June 30, 2003
Chipmaker Sandbridge packs in standards
BusinessWeek Online: News from C|Net.com
Sandbridge Technologies said Monday that it's the first chipmaker to pack an entire world of cell phone standards into a single handset.The White Plains, N.Y.-based company will begin shipping the chips this year to handset makers, and the first "world phones" will appear by the end of 2004, according to Sandbridge spokesman Jeffrey Schwartz. "That's three to five years ahead of what people thought," he said.
Italy Takes on EU Presidency
He's already Italy's richest man, a billionaire media tycoon, soccer supremo and Italian prime minister. On Tuesday, Silvio Berlusconi gets to represent the European Union.The prospect is provoking diplomatic concern and howls of outrage from headline writers around the continent as Italy with Berlusconi at its helm assumes the six-month rotating EU presidency Tuesday.
Terror scare a boon for SAS
SAS is seeking a bigger chunk of the financial software sector with an aggressive strategy based on mandatory compliance with new global international banking settlements and accounting standards to combat money-laundering....
In the US alone, financial institutions will spend some $US695 million on systems to stop money-laundering by 2005 to comply with the Patriot Act.
June 29, 2003
Online Dating Sheds Its Stigma as Losers.com
Online dating, once viewed as a refuge for the socially inept and as a faintly disrespectable way to meet other people, is rapidly becoming a fixture of single life for adults of all ages, backgrounds and interests. More than 45 million Americans visited online dating sites last month, up from about 35 million at the end of 2002, according to comScore Media Metrix, a Web tracking service.
June 28, 2003
At 13, She Already Has Tiger in Her Sights
[Michelle] Wie, who is six feet tall, averages about 290 yards off the tee with her driver. ...Next to Annika Sorenstam, who shot 71 and 74 in a PGA Tour event in Fort Worth last month, Wie — who started playing golf at age 4 — is now the world's most-talked-about female golfer.
She has said she "wants to win the Masters," although a woman has never played in that tournament, much less won it. Then again, Tiger Woods has won it three times.
"And Tiger is her benchmark," said Wie's father and caddie, B. J., a professor of transportation at the University of Hawaii. "Not women — Tiger."
States' Budget Outlook Bleakest Since War of 1812
With 46 states facing the end of their fiscal years on Monday, 9, an unusually high number, remain locked in disputes over their budgets. This worsening fiscal crisis comes after a spring in which states have made record tax increases and spending cuts, and nearly wiped out their rainy day reserves, a nationwide survey released today reports.The new data, compiled by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers, describe a fiscal bad dream descending into nightmare this spring as a languishing economy met upward spiraling health-care costs.
A Gay Rights Landmark
Gay Americans won a historic victory yesterday when the Supreme Court struck down Texas' sodomy law. The sweeping 6-to-3 decision made a point of overturning a 17-year-old precedent that was curtly dismissive of gay rights. Yesterday's ruling has implications that reach beyond sodomy, and is an important step toward winning gay men and women full equality under the law.
Maui: Once-dying cowboy outpost transformed into a Sedona of the Pacific
Makawao then was a barroom brawl of a town, filled with gun stores, feed depots, barber shops and saddle makers, all serving people the surrounding cattle ranches. Makawao (pronounced MOCK-a-wow) still evokes the little known and fast-fading Hawaiian cowboy life in its wood-shingled buildings, the horses tied up in front yards and the cowboy dolls and miniature Black Angus cattle in the toy store.
...
Over the last decade or so, artists have transformed this once-dying cowboy outpost into a Sedona of the Pacific that many residents and business owners say is just starting to hit its stride.
"As far as a local place, like SoHo used to be, that's where it's at right now," said Robert Zaleski, a painter and an owner of Gallery Maui.
... But tourists who likely know of SoHo in Manhattan and Sedona in Arizona have hardly heard of this place. An hour inland from the beach resorts that made Maui famous, and away from the busy main route to the Haleakala crater, Makawao is not on the usual tourism circuit. ...
... Some old-timers complain that the place has been overrun by out-of towners, people they don't know and don't want to know. And despite the many authentic reminders of old Makawao — the quaint buildings, the absence of traffic lights, the rodeo — they mourn what they say is the loss of true cowboy life.
