Archive for the ‘Google Reader’ Category
Google Editions Is Your Local Book Store’s Best Friend [Ebooks]
30
Jun
New Old Spice Ad
30
Jun
I think you’ll like this new ad starring Isaiah Mustafa as as much as the original that aired during the Super Bowl. -via reddit
The coming shortage of helium
30
Jun
LINDAU, Germany--Quick: What do MRI machines, rockets, fiber optics, LCDs, food production and welding have in common?
They all require the inert, or noble, gas helium for their use or at some stage of their production. And that helium essentially could be gone in less than three decades, Robert C. Richardson, winner, along with Douglas Osheroff and David Lee, of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics, said at the 60th annual Nobel Laureate Lectures at Lindau today. “Once it is released into the atmosphere, say, in the form of party balloons, it is lost to the Earth forever--it is lost to the Earth forever ,†he added.
[More]
Slashing the federal IT budget: can someone (please) help the FBI?
30
Jun
What is it with the FBI and overspending? Back in January 2008, the Office of the Inspector General released a damning report on the Bureau's gross mismanagement of its finances, noting that in many cases phone companies had shut down wiretaps because the FBI wasn't paying its bills.Â
In our coverage of the OIG report, we noted, "The FBI's $170 million Virtual Case File system upgrade was so dysfunctional that it had to be completely scrapped. The agency's latest upgrade attempt, a project called Sentinel, is expected to cost $425 million and will supposedly be operational in 2009."Â
Well, it's 2010 and not only is Sentinel not operational and over budget, but Politico reports that the program could get caught up in outgoing Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag's IT cost-cutting crusade.
In a blog post on the White House site, Orszag announced a series of actions aimed at updating and downsizing federal IT spending. The first order of business is a freeze on all financial system modernization projects, which Orszag describes as "an area of persistent problems."
"For instance," he writes, "the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has invested over $300 million in two financial system projects over the past 10 years. The first project ended in failure and no operational capability has been realized with the second."
Again, we're reminded of the FBI's Trilogy project, which was launched in 2000 to update the agency's IT infrastructure but which failed in 2005. Sentinel is Trilogy's successor, and so far it's not looking good.
All told, Orszag plans to cut $20 billion from the federal IT budget. When combined with the $30 billion he plans to trim via datacenter consolidation, he'll save just enough to pay a little over two months of interest on the national debt. Hey, every little bit helps.
Read the comments on this post
Sagrada Familia: The Unfulfilled Vision of a Unique Architect
30
Jun
Today the architectural world remains divided. Should the cathedral be completed in a less ambitious contemporary style? Or should it be left, unfinished, as an original creation?
One exhibit in the Paris Exhibition of 1910 stole the show. It was a plaster model of a church designed by the Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi – a design so daring and outrageous that it was difficult to believe anyone seriously consider building it.
An extraordinary fusion of Gothic and Art Nouveau in style, the model was painted in vibrant colors that further enhanced the exuberant design. The plans called for spotlights to direct shafts of light into parts of the interior. Three sets of bell towers, housing both manually operated and electronically controlled tubular bells, were to be topped by stone statues of cherubim with wings that would move in the wind.
One hundred years later, the project is still unfinished. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Wolfgang Staudt)
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
5 Cups of Coffee a Day Fight Alzheimer’s Disease
29
Jun
The Good News: Scientists have discovered that coffee can help protect the brain against Alzheimer’s disease.
Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center researcher (and coffee lover) Gary Arendash and colleagues discovered that 500 mg of caffeine can ward off Alzheimer’s:
They’ve found that adding caffeinated water to rodents’ diet results in big improvements. The mice perform better on short-term memory and thinking tests. But only if they get enough caffeine.
"The human equivalent of two to three cups of coffee does not have benefits in our Alzheimer’s mice," says Arendash.
Arendash’s team also documented that these super-caffeinated mice end up with about a 50-percent reduction in abnormal amyloid proteins, which are thought to play an important role in the development of Alzheimer’s.
The typical American drinks about a cup and a half of coffee a day. "So you can see that many of us are below that threshold level that we believe confers protective benefits," says Arendash.
Allison Aubrey of NPR explains: Link
The Bad News: You may have to wear this T-shirt below.
I’m Not Tense – I’m Terribly, Terribly Alert – $9.95
‘World’s First’ 3TB Desktop Drive Offers USB 3.0, FireWire
29
Jun
Seagate’s new FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drive is notable for two things other than the excessive use of CamelCase in its name. The first is that it will hold up to 3TB of data, with Seagate claiming a World’s First for this feat of packing bits into an external drive.
The second is that, while the disk comes ready to hook up via USB 2.0, it can easily be changed to fit a combined FireWire 800/USB 2.0 connector ($50) or a USB 3.0 ($40) connector. For those still lacking the faster bus on their machines (that is to say, almost all of us) there is an $80 kit which includes the USB 3.0 connector, a PCI-X card and a cable. These connectors just swap in for the one already fitted.
Better, the price is actually rather reasonable. $250 will buy you the 3TB drive, which compares pretty well to the basic $130 1TB model. Available now, for all of you who like to keep their eggs in one giant basket.
FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Drive [Seagate]
Homeopathy
28
Jun
A 19 page strip about homeopathy. My follow up story-strip to the one I did on the MMR vaccine scare, and another chapter of my ongoing book about science. This is, in effect, the beta version of the strip. There will, I'm sure, be mistakes dotted throughout that I haven't spotted. So do feel free to point out any errors. The references will be in the next entry.
