The film "Innocence of Muslims," a video mocking Islamic beliefs, continues to bring upset to the Islamic community. An Egyptian court recently decided to ban use of YouTube in the country. This rule was based on the fact that the video was uploaded and distributed through the popular video sharing website.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the video, it runs for a total of 13 minutes. In it, the prophet Mohammed is shown as being a sexual deviant who is neither enlightened nor respectable. This is particularly a problem because Islamic peoples believe any depiction of Mohammed to...
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Another application has been released that uses augmented reality to translate newspapers for children. This app, developed in Japan by Tokyo Shimbun, can be used on a smartphone and held over the adult newspaper text.
The smartphone then displays a version of the text that is more friendly to children. Basically, this app allows children to turn a boring old regular newspaper into one that targets their age group and is much more interactive. Tokyo Shimbun worked with the advertising firm Dentsu to create the software. Augmented reality technology is used by the app in order to make the pages of...
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The power of 3D printers is once again put on display as Nanoscribe GmbH has released photographs of the tiny spaceship they've created. This spaceship, with a mere length of 70 microns, is a model of the Wing Commander Hellcat. The organization that was able to print this tiny model is part of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), which means that KIT campuses everywhere are now using this technology.
This printer uses a 3D laser lithography system that was developed by Nanoscribe. As for how the printer actually works, it uses two-photon polymerization. Photosensitive materials are activated by short laser...
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According to a study published in the February 7 edition of Cell Stem Cell, scientists at Johns Hopkins University have identified a common mechanism underlying the therapeutic effects of antidepressants and electroconvulsive (also known as “electroshock”) therapy (ECT). Professor Hongjun Song, Ph.D., and his team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Cell Engineering identified reductions in the activity of a specific gene as the underlying factor in the efficacy of both sets of treatments.
The sFRP3 (“secreted frizzled-related protein 3”) gene is responsible for producing a protein that inhibits a chemical reaction that results in...
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A new mobile phone service for texting has become popular in Spain. This service, called Chad2Win, is free for its customers and actually pays them. The only condition is that the users will have to deal with ads regularly. They can earn up to $34 a month by viewing these ads or clicking on them. The company pays a cent for every advertisement the person views and three cents for every advertisement that they click on.
The company operates out of Barcelona currently and has gotten quite a few people interested. Free messaging services have become all the rage, with one...
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New research that suggests a link between arthritis and lack of sunlight has come out. U.S. researchers published their study in "Annals of the Rheumatic Disease" recently. In the study, over 200,000 women were followed. These women were split into two different groups. The first group's monitoring began in 1976, while the second's began in 1989. Harvard Medical School headed this research, which compared levels of UV-B radiation of the groups based on where they lived, i.e. participants living in sunnier areas vs. those living in climates with less sun exposure.
The results of the first group were that those living...
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To some people, the concept of fracking is a blessing and is seen as a great way to keep the nation's fuel coming. Fracking is merely hydraulic fracturing of rock formations in order to extract natural gas. Many people, policymakers included, are very happy that scientists have discovered a way to drive gas prices down. The problem is that fracking uses fluid with chemicals in it to extract the natural gas. In the process, any water exposed to these chemicals becomes polluted.
The pollution of the water in these areas is significant because it can affect the crops grown using aforementioned...
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