Albener Pessoa

This Build Your Own Galaxy: The Big Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Book is awesome. It will help you build all kinds of sci-fi favorites – everything from Star Trek to Star Wars to Space: 1999! The book provides step-by-step, illustrated guides to building all kinds of out of this world sci-fi creations. This is going to […]

Ok ok… o macho da casa é quem mata a barata, só isso =/

Watch as YouTube user HedgehogTH drops a neodymium magnet inside a large copper tube. We. Can’t. Stop. Watching.

Here’s more life.

More meetings.

Norway - Every student has their own access card to make use of everything from the schools library to the toilets. When the students swipe their card, person, time and place gets registered and saved for 90 days...

With this system, the University can track all of the students´ movements... 

Law student Peter Haraldsen believes that this type of spying is illegal. He demands the University to stop logging their students´ movements... 

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority says that Bergen University might have crossed an illegal path, because the cards registers movements without asking the student to verify it with a pin code. (more)

Archive

Apple has plans to reinstitute iPhone 4 production in order to sell the device in India, Indonesia, and Brazil, reports The Economic Times. A January report indicated Apple would relaunch the discontinued iPhone 4 in India, but it was unclear at that time if the company was continuing production on the phone or selling old inventory.

Citing three senior executives with knowledge of the company's plans, the site suggests offering a lower cost iPhone will help Apple recoup market share in those countries. Apple partner Foxconn is said to have already begun production on the devices.

The maker of iPads and MacBooks is betting the lower price point will help it wrest volumes from Samsung's Grand and S4 Mini, and recoup market share that has slumped, largely because it didn't have phones that were cheap enough.

Reproducing the iPhone 4 will mark the first time that Apple has resumed production of a discontinued product. Apple ceased selling the iPhone 4 in many countries following the September 2013 launch of the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, and its current lineup consists of the aforementioned models along with 2011's iPhone 4s.

The entry level iPhone 5s sells for Rs. 53,500 ($856) in India, while the entry level iPhone 5c is Rs. 41,900 ($670). The reintroduced 8GB iPhone 4 retails for Rs. 22,900 ($360).

Einstein once quipped that “a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so.” Is this true?

Read the Blog Post Here »

Never gonna give you up!

Qedward writes "Stoke-on-Trent City Council is sending texts to obese people in the area to help motivate them to lose weight. Examples of the texts sent include 'aim to eat a variety of fruit and vegetables each day,' 'aim to eat regular meals and keep a check on snacks and drinks' and 'maybe walk to the shops or use the stairs more often.' Over 100,000 people in the region are overweight or obese, the council said, and the texts are for those who are aged at least 18, have a body mass index of 25 or over and who have proactively signed up to receive the motivational messages."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After 8 months, 50% of new gym members have cancelled their memberships entirely,

Read the Blog Post Here »

Zothecula writes "In another step forward for laser weapons that brings to mind the Death Star's superlaser, Lockheed Martin has demonstrated a 30-kilowatt fiber laser produced by combining many lasers into a single beam of light. According to the company, this is the highest power laser yet that was still able to maintain beam quality and electrical efficiency, paving the way for a laser weapon system suitable, if not for a Death Star, for a wide range of air, land, and sea military platforms."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

On January 24, Apple commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Mac with a "Happy birthday, Mac" promotion on its website, 30th anniversary t-shirts for its employees, and executive interviews with both ABC News and Macworld. Just ten days later, the company now has released an anniversary video, recorded on the anniversary using iPhones and edited on Macs, that shows how the the promise of the Mac has been fulfilled by putting "technology in the hands of the people."


Produced by Apple's longtime ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day headed by Lee Clow, the "1.24.14" video includes footage from 10 countries spanning 5 continents. The video was directed by Jake Scott, son of filmmaker Ridley Scott, who was behind Apple's iconic "1984" ad, and showcases current generation Apple products being used in fashion design, musical performances and more.

On January 24, 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh. And with it a promise that the power of technology, put in the hands of everyone, could change the world. On January 24, 2014, we sent 15 camera crews all over the world to show how that promise has become a reality.

From sunrise in Melbourne to nightfall in Los Angeles, they documented people doing amazing things with Apple products. They shot over 70 hours of footage — all with the iPhone 5s. Then it was edited and scored with an original soundtrack. Thanks to the power of the Mac and the innovations it has inspired, an effort that normally takes months was accomplished in a matter of days.

Apple was rumored to be working on a Super Bowl commercial, but the company instead partnered with U2 and Bank of America in a new (Product) RED promotion announced in an advertisement broadcast during the game. For every free iTunes download of U2's new single "Invisible" [iTunes Store], Bank of America will donate $1 to (Product) RED's fight against AIDS. The promotion will end 11:59 PM EST on February 3.

