Sci-Tech news

• Long Story Short: The Sony Hack

  16-12-2014 23:58 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The Sony Pictures Hack has resulted in the release and publication of many personal details and private emails. Here's some of the key disclosures.
  
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• From Leaked Emails to Terror Threats: Everything You Need to Know About the Sony Hack

  16-12-2014 23:58 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The Sony Pictures Hack has resulted in the release and publication of many personal details and private emails and has lead to theaters canceling screenings of the movie. Here's some of the key disclosures.
  
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• Archaeologists discover 'incredible' details of 4,000-year-old man

  16-12-2014 23:38
  
  He lay on his side, clutching a bronze dagger, undiscovered in a shallow field in the UK for four millennia til a metal detector hit upon his dagger.
  
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• Apple stops sales in Russia, citing unstable ruble

  16-12-2014 23:33
  
  Apple has halted online sales of its iPhones, iPads and other products in Russia amid financial turmoil triggered by the steep decline in the country's currency.
  
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• Syracuse biologist reveals how whales may 'sing' for their supper

  16-12-2014 23:31
  
  Humpback whales have a trick or two, when it comes to finding a quick snack at the bottom of the ocean. But how they pinpoint that meal at night, with little or no available light, remains a mystery.
  
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• Microbiome may have shaped early human populations

  16-12-2014 23:30
  
  We humans have an exceptional age structure compared to other animals: Our children remain dependent on their parents for an unusually long period and our elderly live an extremely long time after they have stopped procreating.
  
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• California needs 11 trillion gallons of water: NASA

  16-12-2014 23:30
  
  California needs 11 trillion gallons of water to recover from its three-year drought, the US space agency said Tuesday after studying water resources by using satellite data.
  
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• Big-data analysis reveals gene sharing in mice

  16-12-2014 23:27
  
  Rice University scientists have detected at least three instances of cross-species mating that likely influenced the evolutionary paths of "old world" mice, two in recent times and one in the distant past.
  
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• More than half of all children in the US will likely live with an unmarried mother

  16-12-2014 23:25
  
  More than half of all American children will likely live with an unmarried mother at some point before they reach age 18, according to a report issued by Princeton University and Harvard University.
  
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• AncestryDNA reconstructs partial genome of 19th century man

  16-12-2014 23:22
  
  David Speegle lived with his two successive spouses – Winifred Crawford and Nancy Garren – in 19th century Alabama. Between his two wives, Speegle had about 30 children and over 100 grandchildren. While many tiny details about Speegle’s day-to-day life have been lost over time, new light has been shed on the specifics of his genetic history thanks to research conducted by AncestryDNA.
  
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• Sites stumble on to malware path with plugin exploit

  16-12-2014 23:08
  
  The numbers were not pretty. Over 100,000 WordPress websites may have been infected with malware, once again proving that where there is widespread popularity, whether in operating systems or platforms or plug-ins, there is mischief. In this case, malware that compromised certain WordPress sites was inadvertently turned into a malware distribution system. Tyler Lee in Ubergizmo reported on the incident where sites that are infected load attack code into pages viewed by visitors. As a result, sai
  
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• Rain could spell trouble for Calif. water conservation

  16-12-2014 23:00
  
  After California's driest three years on record, there have been few sounds as disturbing to water conservationists as the whisk-whisk-whisk of automatic lawn sprinklers kicking on directly behind TV reporters covering some of the state's first heavy downpours in years.
  
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• Prisoners of 'ingenious' 1962 Alcatraz escape could have survived

  16-12-2014 22:45
  
  If they had timed their escape just right, three prisoners who slipped out of Alcatraz more than 50 years ago on a raft made from raincoats would have had a chance of survival, new research shows
  
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• Photo Buzz: Take a Look at Instagram's 5 New Filters

  16-12-2014 22:03 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Tired of Valencia? Can't stand Earlybird? Good news, Instagram users. You have five brand-new filters to choose from.
  
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• Apple wins class-action lawsuit over iPod prices

  16-12-2014 21:54
  
  A federal jury decided Tuesday that Apple didn't compete unfairly when it sold music players and songs with copy-protection software that was incompatible with rival devices and music from competing online stores.
  
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• Boeing 737 factory to move to clean energy

  16-12-2014 21:54
  
  Boeing said Tuesday it plans to buy renewable energy credits to replace fossil-fuel power at the factory in Washington state where it assembles its 737 commercial airplanes.
  
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• Probing bacterial resistance to a class of natural antibiotics

  16-12-2014 21:53
  
  Antimicrobial peptides are a distinctive class of potent, broad-spectrum antibiotics produced by the body's innate immune system—the first line of defense against disease-causing microbes.
  
