Feb 12
Feb 12
I’m honestly not real sure what I think about freemium video games for mobile users. It’s nice that you don’t have to pay for the game, but often you have to pay for every little upgrade and it usually works out to be much more expensive than just paying the five or six bucks up front to own the complete game.
Many of the “free-to-play” games have incredibly overpriced in-game purchases for things that you really need to be able to play effectively.
I hope that’s not what EA is doing with the coming video game for mobile users called Real Racing 3. The game will be free for Android and iOS gamers as of February 28. Previous titles in the franchise sold for $4.99 on the iPhone. You can bet in-game purchases will make up a big part of the business model for this game.
Will have to wait until the game launches to see exactly what EA is offering. I fear that gamers will have to pay a dollar more for each of the cars they want to purchase or unlock, which could add up quickly. Personally, I preferred the old days when you simply bought a video game, and it came with everything.
[via CNET]
Feb 12
Origin Of Life In RNA? Study Suggests Genetic Molecules May Have Self-Assembled
Posted in: Today's ChiliBy Robert F. Service
A pair of RNA-like molecules can spontaneously assemble into gene-length chains, chemists in the United States and Spain report. Billions of years ago, related molecules may have created a rudimentary form of genetic information that eventually led to the evolution of RNA and life itself, the researchers say. Although it’s likely to be difficult, if not impossible, to prove whether similar proto-RNAs were present at the dawn of life, the researchers are working to see if the proto-RNAs can indeed faithfully encode information and evolve toward RNA.
Origin of life researchers have long thought that RNA, the molecular cousin of the DNA that encodes our genes, may have played a starring role in the initial evolution of life from a soup of organic molecules. RNA has a simpler structure than DNA and is a more adept chemical catalyst. So it would seem that RNA-based life might arise more readily than DNA-based life.
But there are problems with this so-called RNA World hypothesis. For starters, in water, the four chemical components of RNA—the nucleotides abbreviated A, G, C, and U—don’t spontaneously assemble to create sizable molecules. So it remains a mystery how the first long gene-length chains of RNA could have taken shape in Earth’s ancient oceans. This and other conundrums have led many to believe that RNA may itself be the product of early molecular evolution, and that proto-RNAs arose first and eventually gave way to RNA. “RNA is so perfect today that it has to be the product of evolution,” says Nicholas Hud, a chemist at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta.
Chemicals known as TAPAS and CA (left) assemble together forming rosettes (middle) that then stack into genelike chains (right).
Researchers have toyed with the idea of proto-RNA for decades and even come up with potential chemical candidates. One such set of proto-RNAs involves two chemicals called cyanuric acid (CA) and triaminopyrimidine (TAP). TAP comes from a family of compounds known as pyrimidines, as do the RNA bases C and U. CA, meanwhile, is a close pyrimidine relative. Previous research had shown that when CA and TAP were put in an organic solvent, groups of three CAs and three TAPs would spontaneously form ringlike structures called rosettes. These rosettes would then stack atop one another to form long chains.
Unfortunately, in water CA and TAP clump together in large ribbons and sheets and quickly fall out of solution, making it hard to conceive of how these proto-RNAs could have stored genetic information in the earliest stages of life.
Now, however, Hud and his colleagues at Georgia Tech and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona, Spain, have solved this solvent problem. The researchers gave TAP a short chemical tail, transforming it into a chemical they call TAPAS, as they reported on Friday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. And that one change encourages it to assemble with CA to form rosettes in water. What is more, the rosettes stack atop one another, forming long genelike chains made up of as many as 18,000 individual TAPAS and CA components—quite a stack of small plates.
“The nice thing [about the current study] is this is a demonstration of self-assembly in water,” says Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, an origin of life chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California. “That is a step in the right direction.”
The next step, Hud says, will be to see whether this two-component assembly can be made to encode information like a primitive gene and to evolve toward the structure of RNA. If so, that still won’t settle the debate as to whether CA and TAPAS gave life its start. But it will suggest one plausible chemical route to life’s origin.
ScienceNOW, the daily online news service of the journal Science
Feb 12
Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Senator, Demands NRA ‘Reject’ Lobbyist ‘Connecticut Effect’ Remark
Posted in: Today's ChiliWASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut demanded on Tuesday that the National Rifle Association and its CEO, Wayne LaPierre, “repudiate and reject” comments made by an NRA lobbyist who said that the “Connecticut effect” was interfering with the gun rights group’s lobbying agenda.
