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First Map of Universe's Earliest Stars Unveiled and Blog - CES 2012: A New Era of Simpler Gadgets
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The evolution of galaxies is one of the the great outstanding mysteries of astrophysics. And in recent years, astronomers have taken great strides in tackling the problem.The latest generation of telescopes peer back in time to within a few hundred million years of creation. They clearly show the first galaxies shining brightly only 600 million years after the Big Bang. These galaxies form clusters which themselves stretch out across the cosmos in a vast filamentary-type structure known as the cosmic web.This structure corresponds more or less exactly to the differences in the density of matter that must have arisen in the instants after creation. Cosmologists think they understand this structure well and have accurately simulated how it came into being.The only wrinkle in their models is the stars from which galaxies are made, which must obviously have formed earlier. [Read the full article]
If anyone can predict the future of gadgets it should be Shawn DuBravac, chief economist of the Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this time each year.CES sets the tone for the year of consumer tech ahead and yesterday DuBravac opened the show's first press event with a reassuring prediction: gadgets are going to get easier to use.After years of stuffing in new features just because they could, consumer electronics companies are learning to prioritize a smooth experience over adding more buttons, said DuBravac, who is also an adjunct professor at George Washington University."I think 2012 will be the year of the interface," he said, and that it would represent the culmination of an "evolutionary" process, which I've illustrated left.Gadget designers in the late 60s and early 70s, when the industry got started, couldn't make things complex if they'd wanted to. [Read the full article]
People power: This eight-inch tablet is designed to bring education to poor regions of the world.Technology ReviewMore than 50 new tablet computers are expected to debut at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. But only one is meant for people in the poorest regions of the world, and comes with a hand crank as an accessory.Known as the XO 3.0, the rugged green and white device has an eight-inch screen and was designed by the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, which in 2008 launched the XO laptop, a device for people who are normally far from the minds of most computing companies.At a press preview held before the official opening of CES on Tuesday, OLPC's chief technology officer, Edward McNierney, told Technology Review that the new device could be used by children as young as five."We're trying to provide a low-power, low-cost environment for education," he said. [Read the full article]
Mining, textiles, retail -- these are the industries that are most likely to violate worker's rights, right? Nope -- turns out the electronics industry is worse, according to a recent report from Oekom, a sustainable investment research firm. (For more on that report, check out the breakdown of its findings at GreenBiz.)The appearance of monologist / investigative reporter / anti-Apple agitator Mike Daisey on the most recent episode of This American Life is leading to a whole new wave of awareness of a stark fact of electronics manufacturing: There is no "Fair Trade" standard for our electronics, even though industry watchers have been calling for one ever since the well-publicized suicides at FoxConn, China's largest manufacturer of electronics. [Read the full article]
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Blog - Points 'n' Puzzles and Ford Bets on the Digital Car
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Election Turnout Statistics In Many Countries: Similarities, Differences, And A Diffusive Field Model For Decision-MakingFirst Map of Universe's Earliest Stars UnveiledMathematicians Solve Minimum Sudoku Problemhttp://arxiv.org/abs/1201.0962 "a capillary infrastructure at the medium and Low Voltage levels"Edison tried low voltage distribution in Manhattan. It was fundamentally uneconomic compared to high voltage central distribution. If First World civilization cannot power itself within encroaching Enviro-whiner Luddite theocracies, lose the Enviro-whiners not civilization.The Physics arXiv Blog produces daily coverage of the best new ideas from an online forum called the Physics arXiv on which scientists post early versions of their latest ideas. [Read the full article]
The 108-year-old automotive company is embracing the technologies, business tactics, and spirit of Silicon Valley.Infotainment: In an illustration of the interior of the Evos concept car from Ford, vehicle displays show games, movies, and data downloaded from the Internet. FordAbout a decade ago, Doug VanDagens, a senior executive at Ford Motor Company, raised his hand at a board meeting and asked a fundamental strategy question: Why go proprietary when the world is moving to open-source?At the time, Ford was concerned about its Detroit rival GM. At issue was GM's OnStar, the successful in-car communication device offering emergency alerts, stolen-car tracking, and a built-in phone for an annual fee of $199 (plus cellular-minute charges). The OnStar business had two million subscribers and an 80 percent share of the car communications services market, and it was valued at over $4 billion. [Read the full article]
Researchers show that they can make more efficient use of the airwaves than previously thought. But now Congress has to notice.Microsoft has developed a new kind of Wi-Fi network that performs at its top speed even in the face of interference. It takes advantage of a new Wi-Fi standard that uses more of the electromagnetic spectrum, but also hops between the narrow bands of unused spectrum within television broadcast frequencies.In 2008, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved limited use of "white spaces"—portions of spectrum adjacent to existing television transmissions. The ruling, in effect, expanded the available spectrum. Microsoft developed the new network partly as a way to push Congress to allow much broader use of white spaces, despite some concerns over interference with some other types of wireless devices, such as wireless microphones. [Read the full article]