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• New method identifies genome-wide off-target cleavage sites of CRISPR-Cas nucleases

  16-12-2014 21:48
  
  Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have developed a method of detecting, across the entire genome of human cells, unwanted DNA breaks induced by use of the popular gene-editing tools called CRISPR-Cas RNA-guided nucleases (RGNs). Members of the same team that first described these off-target effects in human cells describe their new platform, called Genome-wide Unbiased Indentification of DSBs Evaluated by Sequencing (GUIDE-seq), in a report being published online in Nature Biote
  
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• Suomi NPP satellite watching Cyclone Bakung's remnants

  16-12-2014 21:43
  
  The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Bakung continue to linger in the Southern Indian Ocean, and NOAA-NASA's Suomi NPP (Suomi NPP) satellite is one satellite keeping an eye on the storm for possible re-development.
  
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• Glacier beds can get slipperier at higher sliding speeds

  16-12-2014 21:42
  
  As a glacier's sliding speed increases, the bed beneath the glacier can grow slipperier, according to laboratory experiments conducted by Iowa State University glaciologists.
  
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• Introverts could shape extroverted co-workers' career success, study shows

  16-12-2014 21:40
  
  Introverted employees are more likely to give low evaluations of job performance to extroverted co-workers, giving introverts a powerful role in workplaces that rely on peer-to-peer evaluation tools for awarding raises, bonuses or promotions, new research shows.
  
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• Which dot will they hunt? Prey is recognized even by the zebrafish retina

  16-12-2014 21:39
  
  Seeing - recognising - acting. These three words describe how a sensory input can lead to a targeted movement. However, very little is known about how and where the brain converts external inputs into behavioural responses. Now, scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have been able to shed light on important neural circuitry involved in the prey capture behaviour exhibited by young zebrafish. The findings show that neurons in the retina of the eye already filter ou
  
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• Carnival of Space #3

  16-12-2014 21:34 via pinterest.com
  
  Carnival of Space #384
  
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• What’s Next for the

  16-12-2014 21:31 via pinterest.com
  
  What’s Next for the Large Hadron Collider?
  
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• How Instagram Is Souping Up Your Holiday Pictures

  16-12-2014 21:22
  
  Instagram delivered the ultimate holiday gift today to its users: five new filters.
  
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• Apple Halts Online Sales in Russia Due to Ruble

  16-12-2014 21:18 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Currency volatility makes it harder for producers to set prices and assess conversion rates.
  
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• DNA sheds light on why largest lemurs disappeared

  16-12-2014 21:12
  
  Ancient DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of giant lemurs that lived thousands of years ago in Madagascar may help explain why the giant lemurs went extinct. It also explains what factors make some surviving species more at risk today, says a study in the Journal of Human Evolution.
  
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• Millions without mobile phone service in Argentina

  16-12-2014 21:10
  
  Millions of mobile phone users in Buenos Aires found themselves without service Tuesday, because of an unexplained outage to wireless provider Claro.
  
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• When pursuing goals, people give more weight to progress than setbacks, study says

  16-12-2014 21:09
  
  New Year's resolution-makers should beware of skewed perceptions. People tend to believe good behaviors are more beneficial in reaching goals than bad behaviors are in obstructing goals, according to a University of Colorado Boulder-led study.
  
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• Uber targeted by Belgium tax probe

  16-12-2014 21:00
  
  Belgian authorities ordered a probe Tuesday into the tax affairs of Web-based taxi app Uber in the latest legal challenge the fast-growing company faces around the world amid fierce resistance from cab drivers.
  
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• Stay complex, my friends

  16-12-2014 21:00
  
  The KISS concept – keep it simple, stupid – may work for many situations. However, when it comes to evolution, complexity appears to be key for prosperity and propagating future generations.
  
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• Sony hackers reference 9/11 in new threats against theaters

  16-12-2014 20:58
  
  Hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace made ominous threats Tuesday against movie theaters showing Sony Pictures' film "The Interview" that referenced the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
  
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• Curiosity rover finds active, ancient organic chemistry on Mars

  16-12-2014 20:56
  
  (Phys.org)—NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory's drill.
  
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• Sony facing two suits by ex-workers over data breach (Update)

  16-12-2014 20:47
  
  Sony Pictures Entertainment now faces two lawsuits from four former employees who claim the company did not do enough to prevent hackers from stealing nearly 50,000 social security numbers, salary details and other personal information from current and former workers.
  
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• Ex-employees sue Sony Pictures over hacked personal details (Update)

  16-12-2014 20:47
  
  Two former employees of Sony Pictures Entertainment are suing the company for not preventing hackers from stealing nearly 50,000 social security numbers, salary details and other personal information from current and former workers.
  
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• Ex-employees sue Sony Pictures over hacked personal details

  16-12-2014 20:47
  
  Two former employees of Sony Pictures Entertainment are suing the company for not preventing hackers from stealing nearly 50,000 social security numbers, salary details and other personal information from current and former workers.
  
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• Apple Wins iPod Class-Action Antitrust Lawsuit

  16-12-2014 20:47
  
  Lawsuit focused on Apple's early days of reshaping the music industry.
  
