US News Tumblelog

"Honestly, we had never heard of 3-D printing before until they mentioned it at the hospital. At that..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:25:00 -0400

“Honestly, we had never heard of 3-D printing before until they mentioned it at the hospital. At that point, it seemed like the only thing that could work, there was no other option.”

- Bryan Gionfriddo on how his 6-month-old son Kaiba received a customized splint that opened his airways and saved his life.

Americans Spend $61 Billion on Pets Annually

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:17:37 -0400

Americans Spend $61 Billion on Pets Annually

How living in cities is changing our biology

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:59:00 -0400

Urban melting pots are genetically altering humans. The spread of genetic diversity can be traced back to the invention of the bicycle, according to geneticist Steve Jones, which encouraged the intermarriage of people between villages and towns. But the urbanisation occurring now is generating unprecedented mixing. As a result, humans are now more genetically similar than at any time in the last 100,000 years, Jones says.

— Cities: How crowded life is changing us

"The world’s first 3-D printed bullets aren’t anything to fear, according to the man who..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:05:42 -0400

“

The world’s first 3-D printed bullets aren’t anything to fear, according to the man who first tested them.

The 3-D printed shotgun slugs fired successfully out of a shotgun, but Jeff Heeszel, the man who shot them, said they were “some of the worst round’s [he’s] ever fired out of a shotgun.”

”

- First 3-D Printed Bullets Fired in YouTube Test

Why none of the White House "scandals" are leading to a drop in Obama's poll numbers

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:50:00 -0400

The public’s reaction to the scandals is, in other words, being mediated by their reaction to Obama. If they approve of Obama, they’re inclined to believe that neither he nor anyone in his circle ordered the IRS to attack tea party groups and that the administration did its best in the immediate aftermath of Benghazi. If they disapprove of Obama, they’re inclined to believe he or someone in his circle was controlling the IRS, and that the Benghazi talking points were part of a cover-up.

— Here’s why the ‘scandals’ aren’t affecting Obama’s poll numbers

Are Obama's critics moving the goal posts on the IRS controversy?

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:40:50 -0400

We’ve reached the point in the controversy at which critics are raising the opposite of their original charges. “Why did the White House intervene?” has become “Why didn’t the White House intervene?”

— ‘The opposite of a cover-up’

Open office spaces ruin your productivity

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:27:01 -0400

In a literature review of studies on open-plan offices, researchers from Virginia State University and North Carolina State University found evidence to suggest that they’re linked to lower productivity. Scanning work from the Journal of Human Ecology, Academy of Management Journal and Administrative Science Quarterly, Tonya Smith-Jackson and Katherine Klein identified reduced motivation, decreased job satisfaction and lower perceived privacy as factors negatively affecting productivity in open-plan environments. Similar to Mak and Lui findings, the resounding message in the research is that overhearing conversations in the office is very intrusive and distracting for workers.

— Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more likely to get sick

Are drones protected by the Second Amendment?

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:40:21 -0400

That idea sounds farfetched, but some legal scholars think that Second Amendment rights might extend to robotic arms, including drones outfitted with weapons.

— The Next Gun Debate? Armed Drones Could Be Protected By the Second Amendment

The health benefits of shopping

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:13:00 -0400

Despite its benefits, retail therapy is shunned by many consumers. “I think it’s unpopular these days to say you shop for pleasure because we’re supposed to be in some stoic state in this post-recession economy,” says Kit Yarrow, a professor of psychology at Golden Gate University in San Francisco who studies consumer trends and behaviors. “I think shopping serves as a healthy purpose for a lot of people. If it works for you, you should not feel guilty. Do it, enjoy it and don’t overdo it.”