"We can't even ride a horse in Makawao town," said Herman-Louis DeCoite, president of the roping club, referring to the rise in motorized traffic.
June 26, 2003
Arrogance and Military Transformation
In his farewell address, retiring Army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki warned against "arrogance," seen as a code for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his supporters. Yet, arrogance has never been in short supply in the Pentagon, among senior officers as well as political appointees. Even among a leadership lacking in humility, there is widespread acceptance of the proposition that the Defense Department and the military need transformation and reform.
... The key question that will guide defense transformation must be: What will be the nature of future war? Unless one believes that all such future wars will end without the need for a continuing U.S. presence on the ground or military participation in enabling security and reconstruction, a capability and willingness to carry out such missions must be a critical part of any future U.S. military.
India: Transformation and Its New Wine Economy
NASIK, India — Educated in Silicon Valley but seduced by Sonoma Valley, Rajeev Samant decided to come home to these dry hills northeast of Bombay to try making wine in India, a nation where annual wine consumption works out to one teaspoon per person.
Six years after planting his first cuttings of sauvignon blanc from France and chenin blanc from California, Mr. Samant has a big problem: "We keep running out of wine."
... But Mr. Samant's Sula Vineyards is a runaway success, doubling its output each year since 2000 and still not keeping up with demand.
... Sula's success speaks to two factors transforming India's economy: globalization and the cutting of red tape. These new forces are contributing to India's projected economic growth this year of 5 percent, a peppy rate after years of slumber.
With 20 million Indians studying or working overseas, this formerly inward-looking nation is increasingly open to new ways of doing things — though many of the old strictures still survive, including a ban on advertising alcoholic beverages.
Watch out Napa Valley
- nmw
June 25, 2003
Smart Electodes: Enhancing the Mind
New York Times Magazine: Registration Required
Allan Snyder claims that he can turn on a person's inner Rain Man, and then turn it off again, with the flick of a switch. All it takes is a strange set of electrodes; and a radical new theory of autism, genius and the human brain.In a concrete basement at the University of Sydney, I sat in a chair waiting to have my brain altered by an electromagnetic pulse. My forehead was connected, by a series of electrodes, to a machine that looked something like an old-fashioned beauty-salon hair dryer and was sunnily described to me as a ''Danish-made transcranial magnetic stimulator.'' This was not just any old Danish-made transcranial magnetic stimulator, however; this was the Medtronic Mag Pro, and it was being operated by Allan Snyder, one of the world's most remarkable scientists of human cognition.
... Two minutes after I started the first drawing, I was instructed to try again. After another two minutes, I tried a third cat, and then in due course a fourth. Then the experiment was over, and the electrodes were removed. I looked down at my work. The first felines were boxy and stiffly unconvincing. But after I had been subjected to about 10 minutes of transcranial magnetic stimulation, their tails had grown more vibrant, more nervous; their faces were personable and convincing. They were even beginning to wear clever expressions.
I could hardly recognize them as my own drawings, though I had watched myself render each one, in all its loving detail. Somehow over the course of a very few minutes, and with no additional instruction, I had gone from an incompetent draftsman to a very impressive artist of the feline form.
Snyder looked over my shoulder. ''Well, how about that? Leonardo would be envious.'' Or turning in his grave, I thought.
Who needs school?
-Norm
Camera phones catching on
The trend toward wireless cameras embedded in cellular phones is acceleratingAccording to the company that was first into the market in this country, Rogers AT&T, the trend is apparent.
"If we look carefully at what causes the breakthrough, it's actually when the number of phones that a given carrier is shipping becomes predominantly camera phones," said David Neale, Rogers AT&T's vice-president of new product development. "What you're starting to see is that we're adding more and more camera phones to our list."
This is especially interesting given last week's warning from Kodak that they will miss their earnings number.
One thing to think about is the new and interesting applications which will come about as the result of these camera phones. For clues on that one ask your kids!
-Tim
Growth signal discovery prompts pancreatic cancer hope
A team from Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center has discovered that a growth signal, which under normal circumstances is turned off in adult tissues, is turned back on again after damage to the pancreas.The “Notch” pathway, when functioning normally, regulates embryonic development in a whole range of organisms, from fruit flies to humans. In adult tissues, the pathway becomes dormant as cells differentiate to perform specialised functions.
