News stories the mainstream media missed : 09/01/12

Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.

* In keeping with their philosophy of  “accelerate into the brick wall to survive”, Kodak recently decided “…to sell [their] traditional film businesses to become a fully commercial-focused businesses, with printers at center stage.” Printers? PRINTERS? Kodak didn’t want to hold on to the groundbreaking camera-and-film products they invented, but decided to jump into an over-crowded arena to take on HP, Canon, Xerox, Epson, Lexmark, Brother, and OKI? Seriously? This is like Ken “mad-dog” Chong announcing he’s going into the octagon to kick Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Anderson Silva’s collective asses. By himself. Unless there’s a secret weapon or a surprise partner involved, this isn’t going to end well. [TECHCRUNCH]

* Speaking of extinct, Sony announced they will stop making CD and DVD drives in a few months. Sony was the 500-pound gorilla in this game, and if they’re pulling out, you can bet everyone else will too. So what does this mean for the consumer? The next generation of desktops and laptops won’t have CD or DVD drives. Since flash drives and streaming media are faster and hold more data, CDs and DVDs just outlived their usefulness. It’s the end of another tech era, and nobody really noticed. [NEOWIN]

* Everyone knows the Terminator. The half-man, half-governor that protects the future by beating up other budgets? I think it goes something like that. Anyhow, Harvard scientists have taken us one step closer toward awesomeness by creating real “Cyborg Flesh”. “Neurons, muscle cells, and blood vessels (taken from rats) were spliced with nanowires and transistors that monitor bioelectric impulses, and researchers predict subtle variations in the technology will let them control cellular behavior.” Ooooo goody! I can’t wait for ticklish machines! I mean, that’s the only reason something like this would be invented. Right? Right? [IGN]

Cyborg Flesh!

 

* We’ve all heard that always-baked dude’s notion that “maaaaan…. our universe is just, like, an atom. And all atoms, are like…. universes! Maaaann!” Well NOT SO FAST says NASA. Apparently the universe is more like an ice cube! Except not frozen. Or solid. Or wet. But aside from that, the metaphor works! See, the latest theory making the scientific rounds is that the universe was formed as the result of a phase-change, like ice turning into water. But in our case, the water of “before” the universe “cooled and suddenly crystallized to form four-dimensional space-time, analogous to ice.” There was nothing before the universe because it was in a different state. Ice to water. Water to ice. Maaaann! [SPACE]

* If congress tells you to come up with a way to get kids out a closed refrigerator if they get stuck inside, what would you do? Well, if it was 1958, you could just grab some kids off the street, huck them in a locked refrigerator, and see what happened! Apparently, “behavior of young children in a situation simulating entrapment in refrigerators was studied in order to develop standards for inside releasing devices, in accordance with Public Law 930 of the 84th Congress.” Several followup studies had to be performed after this “experiment” to see if the kids had mental issues, and none of the parents of these kids were “involved in the incident”. Eesh! Clinically scary article (and potential horror movie idea) over at [PEDIATRICS.ORG]

* Everybody knows “you are what you eat”. Here comes the “you have to be kidding me” part… scientists on two different and independent studies have confirmed you are not only what you eat, you are, genetically, what “what your mother, father, grandparents and great-grandparents ate, too.” The extra-special-with-sprinkles part is that is doesn’t matter how well you eat now because the generations of damage is already burned into your DNA. I’m surprised the current health-conscious administration hasn’t run with this. We can’t change what has come before, but now we must start eating well and taking care of ourselves for our great-grandchildren, too. As for everyone who doesn’t plan on having kids, triple whopper, extra cheese, bacon sundae and large coke away! Science at [CBS]

That’s all I got this week! Time for a Saturday-night cigar!