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Submission + - Swarm Intelligence (economist.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From optimizing truck delivery routes to inspiring nerve-cell-based cognition models, ant intelligence has arrived.

'Mimicking the behaviour of ants, bees and birds started as a poor man's version of artificial intelligence. It may, though, be the key to the real thing.' The full article in the Economist is available.
Science

Submission + - First discovery by an @Home project (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by pq
pq writes: In a paper published today in Science, astronomers are reporting the discovery of a radio pulsar in data acquired at the world's largest radio telescope and analyzed by hundreds of thousands of volunteers in 192 countries for the Einstein@Home project. This is the first scientific discovery by a distributed computing project, and specific credit is being given to Chris and Helen Colvin of Ames, Iowa, and Daniel Gebhardt of Germany. More at MSNBC etc.
Canada

Submission + - Scientists develop brain-microchip bridge (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by dreampod
dreampod writes: Canadian scientists have developed a microchip capable of monitoring the electrical and chemical communication channels between individual neurons. This is the first time scientists have been able to monitor the interaction between brain cells on such a precise and subtle level. In addition to providing the ability to more easily see the impact of drugs on various mental disorders during testing this provides one of the first fundamental steps towards real mind-machine interface.

Submission + - Persids Meteor Shower, Thurs Aug. 12th (nasa.gov)

Submitted by elyons
elyons writes: The Persids meteor shower should be great for North America this year. Peak activity is 50 meteors per hour; one of 2010's best shower. According to NPR Stardate:

August 12. The Moon is just a couple of days past new at the [Persids] shower's peak, so there will be no moonlight to interfere with the faint meteors. The shower should reach its peak in the hours after midnight (before dawn on August 13), with a maximum of a few dozen meteors visible per hour.

More information from NASA.
Programming

Submission + - Some of the Best Features of HTML 5 (codingthis.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: HTML5 is the latest version of HTML with interesting new features. The article describes the five features I think are most exciting and useful.
Linux

Submission + - Linux great for the environment, bad for economy? (earthweb.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Is using desktop Linux better for the environment than say, running Microsoft Windows or Apple's OS X?

In this piece, I’ll explore the ideas behind Linux as the operating system for the eco-friendly masses, and how desktop Linux could potentially affect the hardware/software sectors of the economy.

Then finally, I'll put the pieces together and examine whether a sudden increase in Linux usage on the desktop would spell trouble for the economy."
Idle

Submission + - Girl quits job on dry erase board, emails entire o (gizmodo.com) 4

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Girl quits her job on dry erase board, emails entire office (33 Photos)

Young woman has job. Boss calls young woman "hot piece of ass." Young woman quits, uses dry erase board to fire back by emailing these photos to the entire office. Boss, it seems, loved playing FarmVille during work hours too much.

Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5609415/hot-piece-of-ass-busts-boss-for-farmville-obsession

the Chive: http://thechive.com/2010/08/10/girl-quits-her-job-on-dry-erase-board-emails-entire-office-33-photos/

Submission + - FBI Prioritizes Copyright Over Missing Persons (techdirt.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The FBI has limited resources, so it needs to prioritize what it works on. However, it's difficult to see why dealing with copyright infringement seems to get more attention than identity theft or missing persons. In the past year, the FBI has announced a special new task force to fight intellectual property infringement, but recent reports have shown that both identity theft and missing persons have been downgraded as priorities by the FBI, to the point that there are a backlog of such cases.
Science

Submission + - Possible Issues With The Proof That P != NP

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Slashdot reported an annoncement that Vinay Deolalikar, a Principal Research Scientist at HP Labs, claimed that he has a proof that P is not equal to NP. Dick Lipton, a Professor of Computer Science at Georgia Tech, analyzed the idea of the proof on his blog. In a recent post, he explain that there have been many serious comments raised about the proof. Here is a summary of the objections that need to be answered in any subsequent development.
Science

Submission + - The Brain's Secret for Sleeping Like a Log (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Why can some people sleep through anything? According to this article in Wired Science, some lucky people have a bonus helping of a certain kind of brain static that essentially blocks out noise and other stimuli. These "sleep spindles" can be detected via EEG, and show up as brief bursts of high-frequency brain waves; some people naturally produce more than others. The researchers say these spindles are produced by the thalamus, the brain region that acts as a waystation for sensory information. If the thalamus is busy producing sleep spindles, sensory information can't make it through the thalamus to the cortex, the perceptive part of the brain.

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