Side Effects of Watching 3D TV

While searching for a 3D TV, I cam across this health warning about the possibly dangerous effects of watching 3D television that was released by Samsung.

                   Photosensitive Seizure Warning and Other Health Risks

�Some viewers may experience an epileptic seizure or stroke when exposed to certain flashing images or lights contained in certain television pictures or video games. If you or any of your family has a history of epilepsy or stroke, please consult with a medical specialist before using the 3D function.

�If you experience any of the following symptoms, immediately stop watching 3D pictures and consult a medical specialist: (1) altered vision; (2) lightheadedness; (3) dizziness; (4) involuntary movements such as eye or muscle twitching; (5) confusion; (6) nausea; (7) loss of awareness; (8) convulsions; (9) cramps; and/or (10) disorientation. Parents should monitor and ask their children about the above symptoms as children and teenagers may be more likely to experience these symptoms than adults.

�Viewing in 3D mode may also cause motion sickness, perceptual after effects, disorientation, eye strain, and decreased postural stability. It is recommended that users take frequent breaks to lessen the likelihood of these effects. If you have any of the above symptoms, immediately discontinue use of this device and do not resume until the symptoms have subsided.

�We do not recommend watching 3D if you are in bad physical condition, need sleep or have been drinking alcohol.

�Watching TV while sitting too close to the screen for an extended period of time may damage your eyesight. The ideal viewing distance should be at least three times the height of the TV screen. It is recommended that the viewer�s eyes are level with the screen.

�Watching TV while wearing 3D Active Glasses for an extended period of time may cause headaches or fatigue. If you experience a headache, fatigue or dizziness, stop watching TV and rest.

�Do not use the 3D Active Glasses for any purpose other than viewing 3D television. Wearing the 3DActive Glasses for any other purpose (as general spectacles, sunglasses, protective goggles, etc.) may physically harm you or weaken your eyesight.

�Viewing in 3D mode may cause disorientation for some viewers. DO NOT place your television near open stairwells, cables, balconies or other objects that may cause you to injure yourself.

Source: Samsung

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Actress Liz Taylor Passed Away at the Age of 79

Liz Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Liz Taylor dead, Liz Taylor Wikipedia, Liz Taylor Wiki, Elisabeth Taylor. Actress Liz Taylor passed away today at the age of 79. Elizabeth Taylor, the actress who dazzled generations of moviegoers with her stunning beauty and whose name was synonymous with Hollywood glamour, died on Wednesday of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.
 

ABC News reported, her son Michael Wilding said: �My Mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love. Though her loss is devastating to those of us who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world.�

Goodbye Liz Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Liz Taylor dead, Liz Taylor Wikipedia, Liz Taylor Wiki, Elisabeth Taylor.

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BlackBerry PlayBook Price Released, Order Available Now!

Playbook, RIM - The BlackBerry PlayBook has surfaced on the Future Shop and Best Buy Canada online websites for pre-order early, revealing Canadian pricing for the device. Showcased are the 16, 32, and 64GB models, priced at $499, $599, and $699, respectively. The Blackberry Playbook, one of a fleet of tablet computers unveiled at this year's 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. 

The devices, according to both Future Shop and Best Buy are slated to arrive in their warehouses on April 19th.

The PlayBook is also available in the United States now as well for pre-order, with Best Buy US listing the devices at $499, $599, and $699 USD. Playbook, RIM.

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Research Examples

While this story seems to have the basis for good research, due to the author's reputation as a sports psychologist, the story itself has no real research in it. There is mention of research to back up the claims being made, but the research is never specifically named and no details into how the research was conducted are given. It makes it difficult to trust this site as a source or to even really determine the validity of the research without having anything to look at.

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'Supermoon' of March 19th @ Saturday Night

On Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. EST, the moon was at its closest point to the Earth in 2011: a distance of 221,565 miles away.


At its peak, the supermoon of March was 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than lesser full moons (when the moon is at its farthest from Earth). But to the casual observer, it may be hard to tell the difference.

The moon has not been in a position to appear this large since March 1993.

