Facebook Involved in 33 Percent of UK Divorces

By Tiffany Kaiser -- DailyTech.com January 3, 2012

[Another major site,] Twitter, was responsible for 20 percent of UK divorces

Last year, Raleigh, North Carolina attorneys reported that Facebook and MySpace were involved in most divorce cases due to a spouse's inappropriate behavior on such social networking sites. Now, it seems the UK has the same complaint.

Divorce-Online, a UK divorce website, conducted a survey consisting of 5,000 people in 2009 and 2011. The participants were asked a series of questions regarding their spouse's behavior, which included their online behavior.

According to the survey's results, 20 percent of behavior petitions in 2009 contained the word Facebook. In 2011, this number jumped to 33 percent.

Other social networking sites didn't reach that high of a percentage. For instance, Twitter was only at 20 percent in 2011, and the problem associated with the network is that spouse's used it to make comments about exes.

However, the reasons for listing Facebook on the behavior petitions were inappropriate messages sent to a person of the opposite sex, Facebook friends reporting spouse's behavior, and separated spouses posting harsh comments about each other.

"People need to be careful what they write on their walls as the courts are seeing these posts being used in financial disputes and children cases as evidence," said Mark Keenan, a spokesman for Divorce-Online.

-- from: http://www.dailytech.com/Facebook+Involved+in+33+Percent+of+UK+Divorces/article23655.htm

Like Babies, Dogs React to Human Intent

Amanda Gardner of USA Today has been looking into research about domestic dogs. The January 5 edition of the publication Current Biology reports that when people make eye contact with dogs, the animals are more likely to track the person’s eyes as they move around the room than if no eye contact is made with the dog.

This is approximately equal to the behavior of six-month-old babies, the researchers report.

"These results support the notion that dogs are sensitive to the cues signaling humans' communicative intent in a way that is analogous to preverbal human infants," said study author Jozsef Topal.
　
A study published in the July 2011 issue of Learning & Behavior showed that domestic dogs were more prone to beg food from someone gazing at them than from someone who was paying no attention to the dog.

Stanley Coren, an expert in dog intelligence, finds that dogs have the development abilities of a two-year-old human. The average dog, he finds, can learn 165 words.

Dogs appear more likely to follow our gaze if we look at them first. Using a high-pitched voice also seems to help. Dogs are less likely to follow our gaze when not looked at directly and when sopoken to in a low-pitched voice.

The USA Today article quotes a researcher: "The [dog's] gaze was only triggered when preceded by communicating intent. It does seem to be that dogs do look at humans and follow gestures," said Dr. Nicholas Dodman, director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in North Grafton, Mass. "This is intuitive to anyone who owns a dog, that dogs seem to be more in tune with us than some scientists believe."

Summarized from:
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/pets/dogs/story/2012-01-05/Like-babies-dogs-pick-up-on-human-intent/52395162/1

American Medicine: Doctors Are Going Broke

CNNMoney reporter Parija Kavilanz reports that a lot of doctors in America are quietly going broke. It is a trend that is spreading throughout the country, affecting physicians, cardiologist and oncologists.

Half of the country’s doctors operate a private practice, so if cash runs out and the practice ceases, a key community health provider is lost.

• Insurance reimbursements are shrinking
• Regulations are changing
• Business costs are rising
• Drug costs are increasing
• Some practitioners are loaning money to the practice to make payroll
• Key cardiovascular services such as stress tests and echocardiograms, are seeing 35% to 40% Medicare reimbursement cuts (and private insurers follow Medicare rates)
• There is an impending 27.4% Medicare pay cut for doctors
• Medicare reimbursement rates are adjusted annually under Federal law in accordance with a formula tied to the health of the economy. Doctors face uncertainty each year regarding whether the cuts will be implemented. Congress has blocked these cuts 13 times over the past decade, most recently on December 23 with a two-month temporary patch.
• Medicare and drug company reimbursement payments to doctors’ practices are often late.
• Much of the cash crunch in medical practices comes from money owed to the practice by patients or by insurers.
• Some ddoctors are responding by setting up patients for multiple visits rather than checking all the complaints in one sitting – these inconvenient multiple visits are an effective way to beat the system and get paid.

Summarized from:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/05/smallbusiness/doctors_broke/index.htm

Reaching Age 114 with "Gene Variants"

Lee Dye of ABC News reports that scientists are looking in to the reasons for a certain man and a particular woman lived for 114 years.

Both had about the same number of "bad genes" – called variants – as the rest of us. They both had several variants that are associated with deadly diseases, a characteristic that all humans possess. Thomas Perls of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University has been studying this matter and working with the University of Florida at Gainesville as well as the Scripps Research Institute.

The three organizations published a research study this week in Frontiers in Genetics. The study found that the participants also had other gene variants which somehow inactivated the genes that would have otherwise killed the two people who lived to age 114.

In other words, they had good genes that fought off the bad genes, automatically achieving what some of the best minds in science have tried to do -- with very little success -- through genetic engineering.

The study participants all lived past age 110, an achievement that occurs only in one out of about five million persons in the world’s developed countries.

