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+ - Africa, Clooney and an unlikely space race->

Submitted by MightyMait
MightyMait writes "Did you realize that African nations have space programs and that there is a (non-fictional) George Clooney connection? This BBC article details the history of space exploration in Africa as well as current efforts. Of course, it's natural to wonder:

To Western eyes, it may seem rather innappropriate to launch space programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly 70% of the population still lives on less $2 a day. Yet Joseph Akinyede, director of the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Nigeria, an education centre affiliated with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, says that the application of space science technology and research to “basic necessities” of life – health, education, energy, food security, environmental management – is critical for the development of the continent.

"
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+ - AirPlay Alternative Mirrors and Streams to TVs and PCs->

Submitted by DeviceGuru
DeviceGuru writes "AirTame has developed an AirPlay-like protocol and HDMI dongle for 1080p video streaming and screen mirroring from PCs to PCs and TVs, and has substantially exceeded its $160,000 Indiegogo funding goal. AirTame streams from Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs to other PCs via apps at both ends, and to TVs via the HDMI dongle, and also offers a multicast mode for broadcasting to multiple PCs and TVs for use in classrooms or conferences. But at least initially, there won't be support for Android or iOS devices in the mix, due OS restrictions. The company says it plans to release AirTame's software, API, and protocol source code under a dual-license enabling free use with GPL-like restrictions, and paid use for commercial applications requiring proprietary modifications."
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+ - Plex Media Server adds support for Chromecast, can playback offline content->

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes "One of the killer and most demanded feature of Google Chromecast was the ability to play local content.Google’s priorities were at the beginning to get more and more original content providers to its’ platform instead of turning Chromecast into a DLNA player. It’s happened. The open source media server Plex Media Server has announced support for Chomecast for Android, iOS and the Web. It's avaible for PlexPass users at the moment."
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Comment: Re:Ugh (Score 1) 481

by MightyMait (#44514867) Attached to: Bill Gates Promotes Vaccine Projects, Swipes At Google
You make good points, cusco. I'm not in a position to state anything authoritatively on the topic. I'm merely passing on what I had read. The article which I couldn't find had quotes, however, from medical professionals on the ground in Africa expressing their dismay with the effects of Gates' philanthropy in their own countries. I'm willing to beleive that Gates genuinely wants to help and truly believes that private systems work better than public ones, but I wouldn't doubt that he'd take the opportunity to profit as well.

Given my recent experiences with the U.S. private health care system, though, I wouldn't wish it upon anybody else.

Comment: Re:Ugh (Score 1) 481

by MightyMait (#44512537) Attached to: Bill Gates Promotes Vaccine Projects, Swipes At Google
Still not the article for which I was searching, but this sums up the basic point nicely:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html

The 2010 Gates Foundation announcement of $1.5 billion for maternal health in developing countries over five years was welcomed, but it came heavily leveraged. Gates launched the Health in Africa Fund, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to establish new mechanisms to invest world health funding and national health budgets in private-sector healthcare facilities in Africa. The Gates Foundation's funding category for Global Maternal Health includes research and development in the US of technology and treatments, and also advocacy in vulnerable African nations for government policies. Since Gates believes sustainable health systems must be privately profitable, he leverages his "maternal health" funding to effectively divert investment of available in-country funds, as well as NGO funding, into private ventures that he favors, instead of into national health plans.

Comment: Re:Any Oculus Rift developers in the house? (Score 1) 88

by MightyMait (#43538569) Attached to: Play <em>Tetris</em> To Fix Your Lazy Eye
I've wondered myself if there was some cosmic significance to my eye condition (is it called "amblyopia" or "strabismus", I never took the time to learn the technical term?). It's pretty "woo-woo", but I wonder if learning to see "correctly" might fix some defects in my personality.

Comment: Re:Any Oculus Rift developers in the house? (Score 1) 88

by MightyMait (#43538527) Attached to: Play <em>Tetris</em> To Fix Your Lazy Eye
I've been a half-way decent basketball player without stereo vision since a basketball is fairly large and I could judge depth by the relative size of the rim of the basket. However, I never could hit a baseball with any consistency. Maybe it was just lack of practice, but it seemed like it was difficulty judging distance.

+ - Play Tetris to Fix Your Lazy Eye->

Submitted by MightyMait
MightyMait writes "As someone born with crossed-eyes who underwent surgery as an infant and has lived with a lazy eye his whole life (without 3-D vision), the prospect of fixing my vision by playing Tetris is an enticing one."
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Comment: Oh, the irony!! (Score 5, Funny) 123

by MightyMait (#42813821) Attached to: German Science Minister Stripped of Her PhD
"A university committee yesterday evening confirmed accusations, first aired last May, of plagiarism in Schavan’s ethical-philosophical dissertation entitled ‘People and conscience — studies on the conditions, necessity and requirements for formation of conscience today’."

Naturally!!

+ - Silicon Valley's Dirty Little Secret->

Submitted by MightyMait
MightyMait writes "With my 40th birthday coming up, seeing this article makes me happy I have a good job (and a little wary of having to find another).

From the article:
"I don't think in the outside world, outside tech, anyone in their 40s would think age discrimination was happening to them," says Cliff Palefsky, a San Francisco employment attorney who has fielded age-discrimination inquiries from people in their early 40s. But they feel it in the Bay Area, he said, and it's "100 percent due to the new, young, tech startup mindset.""
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Did you hear that two rabbits escaped from the zoo and so far they have only recaptured 116 of them?

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