In December 2008, there was a near-supermoon when the moon turned full four hours away from its perigee � the point in its orbit that is closest to Earth. But this month, the full moon and perigee are just under one hour apart, promising spectacular views, depending on local conditions.

Although a full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to ordinary observation.

During the day or so before and after, most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as "full," with the actual shaded area of the lunar surface being so narrow � and changing in apparent width so slowly � that it is hard for the naked eye to tell whether it's present, or which side it is.

Supermoon making waves

In addition, the near coincidence of Saturday�s full moon with perigee will result in a dramatically large range of high and low ocean tides.

The highest tides will not, however, coincide with the perigee moon but will actually lag by up to a few days depending on the specific coastal location. For example, in Wilmington, N.C., the highest tide (5.3 feet) will be attained at 11:21 p.m. EDT on March 20.

In New York City, high water (5.9 feet) at The Battery comes at 10:49 p.m. EDT on March 21, while at Boston Harbor, a peak tide height of 12.2 feet comes at 1:31 a.m. EDT on March 22, almost 2 1/2 after perigee.

But then, to those living on the shores near the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada, the 10- to 20-foot (3- to 6-meter) increase in the vertical tidal range makes it obvious when the Moon lies near perigee, clear skies or cloudy.

Any coastal storm at sea around this time will almost certainly aggravate coastal flooding problems.

Such an extreme tide is known as a perigean spring tide, the word spring being derived from the German springen � to "spring up," and is not, as is often mistaken, a reference to the spring season.

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AOL Auto's: Ford Motor Company�s Lincoln brand is the most reliable vehicle in the automobile industry

AOL Autos recently published an article which noted that a new J.D. Power & Associates research found that Ford Motor Company�s Lincoln brand is the most reliable vehicle in the automobile industry. According to the article, the study was, �based on consumer feedback after three years of ownership, considered a suitable amount of time for real problems to surface.� This is an important thing to note since it indicates that the research isn�t scientific in nature, but more opinion based. The article was good in that it also noted limitations of the study most notably that many of the ranked cars have updated since 2008. This is a major limitation though because it almost makes the study results void, because unless you are buying a model from 2008 or earlier, the results of the study do not apply to your vehicle. To balance this point, the reporter did a good job of noting that if you are interested in purchasing a new car, you should also look at the J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study (IQS), �which measures quality of new cars in the first three months of ownership.�

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An Example of Good Research Analysis

This month, USA Today covered a study that deals with erectile dysfunction caused by using pain relievers. The article was brief but efficient. Anyone reading the article would leave with a good understanding of what the study is about. The reporter mentioned when the study was started (2002), the number of participants (80,966), their age ranges (45-69) and the results. We also know who the study was conducted by, its purpose and the prospect of future research. The only thing we don't know that may be useful is the study's title.

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A Good Explanation, But The Story May Not Be Newsworthy

Last month AOL Health posted an article detailing a recent study that found that using a cellphone for 50 minutes causes the user's brain activity to rise, which is indicated by brain glucose metabolism. The article does a good job of explaining that the study was composed of 47 subjects who received PET scans after glucose metabolism after phones were help up to subjects right and left ears. In addition it is important that the study notes that increased glucose metabolism was localized to areas of the brain where the antenna was, as the study showed an increase by seven percent.

However, the issue with this story is that the study does not make the claim that this increased brain activity can definitively leads to cancer. While there is a possibility that this could be the case, this article seems to be making too much of an assumption. Consequently it is questionable as to whether or not this story was entirely necessary.

