Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

On November 8th, Earth will have a close encounter with a sizable asteroid. But not too close, thankfully

By Risa Maeda TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese utilities will largely avoid power shortages this winter despite prolonged reactor shutdowns amid public concerns over nuclear safety, but hurdles remain for next summer, the government said on Tuesday. [More]

A new report warns that the exploding usage of radio waves by broadband-devouring smartphones and video threatens to deplete a finite wireless spectrum . “If you look at traffic patterns over the past five years, we went from things like illegal music downloads, to legal music downloads, to video,” said technology adviser and report author Michael Kleeman at University of California San Diego

Earlier today, LOT Polish airlines flight 16 traveling from Newark, N.J., to Warsaw, Poland, crash landed after its landing gear failed to deploy. According to The Aviation Herald , the Boeing 767-300 was at 3,000 feet when the pilots reported an unsafe gear indication

By Ewen Callaway of Nature magazine When colleagues called the work of Dutch psychologist Diederik Stapel too good to be true, they meant it as a compliment. [More]

Imagine that your co-worker has just moved into a new office. The woman who used to work there spent many unhappy months in the office complaining about her job. In fact, she ended up quitting in a fit of rage

In Google Maps , the distance-measuring tool offers a choice of three unit systems: Metric, English or “I’m Feeling Geeky.” If you click the third one, you’re offered a long list of, ahem, somewhat uncommon measurement units, including parsecs, Persian cubits, and Olympic swimming pools. Mac OS X’s text-to-speech feature, meanwhile, lets you endow your Mac with any of dozens of different human voices. Each speaks a funny sample sentence.

These days, software engineers’ overlords generally don’t tolerate true, secret Easter eggs. The bosses argue that such surprises are untested, may be incompatible with the software company’s public image, and (when they feature the programmers’ names) amount to “poach me!” ads for rival companies’ headhunters.

Sci saw this paper being tweeted around the internets recently, a paper on the evolution of overconfidence . It seemed like a really interesting and cool paper, and I was kind of surprised that no one had covered it

Hopes for new Alzheimer's drugs that would slow or stop the disease's inexorable decline have repeatedly foundered in recent years. Large pharmaceutical companies, which have pushed ahead with drugs that stop the buildup of toxic proteins that damage and kill brain cells, have reported a recurring string of bad news.

As many as 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia among adults over 60 years of age. That figure could reach 115 million by 2050 , concludes the nonprofit Alzheimer's Disease International .

As many as 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia among adults over 60 years of age.

By Lauren Gravitz of Nature magazine One can't squeeze blood from a turnip, but new research suggests that a bit of transgenic tweaking may make it possible to squeeze blood--or at least blood protein--from a grain of rice.

By Lauren Gravitz of Nature magazine One can't squeeze blood from a turnip, but new research suggests that a bit of transgenic tweaking may make it possible to squeeze blood--or at least blood protein--from a grain of rice. [More]

WAYCROSS, Ga.--Pawn shops, diners, churches and pine trees. Hundreds of thousands of pine trees.