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Submission + - Brain-Like Circuits Can Mimic Pavlov's Dogs (insidescience.org)

Submitted by benonemusic
benonemusic writes: A materials scientist at Harvard University and his colleagues have invented a new type of transistor-based electronic system that can mimic the plasticity of the brain by learning, unlearning and storing memories.The researchers constructed their device using films of samarium nickel oxide (SNO). When placed in contact with an ion-based liquid, SNO's electrical conductivity can be affected over the long term. The researchers used their electronic system to conduct versions of Pavlov's experiments with dogs, in which dogs associated food rewards with a bell ringing. The electronic system detect that two electrical stimuli are linked if they repeatedly came at the same time, and unlearned this connection if these two stimuli stopped coming at the same time. The circuits could also store patterns of electrical signals they experienced, mimicking how the brain stores memories. These devices can serve as "an electronic platform to probe fundamental problems in neuroscience," said lead researcher Shriram Ramanathan, a materials scientist at Harvard University.

Submission + - How Birds Lost Their Teeth

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A research team from the University of California, Riverside and Montclair State University, New Jersey, have found that the lack of teeth in all living birds can be traced back to a common ancestor who lived about 116 million years ago. From the article: "To solve this puzzle, the researchers used a recently created genome database that catalogues the genetic history of nearly all living bird orders--48 species in total. They were looking for two specific types of genes: one responsible for dentin, the substance that (mostly) makes up teeth, and another for the enamel that protects them. Upon finding these genes, researchers then located the mutations that deactivate them, and combed the fossil record to figure out when those mutations developed. They concluded that the loss of teeth and the development of the beak was a two-stage process, though the steps basically happened simultaneously. The paper states: 'In the first stage, tooth loss and partial beak development began on the anterior portion of both the upper and lower jaws. The second stage involved concurrent progression of tooth loss and beak development from the anterior portion of both jaws to the back of the rostrum.'"

Comment Or, maybe deliberate? (Score 1) 230

by Futurepower(R) (#48597303) Attached to: Forbes Blasts Latests Windows 7 Patch as Malware
"... one may reasonably conjecture that MS is not exerting strong efforts on quality control."

One may reasonably conjecture that a Microsoft employee deliberately caused problems so that people will buy new computers, with another version of Windows. If that was done at the request of top management is not known.

Submission + - Canada Waives Own Rules, Helps Microsoft Avoid US Visa Problems

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: Citizenship and Immigration Canada has granted an unprecedented exemption to Microsoft that will allow the company to bring in an unspecified number of temporary foreign workers as trainees without first looking for Canadians to fill the jobs. No other company in any other field has been granted such an exemption, and it does not fall within any of the other categories where exemptions are normally given, according to a source familiar with process, effectively creating a new category: the Microsoft Exemption. Microsoft Canada did not immediately respond to questions about the deal, but in an interview earlier this year with Bloomberg Businessweek, Karen Jones, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, said the deal will allow Microsoft to bypass stricter U.S. rules on visas for foreign workers. The entire issue of temporary foreign workers has been as blisteringly hot a topic across Canada as it has been in the USA.

Submission + - Attorney General Won't Force New York Times Reporter to Reveal Source (nbcnews.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Attorney General Eric Holder has decided against forcing a reporter for the New York Times to reveal the identity of a confidential source, according to a senior Justice Department official. The reporter, James Risen, has been battling for years to stop prosecutors from forcing him to name his source for a book that revealed a CIA effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The government wanted Risen's testimony in the trial of a former CIA official, Jeffrey Sterling, accused of leaking classified information.

Submission + - 'Revolving door' spins between AT&T, government (publicintegrity.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: That AT&T just won an eight-figure contract to provide the federal government’s General Services Administration with new mobile devices isn’t itself particularly notable.

What is: Casey Coleman, an AT&T executive responsible for “delivering IT and professional services to federal government customers,” oversaw the GSA’s information technology division and its $600 million IT budget as recently as January.

Submission + - Spy Drone hacks WiFi networks, listens to calls (wusa9.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: It's small. It's bright yellow, and it's capable of cracking Wi-Fi passwords, eavesdropping on your cell phone calls and reading your text messages. It's a spy drone and it just landed in Washington, D.C.

Long-time friends and former Air Force buddies, Mike Tassey and Rich Perkins, describe their state-of-the-art cyber drone as hard to take down, hard to see and virtually hard to detect.

They built it in a garage, using off the shelf electronics to prove a drone can be used to launch cyber-attacks.

