New findings spark hope that endangered species are more abundant than previously thought. (Dec. 2)
Continue reading …Photo: Shanga.org These beautiful Christmas stars were made in Tanzania by a small company with a heartwarming story. The stars are made of recycled materials. They come in 15 different colours, are affordable and going like hotcakes. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Hey, Adobe’s finally figured out how to make Flash secure — have Google do it! The guys behind your favorite search engine have updated their latest Dev channel release of Chrome to include a new sandboxing facility for Flash Player content. It’ll serve to limit access to sensitive system resources and make Flash’s operation a generally less threatening proposition than it currently is. This also marks the fulfillment of a longstanding promise from Google to give Flash the same treatment it’s afforded to JavaScript and HTML rendering for a while, and should be welcome news to Windows users eager to minimize “the potential attack surface” of their browser. Sorry, Mac fans, you’re out in the unsecured cold for now. Of course, the Dev channel itself is one step less refined than beta software, so even if you’re on Windows it might be advisable to wait it out a little bit. Chrome sandboxes Flash Player in latest Dev channel release for Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 05:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Sony has announced a new LCD display technology called Hybrid FPA (field-induced photo-reactive alignment), which it claims provides a bevy of improvements for LCDs in the areas of response time, contrast, panel stability, and production speed. For those of you who slept through display science in school (no shame), this boils down to Sony finding a better way to wrangle unruly liquid crystal molecules (LCMs) into more optimal alignments — which is important since this affects how light passes and therefore how images are resolved. The new technique builds on earlier work, which focused on the vertical alignment of LCMs via an alignment layer. As the left diagram shows, through pre-tilt positioning at the substrate layer, LCMs were forced into a more stable vertical state, which made shifting them quicker and more precise while requiring less voltage. In other words, images resolved faster and more evenly, resulting in “cleaner” whites and blacks with less motion blur. Hybrid FPA simply improves the situation by aligning LCMs even more vertically, which produced response times of less than 3ms in tests. That’s great news for 3D lovers and gamers, and should help Sony at least move units off of retailer shelves at some point, particularly if its plans for rapid commercialization of this tech hold true. Continue reading Sony ‘Hybrid FPA’ liquid crystal alignment technique sets LCD issues straight Sony ‘Hybrid FPA’ liquid crystal alignment technique sets LCD issues straight originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …IAF aircraft, tanks open fire at Palestinians spotted early Thursday near border fence in northern Strip
Continue reading …Sen. Joseph McCarthy is censured; Scientists demonstrate the world’s first artificially-created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction; Enron files for Chapter 11 protection; Colombian drug lord is shot and killed. (Dec. 2)
Continue reading …Australian investigators on Thursday identified the source of an oil leak that caused a superjumbo engine to blow apart in mid air last month, and said a suspected manufacturing defect in the Rolls-Royce engine was to blame. (Dec. 2)
Continue reading …New Zealand held a national remembrance service for 29 coal miners killed in an explosion last month, with a line of 29 black-draped tables each bearing a fallen miner’s helmet, lamp and name serving as the centerpiece. (Dec. 2)
Continue reading …Kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart stormed from a Utah courtroom Wednesday as a psychiatrist testified that her alleged attacker had been motivated by a desire to have children and create a new race in an imaginary Zion. (Dec. 1)
Continue reading …By now, you’re certainly familiar with the magic that a consumer-branded Casio super-slow-mo camera can do with motion, right? But what happens when you use a two-year old Casio Exilim FH20 to shoot 210fps footage (played back at 30fps) from a moving train? Nothing, at least until the train slows down. High-speed camera in motion can stop a commuter’s heart originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 04:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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