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The Fast Food-Depression Connection
11.02.2009
02:50 pm
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Before you order that 1400-calorie Hardee’s Monster Burger, consider this: a research team at London-based University College has found (surprise?) a link between depression and a diet rich in processed foods.  They also (bigger surprise?) found a link between a lack of depression and a diet rich in fish, fruits and vegetables. 

The team split the study participants into two groups.  After accounting for such factors as age, gender, and education, it was determined that the whole food-eating group would have a 26% lower risk for future depression.  The group eating a diet rich in sweets, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products had a risk of depression 58% higher than their whole food-eating counterparts.

Study author Dr. Archana Singh-Manoux added, “It is not yet clear why some foods may protect against or increase the risk of depression, but scientists think there may be a link with inflammation as with conditions such as heart disease.”

BBC News: Depression Link To Processed Food

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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11.02.2009
02:50 pm
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Bloodybelly Comb Jelly
11.02.2009
11:27 am
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From Monterey Bay Aquarium:

Brilliant and seemingly glowing, the bloodybelly comb jelly comes in different shades of red but always has a blood-red stomach. The sparkling display on the outside comes from light diffracting from tiny transparent, hair-like cilia. These beat continuously, propelling the jelly through the water.

This species has only recently come to the attention of scientists, thanks to images like this, supplied by the

Happy birthday, dear Internet! Happy birthday to you!
10.30.2009
06:32 pm
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On this day 40 years ago, the very first e-mail message (long before they called it e-mail, of course) was sent by UCLA’s Leonard Kleinrock over the ARPANET system from Los Angeles to the Stanford Research Institute, more than 400 miles away.

Kleinrock, while still a student at MIT, developed the principles of “packet switching,” which allows the basic data-transfer functions of the Internet. As a professor at UCLA, Kleinrock helped develop ARPANET, the interconnected computer network from which the Internet evolved. Today more than 1.6 billion people around the world are connected to the network.

What was that first momentous message, you may be wondering? It said simply “lo”—the message was meant to read “login,” but the computer crashed almost immediately.

Cross posting this from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.30.2009
06:32 pm
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Wolfram Alpha iPhone app for extreme science geeks
10.30.2009
06:15 pm
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If you’ve ever felt like working out the precise distance between Earth and Mars measured in AA batteries while lying on a beach, hiking in the mountains or sitting in traffic (you wouldn’t do that, would you?) then get thee to the iPhone Apps Store to grab a copy of the newly released Wolfram Alpha app.

The app is based on the “computational knowledge engine” Wolfram Alpha, launched in May, that allows online users to get accurate answers to computational queries. Think of it as a super-complex pocket calculator for extreme math, chemistry and science geeks, like its founder, Stephen Wolfram. Wolfram is the Illinois-based British mathematician, physicist, computer programmer, businessman and author of “A New Kind of Science” who has been compared to Issac Newton and Albert Einstein.

The Wolfram Alpha iPhone app is proving popular, indeed. After just a few days in release, the app has already made the Apple “Hot List” and is one of the top sellers in the App Store. Some tech writers have been critical of the app’s jaw-dropping $49.99 list price, but it’s important to keep in mind that the app is not just another way to access the Wolfram Alpha website, but a sophisticated, high-end calculator capable of supporting calculus, discrete number theory and function plotting, then spitting out graphics that illustrate the information like a fancy spreadsheet, all in a matter of seconds.

Cross posting this from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.30.2009
06:15 pm
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Digital Graffiti Wall and Stencil
10.29.2009
11:29 am
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Really cool digital graffiti wall by Canadian designers Tangible Interaction.

Now, artists can digitally “paint” a surface in the same way they can tag a wall with traditional spray paint.

Tangible Interaction

Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.29.2009
11:29 am
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Neanderthals ?
10.27.2009
02:33 pm
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From Times Online:

Modern humans and Neanderthals had sex across the species barrier, according to a leading geneticist who is overseeing a project to compare their genomes.

Professor Svante Paabo, director of genetics at the renowned Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, will shortly publish his analysis of the entire Neanderthal genome, using DNA retrieved from fossils. He aims to compare it with the genomes of modern humans and chimpanzees to work out the ancestry of all three species.

Modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa about 40,000 years ago to find Neanderthals already living there. The two species then co-existed for 10,000-12,000 years before Neanderthals died out ?

Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.27.2009
02:33 pm
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GenPets: Bioengineered Human-Animal Hybrid Pets
10.26.2009
02:22 pm
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This may be a bit of old news, but I’d never seen it before, and if you haven’t, either, I suspect this will impress you as much as it did me.

