Monday, August 15, 2011

Found: World's oldest wood – so far


Two 400-million-year-old fossil plants are the oldest known examples of wood. They are small herbs, suggesting that wood did not evolve to help plants grow tall.

Both fossils date from the early Devonian period, by which time simple plants had long colonised the land and begun diversifying. One was found in France and dates from 407 million years ago, while the other, from Canada, is 397 million years old.

According to lead researcher Philippe Gerrienne of the University of Liège, Belgium, they predate the previous record-holders by at least 10 million years.

Trees would not evolve until about 385 million years ago, at which point they began scrambling to grow taller in order to capture more light. Wood was crucial for this, because it made their trunks sturdier.

But Gerrienne thinks that was not why wood first evolved. His fossils are stems only 12 centimetres long, so they wouldn't need the support. Instead he thinks the wood improved the flow of water up the stems.

Yahoo, Bing Beat Google in Search Success Rate





A Google search might not be your best bet if you want to find what you’re looking for online, new data suggests.

Even though 66 percent of all searches in July were conducted using Google’s search engine, more than 80 percent of searches conducted on both Yahoo and Bing were successful, compared to only 68 percent of Google searches. Experian Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence company that released the figures last Thursday, defines a successful search as one that results in a person actually clicking through to a Web site.

The report comes just weeks after a debate between tech experts about whether or not Microsoft should sell Bing.

Columnists at The New York Times wrote that Bing has become a “distraction for the software giant” considering Bing and sites it powers such as Yahoo only control about 27 percent of the U.S. market.

Computerworld volleyed back that 27 percent of the market is still “a tremendous revenue opportunity” and that ”if Microsoft abandons Bing, it might as well just about abandon its entire online presence, because aside from Hotmail, Bing is its only substantial Internet service.”

The Experian Hitwise report says that July was the third straight month that Bing-powered searches increased. They accounted for 28 percent of the online searches conducted in July.

Dell Nixes Streak 5 In Bid For Larger Tablets



The 5-inch Dell Streak, an oversized smartphone pretending to be a tablet, is now officially dead as the computer maker puts its money on larger tablets that can better rival Apple’s popular iPad.

Dell bid “Goodbye” to the Streak 5 on its website this week, saying “It’s been a great ride.” But in reality, the tablet was short of Dell’s challenge to the iPad.

Dell is now banking on 7- and 10-inch tablets, much closer to the form factor of the market leader.

When it was launched in August 2010, the Dell Streak 5 had a few birth defects: its 5-inch screen was only 0.7-inch larger than that of the Droid X smartphone, and the resolution was lower than iPhone 4's 3.5-inch Retina display. The Streak also came with a then-year-old version of Google Android OS (1.6), when the current version at the time was 2.2 (Dell later updated the software to 2.2).

The Streak 5 also had a pricing problem. When it launched, it cost $300 with a two-year AT&T contract, or $550 without -- $50 more expensive than the cheapest (original) iPad, when bought unlocked as a tablet. For these reasons, the Dell Streak 5 was too little, too late to fend off the iPad’s growth. Dell did not publish any sales numbers related to the Streak 5.

Reviewers didn’t think much of the Streak 5 either.

All Things D’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher ridiculed the Dell Streak. Swisher said "the most likely use for the device was as something to eat." In PCWorld’s review, the Streak 5 only got 3/5 stars, and its only pro was the large screen when compared to a regular smartphone.

Dell has not abandoned the fight against the iPad.

CEO Michael Dell is bullish on Android tablets, and predicts Android tablets will one day overtake the iPad, just like what happened in the smartphone arena.

Dell has now moved on with the Dell Streak 7, a 7-inch tablet with an aggressive price-point (around $200 after rebates), but plagued with a poor display and buggy software, as PCWorld’s Melissa J Perenson explains in her review of the Streak 7.

The 10-inch form factor is also on Dell’s agenda: the company launched its newest 10-inch Android tablet exclusively in China this week, while the U.S. is on hold for its arrival. The tablet is called the Streak 10 Pro, uses a 1Ghz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor that runs the Android 3.1 operating system.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Electronic 'tattoos' to monitor vital signs




Once a patient has left hospital, how can doctors track his or her physical condition? Conventional technology is too bulky or obtrusive, but rub-on electronics that stick to the skin like a temporary tattoo could revolutionise medical monitoring.

