SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – As computers and robots become more complicated, the way we interact with these machines - through keyboards, mice and joysticks - seems ever more limited and frustrating. But what if we could just control these devices with a thought? This week on Quirks & Quarks, we'll speak with a researcher who's making this a reality. His immediate goal is to give new hope to the disabled for controlling robotic prosthetics and other devices, but…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – NBC News reports that NASA's plans to grab an asteroid and move it closer to Earth have been confirmed. The Obama administration wants to budget $100 million to snag an asteroid using a robotic probe. The mission would involve moving a 500 ton, 7-to-10 meter wide asteroid closer to the Earth where astronauts could then more easily visit it and grab samples. The image above shows what a spacecraft about to capture an asteroid…

Radioactive water may have leaked into the ground from a storage tank at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the latest of a series of troubles at the facility. The fresh leak on Sunday comes a day after Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said up to 120 tonnes of contaminated water may have escaped from another of the seven underground reservoir tanks at the tsunami-damaged plant. TEPCO said radioactivity was detected in water outside a tank in the latest leak…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Facebook’s new super-app wants to live off Google. The social network’s Home software, unveiled on Thursday, sits on top of the Android smartphone operating system. That encourages people to use Facebook over rival services. Google built Android, but Mark Zuckerberg’s company plainly Android came to exist partly because Google didn’t want one company, Apple, controlling the software running all the world’s smartphones and tablets. By developing its own operating system, Google could ensure that…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Most Canadian carriers went live with Samsung Galaxy S 4 pre-registrations yesterday, which is a good indication that the official release date is imminent. Virgin Mobile was one of the carriers and they’ve also listed a contest were members can win a GS4. Virgin notes in the terms and conditions that “There is a total of one (1) prize available to be won. The prize consists of one (1) Samsung Galaxy S 4 smartphone…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A set of Flickr images and a video posted by designer F. Bianco shows a pretty cool iOS 7 concept, that includes a new lockscreen, widget mode for apps, mission control and lots of other interesting tweaks. I honestly think Apple should have a look at this one and possibly grab a few hints as well. What I like the most about this concept is that double tapping an app’s icon brings up its…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Drugs derived from magic mushrooms could help treat people with severe depression. Scientists believe the chemical psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, can turn down parts of the brain that are overactive in severely depressive patients. The drug appears to stop patients dwelling on themselves and their own perceived inadequacies. However, a bid by British scientists to carry out trials of psilocybin on patients in order to assess its full medical potential has…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Just this week Rosetta Stone acquired Seattle-based online language-learning community Livemocha for $8.5 million in cash. At exit Livemocha had a 16 million member online language-learning community. It had also raised $19 million over six years. But today Busuu, a competing language-learning community based out of London, announces that it has reached 30 million users and its launched a dedicated iPad app for kids to learn Spanish. It now reaches into 200 countries, and…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Think that freezing food kills E. coli and other nasty microbes? Think again. That's the lesson from the new E. coli outbreak caused by frozen chicken quesadillas and other snacks that has sickened 24 people in 15 states. Freezing does slow down the microbes that cause food to spoil, but it's pretty much useless for killing dangerous bugs. "It actually does a pretty good job of preserving many of the pathogens and microbes that will cause problems…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- China has announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain, while authorities carried out the slaughter of all poultry at a Shanghai market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. The mass bird killing on Friday is the first so far as the Chinese government responds to the H7N9 strain of bird flu, which has sickened 14 people, many critically, along the eastern seaboard in its first known infections of…