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Submission + - What's Causing the Rise In Obesity? Everything. (thesocietypages.org)

Mr_Blank writes: We all know — because we are being constantly reminded — that we are getting fat. Americans are at the forefront of the trend, but it is a transnational one. Apparently, it is also trans-species: Over the past 20 years, as the American people were getting fatter, so were America’s laboratory macaques, chimpanzees, vervet monkeys and mice, as well as domestic dogs, domestic cats, and domestic and feral rats from both rural and urban areas. Researchers examined records on those eight species and found that average weight for every one had increased. The marmosets gained an average of 9% per decade. Lab mice gained about 11% per decade. Chimps are doing especially badly: their average body weight had risen 35% per decade. What is causing the obesity era? Everything.

Comment Re:FIghting the system is a mental health issue (Score 1) 319

Depression isn't the common cold, it's a MENTAL health problem. This means that if a placebo makes you not depressed it's an effective medicine regardless of whether or not it has any physiological effect. If doing X makes you feel better and doesn't have any negative side effects then you have no reason not to do it, especially in this case because we know Vitamin D has other positive health effects. Studies or nay there's no reason not to try it.

Cloud

Submission + - FileRock, a secure Dropbox clone, goes Open Source (filerock.com)

filerock writes: FileRock, an Italian startup company providing synchronization & backup service à la Dropbox, has released the source code for its client. The FileRock service has its focus on security: all files are encrypted client-side, encryption keys are never revealed to the service itself, and integrity of the data stored in the cloud is checked whenever a file is retrieved. Many have complained of Dropbox security and were looking for an open source alternative: now there is one, and the code is available on GitHub.

Comment Does Ray creep anyone else out? (Score 1) 148

Did anyone else get the inkling from his recent documentary "Transcendent Man" that he was looking to digitally resurrect his father from the dead? The man is a megalomaniac looking to create a state of intellectual immortality through software engineering. The idea that he would be allowed to continue his work with the resources of a tech giant like Google give me the heebie geebies for sure. We will certainly have the technology to emulate the human mind in a machine in the not too distant future, but I pray to Turing that it's not the mind of Kurzweil that is the first to be uploaded to that hard drive.

AI

Submission + - Virtual brain simulates human behaviour (nature.com)

ananyo writes: "Spaun, a simulated brain containing 2.5 million virtual neurons, can recognize lists of numbers, do simple arithmetic and solve reasoning problems. Described for the first time in Science, Spaun — the Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network — stands apart from other attempts to simulate a brain, such as the ambitious Blue Brain Project, because it produces complex biological behaviors with fewer neurons.
A pure computer simulation, Spaun simulates the physiology of each of its neurons, from spikes of electricity that flow through them to neurotransmitters that cross between them. The computing cells are divided into groups, corresponding to specific parts of the brain that process images, control movements and store short-term memories. These regions are wired together in a realistic way, and even respond to inputs that mimic the action of neurotransmitters. The researchers also killed off Spaun's virtual neurons at the same rate as those in an ageing brain, and saw the same cognitive decline."

Technology

Submission + - Electric Car Designed with Smartphone in Mind (intelfreepress.com)

kenekaplan writes: "The electric car concept blends smartphone-like sensors and computing with Space Station and motorcycle technology. Danny Kim, CTO of startup Lit Motors, claims the two-wheeled, self-balancing C1 brings the benefits of a motorcycle with the safety and comfort of a car. In tests, the gyroscopically balanced, wheel-hub motored vehicle goes from 0 to 60 mph in under 6 seconds, reaching top speeds of over 100 mph, and gets 200 miles per battery charge that, according to Kim, costs $1."

Submission + - U.S. Leads World In Carbon Emissions Reductions - Without Carbon Tax....oops (michigancapitolconfidential.com) 2

bricko writes: "Oops....Technology, market forces credited for reductions

  International Energy Agency says — U.S. Leads World In Carbon Emissions Reductions....AND WITHOUT A CARBON TAX

Efforts to curb so-called man-made climate change had little or nothing to do with it. Government mandated "green" energy didn't cause the reductions. Neither did environmentalist pressure. And the U.S. did not go along with the Kyoto Protocol to radically cut CO2 emissions.

Instead, the drop came about through market forces and technological advances, according to a report from the International Energy Agency."

Piracy

Submission + - Police raid home of 9-year-old Pirate Bay user, seize 'Winnie the Pooh' laptop (bgr.com) 1

zacharye writes: Copyright enforcement might be getting out of hand in Scandinavia. As anti-piracy groups and copyright owners continue to work with authorities to curtail piracy in the region, police this week raided the home of a 9-year-old suspect and confiscated her “Winnie the Pooh” laptop. TorrentFreak reports that the girl’s home was raided after local anti-piracy group CIAPC determined copyrighted files had been downloaded illegally at her residence. Her father, the Internet service account holder, was contacted by CIAPC, which demanded that he pay a 600 euro fine and sign a non-disclosure agreement to settle the matter. When the man did not comply, authorities raided his home and collected evidence, including his 9-year-old daughter’s notebook computer...

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