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Submission + - Our Brains Could Be Datamined

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: Brainwave-tracking is becoming increasingly common in the consumer market, with the gaming industry at the forefront of the trend. “Neurogames” use brain-computer interfaces and electroencephalographic (EEG) gadgets like the Emotiv headset to read brain signals and map them to in-game actions, basically giving the player virtual psychic superpowers.
EEG data “high-dimensional,” meaning a single signal can reveal a lot of information about you: if you have a mental illness, are prone to addiction, your emotions, mood, and taste. If that data from gaming was collected and mined, it could theoretically be matched with other datasets culled from online data mining to create a complete profile of an individual that goes far beyond what they divulge through social media posts and emails alone. That's led some to develop privacy systems that protect your thoughts from hackers.

Submission + - Game of Thrones: The dragons and nuclear weapons nexus (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Yes, Game of Thrones has deep meanings with a surprising number of lessons about peace and security for real life, and Timothy Westmyer of the Rising Powers Initiative explores the dragon metaphor here: 'One parallel, however, has escaped analysis: dragons as living, fire-breathing metaphors for nuclear weapons. Despite the fantasy setting, the story teaches a great deal about the inherent dangers that come with managing these game-changing agents, their propensity for accidents, the relative benefits they grant their masters, and the strain these weapons impose upon those wielding them.' As Thrones creator George R.R. Martin has said: 'Dragons are the nuclear deterrent...but is that sufficient?'

Submission + - No, Oreos Aren't as Addictive as Cocaine (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Students at Connecticut College opted for the second option, and the consequences that ensued were much more annoying than making some arts and crafts with a darn mouse. Fox News reported that a "College study finds Oreo cookies are as addictive as drugs," Forbes explained "Why Your Brain Treats Oreos Like a Drug," and a ton of other sites ran with the story as well.

Here's how the experiment, which has not been peer reviewed and has not been presented yet, went down. Mice were placed in a maze, with one end holding an Oreo and the other end holding a rice cake. The mice, without fail, decided to eat the Oreo over the rice cake, proving once and for all that mice like cookies better than tasteless discs with a styrofoamy texture.

Submission + - Oreos as addictive as cocaine to rats (forbes.com)

Submitted by turning in circles
turning in circles writes: Medical researchers have found that rats prefer Oreos to rice cakes about as much as they prefer cocaine or morphine. The levels of pleasure-recognizing proteins in the rats' brains actually increased more for Oreos than cocaine. More studies like this, and maybe studies with McDonald's french fries, might further open the debate about the extent to which obesity is a medical condition vs a personal preference.

Submission + - Blizzard Entertainment wins legal battle with a small WoW bot company (ceilingfansoftware.com)

Submitted by gamersunited
gamersunited writes: After more than 2 years of legal battles with Blizzard Entertainment to both pursue Ceiling Fan Software's right to operate and their customer’s right to play WoW as they choose, Ceiling Fan Software did not prevail in the suit and have been ordered by the United States District Court in California to cease their operations. A link to the ruling is here.

Submission + - Plant temperature perception imaged using open source microscopy software

Submitted by GAATTC
GAATTC writes: How plants sense temperature is not well understood. An automated microscopy system controlled by Micro-Manager open source microscope automation software has been used to capture the dynamics of plant high temperature gene expression responses. A surprising finding is that waves of gene expression sweep down the roots as they grow after exposure to high temperatures.

Submission + - Gamers solve decade old HIV puzzle in ten days (zmescience.com) 2

Submitted by twocows
twocows writes: From the article: "Scientists from Washington University have been struggling for the past decade to decipher the complex structure of a enzyme that exhibits AIDS-like behavior, and which might hold a critical role in building a cure for the disease. Gamers playing spatial game Foldit have managed to collectively determine the enzyme’s structure in ten days."

Submission + - Apple Slashes iPhone 5c Production

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Information Week reports that Apple has asked Pegatron to lower its orders downward by 20% and Hon Hai to slow down their production downward by one-third suggesting that the iPhone 5c may not be selling as well as Apple had forecast. Earlier this week, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) data indicated that Apple's iPhone 5s accounted for 64% of total iPhone sales at the end of September. The iPhone 5c accounted for 27% of sales, and the iPhone 4S comprised 9% of sales. Some are calling into question Apple's pricing strategy for the iPhone 5c. Without a contract, the iPhone 5c starts at $549 — certainly not a "low-cost" device — while the 5s starts at $649. With only $100 separating the two, many consumers are opting for the high-end model. "This reflects a failure in Apple's pricing strategy," said Bevan Yeh, a Taipei-based senior fund manager at Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust. "The price differentiation between 5C and 5S is too small. It's an iPhone 5 with plastic casing and isn't worth the price." However, Pegatron and Hon Hai are not Apple's only manufacturing partners and it is useless to speculate about how much iPhone 5c stock Apple already has on-hand. Analysts still predict that Apple will sell 23 million 5c devices during the fourth quarter of the year and another 10 million during the first quarter of next year.

Submission + - Will the US Lose Control of the Internet? (wired.co.uk) 2

Submitted by Jeremiah Cornelius
Jeremiah Cornelius writes: Upon revelation of the extent of US foreign intelligence surveillance, through efforts by Edward Snowden and LavaBit founder Ladar Levison, an increasing number of nation's have expressed official dismay and concern over the US dominance in managing the infrastructure for request and transit of information on the Internet. In the past, ICANN challenges have been secondary to efforts in the UN ITU — until now. Yesterday at a summit in Uruguay, every major Internet governing body pledged to free themselves of the influence of the US government. "The directors of ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society and all five of the regional Internet address registries have vowed to break their associations with the US government. The group called for "accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing". Any doubt about the reason or timing of this statement is dispelled with the inclusion: "the group 'expressed strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance'."

The US argument for maintaining governance has been the need to maintain "a free and open Internet" versus interests of authoritarian societies. Has recent understanding of the wholesale surveillance of telecommunications by the NSA completely ruined the US reputation as the just custodian of that mission?

Comment Re:0.001km = 0.01hm = 1m = 10dm = 100cm = 1000mm (Score 2) 909

by JustABlitheringIdiot (#42452769) Attached to: USMA: Going the Extra Kilometer For Metrication

1 mm is roughly 1/32 Inches - so right off the bat there you've got have the accuracy that you asked for.

1/32 is approximately 26% smaller than 1mm. How is that even remotely accurate?

Consider, if you want a 3ft shelf and you estimate it using your method you would want a 1153mm shelf when what you really want is one approximately 914mm. That's a pretty big difference. Nevermind how that would scale to anything larger.

Comment Re:0.001km = 0.01hm = 1m = 10dm = 100cm = 1000mm (Score 2) 909

by JustABlitheringIdiot (#42452643) Attached to: USMA: Going the Extra Kilometer For Metrication

10mm of rain falls over a 1km^2 drainage area. How much volume does the drainage system have to dispose of?

Now do it for imperial with inches of rain and acres of area. Oh, and did you choose gallons or cu ft?

Proper measurement of rainfall like that would be acre-ft. So neither gallons or cu-ft would be appropriate.

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