Technology Slice Blog

Blood Test May Diagnose Heart Disease - A fatal genetic disorder that frequently takes years to diagnose may soon be detectable with a simple blood test, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report this week in Simple blood test may diagnose deadly Niemann-Pick type C disease. For patients with Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease, the test will make it possible to begin treatment earlier, when it is more likely to improve quality of life and to further extend lives. "NPC is a horrible disease that is easy in its early stages to mistake for other conditions, both because it's so rare and because it has so many different manifestations," says senior author Daniel S. Ory, MD, professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "This is an important step forward both in terms of making a definitive diagnosis much easier and in term...

50 Most Popular Women - According to Google Search as a measure of judging who the current 50 Most Popular Women are, we have compiled a list below. Based off of the amount of results returned for each sexy heart throb, COED Magazine decided to make up the following list. Now, we'll give you the to 10, but you'll have to check out COED Magazine.com here to see the rest of the list. Number 7 is classic. #10 Avril Lavigne 28,900,000 Results #9 Paris Hilton 33,200,000 Results #8 Miley Cyrus 34,100,000 Results #7 Justin Bieber 34,200,000 Results #6 Britney Spears 46,600,000 Results #5 Rihanna 53,900,000 Results #4 Beyonce 55,200,000 #3 Madonna 61,300,00 Results #2 Ke$ha 76,100,000 Results #1 Lady GaGa 85,900,000 Results 50 Most Popular Women

Diwali Celebrations - At this time of the year people around the world are getting ready to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights. One of the biggest festivals of the East, Diwali symbolizes the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. For an oil lamp to burn, the wick has to be partially immersed in the oil. If the wick is completely drowned in oil, it cannot bring light. Life is like the wick of the lamp, you have to be in the world and yet remain untouched by it. If you are drowned in the materialism of the world, you cannot bring joy and knowledge in your life. By being in the world, yet not drowning in the worldly aspect of it, we can be the light of joy and knowledge. Diwali is the commemoration of the light of wisdom in our lives. Lamps are lit on this day not just to decorate homes, but also to communicate this profound truth of life. Light the lamp of wisdom and love in every heart and bring a radiant smile on every face. Diwali is...

BBC Journalists Strike - Thousands of BBC journalists walked out Friday in a 48-hour strike over pensions, in a move set to knock a string of the broadcaster's flagship shows off air. The walkout by around 4,000 members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) began at 0000 GMT and was reportedly due to cause major disruption, with TV and radio shows enjoyed by millions pulled entirely or cut back. Most BBC radio and television news programmes will either not go out or be severely disrupted and the British broadcaster's rolling news channel will air live news bulletins only intermittently, reports said. Picket lines will be mounted at BBC offices across the country in the first of two strikes planned for this month, with the second due to take place on November 15-16. Negotiations about proposed pension changes between BBC journalists and management broke down last month, with 70 percent of the NUJ's members voting against the broadcaster's latest offer on pen...

BHP Billiton Doesn't Get Potash - Canada's patience has snapped. The country with a reputation for welcoming foreign capital has closed the door. Last night, the Canadian government blocked BHP Billiton's $39bn (£25bn) offer for Potash Corporation, the Saskatchewan-based fertiliser company. Canada's industry minister said that he felt the offer from the world's largest mining company - nicknamed the Big Australian - would not ' be of net benefit' to Canada. It is only the second time that the Canadian government has blocked a takeover. However, it is third time unlucky for BHP Billiton, which has had all of its big strategic plays slapped down in the last two years. First it was the $66bn attempt to buy Rio Tinto, then the proposed merger of Rio and BHP's iron ore assets was dissolved as it became clear it would not get regulatory approval, and now this. According to insiders, Ottawa's decision was a shock to BHP. Marius Kloppers, chief ...

Julien Hug Found Dead - Julien Hug, who competed in Season 5 of "The Bachelorette" and was reported missing on Monday, was found dead Wednesday morning off Highway 74 in Riverside County. Hug was last heard from Monday before his cellphone went dead, his father, restaurateur Bertrand Hug, told San Diego's 10News on Wednesday. The 35-year-old had been on the way from San Diego to Palm Desert to help manage the family's newest restaurant; a missing persons report was filed and authorities had been conducting a search. The body was found in a remote area near Pinyon Pines described by the sheriff's department as a spot "you would need to hike into," according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The cause of death was not yet known. "I will always remember Julien's gentle demeanor and kind heart, which will be sadly missed," Jillian Harris, the show's object of desire in 2009, told TMZ. “He was one of the most positive, selfless people...

Jobless Numbers Rise Again - Jobless numbers representing the number of people seeking jobless benefits from the government jumped sharply last week, after two straight weeks of declines. The Labor Department says that initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000 for the week ending Oct. 30. Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a smaller rise. The increase comes after claims fell in four of the previous five weeks. Those drops had brought claims to their lowest level since July and raised hopes the job market was improving. Instead, claims have risen back above the 450,000 level they have fluctuated around all year. They will need to drop below 425,000 to signal sustained job gains. Jobless Numbers Rise Again

Strange Stock Exchange Glitch - The London Stock Exchange says it has launched a probe after a "suspicious" glitch brought down one of its trading systems. Named Turquoise, the stock exchange's European-wide trading platform was knocked out of action for two hours. The LSE said in a statement that "human error was to blame for the disruption" which began shortly after 8am on Tuesday. It added: "Preliminary investigations indicate that this human error may have occurred in suspicious circumstances." A full internal investigation has been launched by LSE and City authorities have been informed. LSE's chief executive Xavier Rolet has been keen to migrate the company's main order book trading platform to a new technology that is already in use by Turquoise. The aim is to make it faster and more attractive to high-frequency trading firms that generate huge volumes. However, the Turquoise outage incident "coupled with necessary ne...

