Where the Dollar Sign Comes From

This symbol first showed up in the 1770s, appearing in documents of English-Americans who had business dealings with Spanish-Americans. However, it wasn’t until the very early 1800s that it became popularized, around the same time as the first official U.S. dollars were being minted. Previous to this, the symbol had already been in use as an abbreviation for names of Spanish currency, namely as an abbreviation for the Spanish peso “p”. Read more…

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Where the Dollar Sign Comes From

What gives paper money its actual value?

Money is just tinted paper printed with different numbers on it. So what gives the ol’ greenbacks its value? The bills used to be tied to the gold standard but now, it’s up to The Fed to control how many bills there are. So why can’t they just decide to print out ridiculous amounts of bill to make everyone rich? Read more…

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What gives paper money its actual value?

What the biggest companies are from each state in the US

The most popular brands in America are not always the largest companies making the most revenue. Brands that you know, stores that you go to and places that you associate with some states get replaced by faceless monoliths who basically repurpose oil, energy, technology, other people’s money, etc. into more money. Read more…

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What the biggest companies are from each state in the US

Oracle Buying Micros Systems For $5.3 Billion

An anonymous reader writes Oracle is buying hospitality and retail technology vendor Micros Systems for $5.3 billion, in a deal that will be its largest since the purchase of Sun Microsystems in 2010. “Oracle said the acquisition will extend its offerings by combining Micros’ industry-specific applications with its business applications, technologies and cloud portfolio. Oracle expects the deal to immediately add to its adjusted earnings. Its stock climbed 18 cents to $41 before the market opened. Micros’ board unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of the year.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Oracle Buying Micros Systems For $5.3 Billion

Computers are now automatically selecting the best embryos for life

These time lapses are captured by a computer that automatically tracks embryo growth from the moment the sperm enters the egg during in vitro fertilization. It selects the best candidates for implantation in mothers, using special algorithms that look for some key markers during the cell division process. Read more…

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Computers are now automatically selecting the best embryos for life

OneDrive just more than doubled its free-storage offering, bringing it up to 15GB.

OneDrive just more than doubled its free-storage offering, bringing it up to 15GB . That’s the same amount you’ll get with Google Drive. On top of that, all versions of Office 365 now come with a full 1TB of storage attached. That’s a lot of spreadsheets. Read more…

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OneDrive just more than doubled its free-storage offering, bringing it up to 15GB.

Dolby’s Crazy Atmos Surround Sound Is Coming to Your Living Room

More than t wo years ago , Dolby trotted out Atmos, the most advanced surround sound system in history. It’s been used to bring explosions and battles to deafening life Gravity to The Hobbit, to create chilling, intense movie going experiences to hundreds of theaters. Now Dolby plans to bring Atmos to your house. Read more…

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Dolby’s Crazy Atmos Surround Sound Is Coming to Your Living Room

Spectacular photos of the US Navy’s most powerful battleship ever

This is the USS Iowa, the first of the largest, most powerful battleship class ever in the United States Navy, equipped with nine 406mm cannons that could fire nuclear shells —the only American ship in history with this capability. This photo series is old but still stunning. Read more…

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Spectacular photos of the US Navy’s most powerful battleship ever

Over 300,000 Servers Remain Vulnerable To Heartbleed

An anonymous reader writes “Even though it’s been a couple months since the Heartbleed bug was discovered, many servers remain unpatched and vulnerable. “Two months ago, security experts and web users panicked when a Google engineer discovered a major bug — known as Heartbleed — that put over a million web servers at risk. The bug doesn’t make the news much anymore, but that doesn’t mean the problem’s solved. Security researcher Robert David Graham has found that at least 309, 197 servers are still vulnerable to the exploit. Immediately after the announcement, Graham found some 600, 000 servers were exposed by Heartbleed. One month after the bug was announced, that number dropped down to 318, 239. In the past month, however, only 9, 042 of those servers have been patched to block Heartbleed. That’s cause for concern, because it means that smaller sites aren’t making the effort to implement a fix.”” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Over 300,000 Servers Remain Vulnerable To Heartbleed

Scientists Successfully Grow Full Head of Hair On Bald Man

realized writes: “A man with almost no hair on his body has grown a full head of it after a novel treatment by doctors at Yale University. The patient had previously been diagnosed with both alopecia universalis, a disease that results in loss of all body hair, and plaque psoriasis, a condition characterized by scaly red areas of skin. The only hair on his body was within the psoriasis plaques on his head. He was referred to Yale Dermatology for treatment of the psoriasis. The alopecia universalis had never been treated. After two months on tofacitinib [an FDA-approved arthritis drug] at 10 mg daily, the patient’s psoriasis showed some improvement, and the man had grown scalp and facial hair — the first hair he’d grown there in seven years. After three more months of therapy at 15 mg daily, the patient had completely regrown scalp hair and also had clearly visible eyebrows, eyelashes, and facial hair, as well as armpit and other hair, the doctors said.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scientists Successfully Grow Full Head of Hair On Bald Man