Glowing tags to reveal hidden prints

By
4 July 2013
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Science
879 views

Scientists have described a new system for visualising hidden crime scene fingerprints.

Despite several enhancement techniques already in use, only about 10% of fingerprints from crime scenes are of sufficient quality to be used in court.

The technique is based around fluorescent chemical tags and works on metal surfaces, meaning it could be used on knives, guns or bullet casings.

Details were outlined at the Faraday Discussions lecture series in Durham.

Notwithstanding DNA, fingerprints are still the major source of identification in criminal investigations, co-author Prof Robert Hillman, from the University of Leicester, told BBC News.

When someone asks: ‘Haven’t we been doing this for a century, why do we need another method?’ Our answer is: ‘To image the 90% we don’t currently get’ — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Cousins who marry doubles risk for babies

By
4 July 2013
2 min read
Leave a comment
In Health, Science
1105 views

First cousins who marry run twice the risk of having a child with genetic abnormalities, according to the findings of a study based on the English city of Bradford.

The city, which has a high proportion of South Asian immigrants and their descendants among its population, served as a microcosm for examining the risk of blood relative couplings.

About 37 per cent of marriages among people of Pakistani origin in the study involved first cousins, compared with less than one per cent of British unions, said the researchers.

University of Leeds investigator Eamonn Sheridan led a team that pored over data from the Born in Bradford study, which tracks the health of 13,500 babies born at the city’s main hospital between 2007 and 2011.

Out of 11,396 babies for whom family details were known, 18 per cent were the offspring of first-cousin unions, mainly among people of Pakistani heritage.

A total of 386 babies — three per cent — were born with anomalies ranging from problems in the nervous, respiratory and digestive systems, to urinary and genital defects and cleft palates.

This Bradford rate was nearly twice the national average, said the study published in medical journal The Lancet — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Samsung buys set top box maker Boxee

By
4 July 2013
49 second read
Leave a comment
In Business, Technology
942 views

Samsung is buying Boxee — an Israeli firm that makes media streaming devices.

The South Korean electronics giant said it had acquired key talent and assets from the company.

This will help us continue to improve the overall user experience across our connected devices, it added.

Boxee’s latest product lets subscribers record TV shows onto its servers and then stream them to TVs, computers and smart devices from the cloud — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Politics, Rights, Technology

The NSA Comes Recruiting

By
4 July 2013
4 min read
Leave a comment
In Politics, Rights, Technology
1073 views

The NSA came to recruit at a language program at the University of Wisconsin where I am spending my summer learning a language. Two recruiters, a redhead who looked more like a middle-aged 2013 NSA flyer copymother and a portly, balding man, began to go through slides explaining the NSA and its work.

I had intended to go simply to hear how the NSA is recruiting at a moment when it’s facing severe challenges, what with the Edward Snowden and all. Dismayingly, however, a local high school teacher had thought it was good to bring 5 of his students to the session. They were smartly dressed, some of them even wearing ties as if there might be a job interview, young faces in a classroom of graduate students. They sat across from me at the roundtable. It was really their presence that goaded me–and I think a couple of other students–into an interaction with the recruiters.

Roughly half an hour into the session, the exchange below began. I began by asking them how they understood the term adversary since the surveillance seems to be far beyond those the American state classifies as enemies, and their understanding of that ties into the recruiters’ earlier statement that the globe is our playground. I ended up asking them whether being a liar was a qualification for the NSA because:

The NSA’s instrumental understanding of language as well as its claustrophobic social world was readily apparent. One of the recruiters discussed how they tend to socialize after work, dressing up in costumes and getting drunk (referenced below). I can imagine that also exerts a lot of social pressure and works as a kind of social closure from which it would be difficult to escape. The last thing I want to point out — once again — their defence seems to be that it’s legal. What is legal is not just.

Someone else happened to record it on an iPhone, hence the audio quality. It’s been edited mainly to cut garbled audio or audio that wouldn’t have made sense and edit out questions and comments from people who didn’t explicitly say it was okay to post their audio. You’ll hear the sound drop out for a second to mark the cuts — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Parents who withheld care are guilty of homicide, Wisconsin justices say

By
4 July 2013
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Health, Rights
1083 views

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the homicide conviction of two parents whose 11-year-old daughter died while they relied on prayer and faith in God to treat her illness rather than conventional medicine.

