Autism Numbers Are Rising. The Question is Why? Read more

Sven Hagolani / Corbis

From Time Magazine:

One in 110 American children are considered to fall somewhere along the autism spectrum, according to the latest report released by the federal government. The new figure, which was released initially in October, comes from the most comprehensive set of data yet on the developmental health of eight-year-olds.

Increasing the previous federal estimate of 1 in 150, the new data suggest that 1% of children now exhibit some symptoms of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a collection of neurological conditions whose symptoms may range from mild social impairment to more serious communication, language and cognitive deficits. The estimate also represents a stunning 57% increase in prevalence since 2002, when health officials first began a nationwide effort to quantify the risk of autism in childhood.

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Chink Found In Armor Of Perfect Cloak

Changing courseNew research predicts the telltale radiation (orange) emitted by an electron as it moves along a trajectory (dotted line) through a perfect spherical cloak. Credit: B. Zhang and B.-I. Wu/PRL upcoming

From Science News:

Charged particles could reveal hidden object's location, new idea suggests.

Tiny charged particles could reveal the location of a perfect invisibility cloak. Such a cloak — which exists only in theory at the moment — would render an object invisible by gently deflecting photons around it. But charged particles wouldn’t be fooled: they would interact with the cloak in a telltale way, giving up the cloak’s location, researchers report in a paper to appear in an upcoming Physical Review Letters.

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Distance Vision Is All A Blur To More Of Us

From L.A. Times:

A study finds that 17% more Americans have myopia than 30 years ago. Close-up computer work could be a reason.

For an increasing number of Americans, life's a blur.

That's according to a population-based study published Monday showing that rates of myopia -- difficulty seeing distant objects -- are soaring. The trend is matched in many other countries, causing eye doctors to wonder what could be causing the decline in human vision.

Some suspect both an increase in our close-up work time (think computer use) and a decrease in time spent outdoors.

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'Google Phone Set For Launch': Videos Emerge Of New Nexus One Mobile Dubbed 'iPhone-Killer'

This picture of the Nexus One was one of many that have
appeared on Twitter over the weekend

From The Daily Mail:

Two videos have emerged of Google's first ever phone called Nexus One.

The mobile is still unofficial but reports suggest it will be launched in the New Year in a bid to take on Apple iPhone.

A technology website has released two short teaser clips of the phone in action. The first video showed the animation on the start up screen, incorporating the colours of Google's logo. The second appeared to show an animated wallpaper.

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Why Your Boss Is Incompetent

It's not their fault that they are incompetent (Image: David Seed/Taxi/Getty)

From New Scientist:

IN THIS season of goodwill, spare a thought for that much-maligned bunch, the men and women at the top of the management tree. Yes, the murky machinations of the banking bosses might have needlessly plunged millions into penury. Yes, the actions of our political leaders might seem to be informed more by dubious wheeler-dealing than by Socratic wisdom. And yes, the high-ups in your own company might well be the self-important time-wasters you've always held them for.

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Obama To Ramp Up Human Space Program

From Discovery News:

Science magazine is reporting tonight that President Obama has made his decision about the future of the U.S. human space flight program, with a plan to turn over space taxi services to the International Space Station to commercial companies and to direct NASA to spend its money and resources developing a heavy-lift booster for human missions to the moon, asteroids and the moons of Mars.

Citing unnamed sources, the magazine reports that Obama will ask for a $1 billion boost in NASA’s 2011 budget to jumpstart the new launcher and to expand the agency's Earth-monitoring science satellites.

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About Wikipedia’s Handling Of Controversial Topics…Like Climate Science

From Fabius Maximus:

Summary: This is a hat trick. About effective propaganda. And climate science. And more evidence that Wikipedia cannot be relied upon as an information source regarding controversial matters — or any work of importance. (It’s always useful as a first place to look and source of links.)

Contents

1. “Wikipedia Is A Stunning Example Of How The Propaganda Machine Works“, Lawrence Solomon, National Review (reposted by CBS), 8 July 2008
2. “Wikipedia’s climate doctor“, Lawrence Solomon, National Post, 19 December 2009 – “How Wikipedia’s green doctor rewrote 5,428 climate articles.”

Update: an email reply by Wikipedia Editor Pierre Grés to Dennis Kuzara’s complaint about bias of Wikipedia Administrator William Connolley, posted at Watts Up With That, 19 December 2009 (see the actual Wikipedia file on this here):

“In September 2009, the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee revoked Mr. Connolley’s administrator status after finding that he misused his administrative privileges while involved in a dispute unrelated to climate warming.”

We’ll learn much about Wikipedia’s honesty by what happens now to the dozens of articles seriously distorted or outright suppressed by Connolley. Is this a structural problem with Wikipedia, or just a bad apple in the barrel?

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Sophisticated New Computer Models Predict Details Of Insurgent Attacks

How Do The World's Most War-Torn Countries Always Seem To Have A Toyota Dealership?
Foreign Policy

From Popular Science:

Chaos, confusion, and uncertainty have pervaded battle since Homer first described the din of clashing hoplites. But new developments in computer modeling look to pierce the fog of modern war by predicting the time and location of insurgent attacks. More comprehensive than the SCARE IED cache location program, these models claim to have predicted everything from the number of casualties in an attack to the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

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Climategate: How The Cabal Controlled Wikipedia

From The National Post:

How Wikipedia’s green doctor rewrote 5,428 climate articles.

The Climategate Emails describe how a small band of climatologists cooked the books to make the last century seem dangerously warm.

