Comment Re:Showing their cards at last (Score 1) 173
Being up in the clouds is a wonderful happy place that I go to whenever I'm feeling down. Shame on you for speaking in a less than blissfully unaware state.
Submission + - Save The Planet: Eat Your Dog (stuff.co.nz)
R3d M3rcury writes: New Zealand's Dominion Post reports on a new book just released, Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living. In this book, they compare the environmental footprint of our housepets to other things that we own. Like that German Shepherd? It consumes more resources than two Toyota SUVs. Cats are a little less than a Volkswagen Golf. 2 Hamsters are about the same as a plasma TV.
Their suggestions? Chickens, Rabbits, and Pigs. But only if you eat them.
Their suggestions? Chickens, Rabbits, and Pigs. But only if you eat them.
Submission + - Neurobiology of Extraordinary Perceptions (pr.com)
philsfan writes: Hello, here's something that Slashdot perusers might find intriguing, especially this time of year...
People seeing ghosts? There may be a genuine mind-body foundation for such anomalous perceptions, according to two researchers, Michael Jawer and Marc Micozzi, MD, PhD. Their book, The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion, suggests that sensing a presence, seeing an apparition, or feeling energy around a person or place may be related to the workings of the limbic system – the “emotional brain” – as well as a personality type that rapidly registers feelings.
As surveys consistently show that anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of the public say they’ve had an extra-sensory experience – with nearly 25% of respondents stating they’ve actually seen or felt a ghost – anomalous perceptions are nothing to shrug off. “People have had these experiences down the ages and across all cultures,” comments Micozzi, a physician and anthropologist. “They’re quite universal. What we’ve begun to document is that there’s a certain type of person most likely to experience them.”
That person is environmentally sensitive, according to Jawer, an expert on the condition known as Sick Building Syndrome. “Our data show that anomalous perceptions parallel other forms of environmental sensitivity, such as having pronounced or longstanding allergies, migraine headache, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, irritable bowel, even synesthesia (overlapping senses) and heightened sensitivity to light, sound, touch, and smell. Women make up three-quarters of this sensitive population but there are other markers as well: being ambidextrous, for instance, or recalling a traumatic childhood. The more we look at the people who say they’re psychic, or who have recurring anomalous experience, the more it seems there’s a mix of nature and nurture that predisposes them.”
The researchers posit that brain and body are effectively unified – a perspective taken by the pioneering field of psychoneuroimmunology – and that highly sensitive people react more strongly than others to what they’re feeling as well as to incoming environmental stimuli. This raises the possibility, Jawer and Micozzi assert, that subliminal feelings and other environmental nuances could be picked up by individuals who are sufficiently sensitive. A reputedly “haunted” place, therefore, could exhibit stimuli that register more with certain people and less with others.
“The whole field is ripe for study,” remarks Micozzi. “We have the technology these days to study emotion as it’s processed in the brain – why not widen the scope to study how feelings are felt, and perceptions registered, in the rest of the body. If we look at human beings more holistically, we’re bound to discover more interesting things about us and our interactions with the environment.”
Jawer agrees. “What’s been termed ‘paranormal’ needn’t be beyond the pale of science. What’s been considered ‘occult,’ or hidden, needn’t be. What is needed is to take seriously what highly sensitive people are telling us, and investigate the mind-body basis of what they’re feeling.”
More information is available at the book's website, www.emotiongateway.com.
People seeing ghosts? There may be a genuine mind-body foundation for such anomalous perceptions, according to two researchers, Michael Jawer and Marc Micozzi, MD, PhD. Their book, The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion, suggests that sensing a presence, seeing an apparition, or feeling energy around a person or place may be related to the workings of the limbic system – the “emotional brain” – as well as a personality type that rapidly registers feelings.
As surveys consistently show that anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of the public say they’ve had an extra-sensory experience – with nearly 25% of respondents stating they’ve actually seen or felt a ghost – anomalous perceptions are nothing to shrug off. “People have had these experiences down the ages and across all cultures,” comments Micozzi, a physician and anthropologist. “They’re quite universal. What we’ve begun to document is that there’s a certain type of person most likely to experience them.”
