Technology
Social Networking Accounts for 1 of Every 5 Minutes Spent Online in Australia
*comScore Presents ‘The State of the Internet in Australia’*
Sydney, Australia, February 18, 2011 – comScore, Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released The State of the Internet in Australia, which looks at the latest trends in digital consumer behavior in the market. The findings of the report were also recently presented at a comScore-hosted industry event in Sydney. Among the report’s key findings was that Social Networking now accounts for the largest amount of total time spent online at 22 percent, an increase of 5.3 percentage points from the previous year, as social media plays an increasingly prominent role in Australians’ digital lives. (more…)
‘Thawing Permafrost Likely Will Accelerate Global Warming in Coming Decades’
Up to two-thirds of Earth’s permafrost likely will disappear by 2200 as a result of warming temperatures, unleashing vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, says a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.
The carbon resides in permanently frozen ground that is beginning to thaw in high latitudes from warming temperatures, which will impact not only the climate but also international strategies to reduce fossil fuel emissions, said CU-Boulder’s Kevin Schaefer, lead study author. “If we want to hit a target carbon dioxide concentration, then we have to reduce fossil fuel emissions that much lower than previously thought to account for this additional carbon from the permafrost,” he said. “Otherwise we will end up with a warmer Earth than we want.” (more…)
In Watson’s Wake, IBM World Community Grid Registration Skyrockets 700%
$500,000 in IBM Jeopardy! Challenge prize money to fund global research that benefits humanity
ARMONK, N.Y. – 18 Feb 2011: Watson wasn’t the only computer system that won this week when it competed successfully against two human champions on the Jeopardy! game show.
The other computing system is called World Community Grid, a virtual supercomputer that helps scientists solve humanitarian challenges by tapping the unused computing power of personal computers around the world. Scientists who use World Community Grid are not only set to receive $500,000 in prize money — but are already earning unprecedented support worldwide: The day after the tournament’s conclusion, World Community Grid saw a 700% spike in the number of people who normally volunteer their computers’ spare power for the effort. (more…)
Psychological Effects of BP Oil Spill Go Beyond Residents of Impacted Shorelines
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The psychological effects of the BP oil spill, the largest recorded environmental disaster in human history, extend far beyond people living around the areas of the Gulf of Mexico that were directly impacted by the spill, a new study finds.
Writing in the online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, a publication of the National Institutes of Health, the researchers reported that even in areas that did not have oil exposure, people still experienced elevated levels of anxiety and depression and reduced ability to show resilience in difficult emotional and financial situations because of the disaster. (more…)
Regrowing Hair: UCLA-VA Researchers May Have Accidentally Discovered a Solution
It has been long known that stress plays a part not just in the graying of hair but in hair loss as well. Over the years, numerous hair-restoration remedies have emerged, ranging from hucksters’ “miracle solvents” to legitimate medications such as minoxidil. But even the best of these have shown limited effectiveness.
Now, a team led by researchers from UCLA and the Veterans Administration that was investigating how stress affects gastrointestinal function may have found a chemical compound that induces hair growth by blocking a stress-related hormone associated with hair loss — entirely by accident. (more…)
Children Of Working Moms Face More Health Problems
Children of working mothers are significantly more likely to experience health problems, including asthma and accidents, than children of mothers who don’t work, according to new research from North Carolina State University. (more…)
Orangutans and Gorillas
Three babies have been born in the monkey house of the Moscow Zoo during the recent six months. The births took place in the families of orangutans and gorillas. While young males and females are growing, adult apes continue to follow natural laws. *Source: Pravda