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With all modern web browsers battling over JavaScript performance, there is a need for ways to reliably measure it. One benchmark that has proven very popular is SunSpider, created by the Webkit team. The benchmark is regularly used to compare various JavaScript engines, but, with things moving so fast in this area, it started bein… (read more)

Canonical is gearing up for the release of its latest OS, the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. This release of Ubuntu will mark a major overhaul in design, features and boot time.

At a strategic time just before the release of its Lucid Lynx, Canonical has released data relating to the number of Ubuntu users worldwide. This report estimates Ubuntu users at 12 million. That is a major 50% increase over the last 18 months.

Chris Kenyon, vice president for OEM at Canonical said,

We have no phone home or registration process, so it’s always a guesstimate. But based on the same methodology that we came up with for the 2008 number, our present belief is that it’s somewhere north of 12 million users at the moment.

This is not even close to Fedora’s claims of its desktop installation user base of 24 million. The new Ubuntu marks a milestone with its LTS release. This release will be supported for the next three years.

Though, there are two worries here.

Firstly, how exactly are those estimates made? How does Canonical calculate its Ubuntu user? Which specific service in Ubuntu is used to do this? This will help us estimate the error margin in the calculation.

Secondly, isn’t Ubuntu the most popular Linux distro? How comes Fedora has not even a close number, but exactly double of Ubuntu Linux users?

You must see an interesting discussion topic at Slashdot and a post at Linuxplanet giving more info on this.

Don’t miss these Related Posts:

• Release Schedule for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx [Roadmap]
• Download Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx ISO
• Ubuntu Dumps GIMP, Will Include F-Spot in Lucid Lynx
• Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Boots In 3.6 Seconds [Using SSD]
• Lucid Lynx includes manual for Beginners

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American Idol host Ryan Seacrest promised a surprise at the beginning of Wednesday’s Results Show. This time he meant what he said.

American Idol judges used their one-time save to rescue Florida dad Michael Lynche from elimination Wednesday after viewers of the talent show gave the thumbs-down to the Teddy Bear singer’s rendition of “Eleanor Rigby.” Mike took the stage for a gospel-inspired take on Maxwell’s “This Woman’s Work” to try to earn the judges’ save — he was successful. Audience voting was overruled when the judging panel gave Lynche their once-a-season save, noting that the burly crooner has consistently staged strong performances and won their praise.

“We all wish you did something like that yesterday,” judge Simon Cowell said. “This is why you’re in the position you’re in right now, because of what happened yesterday. We only have one save in the competition, and this is unanimous – we have decided we’re going to see you next week.”

Floppy-haired Justin Long has said in an interview with the AV Club that the ‘Get A Mac‘ adverts “might be done…I think they’re going to move on.” Move on to more ads with disembodied hands and loud indie-pop? More »

ASUS has announced U.S. availability of its U30Jc Intel Core notebook. The U30Jc features NVIDIA Optimus technology which monitors programs being launched and chooses the appropriate performance profile to suit. Swapping between discreet and integrated graphics depending on need helps ensure the best graphical experience while keeping an eye on best energy usage at the same time…

Tags: Asus,
Low power,
Notebook,
NVIDIA

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Kymerica

The historical markers of an alternative universe

Kymaerica, the land referred to as America in our world, is just a part of Kcymaerxthaere, a parallel universe, described by its website as “a global work of three dimensional storytelling.”
Eames Demetrios, the “Geographer-At-Large” of Kymaerica has erected bronze plaques throughout America (and many other countries) dedicated to historical sites of Kymaerica. You can also visit the Embassy Row of the Parisian Diaspora in Paris, Illinois. (You probably didn’t know that, in Kymaerica at least, the town you call “Paris” was settled by the Parisian Diaspora.) In this alternative history, there was a Civil War between Northern and Southern California; the Samurai colonized Santa Barbara.
In recent years, he has taken the project around the world. A large permanent installation in Australia is dedicated to one of the creation myths of Kymaerica. In India a group of schoolchildren drew what they imagined one of the Kymaerican myths should look like. Their images were then engraved in stone and set into the ground.
You can track new spottings of Kcymaerxthaere at the Kymerica blog: http://kymaericablog.com/

Read more about Kymerica on Atlas Obscura…

Category: Strange Statues, Relics and Reliquaries, Lost Tribes, Outsider Architecture
Location:
Edited by: M Rebekah Otto, Dylan

The folks at The Organic Farm Store are celebrating Earth Day by announcing their brand new biodegradable packaging! Not only is their Close To Naturenow cat litter organic, now even the packaging is green.

This completely biodegradable natural litter is made from soybean meal and potato starch. It provides excellent odor control, low tracking, and superior clumping. Unlike clay litters — which are devastating to the environment and can cause horrible health problems in cats and kittens (read more here) — Close To Naturenow is a healthy, environmentally-friendly choice for cat litter.

