royals

IBM researchers have cooked up a quick medical diagnostic testing system based on a silicon chip that can get by on a small sample and test for multiple diseases.

The breakthrough to be announced Tuesday means that physicians can test a patient immediately following a heart attack to improve survival rates. The test checks for disease markers, proteins that can be detected in blood using "capillary action force." In a nutshell, capillary forces refer to the tendency of a liquid to rise in narrow tubes or be drawn into a small opening.

The IBM Research-Zurich findings will be … Read more

Perhaps no one should be surprised that there are Web sites that appear to encourage those who have anorexia and bulimia and even give supposedly helpful tips on how to pursue those conditions.

Now the U.K.'s Royal College of Psychiatrists has called for urgent governmental action to halt the proliferation of such sites.

"Pro-ana and pro-mia websites advocate anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa as a lifestyle choice, rather than as serious mental disorders," said professor Ulrike Schmidt, chair of the college's eating disorders section. "Research shows that, even for healthy young women, viewing such … Read more

Geoengineering is not a last resort, but the next necessary step to recalibrate the Earth's climate unless carbon emissions are significantly reduced in the near future, the Royal Society, the U.K.'s national academy of sciences, announced Tuesday.

"It is an unpalatable truth that unless we can succeed in greatly reducing CO2 emissions we are headed for a very uncomfortable and challenging climate future, and geoengineering will be the only option left to limit further temperature increases," John Shepherd, chair of the Royal Society's geoengineering study and a professor of Earth system science at the … Read more

The royal family of Britain is becoming more enlightened with every day.

Over the years, details have emerged that many of its members suffer from the same pains and dilemmas as we who are sadly mortal do: relationship break-ups, a little excessive drinking, even the odd peculiar comment.

And in recent times, the royals have become rather tech-savvy.

So how can one not be delighted that the royal family has decided to embrace Twitter? Well, perhaps embrace in a somewhat formal, British way, but still.

The royal household has launched a Twitter feed, http://twitter.com/BritishMonarchy, full of the … Read more

The monarchy comes to Twitter, but of course the Queen doesn't sully her fingers on the keyboard, she has a royal twitterer do that. We also discuss whether the new Universal Music Group deal with TuneCore will change the landscape of music. We also absolve North Korea of the botnet.

Universal/TuneCore deal opens major doors for indie artists http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/07/universaltunecore-deal-opens-major-doors-for-indie-artists.ars http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10283224-27.html

Korean DDoS Bots To Self-Destruct http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/10/0452256/Korean-DDoS-Bots-To-Self-Destruct … Read more

This coming weekend, our country will be celebrating the annual Fourth of July holiday. And what better way to celebrate the rich history of the USA than with a week long tribute to some of the most bad ass American automobiles ever made? I sure can't think of a better way, so here we go with the Super Muscle Car Shootout!

This web video is actually a trailer for the Muscle Car Shootout that aired on the Speed Channel in 2006, but the cars showcased here are simply timeless. Some of the most powerful American performance car classics are … Read more

Our senior editor Leslie Katz pointed me to this story about the Queen of England getting a Nintendo Wii as a gift, and I thought to myself, "Ah, this is the kind of news that's gonna change the world."

Apparently, THQ is doing a huge promotion of the latest release of a Wii game called BIG Family Games. According to THQ product manager Danielle Robinson, it's "the ultimate Wii game to get all family members, from grandparents to young children, playing together."

This game is the newest release in the company's "BIG&… Read more

Correction at 5:50 a.m. PDT May 20: The spelling of Kenny Paterson's last name has been corrected.

An underlying flaw in the widely used encryption protocol Open Secure Shell (OpenSSH) has been made public by researchers from the Royal Holloway, University of London.

The flaw, which lies in version 4.7 of OpenSSH on Debian/GNU Linux, allows 32 bits of encrypted text to be rendered in plaintext, according to a research team from the Royal Holloway Information Security Group (ISG).

An attacker has a one in 262,144 chance of success. ISG lead professor Kenny Paterson … Read more

Imagine the Queen of England hitching up her tartan skirt and twirling around one of the large, but I'm guessing cold, drawing rooms at Buckingham Palace with U2's "In the Name of Love" transmitted down her earholes via characteristic white earphones.

Yes, President Obama has just gifted the queen an iPod.

Now we can all delight in the mere thought that the Her Majesty, or Liz, as some in her native land call her, will be perched over a MacBook and downloading a little Celine Dion or some early Snoop.

Four years ago, when she was conferring an honorary knighthood upon the burdened shoulders of Bill Gates, the queen admitted she had never used a computer. But these days she is no tech-illiterate. She has her own BlackBerry, just like the president's.

And I have very bad news for the president. The queen already has an iPod. At least two, it seems.… Read more