The lobbyist, Bob Welch, made the comments while speaking at an NRA state meeting in Wisconsin over the weekend.
“We have a strong agenda coming up for next year, but of course a lot of that’s going to be delayed as the ‘Connecticut effect’ has to go through the process,” Welch said, referring to the Dec. 14 mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., which has galvanized public support for stricter gun control laws.
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Feb 12
Obama Impeachment Poll Finds At Least Half Of Republicans Support Removing Him
Posted in: Today's ChiliWASHINGTON — It should come as no surprise to anyone that most Republicans aren’t members of the Barack Obama fan club. According to one recent survey, a significant majority of Republicans in one state not only dislike the president but want to see him impeached. As a new HuffPost/YouGov poll shows, however, questions about impeachment are a tricky business, and simply asking whether people support or oppose it may produce results that overstate their support.
A January survey of Texas voters conducted by Public Policy Polling found that 67 percent of Texas Republicans, and 39 percent of Texas voters overall, said they favor impeaching Obama. The survey asked, “Would you support or oppose impeaching President Obama?”
But that relatively straightforward question leaves open several possibilities for interpreting what respondents meant when they said they favor impeachment. For example, the question contained no definition of impeachment, so that some respondents may have misunderstood what impeachment entails, even if they grasped that it functions as some kind of reprimand. Some respondents could have been just expressing an unfavorable opinion of Obama (virtually all Republicans rate him unfavorably) or endorsing a more generic reprimand, rather than advocating a process that could remove the president from office after trial for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
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Feb 12
We’ve heard that Google was rolling out Android 4.2.2 to Galaxy Nexus owners, but it seems that the update is also making its way to Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 devices. At this point, we can confirm that the Nexus 7 got it since we just upgraded ours. Android 4.2.2 is supposedly a minor update that addresses some bugs and bring performance improvements.
Google has not provided public details about the update, and we’ve been getting mixed signals from the industry. For example, TheInquirer says that the Nexus 4 is getting the update, while Information Week said that “there is no word on if or when the update will reach the Nexus 4 smartphone”.
By the looks of it, this may be the last Android 4.2x update before the Google IO Conference in May 2013 (we will be there, so keep your eyes open for that one) where the company is expected to announce the next big thing for Android. Traditionally, Google has introduced new devices at Google IO along with a major Android update and roadmap. This year should not be any different.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HBO Go Available On Apple TV Through Airplay Feature, Google Default Search Status in iOS Estimated At $1 Billion A Year,
Feb 12
Madonna’s boyfriend, Brahim Zaibat, has a new job. The 25-year-old dancer has signed on with the prestigious IMG modeling agency and gone straight to work at New York’s Fashion Week.
Brahim is scheduled to hit the runaway Wednesday at the show of Jeremy Scott, a designer who built his career on risky designs favored by celebrities such as Madonna frenemy Lady Gaga and Beyoncé.
Feb 12
Photographer Wendi Kali shot almost 100 people in 35 cities as part of her new “Butch/Femme Photo Project,” which she’s deemed an exploration of lesbian identity.
As The Advocate reports, the project is an effort to archive modern “butch” and “femme” existence. Kali, who is a lesbian, says she initially explored her own identity (which she describes as butch) and couldn’t really relate to what she found.
Explaining the project, Kali wrote in a blog post:
Feb 12
Whenever you hear someone utter the words “Valentine’s Day makeup,” we’re pretty sure an image of red lipstick pops into mind. The classic lip color has become synonymous with the love fest holiday, but what about going with pink instead? It’s a fresher and more youthful alternative that any woman can wear.
Love a smokey eye? Put down your go-to neutral palette and pick up a shimmering scarlet-red shade. Trust us, it looks better than it sounds.
Whether you’re an adventurous or traditional beauty, we’ve rounded up seven Valentine’s Day makeup looks to get you inspired.
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Feb 12
Taylor Swift Mocks Harry Styles: One Direction Member Told Not To Retaliate Against Grammys Diss (REPORT)
Posted in: Today's ChiliTaylor Swift openly mocked her ex-boyfriend Harry Styles at the 2013 Grammy Awards on Sunday night, but the One Direction member is being urged to prove he’s more mature than the pop star and take the high road.
RadarOnline reports that the 19-year-old’s bandmates have warned him that Swift was just trying to get him riled up, and that he shouldn’t take her bait.
Swift dissed Styles in the middle of her Grammys performance by adding a British accent when she said, “So he calls me up and he’s like, ‘I still love you,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy opening up the Grammys.'”
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