertino, Calif. company with personal information, including which stocks users are tracking, is probably off base, a German security Web site said today. According to translations of an analysis posted by Heise Zeitschriften Verlag GmbH of Hannover, Germany, while the binaries of a pair of iPhone applications -- the weather and stock applets -- include strings that contain the characters "imei," it's unlikely that the phone's identifier is being sent to Apple... Computerworld
Adding Math to List of Security Threats
One of the world’s most prominent cryptographers issued a warning on Friday about a hypothetical incident in which a math error in a widely used computing chip places the security of the global electronic commerce system at risk.Adi Shamir, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, circulated a research note about the problem to a small group of colleagues. He wrote that the increasing complexity of modern microprocessor chips is almost certain to lead to undetected errors... NYT
Microsoft ships Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5
Codenamed Orcas, Visual Studio 2008 (VS2008) comes two years after Visual Studio 2005. In total, there are more than 250 new features added with significant enhancements across every version ranging from Express Editions to Visual Studio Team Systems (VSTS). A key addition in VS2008 is support for the new Language Integrated Query (LINQ), which is positioned as a technology for rapid application development... Ars Technica
A Wiring Diagram of the Brain
New technologies that allow scientists to trace the fine wiring of the brain more accurately than ever before could soon generate a complete wiring diagram--including every tiny fiber and miniscule connection--of a piece of brain. Dubbed connectomics, these maps could uncover how neural networks perform their precise functions in the brain, and they could shed light on disorders thought to originate from faulty wiring, such as autism and schizophrenia... TechnologyReview
The Sun may be smaller than thought
The Sun may be smaller than we thought, a new study argues.If correct, then other properties of the Sun such as its internal temperature and density may be slightly different than previously calculated. Understanding the Sun's interior is important as it might help scientists make predictions about space weather and answer questions about the solar system.The Sun has no solid surface. Its atmosphere merely gets thinner and more transparent farther from its centre.Instead the Sun's "surface" is defined to be the depth in the Sun's atmosphere where it becomes opaque to light. Scientists measure this by observing the Sun with telescopes and measuring the distance between the centre of the Sun's disc and its "edge" – the place where its brightness suddenly drops off. This gives a radius of 695,990 kilometres, or about 109 times the radius of Earth... NewScientist
On the Job, Everywhere
One challenge of the work-anywhere lifestyle is that not everywhere is designed for people who need to do work.Travelers use their laptops at a power station in the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. That is why you see women in skirts sitting awkwardly on the carpet at an airport gate, balancing laptops plugged in to precious few outlets. Or hear about grown men building the adult equivalent of a pillow fort to fashion a makeshift desk on a hotel bed.But hotels and airports are gradually catching on to the fact that mobile workers need more help getting their jobs done on the road. Hotels that cater to laptop-toting travelers are scrambling to add electrical outlets in easy-to-reach places, install better task lighting and design chairs with flat armrests that can double as desks.They are putting desks on casters so the desks can be wheeled in view of the television or even extend over the bed. And perhaps most important to business travelers, some hotel chains are installing technology to make their Internet service more reliable or adding employees to offer better support when guests call for help.Airports have not made as many changes, though some are adding kiosks where passengers can charge gadgets, check e-mail messages or buy a flash drive to replace one they forgot... NYT
New Stem Cell Method Could Ease Ethical Concerns
Two teams of scientists are reporting today that they turned human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without having to make or destroy an embryo — a feat that could quell the ethical debate troubling the field. Skip to next paragraph RelatedBiologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells (June 7, 2007) All they had to do, the scientists said, was add four genes. The genes reprogrammed the chromosomes of the skin cells, making the cells into blank slates that should be able to turn into any of the 220 cell types of the human body, be it heart, brain, blood or bone. Until now, the only way to get such human universal cells was to pluck them from a human embryo several days after fertilization, destroying the embryo in the process... NYT
ASEAN blueprint may have obstacles but it's a necessary step
ASEAN's economy, which was worth around US$1 trillion in 2006, is seen as having potential to grow. On Tuesday, the grouping adopted the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint, paving the way for further expansion. The blueprint will turn the 10 nations into one single market by 2015, positioning ASEAN attractively in the face of global competition. In the face of rising competition, the leaders have chosen to cut their initial timeline by five years. They are now giving themselves until 2015 to integrate their markets into a single one. CNA
ASEAN not disappointed Gambari will not be briefing leaders
ASEAN is not disappointed that UN Envoy Ibrahim Gambari will not be officially briefing the leaders.The grouping's Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong told reporters on Tuesday that Dr Gambari has alreadylined up a few dialogues with several leaders on his own and will also be giving interviews. Mr Ong pointed out that this is not something that ASEAN cannot move on from. ASEAN leaders have agreed toMyanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein's request that his country deal directly with the UN, and that DrGambari should report only to the UN Security Council and not to ASEAN or the East Asia Summit. Mr Ongsaid: "We live to fight another day. We don't want to come across as being too confrontational in asituation like this. What is important is that we want to focus on our Summit... we don't want it to bea big distraction." CNA
Migraine brains are different
Scientists have discovered differences in the sensory areas of the brains of people who develop migraines. They found a part of the cortex is thicker than in people who are free from the debilitating headaches. What is not clear is whether the difference causes, or is the result of migraine attacks. (Source)
Nintendo Wii Turns One
Wii has already managed to outsell the older Xbox 360 despite Nintendo's continued shortages. Nintendo also displaced Sony as the largest first-party software maker, iSupply said in October. In short, a lot of people (including core gamers) enjoy Wii for what it is - a unique system with a focus on fun. (Source)
Can Amazon Kindle Digital Book Fever?
Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos considers the book a stubborn relic of the predigital universe. While other media, including music, are readily available over digital delivery devices such as Apple's (AAPL) iPod, the book has stuck with its hardbound and softbound covers and dog-eared pages for hundreds of years. "Why are books the last bastion of analog?" Bezos asked during a Nov. 19 press conference. "Can you improve upon something as highly evolved and well-suited to its task as the book and, if so, how?" (Source)
Stem cells without embryos
Two separate teams of researchers announced on Tuesday they had transformed ordinary skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells - but without using cloning technology and without making embryos. Their breakthroughs could make possible the long-sought goal of tailor-made medicine, but without the political, scientific and ethical roadblock of using human embryos. (Source)
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