Veterans Day: Why It's Today, How It's Changed & More

President Barak Obama lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns as part of Veterans Day services at Arlington National Cemetery, Nov. 11, 2009. VA courtesy photo

From National Geographic:

At Veterans Day celebrations and events around the country, the United States is honoring the men and women of the nation's armed forces.

So why is November 11 Veterans Day? Who is it for? And how has it changed?

In keeping with Veterans Day tradition, U.S. President Barack Obama today laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, saying, "While it is important and proper that we mark this day, it is far more important we spend all our days determined to keep the promises that we've made to all who answer this country's call."

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My Comment: I know that the day is almost over, but this is a neat summary of what exactly is Veteran's Day.

Microsoft Cuts Off Thousands Of Xbox Players Caught Downloading Pirated Games

Popular: More than 34 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide.
Microsoft is now clamping down on piracy

From The Daily Mail:

Microsoft is clamping down on piracy by banning up to one million customers from using its services if they are caught playing illegal games.

The technology giant said gamers who install hardware to play pirated games on the Xbox 360 console would be barred from using its Live service.

The online service allows multiple players to compete against each other over the internet and is central to the Xbox 360's popularity.

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Dinosaurs Could Have Been Hot To Trot, Say US Scientists

From The Scotsman:

LARGE two-legged dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, were energetic athletes with warm blood running through their veins, it was claimed today.
New evidence suggests that the ancient reptiles were endothermic – or warm-blooded – like their modern descendants, birds.

Far from being lumbering slow beasts, they were likely to have been agile and active.

But warm blood would have come at a price, because it requires more food. If food became scarce 65 million years ago, this could have been a contributory factor in their extinction.

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Japan Plans Giant Solar Power Station In Space

Jaxa's vision of a space solar power system (SSPS) Photo: AFP

From The Telegraph:

Japan’s space agency is planning to construct a solar power station in space and use it to beam energy down to Earth using lasers.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) hopes that the ambitious plans will help ease the country’s energy problems as well as providing a solution for global warming.

A select group of companies and researchers have been given the task of designing and building the Space Solar Power System (SSPS).

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Modern Warfare 2 On Course To Sell $500m Within 24hrs Of Launch

From Times Online:

The debut of the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 looks sure to become the most successful product launch in the history of entertainment, with global first-day sales estimated at $500 million.

Less than 24 hours after launch, first day sales of the controversial and violent new game are set to exceed the previous record set by Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008 by $200 million.

The game is expected to sell more than 3 million copies in the UK alone, with the online retailers Amazon and Play.com both reporting record sales.

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Bing Getting A Fall Refresh

Microsoft is using Wolfram Alpha to help power certain results, such as this search
for the fat content of french fries. (Credit: CNET News)

From CNET:

Unlike when you stand over your coworker's desk, Microsoft's Bing search engine actually works better when you hover.

One of the key features of the would-be rival to Google is that when you hover to the right of a result, you can get a preview of what to expect. As part of an update this week, Bing's hover result will now feature more information including a thumbnail preview of the site in question.

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AIDS Leading Cause Of Death In Women

From Time Magazine:

(GENEVA) — In its first study of women's health around the globe, the World Health Organization said Monday that the AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44.

Unsafe sex is the leading risk factor in developing countries for these women of childbearing age, with others including lack of access to contraceptives and iron deficiency, the WHO said. Throughout the world, one in five deaths among women in this age group is linked to unsafe sex, according to the U.N. agency.

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Scientists Decipher The Formation Of Lasting Memories

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 11, 2009) — Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a mechanism that controls the brain's ability to create lasting memories. In experiments on genetically manipulated mice, they were able to switch on and off the animals' ability to form lasting memories by adding a substance to their drinking water. The findings, which are published in the scientific journal PNAS, are of potential significance to the future treatment of Alzheimer's and stroke.

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Miniature Robots To Swarm The Oceans

This digital image shows how autonomous underwater explorers (AUEs) will be used to provide new information about the oceans. Credit: SIO

From Live Science:

Swarms of soup-can-sized robots will soon plunge into the ocean seeking data on poorly understood phenomena from currents to biology.

With $2.5 million in new funding from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will create and deploy fleets of autonomous underwater explorers (AUEs) to explore the depths. Tens or hundreds of pint-sized robots would be deployed along with one the size of a soccer ball, in setups repeated wherever they are needed.

