Mixed news

The Future of Social Media: The Walls Come Crumbling Down
''The vision of a web where users are no longer locked up with their content away from others just because they picked a different social networking service, is a big one.'' [source]

Instant sex change served up by video software
''They recorded video of volunteers performing 30 different facial expressions such as frowning, smiling and looking surprised. For each expression, the positions of key facial features, such as the eyes, nose and corners of the lips, were manually labelled.
...
Those movements can then be transferred onto the face of another "known" person by calculating how the recipient's features need to change to take on each new expression.'' [source]

Hunks get more sex, but there's a price to pay
''The beefier the man – measured by total fat-free mass, or arm and leg muscle mass – the more sexual partners he had, Lassek confirmed. The study also showed that more muscled men tended to lose their virginity at a younger age, compared to skinny men. ... '' BUT ... [source]

Students learn from robot games
''Some may consider it kids' game, but robotics can go a long way in encouraging students to think creatively and learn to build products that are commercially viable, said a local educator at Republic Polytechnic (RP).'' [source]

Chinese Researchers Create First Pig Stem Cells
''Doctors led by Lei Xiao, of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, took adult cells taken from a pig's ear and bone marrow and reprogrammed them so that they became so-called pluripotent stem cells.'' [source]

Fathers of Invention: What Muslims Gave the Scientific World
''In the Middle Ages, while Christians were busy warring, plundering, and burning heretics at the stake, Muslim scholars were inventing the most advanced devices of the day. '' [source]

Skulls vs. DNA: Zeroing In on American Origins
''Ancient Argentinian skeletons may help resolve a raging anthropological debate: whether or not early Americans came from a single original population.'' [source]

German firms eye huge African solar project
''The 20 or so firms will form on July 13 a consortium that aims to attract an enormous 400 billion euros (560 billion dollars) in investment in the project, known as Desertec, the Suedeutsche Zeitung daily reported.'' [source]