From Gizmodo: Science fiction movies and TV shows don’t really count unless they have iconic robot characters. That’s a completely true statement, by the way. Nobody cares how good a story is unless they can pretend living in a reality where sentient robots, awesome droids, and fun little machine pals exists. We want to live in the future where Roombas go on adventures with us! Artist Scott Park illustrated all our favorite robots from movies and TV shows—think R2-D2 and HAL 9000 and Optimus Prime and Johnny Five—to show the evolution of these synthetic characters.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
The Evolution Of Robots In Movies and TV
From Gizmodo: Science fiction movies and TV shows don’t really count unless they have iconic robot characters. That’s a completely true statement, by the way. Nobody cares how good a story is unless they can pretend living in a reality where sentient robots, awesome droids, and fun little machine pals exists. We want to live in the future where Roombas go on adventures with us! Artist Scott Park illustrated all our favorite robots from movies and TV shows—think R2-D2 and HAL 9000 and Optimus Prime and Johnny Five—to show the evolution of these synthetic characters.
What Are Those Bright Spots On The Dwarf Planet Ceres
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Gizmodo: There's Something Surprising Lurking in Ceres' Mysterious Bright Spots
Dwarf planet Ceres’ bright spots are perhaps the strangest of all its features. Now we’re finally in a low-enough altitude to get an unprecedented close-up look—and what we’re seeing may only have deepened the mystery.
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft swung into its lowest orbit yet—a cool cruising height of 240 miles and started snapping pictures of a variety of features of the dwarf planet. Most of the shots are detailed images of things we’d already caught in broad-stroke versions, but there’s also a clue to something perhaps bigger.
Read more ....
Update: New images of dwarf planet Ceres (Space Daily)
CSN Editor: So typical of space exploration .... find an answer to a mystery, but then a bigger one shows up. For more on Ceres go to Wikipedia .... the link on Ceres is here.
This 11-Year-Old Scored the Highest IQ Score Possible
#Indian -Origin girlTops Mensa Test in UK, Beats #Einstein and #Hawking In IQ https://t.co/qySfj3xURv #KashmeaWahi pic.twitter.com/KbAehrPWv0
— Latest News India (@latestnewsind) January 11, 2016
Mental Floss: An 11-Year-Old Just Earned the Highest IQ Score Possible
Kashmea Wahi, an 11-year-old student from the UK, just earned a place among the world’s intellectual 1 percent by getting a perfect score on her IQ test. The test’s maximum score is 161 for adults and 162 for test-takers below the age of 18. To make her achievement even more impressive, her score of 162 puts her two points higher than the likes of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.
After stumbling upon the Mensa test while surfing on her iPad, Wahi decided to test herself as a way of proving a point to her parents, both IT management consultants at the Deutsche Bank in London. She figured an impressive score might be an effective way to stop her parents from nagging her to study.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: A perfect score .... wow.
David Bowie's Favourite 100 Books
Anyone else remember this Bowie poster from your library as a kid? pic.twitter.com/HsY8srwrwv
— Eric Smith (@ericsmithrocks) January 11, 2016
L.A. Times: Remembering David Bowie through his 100 favorite books
Although David Bowie was best known for his music, he also made countless contributions to the worlds of art, fashion and film.
But the singer, who died Sunday, was also devoted to literature. In 2013, Bowie left the world something other than his groundbreaking albums to remember him by — a list of his 100 favorite books. Bowie's favorite books list was featured in an exhibit honoring the musician at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.
Bowie's list is as eclectic and surprising as he was. He paid tribute to the classics, including Homer's "Iliad," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," George Orwell's "1984" and D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover."
Read more ....
CSN Editor: This artist was doing everything. Not many sci-fi/speculative fiction books in his list.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Why Are Amazon's Data Centers In The 'Heart' Of Spy Country?
Amazon Data Center CNN
The Atlantic: Why Amazon's Data Centers Are Hidden in Spy Country
The company powers much of the Internet, but its cloud facilities are difficult to find.
Once in a while—not quite often enough to be a crisis, but just often enough to be a trope—people in the United States will freak out because a huge number of highly popular websites and services have suddenly gone down. For an interminable period of torture (usually about 1-3 hours, tops) there is no Instagram to browse, no Tinder to swipe, no Github to push to, no Netflix to And Chill.
When this happens, it usually means that Amazon Web Services is having a technical problem, most likely in their US-East region. What that actually means is that something is broken in northern Virginia. Of all the places where Amazon operates data centers, northern Virginia is one of the most significant, in part because it’s where AWS first set up shop in 2006. It seemed appropriate that this vision quest to see The Cloud across America which began at the ostensible birthplace of the Internet should end at the place that’s often to blame when large parts of the U.S. Internet dies.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Convenience, an existing infrastructure, lower costs, the U.S. government not far away .... all of these are good reasons on why Amazon has its centers in northern Virginia. But what I found even more interesting after reading this report was this sobering statistic .... Today, up to 70 percent of Internet traffic worldwide travels through this region.
After Ebola Two Tropical Diseases Pose New Threats
Reuters: After Ebola, two other tropical diseases pose new threats
LONDON (Reuters) - A little-known bacterial disease may be killing as many people worldwide as measles, scientists said on Monday, while a mosquito-borne virus known as Zika is also raising global alarm.
The spread of Ebola in West Africa last year shows how poorly-understood diseases can emerge and grow rapidly while researchers race to design and conduct the scientific studies needed to combat them.
Researchers in the journal Nature Microbiology called for a bacterial infection called meliodosis, which is resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, to be given a higher priority by international health organizations and policy makers.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I know about the Zika virus .... a nasty outbreak in Brazil. But Melioidosis .... this is something new. The above video is on the Zika virus. The video below is on Melioidosis.