PLEDGE TO GO GREEN AND ENTER TO WIN!

From biodiesel-fueled mobile clinics to facilities built using green design, there are lots of animal shelters worldwide that are going green! The Organic Farm Store has put together a list of some eco-friendly animal shelters in the US and Canada. Check it out, then come back here and leave a comment on this post with info about what your animal shelter is doing to go green, or let us know what you plan to do this year in honor of Earth Day (maybe it’s time to pledge to stop using that clay litter!)

Two winners will be selected in a random drawing on Earth Day, April 25. Each winner will receive an 18 lb. bag of Close To Naturenow Organic Cat Litter in the new biodegradable bag. One entry per person. This giveaway is open to addresses in the US and Canada.

Article Tags: Editorial

Science is undermined by scaremongers’ abuse of peer-review process

The prophets of global warming continue to lament as their carefully crafted yarn unravels before their eyes. Ross McKitrick, an intrepid economics professor from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, has tugged apart the thin mathematical threads that once held together the story of climate change.

Recent attempts to silence Mr. McKitrick illuminate the extent to which the alarmists have abandoned proper scientific method in their pursuit of political goals.

Mr. McKitrick has spent the past two years attempting to publish a scientific paper that documents a fundamental error in the 2007 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. This U.N. document serves as the sole authority upon which the Environmental Protection Agency based its December “endangerment finding” that will allow unelected bureaucrats to impose cap-and-trade-style regulations without a vote of Congress. The cost to the public in higher gas and energy prices will run in the billions.

One might think that the scientific community would be extra diligent in double-checking the conclusions of a report carrying such weighty real-world consequences. In fact, the opposite happened. Seven scientific journals circled the wagons to block publication of Mr. McKitrick’s explosive findings.

Source: washingtontimes.com

Read in full with comments »   

Country queen Shania Twain is set to make her debut on the small screen by starring in her own reality TV series.

The Oprah Winfrey Network has ordered a full season of 60 minute episodes of the docusoap Why Not? With Shania Twain.

“The show will follow [Twain] as she begins her climb back to the top, a personal journey filled with risk, revelations and unexpected adventures,” the network said Thursday.

The Grammy winner has been rebuilding her life since her marriage to Robert “Mutt” Lange ended in 2008 following the producer’s alleged affair with her friend and employee Marie-Anne Thiébaud.

Shania’s no stranger to the camera: She has posted several personal videos to her website of travels across the globe with her 8-year-old son Eja and her blossoming romance with her boyfriend Frederic, who is Thiebaud’s ex-husband.

A premiere date has not yet been announced. OWN hits the airwaves in 2011.

Use the force to protect young ‘uns from the boogymen, with the remote control lightsaber nightlight. It changes color eight times, and will cost $25 when it goes on sale later this year. [BigBadToyStore via NerdApproved] More »

Sagem are looking to Android for their next-gen Puma phone, as the French phone company commences rolling out the open-source OS across its range.  We caught up with the Puma phone – which is currently based on Sagem’s home-grown platform – at a pre-launch event last night, and the company’s executive VP of marketing and user experience confirmed that Sagem are considering an entry-level version of the sports/lifestyle themed device which would run Android.

The likelihood is that it would also be heavily skinned, with Sagem’s Puma-themed UI and links to the various connected services they’ve developed.  These include everything from sports news through to an online store where you can buy phone accessories and sportswear from Puma’s line.

Any second-gen device isn’t expected to arrive until sometime in 2011, but it won’t be the only Sagem handset to run Android; the company have committed to making a significant part of their range run Google’s OS.  More about the Puma phone over at SlashGear.

Luke Timmerman wrote:

The Seattle biotech scene had a smattering of blurbs this week from a few of the lesser-known names. But at least one local organization is clearly starting to emerge.

—Sage Bionetworks, the Seattle-based nonprofit seeking to spark an open source movement for biology, secured a $5 million grant from the state’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund. This is just the latest show of support from an impressive, and growing, list of organizations rallying their money and talent behind the vision of former Merck executive Stephen Friend. Research teams at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center also nailed down $5 million grants.

—Seldom do I ever get a chance to write about anything innovative in the pipeline for Alzheimer’s disease, the condition that robs an estimated 5 million elderly Americans from their memory and cognitive thinking skills. Nothing on the market today really works. But this week, we had an in-depth feature on the team at Vancouver, BC-based Allon Therapeutics who are testing peptide drugs that are designed to work unlike anything on the market today.

—Frazier Healthcare Ventures and Arch Venture Partners, the two deepest sets of pockets in Seattle biotech venture capital, placed a big bet this week on San Francisco-based Achaogen. The company, a developer of antibiotics that are supposed to fight multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, raised $56 million in a Series C venture round that included Frazier, Arch, and some of their best-known friends on the national VC scene.