GenPets are bioengineered human/animal hybrids which come in plastic packaging in suspended animation. Once you buy one you get to “activate” them and let them loose. About the Pets from the site:

The Genpets?

Posted by Jason Louv
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10.26.2009
02:22 pm
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Japan’s H1N1 Flu Simulation Robot
10.23.2009
04:54 pm
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My Japanese ranging from non-existent to the merely serviceable when faced with the ordering of raw fish, I’ll defer my summation of this to PinkTentacle:

According to this NTV news report, the life-sized humanoid robot was developed as a realistic training aid for medical workers.  In addition to sporting a suit of human-like skin, the robot sweats, convulses, moans, cries tears, and exhibits symptoms not unlike a real human patient infected with the H1N1 virus.  If the robot does not receive the proper treatment, the symptoms gradually worsen until it stops breathing.

Reuters video is carrying the English version of the story.  To watch its unembeddable footage, click here.

 
(via Pink Tentacle)

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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10.23.2009
04:54 pm
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Will Google’s new music app really be all that?
10.22.2009
10:18 pm
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The tech blogs have been abuzz for the last few days about Google’s new music service, which apparently will be powered by LaLa. The service is due to be officially announced on Oct. 18th at an event in Hollywood. So far the media has been mostly uncritical although it’s difficult to see why.

LaLa? Really? How underwhelming.

With Spotify, the peer-to-peer streaming service currently available in Spain, the UK, France, Sweden, Norway and Finland, and reportedly launching in the U.S. before the end of the year, the likely question in the minds of many tech watchers is “Why didn’t Google just buy Spotify?” Spotify is the gold standard of music apps. Picture iTunes—the user interface is very, very similar—except that it’s free and streaming, you need only listen to a 15- to 30-second commercial once every half-hour. There is also a pay variant of the service with no commercial interruptions and improved sound quality, although the free version will certainly suffice for most listeners.

Spotify, in a word, is awesome. Many Spotify users are reportedly even giving up illegal music downloads as a result of using the service. I set up a Spotify account via a UK proxy server earlier this year and was quite impressed at the streaming audio quality, ease of use and the absolutely massive song library. When their server finally detected I was outside of their operating countries after two blissful weeks and cut me off cold turkey, I wanted to cry. Does it have everything? Well, Spotify does lack the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, but for the most part it’s pretty hard to stump, as even the most obscure performers are usually pretty well represented in its library.

LaLa on the other hand, has simply not become all that popular with the public and the catalog isn’t that deep. Just because a LaLa result comes up in a Google search hardly seems like a recipe for success. Like Rhapsody, Pandora and Last.fm and the other streaming services, LaLa never really caught on with consumers in a big way. Sure the Google deal (Facebook, iLike and MySpace are reportedly along for the ride in some capacity too) won’t hurt the company, but it’s difficult to fathom why Google didn’t look into partnering the superior service, especially if the company will be competing against Spotify in the U.S. market within a matter of months anyway and with Microsoft set to launch what has been whispered of as their “Spotify killer” as well.

Among the mostly neutral chatter, snarky UK tech blog The Register had this to say:

Hyped overnight as a Google ‘Music Service’, what we see instead is set to be the most underwhelming launch in a long history of label-backed music flops. It’s barely a ‘service’ - merely a sorry widget that yokes a DRM-crippled version of LaLa’s already unpopular streaming offering with unsold Adwords inventory.

Instead of a text ad, a search for a music related keyword will show a widget. This allows you to listen to the song, according to Business Week - but only once. After that you pay to hear the stream at 10c a play. (You can also buy the song.)

Don’t all rush at once.

Cross posting this at Brand X

Image from Techcrunch

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.22.2009
10:18 pm
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The Russian Virtual Mars Experiment: Sign Up Now!
10.22.2009
01:05 pm
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Attention: Dangerous Mind readers in Europe.  Need a new “Plan B?”  Sure, all the cool kids are lighting out for Berlin or Costa Rica, but why not try Mars (by way of Russia)?

Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars.  In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission.  ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.

The participants are subjects in scientific investigations to assess the effect that isolation has on various psychological and physiological aspects, such as stress, hormone regulation and immunity, sleep quality, mood and the effectiveness of dietary supplements.  The crew will follow a program designed to simulate a 250-day journey to Mars, a 30-day surface exploration phase and 240 days traveling back to Earth.  For the ?

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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10.22.2009
01:05 pm
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