When doctors need to keep watch on someone's bodily systems, from the heart's beat to the brain's activity, they have to use bulky electronic devices and attach electrodes to the skin with sticky gel.

"These are useful in some clinical settings, but in the real world they restrain movement and cause irritation to the skin," says John Rogers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

To avoid restricting movement, Rogers's team have given their new "epidermal electronics" the flexibility, elasticity and density of skin. They took the silicon and gallium arsenide typically used to build transistors, diodes and resistors, and fashioned it into wires just a few nanometres thick, each bent into the shape of a tiny meandering river. The meanders can stretch and contract to give electronics constructed from them a degree of flexibility which matches that of skin.

The researchers then took circuits made from the wires and put them on a thin patch of rubber. Finally, they embedded the rubber in a water-soluble protective sheet of plastic, creating a patch around 40 micrometres thick. This patch can then be applied to the skin like a temporary tattoo: it is placed on the skin, rubbed with a wet finger to dissolve the protective sheet and left to dry.
Tech style

The nifty "tattoo" is kept in place by the weak intermolecular forces that are at play whenever two surfaces come together. Because the circuit is soft and stretchy enough to conform to the skin's texture, the contact between the two surfaces is good enough to keep the device in place for several days. For the style-conscious patient, it can even be combined with a conventional temporary tattoo (see video above) – although until a wireless transmitter can be incorporated into the design, the temporary tattoo must still be wired to a computer.

In a preliminary study, the group put patches on the throats of volunteers. The thin electronics could detect the electrical changes beneath the skin associated with muscle movements as the volunteers spoke. The signals were then sent through a computer algorithm, which could differentiate the signals associated with different words and allow the volunteers to control a video game with spoken commands.

The first generation of medical patches can monitor electrophysiological signals associated with the heart, other muscles and brain activity. But in future people may benefit from patches that go beyond this passive role, says Rogers.

"We can also use the device to stimulate muscle contractions," he says – although this work, achieved in rats, has yet to be published.

The patches are "a beautiful example of the novel applications than can be enabled by building electronic systems on non-conventional substrates", says Ali Javey, an electronic engineer at the University of California, Berkeley. "This is truly exciting work," he adds.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1206157

Five New Apple Retail Stores Opening Around the WorldFive New Apple Retail Stores Opening Around the World





As we reported, Apple is opening 5 new retail stores on Saturday. The new stores include two U.S. locations and three international ones. We received some early photos from some of the locations:



Due to the time zone differences, the Australian store has already launched to a packed crowd.

Italy's I GIGLI shopping center is actually tweeting live Apple Store opening photos already, as its early Saturday morning in that location at the time of publication:


The remaining locations are in Canada and the U.S. and will start their openings over the next 12 hours.

Apple Increasing iPhone Production with iPhone 5 Ramp-Up


Digitimes offers some updated estimates for iPhone production for the second half of 2011. According to them, Apple has increased the orders for their iPhone line by about 12-13% from 50 million units to 56 million units. The iPhone 5 in particular will reportedly account for 25.5-26 million units in the second half of 2011.

More specifically, iPhone 5 orders for the 3rd quarter (July, Aug, Sept) have been decreased from 7 million units to 5.5-6 million units while the 4th quarter (Oct, Nov, Dec) orders have been raised from 14 million units to more then 20 million units. Meanwhile, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 unit shipments will decline correspondingly from over 20 million in the 3rd quarter to 8 million in the 4th quarter.

As always, it's very hard to verify these projection numbers from Digitimes. They have previously offered up some unbelievable MacBook Air numbers. The iPhone numbers are likely closer to reality, as Apple's iPhone sales have been accelerating. Apple sold 20.34 million iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 units during their 3rd fiscal quarter (Apr, May, June). Note that Apple's financial results follow a fiscal yearly quarter system while Digitimes frequently refers to calendar quarters.

Based on these numbers, Apple's production for calendar Q3 and Q4 of all iPhones will be roughly 25.5 million and 28 million units, respectively. Looking at the history sales graph, these times of the year do represent major jumps in sales for Apple.

