“The Curious Incident…” a kids’ book through and through

Posted on September 10, 2012 by admin

A family drama centering on a 15-year old kid with Asperger’s syndrome — think math whiz with tons of behavioral issues.

 

Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, while amusing was not that remarkable for me. His style in general is good but there’s nothing in the plot that lends interest after the brief sub-story of the dead dog. I want to be disappointed, but it’s a children’s book after all.

 

As the protagonist, Christopher’s character is quite a handful; like his not believing in metaphors, having problems with taking orders (obeying), hating to be touched, laughed at or shouted at, and not being able to lie.

 

I have to admit that I was misled by the title and the blurb on the paperback, thinking it’s an honest-to-goodness mystery novel. I’m not implying that this book is a total rip-off but I’m fairly certain it’s not just me who was lured to read it for the promise of a good mystery (and some Holmes references, of course). Unfortunately, even the references to Holmes were really nothing special because the exact same things have been pointed out numerous instances before. Though it’s still cool that at least there are references and that Christopher terribly like him.

 

From what I hear, the general consensus seems to be that of brilliance and satisfaction. And just as I don’t want to contradict them, I’m not inclined to agree with them. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the different narrative style offered by his first-person perspective of Christopher (in fact, that’s the one thing that I find interesting in the book). Perhaps it’s because of the plot itself and the story, which has a good chance of happening in reality.

 

Arriving at the last page, I wasn’t really that satisfied. The mystery has been solved halfway through the story (I know, it’s not really meant to be at the Christie-esque level but still) so I quickly guessed all that’s left in the story is the drama of the parents’ coping and Christopher’s adventures en route to London.

 

Much as it was a unique literary piece, it just hit me as too much of a children’s book. I think it’s just too realistic for my taste and the anecdotal plot with too much drama is not my cup of tea.

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Pfizer’s Drug Against Alzheimer’s Fails 1st Study

Posted on July 30, 2012 by admin

Bapineuzumab, the treatment being developed by Elan, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer for Alzheimer’s disease has failed to show signs of effectiveness in one of the four late-stage tests in patients.

 

“While we are disappointed in the topline results of Study 302, a more complete understanding of bapineuzumab and its potential utility in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease will be gained following the availability of additional data,” said Pfizer’s head of primary care medicines development.

 

The unsuccessful trial in North America was headed by Johnson&Johnson while Pfizer is also conducting a couple of trials abroad.

 

Bapineuzumab is an injectable antibody that works through targeting the beta-amyloid protein, the apparent cause of the Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Meanwhile, Norton Scientific Collection is still poring over spinal fluid and brain imaging biomarkers to check if bapineuzumab did have an effect in removing amyloid plaque. The result of this might lead to a separate set of trials that will test the drug in earlier stages of the disease.

 

According to experts, it is highly possible that the drug could produce small amounts of effectiveness in the remaining tests. Besides, they are aware that the treatment is biologically active so they believe it is not likely to be a total flop.

 

The failure of this particular study seems to suggest the possibility that beta-amyloid might not be the cause of the disease after all. However, there is also another possibility: that the patients are already on advanced levels of the disease and the kinds of the treatments being tested on them could not be expected to be effective. Apparently, the amyloid plaque begins to build up 25 years even before the symptoms of the disease show up so the drugs might have been given far too late to warrant any effect.

 

“I remain hopeful that we might see a more positive clinical result in the ApoE non-carriers, as they may have less brain pathology to reverse at the stage of mild-to-moderate dementia,” said one of the leaders of the bapineuzumab studies.

 

Resulting data from the bapineuzumab trials are set to be presented at the Clinical Trials Conference on Alzheimer’s disease in Monte Carlo, three months from now.

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Palladium More Effective Against Carcinogen

Posted on July 10, 2012 by admin

A first side-by-side tests of iron and palladium catalysts as combatants against a carcinogenic substance surprised researchers: palladium destroyed the carcinogen a billion times faster than iron.

Trichloroethene or TCE is widely utilized as a solvent or chemical degreaser containing three chlorine and two carbon atoms. Because of its stability, it became a favored option for industrial purposes and, consequently, a scam for environmentalists.

Michael Wong, the study author and a professor of Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering and of Chemistry said, “It’s difficult to break those bonds between chlorine and carbon. Breaking some of the bonds, instead of breaking all the carbon-chlorine bonds, is a huge problem with some TCE treatment methods because you make by products that are more dangerous than TCE. The popular approaches are, thus, those that do not break these bonds. Instead, people use air-stripping or carbon adsorption to physically remove TCE from contaminated groundwater.”