Submission + - Fury at Airbus after it hints the A380 may be mothballed (independent.co.uk) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Airbus plunged deeper into crisis yesterday as customers reacted with fury to its suggestion that it may stop producing the fabled A380 super-jumbo in 2018 because of poor sales. The prospect of the European plane-maker, which employs thousands of workers in the UK, mothballing the giant passenger airliner sent shockwaves through the aviation industry yesterday and triggered a major fall in the company’s share price.

Sales of the A380 have been sluggish because of a limit to the number of routes where a 500-seater is needed. No airline has ordered A380s at all this year, while in July, the Japanese carrier Skymark Airlines cancelled the six it had ordered.

Chief financial officer Harald Wilhelm started the speculation frenzy when reports emerged that he had told investors Airbus might have to discontinue the plane unless it can invest in improvements to make it more attractive to customers. Although analysts and rivals have suggested it for some time, it was the first time the manufacturer had talked publicly about the humiliating possibility.

He said the A380 manufacturing programme would break even next year but not into 2018 without new engine types. That decision on the engine has to be made soon, because it would normally take about four years – and $2bn – to develop.
Displays

Submission + - The case for the vertical monitor revolution (dailydot.com) 1

Submitted by Molly McHugh
Molly McHugh writes: The vast majority of computer-related tasks see no benefit from a screen that is longer than it is tall. Sure, video playback and gaming are some key exceptions, but if you watch Netflix on your TV instead of your computer monitor and you’re not into PC gaming, that long, wide display is doing nothing but hampering your experience. Let’s flip it.
No, seriously. Let’s flip it sideways.

Submission + - Congress removing torture references from CIA report's Wikipedia page (ibtimes.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Attempts to remove a description of the CIA's 'enhanced interrogation techniques' as an euphemism for torture from the report's Wikipedia page have been made from a computer with an IP address registered to United States Senate.

There has been at least two occasions where an attempt to take out the torture reference has been using a computer from inside Congress.

Submission + - Harvard Law Professor Goes to War Over $4 Worth of Chinese Food (boston.com)

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: Ben Edelman is an associate professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit.

Ran Duan manages The Baldwin Bar, located inside the Woburn location of Sichuan Garden, a Chinese restaurant founded by his parents.

Last week, Edelman ordered what he thought was $53.35 worth of Chinese food from Sichuan Garden’s Brookline Village location.

Edelman soon came to the horrifying realization that he had been overcharged. By a total of $4.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a Harvard Business School professor thinks a family-run Chinese restaurant screwed him out of $4, you’re about to find out.

Submission + - LA Mayor Proposes Earthquake Retrofits on Thousands of Buildings 1

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: The LA Times reports that Ls Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has proposed the most ambitious seismic safety regulations in California history that would require owners to retrofit thousands of buildings most at risk of collapse during a major earthquake. "The time for retrofit is now," says Garcetti, adding that the retrofits target buildings “that are known killers. Complacency risks lives. One thing we can’t afford to do is wait.” The mayor’s plan calls for thousands of wood buildings to be retrofitted within five years, and hundreds of concrete buildings to be strengthened within 30. The retrofitting requirements must be approved by the City Council, and would have to be paid for by the building owners, with the costs presumably passed on to tenants and renters. The costs could be significant: $5,000 per unit in vulnerable wooden buildings and $15 per square foot for office buildings, Business owners, who have expressed concern in the past that these kinds of programs may be unaffordable, said the cost of retrofitting some buildings could easily exceed $1 million each. “This will cost us billions of dollars in the private and public sector,” says Garcetti. “But we cannot afford not to do it.”

The last major earthquake in Los Angeles was the 6.7-magnitude Northridge quake, which killed close to 60 people in 1994. But it was not close to the catastrophe that seismologists predict if there is a major shift on the San Andreas fault, and the fact that it has not produced a major quake in recent years has fed a sense of complacency. Seismologists now say a 7.5-magnitude event on the Puente Hills would be "the quake from hell" because it runs right under downtown Los Angeles and have estimated that would kill up to 18,000 people, make several million homeless, and cause up to $250 billion in damage. “We want to keep the city up and running after the earthquake happens,” says Lucy Jones aka "The Earthquake Lady," a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey and something of a celebrity in a city that is very aware of the potential danger of its location. “If everything in this report is enacted, I believe that L.A. will not just survive the next earthquake, but will be able to recover quickly.”

Submission + - Photoswitch Therapy Restores Vision to Blind Lab Animals (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: A new genetic therapy that helped blind mice and dogs respond to light stimulus could restore sight to people who suffer from diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (a gradual loss of vision from periphery inwards). The therapy uses chemicals known as photoswitches, which change shape when hit with light, to open the channels that activate retinal cells. Treated mice can distinguish between steady and flashing light, while dogs with late-stage retinal degeneration also regain some sensitivity to light.

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