New Ovarian Cancer Hope For Women; Scientists Bring Early Detection Closer
Scientists at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) in Seattle announced a new biomarker for ovarian cancer today. Their discovery promises improved diagnosis of the disease, which usually remains hidden until it is too late for effective treatment.
DNA files do not invade privacy, court says
The state crime lab did not violate Tony Notti’s privacy when it linked evidence from two unrelated DNA files to identify him as the killer of a hitchhiking Vietnam veteran in 2000, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled.The court, citing the doctrine of “inevitable discovery,” unanimously refused to overturn Notti’s 80-year prison sentence for murdering Richard Slawek near an Interstate 90 rest area east of Butte on May 20, 2000.
Isolation of ferret protein promising for cancer, reproductive studies
Biologists studying early pregnancy in ferrets have isolated a protein vital to embryonic implantation. The discovery at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign eventually could enhance assisted-reproductive efforts in many threatened species.In addition to its implications for reproduction, the discovery opens a window to study numerous cancerous tumors that secrete the same protein, said Janice M. Bahr, a professor of reproductive physiology in the department of animal sciences at Illinois.
Technology transmits sense of touch over Web
Engineers in the Virtual Reality Laboratory at UB have developed a new technology that transmits the sensation of touch over the Internet.The breakthrough could lead to creation of haptic technologies that convey the sense of touch and would teach users how to master skills and activities—such as surgery, sculpture, playing the drums or even golf—that require the precise application of "touch" and movement, says Thenkurussi Kesavadas, director of the Virtual Reality Lab and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Gives new meaning to the ad slogan "Reach out and touch somebody."
-Tim
Hope for halting Alzheimers
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the modern world’s greatest scourges. Not only does it rob 4 million aging Americans of their minds every year but it costs the country more than $100 billion annually in medical expenses. And unless effective treatments are developed, the problem will only get worse — much worse. About 1 in every 10 people over the age of 65 has the disease. As America’s population ages, the number of victims is expected to soar to 14 million by 2050.Now, a small clinical trial of a new drug offers hope that it may be possible to prevent the disease’s terrible dementia. Predicts Francesco Bellini, chairman and CEO of Montreal biotech outfit Neurochem: “We’re on the verge of a major breakthrough in Alzheimer’s. This is going to stop the disease.”
Prostate Cancer Breakthrough?
Scientists have discovered the first drug that promises to prevent prostate cancer, but deciding who should use it won't be easy: Sexual side effects aside, it may actually increase aggressive tumors in some men.The drug is finasteride, already sold as a treatment for enlarged prostates under the brand name Proscar and, in a much lower dose, as Propecia for baldness.
Men who took Proscar daily for seven years cut their chances of getting prostate cancer by nearly 25 percent compared with men given a dummy pill, researchers reported Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
US engineers harness palladium in nanotechnology breakthrough
Engineers in the US say they have used palladium to develop a way to grow silicon nanowires and carbon nanotubes directly on microstructures, thus paving the way for cheaper and faster commercialisation of a myriad of nanotechnology-based devices.
June 24, 2003
US Bancorp: China To Become Largest Internet Market
US Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy initiated coverage of three Chinese Internet portals on Wednesday, saying is expected to become the largest Internet market over the next 10 years....
"We believe the Chinese Internet market has three distinct characteristics: it's in a very early stage--even with about 60 million users it is the second-largest market in the world; direct user monetization beyond advertising has already begun, and the potential size of this market exceeds any other country," Rastchy said. He said US Bancorp expects 180 million users by 2007, but gave no projection for the number of users over the next 10 years.
June 23, 2003
Move afoot to speed XML traffic
The growing use of XML and Web services is fueling development of hardware that promises to accelerate the processing of XML traffic and eventually become a staple of network architectures.
Auto-ID chip to speed up shopping
It's not fantasy, but within a few years of reality, say Procter & Gamble and other big companies working on a plan to put a computer tag or chip half the size of a dime on every item in every store....
"I believe this is every bit as transformative as the Internet revolution we just went through," said Steve David, chief information officer at P&G.
Advances in Telemedicine
...In March, four Orlando doctors at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center held a virtual meeting with specialists in Houston to discuss Biela's case - a meeting that until a few years ago would have been conducted by phone.In this case, even though the doctors were 1,000 miles apart, they were all seeing the same images at the same time - as if they were in the same room.