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Cell Phone Research on TIME's Health Blog

A recent article on TIME Magazine's health blog HealthLand succinctly and accurately describes research that suggests that using a cell phone can distract someone while crossing the street, especially for older people. News articles describing research can often be lengthy and full of jargon, but this article weaves in the methods used in the experiment, the sample population, and the conclusions, in an interesting, story-telling way, rather than bogging it down by summarizing every aspect of the research report. The only aspects that I would say are missing, is the number of participants and comments from the researcher. The article also could have used an outside expert to validate or refute the claims made in this study. We must however remember that this article comes from a health blog, and blogs often serve as a round-up of events, rather than a source of original reporting. CNN.com also published an article on this study, which mentioned that the study was published in a peer-reviewed journal, Psychology and Aging. The TIME article should have mentioned the journal title to provide more credibility. The TIME article does, however, mention that these findings support previous studies about driving while using cell-phones which helps the reader assess the validity of the research. TIME is also careful not to make any sweeping suggestions, using phrases like "the findings support the idea."

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Aussie journos, handhelds at the Oval Office

My husband, Tom Brune, covers Washington for Newsday. He was at the White House on March 7, when Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard arrived, accompanied by the Aussie press corps. As the reporters waited to enter the Oval Office, one of the Aussies trained what appeared to be a smart phone on a colleague. The colleage, looking into the hand-held device, said "We are here next to the Rose Garden waiting to go into the Oval Office..." (or something to that effect). Tom said they appeared to be documenting every step for their news organization.

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An Extensive Study: drinking coffee may lower stroke risk in women

TIME magazine highlighted a recent study published in the March edition of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, which revealed that drinking coffee may in fact lower the risk of stroke in women. This article is a good example of reporting on a survey because both sides are discussed and links are provided to similar studies. It is made clear within the body of the story that the results are not to be taken as absolute and that it will take continued research to determine that the results are accurate as well as why drinking coffee may potentially lower the risk of stroke. The study itself is comprehensive and the procedures used reveal careful implementation. The sample size was approximately 35,000 women between the ages of 49 and 83. The women were observed for about 10 years. The researchers spent extensive time and resources when compiling their data.

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More Rs than Ds turn to online news in the midst of an election

According to a Pew Research Center study published Thursday, a higher percentage of Republicans watched political videos online before the 2010 election than Democrats. This �The Internet and Campaign 2010� report also concluded that more Republican voters (69 percent) watched and read political content online than Democratic voters (56 percent). The study was based on 2,257 phone interviews of people over the age of 18 immediately after the election. Pew took the time to define an online political user. This was a well-conducted research study and was well-designed. It broke down the information so it could be easily interpreted and understood based on several factors. It used a large sample size over a good time period. My only critique is that the study did not provide clear reasoning or an explanation for the research it concluded. It does however have the potential for other research to continue exploring why there are these differences.

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Uninteresting Research

An article I found on DonaldsonvilleChief.com discussed research data on religion in the media. I feel that the article, �Religion News: Media coverage on religion doubled in 2010,� did a poor job at presenting the information. Rather than giving background information or explaining the numbers more in-depth, the author just wrote percentage after percentage. For a reader, this would get exhausting. It was a struggle for me to even finish the article and it wasn�t even that long. The article did compare the amount of religion-related articles from this 2010 to 2009, 2008, and 2007. It then went more in-depth to explain how this is the first year religion coverage surpassed science and technology and education. However, it did speculate as to why religion may have received more coverage. Instead, it discussed which religion stories received the most coverage this year. I think this author did a poor job at presenting this information because it made the topic dull and boring. Rather than keeping the reader interested in the topic, it pushed me away with the amount of numbers and percentages it threw at me.

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Where are Women Writers? (and where is the further research?)

I currently subscribe to Mediabistro.com, a website that publishes various articles and job postings to journalists. From this website, I stumbled across an article titled �Where are the Women Writers?� After reading the Vida studies, Elisa Strauss of Forward.com decided to tackle the problem of diminishing women writers and figure out why there are in fact more male writers. According to this article, �She wrote to the (editors of The New Yorker, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, Harper�s Magazine, and The Atlantic; she received responses from all but the Atlantic�.

