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Submission + - Scientists Create Artificial Sunlight Real Enough To Trick the Brain 1

HughPickens.com writes: Navanshu Agarwal writes that Italian scientists have developed an artificial LED sunlight system that looks just like real daylight streaming through a skylight. The LED skylight uses a thin coating of nanoparticles to recreate the effect that makes the sky blue, known as Rayleigh Scattering that doesn’t just light up a room but produces the texture and feel of sunlight. Paolo Di Trapani, one of the scientists who worked on the device believes that the skylight will allow developers of the future to not just build up, but also far down below the ground- without any of the dinginess that currently keeps us above ground.

CoeLux hopes to treat seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Each year, some 10 million Americans, mostly women, find themselves sinking into a heavy malaise during the wintertime. CoeLux hopes its LED bulbs, which create the illusion of infinitely tall, bright blue skies, will help trick the brains of people with SAD, ridding them of their blues.

Submission + - GitLab acquires Gitorious (gitlab.com)

sckirklan writes: QUOTE:
As reported by the Next Web GitLab and Gitorious announce today they are joining forces in an effort to strengthen the development of GitLab’s open source Git management application and provide Gitorious customers with an enhanced user experience.

Submission + - Either everyone is cyber-secure or no one is

Presto Vivace writes: Bruce Schneier on The Democratization of Cyberattack

When I was working with the Guardian on the Snowden documents, the one top-secret program the NSA desperately did not want us to expose was QUANTUM. This is the NSA's program for what is called packet injection--basically, a technology that allows the agency to hack into computers.

Turns out, though, that the NSA was not alone in its use of this technology. The Chinese government uses packet injection to attack computers. The cyberweapons manufacturer Hacking Team sells packet injection technology to any government willing to pay for it. Criminals use it. And there are hacker tools that give the capability to individuals as well.

All of these existed before I wrote about QUANTUM. By using its knowledge to attack others rather than to build up the internet's defenses, the NSA has worked to ensure that anyone can use packet injection to hack into computers.

Submission + - Lost City Discovered in Honduran Rain Forest (nationalgeographic.com)

jones_supa writes: An expedition to Honduras has emerged from the jungle with discovery of a previously unknown culture's lost city. The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region by long-standing rumors that it was the site of a storied "White City", also referred to in legend as the "City of the Monkey God". Archaeologists surveyed and mapped extensive plazas, earthworks, mounds, and an earthen pyramid belonging to a culture that thrived a thousand years ago, and then vanished. The team also discovered a remarkable cache of stone sculptures that had lain untouched since the city was abandoned. The objects were documented but left unexcavated. To protect the site from looters, its location is not being revealed.

Submission + - Unique 3D Printed 2-String Violin May Revolutionize the Music Industry (3dprint.com)

ErnieKey writes: This April, MONAD Studio will unleash 5 new musical instruments which have been 3D printed. They look unlike anything you have seen before, and when combined together will create a massive musical spectacle that could revolutionize the music industry. Created by Eric Goldemberg of FIU, the installment will be on display at the 3D Print Design Show in NY. There are already many musicians lining up to try out these new instruments.

Submission + - New Chinese graphene smartphones boost battery life by 50% (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The first graphene phones have been unveiled today by two Chinese firms, Moxi and Galapad. The smartphones feature touch screens, batteries and thermal conduction, all of which incorporate the recently isolated ‘wonder’ material known for its extraordinary electrical conductivity, and strong chemical and mechanical properties. 30,000 graphene phones, which will use the Android system, were put on sale on Monday by Moxi and Galapad, in the Chongqing municipality in southwest China, for 2,499 yuan each. The graphene technology was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is thought to make the touch screens more sensitive and prolong battery life by at least 50%.

Submission + - Why we should stop hiding file-name extensions in the consumer-level OS (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: 14 years after the Anna Kournikova virus took advantage of users’ ignorance about file-name extensions in order to wreak worldwide havoc, virus writers and hackers are still taking advantage of the tendency of popular consumer operating systems to hide file-name extensions: Windows users still need to activate extension visibility manually – even though email-transmitted viruses depend most on less savvy users who will never do this. Additionally applications on even the latest versions of Apple's OSX operating system still require the user to 'opt in' to including a file-name extension during an initial save. In looking at some of the eccentricities of the modern user experience, this article argues that it might be time to admit that users need to understand, embrace and responsibly use the only plain-text, obvious indicator of what a file actually is.

Submission + - New Political Party Runs Entirely on your Feedback (reddit.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The DDP is inspired by Liquid Democracy aka Delegative Democracy, a form of highly-adaptive, self-organizing democratic republic. In the spirit of Liquid Democracy, they have opened up the entire Party Platform for development on their subreddit — http://www.reddit.com/r/direct....

They have already addressed dozens of the most common concerns regarding direct voting on their AMA.

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