The Orlando group gathered in a new $200,000 telemedicine facility equipped with several cameras and two wall-mounted, six-wide TV screens that would make a deluxe home theater system if they weren't used to save lives.
June 22, 2003
Jack Welch On the New 'Old Economy'
... In the short term, Welch sees a US where the economy will remain sluggish but corporate profits will rise strongly because companies have substantially lowered their costs, their balance sheets are strong, interest rates are low and the US dollar has fallen -- giving them extra pricing power....
Welch believes that the Internet was a new technology that substantially lowered business costs, rather than a new business model, and relatively few companies were able to create new businesses out of the internet.
...
Welch believes that China will be an enormous force in global business during the next 50 years. As China moves to make half the world's manufactured goods, he can see many countries debating whether they should limit the amount of Chinese manufactured goods they import each year.
Very interesting 'change' perspective from someone in the know.
-Tim
Vacuum sales in the dumps
It's as if everyone has stopped cleaning.Until this year, Americans were buying vacuum cleaners like there was no such thing as recession. And then, boom! The year turns, and sales of vacuums fall off, for everything from the little handhelds you keep in your car to the heavy-duty uprights that remind you of your mother.
For the first time, DVDs outdistance video rentals
Are VHS tapes about to join vinyl albums in the dustbin?In the latest sign of the rise of digital media, weekly DVD rentals have exceeded videocassettes for the first time ever, according to the Video Software Dealers Association. The trade organization said an estimated 28.2 million DVDs were rented for the week ended June 15, outpacing 27.3 million VHS rentals.
June 21, 2003
Top Artists Balking At A La Carte Downloads
Despite the major labels' success in clearing hundreds of thousands of tracks for purchase online through services like Apple's iTunes Music Store, some top artists continue to resist authorizing the dismantling of their albums for Internet consumption as a la carte singles.
Isolation, an Old Medical Tool, Has SARS Fading
Three months ago, SARS appeared poised to sweep the world, a mysterious new disease racing out of southern for which there was no vaccine, cure or diagnostic test.Today, SARS is disappearing almost as fast, and almost as unpredictably, as it arrived. This week, the World Health Organization declared it under control, with only a handful of cases worldwide in the last week.
The agency's only remaining advisory against travel — to Beijing — is expected to be lifted in a few days. Hong Kong, the city with more cases and deaths relative to its population than anywhere else, has had no new cases since June 2.
Harry Potter: Bigger than Beatlemania?
[In 1997 no] one had the faintest idea it would be the start of a cultural juggernaut. No one would guess that six years later, boys and girls, children and adults all over North America would be waiting for this day, when the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, is being released, to obtain their copy by courier from Amazon.com or in midnight lineups at bookstores.No one predicted, in short, that a printed book would cause a stir equivalent to Beatlemania or to the bursting on the scene of Elvis Presley in the mid-1950s. A printed book, one might add, that nestled cosily in a Victorian setting, possessed a narrative voice with a pronounced English accent, and made references to a good deal of retro-wizardry, such as flying broomsticks and crystal balls. Its spell has spread like an air current in the upper troposphere, covering vast territory.
Pottermainia descended on San Francisco tonight as we got our copy of Phoenix tonight at Book, Inc. in Laurel Village. Our kids did a great job of keeping us adults awake in the accumulated body heat of a couple hundred people waiting to get their hands on the latest J.K. Rowling tome.
After getting to bed so late tonight, we, too, hope to rise like the Phoneix tomorrow morning!
-Tim
June 20, 2003
McDonald's Asks Meat Industry to Cut Use of Antibiotics
Responding to public health concerns about the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals, the McDonald's Corporation said today that it would ask its meat suppliers around the world to reduce their dependence on antibiotics....
McDonald's said it was making the change because of growing evidence that the use of antibiotics in farm animals was creating antibiotic resistance in animals and in the bacteria that cause diseases in humans.
Open Source Paradigm Shift
Gotzeblogged: Tim O'Reilly Talk:
The open source paradigm shift is happening now as part of the wider internet paradigm shift. We're seeing commodity software with an open architecture, and information applications decoupled from both hardware and software.The main characteristics, the three C's:
- Commodisation
- Customisation
- CollaborationWhat are the business models? All over. Linux as the BIOS of the internet OS. But mainly, the new business models are about services. Both various professional services, but also services to the end users.
