People of many professions have their own superstitions. Most likely, they did not appear from scratch.
Doctors, for example, try not to exchange their night duties. If they do, they will have a tough night, they say. They also try not to have sex the day before the night duty. There is nothing funny about it because people usually get relaxed and become less attentive after sex. (more…)
*Study Finds that Without Proper Adjustments, Site-Server Estimates can Overstate Audience Size by Factor of up to 2.7x*
Sydney, Australia, February 3, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its 
white paper, The Impact of Cookie Deletion on Site-Server and Ad-Server Metrics in Australia: An Empirical comScore Study. The study addresses the key sources of discrepancy between server-based and panel-based data and reveals that cookie deletion can lead to large overstatements in servers’ measurement of the size of online audiences. Without appropriate adjustments, site-server measurement of the size of website audiences in Australia can be inflated by up to 2.7 times the actual number of unique visitors. (more…)
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars than our sun.
Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets. Kepler also found six confirmed planets orbiting a sun-like star, Kepler-11. This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a single star yet discovered outside our solar system. (more…)
Being in a warm room can make the idea of global warming seem more likely, according to researchers from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley.
A new study finds that when people feel warmer—either because they are out in the hot sun or because they are in an overheated room—they believe in global warming more. The findings were published online Jan. 20 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. (more…)
Interoperable e-mail messaging service launched with new version of Microsoft HealthVault enables physicians to share patient health information electronically
REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 2, 2011 — During a Health & Human Services event in D.C. today, Microsoft Corp. today announced 
new encrypted e-mail functionality for Microsoft HealthVault, which allows clinical partner solutions to send messages to patients based on security protocols set forth by the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC’s) Direct Project. Through this offering, every HealthVault record will be able to automatically accept mails directly from healthcare providers. (more…)
A new study by a Cambridge University criminologist reveals just how dangerous it was to be a monarch in Europe before the modern era. (more…)
Fresh on the heels of a series of crippling floods that began in December 2010, and a small tropical cyclone, Anthony, this past weekend, the northeastern Australian state of Queensland is now bracing for what could become one of the largest tropical cyclones the state has ever seen.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite, built and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., captured this infrared image of Yasi on Jan. 31, 2011, at 6:29 a.m. PST (9:29 a.m. EST). The AIRS data create an accurate 3-D map of atmospheric temperature, water vapor and clouds, data that are useful to forecasters. The image shows the temperature of Yasi’s cloud tops or the surface of Earth in cloud-free regions. The coldest cloud-top temperatures appear in purple, indicating towering cold clouds and heavy precipitation. The infrared signal of AIRS does not penetrate through clouds. Where there are no clouds, AIRS reads the infrared signal from the surface of the ocean waters, revealing warmer temperatures in orange and red. (more…)
Triceratops and Torosaurus have long been considered the kings of the horned dinosaurs. But a new discovery traces the giants’ family tree further back in time, when a newly discovered species appears to have reigned long before its more well-known descendants, making it the earliest known member of its family.
The new species, called Titanoceratops after the Greek myth of the Titans, rivaled Triceratops in size, with an estimated weight of nearly 15,000 pounds and a massive eight-foot-long skull. (more…)
