technology

E-ppointments

"Right after 8.30am is a busy time for the ill in Britain. People must call up in the morning to book an appointment later in the afternoon. Come opening time, the phone lines are jammed with hacking, spluttering sick people trying to beg an audience with their doctor. Being able to book appointments online and outside of office hours not only makes life easier for patients, but gives them more choice. Zesty, a start-up based in London, has signed up 200 dental practices across ten London boroughs since launching at the end of April. Investors including Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, have put $95m into ZocDoc, an American health tech company, since its launch in 2007." Continue reading →

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Copenhagen Bike-Sharing Program To Be Most High-Tech Yet

"For the next generation of bike-sharing innovations, take a look at Copenhagen and smile. Trains and a bike-sharing program working as one travel option now offer a GPS built into the bike. Not only do you know where to pick up your next connection – you have a schedule of all local train times between your front bars. The Europeans and Copenhageners (again) increase a bike lover’s convenience in transit with this new innovation. With an Android tablet offering a built-in GPS, real-time train departures and ticket integration, and real-time info on available bikes and docks in the area, one glides easily from destination to destination." Continue reading →

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A Curious Inspiration for the First Stethoscope

"Before he assumed the position of chief of service at the teeming Necker Hospital in 1816, Laënnec became adept at a technique called percussion, which involves striking the chest with one's fingertips in search of pathologic processes. Yet neither percussion nor the time-honored technique of listening to breath sounds by placing an ear against a patient's chest satisfied Laënnec's demand for diagnostic precision. He was especially critical of physicians' inability to hear muffled sounds emerging from the chest of an obese person, and he balked at what he described as the 'disgusting' hygiene of his patients, many of whom were unwashed or lice-ridden." Continue reading →

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Egyptian iron artifacts, earliest ever found, made from meteorite

"The earliest iron artefacts ever found — funeral beads strung around bodies in a 5,000-year-old Egyptian cemetery — were made from a meteorite, archaeologists said on Monday. The nine small beads come from two burial sites dated to around 3,200 BC, where they were found in necklaces along with exotic terrestrial minerals such as lapis lazuli, agate and gold. X-ray scanners, meanwhile, showed that the meteorite iron had been repeatedly heated and hammered to make the precious jewels for the afterlife. This shows that in the fourth millennium BC, the Egyptians were already advanced in the art in smithing, say the researchers." Continue reading →

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Dream Chaser is nearly ready to fly

"Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC’s) Dream Chaser spacecraft performed a 'captive carry' flight at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at California’s Edwards Air Force Base. During the two-hour test, the Dream Chaser engineering test article (ETA)—a full-sized version of the spacecraft, built for atmospheric tests—flew suspended under a helicopter at altitudes of up to 3,780 meters (12,400 feet). Last August, it received one of three Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) awards from NASA, but its award was a 'half-sized' award, valued at $212.5 million. The other two awardees, Boeing and SpaceX, received larger awards: $450 million and $440 million, respectively." Continue reading →

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The Top 5 Bitcoin Shops

"There are increasingly less limits to what you can buy using Bitcoin, especially if you’re lucky enough to live in Berlin’s Kreuzberg area. Here are our top current picks for spending those hard earned BTC online: 1. All4BTC allows you to buy almost anything online with Bitcoin, provided you would be able to get delivered using Fiat. 2. BtcTrip.com Buy flights, and soon, rent cars and book hotels using BTC. 3. Gyft allows you to buy gift cards from almost any store, and accepts Bitcoin. 4. BitMit - Bitcoin’s answer to eBay – you can buy and sell using BTC, eBay auction style. 5. BitPremier - where you can buy Ferraris, Yachts, luxury apartments, art and more." Continue reading →

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Alydian targets big ticket miners with Terahash hosting

"In a little under a week, serious miners will be able to host Terahashes of ASIC mining power from Alydian – but only in large quantities. The Californian company is preparing to host ASIC mining equipment for its customers, using yearly contracts. Its launch day pricing was $65,000 per Terahash, and mining hosting contracts are only available in 5 and 10 Th/sec blocks. So, if you’re thinking of running a miner in your basement, you are not its target market. Alydian will be going after institutional-level investors that want to move large amounts of money into bitcoins. The question is, how is it getting the capacity so early, and what will it mean for everyone else?" Continue reading →

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BitShares P2P trading platform to offer dividends on bitcoins

"BitShares is the brainchild of Invictus Innovations. It will consist of a protocol and a piece of software called Hydra, which will offer three separate services: a decentralized identity management system called BitNames, a secure chat and messaging system codenamed BitCom, and a peer to peer trading exchange. Both the protocol and the software will be open source, said Charles Hoskinson, who is co-founder of the project. His co-founder Daniel Larimer is a software engineer with a background in networked C++ applications. They secured 'mid-six figure' funding from Chinese private equity firm BitFund.PE." Continue reading →

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