Nokia, T-Mobile Team Up For Internet Services On Mobiles

Boston (dbTechno) - Nokia and T-Mobile International have announced that they have signed a collaboration deal for the two companies to work together. T-Mobile and Nokia are going to work to unite T-Mobile internet services with Nokia’s service, Ovi.

Nokia’s Ovi service offers consumers to purchase mobile music, games, social networking tools, etc. Read more

Microsoft Offering Free Support For Vista SP1 Woes

Boston (dbTechno) - Microsoft has announced that they will be offering free support to anyone who is having trouble installing Windows Vista SP1. Vista SP1 released about a week ago, and has already been receiving mixed reactions due to several issues consumers have been having.

Microsoft is responding to consumer reports that the new Vista SP1 is flawed on many systems. Read more

YouTube Opens Up, Becomes Platform For Site Developers

Boston (dbTechno) - YouTube LLC made the announcement on Thursday that they are launching new tools to allow third-party Web sites the ability to provide their own YouTube service. Third-party Web sites now have the ability, through these new tools, to have full access to the YouTube video library, as well as the entire YouTube infrastructure, including video hosting and streaming.

This is huge news, as developers and operators of Web sites can give full access to its users to upload videos to YouTube, without actually going to YouTube. Read more

Bad Marriages Increase Risk Of Heart Disease

Boston (dBTechno) - A bad marriage can increase the risk of heart disease, according to a new study.

British researchers from the University College in London found that among 9,011 married people studies, those who had troubled relationships with aspouse or close friends were 34 percent more likely to have a heart attack or other heart problems during a 12-year period as compared to people with more stable relationships.

“…. be careful about the kind of person you have married. The quality of the relationship matters,” said lead author Roberto De Vogli, a researcher with University College in London.

Overall 589 people reported having an adverse coronary event during the study. “When one considers emotional factors and their biological translation into the body, research shows that negative marital interactions are associated with depression, often in combination with reduced self-esteem and/or higher levels of anger,” the authors write.

Researchers plan to study if people with bad relationships have any biological evidence of stress that could contribute to heart disease. That includes inflammation and elevated levels of stress hormones.

The study is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

U.S. Breast Cancer Rates Continue To Decline

Boston (dBTechno) - According to a new report from the American cancer Society (ACS), breast cancer death rates continues to decline.

The new report found that the risk of dying from the disease dropped by 2 percent from a year ago.

80 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer can live 10 years later.

Because of fewer women taking hormone therapy, the report noted a sharp decline in breast cancer diagnoses. Read more

Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber Heading Into Space

Boston (dbTechno) - The 30th anniversary celebration of Star Wars is being given the golden treatment as the original lightsaber used by Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi will be aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery when it launches in October.

Many Star Wars characters arrived on scene today to deliver the famous lightsaber which Luke used to save the galaxy from the Empire.

The lightsaber is going to be on display at the Space Center Houston through Labor Day as well for those who want to check it out.

This is a very interesting and unique move by NASA as it is also very exciting. It may not be the most scientific thing they have ever done, but I will be watching as will every other Star Wars fan when that shuttle takes off.

NOAA Predicts Active Hurricane Season

New York (dBTechNo) - The U.S. can expect 13 to 16 named storms this year, according to the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This forecast included 7 to 9 hurricanes with 3 to 5 of them being “major” hurricanes. To be classified as a major hurricane, the Storm much reach Category 3 strength or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale said NOAA.

Lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, Gerry Bell, attributes increased activity to warmer sea surface temperatures in the Caribbean Sea as well as the Atlantic Ocean.

“Most of the atmospheric and oceanic conditions have developed as expected, and are consistent with those predicted in May,” said Bell. “The biggest wild card in the May outlook was whether or not La Niña would form, and if so, how strong it would be.”

La Niña is defined as cooler than normal sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific ocean that impact global weather patterns. La Niña conditions recur every few years and can persist for as long as two years.

“We are already observing wind patterns similar to those created by La Niña across the tropical Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea that encourage tropical cyclone development. The conditions are ripe for an above-normal season,” Bell observed.

“The conditions are ripe for an above-normal season.,’ added Bell.

astronauts make adjustments to the International Space Station

Moscow (dBTechno) - Russian cosmonaut Fyodr Yurchikhin and US astronaut Clay Anderson entered open space on Monday in order to make adjustments to the International Space Station (ISS) in advance of a change in the station’s orbit.

