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  • 29Apr

    By Jimmy Rogers
    Contributing Writer, [GAS]

    Since the danger of swine flu has not yet abated, here’s some additional links and updates. First, if you would like to follow the latest official updates from the CDC, they’re on Twitter. In fact they just started using the #swineflu hashtag, how hip is that?

    If you missed our big article from Monday, What is Swine Flu?, be sure and check it out. The comments have been very active too so don’t forget to read over those! I’ve been trying to field any questions raised by readers, so if you ask any now I’ll still try to catch them!

    Also, I decided against a “doomsday scenario” type of post because there is already a ton of that in the media right now, but if you think that’s what YOU need at the moment, io9 has put together a good compilation of ways the world could end ala Hollywood.

    Lastly, the cause for swine flu has been identified. We should have known all along:

    [Picture source: growabrain]


  • 29Apr

    No, that is not a typo.

    Scientists in South Korea claim they have used cloning to produce four dogs which can glow red in the dark. While it sounds like a wacky student prank, it actually has major implications for medical science.

    The four cloned beagles look perfectly normal in daylight, but several bodyparts glow red in the dark, including the nails, skin, eyes and abdomen. The entire body glows under ultraviolet light. The effect comes from a gene which produces a protein which glows.

    The project involved taking canine fibroblast cells, which appear mainly in connective tissue, and injecting them with a virus which inserted the fluorescent gene into the nucleus. This nucleus was then put into an egg cell from another dog, with this cell used in an implanted embryo.

    The surrogate mother gave birth to six puppies, all of which glowed, and four of whom survived. The births took place in December 2007 but have only just been publicized, likely to allow time for the project to be reviewed and confirmed by third parties.

    The project was led by Lee Byeong-chun, a professor at Seoul National University. There’s bound to be some suspicion over his claims given that he was an assistant to Hwang Woo-suk, a stem cell researcher found to have faked data in the past. However, Lee’s later work, including producing the first cloned dog, has been independently verified.

    While the glowing is a (literally) visible effect, the key achievement is the transplantation of a gene with a particular trait. It shows that, in principle at least, it should be possible to insert genes related to human diseases into cloned dogs. This will make it much easier to use animals to research the effects of, and cures for, genetic conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.

    [Pictures via AFP]


  • 29Apr

    Button-Download.com is presenting free buttons with different designs in PSD format (PNG file exists too).

    Currently there are 20 of them & they are great for inspiration or being used directly. Besides downloading the buttons one-by-one, a full-download link is also offered.

    Free PSD Buttons

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  • 29Apr

    I don’t know about you guys, but when I order pizza, it’s usually because my wife and I are feeling lazy. Oh we do make it ourselves from time to time, but washing the dishes after is kind of a drag and goes against the concept of eating pizza in front of the TV. That’s why this pizza box concept is so brilliant. Not only does it provide you with the plates and a storage box to put your leftovers away, but the whole thing is made out of recycled material. Isn’t that awesome?

    [Via Asylum]


  • 29Apr

    Clock

    Wanna be a better writer?

    Wanna do it quickly and painlessly?

    Here’s how in 4 steps.

    1. Step away from the keyboard. Take a walk, put on some music, even do the dishes, whatever. Just get 10 minutes of you time.

    2. Look into your head for all the things you’re saying to yourself that are making writing harder than you want it to be.

    Are you doubting that your idea is good enough? Are you thinking that you don’t know where you’re going with it? Are you telling yourself that nobody will read or “get” what you’re writing? Are you telling yourself you don’t have what it takes to be a decent writer?

    Take a good look and go as far as writing down the things you’re telling yourself.

    3. Look at the opposite position, and find real world evidence to support it.

    If you doubt that your idea is good enough, put yourself into the position that your idea is plenty good enough – and then find genuine reasons to support that. You’re fired up about the idea, you have a unique insight or you’ve seen people talking about it so know that people will connect with it, for example.

    If you’re thinking that you don’t know where you’re going with your writing, take the position that you know where it’s heading or that it’s okay to not know exactly where it’s going. Then look for evidence in your experience to support that, such as:

    • You’ve written great pieces before, and this is no different.
    • You’ve done your research so you have just what you need to write a coherent piece.
    • You know that you start writing knowing 50% of the content, and find that the rest comes to you as part of the writing process.

    This isn’t about making things up to make yourself feel better. This is about finding genuine evidence, based on your own experience, that gives more space in your head for the reasons why you can than the reasons why you can’t.

    4. Give yourself permission to write how you write.

    It’s a safe bet that you’re your own worst critic, but placing your confidence in the things that critic tells you is not going to make you a better writer. Quite the opposite, in fact.

    By finding real reasons that support you in writing things your way you can let yourself off the hook, and that frees you up to write some great stuff.

    Place your confidence in the reasons you can write great work, and just watch what happens.

    About the Author: As a leading confidence coach with clients right around the world, Steve Errey has a reputation for talking sense and getting results. Get more from him at The Confidence Guy.


    Thesis Theme for WordPress

  • 29Apr
    We've been discussing the well-known AIDA conversion funnel and how it governs all Web conversions. We've already examined awareness and interest, and now we continue looking at the desire stage. ...
  • 29Apr
    Fear is one constant in a world of uncertainties. Why do industry experts, advertisers, and pundits seem to be afraid to say anything negative about Google? ...
  • 29Apr

    Currently priced at $49.99 (67% off), shipping included, the Polaroid i735 is a 7MP digital camera featuring a 3X optical zoom, 16MB of internal memory (SD slot available) and a 2.5-inch high-resolution TFT LCD screen. Unfortunately, at that price, the only available color is pink, so this might be a great gift idea for those of you on a tight budget who want to offer something to their mom for the upcoming mother’s day.

    Polaroid i735 7 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD


  • 29Apr

    In what is to be the first major space suit redesign in over forty years, the new Constellation Space Suit System will be designed in a modular fashion, so that the same suit can be used by astronauts for all aspects of a space mission.

    [Via Engadget]


  • 29Apr

    If you had a little business in a little town, there was a natural limit to your growth. You hit a limit on strangers (no people left to pitch), some became friends, some became customers and you then went delivered as much as you could to this core audience. Every day wasn't spent trying to get bigger.

    There's no limit now. No limit to how many clicks, readers, followers and friends you can acquire.

    I don't think this new mindset is better. It shortchanges the customers you have now (screw them, if they can't take a joke, we'll just replace them!) and worse, it means you're never done. Instead of getting better, you focus obsessively on getting bigger.

    You're at a conference, talking to someone who matters to you. Over their shoulder, you see a new, bigger, better networking possibility. So you scamper away. It's about getting bigger.

    Compared to what? You're never going to be the biggest, so it seems like being better is a reasonable alternative.

    The problem with getting bigger is that getting bigger costs you. Not just in time and money, but in focus and standards and principles. Moving your way to the biggest part of the curve means appealing to an ever broader audience, becoming (by definition) more average.

    More, more, more is rarely the mantra of a successful person.

    There are certainly some businesses and some projects that don't work unless they're huge, but in your case, I'm not sure that's true. Big enough is big enough, biggest isn't necessary.