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Submission + - A Tumblr getting racists fired from their job (businessinsider.com) 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There's a Tumblr dedicated to identifying people making racist comments online, and trying to get them fired from their job. Is this a scary example of groupthink, or an efficient way to cleanse the underbelly of America?

Submission + - Gut feeling that people who are fat, depressed or autistic may need pro-biotics 2

Submitted by NewsWatcher
NewsWatcher writes: Australia's ABC is reporting evidence that people who have a range of "Western lifestyle diseases" like obesity, diabetes or allergies may just have a bad batch of intestinal biota.
There a lots of unknowns, but it could be that humans have evolved around the micro-organisms just as much as they evolved around us, and they influence us in ways never imagined before. We could be the willing zombies for the 100 trillion bacteria inside each of us.
Mice given some parasites try to get eaten by cats. The same parasite in humans has been linked to schizophrenia and depression.
The cure — getting someone else's feces transplanted into your intestines.

Submission + - Microsoft now Makes Money from Surface Line, Q1 Sales Reach Almost $1 Billion 1

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: Microsoft has recently published its Q1 fiscal 2015 earnings report, disclosing that it has made $4.5 billion in net income on $23.20 billion in revenue. According to the report, revenue has increased by $4.67 billion, compared to $18.53 billion from the same period last year. However, net income has decreased 14 percent compared to last year’s $5.24 billion mainly because of the $1.14 billion cost associated with the integration and restructuring expenses related to the Nokia acquisition.

But what's finally good news for the company is that the Surface gross margin was positive this quarter, which means the company finally starts making money on Surface sales. Microsoft didn’t yet reveal Surface sales, but we know that Surface revenue was $908 million this quarter, up a massive 127 percent from the $400 million this time last year. However, if we assume that the average spent amount on the purchase of this year’s Surface Pro 3 was around $1000, then we have less than 1 million units sold, which isn’t that impressive, but it’s a good start.

Submission + - Meet FABACUS, Westpac's first computer (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by AlbanX
AlbanX writes: The staff put in charge of operating Westpac's first ever computer, a General Electric GE225, are celebrating 50 years since the bank spent $26 million (in today's value) on the machine.

Ian Hoey was 27 went he was plucked from a then-Bank of NSW branch and given responsibility for the computer, with no IT experience.

Submission + - Fiber optics in Antarctica will monitor ice sheet melting (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Earth is rapidly being wired with fiber-optic cables—inexpensive, flexible strands of silicon dioxide that have revolutionized telecommunications. They’ve already crisscrossed the planet’s oceans, linking every continent but one: Antarctica. Now, fiber optics has arrived at the continent, but to measure ice sheet temperatures rather than carry telecommunication signals. A team of scientists using an innovative fiber-optic cable–based technology has measured temperature changes within and below the ice over 14 months. This technology, they say, offers a powerful new tool to observe and quantify melting at the base of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the collapse of which may help drive a worldwide increase in sea levels of more than 3 meters.

Submission + - Better free disk space monitoring?

Submitted by relliker
relliker writes: In the olden days, when monitoring a file system of a few 100 MB, we would be alerted when it topped 90% or more, with 95% a lot of times considered quite critical. Today, however, with a lot of file systems in the Terabyte range, a 90-95% full file system can still have a considerable amount of free space but we still mostly get bugged by the same alerts as in the days of yore when there really isn't a cause for immediate concern. Apart from increasing thresholds and/or starting to monitor actual free space left instead of a percentage, should it be time for monitoring systems to become a bit more intelligent by taking space usage trends and heuristics into account too and only warn about critical usage when projected thresholds are exceeded? I’d like my system to warn me with something like, “Hey!, you’ll be running out of space in a couple of months if you go on like this!” Or is this already the norm and I’m still living in a digital cave?

Submission + - Isaac Asimov: How Do People Get New Ideas? 1

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Arthur Obermayer, a friend of the Isaac Asimov, writes that he recently rediscovered an unpublished essay by Asimov written in 1959 while cleaning out some old files that is "as broadly relevant today as when he wrote it. It describes not only the creative process and the nature of creative people but also the kind of environment that promotes creativity." Some excerpts from Asimov's essay which is well worth reading in its entirety:

Presumably, the process of creativity, whatever it is, is essentially the same in all its branches and varieties, so that the evolution of a new art form, a new gadget, a new scientific principle, all involve common factors. It is only afterward that a new idea seems reasonable. What is needed is not only people with a good background in a particular field, but also people capable of making a connection between item 1 and item 2 which might not ordinarily seem connected. To begin with, it usually seems unreasonable. It seems the height of unreason to suppose the earth was round instead of flat, or that it moved instead of the sun, or that objects required a force to stop them when in motion, instead of a force to keep them moving, and so on.

A person willing to fly in the face of reason, authority, and common sense must be a person of considerable self-assurance. Since he occurs only rarely, he must seem eccentric (in at least that respect) to the rest of us. A person eccentric in one respect is often eccentric in others. Probably more inhibiting than anything else is a feeling of responsibility. The great ideas of the ages have come from people who weren’t paid to have great ideas, but were paid to be teachers or patent clerks or petty officials, or were not paid at all. The great ideas came as side issues.

My feeling is that as far as creativity is concerned, isolation is required. The creative person is, in any case, continually working at it. His mind is shuffling his information at all times, even when he is not conscious of it. The presence of others can only inhibit this process, since creation is embarrassing. For every new good idea you have, there are a hundred, ten thousand foolish ones, which you naturally do not care to display.

Submission + - Mars' Atmosphere is Leeching Out Into Space (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: Early results from NASA’s recently arrived MAVEN Mars spacecraft show an extensive, tenuous cloud of hydrogen surrounding the red planet, the result of water breaking down in the atmosphere, scientists said Tuesday. MAVEN, an acronym for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, arrived on Sept. 21 to help answer questions about what caused a planet that was once warm and wet to turn into the cold, dry desert that appears today. “It’s measurements like these that will allow us to estimate the escape rate of hydrogen from the Martian atmosphere to space today. It’s an important measurement to make because the hydrogen ... comes from water lower down in the atmosphere,” MAVEN scientist Mike Chaffin, with the University of Colorado, Boulder, told reporters on a conference call.

Submission + - Building The 'Smart Breast Pump" Of The Future (readwrite.com)

Submitted by Malicious_Cookie
Malicious_Cookie writes: Breast pumps seem to many like "sci fi technology," writes the MIT Media Lab, but as many a mother can tell you, these invaluable devices still rely on the mechanics of the last millenium. The "Make The Breast Pump Not Suck" hackathon will attempt to do for breastpumps what Bill Gates wants to do for condoms, bring them into the 21st century.

Submission + - 'Why I Hope to Die at 75'

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Ezekiel J. Emanuel, director of the Clinical Bioethics Department at the US National Institutes of Health, writes at The Atlantic that there is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. "It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic." Emanuel says that he is isn't asking for more time than is likely nor foreshortening his life but is talking about the kind and amount of health care he will consent to after 75. "Once I have lived to 75, my approach to my health care will completely change. I won’t actively end my life. But I won’t try to prolong it, either." Emanuel says that Americans seem to be obsessed with exercising, doing mental puzzles, consuming various juice and protein concoctions, sticking to strict diets, and popping vitamins and supplements, all in a valiant effort to cheat death and prolong life as long as possible. "I reject this aspiration. I think this manic desperation to endlessly extend life is misguided and potentially destructive. For many reasons, 75 is a pretty good age to aim to stop."

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