That person is environmentally sensitive, according to Jawer, an expert on the condition known as Sick Building Syndrome. “Our data show that anomalous perceptions parallel other forms of environmental sensitivity, such as having pronounced or longstanding allergies, migraine headache, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, irritable bowel, even synesthesia (overlapping senses) and heightened sensitivity to light, sound, touch, and smell. Women make up three-quarters of this sensitive population but there are other markers as well: being ambidextrous, for instance, or recalling a traumatic childhood. The more we look at the people who say they’re psychic, or who have recurring anomalous experience, the more it seems there’s a mix of nature and nurture that predisposes them.”
The researchers posit that brain and body are effectively unified – a perspective taken by the pioneering field of psychoneuroimmunology – and that highly sensitive people react more strongly than others to what they’re feeling as well as to incoming environmental stimuli. This raises the possibility, Jawer and Micozzi assert, that subliminal feelings and other environmental nuances could be picked up by individuals who are sufficiently sensitive. A reputedly “haunted” place, therefore, could exhibit stimuli that register more with certain people and less with others.
“The whole field is ripe for study,” remarks Micozzi. “We have the technology these days to study emotion as it’s processed in the brain – why not widen the scope to study how feelings are felt, and perceptions registered, in the rest of the body. If we look at human beings more holistically, we’re bound to discover more interesting things about us and our interactions with the environment.”
Jawer agrees. “What’s been termed ‘paranormal’ needn’t be beyond the pale of science. What’s been considered ‘occult,’ or hidden, needn’t be. What is needed is to take seriously what highly sensitive people are telling us, and investigate the mind-body basis of what they’re feeling.”
More information is available at the book's website, www.emotiongateway.com.
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: T-Mobile VoIP and the DoD
ichthus writes: I've been a happy user of the T-Mobile @Home phone service for about nine months. Recently, though, I checked the "Advanced Routing" table on my Linksys WRTU54G-TM (the VoIP router used for this service) and noticed something odd. There was a gateway entry for 7.2.237.105. The reverse DNS points to the DoD Network Information Center in Columbus, OH. As I've watched the routing table, this address has changed to different IPs, but they always resolve to the DoD NIC.
I posted a question to T-Mobile's forum for @Home and, so far, have had three other users confirm the same behavior. T-Mobile has yet to respond, though.
Firstly, I acknowledge that this could be something benign. I don't want to sensationalize this. What I'm really after in submitting this are possible explanations for why my VoIP router appears to be talking to the US Department of Defense. Are there any other Slashdot readers with @Home that want to chime in? Are there any DISANET or T-Mobile people who can shed some light on this?
The linked post to T-Mobile's forum provides an explanation of where to find this routing table in the router's web interface.
I posted a question to T-Mobile's forum for @Home and, so far, have had three other users confirm the same behavior. T-Mobile has yet to respond, though.
Firstly, I acknowledge that this could be something benign. I don't want to sensationalize this. What I'm really after in submitting this are possible explanations for why my VoIP router appears to be talking to the US Department of Defense. Are there any other Slashdot readers with @Home that want to chime in? Are there any DISANET or T-Mobile people who can shed some light on this?
The linked post to T-Mobile's forum provides an explanation of where to find this routing table in the router's web interface.
Submission + - Dutch govt has no idea how to delete tapped calls
McDutchie writes: The law in the Netherlands says that intercepted phone calls between attorneys and their clients must be destroyed. But the Dutch government has been keeping under wraps for years that no one has the foggiest clue how to delete them (Google translation). Now, an email from the National Police Services Agency (KLPD) has surfaced, revealing that the working of the technology in question is a NetApp trade secret. The Dutch police are now trying to get their Israeli supplier Verint to tell them how to delete tapped calls and comply with the law. Meanwhile, attorneys in the Netherlands remain afraid to use their phones.
Comment It's all about egg production (Score 1) 579
It's my understanding that for each and every vaccination, one egg must be used. Hence, 30 million vaccinations mean 30 million eggs.
Perhaps you should take your hand off that bacon and egg McMuffin.