Convenient Healthy Food
Convenience, health and innovation are once again the order of the day in the food and drink industry, as the latest visit to the Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD) shows.
Breakfast cereal manufacturers are constantly looking for new ways to interest consumers in their products at a time of day when many are pressed for time. To meet growing demand for convenient products, US cereal giant has recently launched a range of on-the-go cereals for the German and Austrian market called Kellogg's Fjølk & Corn Flakes.
... In the past, British consumers have tended to shy away from iced tea, perhaps finding it hard to associate a popular and traditional hot drink with a cold version. However, this may be changing as new RTD iced teas continue to be introduced, often focusing on the healthy antioxidant benefits of tea.
June 19, 2003
'Designer' baby to cure brother
A British 'designer' baby has been born to a couple desperate to cure their four-year-old son, who has a rare form of anaemia, a British daily reported yesterday.Jamie Whitaker was delivered by caesarean operation on Monday after being genetically matched, while still an in-vitro fertilisation embryo, to his brother Charlie, The Daily Mail said.
Charlie has the rare diamond blackfan anaemia, which only a transplant of stem cells from a sibling with a perfect tissue match can cure.
Panel Urges Caution on Smallpox Inoculation
A panel of medical experts overseeing the Bush administration's smallpox immunization campaign advised yesterday against expanding the effort to millions of emergency response workers, saying a series of unexpected heart complications raises concerns about the safety of the vaccine.The recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices comes as many state and federal health officials say privately that the program is at a standstill, falling far short of President Bush's desire to vaccinate millions.
Ancient Chinese Secret: White Tea Everywhere
White is the new green.We are talking about tea, not T-shirts.
The mythical fountain of youth is now filled with white tea.
The pale minimally processed Chinese tea is being pitched as the next great thing for drinking and as a cosmetics ingredient. It's even said to eclipse green tea's benefits.
Researchers are finding white tea has more disease-fighting antioxidants than green tea. The white elixir has joined green tea as a possible preventative for many troubles, from stopping certain cancers to fighting wrinkles.
- Cheaper than plastic surgery!
June 18, 2003
Rumblings in Iran
New York Times by William Safire:
...Why didn't the ayatollahs order the protesters jailed? Why hasn't the theocratic regime rounded up the 250 intellectuals who recently dared to state that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was accountable to the people and not just to God?
The answer is that every segment of Iranian society is split. In labor, industrial workers fume at jobs lost to outside sanctions while oil workers bask in the sun of high oil prices. In the military, many air force and navy officers silently scorn the anti-secular allegiance of the Revolutionary Guard, which is subdivided into zealots and careerists.The answer is that every segment of Iranian society is split. In labor, industrial workers fume at jobs lost to outside sanctions while oil workers bask in the sun of high oil prices. In the military, many air force and navy officers silently scorn the anti-secular allegiance of the Revolutionary Guard, which is subdivided into zealots and careerists.
Race to cash in on China's telecoms
The liberalization of 's telecommunications market - one of the world's largest and most enigmatic - will continue to be a mixed bag for both foreign investors and the Chinese government, which is hanging on to its role as both player and regulator.But according to a report by Fusion Consulting, a research company headquartered in Hong Kong, China's deregulation efforts will be accelerated as the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games approach.
June 17, 2003
SARS 'Stopped Dead In Its Tracks
The World Health Organization says the worst is over in the fight against SARS less than three months after a global alert triggered an unprecedented worldwide response.The pneumonia-like disease that spanned to Canada has killed about 800 people and infected more than 8,000, sending authorities scurrying to contain it through centuries-old measures of isolation, quarantine and travel restrictions.
Prescription drugs at risk in loose system
There is growing concern that inadequate controls over wholesale drug distribution across the United States, coupled with a burgeoning traffic in pharmaceuticals via the Internet and mail, may leave patients open not just to bad medicine, but even to outright poisoning at the hands of terrorists.
