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Idle

Submission + - Apes suffer mid-life crisis too (mongabay.com)

Damien1972 writes: Humans are not alone in experiencing a mid-life crisis — great apes suffer the same, according to new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A new study of over 500 great apes found that well-being patterns in primates are similar to those experience by humans. This doesn't mean that middle age apes seek out the sportiest trees or hit-on younger apes inappropriately, but rather that their well-being starts high in youth, dips in middle age, and rises again in old age.
Idle

Submission + - Micron Associates, Elderly woman who botched religious fresco demands royalties (goodreads.com)

ldwinkle writes: The elderly Spanish woman who ruined a religious fresco with her botched restoration is now demanding royalties from her work after it became an unlikely tourist attraction.
Cecilia Gimenez, who is in her 80s, made headlines across the world after attempting a DIY restoration that left the 19th century fresco of Christ at her local church in Borja resembling a monkey.
The altered image of Ecce Homo – Behold the Man – became an internet sensation and sent thousands of curious sightseers to the Sanctuario de Misericordia to laugh at her handiwork.
Authorities threatened to sue Mrs Gimenez for her unauthorised attempt, which she insisted had been carried out with only good intentions because the painting was in need of repair.
But popularity for the modified masterpiece grew with even budget airline Ryanair offering cheap deals to nearby Zaragoza airport encouraging “pilgrims” to visit the work that was quickly dubbed “Ecce Mono” – Behold the Monkey.
An internet petition to keep the repair job garnered widespread support and seizing an opportunity to swell its coffers, the church began levying a 4 euro (£3) entrance fee on visitors, earning 2,000 euros in the first four days.

Continue Reading:
http://micronassociates.net/hi-TECH/2012/09/21/elderly-woman-who-botched-religious-fresco-demands-royalties/

Idle

Submission + - Buddhist monk is the world's happiest man (nydailynews.com)

concealment writes: "Tibetan monk and molecular geneticist Matthieu Ricard is the happiest man in the world according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin. The 66-year-old’s brain produces a level of gamma waves — those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory — never before reported in neuroscience.

The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard's brain produces a level of gamma waves — those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory — "never reported before in the neuroscience literature", Davidson said.

The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity, researchers believe.

Research into the phenomenon, known as "neuroplasticity," is in its infancy and Ricard has been at the forefront of ground-breaking experiments along with other leading scientists across the world."

Comment Re:sigh (Score 1) 5

My response was to the question of this kind of enhancement being down on-the-fly, in a television 'set'.

Obviously, bringing in additional data to supplement that which was present in the originally released video could provide true enhancement, but that is a different case entirely. ;-)

Comment Enhancement (Score 1) 5

All you can really do is interpolation in time and between existing pixels, followed by smoothing and low pass filtering. You can't add any real data that isn't there to begin with, and DVD's, with their mpeg compression, only have so much information to begin with. Smoothing and interpolation of a video that has already had to undergo restoration to undo compression, just to bring it up to standard resolution, will never look like a true high definition video stream, no matter what you do.

Comment Re:We build excitement! (Score 1) 189

Actually, Coulombs is a measure of charge, not energy. The energy (in Joules) stored in a capacitor is 1/2 CV^2. Stated another way, the amount of energy stored in joules is equal to one half the number of coulombs of charge times the voltage across the capacitance. But otherwise, your statement about the total charge being equal to the integral of the current over time (which can be construed as a count of electrons moved... 1 Coulomb = 6.241 x 10^18 electrons worth of charge ; 1 amp of current = 1 Coulomb/sec)

Australia

Submission + - Computer addiction an illness, says psychiatrist (abc.net.au)

beaverdownunder writes: ABC (Australia) News reports: 'Internet and computer addiction should be recognised as a legitimate side effect of mental illness among adolescents, a psychiatrist has told a national psychiatry congress in Darwin.

For three years, Victorian psychiatrist Dr Soumya Basu has been studying a group of six teenage boys who refused to go to school and played computer games excessively.'

Gee, who woulda thought it?

GNOME

Submission + - Mageia 1.0 Released (mageia.org)

ko7 writes: Mageia began in September 2010 as a fork of Mandriva Linux. It is supported by a not-for-profit organization, governed by a body of recognized and elected contributors, and made by 100+ people around the world.

Our work adds to the excellent work of the wider Linux and Free Software community. We aim to bring one of the best, most stable, reliable and enjoyable experience and platform we can make; for a regular user, a developer, or a business.

The OS can be downloaded (or bit-torrent'd) from Here

Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8 Tablet UI Revealed (windows8beta.com)

exomondo writes: The Windows 8 Tablet UI has been revealed at D9, an obvious take on the 'Metro' UI from their Windows Phone 7 operating system, it looks as though a touch-based desktop 'window manager' sits atop standard Windows allowing it to run native applications as well as supporting HTML5 applications and 'Live Tiles'. It doesn't look overly mouse-friendly but it appears that Metro can be turned off for a classic Windows experience or turned on for a touch-friendly tablet experience. But will this end up a cobbled-together mess that sits 1/2 way between both?

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Being an Electrical Engineer? 3

sandman83 writes: I will be going back to a local college this Fall to prepare myself for the Electrical Engineering program at Idaho State University. I am planning on concentrating on motherboard design and trace layout for my junior and senior years, and the University uses the Cadence Allegro software for their PCb and IC design classes.

My question is. What should any future student expect and experience through an EE program, and how best should those students prepare themselves before and during? And what are your experiences with PCB design, and the importance of math during the design phase, and how fun can it be once someone gets used to the complex software? Also, if anyone can recommend any additional classes that I, or any prospective student might want to take outside of the regular course work, and explain the benefits of taking that course; for example, additional computer programming classes.

Oh, what is the best way to prepare for Calculus?

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