Google Chairman: Artificial Intelligence Can Help Solve World's ‘Hard Problems’
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Alphabet Inc. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
* AI could help with population growth, education, Schmidt says
* Field getting crowded with Facebook, Microsoft also investing
Google’s chairman thinks artificial intelligence will let scientists solve some of the world’s "hard problems," like population growth, climate change, human development, and education.
Rapid development in the field of AI means the technology can help scientists understand the links between cause and effect by sifting through vast quantities of information, said Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., the holding company that owns Google.
“AI will play this role to navigate through this and help us.”
It can also aid companies in designing new, personalized systems. In the future, Schmidt would like to see “Eric and Not-Eric,” he said at a conference in New York, where “Eric” is the flesh-and-blood Schmidt and“not-Eric is this digital thing that helps me.”
Read more ....
CSN Editor: We are far away from what he is envisioning.
Scientific Breakthroughs In 2015
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
The Independent: Scientific breakthroughs in 2015 that could change the world
Advances in biology and cosmology have dominated the science year.
Growing a “brain in a dish”, the prospect of creating designer babies, and the possibility of detecting the first signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence – these are just some of the most important scientific news stories of 2015, according to some of the world’s leading scholars celebrating the year’s achievements.
The question posed to the top thinkers was this: what do you consider the most interesting recent scientific news and what makes it important? Back came a smorgasbord of essay-length answers from more than 100 contributors to Edge.org, the online salon for scientists, philosophers and followers of the “third culture” merging science and the humanities.
Read more ....
The Pace Of Scientific Innovation Is Speeding Up
Image from Atelier
Wall Street Journal: Science Is Stepping Up the Pace of Innovation
Big advances in astronomy and genetics.
Every year on the website Edge, scientists and other thinkers reply to one question. This year it’s “What do you consider the most interesting recent news” in science? The answers are fascinating. We’re used to thinking of news as the events that happen in a city or country within a few weeks or months. But scientists expand our thinking to the unimaginably large and the infinitesimally small.
Despite this extraordinary range, the answers of the Edge contributors have an underlying theme. The biggest news of all is that a handful of large-brained primates on an insignificant planet have created machines that let them understand the world, at every scale, and let them change it too, for good or ill.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Are we in a new age of scientific discovery .... it looks like it.
Have Gravitational Waves Finally Been Detected?
Binary stars may generate gravitational waves. R. Hurt - Caltech/JPL
Popular Science: Physicist Tweets Rumour That Gravitational Waves May Have Finally Been Detected
If true, the discovery would support one of Einstein's major predicitons.
In September, the Caltech theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss tweeted:
Rumor of a gravitational wave detection at LIGO detector. Amazing if true. Will post details if it survives.
— Lawrence M. Krauss (@LKrauss1) September 25, 2015
The folks on the LIGO experiment neither confirmed nor denied the rumor, and in Krauss's rumor-mongering raised hackles in the astrophysics community.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Waiting for the official announcement.
10 Essential David Bowie Songs
Wired: 10 Essential David Bowie Songs to Remember the Iconoclast
DAVID BOWIE, WHO died Sunday at the age of 69, released more than 20 studio albums (and dozens of singles) during a decades-long career that found him infatuated with everything from starry-eyed space-folk to guitar-hero glam-rock to gurgling electronica. Reducing that output to a single best-of list is impossible, but here are 10 tunes that, at the very least, display his verve, his vigor, and his ongoing love of the new:
Read more ....
Can You Run A Silicon Valley Startup Without A Cellphone?
That’s right: I do not own a cellphone; I do not use a cellphone. I do not have a phone. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
The Guardian: I run a Silicon Valley startup – but I refuse to own a cellphone
In the heart of the most tech-obsessed corner of the planet, Steve Hilton hasn’t had a phone in years. He’s relaxed, carefree, happier. His wife on the other hand ...
Before you read on, I want to make one thing clear: I’m not trying to convert you. I’m not trying to lecture you or judge you. Honestly, I’m not. It may come over like that here and there, but believe me, that’s not my intent. In this piece, I’m just trying to ... explain.
People who knew me in a previous life as a policy adviser to the British prime minister are mildly surprised that I’m now the co-founder and CEO of a tech startup . And those who know that I’ve barely read a book since school are surprised that I have now actually written one.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Yes .... it is possible that you can do a Silicon Valley start-up without owning a cellphone (I have done it myself). But you will need email (and a land-line).
The Toilet You Only Clean Once A Year
BBC: CES 2016: The toilet you only clean once a year
An "intelligent" toilet that opens when you approach it and self-cleans with every flush is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
It also cleans the user with an aerated wand, which delivers warm water and warm air "from a seated position", a spokeswoman said.
Despite a $9,800 (£6,704) price tag, more than 40 million earlier versions of the Neorest toilets have been sold.
Bathroom firm Toto said the new prototype was still in development.
CSN Editor: $9.800 price tag .... please. But they have sold 40 million of them.
David Bowie Was An Internet Pioneer
BBC: David Bowie: The internet pioneer
David Bowie is best remembered for his music - but he was also groundbreaking in his use of technology, not least his internet service, BowieNet, which launched in September 1998.
In a time before Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or even MySpace, most artists provided little if any online material to their followers.
But Bowie's platform not only offered a wide variety of exclusive content, but also several ways to interact with the singer himself.
"In my view, BowieNet had to be the most groundbreaking reachout to fans that I have ever seen any artist ever do," Craig Carrington, one of its users, says.
"He just had the attitude that if he was going to do it, he was going to do it right."
Update: BowieNet: how David Bowie's ISP foresaw the future of the internet (The Guardian).
WNU Editor: He may be gone, but his music will last for the ages.
This Is What Happens When You Reply To Spam Email (Video)
From TED: Suspicious emails: unclaimed insurance bonds, diamond-encrusted safe deposit boxes, close friends marooned in a foreign country. They pop up in our inboxes, and standard procedure is to delete on sight. But what happens when you reply? Follow along as writer and comedian James Veitch narrates a hilarious, weeks-long exchange with a spammer who offered to cut him in on a hot deal.
