Author Archives: Guest Post

Bing Home Page Springs to Life With Fall Video

*Bing introduced video to its home page today to celebrate the start of fall, bringing motion to the iconic visuals that have helped differentiate Microsoft’s search engine.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Sept. 23, 2011 – Bing is celebrating the first day of fall with a first for its users: an autumn-hued video on its home page.

Visitors to the U.S. Bing home page today will be greeted by a time lapse video of the sun slowly rising over fall foliage. The video – visible to people using an HTML5-enabled browser – is the first to appear on the Bing home page, where eye-grabbing images have become an iconic part of the search engine’s brand, said Stephanie Horstmanshof, managing editor of Bing. Friday’s video represents the next step in Bing’s efforts to bring people into an experience they can’t get anywhere else. (more…)

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Study “Changes our Understanding” of Youth Voting Behavior

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Low-income youth are more apt to vote if they are engaged in political activism and influenced by friends and family, according to a study by Michigan State University education scholars that sheds new light on voting behavior.

Previous research held that poor youth tend to either vote or get involved in political activism such as peaceful protests, but not generally both. The new study, however, found a connection between political activism and the ballot box. (more…)

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What’s so Unique About the Tropics?

“Less than we thought,” researchers say in a new study providing insights into the distribution of biodiversity across the globe.

The temperate forests of Canada or Northern Europe may have much more in common with the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia or South America than previously believed, according to a research group including a University of Arizona ecologist.

The assertion, published as the cover article in the journal Science, is focused on the concept of “beta-diversity” – a measure of the change in species composition between two sites, such as neighboring patches of forest. High beta-diversity means that two given sites have few species in common. (more…)

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Yahoo! Connects With Facebook: Adds Your Friends as Social Editors of Yahoo! News

*Yahoo! puts friendly faces front and center on Yahoo! News and IntoNow from Yahoo!, for social content discovery and expression on Yahoo! and Facebook*

SAN FRANCISCO, f8 Developer Conference, September 22, 2011 – Yahoo! Inc., the premier digital media company, today announced a new way to discover and connect with the world’s most popular content on both Yahoo! and Facebook. Beginning with Yahoo! News in the U.S., the No. 1 online news destination with more than 80 million unique monthly visitors**, and IntoNow from Yahoo!, the mobile app to discover and discuss TV shows, Yahoo! is putting people’s friends front and center to usher in an innovative way of connecting around content socially. (more…)

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Deep Oceans May Mask Global Warming for Years at a Time

*Computer simulations of global climate lead to new conclusions*

Earth’s deep oceans may absorb enough heat at times to flatten the rate of global warming for periods of as long as a decade–even in the midst of longer-term warming. This according to a new analysis led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The study, based on computer simulations of global climate, points to ocean layers deeper than 1,000 feet as the main location of the “missing heat” during periods such as the past decade when global air temperatures showed little trend. (more…)

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University of Missouri 3-D Prototype Lab Open for Business

Companies can take advantage of state-of-the art equipment; students gain experience

COLUMBIA, Mo. – When Microdyne, LLC, needed help building a prototype for a dairy cattle breeding device, the company, based in St. Joseph, was ready to look overseas for a prototype manufacturing team. Then Microdyne was introduced to Mike Klote, manager of the University of Missouri’s College of Engineering prototype development facility, and a solution was found that also provided MU engineering students a valuable educational opportunity. (more…)

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To Ditch Dessert, Feed the Brain

If the brain goes hungry, Twinkies look a lot better, a study led by researchers at Yale University and the University of Southern California has found.

Brain imaging scans show that when glucose levels drop, an area of the brain known to regulate emotions and impulses loses the ability to dampen desire for high-calorie food, according to the study published online September 19 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. (more…)

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NASA’s WISE Mission Captures Black Hole’s Wildly Flaring Jet

PASADENA, Calif. — Astronomers using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have captured rare data of a flaring black hole, revealing new details about these powerful objects and their blazing jets.

Scientists study jets to learn more about the extreme environments around black holes. Much has been learned about the material feeding black holes, called accretion disks, and the jets themselves, through studies using X-rays, gamma rays and radio waves. But key measurements of the brightest part of the jets, located at their bases, have been difficult despite decades of work. WISE is offering a new window into this missing link through its infrared observations. (more…)

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