The Inspirational Note Apple Gives to New Employees on Their First Day [Apple]

Chances are, you're probably pretty pumped if you land a job at Apple. But just in case you need an extra kick in the berries, this is the inspirational note waiting for you on your first day of work. More »

dallas fort worth dfw 1930 census nike new nfl uniforms nfl uniforms andrew bailey the village

The Samsung Galactic Empire

This past week has been especially kind to Samsung. Big sales numbers were followed by the unveiling of the Galaxy S III, the company's latest flagship phone and one that could very well own the market this summer. The S III runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google's operating system and one that up to this point hasn't taken residence on a very large number of phones.

sovereign citizen komen chrome for android hatchet leah messer freedom riders 9th circuit court of appeals

Obama?s foreign policy ? good enough for government work? Part Two (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

rajon rondo sunoco titanic ii babe ruth new jersey nets nba playoff schedule rondo

Zombie ant fungus, meet the anti-zombie-ant fungus

A new study has found that a zombifying ant fungus can be kept at bay by another pathogen.

It turns out that it takes a fungus to control one.

Skip to next paragraph

For the first time, researchers have discovered how an ant colony can survive an onslaught of zombie-fungus, also known as Ophiocordyceps, a behavior altering, deadly parasite.

Ophiocordyceps enters an ant's brain, causing it to march to its death at a mass grave. Once the ant is dead, the fungus produces more infectious spores.

In their new study, David Hughes, an entomologist at Penn State and his team describe a hyperparasitic fungus ? that is, a parasitic fungus that exploits another parasitic fungus ? that helps ants to ward off a zombie epidemic.

"In a case where biology is stranger than fiction, the parasite of the zombie-ant fungus is itself a fungus," Hughes said in a statement.

Ants are the dominant creature of all land-based ecosystems. In tropical forests, for example, almost 70% of individual insects are ants. They provide ample opportunities for scientific investigation.

Previous research has shown that ants groom each other and themselves to defend their colonies against pathogens such as fungi.

Hughes and his group modeled ant behavior in order to see grooming's effect on restricting infection. They found that combined with the ant's own grooming practices, the hyperparasitic fungus significantly limited the spread of the deadly, zombifying Ophiocordyceps.

Many ants become infected with the Ophiocordyceps fungus because it grows slowly, producing immature spores for about a month after killing its host.

However, the likelihood of an individual ant becoming a zombie is relatively low because the young spores are susceptible to the hyperparasitic fungus.

"Because the hyperparasitic fungi prevents the infected zombie-ant fungus from spreading spores, fewer of the ants will become zombies," explained Hughes.

The new study is available online in PLoS ONE.

wikipedia sopa and pipa bills censoring the internet blackout blackout congress censored

Hootsuite Is Raising $50M At A $500M Valuation

It was just over a month ago that social media management platform HootSuite picked up $20 million in a secondary investment round that valued the company at $200 million. Now we have heard from multiple sources that the company is looking to better than double that: HootSuite is in the process of raising a $50 million round at a $500 million valuation. And what's making this even more interesting are the investors that are being mentioned in connection with the round: HootSuite is looking to have discussions with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google -- a sign of how the surge in social media investments is also giving a lift to companies that are figuring out ways to harness that for third parties.

josh mcdaniels cotton bowl wizards of waverly place cedric benson playoff schedule charles addams pinewood derby cars

Next-Generation Publishing Platform Hyperink Wants To Transform Blogs Into Books

YC company Hyperink, a next-generation digital book publishing platform, is debuting a new service which helps bloggers create short books from their existing content. As we've reported in the past, Hyperink wants to disrupt the book publishing world. The startup's digital book publishing platform and full-service agency will help any aspiring author write, design, publish, market, and sell a book without any up-front fees. Hyperink wants to represent the long-tail of book demand. Hyperink's books production costs are under $1,000 on average, and are published in under a month. And also offers higher royalty rates, and give authors up to 50 percent of their earnings (many publishers give authors around 25 percent).

ncaa tournament 2012 peyton manning 49ers andy pettitte tyler clementi kevin kolb sarah shahi george clooney

Live in London: Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012!

Enough teasers. It's finally time to do this. We're at Earl's Court, London, for the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 event. You might recall previous Unpacked events in which we saw the original Galaxy S, the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Note, and now ...?

Look, we're all expecting to see the Samsung Galaxy S III. Or the Samsung Galaxy S3. Or Something with the name Galaxy. Or at the very least, something with the name Samsung in it.

Here's the best part: You get to be here with us for the entire unveiling. Need some deets?

• What: Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012
• Where: London
• When: 1900 BST, 1400 EST, 1100 PST
• Official stream: Samsung's beaming this one worldwide, which is darn nice of them. 
• Online chat: Doing a liveblog of something that's being broadcast live is sort of silly. So here's the plan. Join myself and Alex Dobie for a live chat from the event. (It's embedded after the break in this post.) We're not going to just tell you what's going on. You can see that for yourself in the stream. We're going to keep you up to date on everything you can't see in the stream. It's the least we can do.
• And much more: Presumably we're going to get some face time with whatever's announced, so check back early and often.

We'll see you back here this evening -- or this afternoon, or whatever time it is wherever you are -- for some hot smartphone action! In the meantime, be sure to hit up all the awesome Samsung Galaxy S III discussions in the forums!

read more

lottery ticket megga millions what is autism the giver march 30 rimm george h w bush