— Why Shopping Can Be Good for Your Health

A photo gallery of the 10 deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:45:52 -0400

A photo gallery of the 10 deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history

Booming Oil and Gas Industry Fuels Emergence of...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:34:01 -0400

Booming Oil and Gas Industry Fuels Emergence of ‘Frackwear’

NASA's journey from space leader to midwife for private sector space exploration

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:50:31 -0400

Lori Garver, [NASA’S] deputy administrator, shared her hope that one day she could “sit in the back anonymously [in] the natural progression of the industry taking more and more of this capability on itself.” During a break from government work in 2001, Garver had attempted to raise $20 million to buy a seat aboard the Soyuz rocket to the space station, enrolling in training in Star City, Russia, and launching the “AstroMom” project to solicit corporate sponsorship. (The singer Lance Bass knocked her out of contention, though he failed to raise the $20 million and ended up not flying.) She spoke of the free market with Randian fervor, and cited the Renaissance, Da Vinci, and Michelangelo; the Wright brothers, Samuel Langley, and Glenn Curtiss; Steve Jobs and Bill Gates; “Bezos and Musk.” She said she was “so proud that NASA can play a small role” and thanked us in the audience “for creating a space-faring civilization.”

— Welcome to the Real Space Age

STUDY: Infants who were highly exposed to traffic pollution were likely to develop ADHD

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:31:57 -0400

The study is the latest to suggest that pollution may play a role in the developing brain. Previous studies found that particulate matter associated with pollution can find its way into the brain, and that people who are exposed to high levels of air pollution might develop brain swelling. Children exposed to high levels of traffic pollution have also shown decreased memory performance and decreased scores on cognitive tests, and some studies suggest that pollution may play a role in the development of autism.

— Study: Pollution Exposure Associated With ADHD in Children

When Temple Grandin, who was born in 1947, first showed symptoms...

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:05:27 -0400

When Temple Grandin, who was born in 1947, first showed symptoms of autism, a doctor originally diagnosed her with brain damage. Such was our limited understanding of the condition at the time. Since then, she has become a world-renowned doctor, professor, and autistic activist. US News & World Report’s Simon Owens interviews Grandin about her new book, The Autistic Brain, and how our perception of autism — both culturally and scientifically — has changed over time.

At least he knows his priorities

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:31:00 -0400

At least he knows his priorities

The parallels between the Tumblr and Flickr acquisitions

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:47:10 -0400

When Yahoo acquired Flickr for a relatively paltry $30 million in 2005, founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake also took to the company blog. Like Karp, they couldn’t contain their glee – “Woohoo!” and said they would be “working with a bunch of people that Totally Get Flickr and want to preserve the community and the flavor of what is here. We’re going to grow and change, but we’re in it for the long haul, with the same management and same team,” which “in spite of our wiseassery, tomfoolery and tendency to hoot spontaneously – is crucial for preserving the Flickrness that is Flickr.” How’d that work out for them? For the first couple of years, things were fine. Fake told Gizmodo that “Yahoo was a good fit initially” and “in the subsequent two years after the acquisition, Flickr blossomed.” Then Yahoo’s Corporate Development department began to bleed Flickr dry, denying it resources because it didn’t generate sufficient revenue. “The money goes to the cash cows, not the cash calf,” as one anonymous Yahoo employee told Gizmodo. Instead of constantly innovating, Flickr management found itself in meetings defending the product.

— Yahoo buys Tumblr and Mayer “promises not to screw it up” like past deals

The facts about food stamps conservatives don’t want you...

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:15:12 -0400

The facts about food stamps conservatives don’t want you to hear

Some good and bad news about your paycheck: pay is beating...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:38:23 -0400

Some good and bad news about your paycheck: pay is beating inflation, but paychecks are smaller than a decade ago

Emoticons are more difficult to create than you might think

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:34:15 -0400

Sympathy, for example, can be hard to really get across in traditional emoticon form. “It’s an under-appreciated emotion in Western culture,” Keltner explains. “We now know what it looks like and sounds like because of science. They created this dynamic emoticon that when you see it, it’s really powerful.”

— How Facebook Used Science To Design More Emotional Emoticons

Should technology become more invisible?

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:39:42 -0400

Google’s professed goal of making technology “get out of the way” masks what’s truly taking place. By making technology invisible, Google is also making it omnipresent. As software and gadgets become less in-your-face, they also become more pervasive and more influential, as we in turn become more dependent on them, more accepting of their presence in our lives and less critical of them. After all, how can someone scrutinize what they can’t see? When Google says it’s working on technology that will go away, it really means the opposite: It’s after technology that gets into our heads and takes over.

— The Truth Behind Google’s Bizarre Mission to Make Tech ‘Go Away’