The article contains one graph showing that 158 men made up bylines in The Atlantic as opposed to 52 women. Even though you can click on a link in the article that shows more graphs like this, I don't think it presents enough research. The research fails to show more detail like how many staff writers are actually at the newspaper and what topics they are writing about. Although only 52 women made up bylines for The Atlantic, perhaps they made up the front page bylines. Furthermore, perhaps The Atlantic just doesn't happen to have a lot of women interested in writing for them. The research is also pretty bias because they fail to include EVERY major newspaper and magazine; they only include ones that support their argument. The study was not large enough to pass statistical muster, it did not last long enough, and we definitely did not gain the full picture which are key elements in positively assessing a study.

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Mobile video of Wisconsin public employee protests

This page on the WISC3TV Web site allows locals to post mobile news reports and rate one another's submissions. Recent postings included several of the protests - and arrests of protesters - from the rallies outside the state capitol opposing the governor's efforts to end collective bargaining for public employees. Some of the videos are good; some are lame. Overall, they're a useful supplement to the professional news coverage.

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Lawsuit over a Tweet? NBA Referee Sues Reporter

Sending sports news out by Twitter is becoming the norm for many reporters on that beat. But Jon Krawczynski, of the Associated Press, is learning that court side tweeting the latest call by a NBA referee can get you in trouble. While tweeting lets you, the reporter, deliver real time news, is it worth tangling yourself up in a defamation lawsuit?

The incident took place back in January at a NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Houston Rockets. Veteran referee, Bill Spooner, called foul on a Timberwolve player and the coach, Kurt Rambis, was not happy. Spooner says he told Rambis he would review the call at halftime but the coach really wanted those two points back. Spooner claims he never responded to Rambis's question on how to get his points back but Krawczynski says otherwise. The reporter, who is the beat reporter for the Timberwolves, tweeted that Spooner "told Rambis he could 'get it back' after a bad call. Then he made an even worse call on Rockets. That's NBA officiating folks."

Spooner is suing Krawczynski for $75,000 and an apology. He is also suing the AP, according a WSJ story. The complaint was filed with the Minnesota Federal Court on Monday. The NBA has advised the referee not to sue; and said it found no merit to the claim.

The question is will we, meaning journalists, see more lawsuits over what reporters put out on Twitter?

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State of the Media

A new Pew Research study came out with the finding of audience's reaction to the media in 2010.  The results found:

"People are spending more time with news than ever before, according to Pew Research Center survey data, but when it comes to the platform of choice, the web is gaining ground rapidly while other sectors are losing. In 2010, digital was the only media sector seeing audience growth. And cable news joined the ranks of older media suffering audience decline."

 

- Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism

Online media showed the only increase in audience, compared to six other outlets; local TV, network TV, newspapers, audio, magazines and cable TV.  In December 2010, 41% of Americans said they get most of their news from the Internet, a 17% increase from last year.  View complete report at:

State of the Media

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International Mobile Journalism with Guy Degen

International freelancer and multi-media reporter extraordinaire, Guy Degen, has been a correspondent for Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera and the United Nations. Guy has been using an iphone to cover news assignments since 2008 or so.  

In the 2009 interview below, Guy provides details about his techniques as a field reporter using mobile devices. Guy is interviewed by Marcus Bosch, also a freelance mobile journalist and online journalism instructor at the DW-Akademe in Germany.



Here�s Guy testing the use of Bambuser video and Skype audio for possible future assignments.
 
Please check out Guy's very comprehensive posts regarding a field reporter's mobile journalism tools.  The posts are from the Frontline Club blog.
  
Follow Guy Degen on Twitter- his handle is FieldReports.

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Understanding Hydrogen Explosions at Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan

The Hydrogen Explosions at Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan was result of the effort to prevent the meltdown of the core.
The core which contains fuel rods is inside a 6 inches thick stainless steel vessel.

Water is being injected into the vessel to keep the temperature for rising to the level were it will melt down.

This process results in generation for steam and hydrogen and in order to release the pressure inside the vessel it released in to atmosphere.

The hydrogen combines with atmospheric oxygen resulting in big explosions.

The blast actually lessened pressure building inside the troubled reactor, and officials said the all-important containment shell - thick concrete armor around the reactor - had not been damaged.
In that case, the uranium core can melt through the outer containment shell, releasing radioactive byproducts like iodine and cesium. That endangers the environment and people nearby.