CSN Editor: Hilarious and true.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
The Future Of TV
If CES 2016 is anything to go by, the future of how we enjoy home entertainment is here.
From the new wave of High Dynamic Range (HDR) televisions to the arrival of virtual reality, the floor of the consumer electronics and technology trade show in Las Vegas has been filled with examples of how home entertainment is changing. CNET reporter Kara Tsuboi was on hand to take a look at the screens of the future and the new ways people will be viewing them in their living rooms.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Bring the costs .... and they will become popular.
There Are Nine Members In The Nuclear Club
Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY: The Nuclear Club: Who are the 9 members?
Nine countries are known to possess nuclear weapons.
The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have among them approximately 15,850 nuclear weapons — 4,300 of them deployed with operational forces, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The institute, an independent organization whose research centers on global security, said 1,800 of those weapons are kept in a state of high operational alert.
The number of nuclear weapons in the world is declining, mainly because Russia and the United States are reducing their stockpiles. The two countries' arsenals make up more than 90% of nuclear weapons globally, according to the institute.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Nine today .... tomorrow .... who knows?
Do The Clintons Believe In Aliens?
Daily Mail: Hillary to open the X-Files: Clinton promises to 'get to the bottom' of Area 51 if she becomes President and stuns reporter by saying 'I think we may have been visited already'
* Hillary Clinton reportedly made the promise when speaking with The Conway Daily Sun in New Hampshire
* Clinton had previously interviewed with the same reporter in 2007
* In 2014, Bill Clinton told late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel that he wouldn't be surprised if aliens visited Earth
* Hillary Clinton appeared to agree with her husband's comments last week
* She said she would 'get to the bottom' of questions over what the government knows about UFOs and aliens
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said that if she is elected, she will 'get to the bottom' of questions over what the government knows about UFOs and aliens.
She made the promise when speaking with Daymond Steer of The Conway Daily Sun in New Hampshire. She had previously interviewed with the same reporter in 2007.
When asked if she would support UFO disclosure group efforts, she enthusiastically said 'yes'.
In 2007, Clinton said the most common freedom-of-information requests her husband Bill Clinton received at his library were about UFOs.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I guess even the Clintons like to believe.
More News On Hillary Clinton Promising To Reveal The Truth Of Area 51
Hillary Clinton plans to investigate Area 51 if she’s elected -- Red Orbit
Hillary Clinton says aliens may have paid us a visit -- CNET
Aliens May Have Visited Earth Already, Hillary Clinton Says -- Space.com
Hillary Clinton (jokingly) pledges UFO probe -- CNN
I want to believe: Hillary Clinton says aliens may have visited Earth -- RT
Saturday, January 9, 2016
What Are The Most Valuable Substances By Weight?
Click on Image to Enalrge
Zero Hedge: Visualizing The Most Valuable Substances By Weight
While gold is undoubtedly one of the most traded substances on earth, it also happens to be one of the most valuable substances by weight. Although prices fluctuate, one gram of gold will cost you on average around $35. This got us thinking about how much other primarily naturally occurring substances out there cost.
This new infographic, via ValueWalk, explores how much you would pay for a gram of everything from saffron, widely recognised as the world’s most expensive spice, to platinum and rhodium. While the market for these goods can’t match the sizeable gold market, whose depth and liquidity is unparalleled, the trading prices of these substances can widely surpass that of gold; though like gold, the prices of these substances are subject to fluctuations.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: For more information on Californium (the world's most expensive substance by weight), go here.
The Radical Plan To Manipulate Gravity
André Füzfa from the University of Namur has proposed a method to produce and detect gravitational fields, and says it’s achievable with current technologies.
Daily Mail: The radical plan to manipulate GRAVITY: Researcher reveals scheme to create and control gravitational fields using current technology
* Mathematical proposal aims to unlock new era of experimental gravity
* Researcher says current technologies could let humans to control gravity
* Experiment could put Einstein's theory of relativity to the ultimate test
Creating artificial gravitational fields that humans can manipulate and observe may seem like an idea from science fiction, but one researcher is now looking to turn the concept into a reality.
André Füzfa from the University of Namur has proposed a method that would allow humans to control gravity, and says it’s achievable with current technologies.
In the mathematically supported proposal, Füzfa describes the device which would take on this task, and be used to observe how magnetic fields bend space-time.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I wish them luck.
Friday, January 8, 2016
The 10 Corporations That Control The World’s Food
Revealed! The 10 Corporations that Control the World's #Food! Click for more: https://t.co/Yg4wQCcMEg pic.twitter.com/QWW3P47Zp9
— Good Shopping Guide (@EthicalCompany) January 7, 2016
The Good Shopping Guide: The 10 Corporations that Control the World’s Food
A significant amount of well-known brands are produced by just ten food companies. Between these ten largest food and drink manufacturers, which control most of the world’s food production, it is estimated that they make 1 billion US dollars per day.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: A lot of junk food companies in this bunch.
Reducing Brain Inflammation Shown To Be A Key For An Alzheimer's Treatment
The dots in the picture are immune cells called microglia (highlighted with a black stain), which are more prevalent in brains affected by Alzheimer’s. Photograph: Carol Colton lab, Duke Universit/PA
The Guardian: Alzheimer's treatment closer as brain inflammation shown to be key
Study shows inflammation-reducing chemical prevents memory and behavioural problems in diseased mice, raising hopes for human treatment
Scientists have fresh hopes for an Alzheimer’s treatment after experiments to reduce inflammation in diseased mouse brains prevented memory and behavioural problems in the animals.