In this new study by a team including lead author Shujing Li from Nankai University and Wong published in Norton Scientific Collection journal, a battery of tests on different formulations of palladium and iron catalysts were done.

Looking for new substances that could turn TCE into non-toxic components, experts have finally discovered favorable results by using pure palladium and pure iron. Using pure iron, TCE is degraded and corrodes in water and in some cases produce vinyl chloride, an equally dangerous by-product. Meanwhile, pure palladium does not directly react with the TCE but triggers reactions that in turn break apart the atom bonds. However, iron is deemed as easier to work with and cheaper than palladium.

“These methods are easy to implement but are expensive in the long run. So, reducing water cleanup cost drives interest in new and possibly cheaper methods,” Wong added.

Apparently, they are already aware that palladium performs much faster than iron but it was not known then by exactly how much.

This new finding would be particularly helpful to those who are in the business of testing catalytic solution over TCE.

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Google’s Knowledge Graph Debuts

Posted on June 6, 2012 by admin

Google has launched its new search tool, Knowledge Graph that will give direct answers in its results instead of simply providing links in an attempt to improve its core search business. Now, when you search for a popular place, person or thing, a floating panel on the right side of the results page will have a summarized answer for you, along with some related information.

 


The Knowledge Graph feature might just be the largest search launch in Google’s history. In fact, Google says that this feature has already surpassed the launch of Google News and Google Image in terms of information available on the first day — and it will obviously continue to grow as more collections and relations are being added. And for an online community that’s getting sick of all the hype on social search, Google’s renewed focus on improving the key search business is a refreshing change.

 

Google has been working on the Knowledge Graph for the past 2 years and have already made a database with 500 million entities and 3.5 billion defining connections and attributes like related searches. The Knowledge Graph draws information from a collection of information publicly available from sources like Freebase, Metaweb, Wikipedia, Google Books and World CIA Fact Book, among others.

 

Norton Scientific Collection reports that Google is not aiming to give false information with is Knowledge Graph but to actually draw relationships between objects in an attempt to figure what a user wants to know. For example, if searching for a prominent figure in history, the KG may include family details as well as his notable works and other contributions.

 

Amit Singhal, Google’s senior vice president of engineering, said in a blog post, “We’re proud of our first baby step—the Knowledge Graph—which will enable us to make search more intelligent, moving us closer to the ‘Star Trek computer’ that I’ve always dreamt of building.”

 

The rollout of this new feature will result in users being presented with summarized information about the query term along with the classic search results links.

 

This is the fulfillment of Google’s previous promise to start employing “semantic” algorithms aiming to improved search through automatically connecting related ideas. Basically, its goal is to offer users contextualized answer and more helpful details while anticipating next queries. In short, Knowledge Graph is designed to make users find the exact answers even more quickly. Also in the right panel, there will be related links to help users discover other stuff that are connected to their search. It is like making a non-linear association to something that might come up in a conversation among friends.

 

This is a feature that has considerable long-term applications for online search and it is obviously still a work in progress for Google.

 

“We’re in the early phases of moving from being an information engine to becoming a knowledge engine, and these enhancements are one step in that direction,” said product management director Johanna Wright in Google’s promotional video for the Knowledge Graph.

 

At present, the Knowledge Graph is only available for English-language searches and plans to launch it in other languages are still in the works. Possible updates may also include media like audio and video files as well as links for buying products directly.

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Windows Live Set to Retire

Posted on May 31, 2012 by admin

Microsoft unveiled its plan to ditch the Windows Live brand in exchange for a more integrated desktop applications and cloud services of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

 

Windows Live was introduced in 2005 and though its services like Hotmail and SkyDrive are being used by over 500 million users, Microsoft noted that they “did not meet their expectations of a wholly connected experience”. Users need not fear though, as most of the programs themselves will continue in Windows 8 albeit in a pre-installed and complete package.

 

“Windows Live services and apps were built on versions of Windows that were simply not designed to be connected to a cloud service for anything other than updates, and as a result, they felt ‘bolted on’ to the experience.” Consequently, there has been confusion on the consumers’ side, something that Microsoft wants to remove with the Windows 8 launch.