—The biotech lab and office are usually not the place to find astute political commentary, but the newly passed healthcare reform law matters for biotech in a number of ways. Richard Pops, the CEO of Waltham, MA-based Alkermes, argues in this national guest editorial that the time for political engagement is far from over, as industry leaders need to start paying attention to the next round of negotiations to renew the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, which governs how companies do business with the FDA.

—Ken Stuart of Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, one of the Northwest’s pioneers in global health, pointed out in a guest editorial that while World Health Day was celebrated this week, it was really a reminder that global health awareness has become deeply interwoven into everyday life in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.

—Bothell, WA-based MDRNA (NASDAQ: MRNA) made a couple of moves to help boost its dwindling cash reserves. The company formed a research deal with Pfizer, and acquired Cambridge, MA-based Cequent Pharmaceuticals, another RNA interference drug developer.

—Stratos Genomics, a Seattle-based developer of low-cost gene sequencing technology, has been pretty stealthy about what it’s up to, but this week it attracted the former CEO of Roche Molecular Diagnostics to its board of directors.

—Last but not least, we have launched a new channel at Xconomy to showcase all the Health IT news we dig up around here. For the Seattle biotechies out there who are watching the big trends in genomics, you may want to check out the first and second installments of a two-part interview I did with Illumina CEO Jay Flatley that ran on our San Diego and Health IT channels this week.

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Is Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Matt Kemp ready to make an honest woman out of pop star Rihanna?

Probably not, but Bossip.com sure thinks so.

The site cites celebrity snitches who claim the 22-year-old is rocking a new engagement ring after saying “yes” to a surprise proposal from her baseballer beau last week.

“Matt surprised Rihanna last week when he approached her and asked for her hand in marriage. She said yes, but also relayed the message of feeling that this may be too soon and a long engagement should follow.”

The couple — who have been dating since last winter — reportedly moved in together in March.

Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• Bunch of spring onions, trimmed and sliced
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper, cored, seeded and sliced
• 2 young parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 T olive oil
• 8 oz / 225 g cooked chick peas
• 1 x 14 oz / 395 g can tomatoes
• Handful of fresh parsley sprigs
• 2 T tahini
• Sea salt
• Freshly milled black pepper
  

METHOD:
Put the spring onions, carrots, red pepper and parsnips into a microwave safe casserole or large bowl. Stir the oil into the vegetables, cover tightly and cook on full power for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chickpeas, tomatoes and their juice and all the other ingredients, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper. Pour in 1/2 pint / 250 ml boiling water. Cover and cook on full power for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Add additional salt and pepper if required.

Lady Gaga has reached out to a Tennessee teen, who was sent home from school — to national headlines — this week after wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “I Love Lady Gay Gay.” School administrators claimed the shirt caused “disruption” among students.

Cole Goforth was sent home from Greenbrier High School in Tennessee on Monday after he arrived wearing the shirt, referring to the pop sensation and gay icon. A dress code implemented by the local school board does not specifically ban shirts with the word “gay” on them, but principals and instructors can penalize violators at their own discretion.

The “Poker Face” hitmaker, who is currently in Australia as part of her sold-out Monster Ball Tour, heard about the fracas Down South and hit her Twitter page to defend her 15-year-old fan in a series of posts decrying the suspension.

“Thank u for wearing your tee-shirt proud at school, you make me so proud… You are an inspiration to us all. I love you,” Gaga Tweeted to Goforth.

She later added, “Been in the studio for days and hours of record after record, and when I hear that a little monster (fan) was discriminated against BY TEACHERS… It reminds me of my commitment (and) love for you, and the deep unconditional devotion I feel to write music that will liberate you from prejudice….”

The school argues that a shirt with the word “gay” on it could potentially make other students feel “uncomfortable.”

“I just think my sexuality isn’t widely accepted around here, so of course they are going to single me out,” says Colin, who is gay.

His mom agrees: “I think they are singling him out… They’ve made statements that if he wore this in California, he’d fit in just fine,” Julie Gordon added.

Homophobia is so ’80s! Let the kid wear his tee!

The current crop of battery technology seems unable to keep up with the increasing demands we are placing on our ever-growing collection of mobile devices. Which is why research into next generation battery technology is such a focus around the world. A new high-performance anode structure based on silicon-carbon composite materials could significantly improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries used in our portable electronics and gaining widespread use in electric and hybrid vehicles…

Tags: Batteries,
Lithium-ion,
Nanoparticles,
Nanotechnology

Related Articles:

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• Air-fueled battery boosts capacity tenfold

Stewart Lyman wrote:

The biotech industry won a major victory last month when President Obama signed healthcare reform into law. Biologic drugs, those developed through genetic engineering techniques and incubated in living cells, will now be granted a 12-year period of data exclusivity on the market, to protect them from cheaper copycat competitors. That will allow the innovative companies to recoup their long investment in R&D.