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• Curiosity rover makes first detection of organic matter on Mars

  16-12-2014 20:46
  
  The team responsible for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on NASA's Curiosity rover has made the first definitive detection of organic molecules at Mars. Organic molecules are the building blocks of all known forms of terrestrial life, and consist of a wide variety of molecules made primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. However, organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that don't involve life, and there is not enough evidence to tell if the matter fou
  
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• Venus Express Out Of

  16-12-2014 19:55 via pinterest.com
  
  Venus Express Out Of Gas; Mission Concludes, Spacecraft On Death Watch
  
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• Cam captures penguin hatching at Pittsburgh aviary

  16-12-2014 19:50
  
  A webcam captured images of the first of two African penguins hatching at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh.
  
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• Tag Heuer changes tune, now looking at smartwatches

  16-12-2014 19:40
  
  Barely a few months after dismissing Apple's smartwatch, the new chief executive of luxury Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer conceded Tuesday that such a hi-tech gadget might after all have a place in his firm's line-up.
  
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• Life on Mars? Curiosity Rover's Readings Revive Methane Mystery - NBCNews.com

  16-12-2014 19:32 via nbcnews.com
  
  ABC News
  Life on Mars? Curiosity Rover's Readings Revive Methane Mystery
  NBCNews.com
  The mystery over methane in the Martian atmosphere — and whether it's being created by life on Mars — just got more mysterious: Scientists say the methane levels recorded by NASA's Curiosity rover are generally lower than expected, but they also saw a ...
  The search for life on MarsTelegraph.co.uk
  Curiosity Rover Finds Methane on Mars: What It Could Mean for LifeSpace.com
  Curiosity Detects
  
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• Four takeaways from the UN climate deal in Lima - Quartz

  16-12-2014 19:32 via qz.com
  
  Washington Times
  Four takeaways from the UN climate deal in Lima
  Quartz
  Protesters on the streets of Lima were hoping to make an impression.(Reuters/Guadalupe Pardo). SHARE. Written by. Hanna Kozlowska@hannakozlowska. 7 hours ago. Negotiators entered this month's United Nations climate conference with optimism after ...
  Hoodwinked By The Press On Lima Climate AgreementDaily Caller
  Lima climate change talks fueled by diesel generators; solar panels 'too unreliable'Washington Tim
  
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• Apple Found Not Guilty of Antitrust in iPod Suit

  16-12-2014 19:31 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Caps a decade-long case and a week-long trial that had no shortage of drama and confusion.
  
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• Artist's 'Angry Birds' lawsuit goes forward

  16-12-2014 19:30
  
  A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit by a Seattle artist who says she was cheated out of millions of dollars when the company that sold her line of plush pet toys called "Angry Birds" reached a deal with the Finnish company that makes the insanely popular video game of the same name.
  
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• Google Reveals 2014's Top Searches - PC Magazine

  16-12-2014 19:25 via pcmag.com
  
  USA TODAY
  Google Reveals 2014's Top Searches
  PC Magazine
  Google clocked trillions of searches worldwide in 2014, but one man managed to steal the spotlight: The late Robin Williams landed the No. 1 spot in the global trends charts. The comedian and actor passed away in August, prompting folks around the world ...
  You are what you Google searchWashington Post
  Robin Williams Tops 2014 List of Google SearchesABC News
  iPhone 6 was second most popular UK Google search term in 2014Inquirer
  C
  
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• Is a Cheap Fitness Tracker Worth It?

  16-12-2014 19:23
  
  What to expect from the $29.99 Movo Wave.
  
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• Apple Prevails in Antitrust Suit Over iPod Music - New York Times

  16-12-2014 19:17 via nytimes.com
  New York Times
  Apple Prevails in Antitrust Suit Over iPod Music
  New York Times
  OAKLAND, Calif. — A jury has decided that Apple did not use software to block songs sold by competing music stores from playing on the iPod so that it could secure a monopoly over the digital music market. The jurors determined Apple had used a version ...
  Jury finds Apple not guilty of harming consumers in iTunes DRM caseThe Verge
  Apple not guilty in iPod antitrust trial, jury decidesCNET
  Jury sides with Appl
  
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• After Google, Dutch privacy watchdog probes Facebook

  16-12-2014 19:16
  
  The Dutch government-affiliated watchdog said Tuesday it is probing changes in Facebook's privacy policy, the latest skirmish in a wider fight over the commercial use of online personal data.
  
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• Startup Seamless Devices launches from professor Peter Kinget's lab

  16-12-2014 19:12
  
  Innovative technology developed in Electrical Engineering Professor Peter Kinget's lab is at the core of Seamless Devices, a startup co-founded by Kinget and his former student Jayanth Kuppambatti PhD'14. Seamless Devices aims to address critical limitations faced by semiconductor technologies striving to meet the demands of performance and power efficiency required by the next-generation of electronic devices and sensors.
  
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