Alzheimer’s disease has long been linked to disruption in the brain’s immune system, but the latest research adds to evidence that inflammation in the brain is not so much caused by the disease, but is a driver of the disorder.
Researchers at Southampton University studied tissues from healthy human brains and others affected by Alzheimer’s disease. They found that Alzheimer’s brains had more immune cells, known as microglia, than healthy brains.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Faster please.
How Did Dinosaurs Woo Mates?
The Guardian: Dinosaurs performed dances to woo mates, according to new evidence
‘Dinosaur foreplay’ was a ritual, bird-like dance, according to paleontologists who studied huge scrape marks left behind by the animals in western Colorado
Predatory dinosaurs performed a ritual, bird-like dance to woo their mates, according to paleontologists who have studied huge scrape marks left behind by the animals in western Colorado.
Paleobiologists have long speculated that dinosaurs had mating rituals like those of their descendants, modern birds, but the scrapes would be the first physical evidence of “dinosaur foreplay”, lead scientist Martin Lockley said.
Read more ....
Editor: These scrapes could have been caused by dinosaurs clipping their long nails ... bottom lone is that we do not know. But the mating ritual theory is definitely more interesting.
Study: Memories Can Be Recovered In Just A Tenth Of A Second
Using a brain scanner (stock image), scientists have found memories can be recovered in a tenth of a second - around a third of the time needed to blink. The study also found retrieval can be obstructed by the use of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), in which a magnetic coil is placed on their head
Daily Mail: Your brain recovers memories faster than the blink of an eye: Retrieval happens FIVE times quicker than thought
* Events can be recalled in 100 milliseconds, compared to 300 for a blink
* Mechanism of memory recovery starts with activation of sensory areas
* The process can be interfered with by placing magnetic coils on the head
The blink of an eye is one of the fastest reactions the human body can make - but is a slow process compared to the recovery of memory.
Using a brain scanner, scientists have discovered that memories can be recovered in just a tenth of a second - around a third of the time needed to blink.
Previous research had estimated this at around five tenths of a second.
The researchers also found retrieval can be obstructed if the person is subjected to repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), in which a magnetic coil is placed on their head.
Read more ....
Editor: That is definitely fast.
This Program Can Read Emotions From Looking At A Person's Face
Daily Mail: Apple buys artificial intelligence firm that can read EMOTIONS from looking at a person's face
* Algorithm originally designed to analyse responses to ads
* Can sort through and analyse thousands of images a day to track emotion
* Has been user to spot angry drivers and disgruntled shoppers
Apple has bought an artificial intelligence firm developing software that can tell a person's emotion from their facial expression.
The software was originally developed by Emotient to help assess viewer reactions to their ads, but has also been used to look for signs of pain in patients, and even monitor shopper's facial expressions.
However, it is unclear what Apple plans to use the technology for.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: The applications for this tech is unless.
VR Porn Is The Next Big Thing In Adult entertainment
Mashable: VR porn is here and it's scary how realistic it is
I've tried a lot of different virtual reality experiences. Some good, some extraordinarily amazing, and some terrible. But mostly good.
I've never, however, tried VR porn. So when Naughty America, one of the U.S.'s largest pornography production companies, invited me to try out VR porn for myself at CES, I wasn't sure what to expect.
Would I merely be a spectator in a room watching people get freaky? Or would I actually be having VR sex?
I got my answer as soon as I slipped on a Samsung Gear VR headset and hit play on a VR porn video.
As the Naughty America title screen faded away, I found myself transported into a bedroom. Kneeling before me was a female porn star who was seductively talking dirty to me. I looked down and saw some guy's muscular body. Well, that's not mine, I thought to myself. I was confused. Whose body was this? Then I realized, I was now this guy.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Here is an easy prediction .... the porn industry is probably going to make a lot of money from this, and the manufacturers of these headsets even more..
Thursday, January 7, 2016
How Do You Train A Dog To Sniff-Out Bombs
Photo credit: Sgt. Joshua LaPere for the U.S. Army
Priceonomics: How Do You Train a Dog to Sniff Bombs?
To a well-trained dog, nothing is more exciting than finding a bomb.
When Lucca, a German shepherd–Belgian Malinois mix, smelled explosives in the Nahri Saraj District of Afghanistan in March 2012, her tail started wagging. She looked toward her handler, Marine Corporal Juan Rodriguez. He patted her side and said in a singsong voice, “Good girl, Lucca!” before alerting his unit that Lucca had found a hidden improvised explosive device.
The thirteen-year war in Afghanistan was the longest in American history. The Iraq War lasted another eight, and America’s involvement in both countries has not truly ended.
In both cases, American troops faced insurgents whose most lethal weapon was the improvised explosive device (IED): explosives rigged to radio transmitters, timers, or motion sensors (stripped from washing machines, security floodlights, and garage openers) and buried along routes taken by American patrols.
The Department of Defense spent $19 billion researching the best way to detect IEDs before settling on an old technology: dogs. Lucca was one of over 2,500 dogs trained to associate the scent of explosives with a reward, teamed up with a soldier-handler, and sent to Afghanistan or Iraq.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: So typical of the Pentagon .... after spending billions they then go back to what always worked before .... in the case of finding bombs .... dogs. But having said that ... this is a fascinating read.
Bad Military Tactics In The New 'Independence Day' Movie?
Joseph Trevithick, War Is Boring: The new Independence Day is full of terrible military tactics
The original 1996 movie Independence Day pitted American pilots and troops — and eventually the entire world — against an extraterrestrial threat armed with laser cannons and energy shields. Marine aviators, including Will Smith's character Capt. Steven Hiller, watch helplessly as their missiles disintegrate.
Nimble otherworldly fighters quickly pick off the F/A-18 fighter jets, killing most of the pilots. By the dramatic climax, very little has changed. Even after Hiller and David Levinson — played by Jeff Goldblum — succeed in disrupting the alien shields in a near-suicidal mission, the invaders wield considerable firepower and inflict heavy casualties.
