Knowledge Brings Fear

Science Update

Neural Impulse Actuator
What a nifty name, eh?

Essentially this is a biofeedback device for gaming. Supposedly you can train your brain rhythms to control a game via this device. The more you train, the better you get.

In theory, it would give you better gaming reflexes, as you'd no longer have to communicate down the nerves to your hand.

In practice, if it works at all, it will probably just look frikkin awesome.

Plus I suppose there could be all sorts of medical uses for paralyzed people, but nobody seems to consider that in the article.

Source: Overclock 3D

HIV
New research isolating a gene that, if turned on, keeps HIV from replicating successfully.

Neat.

A cure for AIDS it probably isn't, though, because this gene is already *supposed* to be turned on by immune cells when they sense the virus. So HIV probably has a way around it.

Still, the researcher hopes to get drugs or what not to mimic the effect. Maybe the virus just moves too fast, and we can zap people better with gene therapy to turn it on, like a vaccine or preemptively.

Source: Express News

Spanking
A series of studies show that spanking children leads to violent behavior as adults.

New research by a University of New Hampshire domestic abuse expert says spanking children affects their sex lives as adults. Professor Murray Straus concludes that children who are spanked are more likely as adults to coerce partners to have sex, to have unprotected sex and to have masochistic sex.

Gee, what a surprise that physically dominating someone teaches them that they can physically dominate someone else.

Source: Raw Story

CERN Has Been Busy
So the last big piece of Europe's mega-supercollider has been put into place. They will soon fire the thing up and try to explore the early universe.

Of course there is a very, very slight chance they'll rip a hole in the vaccuum energy state of the universe and kill every living thing.

Very small.

GENEVA (Reuters) - A 100-tonne wheel, the last piece of an ambitious experiment that scientists hope will help unlock the secrets of the universe, was successfully lowered into an underground cavern on Friday.

It is the final major element in the ATLAS particle detector, the largest of four detectors being hooked up to the world's most powerful particle accelerator which the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) hopes to start up around the middle of 2008.

"This last piece completes this gigantic puzzle," CERN said in a statement.

The wheel was lowered down a 100-metre shaft and aligned within a millimeter of other detectors at CERN, the world's leading centre for particle research located at a sprawling complex along the Swiss-French border.

The ATLAS detector will measure particles called muons expected to be produced in particle collisions in the accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Take that, Muons!

Source: Raw Story

Reality TV Lies To Us?
So it turns out that your average internet sicko isn't the type to land on Dateline, but in fact, stupid teenagers are a large part of the problem. Also, MySpace isn't to blame.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The typical online sexual predator is not someone posing as a teen to lure unsuspecting victims into face-to-face meetings that result in violent rapes, U.S. researchers said on Monday.



Rather, they tend to be adults who make their intentions of a sexual encounter quite plain to vulnerable young teens who often believe they are in love with the predator, they said.

And contrary to the concerns of parents and state attorneys general, they found social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace do not appear to expose teens to greater risks.

...

Wolak said teens who engaged in risky online behaviors -- having buddy lists that included strangers, discussing sex online with strangers, being rude online -- were much more likely to be targeted.

"One of the big factors we found is that offenders target kids who are willing to talk to them online. Most kids are not," Wolak said.

U.S. state attorneys general have been working with privately held Facebook and NewsCorp's MySpace to protect users from registered sex offenders.

But Wolak said it is important for parents and children to have a clear picture of who these predators are.

"If everybody is looking for violent predators lurking in the bushes, kids who are involved in these relationships aren't going to be seeing what is happening to them as a crime," she said.

I can't believe the media would sensationalize an old, old issue (teenagers sleeping with adults) and turn it into a melodrama while blaming anything they can find on the interwebs!

Shocking!

I do have to wonder about the definition of 'being rude online', though. I've always been very rude online. What, was I not good enough to be targeted by some hillbilly with a modem?

*Sniff*

My glory days are behind me now. I feel so old.

Source: Raw Story

More Superbugs
So the UK is rapidly becoming ground zero for the superbacteria epidemic. This time there's a new culprit, a normally harmless stomach bacterium that goes berserk.

Deaths from the hospital superbug C. diff have soared to record levels in a damning indictment of hygiene levels in the Health Service.

The Clostridium difficile stomach bug killed or hastened the death of almost 6,500 patients in 2006 - a staggering 72 per cent rise on the previous year.

And since 1990 the number of people infected by the bug has risen almost 50-fold. It is a bigger killer than MRSA.

Patients' representatives and politicians said the figures highlighted the failure of numerous Government drives to halt the rise of the bug, which thrives in filthy conditions and can be combated with simple soap and water.

...

Infection experts say the soaring number of C. diff deaths is partly due to the emergence of a superdeadly strain which is particularly resistant to detergents. Since taking grip in the UK three years ago, it now accounts for more than half of cases.

C. diff exists naturally in the stomachs of many healthy adults, where it is kept under control by 'friendly bacteria'.

The problems start if the balance of bacteria is disturbed, perhaps by administering antibiotics for another infection.

Once the "friendly" bacteria are killed off, the C. diff are able to multiply and produce poisons which cause diarrhoea and, in the worst cases, a potentially fatal infection.

Well, that does indeed suck.

Maybe probiotics could help? They helped me out when I was recovering from a bad gut culture.

Source: The Daily Mail

More Proof That Florida Sucks
Why can't we just let them slide into the ocean?

(CNN) -- Preliminary results of an investigation show that Tuesday's massive power outage in Florida was caused by human error, Florida Power and Light President Armando Olivera said Friday.

A field engineer was diagnosing a switch that had malfunctioned at FPL's Flagami substation in west Miami.

Without authorization, the engineer disabled two levels of relay protection, Olivera said.

"This was done contrary to FPL's standard procedures and established practices," he said.

Standard procedures do not allow the simultaneous removal of both levels of protection.

"We don't know why the employee took it upon himself to disable both sets of relays," he added.

I suppose I should amend my earlier rant about Florida. It turns out that they do not, in fact, think it's a great idea to shut down power plants in response to overly high demand for power. Rather, they think it's a great idea to hire incompetent morons who cut the power to half a state by accident for unfathomable reasons.

Is that better? If so, how?

Source: CNN.com