The emails also describe how the band plotted to rewrite history as well as science, particularly by eliminating the Medieval Warm Period, a 400 year period that began around 1000 AD.

The Climategate Emails reveal something else, too: the enlistment of the most widely read source of information in the world — Wikipedia — in the wholesale rewriting of this history.

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Hubble's Festive View Of A Grand Star-Forming Region

The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. (Credit: NASA, ESA, F. Paresce (INAF-IASF, Bologna, Italy), R. O'Connell (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 20, 2009) — Just in time for the holidays: a Hubble Space Telescope picture postcard of hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds. The festive portrait is the most detailed view of the largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood.

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New Device Provides Internet And Phone Service In Disasters

From Live Science:

Losing an Internet connection or phone service can prove incredibly annoying for most people, but in an emergency, it can spell disaster.

During the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, frantic calls jammed cell phone networks, and firefighters, police and ambulances could not even talk to one another by radio. Since then, European researchers have tried to develop a technology that allows emergency responders to still use phone or Internet in the most chaotic situations.

Their solution: a souped-up router that allows a specially equipped command vehicle to find the best Internet access through any available wireless networks, or even satellite connections.

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Avatar Mirrors Emotions With Motion Capture

From Wired:

Go behind the scenes of 'Avatar' with James Cameron, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana to see the new technology used to capture actors' facial expressions in striking detail.

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Grunts From The Front: From Roman Tablets To Army Blogs

From The Independent:

Humans have always fought each other, but the written narrative of warfare begins about 6,000 years ago with documents detailing a conflict between Elam and Sumer (modern-day Iran and Iraq). Since then military history has been dominated by the official story of leaders and their strategic political and military decisions. Wars have rarely been narrated by the ordinary foot soldier, pilot or sailor.

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My Comment: Plus ca change .... plus c'est le meme chose. The more things change .... the more that they stay the same.

Banned Gouais Blanc Grape Is The Long-Lost Mother Of Champagne

From Times Online:

The Gouais blanc grape, disparaged for centuries as an inferior wine ingredient fit only for peasants, has been revealed as the mother of many of today’s finest and most sought-after varieties.

A genetic study has shown that Gouais blanc is the chief ancestor of modern grapes such as Chardonnay, the grape used to make Chablis and a component of Champagne, and Gamay noir, which is most famous as the mainstay of Beaujolais.

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The Skull Bone Is Different To The Hip Bone

From The Telegraph:

Fundamental differences between skull and limb bones have been identified by British scientists in a discovery they hope will lead to treatments and even a cure for osteoperosis.

Bones in the arms and legs become weak and brittle in old age often because they are not engaged in as much exercise and bearing of weight as they are in youth.

However skull bone, which bears almost no weight throughout life, remains hard and particularly resistant to breaking.

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Snowflakes, The Coolest Shapes On The Planet Are Even More Beautiful Close Up

From The Daily Mail:

If the recent snowfalls have left you dreaming of a white Christmas, your wish might be granted - because forecasters say we're in for more over the next week.

And although a crisp and pristine blanket of the stuff is a wonderful sight to wake up to, snow is even more beautiful in close-up.

As these photographs show, each snowflake is a miniature masterpiece of nature: six-sided, perfectly symmetrical - and unique.

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2010 Preview: Tooth-Mounted Hearing Aid For The Masses

Learning to hear again (Image: Barnaby Hall/Photonica/Getty)

From The New Scientist:

Beethoven is said to have overcome his deafness by attaching a rod to his piano and clenching it between his teeth, enabling the musical vibrations to travel through his jawbone to his inner ear. Next year, a similar but less unwieldy approach might restore hearing to people with a common form of deafness.

Single-sided deafness (SSD) affects around 9 million people in the US, and makes it difficult for them to pinpoint the exact source of sounds. This can make crossing roads extremely hazardous, and also makes it hard to hear conversations in noisy rooms.

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Data To Expose 'Ghost Mountains'

A simple illustration of the Gamburtsevs inferred from new gravity data

From The BBC:

Scientists who mapped one of the most enigmatic mountain ranges on Earth have given a first glimpse of their data.

An international team spent two months in 2008/9 surveying the Gamburtsevs in Antarctica - a series of peaks totally buried under the ice cap.

The group has told a major conference in the US that the hidden mountains are more jagged than previously thought.

They are also more linear in shape than the sparse data collected in the past had suggested.

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Why Does A Human Baby Need A Full Year Before Starting To Walk?

Why does a human baby need a full year before it can start walking, while a newborn foal gets up on its legs almost directly after birth? (Credit: iStockphoto/Beth Jeppson).

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 19, 2009) — Why does a human baby need a full year before it can start walking, while a newborn foal gets up on its legs almost directly after birth? Scientist have assumed that human motor development is unique because our brain is unusually complex and because it is particularly challenging to walk on two legs. But now a research group at Lund University in Sweden has shown that human babies in fact start walking at the same stage in brain development as most other walking mammals, from small rodents to elephants.

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Happiest States Revealed By New Research

The Happiest States

1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine

From Live Science:

Ever wondered if you'd be happier in sunny Florida or snow-covered Minnesota? New research on state-level happiness could answer that question.

Florida and two other sunshine states made it to the Top 5, while Minnesota doesn't show up until number 26 on the list of happiest states. In addition to rating the smile factor of U.S. states, the research also proved for the first time that a person's self-reported happiness matches up with objective measures of well-being.

Essentially, if an individual says they're happy, they are.

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