But according to the December trailer for the sequel Independence Day: Resurgence, the American military did very little soul searching in the interceding two decades. "I spent 20 years trying to get us ready for this," Goldblum's Levinson says in the teaser as we see the first images of the new flying machines.
CSN Editor: I am still going to see the movie. :)
Blame Our Ancient Ancestors For Our Allergies
Researchers found large numbers of people carry genes for Toll-like receptors, which play an key role in the immune system, that were inherited from Neanderthals. In the map (pictured), orange and green segments are proportional to number of people in each population with these Neanderthal and Denisovan genes
Daily Mail: Suffer from allergies? Blame Neanderthals! Genes inherited from our ancient human relatives made our immune systems 'oversensitive'
* Two studies reveal our immune systems were shaped by Neanderthal DNA
* Neanderthals are thought to have interbred with humans 50,000 years ago
* One to 6 per cent of DNA in modern Eurasians is from these early humans
* Scientists have found variants of three genes from Neanderthals that have made our immune systems more sensitive and so produce allergies
They died out around 45,000 years ago as our ancestors moved into their territory and perhaps even killed them off, but Neanderthals may have had the last laugh - by causing us to suffer from allergies.
A new genetic study has revealed the genes inherited by modern humans from Neanderthals after our species interbred 50,000 years ago play a key role in our immune system today.
While these genetic variations have increased the ability of those who have them to ward off infection, they have also left large numbers of people more prone to allergies.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Unfortunately .... as a sufferer .... this news does not give me any comfort from the symptoms that I am suffering right now.
Hoverboard Patent Disputes Are Now Out In The Open
The Chinese firm calls its vehicles "surfing electric scooters"
BBC: CES 2016: Hoverboard booth raided following patent complaint
US marshals have raided a Chinese hoverboard-maker's stand at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.
The officials confiscated all the company's one-wheeled vehicles and took down its signs after a Silicon Valley-based rival filed a patent infringement claim.
The case is set to return to court in a week's time.
The Chinese firm, Changzhou First International Trade, told the BBC it did not believe it had broken the law.
It claimed it had developed its hoverboard a long time ago and had hidden it until now to avoid it being copied by other Chinese firms. It added that this was the first time it had been involved in such an incident.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Here is an easy prediction .... this Chinese company is going to lose its case.
A Look At North Korea's Newly-Opened Science And Technology Center
CNN: Inside North Korea: High-tech science center lauds nuclear advances
Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN)At the Korean demilitarized zone, speakers are blasting propaganda and troops are massing, but in the heart of Pyongyang, talk is only of the purported success of North Korea's first hydrogen bomb test.
As dictator Kim Jong Un celebrated his birthday, CNN, the only U.S. broadcaster operating in the country, spoke to North Koreans at the newly-opened Science and Technology Center.
Architecture student Lee Won, visiting the center that is the public face of the government's push to develop its technological and scientific capabilities, said that it was "one of his favorite places."
Asked what he thought of the purported H-bomb test, the 27-year-old said: "I think it is very wonderful, it is a very good result for our country's safety."
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Pure North Korean propaganda via through CNN.
Half Of The World Lives On 1% Of The Land
Land covers 196.9 million square miles of the planet, which is broken up into 196 countries that are home to 7.125 billion people. With so much land available on Earth you would think people are spread out evenly throughout the world - but a stunning new map reveals that isn't the case. An entrepreneur used data from Nasa to understand where most of the world’s population resides and found half of us are crammed into just one percent of the world.
Daily Mail: Where the world lives: Map shows half the planet's population lives on just 1% of its land
* The map was created using gridded population data compiled by Nasa
* Yellow means there are over 8,000 people, which is 900 people for every square mile
* World is evenly split between yellow and black, but map shows yellow is only in one percent of the Earth’s surface
* Map reveals half of the world's population lives in urban areas
Land covers 196.9 million square miles of the planet, which is broken up into 196 countries that are home to 7.125 billion people.
With so much land available on Earth you would think people are spread out evenly throughout the world - but a stunning new map reveals that isn't the case.
An entrepreneur used data from Nasa to understand where most of the world’s population resides and found half of us are crammed into just one percent of the world.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: Looking at Asia .... yup .... that is where the people are.
U.S., Russia, And China Are In A Race To Have 'Super Soldiers' And Artificial Intelligence
Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work warned that America would soon lose its military competitive advantage if it does not pursue technologies such as employing artificial intelligence.
Altering human beings from the inside to more effectively fight in combat is claimed to presents ethical dilemmas for American scientists and military planners.
Work says those ethical concerns typically don't apply to authoritarian governments like Russia's or China's, but their lack of hesitation in developing EHOs may force America's hand.
Read more ....
CSM Editor: I always find it fascinating that what was once labelled science fiction is now being seriously developed today. This is one of those cases.
How Much Does It Cost To Be 'Buried' In Space?
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Priceonomics: The Business of Space Funerals
In November 2015 near the beaches of Hawaii, the latest incarnation of a military rocket dating back to the early 1960s called the Super Strypi launched its inaugural voyage. At first operations appeared normal. The rocket lifted off, departed the white sands, began spinning, which stabilizes the craft, and seemed destined for a planned orbit about 260 miles above the planet.
But about a minute after takeoff something went wrong –– the Defense Department doesn't share specifics –– and the Super Strypi came crashing back to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific. Failed rocket launches aren't noteworthy by themselves. But this vessel had a curious payload: human remains, packed into metal cubes.
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Editor: Bottom line .... it's not cheap.
