From my column, today:
Star Trek Online is far easier to learn than Eve, however. And I like that it encourages avatar-to-avatar interactions off the battlefield, much like World of Warcraft (www.worldofwarcraft.com), which STO more closely resembles, with its use of inventories and its style of play.
(I can see STO becoming a fun place to hold scholarly meetings, as is WoW.)
Look for the NFC (Near Field Communication) logo on your next phone and, perhaps, everywhere else. (Photo: Courtesy of the NFC Forum)
Thanks to an agreement announced today between the NFC (Near Field Communication), credit card, and Smart Card industries:
With this new liaison, EMVCo will share relevant technical information with the NFC Forum that will enable the certification of properly-provisioned NFC devices for use in the following scenarios:
* to make POS payments (in Card Emulation mode) wherever such payments can be made with EMVCo contactless card products;
* to act as POS devices (in Reader/Writer mode) within the EMVCo contactless payment infrastructure.
This kind of all-in-one action through a single device should raise concerns from privacy watchdogs.
via NFC Forum : NFC Forum Forges Collaborative Links with EMVCo, GSM Association and Smart Card Alliance.
NASA Launches David Bowie Concept Mission 02.08.10
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL—NASA officials announced today the successful launch of the new shuttle Moonage Daydream, marking the beginning of a long-anticipated two-week conceptual mission inspired by British rock star David Bowie. more»
via Home | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.
Photo: Mike Seyfang/Flickr CC
Think Sipowicz with a hi-tech scanner.
The National Institute of Justice is seeking proposals for a device that can immediately scan crime scenes — bodies, suspects, CCTV camera data recordings, blood traces, you name it — and prisoners, for evidence in investigations.
The device should meet the following requirements:
1. Detection of the “broad spectrum” of contraband, including metallic and nonmetallic weapons, at any controlled access point. The preferred solution would be a product that, once commercialized, would be commercially available for under $25,000. To prevent contraband from entering correctional facilities, the preferred technology will be a portal that can also detect contraband concealed within body cavities. 2. Noninvasive, continuous monitoring of a subject’s use of both illegal and prescription substances. 3. Detection of trace blood at crime scenes from a distance of 5 feet or greater. 4. Accurate detection of gunshot residue in the field in real time. 5. Ability to extract full streams of digital multimedia evidence (DME) from incompatible systems, while maintaining the integrity of the metadata.
via Grants.gov – Find Grant Opportunities – Opportunity Synopsis.
Hooked on Foursquare, the locative, social networking tool for mobile devices? Now, you can now track your friends from the relative comfort of your Mac desktop or laptop.
Folks use Foursquare (http://foursquare.com) to arrange lunch dates at their favorite joints. They can also unlock points and freebies, such as free cups of coffee, at some of these places.
The new application for Macs, FoursquareX (http://codebutler.github.com/foursquarex) uses the Snow Leopard operating system’s Core Location feature, to quickly notify you when your friends have “checked-in” at one of your favorite venues.
Core Location is based on the Wi-Fi locative software from Boston-based Skyhook Wireless Inc. (http://skyhookwireless.com)
Google’s got it covered:
The company recently joined the Internet Protocol Smart Object Alliance:
The IPSO alliance now boasts 53 member companies, including Bosch, Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, SAP, Sun Microsystems and Texas Instruments.
Incredible. Another nano-therapy that might be available in the short term:
Scientists at Georgia Tech and the Ovarian Cancer Institute have further developed a potential new treatment againsat cancer that uses magnetic nanoparticles to attach to cancer cells, removing them from the body. The treatment, tested in mice in 2008, has now been tested using samples from human cancer patients. The results appear online in the journal Nanomedicine.
via Magnetic Nanoparticles Show Promise for Combating Human Cancer.
You might also recall this mind-blowing interview on NPR, in which Georgetown researcher Esther Chang reports a method for using nanoparticles to deliver tumor suppressor genes to kill tumors.
Photo: Erik Pitti/Flickr CC
DOE will spend $5 million for folks to help governments analyze the exabytes of data from climate studies and the Large Hadron Collider.
From the grant announcement:
The activities supported by this FOA may be a combination of basic research, creation of algorithms for advanced architectures, and development of usable data management and analysis tools for scientific discovery. Partnerships among universities, National Laboratories, and industry are strongly encouraged.
via Grants.gov – Find Grant Opportunities – Opportunity Synopsis.
A new survey from ConsumerLab (former FDA scientists who test supplements, to see what’s really in them), finds that pill poppers are stuffing themselves with fish oil, more often than multivitamins.
Among the results:
Fish oil/omega-3 supplements were used by 74.0% of respondents (up from 71.6% in 2008), followed in popularity by multivitamins, which were used by 72% (down from 73.8% in the prior year). Among the heaviest supplement users (10 or more per day), 87% used fish oil. The percentage of people using fish oil/omega-3 remained steady among those aged 35 through 74, dropping slightly among older people.
· CoQ10 became third most popular supplement with 55% using it, up from 50.9% last year. Calcium use fell from 55.3% to 51.2%.
· Vitamin D was used by 47.9% of respondents, up from 36.9% in 2008 – a 30% increase, making it the fifth most popular supplement. Vitamin D use was seen to increase dramatically with increasing age.
· Probiotics were used by 30.4% of respondents, up from 25% last year. One-third of women in the survey used a probiotic.
· Resveratrol was used by 19.4% of respondents, up from only 11.7% last year – a 66% increase. Men polled were 50% more likely than women to use resveratrol.
Get the latest and the greatest news delivered for free to your reader or your inbox:
RSS Feed Email Updates Twitter
