Yearly Archives: 2012

Doctors eradicate girl’s cancer by reprogramming HIV

"A reprogrammed version of the virus that causes AIDS was used by doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to wipe out a little girl’s terminal leukemia. According to The New York Times, 6-year-old Emma Whitehead didn’t have much longer to live when the radical and untested therapy was pitched to her parents. But after two relapses, they’d exhausted all other options. So, using modified HIV that disables transmission of the virus, doctors loaded in up with custom T-cells that reprogrammed her immune system to fight off her leukemia." Continue reading →

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Paralyzed woman controls robotic arm with thoughts alone

"A woman who is paralysed from the neck down has stunned doctors with her extraordinary skill at using a robotic arm that is controlled by her thoughts alone. Several groups around the world are developing so-called brain-machine interfaces to control robotic arms and other devices, such as computers, but none has achieved such impressive results. Researchers said Jan was able to move the robotic arm back, forward, right, left, and up and down only two days into her training. Within weeks she could reach out, and change the position of the hand to pick up objects on a table and put them down at another location." Continue reading →

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SpaceShipTwo edges closer to powered flight

"A long-awaited major milestone for a leading suborbital vehicle developer—the first powered flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo—is a little bit closer to taking place after a test flight Wednesday. Virgin Galactic reported SpaceShipTwo flew its first glide flight in 'powered flight configuration', with its rocket motor system, including tanks and nozzle, installed. The flight also featured the first flight with thermal protection material installed on the vehicle’s leading edges, components needed for high-speed powered flight." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin’s Potential Impact on the Global Gaming Industry

"Among the discussions Ver and Voorhees conducted at the Social Gaming Asia Summit was with one of Macau’s leading junket operators. While declining to identify the operator by name, Ver told GamblingCompliance that he and Voorhees had 'spent the whole day' discussing Bitcoin’s potential with the company, which was 'in the early process of setting it up so that all their customers can exchange to and from Bitcoins with the local currency in nine of the major casinos in Macau, including the Wynn, the Venetian and the MGM Grand.'" Continue reading →

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These Are the Best Internet Service Providers

"If you're looking for the fastest, most reliable internet service provider, here you have the ranking of all the major ISPs in the United States. It's actual, real world performance—compiled by Netflix from all its customer data: 30 million members watching 1 billion hours of movie content every month. That's a lot of data, so you can be sure this is a reliable classification. The best is Google Fiber. According to Netflix, 'Google Fiber is now the most consistently fast ISP in America, according to actual user experience on Netflix streams in November.'" Continue reading →

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Ireland is cool for Google as its data servers like the weather

"Since Google’s arrival, south-east central Dublin has been rapidly transformed into a technological hub similar to Berlin’s Silicon Allee or London’s Silicon Roundabout. Other companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Zynga, HP and Dropbox have all set up in Dublin. Ireland has been able to attract these world-famous corporations despite the depth of its financial and economic crisis, due to the lobbying work of the country’s Industrial Development Authority; a highly educated, young, English-speaking workforce; and, crucially, the Republic’s rock-bottom 12.5% corporation tax. And now the weather can be added to those factors." Continue reading →

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Which Countries Are Most at Risk from Internet Disconnection

"The key to the Internet's survival is the Internet's decentralization — and it's not uniform across the world. In some countries, international access to data and telecommunications services is heavily regulated. There may be only one or two companies who hold official licenses to carry voice and Internet traffic to and from the outside world, and they are required by law to mediate access for everyone else. Under those circumstances, it's almost trivial for a government to issue an order that would take down the Internet." Continue reading →

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Tajikistan orders Twitter ban

"Tajikistan has ordered local Internet providers to block Twitter, one of more than 100 sites including popular Russian-language social networks starting next week. 'The (government) communications service has sent Internet companies a huge list of 131 sites that must be blocked in the country from Monday,' said Asomiddin Atoyev, the head of the Tajik association of Internet providers. The Central Asian country bordering Afghanistan lifted only this month a ban on Facebook. The state-run service said it blocked Facebook because of a 'deluge of lies' and 'insults to the head of state and government members.'" Continue reading →

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Russian parliament finalizes U.S. adoption ban

"Russia’s lower house of parliament has given final approval to a contentious bill that retaliates against a new US human rights measure by barring Americans from adopting the country’s children. Washington swiftly slammed the move saying Russian children would be harmed by the measure. The Russian leader has indicated he is ready to put his name on the measure so that it could enter law on January 1. The measure, which underscores the severity of the recent strain in Russia-US ties, would end about 1,000 adoptions a year." Continue reading →

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Thousands protest in Bahrain seeking PM’s ouster

"Thousands of Shiite protesters in Bahrain Saturday demanded a transition government and the removal of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been premier since 1974, witnesses said. They said the demonstrators marched in the village of Diya near the capital Manama, chanting 'Resign, Khalifa!' and waving Bahraini flags. Since February last year, Bahrain has been shaken by opposition protests that the authorities accuse of being exploited by Shiite Iran across the Gulf. At least 80 people have died since the start of the unrest in February 2011, according to the International Federation of Human Rights." Continue reading →

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