- Study says near extinction threatened people 70,00 years ago
Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday. The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated that the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.
- Blizzard says “no” to Uwe Boll
An MTV Movie Blog post recently revealed Blizzard Entertainment’s reaction to a request by infamous film director Uwe Boll to adapt World of Warcraft into movie form. According to Boll, Blizzard’s Paul Sams emphasized the company’s particular disinterest in having him purchase the movie rights.
But if you’re not going to make a faithful adaptation, why make an adaptation at all? Apparently, the folks over at Blizzard wonder the same thing, since they practically laughed Boll out of their offices when he approached them about making a World of Warcraft adaptation, the director confessed.
“I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, ‘We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you,’” Boll revealed. “Because it’s such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it.”
- Bad, bad idea: the anti-hijacking safety bracelet
Beyond preying on people’s fears and insulting our intelligence, Lamperd is selling a product that’s a horrible idea in the first place. Do you really want those bracelets on your flight? If hijackers get their hands the transmitter, they’ll zap anyone standing in their way. Who’s to say that in the chaos of an emergency a crew member will have time to identify the threat, activate the correct bracelet and fire the EMD pulse before the terrorist has control of the plane?
And seriously, when you have people ignorant enough to arrest someone for watching a movie on an iPhone that’s in Airplane Mode, do you really trust their judgement in situations where they may be able to zap you?
- Hip-Hop artist refuses to stand against The Pirate Bay
A Swedish hip-hop artist who the IFPI used as leverage in their legal battle against The Pirate Bay, wants nothing to do with the case. Without consultation, the IFPI were claiming damages on his behalf from The Pirate Bay, even though they don’t even own the rights to his music.
- Same with “sonic showers”
With the durable and beautifully finished surgical stainless steel body, the space efficient SWV-08AM is the newest megasonic cleaning device from Coway. Designed to provide you with an easier way to remove dirt and agrochemicals, this device uses sound waves to clean produce, meats, dishware, pots and pans and flatware with little to no detergent. The megasonic waves induce micro cavitation, shaking impurities loose from surfaces. Coway integrated the controller and faucet into this device, designing the SWV-08AM like a conventional faucet, small and easy to use and install. The water flowing through the jet spray faucet head washes impurities away, preventing second-hand contamination. The cleaning device also delivers clean water using its built-in P-Sediment filter. The P-Sediment filter has numerous folds on its surface to enlarge its filtration area, boosting its ability to remove fine particles in water. Two large buttons labeled strong and soft allow users to select the proper water pressure for heavy-duty tasks like washing dishes or more sensitive tasks like cleaning fruits and vegetables. Coway.
- Star Trek “holodecks” getting closer all the time
Beyond the obvious use in entertainment, the achievements of the CyberWalk project could extend to training for firemen in dangerous scenarios, while keeping them well out of harm’s way. It could also help with medical rehabilitation for people after a stroke, people with Parkinson’s disease, or to help them overcome phobias.
- Earth set to invade Mars
It’s certainly an exciting time for Mars exploration. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity are still scouting out the surface and sending back incredible images. The Phoenix Lander is on its way to Mars right now, and should arrive at the Martian north pole on May 25. After this will come NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, a large rover that will launch next year and arrive in 2010. Finally, the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission is expected to hit the ground in 2014.
The only thing I’m curious about is why they’re not targeting any of the spots that Spirit and Opportunity uncovered as “good places to look for evidence of life”.
- Drag and drop into file-upload in Safari
One benefit for Safari over Firefox in Mac OS X is the possibility to drag and drop files into the “choose file” box (input-tag type=”file”).
Neat!
- NASA refutes story of boy who predicted asteroid collision
It’s an amazing story: a 13-year-old German boy’s science fair entry spots a miscalculation in NASA’s estimates on an asteroid colliding with Earth, forcing the space agency to change its prediction. But the story — first published in a German newspaper and widely distributed in European media on Wednesday — is also inaccurate, said NASA.
- Cubans line up for cell phone service
Only foreigners and Cubans holding key government posts had been allowed to have cell phones since they first appeared here in 1991. Thousands of ordinary Cubans already had mobile phones through the black market, but could activate them only if foreigners agreed to lend their names to the contracts.
I don’t buy that it was Fidel Castro all along who pushed for these reforms, because the timing with him stepping down, as well as the essays that he continues to write, would seem to indicate that it is indeed Raul behind them.