How Do You Manage Dev/Test/Production Environments? 244
An anonymous reader writes "I am a n00b system administrator for a small web development company that builds and hosts OSS CMSes on a few LAMP servers (mostly Drupal). I've written a few scripts that check out dev/test/production environments from our repository, so web developers can access the site they're working on from a URL (ex: site1.developer.example.com). Developers also get FTP access and MySQL access (through phpMyAdmin). Additional scripts check in files to the repository and move files/DBs through the different environments. I'm finding as our company grows (we currently host 50+ sites) it is cumbersome to manage all sites by hacking away at the command prompt. I would like to find a solution with a relatively easy-to-use user interface that provisions dev/test/live environments. The Aegir project is a close fit, but is only for Drupal sites and still under heavy development. Another option is to completely rewrite the scripts (or hire someone to do it for me), but I would much rather use something OSS so I can give back to the community. How have fellow slashdotters managed this process, what systems/scripts have you used, and what advice do you have?"
Comment Re:Repeat after me: Correlation Is Not Causation (Score 1) 162
...and I thought this might have been proof that astrology is actually real. Alas, I keep waiting.
A New Robotic Hand That Can "Feel" 112
Dyne09 writes "The BBC is running a video report about a group of Swiss and Italian scientists who have created the 'Smart Hand,' a robotic hand with forty sensors that 'connect directly to the brain.' Though fuzzy on the details, the report says the hand provides sensor feedback to a willing test subject, a 22-year-old man who lost his hand to cancer three years ago. How long until we have access to Star Wars-esque robotic limbs?"
Submission + - Project Management for IT Departments
spectre_240sx writes: I'm looking for success stories regarding project management in IT. There's a lot of talk about project management, but it all seems to be geared towards developers. I'm looking for methods and potentially software that would help in rolling out upgrades to our environment as well as implementation of new applications and expansion of infrastructure. What's the IT world's answer to Agile, Scrum and all of these other buzzwords I keep hearing about?
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Reverse SEO for online privacy?
aewal writes: A few years ago, a friend had a personal crisis and talked to reporters about it. Articles went up over the web, which helped draw attention to her problem. She has a distinctive enough name that Googling her shows the articles, but it was not a huge national news item. She's now wondering if there's a way to get rid of them, or move them down in the search results, since she doesn't necessarily want employers finding this stuff out. Do you have suggestions? Getting sites to take down the articles seems like a fools errand.
Comment Or for those less technically savvy (Score 1) 1
The average person will simply respond, "iDon't care"
Submission + - Did giant Indian impact kill the dinosaurs? (cosmosmagazine.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Move aside Chicxulub; an even bigger asteroid impact in the Shiva basin, off the coast of India, may have been ground zero for the dinosaurs, a team of U.S. and Indian scientists say in a guaranteed-to-be-controversial finding.
Submission + - Mozilla Unblocks Microsoft's .NET Addon (off.net)
bonch writes: Mozilla previously blocked the Firefox addons Microsoft included with .NET, citing security concerns. After talking with Microsoft, they have now unblocked the .NET Framework Assistant addon and are working on a way for enterprise users to unblock the Windows Presentation Foundation addon as well.
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Are Online Degrees a CV Black Mark? 5
Is_907 writes: I'm currently finishing my B.A. in English long distance. I was offered a great job but lacked one class and the chair of my department was kind enough to let me finish the course online.
Now I realize that my job is horrible, my boss is quite dishonest with employees and clients, and the job is far less I.T.-related than I was led to believe.
So, I don't have time to go back and finish that Computer Science or Software Engineering degree I started but am considering online degrees.
Will I be considered an inferior candidate if I go with the University of Phoenix or some other, seemingly reputable, online degree program? Will I still be able to land that sweet job I want with _______ company or will they trash my resume when they find out the degree was received for online work?
I want to know these answers up front--before I waste time and money on them.
Now I realize that my job is horrible, my boss is quite dishonest with employees and clients, and the job is far less I.T.-related than I was led to believe.
So, I don't have time to go back and finish that Computer Science or Software Engineering degree I started but am considering online degrees.
Will I be considered an inferior candidate if I go with the University of Phoenix or some other, seemingly reputable, online degree program? Will I still be able to land that sweet job I want with _______ company or will they trash my resume when they find out the degree was received for online work?
I want to know these answers up front--before I waste time and money on them.