How Can You Tell The Difference Between A Nuclear Bomb Test And An earthquake
Ko Yun-hwa (L), Administrator of Korea Meteorological Administration, points at where seismic waves observed in South Korea came from, during a media briefing at Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul, South Korea, January 6, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Defense One: How to Tell The Difference Between a Nuclear Bomb Test and an Earthquake
The preliminary data suggests that the event in North Korea was not, in fact, the end of the world
Shortly after North Korea claimed it had tested a hydrogen bomb — a weapon potentially hundreds of times more powerful than the fission bombs the country had already set off — seismologists at the United States Geological Survey, or USGS, went to work trying to understand the event. Their early findings suggest that a nuclear bomb test did occur but that it wasn’t a hydrogen bomb. So how do you tell the difference?
First, you try to rule out the possibility that North Korea was just trying to claim credit for an earthquake. Geologists and seismologists look at several factors to determine whether a seismic event is natural or manmade. One is the location: is it on a known fault line, a place where there’s a lot of mining activity, etc.? Another factor is the seismological waveform itself, the waving lines that appear on the seismograph. An explosion forms wiggles that are different from the ones generated by an earthquake, according to USGS seismologist Paul Earle.
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CSN Editor: Yup .... the science that is used in telling the difference between an earthquake and a nuclear test is very detailed and exact.
Are Advanced Alien Civilizations Living In Globular Star Clusters?
Space.com: Advanced Alien Civilizations Could Live in Globular Star Clusters
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Densely packed groups of stars may make excellent cradles for complex space-traveling life to evolve. Despite studies that claim these environments, known as globular clusters, may be too harsh for life, a new study argues for a more optimistic view based on the evolving understanding of where planets lie outside the solar system.
"A globular cluster might be the first place in which intelligent life is identified in our galaxy," lead study author Rosanne Di Stefano, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement. Di Stefano presented the new research today (Jan. 6) here at the 227th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.Globular clusters are massive groupings of millions of stars in a region only 100 light-years across. The clusters date back to the early life of the Milky Way — nearly 10 billion years ago. (For comparison, the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years old.) Although these clusters' age raises some questions, it also provides ample time for civilizations that emerged to evolve and become complex.
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More News On The Investigation Of Alien Life Living In Globular Star Clusters
Dense Star Fields Might Be Home To Extraterrestrial Life -- National Geographic
Star Clusters Could Be Best Place to Look for Intelligent Alien Life: Study -- AP
In search for alien life, focus on globular star clusters -- CBS
Star clumps harbour 'sweet spot' in search for alien life -- BBC
Old stars may have some new tricks – possibly even life -- CSM
Do Extraterrestrials Exist? Alien Life Could Thrive In Globular Star Clusters -- tech Times
Alien Life May Be Hiding in These Brilliant Star Clusters -- Gizmodo
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
The World is Experiencing A 'Volcano Season' Right Now
Express: Yellowstone about to blow? Scientists warning over SUPER-VOLCANO that could kill MILLIONS
SCIENTISTS have warned the world is in "volcano season" and there is up to a 10% chance of an eruption soon killing millions of people and devastating the planet.
Instances of volcanic eruptions are their highest for 300 years and scientists fear a major one that could kill millions and devastate the planet is a real possibility.
Experts at the European Science Foundation said volcanoes – especially super-volcanoes like the one at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, which has a caldera measuring 34 by 45 miles (55 by 72 km) - pose more threat to Earth and the survival of humans than asteroids, earthquakes, nuclear war and global warming.
There are few real contingency plans in place to deal with the ticking time bomb, which they conclude is likely to go off within the next 80 years.
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CSN Editor: Yellowstone has exploded before .... so it will probably happen again in the future. The question is .... when?
Is Vinyl Making A Comeback?
Tech Times: The Turntable Is Alive And Well: Sony Unveils Direct-Drive PS-HX500 To Battle Panasonic’s Technics SL-1200
The turntable is something many audiophiles still enjoy using, and that is not going to change anytime soon, not with Sony pushing its PS-HX500 turntable to those who are interested.
There aren't many differences to the PS-HX500 when compared to other high-end turntables. If you want it to do the regular turntable stuff, this Sony offering will do just fine, but so will other competing products.
What the Japanese giant is betting on is the device's analog-to-digital conversion. Other competing products similar to the PS-HX500 do not come with this feature, so that's a huge defining thing Sony will surely want to transform into a selling point.
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CSN Editor: YES!!!! Being one who grew up with vinyl .... and who still has a large vinyl collection .... this puts a smile on my face because this type of music is great to listen to.
More News On Sony's New Turntable For Music Lovers
It's all about the audiophile as Sony shows off light-bulb speaker, high-tech turntable -- CNet
CES: Sony debuts high-tech turntable, super-thin TVs, 4K video camera -- FOX News
Sony Unveils LP Turntables for High-Resolution Audio Era -- WSJ
This new Sony turntable is turnt -- The Verge
Sony's New PS-HX500 Turntable Will Make You Want To Start A Record Collection -- Tech Times
The Coolest Technology At CES 2016
ABC News: CES 2016: The Coolest Technology We've Seen So Far
The annual CES technology show is a time when we're given a glimpse into what the future could look like, new technology stars can be born and of course, zany ideas are celebrated.
"With 2.4 million square feet of space and so many categories from robotics to 3D printing to drones and driverless cars, there is a lot going on," Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Technology Association told ABC News.
The 49th annual show, officially kicks off in Las Vegas on Wednesday, but ABC News has already checked out some new technology ahead of the event.
What will we be talking about when this week comes to a close? Here are some of the biggest standouts we've seen so far. Check back throughout the
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Visible Light Has Been Detected From Black Holes For The First Time
A Nasa illustration of a supermassive black hole. Before the V404 Cygni observations, similar outbursts had only been seen as intense flashes of x-rays and gamma-rays, using high-spec telescopes. Photograph: Nasa/Reuters
The Guardian: Visible light from black holes detected for first time
Scientists observing V404 Cygni discovered that even amateur telescopes are capable of capturing violent outburst from black holes closest to Earth.
