Tag: funny

Research Shows E-Cigs Might Be As Good For Quitting As Nicotine Patches

“Taking a drag from an e-cigarette may be just as safe and effective as slapping on a nicotine patch for smokers struggling to quit, according to the first physician-run trial to compare the two products.” That’s according to research recently published in The Lancet (PDF) and reported by Bloomberg. Why is this significant? From the article: “If European and U.S. regulators treat e-cigarettes as medical devices, yet leave cigarettes on general sale, tobacco makers ‘will retain their market monopoly, and we will never learn whether e-cigarettes would replace traditional cigarettes if allowed to continue evolving and competing with smoked tobacco on even terms, ‘ [wrote clinical psychology professor Peter Hajek]. The results will also be presented today at the European Respiratory Society’s annual meeting in Barcelona. E-cigarettes have taken Europe and the U.S. by storm. In France, there are more than 1 million regular users, according to a government-commissioned report published in May. Sales worldwide will probably approach $2 billion by the end of this year and top $10 billion by 2017, according to a forecast by Wells Fargo & Co.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More:
Research Shows E-Cigs Might Be As Good For Quitting As Nicotine Patches

400 Million Chinese Cannot Speak Mandarin

dryriver writes with this excerpt from a thought-provoking report at the BBC: “China’s Education Ministry says that about 400 million people — or 30% of the population — cannot speak the country’s national language. Of the 70% of the population who can speak Mandarin, many do not do it well enough, a ministry spokeswoman told Xinhua news agency on Thursday. The admission from officials came as the government launched another push for linguistic unity in China. China is home to thousands of dialects and several minority languages. These include Cantonese and Hokkien, which enjoy strong regional support. Mandarin — formally called Putonghua in China, meaning ‘common tongue’ — is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world. The Education Ministry spokeswoman said the push would be focusing on the countryside and areas with ethnic minorities.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read more here:
400 Million Chinese Cannot Speak Mandarin

New Ship Will Remain Stable By Creating Its Own Inner Waves

Zothecula writes “When offshore oil drilling rigs are being installed, serviced or dismantled, the workers typically stay in cabins located on adjacent floating platforms. These semi-submersible platforms are towed into place (or travel under their own power) and then their hulls are partially filled with water, allowing them to remain somewhat stable in the pitching seas. Now, a ship is being built to serve the same purpose, but that will be a much more mobile alternative. It will keep from rolling with the waves by generating its own waves, inside its hull.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
New Ship Will Remain Stable By Creating Its Own Inner Waves

High-end CPU Coolers Reviewed and Compared

jjslash writes “CPU cooling units are an often-overlooked but always important side of PC building, whether you’re looking to overclock or you simply want a cool-running, silent system. It’s also easy to get lost if you aren’t an enthusiast who keeps tabs on the best options. TechSpot has rounded up 10 high-end CPU coolers (read: huge heatsinks) including top units from Noctua, Thermalright, Xigmatek, Silverstone and Thermaltake. If you’re willing to spend the cash, they rate the Noctua NH-U14S as the best overall pick. For a tighter budget, the Thermalright offerings provide the best bang for your buck.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visit link:
High-end CPU Coolers Reviewed and Compared

Gut Bacteria In Slim People Extract More Nutrients

Beeftopia writes “Researchers discovered that inserting gut bacteria from obese people into mice without gut bacteria led to the mice becoming obese. Gut bacteria from slim people inserted into the same mice did not lead to mouse obesity. The researchers concluded (abstract) that gut bacteria from the slim people were more efficient at extracting nutrients from food than those of the obese.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

View the original here:
Gut Bacteria In Slim People Extract More Nutrients

Parallels Update Installs Unrelated Daemon Without Permission

Calibax writes “Parallels recently released version 9 of Parallels Desktop, their popular hypervisor application for Mac. They also released a new product named Parallels Access that offers access to Windows applications from an iPad for $80 per year. Access has received less than stellar reviews. When a user upgrades Parallels Desktop, he is asked if he wants a free six-month subscription to Parallels Access. Even if he says no, the product is installed on his system and the application is started each time the system is rebooted. It is installed with ancillary files scattered around several directories in the system and Parallels has not supplied an uninstaller or listed the steps to fully uninstall the application, despite a number of requests. In other words, Parallels has decided it’s a good idea to silently install a difficult to remove daemon application on the system, even if the user has explicitly stated they do not want it. They have not provided an uninstaller or a list of files installed or instructions on how to remove the application files. These are scattered to at least four Mac OS X OS system level directories.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read the original post:
Parallels Update Installs Unrelated Daemon Without Permission

Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2: Now With New Kickstand!

UnknowingFool writes “For consumers who had hoped that Microsoft would greatly upgrade their recent entries into the tablet market, leaks and rumors have said that both machines will receive modest hardware changes. Surface Pro 2 will sport new Haswell processors which will increase battery life to 7 hours. RAM is expected to increase from 4GB to 8GB. Surface (formerly RT) will get Tegra 4 processors. The only other confirmed change will be new kickstands that have 2 positions instead of one.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visit site:
Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2: Now With New Kickstand!

LGPL H.265 Codec Implementation Available; Encoding To Come Later

New submitter Zyrill writes “The German company Stuttgarter Struktur AG has released a free and open source implementation of the H.265 codec, also termed ‘High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)’ which is now available on Github. At the same video quality, H.265 promises roughly half the bitrate as compared to H.264. Also, resolutions up to 8K UHD (7680 × 4320 px) are supported. The software is licensed under LGPL. Quoting from the homepage where the software is also available for download: ‘[This software] is written from scratch in plain C for simplicity and efficiency. Its simple API makes it easy to integrate it into other software. Currently, libde265 only decodes intra frames, inter-frame decoding is under construction. Encoding is planned to be added afterwards.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
LGPL H.265 Codec Implementation Available; Encoding To Come Later

Users Revolt Over Yahoo Groups Update

An anonymous reader writes “The new NEO format of Yahoo Groups is being rolled out to users and there is no option to go back. Users and moderators are posting messages asking Yahoo to go back to the old format. Yahoo is responding with a vanilla ‘thank you for your feedback we are working to make it better’ comment. Most posters are so frustrated that they just want the old site back. One poster writes ‘Yahoo has effectively destroyed the groups, completely, themselves.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visit site:
Users Revolt Over Yahoo Groups Update

Sleep Found To Replenish a Type of Brain Cell

New submitter wrackspurt writes “Sleep deprivation has long been thought to be prevalent in the industrialized world. A new study (abstract) explains one very good reason why at least seven hours of sleep a night is necessary. Quoting the BBC: ‘Sleep ramps up the production of cells that go on to make an insulating material known as myelin which protects our brain’s circuitry. … The increase was most marked during the type of sleep that is associated with dreaming – REM or rapid eye movement sleep — and was driven by genes. In contrast, the genes involved in cell death and stress responses were turned on when the mice were forced to stay awake.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continue Reading:
Sleep Found To Replenish a Type of Brain Cell