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Mimicking The Building Prowess Of Nature

From Technology Review:

Scientists build new materials using inspiration from complex biological forms.

Joanna Aizenberg, a materials scientist at Harvard University, has scoured the natural world for clues to biological building codes. She aims to decipher some of Mother Nature’s unique designs, including dirt-resistant sea urchins and sea sponges made of super-strong light-conducting glass, to develop novel materials that, like these organisms, can self-assemble and sense and respond to their environment.

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Human Extinction: How Could It Happen?

A nuclear bomb test is shown in Nevada, Aug. 18, 1957. Nuclear or near nuclear war/engagement between any two nations could have a hand in human extinction, research concludes. Getty Images

From Discovery News:

It would take a combination of severe and catastrophic events to drive the hardy human race to extinction, research concludes.

Humans could become extinct, a new study concludes, but no single event, aside from complete destruction of the globe, could do us in, and all extinction scenarios would have to involve some kind of intent, either malicious or not, by people in power.

The determinations suggest that the human race itself will ultimately determine its fate.

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DARPA: Inventing This Side Of The Impossible -- A Commentary

The A160 hummingbird, just one of many DARPA project that have found military
or commercial use (Image: DARPA)

From New Scientist:

ON 6 December 1957 a hollow aluminium sphere the size of a small melon burst from a blazing fireball, rose a mere metre or so above Florida before landing with a thump. The US was in trouble. A month earlier, the Soviet Union had sent a 500-kilogram capsule bearing a dog called Laika into space. But here was the US unable to even notch up its first foray into orbit.

President Dwight Eisenhower responded by creating a new research agency tasked with ensuring such "technological surprises" like Sputnik would never be sprung on the US again. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), conceived in February 1958 not only still exists, it has consistently made the US military the most advanced on Earth and unleashed life-changing technologies such as the internet, GPS and the computer mouse along the way.

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UK Government Plans to Monitor Social Networks, Chatrooms, and Online Games

London Calling Your Internet activities are no longer for your eyes only Simdaperce

From Popular Science:

UK netizens may find their online activities under ever-greater scrutiny in the near future. The UK government has pushed ahead with a proposal to require monitoring of Internet usage, including social networks such as Facebook and conversations within online games.

The new UK law would require communication firms to hold records of who contacted whom, rather than the actual contents of online conversation. About £2 billion ($3.34 billion) would go toward compensating the firms for the technical challenge of collecting the data.

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Film Crew Dives Into The Incredible Secret World Of The Giant Manta Ray

Filming a manta at a 'cleaning station'. Injured rays are frequent visitors so their wounds can be cleaned by tiny, butterfly fish

From The Daily Mail:

Gliding through the oceans like ghosts, these mysterious manta rays have been captured in unique footage filmed off the coast of Mozambique.

Biologist Andrea Marshall is shown performing a ballet-like dance with the inquisitive giant fish, which she described as 'the most beautiful underwater birds.'

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'Last Chance' For Tuna Authority

Tsukiji market in Tokyo is the final destination for a large proportion of bluefin

From The BBC:

The annual meeting of the body charged with conserving Atlantic tuna opens on Monday to warnings that this is its "last chance" to manage things well.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) is criticised for setting high quotas and not tackling illegal fishing.

Stocks of bluefin tuna are at about 15% of pre-industrial fishing levels.

US Commissioner Rebecca Lent said her country and others feel this is Iccat's last chance to put things right.

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Sustainable Salads

What foods can be grown with the least environmental impact?

From Slate:

Which fruits, vegetables, and other crops have the smallest environmental footprints?

I know you can buy local or buy organic, but I've heard that some crops are simply more resource-intensive than others, regardless of how or where they are grown. So what's the key to picking foods that have the smallest environmental footprint?

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Retiring 'Makes You Feel 10 Years Younger'

From The Telegraph:

Workers feel ten years younger after they retire, according to a study that highlights the physical toll of lengthy careers.

Researchers analysed almost 15,000 employees and found that they felt increasingly less well in the years leading up to retirement, but significantly better after they stopped work.

The team behind the study said it showed that working conditions must be improved for older people if they are to be persuaded to remain economically active.

