Technology News

Technobabble

Kosher Phone Calls?
So it seems that in the name of religion, any form of marketing is possible.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Bezeq Israel Telecom, the country's dominant phone company, on Sunday launched a service that would block calls to porn and other "improper" destinations in a bid to attract ultra-Orthodox customers.

I guess that also includes Gerry the Gentile's Pork and Shellfish Emporium.

Source: Reuters

Silence Tears
Sounds like a Japanese horror movie, huh?

Basically, the story is this: recently a genomic technology called Gene Silencing was developed. Brilliant idea to help figure out what all those pesky genes DO, once you've mapped them. Simply put, it can use, I think it's a form of RNA, to turn any gene you want *off*. Then you see what the creature without that gene is like.

Some scientists have used it to create onions that won't make you cry.

Scientists in New Zealand and Japan have created a "tear-free" onion using biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us cry, one of the leading researchers said Friday.

...

"Here in New Zealand we had the ability to insert DNA into onions, using gene-silencing technology developed by Australian scientists.

"The technology creates a sequence that switches off the tear-inducing gene in the onion so it doesn't produce the enzyme. So when you slice the vegetable, it doesn't produce tears."

This was in turn based on Japanese researchers who had identified the tear-provoking enzyme's gene, and so forth.

Now, see, here's a GM food that everyone should be able to agree upon. It doesn't produce anything new, or novel, or different than a regular onion, just something less. No worries about transgene escape, about super-wild onions, etc; or about the tear-free onion causing people to, I dunno, implode.

Now if only we could silence my roommate's punching genes...

Source: Raw Story

Sniffles
As they said on Mythbusters, science isn't always nice. The Brits, in an attempt to cure some of the Common Cold, have engineered mice that can catch a kind of it they had previously been immune to.

Scientists at Imperial College London created a genetically engineered mouse susceptible to the virus causing most colds, which normally only infects humans and chimpanzees.

The breakthrough means that it should now be easier to test new cold remedies as well as treatments for other respiratory conditions like asthma and bronchitis, potentially speeding up the discovery of cures.

...

Rhinoviruses, which cause most colds, were discovered 50 years ago but studying them without being able to experiment on mice has proved difficult.

This will no doubt lead to a round of protests, but if anyone starts calling their protest image mouse Sniffles, I want a cut of the action, baby.

Source: Raw Story

Jaw
In slightly cheerier biotech news, a Finnish group has used a patient's own stem cells to grow him a new upper jaw.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.

...

Suuronen and her colleagues -- the project was run jointly with the Helsinki University Central Hospital -- isolated stem cells from the patient's fat and grew them for two weeks in a specially formulated nutritious soup that included the patient's own blood serum.

In this case they identified and pulled out cells called mesenchymal stem cells -- immature cells than can give rise to bone, muscle or blood vessels.

When they had enough cells to work with, they attached them to a scaffold made out of a calcium phosphate biomaterial and then put it inside the patient's abdomen to grow for nine months. The cells turned into a variety of tissues and even produced blood vessels, the researchers said.

Ahh, it's nice to see the Europeans doing all the cool biotech research and leaving us in the cold, isn't it, America?

Thanks El Presidente!

Source: Reuters

PS: Just in case I get some troll who insists that none of these experiments would be banned or inhibited by the Bush administration's anti-science agenda, the very existence of said agenda and the cuts in funding to basic research that goes along with it is driving a ton of work overseas, to countries not, in fact, run by religious loonies. That, and of course, our crumbling economy, non-existent infrastructure, hyperdevalued currency, etc.

Romania is the New Nigeria
So apparently, Ebay fraud is a big business in rural Romania.

They actually seem kind of proud of the phenomenon.

HUNDREDS of people in the poor Romanian town of Dragasani have grown rich by conning eBay online auction customers with deals that seem too good to be true - and often are.

The scammers have even put the new town hall up for sale on eBay, the mayor admitted last week. “I mean, who would want it?” he asked.

Despite growing concern about online frauds, the European Union has poured £150,000 into computer training courses in Dragasani over the past three years in “special recognition” of its IT skills.

“I heard about another offer on eBay selling a MiG fighter jet. There was a photo and a very good price as the customer was only being asked to pay for the fuel to fly it. One guy paid $2,000!” the mayor, Gheorghe Iordache, exclaimed.

“The victims are mainly Americans because they are on the internet most often and they’re naive,” he added. “I’ve heard about local guys who have suddenly bought apartments in Bucharest, Germany, Holland, but haven’t a job. Others have BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches and they don’t work. So where do they get the money from?”

Ahh, it's funny when global commerce is brought to a screeching, stuttering halt and honest people lose their money!

Ok, some of them are stupid. Almost all of them. But still.

Ebay should probably look into blacklisting whole blocs of Romanian IP addies until they decide to, you know, address this problem a bit more seriously.

Source: The Times Online