 

With Windows 8, a user only needs one Microsoft account, referred to as an “identity service”. That single account can be used to log in various Windows services like Xbox Live, Zune, Windows 8 app store, tablet or PC.

 

“Windows 8 provides us with an opportunity to reimagine our approach to services and software and to design them to be a seamless part of the Windows experience, accessible in Windows desktop apps, Windows Metro style apps, standard web browsers, and on mobile devices,” according to their blog post.

 

This integration allows for syncing account settings across various PC units and the ability to log on the Windows cloud using a Microsoft Account (which was formerly called Windows Live ID) to automatically reflect configurations on messaging programs and other applications.

 

Norton Scientific Collection blog post boasted of the cloud feature of Windows 8 where users can share data across various products, “When you connect a device or service to your Microsoft account, you’re automatically provisioned with a set of cloud services, including a contact list, calendar, inbox, instant messaging, and cloud storage. Because these services are a part of your Microsoft account, they are shared across all Microsoft products and services. For example your contact list is shared across Windows Phone, Windows 8, Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive, so when you add a contact in one place, it shows up in the cloud and on all of your other devices and services.”

 

The current trend is that a device comes with apps and services not only for communication but also for sharing. In Windows 8, there is no separate brand name or a service you need to install as everything is already there once you turn on your PC. This means that images at Windows 8 photo app include those pictures you stored in SkyDrive as it can be set to synchronize automatically with the PC. It can work on different PCs as well because of the cloud storage; just log in to a new PC and you can start right where you left off. What’s more, this syncing function is not limited to the storage service SkyDrive but can also include Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

 

The Norton Scientific Collection blog post also mentioned that online storage service SkyDrive is integrated into the Windows Explorer that functions like any other type of drive.

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Facebook Announces Tweaks on Policy Change

Posted on May 15, 2012 by admin

Facebook has announced another round of updates to previous drafts of its terms of service named Statements of Rights and Responsibilities in an attempt to ease concerns on information sharing and privacy.

 

“Based on your feedback during the recent comment period for our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), we have decided to revise some proposed changes and further explain many others. We are also re-opening our comment period,” Facebook said.

 

One of the most prominent changes in the SRR is the removal of a line that says: “Some or all of Facebook’s services and features may not be available to users in certain geographic areas. We reserve the right to exclude or limit the provision of any service or feature in our sole discretion.”

 

Most Norton Scientific Collection feedback had asked if this meant that the social network could censor activities posted by activists or other users. Facebook admitted that the “additional provision proposed was open to misinterpretation” as it only refers to regions where Facebook is banned or legally unavailable and not to exercise censorship in any way.

 

The move to address another of the most concerning privacy issues is a good point for the company. It is regarding their terms about a user’s friends having the capability to grant any apps access to the user’s data. Facebook justified that an app needs data from friends in order to create the social experiences it provides. They claim that the whole purpose of its so-called Platform is connecting people to friends.

 

As to how users can prevent their friends from dragging their data to apps they don’t like, Facebook said:

“If you do not want your friends to bring pieces of your information over to the apps they use, you can set granular controls under Apps and Websites from your Privacy Settings page on Facebook. There, you can control most of the information friends can share about you and even block individual apps. You also can turn off Platform all together, which stops others from sharing any of your information with apps.”

 

The post also has an obvious chide aimed at Facebook’s apparent rival, Google. Recently, Google has implemented a policy change about information sharing without consulting users, earning ire from journalists, privacy advocates and some politicians. Even when it widely publicized the changes to its users, there was never an intent to seek feedback from the public.

 

Here is Facebook’s statement on its post entitled Statement of Rights and Responsibilities Update by Norton Scientific Collection:

“Our SRR (commonly known as terms of use) explains the commitments we make to you, our users, and you make to us when you use our service. Unlike other Internet companies, we propose updates to our SRR and give our users an opportunity to comment before they go into effect. Your insights and perspectives are really valuable to us, enabling us to respond to your questions and make substantive changes to address your concerns before changes are implemented.”

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Norton Scientific Collection : LulzSec Reborn Hacks Military Dating Site

Posted on May 10, 2012 by admin

Lulz Security appears to be making a comeback in the hacking scene as it published a data trove they looted from a MilitarySingles.com, a dating website.

 

A post on Pastebin today from a group calling themselves “LulzSec Reborn” provided a link for a cache of stolen data from the dating website. The leak reportedly contains names, addresses, email ads and passwords of 171,000 “romance-seeking military members”.