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'Missing Link' In Immune Response To Disease: Sheer Mechanical Force

A highly focused laser beam (at right) is used to apply mechanical force (shown as a double headed arrow) to a microsphere (white) coated with histocompatibility protein. The microsphere abuts the surface of a single T cell, shown in gray (top). Activation of the T cell is measured by a change in calcium levels within the cell, which are shown by green colorization (left, prior to force application; bottom, after force application). The direction of force must be tangential, rather than perpendicular, to the T cell surface in order to trigger a rise in calcium levels. Without an application of force, the binding of the histocompatibility protein produces no such rise. (Credit: Please credit Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 10, 2009) — The immune system's T cells have the unique responsibilities of being both jury and executioner. They examine other cells for signs of disease, including cancers or infections, and, if such evidence is found, rid them from the body. Precisely how T cells shift so swiftly from one role to another, however, has been a mystery.

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Happiest States Are Wealthy And Tolerant

From Live Science:

Though you might not be able to run away from your problems, moving to another state could be good for the soul. New research suggests U.S. states with wealthier, better educated and more tolerant residents are also happier on average.

The reasoning is that wealthy states can provide infrastructure and so it's easier for residents to get their needs met. In addition, states with a greater proportion of artists and gays would also be places where residents can freely express themselves.

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Music Industry Bows To Point-And-Shoot Cameras

This photo of U2 lead singer Bono, shot during U2's Rose Bowl show on October 25, by amateur photographer Bruce Heavin, was taken with a Canon PowerShot G11, and is representative of the high-quality pictures that ticket-holders can easily take these days at concerts and other events with point-and-shoot cameras. Note the people in the picture snapping their own images of Bono. (Credit: Flickr user Bruce Heavin)

From CNET:

At last month's huge U2 show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., how could you tell the difference between the professional photographers and your average amateurs?

Answer: the professionals were the ones whisked away after Bono and friends finished their third song, and the amateurs were still there, happily shooting to their heart's content.

Nearly every person at any show these days is going to have some form of camera with them, be it a point-and-shoot, an iPhone or some other camera phone, and it seems that there is almost no way to imagine keeping all those devices out.

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Note To All Wives And Girlfriends: This Is What The Man In Your Life Will Want For Christmas

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review—Heard Of It? -- Popular Mechanics

Analysts expect Modern Warfare 2's first week sales to breach $500 million. To provide perspective, The Dark Knight made $155.34 opening weekend. A movie ticket is certainly cheaper than a video game, but half a billion dollars, any way you spin it, screams mainstream hit.

So, if you're reading this, we can assume you're one of three types: One, someone who's already bought Modern Warfare 2; Two, someone who's boycotting Modern Warfare 2 for any of a number of reasons, but will still probably buy it; Or three, a non-gamer who buys three or four titles a year and has been struck with curiosity by an unavoidable hype machine, including but not limited to television commercials, online take over ads and word of mouth.

Number 3, this one's for you.

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My Comment: When I was young I was into these games .... no more now. But the young .... especially the young soldiers that I know .... for their own reasons they love these games.

So the above is my little contribution to those who may wonder what their "young" soldier will want for Christmas.

On a side note .... the Onion has done a great spoof on this fad. Check out the video below. (Hat Tip: Small Wars Journal)


Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

UK Calls For A Transforming, Laser-Toting Stealth UAV

Starscream Gets An Etonian Makeover courtesy of the UK Ministry of Defense

From Popular Science:

In February, the Ministry of Defense (MOD) in Great Britain unveiled its plans for modernizing its military. Curiously similar to the US Army's recently killed Future Combat System, the British program looks to bring a new generation of unmanned vehicles, advanced sensors and energy weapons to the battlefield.

However, unlike its American counterpart, it looks like this project is a go.

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Asteroid Passes Just 8,700 Miles From Earth - With Only 15 Hours Warning

Don't panic! Although the asteroid passed within 9,000 miles of Earth it measured just 23ft across and wouldn't have dented the surface (artist's illustration)

From The Daily Mail:

You almost certainly missed it - and luckily it missed you - but an asteroid has come within 8,700 miles of hitting the Earth.

Astronomers spotted the object only 15 hours before its closest approach to our planet last Friday.

Its orbit brought it 30 times nearer than the Moon, which is 250,000 miles away.

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Plant Experts Unveil DNA Barcode

Photo: Identifying a plant's DNA "barcode" will help tell is if it is being illegally traded

From The BBC:

Hundreds of experts from 50 nations are set to agree on a "DNA barcode" system that gives every plant on Earth a unique genetic fingerprint.

The technology will be used in a number of ways, including identifying the illegal trade in endangered species.