But that’s not the only significant benefit for biotech tucked into this piece of legislation.

In a recent Xconomy op-ed piece I mentioned the Therapeutic Tax Credit, details of which have now been spilling out. This portion of the legislation, now officially called the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Credit, looks like another big win for the biotechnology industry in general and its research efforts in particular. Indeed, this legislation was backed by the Biotechnology Industry Organization and is especially favorable to startups and small companies. Dean Zerbe provided a detailed description of this program in a recent posting on Forbes.com. People running the tax and finance departments of biotech companies employing less than 250 workers (i.e. the vast majority of them) should evaluate this program to see if they qualify for this tax credit. Here are the highlights of the program, according to the Forbes article:

If your biotech company has a tax liability, you can get a 50 percent tax credit; if you have no tax liability, you can get a grant in the same amount that is tax-free. The credit covers qualified investments in “therapeutic discovery projects.” What defines this? In order to receive the tax credit, the research program must fulfill at least one of the following three criteria:

1) It is designed to treat diseases via preclinical research or clinical studies for the purpose of getting FDA approval of the treatment.

2) It is designed to diagnose diseases or find molecular factors (e.g. biomarkers) related to diseases by developing diagnostics that can be used to make therapeutic decisions.

3) It is designed to develop some methodology that would advance the delivery or administration of therapeutics (e.g. technologies that are being developed to deliver siRNA).

By my reckoning, a very large percentage of biotechnology companies would qualify to apply for these tax credits. However, there are some additional criteria that will also be used to judge the research applications:

The research should have direct or indirect medical benefits. The emphasis here will be to finance programs that “will treat areas of unmet medical needs or prevent, detect or treat chronic or acute diseases or conditions.” Programs that will cut long-term health care costs are also favored, as are …Next Page »

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Rolex Learning Center
The EPLF (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
is the confederate university of the French-speaking
part of Switzerland. The “Rolex Learning Center” has
been being built right next to the present-day campus
over a three-year period. It will provide space for 700
students and teachers. In addition to a large library
covering the history of science, exhibitions and conferences
will take place. The complex also incorporates quiet
areas and contact zones and catering facilities. The latest
multimedia technology naturally has pride of place.

While he hasn’t released it into the wild just yet, Geohot’s video proves he’s got the goods to allow other operating systems—such as Linux—to work on the PS3 after the feature-removing 3.21 update is installed. More »

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is showing Sean B. Carroll the love today. HHMI named him the next Vice President of Science Education. Since he already has published several popular books I think this turns out to be after the fact recognition of his service in this area. But I noticed in my RSS that HHMI also put out a lavish press release on a paper which just came out by Carroll’s lab, Preexisting Patterns Guide Evolution’s Paintbrush:

One of the enduring mysteries of the animal world is how colored patterns come to adorn different species’ skin, scales, or feathers. Now, a team led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Sean B. Carroll has discovered how wing spots evolved in a species of polka-dotted fruit fly.

The new studies show that pigment production in the wing is patterned according to the spatial distribution of a molecule that helps sculpt the shape of the body during development. The finding underscores the concept that evolution likes to tinker with existing genetic machinery to evolve new patterns and forms.

Here’s the paper in Nature, Generation of a novel wing colour pattern by the Wingless morphogen:

The complex, geometric colour patterns of many animal bodies have important roles in behaviour and ecology. The generation of certain patterns has been the subject of considerable theoretical exploration, however, very little is known about the actual mechanisms underlying colour pattern formation or evolution. Here we have investigated the generation and evolution of the complex, spotted wing pattern of Drosophila guttifera. We show that wing spots are induced by the Wingless morphogen, which is expressed at many discrete sites that are specified by pre-existing positional information that governs the development of wing structures. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the elaborate spot pattern evolved from simpler schemes by co-option of Wingless expression at new sites. This example of a complex design developing and evolving by the layering of new patterns on pre-patterns is likely to be a general theme in other animals.

In case you don’t know the “back story,” Carroll has gotten into it with other evolutionary biologists such as Jerry Coyne over his interest in particular types of constraints in evolution and development. I’ve heard him be termed the “King of Evo-Devo” in private conversation. What Richard Dawkins did for the “selfish gene” in the 1970s I think Carroll is trying to pull off for gene regulation in this century.

Oh, and by coincidence, I notice that the Sean Carroll has a paper in the current issue of Nature, Infrared images of the transiting disk in the ϵ Aurigae system. You read his take over at his blog.