FaceBook Font Size Shrinks - Facebook's font size setting for its users’ News Feeds got smaller this week, and some users have taken to Twitter and Facebook Groups to express their displeasure regarding the change. Facebook did not publicly announce the font size change, but CNN speculates that the actual font contraction happened sometime between Tuesday night to Wednesday morning. “Either the font on Facebook got smaller or my computer grew bigger,” wrote Twitter user bobbyhundreds, with his message retweeted more than 70 times. “Dear Facebook,I'm going to go blind trying to read your tiny font!!” wrote Pisces__Dreamer. On Facebook, a few groups popped up lamenting the font change, including one titled “Is it me or does facebook font think im Stevie Wonder ?” However, some users wondered why the font change was such a big deal, when text sizes could be changed in one’s browser. “Facebook font size. Whatever. I am amazed that people don't know how to change th...

Sparky Anderson Dies - Sparky Anderson, the all-time leader among Tigers managers in victories, visibility and inimitable quotations, died today at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 76. Anderson’s death came one day after the family announced that he was receiving hospice care at his home because of complications from dementia. The family said that at Anderson’s request, there will be no funeral or memorial service. Anderson managed the Tigers from the middle of the 1979 season through 1995. His 17 seasons are most in club history. The runner-up is Hughie Jennings, who managed Ty Cobb’s Tigers for 14 seasons in the first part of the 20th Century. Anderson beat Jennings’ record for most victories by a Tigers manager by 200 (1,331-1,131). Throughout his years near or at the top of baseball through his 2000 election to the Hall of Fame, Anderson rejected the airs of celebrity, no matter how prominent he became. He forever seemed as happy to see people he knew — and didn’t kno...

Facebook's New Facebook Deals - Facebook has released a new Deals service for Facebook Mobile, which will adapt the "social graph" into something a little more down-to-earth, money. How does it work? We were given a walkthrough at Facebook's mobile event at its Palo Alto, headquarters, where the company also introduced its single sign-in process and enhancements to its location API. Facebook's new Deals program is tied closely to its mobile application. "Obviously, mobile is huge, location is huge," Erick Tseng, Facebook's mobile chief said in an interview following the press conference. Facebook employees demonstrated the new Deals on an iPhone, although the service should be available on both Android and iOS devices. When a user checks in to Facebook, he or she can look for a list of "nearby places," some of which may or may not have a yellow price tag or sticky to the right of them. That's a deal, and you can click on it to ...

Alcatel-Lucent Lowers Reporting - Alcatel-Lucent SA, France’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, fell the most in four months in Paris trading after reporting an operating margin below some analysts’ expectations. Shares declined as much as 4.9 percent after the Paris- based company reported an adjusted gross margin of 33.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with 33.4 percent a year ago, even as it posted a surprise 25 million euro ($35 million) profit aided by a one-time pension gain and higher sales. “The margin wasn’t as good as expected, and the surprise was more based on financial factors than operations,” Mirko Maier, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuertemmberg in Stuttgart, said by phone. Telecommunications equipment suppliers like Alcatel-Lucent are looking to ride the wave of operators upgrading networks strained by data-hungry devices such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry. Shipments of smartphones worldwide rose 95 percent in...

Unilever Profit Up - Unilever PLC said Thursday its third-quarter net profit rose 19%, boosted by growth in emerging markets. The consumer-products giant said net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 was €1.25 billion ($1.77 billion), compared with €1.05 billion in the same period a year earlier. Total sales rose 13% to €11.55 billion from €10.2 billion. "We have delivered another quarter of solid progress, driven by our emerging-markets business which again reported high levels of volume growth," Chief Executive Paul Polman said in a statement. The Anglo-Dutch maker of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Knorr soup and Bertolli olive oil and household products such as Dove, Lynx and Cif, said underlying sales—which strip out acquisitions, disposals and currency movements—grew 3.6% in the third quarter. This measure of sales, which compares with 3.4% growth in the same period a year earlier and a 3.6% rise in the previous three months, is closely watched as a direct...

Health Insurance Mandate - Voters in Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma will have the chance Tuesday to repudiate the new health care law’s keystone provision, one that requires almost everyone to have health insurance or face a tax penalty beginning in 2014. Ballots in the three states include proposed amendments to the states' constitutions that would prohibit the enforcement of the individual mandate and other provisions of the law. They echo a measure that Missouri voters approved by more than 70 percent in August. Legislatures in several other states, including Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana and Virginia, have also passed state laws with similar language. But the ballot initiatives have set off a fierce debate: If they succeed, will they have any effect? Critics of the referenda say they’re nothing more than a political gesture, misleading voters to believe that amending their state constitutions would allow them to opt out of the health care law. Given that the Supreme Court wi...

Lexus Continues To Outsell - Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus, buoyed by consumer discounts, beat out Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s BMW brand in October to lead monthly U.S. luxury-auto sales for the first time since May. Lexus sales rose 8.1 percent to 21,091 vehicles, the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker said yesterday in a statement. On Nov. 2, BMW reported a 17 percent gain to 19,272 and Mercedes posted an increase of less than 1 percent to 18,351. Lexus, the top-selling U.S. luxury brand since 2000, is being challenged this year as Toyota copes with record recalls and as Mercedes and BMW benefit from new models. Lexus more than doubled average incentive spending in October to $2,152 a vehicle from $923 a year earlier, according to TrueCar.com, an auto pricing website. The Toyota unit has been “much more aggressive than they’ve ever been,” Jim O’Donnell, president of BMW’s North American unit, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve now got Lexus joi...