In a pilot project that could help better manage the planet's strained natural resources, NASA satellites and sensors are providing a local Washington community the information needed to make more accurate river flow predictions on a daily basis, helping them manage their water availability .
"World leaders are struggling to protect natural resources for future generations," said Jeff Ward, a senior research scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "These tools help us sustainably use natural resources while balancing environmental, cultural and economic concerns."
NASA researchers studying urban landscapes say the intensity of the "heat island" created by a city depends on the ecosystem it replaced and on the regional climate where the city is located. Urban areas developed in arid and semi-arid regions show far less heating compared with the surrounding countryside than cities built amid forested and temperate climates.
Before the tobacco industry gave up the fight over the health effects of smoking, it was common for major cigarette manufacturers like Phillip Morris to fight advertising restrictions on their product in every possible way--even if that meant designing softball regulations that didn't regulate anything. Now researchers are reporting that alcohol manufacturers in Sub-Saharan Africa are following big tobacco's lead.
Discussion of the rise in diagnosed autism is a controversial topic, and I applaud one company that is sidestepping the entire 'why' and 'who is at fault' issue and tackling it like good capitalists. MSNBC writes about Aspiritech's program for
training autistics in comp sci -- specifically the area of software testing, bug discovery, and data accuracy. They write:
This is an experiment to stir up reaction:
a significant proportion of the literature is misleading or false, tainting up to 20% of publications. What are the consequences?
1. The wastage of funds on research that is flawed and often misleading. Millions of dollars are spent on research every year worldwide.
2. This situation is unnecessary, unacceptable, and the antithesis of fundamental scientific principles.
3. Loss of public support for science. The longer the current situation continues, the more likely it is to damage the credibility of science and risk the loss of public funding.
No more sifting through unsanitary goat knuckles, searching for abstractions in tealeaves, shaking the Mattel magic eight ball, listening to Yellow Submarine backwards, or trudging India’s highlands in search of infamously reclusive gurus—instead, look no further for answers than Les Propheties, the 1555 work of Michel de Nostradame.
The stereotype of the nerdy computer scientist who stays up all night coding and has no social life may be driving women away from the field, and this stereotype can be brought to mind based only on the the environment in a classroom or office, according to a study published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"When people think of computer science the image that immediately pops into many of their minds is of the computer geek surrounded by such things as computer games, science fiction memorabilia and junk food," said Sapna Cheryan, a University of Washington assistant professor of psychology and the study's lead author.
Even though the FDA doesn't actually know how many underage smokers choose flavored cigarettes, a new study claims that thrill-seeking teenagers are especially susceptible to fruit-flavored cigarettes and the federal government was right to outlaw the flavorful smokes last September.
"We found that those teens who gravitate toward novel experiences were especially drawn to cigarettes described as having an appealing, sweet flavor, such as cherry," says lead author Kenneth Manning with Colorado State University.
Your ability to resist that tempting cookie depends on how a big a threat you perceive it to be, according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
University of Texas researchers studied techniques that enable us to resist food and other temptations. "Four experiments show that when consumers encounter temptations that conflict with their long-term goals, one self-control mechanism is to exaggerate the negativity of the temptation as a way to resist, a process we call counteractive construal," the researchers write.
