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Heroes and Villains of Tech Here's a look at standout good guys and bad guys -- from passionate heroes who balance profit with innovation and social responsibility to money-mad, egomaniac villains who simply cannot be trusted. Shane O'Neill, CIO Feb 28, 2010 1:30 pm http://www.pcworld.com/article/190372/heroes_and_villains_of_tech.html?tk=rss_news

A boat sails next to Olympic rings in the Vancouver harbor on February 9, 2010, three days before the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. 11:51 p.m. ET, 2/9/10 March 1, 2010 Olympic Flame Burns Brighter on Last Day of the Games By JULIET MACUR VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Olympics that started under the cloud of an athlete’s death ended Sunday, much more joyously than they had begun. A victory by the Canadian men’s hockey team over the United States in the final competition of these Games spurred throngs of fans onto the streets, where they celebrated a gold medal — and an Olympics — that united this nation. In waves of their red and white Canadian hockey jerseys, they waved flags and shouted “Go Canada!” to mark the country’s record 14th gold medal here. “I knew the Games would be a success, even though in the beginning they were a bit gloomy, with legitimate issues and teething pains,” Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee...

A TV grab from Telesur shows an image of a burning building in Concepcion after a huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Chile, Feb. 27. breaking news NBC, msnbc.com and news services UPDATE 11-Massive earthquake strikes Chile, 122 dead http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSNLDE61Q02O20100227?type=marketsNews 11:19am EST * Quake kills at least 122 people * Buildings toppled, bridges and roads damaged * Operations halted at two major copper mines (Updates with death toll, adds details) By Alonso Soto SANTIAGO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A huge magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early on Saturday, killing at least 122 people, knocking down homes and hospitals, and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific. TV Chile reported that a 15-storey building collapsed in the hardest-hit city of Concepcion, where buildings caught fire, major highway bridges collapsed and cracks opened up in the streets. Cars turned upside down lay scattered across one damaged bridg...

February 26, 2010, 10:54 am Freakonomics Radio, Fat Edition: Is the Obesity Epidemic for Real? By STEPHEN J. DUBNER   We’ve just completed our second full-length podcast. It’s called “Is America’s Obesity Epidemic for Real?” It costs $0.00. (The podcast, that is, not the epidemic.) Get it here at iTunes; if you subscribe, all future episodes will be delivered in your sleep. You can also get it here via RSS feed, or listen now (see box at right).   If you are a regular reader of this blog, you could be forgiven for thinking, Geez, when will these guys shut up about fat already? True, we have written on the topic repeatedly, including: an astounding spike in bariatric surgery; the female-male weight gap; a possible connection between plumbing and obesity; the usefulness of posted calorie information in restaurants; whether behavioral nudges like “piano stairs” help keep people trim; and whether it may be time for a fat tax. The podcast touches on several of these i...

Call her queen: Kim Yu-na wipes away tears after her stunning gold-medal performance in women's figure skating at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver on Thursday, Feb. 25. The South Korean soared to a world-record 228.56 points -- and earned her country's first medal ever in the sport. Despite two triple axels, longtime rival Mao Asada of Japan could only win silver. Joannie Rochette, skating four days after her mother's death, won the bronze for Canada. South Korea's Kim Yu-na celebrates with her coach, Canadian Brian Orser. http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=e554cf17-5d3c-4531-9dc6-c9a9cf5eec06.html#queen+yu+na+crowned from msnbc.com

Australopithecus afarensis To recreate the faces of our early ancestors, some of whom have been extinct for millions of years, sculptor John Gurche dissected the heads of modern humans and apes, mapping patterns of soft tissue and bone. He used this information to fill out the features of the fossils. Each sculpture starts with the cast of a fossilized skull; Gurche then adds layers of clay muscle, fat and skin. Seven of his finished hominid busts will be featured at the National Museum of Natural History’s David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, which opens March 17. They are perhaps the best-researched renderings of their kind. Gurche, a “paleo-artist,” even molds the hominids’ eyes out of acrylic plastic, eschewing pre-fabricated versions. “If you want the eyes to be the window to the soul,” Gurche says, “you have to make them with some depth.” The sculpture above is of Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, which walked the earth roughly three million years ago. “They still hav...