The state high court ruled 6 to 1 that the parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, were properly tried and convicted of second-degree reckless homicide for failing to provide emergency medical treatment to their daughter, Kara.

A parent has a legal duty to provide medical care for a child if necessary, the Wisconsin high court declared — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Modern-day Frankenstein invents cure for beheading

By
3 July 2013
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Science
789 views

Italian scientists claim they have invented a method for carrying out a head transplant — a discovery that could prove life-changing for patients suffering from hitherto incurable diseases.

Boffins at the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group claim to have devised a new way to have devised a new way to connect the brain to the spinal column.

The technique is useful for anyone who wants a new head — which might prove a bit difficult to enjoy — or fancies a new body. It draws upon the research of Robert White, who in 1970 transplanted of the head of one rhesus monkey onto the body of another. Sadly, the monkeys didn’t live for very long with their new heads in place, but the Italian researchers are optimistic nonetheless — via redwolf.newsvine.com

New York teacher’s remains found behind wall 27 years on

By
3 July 2013
56 second read
Leave a comment
In History
861 views

The skeleton of a New York state teacher who vanished in 1985 has been discovered behind a false wall in the home she shared with her late husband, police say.

The remains of JoAnn Nichols were found in a foetal position, tied with rope and wrapped in plastic in the house in the town of Poughkeepsie.

A post-mortem examination found she had been killed by a blow to her head.

Her husband, James Nichols, died in December of natural causes aged 82 — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Malcolm Fraser to campaign with Greens

By
3 July 2013
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Politics
774 views

Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser will campaign with the Greens to prevent Tony Abbott gaining control of the Senate, should he win the upcoming federal election.

Fairfax reports that Mr Fraser will campaign with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who is competing against the Liberal Party for the sixth and last Senate spot in South Australia.

Mr Fraser controlled the Senate for the first five years of his three-term prime ministership, from 1975 to 1980, but he is now estranged from the Liberal Party, which he left in 2009, saying it had become too conservative — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Pluto Has Moons From Hell

By
3 July 2013
3 min read
Leave a comment
In Science
819 views

To hell with Pluto’s new moons.

Figuratively, of course. But two newly discovered moons orbiting the distant world now have official (and underworldly) names: Kereberos and Styx.

I approve.

Pluto is pretty small — 2,300 kilometres (1,430 miles) in diameter, smaller than Earth’s Moon — so it may be surprising it has moons at all. But it has gravity, and it can hold on to smaller bodies … and there’s plenty of room out there, billions of kilometres from the Sun, so there’s nothing big enough out there to strip them away, either.

Pluto’s biggest moon is Charon, which is just over half as big as Pluto itself. That’s the biggest moon known relative to its parent world! It was discovered in 1978. In 2005, Hubble observations unveiled two more moons, which were named Nyx and Hydra. A fourth moon, provisionally named P4, was found in 2011 and then P5 in 2012.

Get the trend? All the moons are named after characters associated with the Roman god of Pluto, god of the underworld Hades. Charon was the riverboat driver who brought the dead to Hades. Nix is named after Nyx, the goddess of the night, sometimes depicted as a mist that comes from the underworld. (The name is spelled with an i to avoid confusion with an asteroid with that name.) Hydra was a nine-headed dragon that lived in a cave near the entrance to the underworld (and the nine heads were a sly reference to Pluto being the ninth planet).

Kerberos is the name of the three-headed dog guarding the underworld, usually spelled Cerberus (but again, this name was already taken by an asteroid). Styx was the river separating the underworld from the realm of mortals and also a 1970s rock band. That last bit may be coincidence — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Malaria vaccine set for human trials

By
2 July 2013
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Health, Science
1048 views

The search for a malaria vaccine could soon be over, after an Australian-led trial has proven successful on mice.

The results, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, saw mice develop immunity to  multiple strains of the disease.

We found that if you take blood stage parasite in red blood cells and treat it with a chemical that binds the DNA and then administer that as a vaccine to mice, and you can get protection against the strain, they’ll be immunised, says Griffith University’s Jennifer Reiman, one of the authors of the study.