Most SUVs Flunk New Crash Test
Only two out of 12 compact sport utility vehicles scored a "good" grade in a new crash test designed to measure injuries resulting from a SUV or pickup truck ramming into the side of the vehicles.Head-protecting side air bags, which can make the difference between minor injuries and death in a side-impact crash, were the difference between the vehicles that earned "good" ratings and others that scored "poor" in the test.
June 16, 2003
WHO: Stay on the lookout
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has strongly advised countries to strengthen their surveillance efforts even though the SARS situation worldwide appears to be improving, as there is still a lack of information on the deadly virus.WHO Medical Officer for Global Alert and Response Dr. Mark Salter said WHO was confident the measures taken by the international community to control the disease were effective, as the organisation had seen a significant decrease in cases around the world.
"But now is not the time to relax with it (SARS) tapering off, but to strengthen and redouble efforts to ensure we detect every case."
Music industry changing its tune
Fourteen-year-old Miriam Rosenau is a typical member of "Gen D," a generation of customers vital to the survival of the recording industry.That's "D" as in "digital" and "download," two words that also describe an inexorable shift in consumer behavior that experts say will force the $32 billion worldwide recording industry to overhaul the way it does business.
New York City Milestone: Number of Jews Is Below Million
The Jewish population of New York City has fallen by 5 percent since 1991, dipping below one million for the first time in a century, according to a roughly once-a-decade study that is being released today by the UJA-Federation of New York.But Jews who left the city seemed to stay in the area, because the Jewish population has risen by a corresponding amount in three suburban counties in New York state.
Scientists Say They ID Depression Gene
Scientists say they've identified a flawed gene that appears to promote manic-depression, or bipolar disorder, a finding that could eventually help guide scientists to new treatments
Canadian researchers make significant breakthrough in SARS reseach
Researchers from Alberta's Suffield military base are celebrating a major breakthrough in the struggle to crack the SARS virus -- they have become the first ever to snag fragments of the deadly disease from the air.While the findings don't resolve the question of whether severe acute respiratory syndrome can be spread through airborne infection, experts say they do show the virus can be in the air.
June 15, 2003
Internet Revolutionizes the World Series of Poker
Online play may be the most dramatic change in the World Series of Poker since the advent of satellite tournaments in the early 1980s. Prior to satellite play, the World Series was usually composed of a handful of the world’s top players, the $10,000 buy-in being out of reach for most. Eric Drache, director of the World Series of Poker for many years, came up with the idea of conducting smaller tournaments to allow lower-staked poker players to compete with the world’s top (and best-staked) players. The idea was an immediate hit.
The impact of the Internet is clearly far-reaching.
-Tim
Gene discovery holds out hope of treatment for asthma victims
A BREAKTHROUGH has been made in tackling the widespread problem of asthma, which blights the health of children across Wales. Scientists have identified 291 genes associated with asthma, in particular the gene for an enzyme called arginase, which could revolutionise the future of asthma treatment. Until now, researchers thought only a dozen or so genes were implicated in asthma, but the new study shows the picture is far more complicated.
Iran Blasts U.S. for Backing Pro-Democracy Protests
Iranian officials closed ranks Sunday to criticize the United States for backing a series of pro-democracy demonstrations after thousands staged a fifth night of protests in Tehran.
Flattest star ever seen
...Due to its daily rotation, the solid Earth is slightly flattened ("oblate") - its equatorial radius is some 21 km (0.3%) larger than the polar one. Stars are enormous gaseous spheres and some of them are known to rotate quite fast, much faster than the Earth. This would obviously cause such stars to become flattened. But how flat?
Recent observations with the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) at the ESO Paranal Observatory have allowed a group of astronomers to obtain by far the most detailed view of the general shape of a fast-spinning hot star, Achernar (Alpha Eridani), the brightest in the southern constellation Eridanus (The River).
They find that Achernar is much flatter than expected - its equatorial radius is more than 50% larger than the polar one! In other words, this star is shaped very much like the well-known spinning-top toy, so popular among young children.
Animal-to-human infections on rise?
It happens again and again. Strange and frightening new infections seem to appear out of nowhere, such as Lyme disease, Ebola and, of course, AIDS. With monkeypox coming on the heels of SARS, which emerged not long after West Nile, it's a phenomenon that seems to be happening at an accelerating rate....