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Mobile Video Helps Tell Breaking News

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan has provided one of the best examples of how we can use mobile video to share breaking news. Even just a few years ago, we would not have seen eyewitness accounts of the tsunami as we are today. From people shooting amateur video on their iPhones to a sports reporter stranded in Japan sharing his story via Skype, breaking news is quickly shared. And in tragedies like this, it adds much more of a human element to be able to see what is going on at the scene.

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Apple iPad-2

iPad 2 features an entirely new design that is 33% thinner and up to 15% lighter than the original iPad while maintaining the same 9.7-inch LED-backlit LCD screen. iPad 2 is available in black or white, and introduces the innovative iPad 2 Smart Cover in a range of vibrant polyurethane and rich leather colors.

Thinner. Lighter. Faster. 10-hour battery

1. Dual-core Apple A5 chip for faster performance
2. Up to nine times the graphics horsepower  
3. Two cameras for FaceTime video calling, HD recording, and PhotoBooth  
4. Same great 10-hour battery life, with an even thinner and lighter design  
5. Video Mirroring allows the iPad screen to be displayed on a TV, projector, or other HDMI device with the new Apple  
6. Digital AV Adapter (sold separately)

Key Features - iOS
iPad 2 comes with iOS 4.3, the latest version of the world's most advanced mobile operating system, with new features, including faster Safari mobile browsing performance, iTunes Home Sharing, enhancements to AirPlay, the choice to use the iPad side switch to either lock the screen rotation or mute audio, and AT&T Mobile Hotspot (Personal Hotspot) to share an iPhone 4 cellular data connection over Wi-Fi.

 Amazing new apps and iOS

1. FaceTime video calling over Wi-Fi to iPad 2, iPhone 4, new iPod touch, and Intel-based Macs.
2. Use Photo Booth to capture snapshots and apply eight fun effects using Multi-Touch gestures.  
3. Capture and edit HD video and then share through Mail or YouTube.  
4. New iMovie and GarageBand apps for iPad coming soon on the App Store for $4.99 each.  
5. iPad 2 ships with iOS 4.3, the world's most advanced mobile operating system.

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BBC Mobile covers tsunami in Japan

BBC Mobile has an outstanding multimedia report on the 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan today. It features tabs with video and photos linked to a map of the affected areas as well as tabs for news updates, a wave map and an explanatory piece. The videos show waves sweeping cars off the shore in Mikato, buildings swept away in Sendai and a burning high-rise in Tokyo. One of the videos is accompanied by an informative interview with an expert while he views the video.

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Bioluminescence of Noctiluca scintillans

Recent floods in Australia has result in abundant proliferation of Noctiluca scintillans, commonly known as the Sea Sparkle resulting some breath taking Bioluminescent spectacle. For a cluster of lakes in Australia's eastern Victoria, the combination of the fire and then the rain washed ash and nitrogen-rich soil into the water. The Gippsland Lakes experienced a rise in sea level. That caused the lakes to mix with sea water, which also raised the salinity.


As you can see blow the bioluminescent brew has gaven the water a nocturnal glow.

Courtecy:Phil Hart/ http://www.philhart.com/

Noctiluca scintillans  a species of algae , also called  Noctiluca miliaris, is a free-living non-parasitic marine-dwelling species of dinoflagellate that exhibits bioluminescence. The bioluminescent characteristic of N. scintillans is produced by a luciferin-luciferase system located in thousands of spherically shaped organelles, or �microsources�, located throughout the cytoplasm of this single-celled protist. Nonluminescent populations within the genus Noctiluca lack these microsources.

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Reporting on Roads, On the Roads

Ahhh, snow coverage. The bread and butter of the TV news industry. Weather guy gets on, says a few inches will fall the next day. Cue the live shots from the grocery store (I need bread and milk now!), the salt dome (blah blah crews ready blah blah). The next day - reporters stand roadside and tell you what you already know - snow makes for a crappy commute. With Skype, reporters can at least show you how crappy it really is - while riding on the roads.
What a concept. (paper shuffle) Back to you.

