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Comment Error: They did not use LaTeX (Score 1) 170

by Misagon (#48366223) Attached to: What Happens When Nobody Proofreads an Academic Paper

This could have been avoided if the authors had used LaTeX for writing their paper. It allows for comments in the text that don't become part of the formatted output.

% Should we cite the crappy Gabor paper here?

There are also various LaTeX packages for writing comments, adding annotations and tracking changes that could be useful when peer-reviewing a paper.

Comment Re:No accommodation at all? Just asking. (Score 1) 356

by Misagon (#48355913) Attached to: Pirate Bay Co-Founder Peter Sunde Is a Free Man Again

From what I have read in articles, he did get the same food as the other prisoners except with the non-vegan parts removed.
For instance, if the prisoners were given spaghetti with bolognese-sauce, he as given only spaghetti. If the other prisoners were given meatballs and potatoes, he got a potato. That's not exactly a balanced diet.

BTW. Silly that the parent post gets mod'ed "Score:4, Insightful" when it says "Without more details it is hard to judge".
We can do better, guys.

Comment Re:Hey, MS, give them to people who will use them! (Score 1) 236

by Misagon (#48330425) Attached to: CNN Anchors Caught On Camera Using Microsoft Surface As an iPad Stand

You can't properly use screen diagonals as a metric for comparing screens with different aspect ratio.

The Surface Pro 3 (12" 3:2) has 7% more surface area than the Galaxy Note Pro (12.2" 16:10). It is more than half an inch higher at about the same width.
The Surface Pro 3 has as much as 30% more surface area than a 16:9 tablet with the same diagonal.
Medicine

Ebola Nose Spray Vaccine Protects Monkeys 198

Posted by samzenpus from the spray-away dept.
First time accepted submitter GeekyKhan writes A new needle-free vaccine has proven to be 100% effective at stopping the transmission of Ebola in monkeys, and it could spell a breakthrough in the battle against the disease. The vaccine is administered through a nasal spray using a common cold virus genetically engineered to carry Ebola DNA. From NBC: "The vaccine uses a common cold virus genetically engineered to carry a tiny piece of Ebola DNA. Sprayed up the nose, it saved all nine monkeys tested for infection. But now the research is dead in the water without funding, Maria Croyle of the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Pharmacy said. 'Now we are at the crossroads, trying to figure out where to get the funding and resources to continue,' Croyle told NBC News."

Comment Re:Haters gonna hate (Score 1) 695

"Clean up"? There is no way for us to "clean up"!

Emissions have to be radically lowered and the biosphere has to be given enough time to handle the carbon in the air. Sure, planting trees at a massive scale could help in the long run, but it would still be far from as effective as if the biggest culprits (the biggest opposers: USA, China, Australia... ) would cut their emissions to what the IPCC considers enough.

Even if we stop all emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases right now, the climate is still going to get worse from all the gases that are already in the atmosphere. By all estimates, we wouldn't be able to see a measurable improvement in the world climate until at least 2030.
Medicine

Early Childhood Neglect Associated With Altered Brain Structure, ADHD 87

Posted by samzenpus from the root-cause dept.
vinces99 writes "Under the rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, thousands of Romanian children were placed in overcrowded orphanages with bleak conditions and minimal human contact, a legacy that continued even after the 1989 revolution. Only recently have research and public concern caused policy changes.

University of Washington research on children who began life in these institutions shows that early childhood neglect is associated with changes in brain structure. A paper published this month in Biological Psychiatry shows that children who spent their early years in these institutions have thinner brain tissue in cortical areas that correspond to impulse control and attention. "These differences suggest a way that the early care environment has dramatic and lasting effects for children's functioning," said lead author Katie McLaughlin, a UW assistant professor of psychology.

Since 2000, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project has worked to document and treat the children's health. McLaughlin joined the team about six years ago to focus on brain development. This study is among the first in any setting to document how social deprivation in early life affects the thickness of the cortex, the thin folded layer of gray matter that forms the outer layer of the brain. The study provides "very strong support" for a link between the early environment and ADHD, McLaughlin said.
Programming

Microsoft, Facebook Declare European Kids Clueless About Coding, Too 213

Posted by Soulskill from the at-least-they're-consistent dept.
theodp writes: Having declared U.S. kids clueless about coding, Facebook and Microsoft are now turning their attention to Europe's young 'uns. "As stewards of Europe's future generations," begins the Open Letter to the European Union Ministers for Education signed by Facebook and Microsoft, "you will be all too aware that as early as the age of 7, children reach a critical juncture, when they are learning the core life skills of reading, writing and basic maths. However, to flourish in tomorrow's digital economy and society, they should also be learning to code. And many, sadly, are not." Released at the launch of the European Coding Initiative — aka All You Need is Code! (video) — in conjunction with the EU's Code Week, the letter closes, "As experts in our field, we owe it to Europe's youth to help equip them with the skills they will need to succeed — regardless of where life takes them."

Comment Re:Combination of history, loggyists and geography (Score 1) 346

Sweden has a lower population density than USA: 22.85 people/km compared to 34.2 people/km (both figures from 2010).

Would you be more satisfied if we compared California with its population density of 95 people/kmÂ?
California has "Silicon Valley" where the world's biggest companies in information technology are located.
From all I have heard, the Internet last mile situation for a home in Silicon Valley is not much better than in any other major US urban area.

Comment Re:Even cheaper than that in Sweden. (Score 2) 346

I'm so tired of Sweden being singled out as a "socialist" country. Sweden is not more "socialist" compared to its neighbours in northern Europe.

While the local "Labour" party ("Social Democrats") has ruled in most of the last hundred years (because of winning elections), the Labour party of today is not that much different from the Labour party in e.g. United Kingdom. We now have a Labour/Green coalition, since a few days.
The last government was a econoliberal/conservative coalition that rules for eight years, and we had conservative governments in the '90s and '70s as well.
Businesses

Google's Security Guards Are Now Officially Google Employees 134

Posted by samzenpus from the welcome-to-the-google dept.
jfruh writes People concerned about the growing gap between the rich and poor point to a common practice in Silicon Valley: going through staffing agencies for non-core jobs like janitorial and security work, leaving those workers disconnected from the company and lacking in the job security and benefits their co-workers take for granted. Google has now decided to buck the trend, bringing their security guards in-house.
Australia

Man Walks Past Security Screening Staring At iPad, Causing Airport Evacuation 217

Posted by samzenpus from the paying-attention dept.
First time accepted submitter chentiangemalc writes While Australia is on "high alert" for terror threats a man walked past a Sydney Airport security screening while engrossed in his iPad and delayed flights for an hour. From the article: "This event was captured on CCTV and unnerved officials so much that they evacuated passengers. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported, the man found himself (or, perhaps, didn't) going into the terminal through an exit passage that clearly was convenient for him, but less convenient for the hordes of passengers who not only had to be removed from Terminal 3, but also re-screened. A spokeswoman for Qantas told the Morning Herald: 'The man disembarked a flight and left. It appears he wasn't paying attention, was looking at his iPad, forgot something and walked back past (the security area).'"

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