Free Republic

Sure there are technical forums that discuss btrfs, the shiny new filesystem for Linux but my experience has shown that FReepers meet or exceed the technical expertise anywhere on the net. The two cutting-edge filesystems that are (supposedly) impervious to bitrot are btrfs and zfs (which has a Linux implementation, older than what Oracle has now closed off).

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In a mouse study, scientists at Mayo Clinic Florida have demonstrated the feasibility of a promising new strategy for treating human type 2 diabetes, which affects more than 200 million people worldwide. In type 2 diabetes, the body stops responding efficiently to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar. To compensate for the insensitivity to insulin, many diabetes drugs work by boosting insulin levels; for example, by injecting more insulin or by increasing the amount of insulin secreted from the pancreas. The new study, published in the June 9 issue of PLoS ONE, showed that a different...

Did Grandma seem forgetful at the holiday parties last month? It could be time to put her on a diet. Sharply reducing calories improves memory in older adults, according to one of the first studies of dietary restriction and cognitive function in humans. Research on the benefits of an extremely low-calorie diet stretches back to the 1930s, when scientists found that rats lived up to twice as long when they nibbled less than control animals. Since then, some studies with rodents and nonhuman primates have shown that this spare diet, known as calorie restriction, improves some markers of diabetes and...

The molecular surface of IDE is represented by light yellow. The N- and C-terminal domains of IDE are colored green and red, respectively. The beta-amyloid (blue) is entrapped inside the degradation chamber of the IDE molecule. Yuequan Shen, Univ. of Chicago Researchers from the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have deciphered the three-dimensional structure of insulin-degrading enzyme, a promising target for new drugs because it breaks down not only insulin but also the amyloid-beta protein, which has been linked to the cognitive decline of Alzheimer's disease. In the October 19, 2006, issue of Nature (available online Oct. 11),...

WASHINGTON: The Army has developed a new device to thwart terrorist activities while saving service members’ lives. The Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) Countermeasure Equipment, otherwise known as ICE, was developed by a team of engineers, scientists and Soldiers at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to defeat IEDs, which are the most prominent threat to deployed service members in Iraq. The ICE device , which is roughly the size of a bread box uses commercial and military technology to thwart enemy IEDs said Maj. Raymond D. Pickering, who helped lead the ICE design team at White Sands during its...