Update: Apple has posted a second video giving a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the "1.24.14" ad.

Ever since OS X Mavericks was released, some customers using the built-in Mail.app application have repeatedly had issues retrieving new mail messages, deleting or moving messages, and more. Some of the problems were fixed in an update released back in November, and then in OS X 10.9.1, but for some, the issues retrieving new messages persist.

Some users found that quitting and restarting Mail forced the application to download new messages, but Apple has now published an awkward workaround that allows the app to stay open while still forcing a download of new messages.

OS X: New email messages not received until Mail is quit and reopened

Quitting and reopening Mail forces it to re-establish a connection to the email server. You can use these steps to receive new mail messages without quitting Mail:

1. Choose Mailbox > Take All Accounts Offline.
2. Choose Mailbox > Get All New Mail.

As a shortcut, you can also add the Take All Accounts Offline and Get Mail buttons to your Mail toolbar.

1. Choose View > Customize Toolbar.
2. Drag the Take All Accounts Offline button to the Toolbar if it is not there already.
3. Drag the Get Mail button to the Toolbar if it is not there already.
4. Click Done

To receive new mail messages, click the Take Offline button, then click the Check Mail button.

There is no indication of when the bugs with Mail.app will be fixed, though beta releases of OS X 10.9.2 ask developers to test Mail.app for issues.

Pior foi o cara ligar no quartel reclamando dessa piadinha que fiz com os cachorros dele. Não é FÀSSIO ser bombeiro!

O post Audazes #7 apareceu primeiro em Mentirinhas.

Sempre com uma palavra de conforto…

 

O post Mentirinhas #575 apareceu primeiro em Mentirinhas.

Parece um dia normal de inverno com chuva fina e asfalto molhado em uma cidade da Polônia. No entanto, algo está invisível aos olhos dos motoristas e provocará alguns acidentes e muitos sustos. A água sobre o asfalto, que parece molhado, na realidade está congelada.

Para os motoristas, fica difícil distinguir entre água e gelo no asfalto escuro, por isso o termo “Black Ice” parece se encaixar bem nessa situação. Não é preciso andar em alta velocidade para que o controle fuja das mãos. Mesmo carros parados não conseguem sequer sair do lugar.

O vídeo chama atenção porque não se trata apenas de um ou dois carros, mas quase todos que trafegam ao alcance da câmera, desde compactos até grandes utilitários. Uma VW Passat Variant se destaca por não conseguir sair do lugar.

Próximo de uma viatura de polícia, um Opel Astra simplesmente desliza suavemente como se fosse um barco. No final da filmagem, um Nissan Pathfinder escorrega e bate no carro da polícia, empurrando-o facilmente.

A noticia “Black Ice” engana condutores e provoca acidentes na Polônia (vídeo) foi publicada no site Notícias Automotivas - Carros.

What a lovely family!

Apple is developing a new app expected to be released alongside iOS 8 that collects and organizes information and data points related to the users health, including fitness statistics from the new M7 processor in the iPhone 5s, and possibly other data collected from a new wearable product, reports 9to5Mac.

The app, reportedly called Healthbook, will be a preinstalled app that can track data points including a user's blood pressure, hydration, heart rate and potentially other statistics like glucose levels. It could also remind users to take medications at certain times during the day.

The "Healthbook" application is said to take multiple user interface cues from Apple’s own Passbook app, which is software for storing loyalty cards, coupons, and other materials normally stored in physical wallets.

The new health and fitness application’s interface is a stack of cards that can be easily swiped between. Each card represents a different fitness or health data point. The prototype logo for "Healthbook" is similar to Passbook’s icon, but it is adorned with graphics representing vital signs.

9to5Mac also reports that Apple is designing iOS 8 with the iWatch in mind, saying that sources suggest the iWatch and iPhone will be "heavily reliant" on each other for health tracking. The iWatch will also include some mapping abilities as well.

The site suggests that the iWatch will include the ability to measure statistics that the Healthbook app can measure -- including glucose levels and heart rate -- though nothing concrete is known. It does say that sources suggest Apple has been able to combine several different health sensors into one chipset in order to make them all smaller.

Apple is also working on significant new features for its Maps app, including transit directions, though that feature still has significant amounts of work to be done and is not a "lock" to be included in iOS 8, claims the site.

The New York Times reported earlier today that several Apple executives met with the FDA last month to discuss mobile medical applications. One expert said the meeting could be "to get the lay of the land for regulatory pathways with medical devices and apps" or "that Apple has been trying to push something through the F.D.A. for a while and they’ve had hangups."