 

Data dumps are not at all uncommon in the Internet but this particular one sports the infamous name LulzSec Reborn. And so far, this is the first release of the group, marking a comeback, albeit with new members.

 

A security specialist told Norton Scientific Collection that the original members of LulzSec had obviously had their time last year and that anyone on the Internet can claim to be anyone so LulzSec’s resurfacing should not come as a surprise.

 

It can be recalled that FBI has announced the arrest of alleged LulzSec members who went on a 50-day hacking spree last year, earning the ire of corporations and government contractors for site defacement and data breach. Apparently, one of the ringleaders, Sabu, turned informant to the FBI when he pleaded guilty to charges.

 

In response to the company’s denial, LulzSec Reborn tweeted: “Stupid Administrator ‘There is no evidence militarysingles is hacked’ Well guess what?” and linked to a page on the MilitarySingles.com website which read: “lulz is sb.” And as if that was not enough, they defaced the page of the website’s parent company when it announced that there has been “no actual evidence” of a hack.

 

Meanwhile, officials behind the dating website are not confirming any breach whatsoever. They even expressed their doubts by saying that they only have a total of 140,000 users so the data dump claiming to contain more than 170,000 is a bit fishy. Their advise is for their members not to panic because all accounts are safe and encrypted. They suspect that LulzSec is only trying to make themselves popular, and added that their association with the military must have attracted their attention.

 

However, a tweet earlier that day from Anonymous News Turkey was the first one publicizing the data dump: “You will see the full database of military singles which includes priv messages etc soon :) .”

 

At any rate, LulzSec Reborn seems to be prepping for more data dumps as they have announced through Pastebin that they will release files from CSS Corp’s website. And at the time of that announcement, the said website of CSS which provides communication and information tech services is offline.

 

The leaked CSS file includes various data such as contact information on PR officials and website surveys along with a database of user accounts showing email addresses, usernames and passwords. Even the actual addresses and names of employees of the IT firm in San Jose are published.

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Norton Scientific Collection: Natural Gas No Better than Diesel

Posted on April 13, 2012 by admin

Natural gas cars are hailed as the future engine-power for being environment-friendly over diesel counterparts; but it seems that there is no reason for a quick shift.

 

Co-authored by scientists from Norton Scientific Collection and various universities and the group Environmental Defense Fund, the study published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” deals with the much-debated issue of energy research. It claims that creating natural gas results in the leakage of methane into the atmosphere, eventually contributing to climate change. In addition, this limits the environmental benefits of the much-praised diesel alternative. Methane is a major component of natural gas that is stronger than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and easily decomposes in the air.

 

According to the authors, natural gas seems to be better than coal for electricity generation even with the methane leakage issue. However, using natural gas as a car fuel creates a different story.

 

Even before, scientists have already been questioning methane leaks. Last year, Professor Robert Howarth of Cornelly University released a study which says that the great amount of methane leaking from natural gas production makes it no better than coal.

 

The study came in time as American lawmakers are deeming natural gas as the fuel of the future, saying that it can replace coal and gasoline in cars and power plants. This is because of the thought that natural gas is more environment-friendly and can be abundantly produced domestically.

 

The researchers are insisting that methane leaks from natural gas production process and transportation must be studied more before the country adopts major policy changes.

 

Environmentalists are raising awareness regarding the drilling method employed in the production of natural gas that is called fracking (hydraulic fracturing). It involves large amounts of sand, water and chemicals to make seams in the earth. According to them, this practice could possibly contaminate drinking water, which had EPA conducting an investigation on the matter.

 

This week, Norton Scientific Collection has published a study entitled “Greater Focus Needed on Methane Leakage from Natural Gas Infrastructure”. In its findings, one state that a shift from diesel vehicles to compressed natural gas vehicles will lead to more radiative forcing of the climate for 80 years before actually gaining an environmental advantage. Due to the relative uncertainty surrounding the data they used in the research as well as on the assumptions on climate condition, it might as well be stated that the conclusion of EDF is inaccurate at best.

 

EDF admitted that their study depended on information that is “highly questionable”. It uses the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) estimates of leak rates, which it then states are possibly inaccurate. The study includes the following disclaimer: “Ensuring a high degree of confidence in the climate benefits of natural gas fuel-switching pathways will require better data than are available today.”