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Technological way to attain Immortality-Mind Uploading

One of the futuristic ways to achieve immortality may be to consider the prospect of �mind-uploading�, that is, the transfer of the mind�s information to a machine. Hence, even if the organic brain dies, the mind could continue to exist once it is uploaded in a silicon-based machine.


Some scientists think that even if it were not possible to indefinitely suspend the body�s death, it would at least be possible to emulate the brain with artificial intelligence (Kurzweil, 1993; Moravec, 2003).

Two crucial philosophical issues are raised by this prospect. First, the field of philosophy of artificial intelligence raises the question: could a machine ever really be conscious? Philosophers who adhere to a functionalist understanding of the mind would agree; but other philosophers would not (Consider Searle�s Chinese Room Argument in Searle, 1998).

Even if we were to claim that a machine could in fact be conscious, the technological prospect of mind uploading raises a second philosophical issue: would an emulation of the brain preserve personal identity? If we adhere to a soul or body criterion of personal identity, we should answer negatively. If we adhere to a psychological criterion of personal identity, then we should answer affirmatively, for the artificial brain would indeed be psychologically continuous with the original person.

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Research Article Gone Wrong

The story "Chemo May Raise Risk of Falls in Breast Cancer Survivors" by HealthDay was featured on Yahoo News-- for reasons I can't explain. The article was confusing, the scientific facts were displayed unappealingly if at all, and the findings of the research are muddled. The study doesn't appear to have done research on any control group of its own, so it relies on a statistic on "community-dwelling adults over 65 years old" as the control. The article doesn't mention the age or place of living of the chemo patients it studied aside from saying they are "postmenopausal". The article fails to attribute some sentences to a source, or elaborate on them. For example: "Balance was the only difference between breast cancer survivors who fell and those who did not."

I would have attributed everything included in the piece, and written about the conditions of the experiment. I also would have investigated whether or not it is accurate to compare the research to another seemingly incomparable control group. I would have also investigated what other factors could have led to falls in chemo patients.

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Video News Using Mobile Phone

Here is a decent, timely example of mobile phone footage being used in a news report from The Telegraph. Video: Gaddafi's son seen rallying supporters

As we all know, and this video proves, mobile phones and social media have been key to getting information out from Egypt and now Libya.

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Stuxnet

If you don�t know it already, Stuxnet is a worm that could take control of industrial equipment. It is widely believed that its target was machinery used to enrich uranium.


Stuxnet first came to light in July 2010. Nearly 60% of reported infections were inside Iran.

The worm targets industrial control systems, known as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), made by Siemens.

While PLCs are used to control a wide variety of automated systems, it is believed that it was those inside Iran's nuclear facilities that were the intended target.

Analysts who have examined the Stuxnet code say it could have been used to damage centrifuges which play a crucial role in the process of enriching uranium for both nuclear power and weapons.

In a recent report on Stuxnet, the security firm Symantec said that it would have taken a team of between five and 10 developers, six months to create the worm.

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Motorola�s Xoom Tablet

Motorola�s Xoom tablet computer went on sale   last Thursday and looks like this device is  the most powerful rival yet to Apple�s iPad.

Though companies like Samsung and Dell have tried to respond with tablets of their own based on Google�s Android operating system, the Xoom is the first tablet to feature the latest Android version, Honeycomb, which is optimised for tablets as opposed to smartphones.

The Xoom is roughly the same size as the iPad, and costs about the same for a similarly spec�d version, though buyers who opt for an iPad with limited memory and restricted to wi-fi connections can save hundreds of dollars.

The Xoom has slightly higher screen resolution than the iPad, and boasts front and rear facing cameras for picture-taking and video conferencing. Powering the device is a dual core 1GHZ processed with 1GB of RAM, and battery life is assessed at 10 hours.