Some questions arise though, if these are accurate. 8 million units of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS in the 4th quarter must account for some ongoing sales of those units, since the iPhone 5 is believed to be launching in October. Continuing production and sales of the older models could have to do with a reduced pricing model or simply a slow worldwide roll out. Apple frequently launches their new devices in the U.S. first with other countries to follow.

How Muslims can win Olympic gold during Ramadan




BRITISH rower Mo Sbihi has said he will postpone his Ramadan fast during next year's Olympics in order to maximise his competitive chances.

As a sports science graduate who wrote his dissertation on the performance of athletes without food and water, Sbihi has made an informed choice. In rowing, an endurance event, he believes the risk of dehydration could undermine his performance.

The arrival of Ramadan this year has focused minds on how the estimated 3000 Muslim athletes expected to compete in next year's Olympics in London will fare. In 2012, Ramadan will start on 21 July - a week before the opening ceremony - and cover the entire Olympic period. Athletes are allowed to defer their fasts until a later date, but many are expected to honour the religious period and fast during daylight hours throughout the games.

Recognising that this might put some athletes at a disadvantage, the nutrition working group of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) convened a meeting in 2009 to review the evidence. They agreed that fasting could create problems in some sports, though the impacts are far from clear.

For example, studies in soccer players found no deterioration in sprinting ability or agility, but saw a fall in aerobic capacity, endurance and jumping ability (British Journal of Sports Medicine, DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2007.071712). Another recent study in the same journal found that moderately trained Muslim men ran an average of 5448 metres in 30 minutes when fasting, but 5649 metres outside Ramadan (DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2009.070425).

"If you're running 100 metres or weightlifting, what you eat in the few hours beforehand will have no impact on performance," says Ronald Maughan of Loughborough University, UK, who chaired the IOC working group. However, he adds that in events that last for more than about 30 minutes, or that take place late in the day, performance may suffer.

While the focus is often on food, dehydration may be more significant, says Jim Waterhouse of Liverpool John Moores University, UK. "Performance is less good, physically and mentally, if a person is dehydrated," he says.

To overcome such problems, it makes sense to schedule events early in the morning where possible, when all competitors will be well fed and hydrated, Maughan says.

Waterhouse agrees: "All studies that have been done on Ramadan have concluded that morning performance deteriorates less than afternoon performance."

A question that Islamic scholars may need to consider is just what constitutes breaking a fast. Several studies have suggested that merely rinsing the mouth with a carbohydrate drink improves performance in cycling time trials. Rather than providing calories, the carbohydrate seems to act on mouth receptors that activate areas of the brain involved in motivation and reward during exercise (Nutrition Journal, DOI: 10.1186/1475-2891-9-33). Many Muslims believe it is OK to rinse the mouth with water or mouthwash during Ramadan, as long as they don't swallow.

Even if fasting reduces performance during lab experiments, no one really knows if this equates to a slide down the medal table when it really matters. Manchester City soccer player Kolo Touré claims to have fasted through the first month of the English Premier League without consequence. Muslim athletes may even find fasting carries benefits. "Many say that the intense focus they experience during Ramadan gives them an added edge," says Maughan.

Sixty Amazing-but-True Facts!

o In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi.

o The increased electricity used by modern appliance parts is causing a shift in the Earth's magnetic field. By the year 2327, the North Pole will be located in mid-Kansas, while the South Pole will be just off the coast of East Africa.

o The idea for "tribbles" in "Star Trek" came from gerbils, since some gerbils are actually born pregnant.

o Male rhesus monkeys often hang from tree branches by their amazing prehensile penises.

o Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of the Toledo Post-Dispatch.

o Smearing a small amount of dog feces on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling.

o The Boeing 747 is capable of flying upside-down if it weren't for the fact that the wings would shear off when trying to roll it over.

o The trucking company Elvis Presley worked at as a young man was owned by Frank Sinatra.

o The only golf course on the island of Tonga has 15 holes, and there's no penalty if a monkey steals your golf ball.

o Legislation passed during WWI making it illegal to say "gesundheit" to a sneezer was never repealed.

o Manatees possess vocal chords which give them the ability to speak like humans, but don't do so because they have no ears with which to hear the sound.

o SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below.

o Catfish are the only animals that naturally have an ODD number of whiskers.

o Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender's system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam.
o Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.

o The first McDonald's restaurant opened for business in 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featured the McHaggis sandwich.

o The Air Force's F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.

