ultraviolet

NASA to blastoff solar satellite to gather images of the sun

Despite Earthlings depending on the sun for survival, there's a lot that scientists still don't know about our solar system's star. NASA is looking to change this.

The U.S. space agency is launching a solar satellite called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) on June 26 to get a closer look at the sun's lower atmosphere. This part of the atmosphere is important because it is where most of the sun's ultraviolet emissions are generated, which are known to impact Earth's climate and the near-Earth space environment, according to NASA.

"IRIS data … Read more

Vudu's in-home Disc to Digital service: Promising yet lacking

It sounds ideal. Take all those DVDs and Blu-rays you own and, from the comfort of your own home, effortlessly gain digital copies for a low price. That's the promise of Vudu's new "In-Home Disc to Digital" service. Vudu delivers on that promise in some cases but disappoints in other ways.

Last year, Walmart-owned Vudu launched its Disc to Digital service that required people to go into Walmart stores for the conversion. Who wants to do that? This is where the "In-Home" version of Disc to Digital comes … Read more

Barnes & Noble inks Nook licensing deal with HBO, NBC

Barnes & Noble today announced the launch of its Nook Video service in the U.K.

Nook Video is available to U.K. customers who own a Nook HD or Nook HD+. The offering features both films and television shows from a wide variety of providers, including BBC Worldwide, HBO, NBC Universal, and Sony Pictures. STARZ and Warner Bros. Entertainment have also inked deals with Barnes & Noble.

Upon booting up Nook Video, customers will find both new releases and older films and television shows. The videos are available for streaming or download. Nook Video is a partner of Ultraviolet, … Read more

Swedish town introduces light therapy to bus shelters

In Umea, Sweden, the forecast for Thursday is partly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of precipitation and a high of 25 degrees Fahrenheit. As I write this in dark and damp Portland, Ore., Umea doesn't sound so bad.

But the city, located some 400 miles north of the already northern Swedish capital Stockholm, is for most of the day this time of year cloaked in darkness, with the sun rising at almost 9 a.m. and setting just after 2 p.m.

So the local energy company Umea Energi has begun installing phototherapy lamps in 30 bus shelters … Read more

UV photography reveals our sun-damaged selves

Sometimes we need to see to believe. I remember understanding on an intellectual level, from a young age, that smoking was bad, but I didn't really get it on a visceral level until I saw a smoker's blackened lungs. The effect was so profound that, to this day, I go so far as to hold my breath when walking past people smoking.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to peer inside our own bodies and check out the health of our lungs. It's also difficult to see the effects sun exposure is having on our skin, especially when … Read more

Facebook under fire (again) for all-male board

The campaign to get Facebook to appoint a female board member is ramping up. The FACE IT campaign launched earlier this week to draw attention to the fact that the social-networking site had no women on its board of directors and now other groups and individuals are signing on.

Joining the campaign today is the group Ultraviolet, which is a women's group co-founded by Nita Chaudhary who was most recently the outspoken campaign and organizing director for MoveOn.org Political Action. Although Ultraviolet is fairly new on the scene, it already boasts 300,000 members.

"The fact that … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1510: Google + is Bieber-free! (Podcast)

On today's show, we talk to Ken Parks, director of content at Spotify, who lays down the one rule of music licensing negotiations: you don't talk about music licensing negotiations! Plus, Amazon's tablet is incoming, 41 percent of Netflix users plan to take their ball and go home, and girl power at the Google science fair!

Facebook the movie theater

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Warner Bros. is renting out movies inside Facebook

The beta of Google Maps Navigation for Android helps you avoid traffic jams

YouTube acquires Next New Networks

HBO is said to be relaxing black-out agreements to advance UltraViolet cloud streaming

This year's Wimbledon finals will be broadcast in 3D

Owners of the original iPad 3G will be able to port their unlimited data plans over to the new iPad 2

Consumer Reports finds that 30 percent of teens are texting while driving

Fighting germs, Harry Potter-style

If you were excited about the previously-mentioned SteriPEN, if you're still avoiding tomatoes and hot peppers at the supermarket, or if you just have some money to spare, then chances are that the Nano-UV Wand is right up your alley.

Lately, it seems an activity as simple and natural as eating has become much more complicated. In the wake of the salmonella-inducing tomato (or jalapeno, or maybe serrano pepper) and E. coli spinach scares, consumers continue to be wary of food-borne illnesses, and are on the lookout for products that protect them from this nasty bacteria.

Healthy Connections, a … Read more

Debug your tap water

Unless you live next door to an icy mountain spring, chances are that you drink purified water. Whether it's from a filtered pitcher, a kitchen faucet tap fixture, a special screw top on your water bottle, iodine tablets, or the tried-and-true store-bought bottled water, the water we drink is, comparatively speaking, pretty darn pure. If you need a way to kill dangerous contaminants that's more portable, then maybe you should be checking out the SteriPEN.

Our countertop purifiers remove contaminants in a multitude of ways, including filtration, water softening, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, deionization, and powdered activated carbon treatment ( … Read more