The published study notes, "The woman carried at least 30 mutations linked to Alzheimer's disease, 201 mutations associated with cancer," and "52 mutations associated with heart disease, 136 mutations associated with diabetes, 12 linked to macular degeneration that she was diagnosed with after the age of 100 years."

"The man carried 37 mutations associated with increased risk for colon cancer," the study states, adding that the disease was advanced and could easily killed him, but, surprisingly, he lived on. "His load of disease-predisposing variants was comparable to the female subject."

"What allows them to get to these extreme old ages is probably some protective genes that not only slow down aging, but also protect them from the bad variations," Perls said over the telephone. "It's almost like they are trumping the bad variants." He added, "That points to just how incredibly complex this puzzle is. "It involves probably hundreds of variations of hundreds of different genes, both good and bad."

Perls notes that the supercentenarians lead surprisingly similar lives. They have good health until surprisingly late in life. Many of them survive serious illnesses, including cancer in their 80s and 90s, "but they handle them so much better than the general population," Perls said. "They don't experience any disability, on average, until around the age of 93. So it's really only the last three or four years of their lives that they have any kind of age-linked disease."

Summarized from:

http://gma.yahoo.com/living-longer-reaching-114-not-just-good-genes-230144404.html

Future Nuclear Fission Reactors

Author: Judy Haar : Posted to Decoded Science on January 2, 2012

Proposed as the energy market’s silver bullet, nuclear power would meet all the worlds needs for increased energy demands with little pollution or fear of accidents, right? Actually, we know that this isn’t true. Light water reactors, which provide the bulk of our nuclear capacity, are notoriously inefficient. Couple this with concerns about waste and nuclear safety, the present day problems loom large. So, what does the future bring for nuclear power? As Robert Kennedy told us, "The future is not a gift. It is an achievement."
　

Nuclear Power: In the Beginning?

It all started about 60 years ago in Idaho. The military was anxious to get up and running with a new power source for their submarine fleet, and the light water reactor (LWR) was obvious for the next step in power generation. At the time, it was easier to take an already-existing military design and scale it up for commercial use. Since then, nuclear power plant design has evolved through four distinct design generations.

The First Generation (1950 -1970) included prototypes and first designs.

The Second Generation (1970 – 2030) included currently operating plants.

The Third Generation (2000 – on) includes improvements and retrofits to current plants.

The Fourth Generation (2030 – on) will include new and advanced nuclear plant designs.
Today, operating reactors are typically LWR’s of the second or third generation. The fourth generation or
Generation IV nuclear reactors are now on the drawing board and in a testing phase. Gen IV reactors are not your garden variety, everyday LWR.
　

Light Water Reactors

There are two types of LWR: boiling water reactors (BWR) and pressurized water reactors (PWR). Both use water passed through the core, where it is heated. In the BWR, the water turns to steam that drives the turbines and produces electricity. In the PWR, the water is heated by the core and is kept under pressure so it remains liquid. The heated water is then passed through a heat exchanger which produces steam and drives the turbines
　

Nuclear Technology: What are the New Goals?

Will nuclear power ever be safe? There are risks in everything we do. But realistically, when you split an atom, there is risk, and the future of nuclear power research understands this. Initiated in 2000, the
Generation IV International Forum (GIF) was created to represent the governments of 13 countries where nuclear power is, or will be, significant. The charter is intended to participate in the development of the goals and design of reactor technologies for the future, thus, Gen IV. Goals recently developed through the GIF, of which the United States is a member, focus in broad areas such as: sustainability, economics, safety, reliability, proliferation resistance and physical protection.

Nuclear Sustainability: Produce sustainable energy that meets clean air objectives, and offers long-term availability and effective fuel utilization.

Nuclear Economics: Provide a clear life-cycle cost advantage and financial risk comparable to other energy producers.

Nuclear Safety and Reliability: Excel with a low likelihood of reactor core damage, and eliminate the need for offsite emergency response.

Nuclear Proliferation Resistance and Physical Protection: Obtain the objective of least desirable route for production of weapon-usable material and increased physical protection.

Among these important standards provided by the GIF, other design features are analyzed such as passive safety systems (not power initiated) and higher core efficiencies.
　

Generation IV Nuclear Power

Gen IV reactors will definitely deviate from current LWR technology. Many will not use water, but elements such as helium, fluoride salt, or liquid sodium as a coolant, with sizes ranging from 150 to 1500 MWe. At least four of the systems already have significant operating experience. In addition, expanded uses for the Gen IV might include sea water desalination and process heat production. Based upon safety, environmental concerns, resistance to diversion of weapons grade materials, waste production and cost-effective solutions, the GIF has initially selected six supported designs. A very brief discussion follows for each:

Gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR): This reactor is high efficiency, and helium is used as the coolant instead of water, with an outlet temperature of 850 degrees Celsius, much higher then the Gen III.

LWR design: The core material of this reactor holds the potential of excellent retention of fission products and minimizes the production of long lived radioactive waste.

Lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR): This rector has inherent safety due to the use of un-reactive molten metal as the coolant, and natural primary coolant circulation. This reactor design, for the core, can use depleted uranium or thorium fuel matrices and burn actinides from LWR spent fuel.

Molten salt reactor (MSR): This reactor embodies liquid fuel. The uranium is dissolved in a sodium fluoride salt coolant which circulates through a graphite core. The positive side of the MSR technology is no spent fuel, continuous fission products removal, no fuel fabrication, and minimization of radiotoxic nuclear waste.

Sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR): With 390 reactor-years of experience in sodium-cooled reactors over five decades, the SFR uses liquid sodium as the coolant. Core options for the SFR include depleted uranium.

Supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR): A high temperature, high pressure water-cooled reactor with a single phase coolant, supercritical water directly drives the turbines, and translates into improved economics.
This reactor’s core is enriched uranium oxide.

Very high-temperature gas reactor (VHTR): These are graphite-moderated, helium-cooled reactors with substantial experience. Heat removal is passive. The core can be blocks or pebble bed. This reactor design has potential of low operation and maintenance costs, modular construction, and passive safety.

The closest to commercial use is a small pebble bed reactor under development in China. Its uranium fuel is encased in tennis-sized balls called pebbles, where the fuel doesn’t get hot enough to melt.

Nuclear Future: Even More is Happening Now

New power plants are designed with passive safety systems that do not depend on action such as operator action or a pump turning on to circulate coolant through the core to prevent melting. Nuclear power plant vendors such as Westinghouse have designed their Advanced Passive 1000 (AP1000), for example, and are halfway through construction of several of these reactors. GE is developing modular passive reactors with their own safer designs.

When it comes to nuclear reactors, some think smaller is better; by reducing the output and size in-half, all cooling can be handled by simple gravity flow through natural convection. Smaller reactors cost less, are built faster and produce less spent fuel. And finally, there is fusion. The technology for this panacea for nuclear energy, however, is still around fifty years out.

http://www.decodedscience.com/is-nuclear-power-in-your-future/8910

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Note by the blog author
The above article refers to modernized versions of convention fission power – radioactive rods moved close together to generate heat. The nuclear future may be through laser-powered implosion through fusion or, as a very remote possibility, by the conversion of one element (like nickel) to a simpler element (copper) in a manner which releases enormous energy. The fusion and elemental methods do not involve large quantities of heavy metal waste that has an enormous half-life as radioactive waste. 

Never Use "Cruise Control" on a Wet Road

The blog author got the notice below by email from a friend today:

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A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car. A resident of Kilgore , Texas she was traveling between Gladewater & Kilgore. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence!

When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened he told her something that every driver should know –

NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH
YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON

She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain. But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydroplane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an airplane. She told the patrolman that was exactly what had occurred.

The patrolman said this warning should be listed, on the driver's seat sun-visor - NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe speed - but we don't tell them to use the cruise control only when the pavement is dry.

The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the patrolman), was a man who had a similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe
injuries.

NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on.

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Verified by Snopes at:

http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/wetroad.asp

Digital Movies Rapidly Replacing 35mm Film

Samantha Murphy, TechNewsDaily senior writer, November 17,2011

The standard 35 mm film we're all used to seeing in movie theaters will be replaced worldwide by digital technology in the next few years, and the hit blockbuster film "Avatar" is to blame for the shift, according to a new report.

A report from the IHS Screen Digest Cinema Intelligence Service said that 35 mm film, which has been the dominant projection format in movie theaters for more than 120 years, is nearing the end of its life, as the majority of cinema screens in the U.S. are expected to go digital in 2012.

In fact, IHS expects 35 mm will be replaced by digital technology globally by 2015, the report said. By the end of 2012, 35 mm film in movie theaters is expected to decline to 37 percent on a global scale, which is a dramatic decline from 68 percent of global cinema screens in 2010.

"Movie theaters now are undergoing a rapid transition to digital technology, spurred initially by the rising popularity of 3-D films," said David Hancock, head of film and cinema research at IHS.

"The release of 'Avatar' in December 2009 represented the pivotal moment for digital cinema, with digital technology forming the bedrock of the modern cinema environment," Hancock added. "Before 'Avatar,' digital represented only a small portion of the market, accounting for 15 percent of global screens in 2009."

After "Avatar," digital film technology grew 17 percent in both 2010 and 2011, compared to single-digit increases during the previous years. "Avatar" also increased the demand for digital 3-D technology.

In the U.S., IHS expects that there won’t be any mainstream usage of 35 mm film in 2013. Western Europe
is expected to change to digital by the end of 2014, and the rest of the world will then be under pressure to follow the trend, the report said.

"While the era of 35 mm will end at this time, there will still be some older films circulating in print for some cinemas," Hancock said. "Ironically, these last prints may have a high value as they circulate among a relatively small number of theaters dedicated to keeping the legacy of traditional film alive."

http://www.technewsdaily.com/3433-digital-movies-replace-film-2015-report-finds.html

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Reach TechNewsDaily senior writer Samantha Murphy at smurphy@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @SamMurphy_TMN