It might look like an abstract painting, but this splash of colors is in fact a busy star-forming complex called Rho Ophiuchi. NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer, or WISE, captured the picturesque image of the region, which is one of the closest star-forming complexes to Earth. (more…)
East Lansing, Mich — Monitoring oxygen levels in water has applications for oil spills, fish farming, brewing beer and more – and a professor at Michigan State University is poised to help supply that need.
The concept of oxygen sensors isn’t new. The challenge, however, has been manufacturing one that can withstand fluctuations in temperature, salinity, carbon dioxide, phosphates and biological wastes. Ruby Ghosh, associate professor of physics, was able to overcome those obstacles as well as build one that provides real-time data and is relatively inexpensive. (more…)
New Online Interface Enables Daily Audience Measurement for Digital Campaigns; Includes Traditional Post-Buy Metrics Such as Reach/Frequency and GRPs
London, UK, April 5, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the European launch of 
comScore AdEffx™ Campaign Essentials, a powerful new audience measurement tool. The new online dashboard features several highly sought after features for digital media planning and optimisation, including daily measurement of campaign demographics, and the availability of traditional post-buy metrics, such as Reach / Frequency and GRPs. (more…)
Sub-Saharan Africa is struggling with twin epidemics — HIV and heroin addiction — and Tanzania, in eastern Africa, is one of the hardest-hit regions.
But now, with funding from the U.S. government and organizational expertise from Yale, an effort is underway there to get heroin addiction and the viruses spawned by the sharing of contaminated needles — HIV, Hepatitis B and C — under control. (more…)
*Every day more than half a million people visit Microsoft Answers to get their burning Microsoft product questions answered. The company’s recently refreshed question-and-answer forum brings together consumers, experts and technical enthusiasts into a single online community.*
REDMOND, Wash. – April 4, 2011 – Ever since he retired in 2005, Ronnie Vernon’s time has been his own. The former heavy equipment instructor gets to spend his days doing exactly what he likes to do. So each morning he fires up his computer, heads to the Microsoft Answers site, and settles in for a long day answering questions about Windows.
Vernon can’t quite explain why he spends up to 12 hours a day offering strangers tech support. “Over the years I’ve tried to figure out why people do what they do with volunteering, but I never came up with a good explanation,” said Vernon, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) community leader recognized by Microsoft for actively sharing his real world technical expertise with consumers. “Basically, you have some knowledge, you see some people who have problems, and you just like to help.” (more…)
It’s not often that plants are described as diabolical, but spotted knapweed has that rare distinction. A 2004 issue of Smithsonian magazine, for instance, dubbed it the “wicked weed of the West,” a “national menace” and a “weed of mass destruction.”
Such reports were overstated and incorrect, but the press wasn’t making this stuff up. It was summarizing research results published in leading academic journals. (more…)
Nothing seems more automatic than speech. We produce an estimated 150 words a minute, and make a mistake only about once every 1,000 words. We stay on track, saying what we intend to, even when other words distract us—from the radio, say, or a road sign we pass while driving.
An upcoming study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows for the first time why we so rarely speak those irrelevant words: We have a “verbal self-monitor” between the mental production of speech and the actual uttering of words that catches any irrelevant items coming from outside of the speaker. (more…)
AUSTIN, Texas — Good-looking people are generally happier than their plain looking or unattractive counterparts, largely because of the higher salaries, other economic benefits and more successful spouses that come with beauty, according to new research from economists at The University of Texas at Austin.
This holds true for both men and women and across different cultures, authors Daniel Hamermesh and Jason Abrevaya report in their paper “‘Beauty is the Promise of Happiness’?,” [PDF] which they are releasing to economists this week. The paper is posted at https://ftp.iza.org/dp5600.pdf [PDF], the Web site for the German-based Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). (more…)
