Month: September 2017

Enlarge / Taxi! (credit: Getty | NurPhoto)

Amid air raids, it’s wise to "keep calm and carry on." When ablaze, certainly "stop, drop, and roll." And in the case of a stabbing or shooting, it may be best to "scoop and run." At least, that’s the takeaway from a new study in JAMA Surgery.

A mad dash to the hospital in a private ride—the scoop and run—may be better for survival than waiting for emergency responders, Johns Hopkins researchers report. In fact, stabbing and gunshot victims who caught their own lift to the hospital were 62 percent less likely to die than those who called for an ambulance.

The finding fits with the obvious fact that time is vital to trauma victims. But slicing deeper, it suggests that for those with such “penetrating injuries,” sophisticated prehospital interventions are of limited value. It may just be all about timing. Thus, healthcare systems may better serve their communities by adopting “scoop and run” over “stay and stabilize"-type policies for these trauma patients.

Enlarge / Sonequa Martin-Green plays protagonist Michael Burnham, first officer of the U.S.S. Shenzhou, on new CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery. (credit: CBS)

Almost 10 million people tuned into CBS on Sunday to watch the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery. And the premiere also drove record signups for CBS's proprietary streaming service, which will be the exclusive source for later episodes of the new Star Trek series.

But others have turned to good old-fashioned internet piracy to get their Star Trek fix.

The premiere of Star Trek: Discovery is the twelfth most actively pirated show among users of the Pirate Bay right now, according to the Pirate Bay's list of most downloaded videos. Discovery's second episode isn't far behind at number 19.

Google is finally fixing Google Home's biggest flaw by adding support for reminders to the voice appliance. An official post on the Google Home help forum says that the feature is rolling out today. Android Police first spotted the news, and some users in the comments section say the feature is already working on their Google Homes.

A Google support page details how reminders on Google Home will work. You'll be able to "set, ask about, and delete reminders on Google Home," and notifications for these reminders will show up on Google Home and your phone when the time comes. Location reminders are not yet supported but are "coming soon."

Enlarge (credit: Victor Carreon)

There are a host of issues, like vaccine safety, climate change, and GMO foods, where public opinion is a poor match for our scientific standing. That has led a lot of people to ask how we could do better at getting scientific information out to the public. But the Pew Research Center decided to ask a related question that's just as important: where's the public getting its scientific information now?

The results, disappointingly, are that most of them aren't. For the minority that does see significant scientific information, most of it comes from news outlets. Oddly, however, the public is not impressed with its primary source, as less than 30 percent of those polled thinks that news outlets actually get the science right.

Questionable quality

The Pew data comes from a survey of over 4,000 US adults, a big enough sample that the margin of error is only 1.6 percentage points. Within that sample, 30 percent indicated they actively seek out science news. But nearly half of those folks don't find it, as only 43 percent of them indicate they see science news a few times a week or more. That's just 17 percent of the overall survey population, a group the Pew refers to as "active science consumers." Within the survey population at large, 36 percent indicate they see science news a few times a week.

Sitrep #2: Facing down North Korea's ballistic missile threat. (video link)

After suffering yet another round of sanctions, as well as a provocative UN speech and further sanctions from President Donald Trump, North Korea's leaders have hinted that more ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests are to come—including a possible atmospheric nuclear test launched on a ballistic missile.

Given the other antics that North Korea has apparently engaged in—including  fake text and social media messages to US Defense Department civilians in South Korea ordering an evacuation of non-combat personnel—making a judgment call on what North Korea may or may not do in the short term is very difficult. But the North Korean military has performed 15 ballistic missile tests this year, including at least two intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) and one potential intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Combined with North Korea's recent test of what appears to have been a thermonuclear bomb, the new long-range missiles raise the stakes for the US military's ballistic missile defense capabilities.