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Sir Hamster of Elderberry
KWSN ArchBishop
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 5117
Location: Beer City, Cheese Quadrant
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 Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 12:38 pm Post subject: SciAm News Briefs |
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Some interesting bits, reposted from SciAm.com
| Quote: | Virtual disease and real stupidity
An epidemic of "corrupted blood" that spread through the popular multiplayer online game World of Warcraft in 2005 has opened researchers' eyes to the potential of online games as testbeds for a real pandemic. Game manufacturer Blizzard Entertainment introduced the infection, carried by a monster called Hakkar, as a challenge to elite gamers. Alas, the virulent contagion escaped its confines and spread to the game's densely populated virtual cities, killing thousands of players' characters despite quarantine measures: Some players entered quarantine zones for a look-see and left, unwittingly taking the disease with them. Researchers reporting their findings in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases told Reuters they hadn't anticipated the "stupid factor." (LID; Reuters)
Big space nothing is really something
Astronomers say they have confirmed the presence of a giant void a billion light-years wide in the southern hemisphere constellation Eridanus, six billion to 10 billion light-years away. The gap, which seems to lack both visible matter and the more enigmatic dark matter, was first noticed in 2004 as a cold spot on a map of the cosmic microwave radiation left over from the early universe. A cross-sky survey reveals a sharp drop in that region's galaxy population, according to a report set to be published in The Astrophysical Journal. (preprint; press release)
Sticky history: 5,000-year-old chewing gum
A Scottish archaeology student discovered a 5,000-year-old piece of chewed birch-bark tar, complete with teeth marks, at a dig in northwestern Finland, The Scotsman reported this week. Sarah Pickin, 23, well aware that Neolithic peoples chewed the unflavored tar to soothe gum infections and to patch broken pots and arrowheads, recognized her find, but only after ruling out other possibilities. "I was also worried,'' she told Scotland's national newspaper, "it could have been a bit of fossilized [sic] poo." (The Scotsman; Kierikki dig web site)
T. Rex was faster than David Beckham
At six tons and two stories tall, T. rex was hardly spry, but new simulations show it could have outrun soccer star David Beckham, if only by a whisper. Inspired by the chase scene in Jurassic Park, researchers fed a supercomputer model with bone and muscle data from several bird and dinosaur species as well as an average 70-kilogram (155-pound) professional athlete. Results: T. rex edged out a sprinting human, clocking in at eight meters (26 feet) a second. (press release)
First spam, now "bacn"
A new coinage spread across the Internet this week like wildfire—or maybe like the smell of bacon. The new term, "bacn," refers to e-mail you want, just not right now. Think Google Alerts and MySpace updates. In true Cockney rhyming slang style, participants at the Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 digital media conference invented the term while discussing unread e-mail as well as their fondness for back or peameal bacon, which sounds like "e-mail," hence e-mail bacon. Could scrmbld egs be far behind? (blog of bacn's co-inventor)
Life on Mars may be bleach blond
Experiments conducted by the Mars Viking landers in the 1970s are consistent with life—life based on hydrogen peroxide, that is—according to a controversial study. Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen in Germany and a colleague reanalyzed data from the gas exchange experiment (GEx) on the assumption that any vaporized organic material in the bone-chilling Martian soil was dissolved in water and the antiseptic hydrogen peroxide, which acts as antifreeze. His conclusion: one thousandth of the soil's weight may have been living matter. A microbiologist told SPACE.com that the claim "sounds bogus," given the harsh Martian conditions, not to mention a second Viking experiment that found nary a drop of any organic chemical. (SPACE.com)
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ni! i!u
Last edited by Sir Hamster of Elderberry on Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:07 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Sir Cracked of the Mind
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| Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:43 am Post subject: |
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| Some interesting stuff, I liked the "stupid factor". |
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KWSN Im Not Dead
Prince
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 710
Location: East Tennessee
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| Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:17 am Post subject: |
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Thats funny because I was playing WoW when that was going on. For about two days there were bodies all over IronForge (largest city in the game at that time). The auction house in particular was bad due to the number of people there. I had a screen shot, if I can find it, that shows well over 200 bodies all over the area.
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KWSNImNotDead - "I don't want to go on the cart!". It is spelled LooNies. |
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