"There are probably hundreds, if not thousands -- maybe even millions of viruses out there," said Robert G. Webster, a leading virologist at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. "We don't even know they're there until we disturb them. SARS is probably just a gentle breeze of what one of these big ones is going to do someday."
Frightening.
-Tim
Breakthrough 'Interface Tuning' is Macro Step for Microelectronics
The ability to make atomic-level changes in the functional components of semiconductor switches, demonstrated by a team of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, North Carolina State University and University of Tennessee physicists, could lead to huge changes in the semiconductor industry. The results are reported in the June 13 issue of Science.
Nanotechnology: The Next Small Thing
Investors are piling into a revolutionary new sector, but sceptics say it's just another bubble in the making. Richard Fletcher and Lauren Mills report.It's the stuff of science fiction: nanotechnology, a scientific breakthrough which its proponents claim will create computers the size of a grain of sand and miniature robots that will march through the body repairing damaged organs.
Beating Multiple Sclerosis
News 8 Austin | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | Beating MS
Doctors now have a new option for helping people with MS -- an experimental drug called CAMPATH-1H (developed by ILEX Oncology). It works by destroying the body's T cells, which are believed to be responsible for initiating the destructive process seen in multiple sclerosis. In one small trial of 27 people with secondary progressive MS, the drug was found to virtually eliminate the formation of new lesions and the inflammation associated with the disease for at least 18 months.
June 14, 2003
WHO Expert: Proven SARS Cure Unlikely Soon
A cure for SARS is unlikely soon, a World Health Organization official said Saturday at a conference that failed to agree on how to treat the deadly virus.
Humans blamed for US spread of monkeypox
An outbreak of monkeypox, a highly infectious virus related to smallpox, has swept through four American states in the first recorded cases in the western hemisphere.The US government is scrambling to contain the epidemic, which escalated last week when doctors revealed that they believed the virus had been spread by humans.
Teen hormones linked to breast cancer risk
Some women could develop breast cancer because of the way hormones affected their body during puberty, researchers have suggested.Exposure to high levels of female hormones - oestrogens - due to early menstruation or late menopause are already suspected to affect breast cancer risk in women.
A daddy of all dilemmas
As Health Secretary Alan Milburn resigns to spend more time with his family, Rhodri Clark asks, 'Can career men be good fathers?' IF we needed proof that parenting has changed dramatically in the last generation, this is it. When a politician resigns to spend more time with his family - and means it - we can see that even the most ambitious career man considers that playing a role in the upbringing of his children is vital. A few years ago, the children of a cabinet minister would have seen him once in a blue moon.
Happy Father's Day!
-Tim
Nanotech breakthrough jogs memory
The first 10GB nanotechnology memory (NRAM) device has been built in the laboratories of Nantero, the Boston, Massachussetts company has said.Using carbon nanotubes a billionth of a meter in diameter sprinkled onto a silicon wafer, the device has been made using mostly standard chip production techniques. The company claims that the technology can combine the speed and price of dynamic memory with the non-volatility of flash, making it a strong candidate for the eagerly awaited universal memory devices that the industry hopes will replace all other types.
If commercialized at a suitable price, it could replace DRAM, flash memory and hard disks in a wide variety of digital devices including PCs, phones and MP3 players.
GM Credit Rating Cut
General Motors Corp., the most indebted carmaker with $200 billion in borrowings, had its credit rating lowered by Moody's Investors Service because increasing discounts are hurting profit and its ability to cover pension costs.
the pocket jukebox that's shaking up the world's music industry
Weighing little more than a tube of toothpaste and fitting easily inside the palm of the hand, an innocuous British-designed gadget is leading a revolution in the music industry.The iPod, slickly designed in Apple's trademark style, heralds a new generation of digital music players and is swiftly becoming the consumer phenomenon of the year.
Digital audio player market to boom
According to a market research by IDC, the worldwide market for (compressed) digital audio players (or as they're better-known, "MP3 players") might become one of the most successful areas for personal technology during the next couple of years.
Photography clicks for a snappy generation of empowered women
Women are moving in a man's world and winning the big prizes: This year's Kimura Ihei Memorial Photo Award, the country's top photographic accolade, went to a woman, as it did the year before. The year before that, it was split between three women. That's a remarkable string considering that only three women had ever been recognized from 1975 to 2000.