Which supplements really work? An interactive guide to evidence By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 7:30 AM February 25, 2010 BoingBoing isn't the only place trying out new design ideas today. Information is Beautiful has given us an exclusive preview of a new interactive infographic, designed to make it easy for anybody to parse the data on dietary supplements. Each bubble represents a specific use—or group of uses—for a dietary supplement. The bigger the bubble, the more popular the supplement is, as measured in Google hits. The higher on the chart, the more solid the evidence supporting that particular supplement for that particular use. David from IiB reviewed nearly 1000 studies to put this baby together, using studies with large numbers of subjects or meta analysis of multiple studies whenever possible. You can read more about the methodology on the site. Great work! Still image version also available. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/25/which-supplements-re.html

Brain 'Hears' Sound of Silence While we think of silence as the absence of sound, the brain detects it nonetheless. .By Cristen Conger Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:01 PM ET . Although more research needs to be done, the work carried out by Wehr and his team could lead to new treatments for impaired hearing. THE GIST: •The brain responds not only to sound but also to silence, according to a new study. •Different pathways in the brain respond to the onset and the offset of sounds. •Better knowing how the brain organizes and groups sounds could lead to more effective hearing therapies and devices. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While we characterize silence as the absence of sound, the brain hears it as loud and clear as any other noise. In fact, according to a recent study from the University of Oregon, some areas of the brain respond solely to sound termination. Rather than sound stimuli traveling through the same brain p...

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Olympics/2010/0224/Olympic-figure-skater-Kim-Yuna-Koreans-revel-in-her-dazzling-lead Olympic figure skater Kim Yuna: Koreans revel in her dazzling lead Korean Olympic figure skater Kim Yuna thrilled her countrymen as she took a commanding lead in the Olympic short program, beating out Japan's Mao Asada. By Donald Kirk Correspondent / February 24, 2010 Seoul, South Korea Tears welled up in Chang Sung-eun’s eyes as her office TV screen flashed the news: Olympic figure skater Kim Yuna had just set a scoring record of 78.50 in the short program at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum. Beside her, two young women wept openly and several young men burst into loud applause, shouting, “Excellent, excellent, great great.” For Koreans, it was a moment of total national pride, of success not only for Ms. Kim but for a nation that likes nothing better than to revel in triumph, especially when the victory is over Japan. In this case, Kim edged out arch-ri...

The Male Brain: Why Men Think The Way They Do Louann Brizendine explores the physical bases for sex differences in her new book By  Diana Kapp  | February 08, 2010 12:00 p.m.  You might want to try to keep your own personal pet caveman in the dark on this one, but in her inevitably best-selling new book,  The Male Brain (Broadway Books), neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, MD, officially, scientifically lets guys off the hook for skirt-chasing, conking out after sex, avoiding emotionality—even spending Sundays glued to ESPN. Yes, it seems that Brizendine set  The Female Brain , her 2006 best-seller, to “marinate in testosterone”—her fave phrase for describing how gestating brains, which all begin as female in the womb, become masculinized about half the time—in order to produce the male bookend to that work, a “brain’s-eye view” into men’s psyches that gives them, well, a big, fat 262-page excuse. Despite accusations leveled in publications from Nature  t...

