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Inexpensive, highly efficient solar cells may be on the way

"Using arrays of long, thin silicon wires embedded in a polymer substrate, a team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has created a new type of flexible solar cell that enhances the absorption of sunlight and efficiently converts its photons into electrons. The solar cell does all this using only a fraction of the expensive semiconductor materials required by conventional solar cells."

Read more at http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13325

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/28/caltech-gurus-whip-up-highly-efficient-low-cost-flexible-solar/

Filed under: environment technology

Get a Mac version of Google's Superbowl ad

(via tuaw.com)

Filed under: mac technology

BBC's "The One Show" highlights Esperanto

Filed under: esperanto

Upstate NY Time Warner customers: reboot your cable modem

Time Warner has increased the upstream speed for standard Road Runner accounts from 384kbps to 1Mbps, but you may have to reboot your cable modem to notice the speed increase.

You can test your speed here.
Filed under: news technology

Tamiflu may be nearly useless

According to the LA Times, the British Medical Journal is questioning the efficacy of Tamiflu for treating any kind of flu (H1N1 included).  The article closes with this conclusion:

"It probably doesn't hurt to treat patients with severe flu complications with Tamiflu, and it may help. But the drug should not be used in an effort to prevent infection among people who have been exposed to the virus or in those who have only very mild infections."

The Atlantic also ran a story on this topic and pointed out that there is some evidence that Roche, the manufacturer, may have misled governments and scientists about the drug.  They also mention that there are potential fatal side effects to taking the medication, though these are likely rare.

Natural News has a similar story on Tamiflu, which references the British Medical Journal's findings and the article in The Atlantic, but is a bit more sensational.
Filed under: health news

Clever and artistic Google Chrome video

(source: dvice.com)

Filed under: art technology

Google launches a new programming language

Mashable has the details on "Go" here, including an embedded Google Tech Talk video.  Looks very interesting.
Filed under: development technology

Caffeine may reverse Alzheimer's

There has been news about caffeine possibly slowing the disease, but this is the first I've heard of a study claiming that caffeine can actually reverse Alzheimer's disease.

Note Dr. Weil's comment at the bottom of the article:

"This is all obviously intriguing news, but it is interesting to me that the in media coverage of this study, reporters have largely played up the coffee angle, when the mice were given caffeine, not coffee. The fact is that green and white teas also contain caffeine, along with other compounds that may be neuro- and cardioprotective - and, in my experience, tea is less likely to cause the insomnia, digestive upset, bladder irritation, and jitters that often come with coffee drinking."
Filed under: health

The best desktop wallpapers ever

If you aren't following every picture in the Stuck in Customs flickr stream, now's the time to do it.  With beautiful shots like this, along with a story behind nearly every photo, it's truly breathtaking.  Plus, the photos make for wonderful desktop wallpaper!

(Source: flickr)
Filed under: art photography

Securing local Evernote data on the Mac

I'm enjoying Evernote thus far, and have upgraded to a premium membership. The only thing bothering me was that my local data was left unencrypted -- unless I were to encrypt each and every note individually.

My workaround -- create an encrypted sparsebundle, copy everything in "~/Library/Application Support/Evernote" into it, and create a symbolic link from that location to the mount point ("/Volumes/Evernote").

So long as I remember to mount the encrypted volume before I launch Evernote, everything seems to work just fine so far, and all my data is encrypted. However, if you try this yourself beware that there may be problems that I have not yet encountered.

Filed under: technology
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