This device seems to be  a worthy competitor to the iPad

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Now we have world's first anti-laser

A team of Physicist at Yale University, have built the world's first device that can cancel out a laser beam - a so-called anti-laser which is capable of absorbing an incoming laser beam entirely. Their device focuses two lasers beams of a specific frequency into a specially designed optical cavity made from silicon, which traps the incoming beams of light and forces them to bounce around until all their energy is dissipated.

In a paper published in the journal Science they demonstrated that the anti-laser could adsorb 99.4 per cent of incoming light, for a specific wavelength.

Altering the wavelength of the incoming light means that the anti-laser can effectively be turned on and off - and that could be used in optical switches.

The anti-laser's big advantage is that it is built using silicon, which is already widely used in computing.

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Coding Climate change: Galileo moment for GOP

I really liked the overall idea of this blog and relating it to the Catholic church. As I said in my review, I thought it was very insightful but not very informative. He did not really do a good job of providing a source and he kind of just focused on bashing the Republicans the entire time and not providing follow up. I decided to code the tone of the article. I thought that he spent more time focused on politics than providing facts and what the other party (the Democrats) think of it.

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Coding the Wilting Climate Change Debate

It seemed to me upon reading the article the first time that Plumer used a lot of sourcing in a very offhand manner with links that usually were not explained.  So, for this assignment, I decided to code two different things concerning the stories that were linked in the paper: their timeliness (when they were published) and their potential bias (whether or not the website it was published on stated up front that it had an axe to grind in the climate battle).  I found that out of the nine links used, three were for material that was over eight months old - a negative in my mind considering the article is about the ever-changing climate debate, and three were from websites that were clearly labeled as having pro-climate change tendencies.  It further confirmed my initial skepticism - when a third of your sources are dated and a third are biased, I don't see why your story should be taken as balanced.

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Coding for New Republic: The Wilting Climate Change Debate

I decided to code the blog based on the tone of each paragraph and how it affected the piece. The piece seems to be more about republicans who hold the power in the house and their ideas about climate change than the issue of climate change itself. It�s definitely condescending and sarcastic at times and the authors annoyance with the speakers he mentions is obvious. I think the tone may be received more harshly because it�s (re)posted on the NPR site. If it was posted by a different organization it would probably be more welcomed.

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Coding "The Wilting Climate Change Debate"

When I first read �New Republic: The Wilting Climate Change Debate,� I rated the story poorly on NewsTrust, as far as sources and fairness, and I commented that there is little evidence to support the bold and often sarcastic claims made in the piece. Although I realize that this is an opinion piece, coding this story has made even clearer just how biased and poorly supported this writer makes his arguments. Among other things, I coded for the types of sources in the story, the writer�s tone, how much sarcastic, opinionated language the writer used, and how often the writer supported his arguments with substantive evidence. After reviewing my coding, I could see that almost 80 percent of the paragraphs in this story were colored with rude or sarcastic opinions that were almost never supported with any evidence like data or reports. The author quotes heavily from the anti-climate change side, but only does so to bash these politicians. He also does not provide enough comment from the pro-climate change scientists or politicians who could substantiate his argument. Overall, this editorial is not just biased and poorly sourced, but it is not convincing because there is a lack of evidential support for the claims the author makes.

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Coding "The Wilting Climate Change Debate."

I appreciate how passionate Bradford Plumer is about climate change and that comes across in this article, but I think his deep opinions hinder his arguments.  Like Danielle, I thought it would be interesting to see how much of the article is made up of Plumer's opinions.  Within the 10 paragraphs, Plumer uses reliable and informative sources, like the EPA, IPCC and Politico.  However, I found 20 deeply opinionated phrases scattered throughout the article.  Most were put in parentheses after making an argument.  I noticed that much of the first and last paragraphs are opinion.  When it comes to an issue like climate change, where so many people have deep opinions, this article would have been more effective if Plumer had stuck to the facts and kept his government insults to himself. 