Apple's "Boobie Apps" Banning Resulted In the SuicideGirls' Removal BY   GIZMODO STAFF Today Apple claims they  removed those 5,000 boobie apps  because  women were complaining over the "degrading" and "objectionable" content . Correct me if I'm wrong, but the removal of the SuicideGirls' app--which actually empowers women--seems most questionable. Sure, the free app features nudity. If you count nudity as being of the bras 'n knickers kind. But when the site was set up by a woman, and populated entirely by women, it just means Apple really does have to define what criteria an app has to meet before it's pulled down. Tarring all titillating apps with the same brush, yet allowing some cases such as  Sports Illustrated 's app  to remain on the  App Store  will end up backfiring on Apple--and I'm sure this won't be the last time we hear about the SuicideGirls' app, with the community being very, very vocal. The app ac...

Once a high-flying Manhattan party promoter, Scott Harrison quit the club scene to help bring free healthcare to the poor along Liberia's coast. Here, his story in his own words In 2004, Manhattan party promoter Scott Harrison quit the club scene to become a photographer aboard a ship of volunteer doctors offering free healthcare to the poor along the coast of Liberia. He shot more than 50,000 photos of the sick and the dying, many from diseases caused by a lack of clean water. In 2005, Harrison staged a show of his work in New York that raised some $96,000 for health care and freshwater wells in West Africa. Last year, he founded charity:water.org, which has raised $1.2 million to start 200 well projects in seven African nations. CONTRIBUTE’S Jesse Ellison interviewed Harrison. This is an edited version of his story. When I was four, my mother became an invalid. I grew up taking care of her; I was an only child. When I turned 18, I left Philadelphia and moved to New York, to ...

At left, the Golden Gate Bridge at dawn in San Francisco, and at right, sunset over Coronado Bridge in San Diego. Both cities hold their own charms. (Golden Gate Bridge by Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times; Coronado Bridge by Micha Pawlitzki / Getty Images)

“Shutter Island” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Blood, swearing, cigarettes. SHUTTER ISLAND Opens on Friday nationwide. Directed by Martin Scorsese; written by Laeta Kalogridis, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane; director of photography, Robert Richardson; edited by Thelma Schoonmaker; production designer, Dante Ferretti; produced by Mr. Scorsese, Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer and Bradley J. Fischer; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 2 hours 18 minutes. WITH: Leonardo DiCaprio (Teddy Daniels), Mark Ruffalo (Chuck Aule), Ben Kingsley (Dr. Cawley), Michelle Williams (Dolores), Emily Mortimer (Rachel Solando), Patricia Clarkson (Rachel Solando), Jackie Earle Haley (George Noyce) and Max von Sydow (Dr. Naehring). from New York Times

I got a feeling It's gonna be a good night! I wanna fly high!!!

Sugar-Based Plastic Can Be Tossed in the Compost Alongside Banana Peels BY   DAN NOSOWITZ Fri Feb 19, 2010 It's not yet the norm here in the States, but if this new sugar-based plastic actually takes off, composting might become as widespread as it is elsewhere--because this stuff, unlike current "biodegradable" plastics, breaks down in a matter of months, instead of centuries. This is a big deal. There are biodegradable plastics on the market now, and some retailers actively use it instead of normal plastic bags. But even though it's made of natural materials like corn, it still takes as long as a few hundred years to decompose--better than vinyl, sure, but not exactly ideal. This new type of plastic, developed by researchers at Imperial College London, is created from glucose polymers extracted from trees and grasses. Not only is it faster to decompose, but it would halt dependency on fossil fuels, which are used to make 99% of today's plastics, and it's s...

February 21, 2010 OP-ED COLUMNIST The Fat Lady Has Sung By  THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN A small news item from Tracy, Calif., caught my eye last week. Local station CBS 13 reported: “Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 911 for a medical emergency. But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year, which allows them to call 911 as many times as necessary. Or there’s the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.” Welcome to the lean years. Yes, sir, we’ve just had our 70 fat years in America, thanks to the Greatest Generation and the bounty of freedom and prosperity they built for us. And in these past 70 years, leadership — whether of the country, a university, a company, a state, a charity, or a township — has largely been about giving things away, building things from scratch, lowering taxes or making grants. But now it feels as if we are entering a new era, “where ...