The spacewalk was expected to last approximately 6 hours, according to NASA representatives in the Russian capital.

“The main task is the removal of an ammonia reservoir with a mass of 635 kilograms,” said Sergei Puzanov, a NASA official speaking from the Russian Mission Control outside of Moscow, Interfax reported.

The refrigerator-sized ammonia reservoir had been used in the ISS’s heating system but was no longer needed, the Russian news agency reported.

Anderson was to lead the spacewalk. It was the US astronaut’s first spacewalk, and the third for Yurchikhin.

The ISS crew’s third member, Oleg Kotov, stayed behind to operate the station’s robotic arm, known as Canadarm2. It was the first time a Russian crew member had operated the arm, located on the US side of the international station.

Before the massive ammonia chamber was moved, Anderson also disposed of a stand that had been used for a video camera pointed at the Earth from the ISS’s orbit.

Using the robotic arm, Kotov pushed Anderson a safe distance from the ISS, and the American, in the weightlessness of space, pushed the 100-kilogram stand away from the space station. The stand was expected to burn up in the earth’s atmosphere in hours.

A Progress 25 cargo ship was expected to adjust the ISS’s orbit by firing its thrusters after the Anderson and Yurchikhin were safely back aboard the station. The orbit change comes in preparation of a Progress 26 docking on August 5.

Days after the new cargo ship arrives, replacing the Progress 24, the space shuttle Endeavour is planned to reach the ISS on August 9.

Encyclopaedia of Life launched to document 1.8 million species

Washington (dBTechno) - The world’s 1.8 million named species are currently documented in a hodgepodge of books, websites, scientific associations and libraries - accumulated over the 300 years since the scientific system of genus and species identification was invented.

But with Wednesday’s launch of the Encylopaedia of Life, the information will become available over the next 10 years to the world via the internet, with a web page for each species and illustrations and weblinks if available, according to the network of sponsors of www.eol.com.

Molecular information, when available, video, sound, location maps and other multimedia information will also be posted.

The project is expected to provide valuable biodiversity and conservation information “to anyone, anywhere, at anytime,” said James Edwards, who was appointed Wednesday as executive director of EOL.

Edwards was previously executive secretary of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

“Nobody really knows” the exact number of species, said Edwards in a telephone interview. “Nobody’s ever kept a count or tried to pull together all the information.”

Key organizations are involved in the project, including Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Washington’s Smithsonian Institution, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

The Missouri Botanical Garden has become a full partner in the “leap for all life,” as the project is referred to, and discussions were underway with leaders of the new Atlas of Living Australia, the sponsors said.

“Even five years ago, we could not create such a resource, but advances in technology for searching, annotating and visualizing information now permit us, indeed mandate us, to build the Encyclopaedia of Life,” Edwards said.

The project is backed by a 12.5 million dollars in US private foundation grants.

“Technology is allowing science to grasp the immense complexity of life on this planet,” said Jonathan Fenton, president of the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation that is supplying 10 million dollars.

Edwards hopes that the website will make the work of scientists easier in identifying the estimated 8 to 10 million species on Earth that scientists believe remain to be discovered.

Eol.com will also expand the reach of science to “people in developing countries who don’t have access to good libraries,” who Edwards hopes will become involved in the search for new species.

“We expect this to be a big tent to make data from several different biodiversity projects … really a communications project,” he said.

Intel Joins $100 Laptop Movement

Boston (dBTechno) - Intel Corp. has announced that they are joining the One Laptop Per Child initiative which was founded to bring low-cost notebooks to developing countires.

The ONPC group signed on with Intel rival AMD for the chips for the notebooks making this move a very strange one to say the least.  OLPC expects to begin volume shipments of its XO laptop this coming September which will be priced very reasonable at $175.  Intel has been selling a similar laptop called the Classmate since March for $225.  A price drop could lower that to $200 by the end of the year.

The Classmate has already been sold in many countries including brazil, Nigeria, Mexico, Pakistan, etc.

Nicholas Negrponto though who is the founder of the OLPC is happy about the partnership stating that “Collaboration with Intel means that the maxiumum number of laptops will reach children.”