Dried Meat "Resurrects" Lost Species of Whale

sciencehabit writes “A gift of dried whale meat—and some clever genetic sleuthing across almost 16, 000 kilometers of equatorial waters—has helped scientists identify a long-forgotten animal as a new species of beaked whale. The ‘resurrection’ raises new questions about beaked whales, the most elusive and mysterious of cetaceans. Overall, the saga shows ‘that there are probably even more species of beaked whales that we don’t know about, ‘ says Phil Clapham, a marine mammalogist at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, Washington. ‘We don’t see them because they’re very deep-diving and live far from land.’ They also live in a poorly surveyed part of the ocean, Baker says, where very few people dwell on remote atolls.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Dried Meat "Resurrects" Lost Species of Whale

Google tweaks its search results to throw more YouTube music videos at you

As clever as Google’s search is, finding official YouTube music videos is often harder than it should be, hampering efforts to successfully get your soft rock fix. In a new change rolling out now, the search giant has made it easier to surface such videos by giving the top playable link its very own card. While Google cunningly displays a video player as the top result, it actually directs you to YouTube (and other sites like Vimeo or Dailymotion) to serve legitimate uploads by music labels and the inescapable VEVO . It’s definitely a step in the right direction, but Google hasn’t totally nailed the implementation and often displays fan-made videos or doesn’t show one at all. Despite the rise in legal music streaming sites, Google’s well aware YouTube still beats Spotify et al in terms of total users, which is probably why it’s readying its own music subscription service . Filed under: Internet , Google Comments Source: Search Engine Watch

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Google tweaks its search results to throw more YouTube music videos at you

Last Month’s Massive Target Hack Was the Heating Guy’s Fault

The source of the massive Target security breach that allowed hackers to swipe the credit and debit card data of up to 40 million customers may have finally been tracked down. The culprit? One extremely unfortunate HVAC repairman. Read more…        

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Last Month’s Massive Target Hack Was the Heating Guy’s Fault

Fire Destroys Iron Mountain Data Warehouse, Argentina’s Bank Records Lost

cagraham writes “A fire at Iron Mountain’s data warehouse in Buenos Aires left the facility ‘ruined’ and killed nine first-responders, according to the Washington Post. The origin of the fire is unknown. The facility was supposedly equipped with sprinkler systems, fire control systems, and had a private emergency team on standby. Among the records destroyed are Argentina’s bank archives, the loss of which could have some surprisingly far-reaching implications.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Fire Destroys Iron Mountain Data Warehouse, Argentina’s Bank Records Lost

Amos Chapple’s Photographs of the Coldest Town on Earth

Globetrotting photographer Amos Chapple has shot in sixty countries, eventually working his way up to be named Cathay Pacific’s Travel Photographer of the Year for ’09. More recently, New Zealand native Chapple recently photographed a region with weather very opposite from that of his home country: Oymyakon, Russia, where the average winter temperature is negative-58 Fahrenheit (negative-50 Celsius). As Chapple told Weather.com , “occasionally my saliva would freeze into needles that would prick my lips, ” and “focusing the lens would sometimes be as challenging as opening a pickle jar.” Viewing these photos officially means you can never complain about being cold ever again. The temperature is so brutal that Oymyakon residents’ lives are structured around surviving it, with inconveniences aplenty. For example: No wearing eyeglasses outdoors, unless you want them to stick to your skin. Even worse, there’s no indoor plumbing. It’s impossible to keep underground pipes from not freezing, so guess where you’ll go when you need to use the bathroom: Then there’s the gas situation: When you stop your car, to run into a store for instance, you cannot turn the car off, or it won’t start again. So everyone leaves their cars running (except at night, when they’re parked in heated garages)… (more…)

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Amos Chapple’s Photographs of the Coldest Town on Earth

​Why a Single-Molecule LED Could Be a Big Deal

Technologically speaking, smaller is virtually always better. So it’s perhaps no surprise that scientists have developed the first ever single-molecule LED . But why is it potentially such a big deal? Read more…        

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​Why a Single-Molecule LED Could Be a Big Deal

Snore Sensing Pillow Automatically Nudges You To Roll Over

It seems like snoring has become more of an epidemic than any of us have realized. At CES, Sleep Number revealed its IQ bed that lets bedmates silence a snoring partner. But now there’s a pillow that can stop a deafening snorer all by itself. Read more…        

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Snore Sensing Pillow Automatically Nudges You To Roll Over

A Gorgeous Inkless Pen That Never Needs a Refill

Pininfarina is known for turning Ferraris and other exotic cars into even more impressive works of art, so it’s a safe assumption that its new 4.EVER Pininfarina Cambiano writing instrument is going to cost a small fortune when available. But with an inkless design that never needs a new cartridge, it could eventually pay for itself—after a century of use. Read more…        

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A Gorgeous Inkless Pen That Never Needs a Refill

Newegg’s answer to Amazon Prime: $50 per year for expedited shipping

Newegg If you’re the type of person who makes electronics purchases on a whim but then agonizes over which shipping to choose, you may be happy to hear about  Newegg Premier . Taking a page out of Amazon’s playbook, the venerable electronics retailer launched its “Newegg Premier” program on Tuesday. For $50 per year, subscribers will get “free expedited shipping” of three days or less, early-access to sales, free and no-fee returns, and a “dedicated customer service telephone number” (all similar benefits to Amazon Prime). But unlike its competitor, Newegg Premier won’t give you access to Alpha House (sorry, John Goodman) or any of the company’s other online media. “We always seek ways to improve the customer experience, and implementing a benefit program is the latest example of how we’re making it easier and more rewarding to shop at Newegg.com,” said Soren Mills, chief marketing officer of Newegg North America, in a statement . “Free expedited shipping is in itself a great benefit, but beyond that we’re including many other perks to enhance the shopping experience.” Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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Newegg’s answer to Amazon Prime: $50 per year for expedited shipping

Oculus VR’s first published game will be EVE: Valkyrie

EVE:Valkyrie is no longer just a neat proof-of-concept demo for Oculus’ prototype VR headset — it’s now an exclusive launch title . Today, Oculus announced that it’d be entering into a co-publishing agreement with developer CCP Games to make its space dogfighter one of the Rift’s first AAA “made-for-VR” games. That Oculus would seek to back EVE:Valkyrie in this way shouldn’t come as much surprise to those following the nascent VR outfit’s saga. The two companies have had a closely intertwined relationship that reaches back to Oculus’ Kickstarter days. So when CCP revealed plans to develop the VR shooter as a standalone title within its EVE Online universe back in August of last year — previously a go-to demo for the Rift — it seemed likely the title was destined for Oculus. At the time, CCP had even mentioned 2014 as a target for the games’ commercial release, a date which coincided neatly with the same vague release window Oculus had set for a commercial launch of the Rift. Filed under: Gaming Comments Source: Oculus VR

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Oculus VR’s first published game will be EVE: Valkyrie