krygny - Slashdot User

Submission + - Web Use Improves Brain Activity in Older Adults (livescience.com)

Submitted by krygny on Tuesday October 20, 2009 @09:09AM

krygny writes: An article on LiveSciences reports: Adults with little internet experience show changes in their brain activity after just one week online, a new study finds. The results suggest Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition in older adults. "We found that for older people with minimal experience, performing Internet searches for even a relatively short period of time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function," Dr. Gary Small, study author and professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, said in a statement.

Previous research by the UCLA team found that searching online resulted in a more than twofold increase in brain activation in older adults with prior experience, compared with those with little Internet experience. The new findings suggest that it may take only days for those with minimal experience to match the activity levels of those with years of experience, said Small.

Submission + - "Orwellian" CARS Application Disclaimer 2

Submitted by krygny on Saturday August 01, 2009 @08:45AM

krygny writes: I saw this on FNC's Glenn Beck Show yesterday and is recounted here. When a car dealer visits the cars.gov web site to apply for the rebate, he encounters the following disclaimer:
"This application provides to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a federal computer system and it is property of the United States government, ... Any and all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."

I haven't been able to duplicate the path described in the article, maybe because I'm not a registered dealer or maybe the process has changed as much as the program has in the past few days.

Submission + - Earth and Moon from an Alien's Perspective

Submitted by krygny on Friday July 18, 2008 @07:07AM

krygny writes: NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 31 million miles away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. "Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael A'Hearn, principal investigator for the Deep Impact extended mission, called EPOXI. "Our video shows some specific features that are important for observations of Earth-like planets orbiting other stars," said Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ... "A 'sun glint' can be seen in the movie, caused by light reflected from Earth's oceans, and similar glints to be observed from extrasolar planets could indicate alien oceans. Also, we used infrared light instead of the normal red light to make the color composite images, and that makes the land masses much more visible."

Submission + - Global Warming Criticism Ignored by Media

Submitted by krygny on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @01:45PM

krygny writes: EARTHtimes.org reports: "A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. (...) Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention.

Submission + - First Image of "Noctilucent" Clouds from S

Submitted by krygny on Monday July 02, 2007 @08:49AM

krygny writes: NASA has released the first image of night-shining, or noctilucent, clouds that appear in the atmosphere near the poles during the summer months in each hemisphere. "The first observations of these "night-shining" clouds by a satellite named "AIM" which means Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, occurred above 70 degrees north latitude on May 25. People on the ground began seeing the clouds on June 6 over Northern Europe. AIM is the first satellite mission dedicated to the study of these unusual clouds." ... "Very little is known about how these clouds form over the poles, why they are being seen more frequently and at lower latitudes than ever before, or why they have been growing brighter."

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