The Problem With Easy Mortgages
"Everyday something new happens in the mortgage marketplace," says Nicholas Retsinas, Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. "The financing system is so dramatically different than it was as recently as a decade ago."The concern is that the economy has become over-dependent on good news from the real estate sector. Like all bubbles, everyone believes it will pop; the question is when. Once Americans are no longer able to finance their homes for less--and, conversely, find that higher interest rates make it harder for them to resell their homes--they may regret that they bought the home they did, especially if they failed to lock down a 30-year rate.
New legislation would allow spammers to be sued
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer has been promising for weeks to introduce an antispam bill, and on Thursday he unveiled a bill that would allow recipients of unsolicited commercial e-mail to sue spammers.The liberal New York Democrat received support from a group he's never worked with before, the Christian Coalition of America, while announcing the bill. Schumer and the Christian Coalition called themselves a "political odd couple."
Possible Breakthrough In Lung Cancer Detection
A chance meeting between a Dundee dentist and a former St Andrews physicist has led to a possible breakthrough in lung cancer detection, writes Marjory Inglis, medical reporter.The two men are hopeful that a simple "blow in the bag" test they are developing will give early warning of the devastating disease where symptoms appear so late and the long-term survival rate is very low.
China's President Expected to Announce Political Reforms
A published report says Chinese President Hu Jintao will soon announce political reforms that will allow more than one candidate to run for office at the city and provincial level.
Gays flocking down aisle in Toronto
Toronto is suddenly the gay marriage capital of North America.Since the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled this week that same-sex couples can marry legally, they've been applying in droves.
Licorice May Help Against SARS
A major ingredient in licorice has proven remarkably successful at combatting the SARS virus in lab-dish tests, according to a German study reported on Saturday in the British weekly journal The Lancet.Glycyrrhizin, a compound extracted from licorice roots which has been previously explored in anti-viral research, was highly effective at stopping the SARS virus from reproducing, the authors say.
CDC director calls West Nile, SARS "the new normal''
Emerging infectious diseases such as West Nile virus, SARS and monkeypox are "the new normal," the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, adding that the national public health system must change its approach to medicine to respond to this emerging threat.
June 13, 2003
Drug ads deliver a few side effects
Drug companies tripled their advertising budgets in recent years to acquaint American consumers with things like acid reflux disease, depression, erectile dysfunction, and even toenail fungus, a marketing blitz that accounted for roughly 12 percent of the growth in national prescription drug spending in 2000, according to a Harvard University-MIT study released yesterday....
But while the ads definitely boost consumer spending on drugs, it is not always in expected ways. The study found that direct-to-consumer ads aren't a primary reason for the significant increases in drug prices in recent years, for instance. And while the ads definitely boost sales of drugs, they boost sales for a whole class of drugs, including competing brands.
Ballyhooed hydrogen fuel cells may have environmental drawback
Widespread use of the hydrogen fuel cells that President Bush has made a centerpiece of his energy plan might not be as environmentally friendly as many believe.Scientists say the new technology could lead to greater destruction of the ozone layer that protects Earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.
Researchers issued a report Thursday saying that if hydrogen replaced fossil fuels to run everything from cars to power plants, large amounts of hydrogen would drift into the stratosphere as a result of leakage and indirectly cause increased depletion of the ozone.
Portable CT Scanner Joins Hunt For Alternative Energy
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists have developed the world's first x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner capable of examining entire core samples at remote drilling sites. The portable device, which employs the same high-resolution imaging technology used to diagnose diseases, could help researchers determine how to best extract the vast quantities of natural gas hidden under the world's oceans and permafrost.
Pentagon steps closer to 'GloboCop' role
By Jim Lobe
Much like its successful military campaign in Iraq, the Pentagon is moving at seemingly breakneck speed to re-deploy US forces and equipment around the world in ways that will permit Washington to play "GloboCop", according to a number of statements by top officials and defense planners.
Internet journalism's potential grows
By John Berthelsen
Advertising revenues that are transforming global Internet journalism are continuing to surge and, f anything, growing stronger during a feeble global economy. First-quarter advertising revenues for 24 members of the US-based Online Publishers Association soared 40.2 percent during the first quarter of 2003, the association said. Anecdotal evidence indicates that advertising on Asian journalism websites is growing as well although no figures are available.