News

"Auto-Correct Love Song shows how texting can ruin your love life"

By Rob Winters - Published on Sunday, 11 September 2011 18:36

"Autocorrect has become a notoriously frustrating feature we put up with every day while typing on our phones. We posted back in June about an iOS 5 texting shortcut that makes typing swear words easy to do. Normally, if you try to type the word “hell” into your iPhone while texting, the word will turn out as “he’ll.” Another well known correction is one particular four-letter word that is autocorrected to “shot.”

Indeed, the autocorrect feature can often lead to some hilarious mishaps, but also some rather awkward ones. We’ve all experienced receiving a text and staring at it in shock for a minute or two before realizing what the person was really trying to say. Often times the sender will realize their error immediately after sending and will reply quickly with a “I mean Heineken, not hermaphrodite!” follow-up text."

"Wired bacteria clean up nuclear waste"

By Rob Winters - Published on Sunday, 11 September 2011 18:29

"MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Researchers have unraveled the mystery of how microbes generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste, a finding that could prove beneficial at contaminated sites.

“Geobacter bacteria are tiny micro-organisms that can play a major role in cleaning up polluted sites around the world,” says Gemma Reguera, a microbiologist at Michigan State University. “Uranium contamination can be produced at any step in the production of nuclear fuel, and this process safely prevents its mobility and the hazard for exposure.”

The ability of Geobacter to immobilize uranium has been well documented, but the new study identifies Geobacter’s conductive pili, or nanowires, as doing the yeoman’s share of the work. The findings are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

"20-year-old internet star has 1m regular YouTube fans"

By Rob Winters - Published on Sunday, 11 September 2011 18:21

"Charlie McDonnell has become an international star with his web channel charlieissocoollike by becoming the first British person to generate a million regular viewers on YouTube.

The 20-year-old’s most successful video, Duet with Myself, in which he uses camera tricks to appear twice on screen has been watched 5.87million times.

In the duet, he sings: “You’ve got no friends. They are just on the internet.”

His success in the United States has been won with How to Speak English, in which he discusses the meaning of the word "chav" with an American friend, and How To Be English, in which he gives step-by-step instructions on how to make a cup of tea."

"Retired racing greyhounds may be susceptible to white-coat syndrome"

By Rob Winters - Published on Sunday, 11 September 2011 18:04

"If your blood pressure spikes when you're in the doctor's office, you probably have what's called white-coat syndrome, a stress response to being in a clinical setting. You're not alone--some greyhound dogs may have it as well.

A study finds that retired racing greyhounds may have temporarily elevated blood pressure when in the veterinarian's office or animal hospital. The dogs, which are often adopted when their racing career ends, are known to be more...how shall we say this...high strung compared with some other breeds. Other studies have shown that their blood pressure may even be slightly higher normally than that of other types of dogs."

"New Fossils May Redraw Human Ancestry"

By Rob Winters - Published on Sunday, 11 September 2011 17:58

"An apelike creature with human features, whose fossil bones were discovered recently in a South African cave, is being greeted by paleoanthropologists as a likely watershed in the understanding of human evolution.

The discoverer of the fossils, Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, says the new species, known as Australopithecus sediba, is the most plausible known ancestor of archaic and modern humans."

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