The data will be stored on a global database that will be available to scientists around the world.

The agreement will be signed at the third International Barcode of Life conference in Mexico City on Tuesday.

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Do Wolves Kill for Sport?

A gray wolf

From Slate:

No, but sometimes they hunt down more than they can eat.

During this fall's inaugural wolf-hunting season in Montana, hunters killed the matriarch of a Yellowstone wolf pack that researchers had been studying for more than a decade. Park officials suspect that her mate and three other pack members were also killed. A Los Angeles Times story about the hunt claims that wolves are known to kill for "pure pleasure." Do wolves really attack their prey just for the fun of it?

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EU Agrees Internet Restriction Guidelines

From Times Online:

MEPs and Council representatives propose safeguards for internet access before restrictions can be imposed.

Europe’s MEPs and Council representatives on Wednesday night agreed that restrictions on access to the internet within the EU may “only be imposed if they are appropriate, proportionate and necessary within a democratic society”.

The two sides agreed in May that the internet is essential for the exercise of fundamental rights such as the right to education, freedom of expression and access to information.

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Pictured: The 12ft Leopard Seal About To Eat Penguin

The moment a 12ft leopard seal catches the penguin Photo: AMOS NACHOUN/BARCROFT

From The Telegraph:

A diver has captured the moment a 12ft leopard seal - with its mouth wide open displaying its two-inch long razor sharp teeth - prepared to lunch on a penguin.

The animal was photographed in the shallows of Antarctica's freezing Southern Ocean.

The agile leopard seal of Pleneau Island near Port Lockroy is part of a group that congregate each year on the Antarctic Peninsula to feed.

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Scientists Develop Apple That Won't Rot

The RS103-130, which is a deep red in colour, stays "crispy" for up to 14 days if kept in a fruit bowl - unlike most apples. Alamy

From The Independent:

Ever since somebody suggested that eating one a day kept the doctor away, the health benefits of the apple have been trumpeted by grandmothers and government ministers alike. The fruit's only drawback is its tendency to lose its glossy sheen and crunchy texture within a few days – a problem that a team of scientists in Australia now claims to have solved.

For the past 20 years, researchers at Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries (QPIF), a department of the Queensland government, have been developing a new variety of apple which they claim can stay fresh for months.

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Harvesting Energy From Nature's Motions

Left to right: Assistant Professor Brian Mann, graduate student Samuel Stanton, and undergraduate student Clark McGehee. (Credit: Duke Photography)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 9, 2009) — By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life.

Energy harvesting is the process of converting one form of energy, such as motion, into another form of energy, in this case electricity. Strategies range from the development of massive wind farms to produce large amounts of electricity to using the vibrations of walking to power small electronic devices.

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California Decision Could Limit HDTV Choices Nationwide

From Live Science:

On Nov. 18 the California Energy Commission is scheduled to vote on a proposal that would require retailers by 2011 to limit sales of TV sets to those that consume about a third less power than they do today.

Since the public hearing on Oct. 3, industry groups have turned up the volume in opposition to the new guidelines. If passed, the best value in home theater HDTVs will disappear from California shelves and, some analysts figure, will ultimately cut consumer choices across the country.

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Justice Dept. Asked For News Site's Visitor Lists

From CBS News:

In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day.

The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.

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Google: Caffeine Search Is Ready To Go

From CNET:

Google's Caffeine initiative to perk up search results is leaving the sandbox.

First revealed as a "secret project" in early August, Caffeine is intended to speed up search results and improve their accuracy. Google's Webmaster Central blog at the time described Caffeine as "the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions."

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National World War II Museum: Bringing The Battle To Life

Ringside for a global fight, viewers will gain an up-close perspective in the new Solomon Victory Theater at the World War II museum in New Orleans. (The National World War II Museum)

From Christian Science Monitor:

The New Orleans National World War II Museum uses immersive tech to boost teaching power – and also entertain.

There are those who served at the battlefront and witnessed first-hand the ugliness of war. And there are the rest of us who experience it from behind exhibition glass.

This month in New Orleans, however, The National World War II Museum is opening the doors to a new $60 million complex that will feature as its centerpiece a 35-minute film designed to virtually transport viewers 70 years into the past through technology marketed as “4-D cinematics,” including special lighting, fog, stage snow, moving props, surround sound, and digital animation.