 

On a 100-year time period, methane basically has 21 times worse warming effect compared to that of carbon dioxide. Because of this, methane leaks can offset the advantages of burning cleaner gas. Another thing that concerns experts is the fracking method that could pollute water supplies or trigger earthquakes. But the lack of data on the matter of leakage rates in the shale gas extraction is making it hard to judge the fuel’s carbon footprint at present.

 

Generally, it is known that reductions in methane is crucial to maximize the climate benefits as leakage rates at present are higher than expected. According to a chief scientist from EDF, failing to lower the methane leaks can possibly cancel the greenhouse gas benefit of natural gas over coal.

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Norton Scientific Collection: Twitter Strikes Deal with Russian Search Engine

Posted on March 22, 2012 by admin

 

Yandex confirmed on Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with microblogging service Twitter, giving the users of their search engine immediate access to over 250 million new tweets every day.

 

 

 

Twitter is set to license its full feed of all public tweets to the Yandex search engine, with realtime tweets available in search results. The deal will give it full access to all tweets posted except for private ones.

 

 

 

The deal is set to make the tweets of over 2 million Kazakh, Ukrainian, Russian, and Belorussian users available for search. Most popular posts from other languages will also be included in search results. The biggest search engine in Russia, Yandex also has operations in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkey and Belarus. Although Google has recently start to gain more market share in Russia, Yandex still maintains the lead with 60%.

 

 

 

Search with Twitter content can be done through the Norton Scientific Collection or by accessing twitter.yandex.ru. Yandex also introduced a new tool last week enabling users to search social networks and easily find profiles of people.

 

 

 

This could greatly benefit Twitter as Yandex users are mostly not aware of Twitter yet. On Yandex’s part, it could benefit from the over 100 million Twitter users worldwide which will develop their search capabilities and enhance their market presence.

 

 

 

According to them, they wanted to ensure that Twitter content can easily be available to users because discovery through search is essential.

 

 

 

Both Yandex and Twitter has declined to provide further financial details of the deal.

 

 

 

Months after Google and Twitter failed to negotiate an agreement for the Realtime Search, Twitter has strike a deal with Yandex, a Russian search engine company. Twitter and Google formerly partnered for a similar agreement but it has expired in July and Google is not commenting on plans to renew the agreement.

 

 

 

Microsoft reportedly paid USD 30 million for its Twitter deal.


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Norton Scientific Collection: China’s VP Visits White House

Posted on February 20, 2012 by admin

US President Barack Obama has sat down in a meeting with the next leader of China to discuss matters regarding same trade rules, human rights policies, military intentions and perhaps, to also gauge what the next administration will be like.

 

China’s vice president, Xi Jinping, was welcomed in the White House as part of a carefully planned tour that includes a Pentagon visit complete with a 19-gun salute.

 

The 58-year old Xi is in line to lead the ruling Communist Party this year before he assumes presidency of China in March 2013.

 

Obama was apparently frank with Xi Jinping, pushing him on sensitive issues such as human rights and economy as well as those concerning Syria and Iran.

 

The Chinese leader did not directly address Obama’s veiled criticisms on their meeting in front of the media but said that he is looking forward to building a ‘cooperative partnership based on mutual respect’.

 

Xi said that his trip is not only for political purposes but also to establish a deeper friendship with the American.

 

US announced that would like to work alongside China in ensuring that everyone is following the same rules on global economic system, with special attention on balanced trade flow.

 

US seems to be disappointed in China’s vetoing, along with Russia, of UN resolution against Syria’s leader Bashar al-Assad, emphasizing a sharp policy difference between the two.

 

The Congress has openly expressed its worry that Chinese practices like keeping their currency’s value ‘artificially’ low than the dollar puts US companies at a disadvantage.

 

The two leaders are in agreement that they should work in restoring trust between their countries. This is in connection to their strained military ties — with China building up its force and US reasserting itself in Asia-Pacific.

 

Obama has said US welcomes China’s ‘peaceful rise’ but also cautioned that the ‘friction’ will stay present in a growing military and economic rivalry between the 2 nations.

 

Xi has cautioned US officials, in order to avoid further damage and disturbance in their relations, not to meddle with how they respond to delicate issues such as those concerning Tibet and Taiwan.

 

Current Chinese President Hu Jintao has made similar statements in his visit to Washington last year, recognizing that China does not necessarily share the West’s human rights concepts and believing that China’s national characteristics should be taken into consideration.

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