- Natural nuclear fission reactors
Although nuclear fission reactors are often thought of as being solely a product of modern technology, the first nuclear fission reactors were in fact naturally occurring. A natural nuclear fission reactor can occur under certain circumstances that mimic the conditions in a constructed reactor. Fifteen natural fission reactors have so far been found in three separate ore deposits at the Oklo mine in Gabon, West Africa. First discovered in 1972 by French physicist Francis Perrin, they are collectively known as the Oklo Fossil Reactors. Self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions took place in these reactors approximately 1.5 billion years ago, and ran for a few hundred thousand years, averaging 100 kW of power output during that time. The concept of a natural nuclear reactor was theorized as early as 1956 by Paul Kuroda at the University of Arkansas.
Such reactors can no longer form on Earth: radioactive decay over this immense time span has reduced the proportion of U-235 in naturally occurring uranium to below the amount required to sustain a chain reaction.
The natural nuclear reactors formed when a uranium-rich mineral deposit became inundated with groundwater that acted as a neutron moderator, and a strong chain reaction took place. The water moderator would boil away as the reaction increased, slowing it back down again and preventing a meltdown. The fission reaction was sustained for hundreds of thousands of years.
These natural reactors are extensively studied by scientists interested in geologic radioactive waste disposal. They offer a case study of how radioactive isotopes migrate through the Earth’s crust. This is a significant area of controversy as opponents of geologic waste disposal fear that isotopes from stored waste could end up in water supplies or be carried into the environment.
- Cubans to get titles to state-owned homes
The decree details rules allowing Cubans who rent from their state employers to keep their apartment or house after leaving their posts. They could gain title and even pass it on to their children or relatives.
I think this is like when McDonald’s opened in Moscow. It’s only a matter of time now before Communist Cuba is no more than a memory.
- Mars moon seen up close
One of the best close-ups ever taken of the Martian moon Phobos reveals fresh details of the strange object.
The impact crater named Stickney is the largest feature on Phobos with a diameter of almost 6 miles (9 km). The crater wall textures come from landslides that formed as materials fell in the weak gravity of the moon.
A series of grooves appear to radiate outwards from the crater, although studies have shown the cracks did not come from the crater. Some scientists believe the grooves are still related to the origin of Stickney, but others speculate that they originated with leftover space debris from Martian impacts that later pelted Phobos.
Just 13.5 miles (22 km) wide, Phobos appears as a lumpy, imperfect moon because its weak gravity could not compact it into a sphere. Both Phobos and its sister moon Deimos seem very similar to some asteroids, which could suggest their origin as space rocks captured by Martian gravity.
Other origin theories for the Martian moons include coming from a larger moon that broke up, forming with Mars in the early solar system, or being composed of material blasted from the Martian surface by impacts.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) angled in as close as 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) to eye Phobos in detail. Two similar images taken from different distances were combined to give the perception of a 3-D view.
Spacecraft such as Mars Global Surveyor have taken closer images of Phobos, but MRO’s HiRISE camera provides some of the best quality data to date for the Martian moon.
Although no spacecraft have landed on Phobos, the Russians announced plans in 2005 to develop a Phobos-Grunt mission to collect soil samples.
- Scientists now expect to find gravitational waves
Leading investigators are confident that the Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories) Project will be able for the first time to detect gravitational waves from neutron stars and black holes, as predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
- Climate change impacts beer industry
According to a New Zealand scientist, Jim Salinger, the price of beer in and around Australia is going to be under increasing upward pressure as reductions in malting barley yields are experienced as a side effect of our ongoing climate shift. “It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up,” Mr. Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention.
- Survey of Nature magazine’s readers shows 1 in 5 take mental-performance-enhancing drugs
One in five Nature readers — mostly scientists — say they up their mental performance with drugs such as Ritalin, Provigil, and Inderal.
The online poll from the British science magazine didn’t ask readers how they felt about professional athletes using drugs to enhance their physical performance. But when asked how they felt about professional thinkers using drugs to enhance their cognitive performance, nearly 80% said it should be allowed.
While only a fifth of the poll’s 1,400 respondents admitted to drug use to improve concentration, nearly two-thirds said they knew of a colleague who did. And if there were “a normal risk of mild side effects,” nearly 70% of the scientists said they’d boost their brain power by taking a “cognitive-enhancing drug.”
- Scientists flesh out plans to grow (and sell) test tube meat
In five to 10 years, supermarkets might have some new products in the meat counter: packs of vat-grown meat that are cheaper to produce than livestock and have less impact on the environment.
Awesome! Seriously, I’m all for it. I don’t really think there’s anything to be grossed out about, and it would allow a phasing out of the use of livestock. Score one for science!