The vaccine is now ready for human trials, and researchers are hoping adult males in South-East Queensland might be willing volunteers.

If that turns out to be safe then we can go on and do clinical trials in areas where there’s malaria, Ms Reiman says — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Space Invaders / Joanna

By
2 July 2013
42 second read
Leave a comment
In Craft, Entertainment
1020 views
Space Invaders / Joanna

I played around with a Space Invaders idea I have had buzzing in my head for a while. This time I have made a cushion, but my original thought is to use this motif on Tablet Covers. For the cushion I have used black linen, stitched onto dark gray wool using red cotton – I’m rather pleased with the affect — via little minx

World’s first telescopic contact lens gives you Superman-like vision

By
2 July 2013
2 min read
Leave a comment
In Health, Science, Technology
1023 views

An international team of researchers have created the first telescopic contact lens; a contact lens that, when it’s equipped, gives you the power to zoom your vision almost three times. Yes, this is the first ever example of a bionic eye that effectively gives you Superman-like eagle-eye vision.

…the telescopic contact lens has two very distinct regions. The centre of the lens allows light to pass straight through, providing normal vision. The outside edge, however, acts as a telescope capable of magnifying your sight by 2.8x. This is about the same as looking through a 100mm lens on a DSLR. For comparison, a pair of bird-watching binoculars might have a magnification of 15x. The examples shown in the image below give you a good idea of what a 2.8x optical zoom would look like in real life.

The telescopic contact lens, in action

The main breakthrough is that this telescopic contact lens is just 1.17mm thick, allowing it to be comfortably worn. Other attempts at granting telescopic vision have included: a 4.4mm-thick contact lens (too thick for real-world use), telescopic spectacles (cumbersome and ugly), and most recently a telescopic lens implanted into the eye itself. The latter is currently the best option currently available, but it requires surgery and the image quality isn’t excellent — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Poli, Oncilla / Sao Paulo Zoo

By
2 July 2013
51 second read
Leave a comment
In Wildlife
963 views
Poli, Oncilla / Sao Paulo Zoo

On 14 January, the Sao Paulo Zoo in Brazil welcomed a new resident, a male baby Oncilla named Poli. (It’s pronounced AWN-sill-uh, by the way.) The cub’s mother, Luiza, is one of the last melanistic Oncilla remaining in captivity today. Melanism is a genetic mutation causing dark pigmentation, so rather than being spotted, Luiza’s coat is entirely black. Despite the mother’s mutation, Poli was born with the more common spotted fur pattern — via ooBorns

Crash leaves man and dog covered in paint

By
2 July 2013
54 second read
Leave a comment
In Weird, Wildlife
993 views

Crash leaves man and dog covered in paint

A Tuesday afternoon car crash near Belfair left a man and his dog shaken and covered in paint.

Washington State Patrol trooper Russ Winger said the driver was alone with his dog on SR-302 southwest of Belfair when he somehow lost control of his SUV and went off the road just just after 3.00pm.

The man was hauling buckets of paint, which went flying on impact and left the man, his dog and the SUV coated in paint — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Anti-Islam group seeks to expand

By
1 July 2013
2 min read
Leave a comment
In Politics, Rights, Technology
866 views

In Australia now, the anti-Islamic Australian Defence League is trying to expand its support base, particularly through social media.

A group against Islam and Islamic immigration. We are against those who worship a so-called Prophet (who) in his own words, raped, murdered, enslaved people and worse. He was a coward and a paedophile.

That is how the Australian Defence League describes itself on its Facebook page.

The League goes on to say it is motivated by what it calls a love of country, promoting democracy and the rule of law, which it says it does by opposing sharia law.

And it says a central part of its mission is to ensure the public gets a balanced picture of Islam, claiming the political and media establishment offers a sanitised and inaccurate view.

Almost by default, because its name stems from the better-known English Defence League that has led anti-Islam rallies in Britain, the Australian Defence League is the face of Australian ultranationalism.

But is the Australian Defence League merely a Facebook presence?

Or is it a body that, like the English Defence League, could mount a presence on the streets?

Professor Greg Barton, from Monash University’s Global Terrorism Research Centre, suggests the answer lies somewhere in between — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Previous 4 5 67 Next