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Coding "The Wilting Climate Change Debate"

I, along with several NewsTrust reviewers, find Bradford Plumer�s �The Wilting Climate Change� highly and overly opinionated. While the article is an editorial, I believe Plumer crossed a line as a journalist by representing his thoughts much too boldly. I therefore decided to code the story based on how many overly-bold and borderline condescending phases were used to get Plumer�s point across. While nine links were provided and 12 quotations were used throughout the 10 paragraphs of the story, Plumer used 25 either single words or phrases out of the total 1,050 words, which, in my opinion, hurt his credibility as a journalist because of how babyish and condescending they make him sound. These phases include �once upon a time,� �blindly accepted everything,� �made-up non-problem,� �simply content to quote� and �barely even feel the need to argue,� and were used in about 10 percent of the entire article. While Plumer was possibly trying to elucidate his opinion, instead he just destroyed his ability to be taken seriously. 

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Large Hadron Collider -Update

Large Hadron Collider experiment is on track to discover new physics. On 31 January 2011. CERN announced that the LHC will run through to the end of 2012 with a short technical stop at the end of 2011. The beam energy for 2011 will be 3.5 TeV. LHC�s experiments a good chance of finding new physics in the next two years, before the LHC goes into a long shutdown to prepare for higher energy running starting 2014.

The LHC was previously scheduled to run to the end 2011 before going into a long technical stop necessary to prepare it for running at its full design energy of 7 TeV per beam. However, the machine�s excellent performance in its first full year of operation forced a rethink. Expected performance improvements in 2011 should increase the rate that the experiments can collect data by at least a factor of three compared to 2010. That would lead to enough data being collected this year to bring tantalising hints of new physics, if there is new physics currently within reach of the LHC operating at its current energy. However, to turn those hints into a discovery would require more data than can be delivered in one year, hence the decision to postpone the long shutdown. If there is no new physics in the energy range currently being explored by the LHC, running through 2012 will give the LHC experiments the data needed to fully explore this energy range before moving up to higher energy.

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Sun is sputtering X-flare

The Sun has unleashed its strongest flare in four years the so-called X-flare, the strongest type; such flares can affect communications on Earth


The eruptions are expected to hit the Earth's magnetic field field over the next couple of days, causing an increase in geomagnetic activity.

The monster flare was recorded at 0156 GMT on 15 February and directed at the Earth. According to the US space agency, the source of this activity - sunspot 1158 - is growing rapidly.

Solar flares are caused by the sudden release of magnetic energy stored in the Sun's atmosphere.

Preliminary data from the Stereo-B and Soho spacecraft suggest that the explosion produced a fast but not particularly bright coronal mass ejection (CME) - a burst of charged particles released into space.

The unpredictable activity on the Sun can interfere with modern technology on Earth, such as electrical power grids, communications systems and satellites - including the satellite navigation (or sat-nav) signals used on Earth.

In 1972, geomagnetic storm provoked by a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US state of Illinois.

And in 1989, another storm plunged six million people into darkness across the Canadian province of Quebec.

Displays of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) have already been seen further south than usual in Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the UK. And further activity is expected over the next few days.

Researchers say the Sun has been awakening after a period of several years of low activity.

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Make free video conference calls with new Skype

Conference calls are vital part of any project or business. Putting people together for getting things done is simplified through conference calls. But most of the cases conferencing requires specific hardwares and dedicated lines. Skype helped by providing free audio conferencing calls through internet.

Now, the latest Skype software support  video conferencing, which can help you to have face to face discussion through internet. Apart from video conferencing Skype now supports different mobile platforms, thus helping mobile users to make cheap video calls!.

Download all new Skype.

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Signup link for Facebook Email program

There was a time when email service solutions were dominated by players like Yahoo, Hotmail, Rediff, Lycos and USA.net. But, in 2003-2004 GMail from Google made its entry into the email service providers list. And in few years raised itself to top of the list!.

Now its Mark Zuckerberg's turn!. Yes, Facebook is in the process of launching an email service solution. Already, Facebook is having an integrated messaging solution which facilitate messaging and chatting among Facebook members. Now they are evolving to be a full fledged email service solution.

All Facebook fans and techno enthusiasts are waiting for the launch of fbmail!.

You can visit the url:http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/ and make a request for signup invitation

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