o You *can* get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.

o Silly Putty was "discovered" as the residue left behind after the first latex condoms were produced. It's not widely publicized for obvious reasons.

o Approximately one-sixth of your life is spent on Wednesdays.

o The skin needed for elbow transplants must be taken from the scrotum of a cadaver.

o The sport of jai alai originated from a game played by Incan priests who held cats by their tails and swung at leather balls. The cats would instinctively grab at the ball with their claws, thus enabling players to catch them.

o A cat's purr has the same romance-enhancing frequency as the voice of singer Barry White.

o The typewriter was invented by Hungarian immigrant Qwert Yuiop, who left his "signature" on the keyboard.

o The volume of water that the Giant Sequoia tree consumes in a 24-hour period contains enough suspended minerals to pave 17.3 feet of a 4-lane concrete freeway.

o King Henry VIII slept with a gigantic axe.

o Because printed materials are being replaced by CD-ROM, microfiche and the Internet, libraries that previously sank into their foundations under the weight of their books are now in danger of collapsing in extremely high winds.

o In 1843, a Parisian street mime got stuck in his imaginary box and consequently died of starvation.

o Touch-tone telephone keypads were originally planned to have buttons for Police and Fire Departments, but they were replaced with * and # when the project was cancelled in favor of developing the 911 system.

o Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.

o Calvin, of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, was patterned after President Calvin Coolidge, who had a pet tiger as a boy.

o Watching an hour-long soap opera burns more calories than watching a three-hour baseball game.

o Until 1978, Camel cigarettes contained minute particles of real camels.

o You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them.

o To human taste buds, Zima is virtually indistinguishable from zebra urine.

o Seven out of every ten hockey-playing Canadians will lose a tooth during a game. For Canadians who don't play hockey, that figure drops to five out of ten.

o A dog's naked behind leaves absolutely no bacteria when pressed against carpet.

o A team of University of Virginia researchers released a study promoting the practice of picking one's nose, claiming that the health benefits of keeping nasal passages free from infectious blockages far outweigh the negative social connotations.

o Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.

o Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel.

o At the first World Cup championship in Uruguay, 1930, the soccer balls were actually monkey skulls wrapped in paper and leather.

o Every Labrador retriever dreams about bananas.

o If you put a bee in a film canister for two hours, it will go blind and leave behind its weight in honey.

o Due to the angle at which the optic nerve enters the brain, staring at a blue surface during sex greatly increases the intensity of orgasms.

o Never hold your nose and cover your mouth when sneezing, as it can blow out your eyeballs.

o Centuries ago, purchasing real estate often required having one or more limbs amputated in order to prevent the purchaser from running away to avoid repayment of the loan. Hence an expensive purchase was said to cost "an arm and a leg."

o When Mahatma Gandhi died, an autopsy revealed five gold Krugerrands in his small intestine.

o Aardvarks are allergic to radishes, but only during summer months.

o Coca-Cola was the favored drink of Pharaoh Ramses. An inscription found in his tomb, when translated, was found to be almost identical to the recipe used today.

o If you part your hair on the right side, you were born to be carnivorous. If you part it on the left, your physical and psychological make-up is that of a vegetarian.

o When immersed in liquid, a dead sparrow will make a sound like a crying baby.

o In WWII the US military planned to airdrop over France propaganda in the form of Playboy magazine, with coded messages hidden in the models' turn-ons and turn-offs. The plan was scrapped because of a staple shortage due to rationing of metal.

o Although difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos.

o Napoleon's favorite type of wood was knotty chestnut.

o The world's smartest pig, owned by a mathematics teacher in Madison, WI, memorized the multiplication tables up to 12.

o Due to the natural "momentum" of the ocean, saltwater fish cannot swim backwards.

o In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.

o It is nearly three miles farther to fly from Amarillo, Texas to Louisville, Kentucky than it is to return from Louisville to Amarillo.

o The "nine lives" attributed to cats is probably due to their having nine primary whiskers.

o The original inspiration for Barbie dolls comes from dolls developed by German propagandists in the late 1930s to impress young girls with the ideal notions of Aryan features. The proportions for Barbie were actually based on those of Eva Braun.

o The Venezuelan brown bat can detect and dodge individual raindrops in mid-flight, arriving safely back at his cave completely dry.