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Submission + - Could electrically stimulating criminals' brains prevent crime? (newatlas.com)

Submitted by future guy
future guy writes: A new study by a team of international researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Nanyang Technological University suggests that electrically stimulating the prefrontal cortex can reduce the desire to carry out violent antisocial acts by over 50 percent. The research, while undeniably compelling, raises a whole host of confronting ethical questions, not just over the feasibility of actually bringing this technology into our legal system, but whether we should?

Submission + - Breakthrough study reveals how LSD dissolves a person's sense of self (newatlas.com)

Submitted by future guy
future guy writes: A fascinating study led by scientists at the University of Zurich has uncovered key insights into the mechanisms behind how our brain generates our sense of self. The researchers administered lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to several participants in order to home in on where in the brain our sense of self is activated and what happens when a powerful psychedelic drug interferes with that process.

Submission + - UAE building giant simulated Mars city in the desert (newatlas.com)

Submitted by future guy
future guy writes: "The project is called the Mars Science City and will cover 1.9 million sq ft (176,516 sq m) at a cost of nearly US$140 million dollars. The city will span several domes, including a space for a team to live for up to a year as part of a Mars simulation."

Submission + - Nicotine shown to reduce symptoms of schizophrenia (newatlas.com)

Submitted by future guy
future guy writes: New Atlas reports, "A meta-analysis of worldwide studies conducted in 2005 definitively showed what many doctors had been anecdotally noting for decades. Schizophrenia patients were much more likely to become heavy smokers than than those in the general population. In fact some studies found over 80 percent of those diagnosed with schizophrenia were smokers. There were many social and psychological hypotheses proposed to explain this strange anomaly, but none were ever sufficient.
A new study published in Nature Medicine has not only revealed how smoking can normalize the impairments in brain activity associated with schizophrenia, but unlocks an entirely new field of drug research to combat the disease."

Submission + - Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy linked to autism (newatlas.com)

Submitted by future guy
future guy writes: "The researchers examined around 4,200 blood samples from pregnant women and their children and discovered a link between autism and low levels of vitamin D. More specifically, they found that pregnant women who were vitamin D deficient at 20 weeks gestation were more likely to have a child with autistic traits by the age of six."

Submission + - French man sentenced to two-years jail just for visiting pro-ISIS websites. (theverge.com)

Submitted by future guy
future guy writes: The Verge writes:
"In court, the man argued that he visited the sites out of curiosity. “I wanted to tell the difference between real Islam and the false Islam, now I understand," he said, according to FranceBleu. But the man reportedly admitted to not reading other news sites or international press, and family members told the court that his behavior had recently changed. He became irritated when discussing religion, they said, and began sporting a long beard with harem pants. A representative from the Ardèche court confirmed to The Verge that there was no indication that the man had any plans to launch an attack."

Submission + - Reddit To Crack Down on Abuse By Punishing Hundreds of 'Toxic Users' (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Social media website Reddit, known for its commitment to free speech, will crack down on online harassment by banning or suspending users who target others, starting with those who have directed abuse at Chief Executive Steve Huffman. Huffman said in an interview with Reuters that Reddit's content policy prohibits harassment, but that it had not been adequately enforced. "Personal message harassment is the most cut and dry," he said. "Right now we are in an interesting position where my inbox is full of them, it's easy to start with me." As well as combing through Huffman's inbox, Reddit will monitor user reports, add greater filtering capacity, and take a more proactive role in policing its platform rather than relying on community moderators. Reddit said it had identified hundreds of the "most toxic users" and will warn, ban or suspend them. It also plans to increase staff on its "trust and safety" team. On Reddit, a channel supporting the U.S. Republican party's presidential candidate Donald Trump, called r/The_Donald, featured racist and misogynistic comments, fake news and conspiracy theories about his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton, along with more mainstream expressions of support for Trump. Many of those supporting Trump were very active, voting up the r/The_Donald conversations so that they became prominent across Reddit, which is the 7th-most-visited U.S. internet site, according to web data firm Alexa. Last week, Reddit banned Pizzagate, a community devoted to a conspiracy theory, with no evidence to back it up, that links Clinton to a pedophile ring at a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor, after it posted personal information in violation of Reddit policy. Huffman then used his administrative privileges to redirect abuse he was receiving on a thread on r/The_Donald to the community's moderators — making it look as if it was intended for them. Huffman said it was a prank, and that many Reddit users, including some Trump supporters, told him they thought it was funny, but it inflamed the situation.

Submission + - Study: microbiome changes drive the dieting yo-yo effect

Submitted by wheelbarrio
wheelbarrio writes: We've known for a long time that diet-induced weight loss is rarely permanent but until now what has been a frustration for dieters has also been largely a mystery to science. A paper published today in the prestigious journal Nature presents good evidence that your gut microbiome may be to blame. Studying mice fed cycles of high-fat and normal diets, the authors find that the particular bacterial population that thrives in the high-fat regime persists in the gut even once the mice have returned to normal weight and normal metabolic function after a dieting cycle. This leaves them more susceptible to weight gain than control mice who were never overweight, when both populations are exposed to a cycle of high-fat diet. The details are fascinating, including the suggestion that dietary flavonoid supplementation might mitigate the effect. My guess is that this may end up being one of the most cited papers of the year, if not the decade.

Comment Re:Strawmen and the obvious conclusion (Score 1) 48

by future guy (#53344485) Attached to: Aussie Internet Pirates Are The Best Customers
Agree. On top of that, in Australia we often are charged more for digital content than other countries. It's insane to be overcharged when in the Aus iTunes store when you can grab a US account and get the same content for cheaper. Here is a great video from ABC show The Checkout discussing this very price gouging issue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Comment Re:Strawmen and the obvious conclusion (Score 2) 48

by future guy (#53342577) Attached to: Aussie Internet Pirates Are The Best Customers
Yep, availability is key! Global concurrent release strategies are damn important too. Basically Aussies will pay for stuff if they can access it in a timely way instead of having to wait months and months to get TV and films that everyone on the internet is already talking about. That's what leads to major piracy and that's the big issue that needs to be resolved.

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