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Ten Nuclear Stations To Be Built In the UK In Bid To Prevent Energy Shortage

From Times Online:

Ten nuclear power stations are to be built in Britain at a cost of up to £50 billion as the Government tries to prevent the threat of regular power cuts by the middle of the coming decade.

The nuclear industry welcomed the plans, but critics said that ministers had acted too late to avoid an energy crunch caused by the closure of ageing coal-fired stations.

Although the sites were known to be in line for development, the announcement signals the Government’s increasing ambition for nuclear power.

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It's Time Fruit Juice Loses Its Wholesome Image, Some Experts Say

From L.A. Times:

Compared with soda, juice carries more calories and as much sugar. There's also evidence that high consumption increases the risk of obesity, especially among kids.

To many people, it's a health food. To others, it's simply soda in disguise.

That virtuous glass of juice is feeling the squeeze as doctors, scientists and public health authorities step up their efforts to reduce the nation's girth.

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Widespread Chronic Pain

From Future Pundit:

John Tierney of the New York Times draws attention to the high prevalence of chronic pain.

Chronic pain affects more than 70 million Americans, which makes it more widespread than heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. It costs the economy more than $100 billion per year. So why don’t more doctors and researchers take it seriously?

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Vanished Persian Army Said Found In Desert

Photo: Hundreds of bleached bones and skulls found in the desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert may be the remains of the long lost Cambyses' army, according to Italian researchers. Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni

From MSNBC:

50,000 soldiers believed buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.

The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology's biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers.

Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.

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Stone Age Humans Crossed Sahara In The Rain

It used to be wetter (Image: Sergio Pitamitz/Getty)

From New Scientist:

Wet spells in the Sahara may have opened the door for early human migration. According to new evidence, water-dependent trees and shrubs grew there between 120,000 and 45,000 years ago. This suggests that changes in the weather helped early humans cross the desert on their way out of Africa.

The Sahara would have been a formidable barrier during the Stone Age, making it hard to understand how humans made it to Europe from eastern Africa, where the earliest remains of our hominin ancestors are found.

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Drunken Fruit Flies Help Scientists Find Potential Drug Target For Alcoholism

Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) breeding in a test tube.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Joe Pogliano)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 7, 2009) — A group of drunken fruit flies have helped researchers from North Carolina State and Boston universities identify entire networks of genes -- also present in humans -- that play a key role in alcohol drinking behavior.

This discovery, published in the October 2009 print issue of the journal Genetics, provides a crucial explanation of why some people seem to tolerate alcohol better than others, as well as a potential target for drugs aimed at preventing or eliminating alcoholism. In addition, this discovery sheds new light on many of the negative side effects of drinking, such as liver damage.

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Posting Pics Online? What Your Photos Say About You

Our non-verbal cues tell a lot about our personalities, particularly when the subject has a more natural pose (right) rather than a neutral one (left). Here, in this spontaneous photo, the subject shows a less energetic stance. Credit: Laura Naumann.

From Live Science:

Those photos you post on Facebook could paint an accurate picture of your personality, new research on first impressions suggests.

And perhaps as expected, the more candid a shot the more nuances of your personality show through.

"In an age dominated by social media where personal photographs are ubiquitous, it becomes important to understand the ways personality is communicated via our appearance," said study researcher Laura Naumann of Sonoma State University. "The appearance one portrays in his or her photographs has important implications for their professional and social life."

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The Sea Change That's Challenging Biology's Central Dogma

Image: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

From Discover Magazine:

For decades, RNA was seen as a simple slave to DNA. Newer research shows it has an active and critical role in every disease from Alzheimer's to cancer.

One of the great revolutions in modern science rests on the elongated backside of a grotesque, mutant worm. Inexpensive and easy to manipulate in the lab, Caenorhabditis elegans develops from egg to adult in three days and produces a few hundred offspring three days after that. Virtually all of the worms are hermaphrodites, containing both male and female sex organs and capable of making sperm and eggs, so each creature can fertilize itself. And because the worm is transparent and the adult has only 959 cells, development of every stage from egg to adult can be observed under the microscope and documented with near perfect detail while the worm is alive, an achievement accomplished in the 1970s by Sidney Brenner, a University of Cambridge researcher and legend in the field.

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Spanish Military Tests Swarm Intelligence On Video Game Battlefield

Battlefield Swarm Say, from here the soldiers look like ants ... Strategic Simulations, Inc./University of Granada

From Popular Science:

The Spanish army is using ant colony algorithms to plot the best paths through future battlefields.