Astronomers have discovered that black holes can be observed through a simple optical telescope when material from surrounding space falls into them and releases violent bursts of light.
The apparent contradiction emerges when a black hole’s gravity pulls in matter from nearby stars, producing light that can be viewed from a modest 20cm telescope.
Japanese researchers detected light waves from V404 Cygni - an active black hole in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan - when it awoke from a 26-year-long slumber in June 2015.
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CSN Editor: More proof that black holes do exist.
The World's First 'Autonomous Aerial Vehicle' For Transporting People Is Unveiled At The CES Show In Las Vegas
Daily Mail: The MEGADRONE big enough to carry a passenger: Chinese firm says self-flying craft could be used as a smart taxi
* The all-electric vehicle has four arms with eight propellers at the end allowing it to travel up to 60mph
* Ehang says the 184 is autonomous, so all the passenger has to do is enter their final destination into an app
* FAA regulators have not approved the drone for human use in the US, but Ehang is hopeful they will do soon
* Cost is yet to be revealed and the company claims a commercial version of the craft will be available this year
A Chinese drone maker has revealed a giant quadcopter big enough to fit a passenger.
EHang claims to be building the world's first 'Autonomous Aerial Vehicle' for transporting people.
Unveiled at CES in Las Vegas and called the 184, the all-electric vehicle has four arms with a total of eight propellers at the end.
'You know how it feels to sit in a Ferrari? This is 10 times better,' George Yan, co-founder of Ehang said in an interview with DailyMail.com.
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CSN Editor: They have their work cut out for them .... but my gut is telling me that this product is going to do well .... especially if they can bring down the price.
What Are The Biggest Health Risks For Humans In Space
YouTube
Gizmodo: The Biggest Health Risks to Humans in Space
With the The Martian rocketing to the top of box offices worldwide this week, the challenge of surviving on Mars is on everyone’s mind. But while the science in The Martian is pretty solid, there is one obstacle Mark Watney rarely had to cope with: his own body.
During his two years alone on the Red Planet, Mark Watney never fell sick. He never had to splint his own bones or pass a kidney stone, never suffered a bout of insomnia or depression, never got cancer. But real astronauts traveling to Mars could face all of these unpleasantries and more. That’s why NASA has tasked a small army of biomedical researchers with studying how the human body and mind are impacted by long stints in space. Gizmodo spoke with the experts to learn about the biggest health risks facing our astronauts, and what we can do to mitigate them.
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CSN Editor: This article was posted in the fall of 2015 .... but it is still relevant for today.
The Quest To Build An Artificial Brain Gets A Big Financial Boost
Denver Post/Washington Post: Microsoft co-founder launches $500M quest to build an artificial brain
Building a machine that reasons well enough to pass a high school science test will be more complex than engineering the first Windows OS.
SEATTLE — Paul Allen has been waiting for the emergence of intelligent machines for a very long time.
As a young boy, Allen spent much of his time in the library reading science fiction novels in which robots manage our homes, perform surgery and fly around saving lives like superheroes. In his imagination, these beings would live among us, serving as our advisers, companions and friends.
Now 62 and worth an estimated $17.7 billion, the Microsoft co-founder is using his wealth to back two separate philanthropic research efforts at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence that he hopes will hasten that future.
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CSN Editor: I am slightly late on this news item. AI has always been a fascination of Microsoft founder Bill Gates .... and now we know that his partner (Paul Allen) shares the same interest.
Why Do Poor Costa Ricans Outlive Poor Americans?
Bloomberg: A Longevity Puzzle: Why Do Poor Costa Ricans Outlive Poor Americans?
In the U.S., income and health go hand-in-hand. That's not the case everywhere.
Does being poor mean being less healthy? In the United States, the answer is generally yes: Income and health are intertwined, and the richer you are, the healthier you’re likely to be.
Still, the link between poverty and poor health isn't ironclad. Take Costa Rica, where the poorest 25 percent of people live longer than their counterparts in the U.S., according to an analysis published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Costa Rica punches above its weight on many measures of health and social welfare. It’s a middle-income democracy with a population of 4.8 million—about the size of Alabama—and a per-capita gross domestic product about one-fifth that of the U.S. In other words, it's much less wealthy than the U.S. As you would expect, the rich in America enjoy lower mortality rates than do the rich in Costa Rica. But when you look at the other end of the socio-economic scale, the reverse is true.
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CSN Editor: Forget about Costa Rica. I live in Canada, and some of the healthiest people that I know are also the poorest. It is all a question of lifestyle, good eating habits, sleep, and staying away from stress.
What Happens After Intelligent Life is Found?
Tom Chmielewski, The Atlantic: After Intelligent Life Is Discovered
Here’s what happens if astronomers make contact with a civilization on another planet.
The false alarm happened in 1997.
The Green Bank Radio Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, was picking up some unusual signals—and Seth Shostak, then the head of the Center for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Research in Mountain View, Caifornia, was convinced that they had come from intelligent life somewhere in the universe.
“It looked like it might be the real deal,” Shostak recalled. Within a few hours, he had a call from The New York Times.
But within a day, it became clear that the source of excitement was actually a European satellite. To make matters worse, a second telescope in Georgia, which would have told the scientists about the true nature of the signal, wasn’t working.
Yet Shostak says that false alarm proved to be a valuable dry run for the astronomers, giving them a small taste of what would happen if the signal turned out to be real. In 1989, the International Academy of Astronautics adopted its SETI Post-Detection Protocols, a set of guidelines for how to proceed once intelligent life is discovered among the stars. SETI researchers hope that one day soon, they’ll have a chance to use them.
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CSN Editor: If first contact is made .... it is a guarantee that the whole world will be paying attention.