Researchers at Samsung have developed a smart phone that can detect people's emotions. Rather than relying on specialized sensors or cameras, the phone infers a user's emotional state based on how he's using the phone.For example, it monitors certain inputs, such as the speed at which a user types, how often the "backspace" or "special symbol" buttons are pressed, and how much the device shakes. These measures let the phone postulate whether the user is happy, sad, surprised, fearful, angry, or disgusted, says Hosub Lee, a researcher with Samsung Electronics and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology's Intelligence Group, in South Korea. Lee led the work on the new system. He says that such inputs may seem to have little to do with emotions, but there are subtle correlations between these behaviors and one's mental state, which the software's machine-learning algorithms can detect with an accuracy of 67.5 percent. [Read the full article]
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Taste for salt shaped early and Obama's trainer: Why to exercise
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Researchers found that six-month-old babies are more likely to enjoy the taste of salt if they have already been given starchy table foods such as cereal and crackers, the most common source of sodium for babies.And this affinity for salt appears to be lasting. Once they'd reached preschool age, the kids in the study who were exposed to sodium as infants were apt to prefer salty foods such as potato chips, hot dogs, and french fries -- and some showed signs of being salt fanatics, going so far as to lick salt crystals off pretzels or eat salt plain.By contrast, infants who stayed on baby food in their first six months, or who were given only fruit in addition to baby food, were more likely to be indifferent to salt as they matured."The implication is that this very early dietary experience may have a prolonged effect on how much individuals like the taste of salt," says Leslie J. [Read the full article]
(CNN) -- Personal trainer Cornell McClellan was working out with President Obama one morning when he had a revelation."Being a personal trainer is just like being the president," McClellan told Obama, whom he has trained for 11 years."We're faced with similar things," McClellan said. "We have people that come to us, and they've created conditions or situations that maybe we've had nothing to do with, and immediately they want us to change it. Even if they don't do what they're supposed to, they're upset with us when it's not changed. So I thought our jobs were pretty similar."McClellan spoke at last month's American Council on Exercise conference in San Diego, where he thanked fellow personal trainers who donated their time to help military families get fit.McClellan splits his time between Chicago and Washington, where he helps the Obamas and key members of the administration stay in shape. [Read the full article]
(Health.com) -- You've been told a trillion times not to buy produce out of season. But that doesn't mean you have to skip the fruits you love this time of year. It's just a matter of knowing which version is the healthiest and tastiest."In the winter, frozen or dried options may have a leg up over fresh when it comes to flavor and nutrition," says Elizabeth Somer, R.D., author of "Eat Your Way Sexy". In other cases, fresh is still the way to go. Here's your guide to making the best picks now.Frozen blueberries are typically the petite wild version, which have been found by scientists to contain more disease-thwarting antioxidants than their traditionally cultivated counterparts (the type you're most likely to find fresh right now). Also, fresh blueberries are pricey in winter and, if trucked in from afar, can go moldy fast.Apples are a top-notch source of quercetin, an antioxidant shown to slash the risk for certain cancers. [Read the full article]
Editor's note: Dr. Otis Brawley is chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society and professor at Emory University. His book, "How We Do Harm," is scheduled for publication next year by St. Martin's Press.(CNN) -- On December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 into law. The legislation had tremendous bipartisan support and came at a time of great optimism. Many thought its passage would lead to a cure for cancer within a few years.The legislation never mentioned the word "war," but some considered it the country's "declaration of war on cancer." The law, and the movement supporting it, brought cancer out of the shadows and put a focus on it.Forty years later, the war is still being waged, and much of the optimism has faded. This year, more than 500,000 Americans will die of cancer. [Read the full article]
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Top 10 most bizarre tech stories of 2011 and Alexander Graham Bell goes digital
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(CNN) -- In 2011, the tech world saw the release of game-changing gadgets including the iPhone 4s, Kindle Fire and iPad 2. But along with the good (and, yes, sometimes, the bad) came the bizarre.And by bizarre, we mean the weird gadget creations and unexpected Internet sensations that went viral (cue Rebecca Black's "Friday").Nonetheless, the strangest of the strange in the tech world made headlines by pushing the limits of technology, and this year it felt like there were more than ever.Here are some of 2011's most unusual and out of the ordinary tech headlines, stories we never thought could happen -- which baffled us when they did.As if two ears weren't enough, an Australian artist named Stelarc has decided to implant a third beneath the skin of his arm.This performance artist wants to make his arm an acoustic device by attaching a wireless microphone to the implanted ear. [Read the full article]
Washington (CNN) -- Voices recorded by inventor Alexander Graham Bell more than 125 years ago are being heard now, thanks to digital imaging technology."It's not high fidelity, but you can definitely figure out what they're saying," said Carl Haber of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the scientists working on the project in a laboratory at the Library of Congress.The early audio recordings were made during an intensely competitive time, when scientists were racing to improve on Thomas Edison's phonograph, which was invented in 1877.Scientists like Bell, who worked at his Volta Laboratory in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, were looking to improve both the quality of the phonograph and the nature of the sound to make the product commercially viable. [Read the full article]
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