Moving through real-life battlefields inevitably proves trickier than playing a game of Minesweeper, but Spanish researchers and army officers have converted the video game Panzer General into a simulator that can test troop maneuver algorithms based on ant colony behavior.

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U.S. Congress Considers Geoengineering

From Technology Review:

Plans to purposefully re-engineer the world's climate got their first serious committee hearing yesterday.

The idea that we might be able to "geoengineer" the planet to purposefully change the climate has clearly moved from the fringes into the mainstream. Momentum has been building in recent years: an essay in an academic journal by a Nobel Prize winning scientist in 2006, articles in the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy, a largely private gathering of researchers at Harvard.

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Cough Into Your Mobile Phone For Instant Diagnosis

But will it ask you to turn your head to one side as well? Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY

From The Telegraph:

Your mobile phone may soon be able to diagnose respiratory illnesses in seconds when you cough into it.

Software being developed by American and Australian scientists will hopefully allow patients simply to cough into their phone, and it will tell them whether they have cold, flu, pneumonia or other respiratory diseases.

Whether a cough is dry or wet, or “productive” or “non-productive” (referring to the presence of mucus on the lungs), can give a doctor information about what is causing that cough, for example whether it is caused by a bacterial or a viral infection.

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Windows 7 Versus Apple: The Great Computer Software Battle

Battling for your business: Should you go for Apple software for your computer or wait for Google?

From The Daily Mail:

There's no escaping it: Windows Vista was a disaster. Launched in 2007, Microsoft's follow-up to the massively successful Windows XP software, which powers the vast majority of the world's computers, met with lukewarm reviews and terrible customer satisfaction ratings.

It was simply too demanding of the computers it ran on – and the people who used it. Which is why Microsoft is going to great lengths to prove its new operating system, Windows 7, isn't just better than Vista – it's also simpler.

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Nasa And Esa Sign Mars Agreement

The Red Planet experiences periodic global duststorms

From BBC:

The US and European space agencies have signed the "letter of intent" that ties together their Mars programmes.

The agreement, which was penned in Washington DC, gives the green light to scientists and engineers to begin the joint planning of Red Planet missions.

The union will start with a European-led orbiter in 2016, and continue with surface rovers in 2018, and then perhaps a network of landers in 2018.

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Extraterrestrial Rafting: Hunting Off-World Sea Life

Sniffing out life on Titan (Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/SPL)

From New Scientist:

IF LIFE is to be found beyond our home planet, then our closest encounters with it may come in the dark abyss of some extraterrestrial sea. For Earth is certainly not the only ocean-girdled world in our solar system. As many as five moons of Jupiter and Saturn are now thought to hide seas beneath their icy crusts.

To find out more about these worlds and their hidden oceans, two ambitious voyages are now taking shape. About a decade from now, if all goes to plan, the first mission will send a pair of probes to explore Jupiter's satellites. They will concentrate on giant Ganymede and pale Europa, gauging the depths of the oceans that almost certainly lie within them.

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October 2009 3rd Coldest for US In 115 Years, What About The Upcoming Winter?

From Watts Up With That?:

NCDC has compiled the October temperatures and it ended up the 3rd coldest in 115 years. As we have shown it was cold over almost all the lower 48. Indeed only Florida came in above normal. There is no [NOAA/NCDC] press release out yet but it should be interesting.

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Super-fast Quantum Computer Gets Ever Closer: Quantum Particles Pinned Down

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 9, 2009) — Researchers at the Kavli Institute for Nanosciences at Delft University of Technology, have succeeded in getting hold of the environment of a quantum particle. This allows them to exercise greater control over a single electron, and brings the team of researchers, led by Vidi winner and FOM workgroup leader Lieven Vandersypen, a step closer still to the super-fast quantum computer.

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Human Origins: Our Crazy Family Tree

The first specimen of Paranthropus boisei, also called Nutcracker Man, was reported by Mary and Louis Leakey in 1959 from a site in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation.

From Live Science:

As the only remaining primate built to stride the world on two legs, it would be easy to assume that our extinct relatives were much like us, if perhaps hairier with smaller brains.

But fossils reveal evolution could take our relatives in bizarre directions, involving skulls resembling nutcrackers and miniature bodies resembling the hobbits of Lord of The Rings.

"These fossils tell us that human evolution was a long process of experimentation, not the outcome of a long process of fine-tuning leading just to us," said paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

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