How Coffee Loves Us Back
Harvard Gazette: How coffee loves us back
Health benefits a recurring theme in Harvard research
Coffee, said the Napoleon-era French diplomat Talleyrand, should be hot as hell, black as the devil, pure as an angel, sweet as love.
Bach wrote a cantata in its honor, writers rely on it, and, according to legend, a pope blessed it. Lady Astor once reportedly remarked that if she were Winston Churchill’s wife, she’d poison his coffee, to which Churchill acerbically replied: “If I were married to you, I’d drink it.”
Coffee is everywhere, through history and across the world. And increasingly, science is demonstrating that its popularity is a good thing.
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CSN Editor: A cup every morning is my routine .... 7 days a week, 365 days a pear.
Spinning Bowling Ball Trick Shot!
From YouTube: I have had several people ask me to make a video of some of my trick shots, and by far this one is at the top of the list! Attempted in Springfield, Mo on 3/30/14 by Michael Long. Please like and share if you think it deserves the credit.. Thanks for watching! If you want, subscribe and check out my other videos!! This video is represented by Break.com
CSN Editor: OK .... I am impressed.
What Causes The Social Order In Bee Colonies To Collapse
A hive of Apis dorsata (giant honey bees) I photographed whilst in Mt Abu, India. Wikipedia
AFP: Sexual rebellion and murder among the bees
Scientists revealed Wednesday the trigger that can plunge a colony of obedient and sterile worker bees dutifully serving their queen into a chaotic swarm of sexual rebellion and regicide.
It's in the beeswax, according to a study published in the British journal Royal Society Open Science.
Biologists have long puzzled at what, exactly, tips the ordered world of many social insects -- rigidly divided by caste, function and hierarchy -- into murderous mayhem of sometimes Shakespearean dimensions.
In this case, the actor subject to observation and experimentation was Bombus terrestris, more commonly known as the bumblebee.
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CSN Editor: I have been fascinated with bees since I was a kid. But this AFP report is an excellent post that summarizes how a bee colony functions.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
The Work To Reclaim Looted Antiquities From Iraq Is Starting
Neanderthal remains were found, along with a plinth of sediment, in Shanidar Cave in Iraq. GRAEME BARKER
Discovery: ISIS Gone, Archaeologists Return to Key Iraq Sites
As the terrorist group ISIS is pushed out of northern Iraq, archaeologists are resuming work in the region, making new discoveries and figuring out how to conserve archaeological sites and reclaim looted antiquities.
Several discoveries, including new Neanderthal skeletal remains, have been made at Shanidar Cave, a site in Iraqi Kurdistan that was inhabited by Neanderthals more than 40,000 years ago.
Additionally, though ISIS did destroy and loot a great number of sites, there are several ways for archaeologists, scientific institutions, governments and law enforcement agencies in North America and Europe to help save the region's heritage, said Dlshad Marf Zamua, a Kurdish archaeologist and doctoral student at Leiden University in the Netherlands. [Photos: Restoring Life to Iraq's Ruined Artifacts]
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CSN Editor: Unfortunately .... a lot of history has already been destroyed.
A Super-Fast 50mph Drone For The General Consumer
A series of sensors help keep the Parrot stable while in flight. On the bottom of the drone, a camera and ultrasound help maintain its balance. Pictured is exhibitor Fabien Laxague
Daily Mail: The superfast 50mph flying wing 'stealth drone' you can launch by THROWING it into the air
* Parrot Disco can fly for 45 minutes on a single charge
* Can reach speeds of 50mph and fly automatically
* Pilots can take control from their phone, or even via a VR headset
Parrot has unveiled what could be the fastest drone on the market for home users - capable of reaching 50mph.
Called the Disco, a prototype was unveiled at CES in Las Vegas, and it expected to go on sale before the end of the year - although no price was announced.
It will fly for 45 minutes on a single charge, and can fly itself via an app, with smart software allowing pilots to take control from their phone, or even via a VR headset.
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CSN Editor: When I read stories like this one .... I shudder on what terrorists can do with this type of tech in their hands.
NASA's Kepler Telescope Has Found 100 New Exoplanets
The artist's illustration shows NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in its second-chance K2 mission. Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle
Space.com: NASA's Kepler Comes Roaring Back with 100 New Exoplanet Finds
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — NASA's Kepler spacecraft has bounced back nicely from the malfunction that ended its original exoplanet hunt more than two years ago.
Kepler has now discovered more than 100 confirmed alien planets during its second-chance K2 mission, researchers announced today (Jan. 5) here at the 227th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
The $600 million Kepler mission launched in March 2009, tasked with determining how commonly Earth-like planets occur throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Kepler has been incredibly successful, finding more than 1,000 alien worlds to date, more than half of all exoplanets ever discovered.
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CSN Editor: Kudos to this team. The Kepler project is not done yet.
The Story Of Math Genius Ramanujan
Cosmos: Ramanujan – a humble maths genius
Ramanujan’s extraordinary mathematical ability has become the stuff of legend. Paul Davies tells his story.
The number 1,729 is not one to make the average person’s pulse race, but it is the subject of one of the most remarkable stories in the history of mathematics.
Most of us learnt basic arithmetic at school, and we all remember that some students were better at it than others – the bright girl who could do sums twice as fast as the rest of us, or the boy who could prove theorems in a trice. Of course all subjects attract a range of skills, but almost unique to mathematics are a handful of extreme outliers who are so good it seems they are deploying some form of magic. The best-known genius of this type was Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Born in 1887, Ramanujan was an eccentric young Indian student who lived in obscurity in the town of Kumbakonam in the state of Tamil Nadu. Bestowed with remarkable analytical skills, by the age of 13 he had devised his own scheme for computing the digits of pi that is still in use today. He spent much of his spare time scribbling formulae in notebooks or on a small blackboard.
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CSN Editor: Wikipedia has an excellent list of links on the work that this mathematical genius did. The Wikipedia entry is here.
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