Apple has made a number of health-related hires in the past year, including employees with expertise in health sensors and other mobile health devices.

iOS 8 is expected to be previewed at WWDC in June, while the iWatch -- which 9to5Mac says is "well into development" -- and new models of the iPhone are expected in the second half of the year.

Over 40 years ago, landmark environmental legislation followed the discovery that the synthetic pesticide DDT is harmful to bird habitats.

Now, new research suggests that exposure to DDT may also increase the risk and severity of Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists at Rutgers University say exposure to DDT–banned in the United States since 1972 but still used as a pesticide in other countries–is of particular concern to those over the age of 60.

As published in JAMA Neurology, researchers discuss their findings in which levels of DDE, the chemical compound left when DDT breaks down, were higher in the blood of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease patients compared to those without the disease.

Initially introduced as a pesticide during WWII, DDT was used in the U.S. for insect control in crops and livestock, and to combat insect-borne diseases like malaria.

Rutgers scientists–the first to link a specific chemical compound to Alzheimer’s disease–believe that research into how DDT and DDE may trigger neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, is crucial.

“I think these results demonstrate that more attention should be focused on potential environmental contributors and their interaction with genetic susceptibility,” said Jason R. Richardson, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

“Our data may help identify those that are at risk for Alzheimer’s disease and could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis and an improved outcome.”

Although the levels of DDT and DDE have decreased significantly in the United States over the last three decades, the toxic pesticide is still found in 75 to 80 percent of the blood samples collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a national health and nutrition survey.

This occurs, scientists say, because the chemical can take decades to breakdown in the environment. In addition, people may be exposed to the pesticide by consuming imported fruits, vegetables, and grains where DDT is still being used, and eating fish from contaminated waterways.

In the Rutgers study, conducted in coordination with Emory University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center, 74 out of the 86 Alzheimer’s patients involved–whose average age was 74–had DDE blood levels almost four times higher than the 79 people in the control group who did not have Alzheimer’s disease.

Patients with a version of ApoE gene (ApoE4), which greatly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, and high blood levels of DDE exhibited even more severe cognitive impairment than the patients without the risk gene.

Brain cell studies also found that DDT and DDE increased the amount of a protein associated with plaques believed to be a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

These sticky amyloid proteins – which may form in regions of the brain involved in memory, learning and thinking–break off and clump together in the brain and increase as the disease progresses.

“This new research is important,” Richardson says, “because it suggests that DDT and DDE may directly contribute to the process of plaque development.”

“We need to conduct further research to determine whether this occurs and how the chemical compound interacts with the ApoE4 gene,” Richardson says.

Although the exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease–with five million Americans suffering now and millions more expected to fall prey with the graying of the Baby Boom Generation–is not known, scientists believe that late-onset Alzheimer’s may be linked to a combination of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors.

“Much of the research into Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases has mostly been centered on finding genetic connections,” Richardson said.

“This study demonstrates that there are additional contributors to Alzheimer’s disease that must be examined and that may help identify those at risk of developing Alzheimer’s,” he said.

“It is important because when it comes to diagnosing and treating this and other neurodegenerative diseases, the earlier someone is diagnosed, the more options there may be available.”

Source: Rutgers University

A Renault confirmou a presença da nova geração do Twingo para a 84ª edição do Salão do Automóvel de Genebra, que acontece a partir do dia 4 de março na Suíça. O novo modelo terá visual inspirado nos conceitos Twin-Z e Twin’Run e trará soluções para deixar suas linhas mais limpas, como é o caso das maçanetas das portas traseiras instaladas na área das janelas.

O novo Renault Twingo usará a mesma plataforma da próxima versão do Smart Fortwo, também prevista para fazer sua estreia no mercado neste ano. O modelo contará com uma gama de motores de três cilindros, que promete um ótimo consumo de combustível. A Renault oferecerá para o novo hatch uma gama de acessórios de personalização, a exemplo do Fiat 500 e do Opel Adam.

A noticia Renault confirma próxima geração do Twingo para o Salão de Genebra foi publicada no site Notícias Automotivas - Carros.

The MOSS modular robot system is sort of like LEGO Mindstorms, in that you assemble small blocks to make custom robots and other items. But it has some interesting tricks of its own, as product demonstrator John Moyes shows Timothy Lord at CES 2014. The MOSS kits include lots of little metal balls, so they carry a warning that says MOSS kits are suitable for ages 8 and up, while the company's older Cubelets product, which doesn't have the little balls, is supposed to be okay for ages 4 and up. There is no upper age limit specified for either product, so you're probably safe if you want to buy (and can *afford* to buy) any of these interesting toys.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Biology is fascinating.