- Cities tampering with traffic lights to generate revenue
Time and time again studies have shown that if cities really wanted to make traffic crossings safer there’s a very simple way to do so: increase the length of the yellow light and make sure there’s a pause before the cross traffic light turns green (this is done in some places, but not in many others). Tragically, it looks like some cities are doing the opposite! Jeff Nolan points out that six US cities have been caught decreasing the length of the yellow light below the legal limits in an effort to catch more drivers running red lights and [increase] revenue.
- Microsoft: Vista UAC intended ‘to annoy users’
One of Windows Vista’s design features was deliberately implemented “to annoy users,” a Microsoft executive admitted yesterday at the RSA 2008 conference in San Francisco. David Cross, a product unit manager, explained to an audience that Vista’s User Account Control scheme was built to discourage people from running as an administrator on their computers, which in case of attack can grant hackers deeper access than they might otherwise be allowed. “We needed to change the ecosystem, and we needed a heavy hammer to do it,” said Cross.
- Computer games make players less violent
A new study of computer gamers has found that a session in front of World of Warcraft can make players less stressed and more calm. The study questioned 292 male and female online gamers aged between 12 and 83 about anger and stress. They then played the game for two hours and were retested. “There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger, but this very much depended on personality type,” said team leader Jane Barnett from Middlesex University.
- Sol System look-alike found
Astronomers have discovered a planetary system orbiting a distant star which looks much like our own. They found two planets that were close matches for Jupiter and Saturn orbiting a star about half the size of our Sun. Martin Dominik, from St Andrews University in the UK, said the finding suggested systems like our own could be much more common than we thought.
- Uwe Boll will quit making movies with 1 million signatures
Uwe Boll, the infamous German director behind such video game adaptations as House of the Dead, BloodRayne, Dungeon Siege and Postal, has recently admitted that he would retire from making movies if enough people want him to stop. When FearNet mentioned to Boll a petition online signed by 18,000 people requesting that he cease making films, Boll responded that ‘18,000 is not enough to convince me.’ So how much would be enough? ‘One million,’ Boll said.
- If men think about sex and money, well, it’s natural
Erotic pictures stimulate the same part of the brain that lights up when a financial risk is taken, a new study reveals.
- Shooting star shower spotted on Mars
A shower of shooting stars has been recorded by instruments on Mars for the first time, astronomers say.
Meteors have been spotted before by the Mars rovers, but no device has ever detected a full shower until now.
United Kingdom astronomers predicted the event by tracking a comet’s path near Mars, then comparing their forecast with Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) satellite data of the red planet’s ionosphere — the upper reaches of atmosphere teeming with charged particles.
“Just as we can predict meteor outbursts at Earth, such as the Leonids [shower that occurs every November], we can also predict when meteor showers are going to occur at Mars and Venus,” said Apostolos Christou, an astronomer at the U.K.’s Armagh Observatory who helped predict the martian meteoric event.
Christou is set to present findings about the meteor-showering pass of comet 79P/du Toit-Hartley at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast on April 2.
- Microscopic fuzz may be best evidence of Martians
If Martian life existed a few billion years ago, scientists think any plant-like microbes would have left behind a stringy fuzz of fibers.
That’s because here on Earth, researchers now say they have found such ancient fuzz, called cellulose, preserved in chunks of salt deposited more than 250 million years ago — making it the oldest biological substance yet recovered. The announcement comes about a week after a team of planetary scientists announced discovering evaporated salt deposits on Mars and adds another element of hope to the search for alien life or signs of its past biology.
In fact, microscopic cellulose fibers might be one of the best signatures of any past life on the red planet, said Jack Griffith, a microbiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“These fibers are the oldest native, intact remnants of a living thing ever directly observed,” Griffith told SPACE.com. “It’s extremely fortuitous timing, as we’ve just discovered salt deposits on Mars’ surface.”
- Flying Spaghetti Monster lands outside Tennessee courthouse
A sculpture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the goofball deity cooked up to protest a Kansas legal battle over evolution, went on display outside a courthouse in Cumberland County, Tennessee, late last month.
Ariel and David Safdie created the sculpture, which depicts the taste-tempting god worshiped by adherents of the “Pastafarian” parody religion practised by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
- Radiohead sells ‘Nude’ deconstruction on iTunes
British rock act Radiohead has taken a different approach with its latest single, the band has announced. Rather than commission a series of professional remixes for “Nude,” any musician can now buy the song’s underlying elements on iTunes (link), and remix them into a new track. Available “stems” include the voice, bass, guitar, drum, and string/FX layers; while shoppers have to buy before April 8th to get free GarageBand project files, the layers can be edited using many other programs, such as Logic.
Completed remixes can then be uploaded to a special Radiohead website, where people can vote on their favorite mixes until May 1st, the best of which will be heard by the band. MySpace and Facebook widgets can be used to simplify voting by friends and strangers.