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Adults 'scared to approach children'

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:03:52 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Adults are afraid to interact with other people's children because they fear being labelled a paedophile, according to a report published today by the thinktank Civitas.

The report, Licensed To Hug, calls for regulation and vetting to be relaxed because the "dramatic escalation of child protection measures has succeeded in poisoning the relationship between the generations".

In the past, the report says, adults would have routinely helped children in distress or rebuked those who were misbehaving but now think twice about the consequences. Instead, there was now "an atmosphere of mistrust".

Tags: children, adults

Top 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:22:07 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: listverse.com

Language is perhaps the most important function of the human body - it allows us to get sustenance as a child, it allows us to get virtually anything we want as an adult, and it allows us many hours of entertainment through literature, radio, music, and films. This list (in order of least to most spoken) summarizes the most important languages in use today.

French

Malay-Indonesian

Portuguese

Bengali

Arabic

Russian

Spanish

Hindustani

English

Mandarin

Tags: language, world

The language you speak affects your personality

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:07:21 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A study of bilingual women suggests that when you switch from speaking one language to another, your personality and your perceptions change as well. I've experienced this myself switching between German and English.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Switching languages can also switch personality: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - People who are bicultural and speak two languages may unconsciously change their personality when they switch languages, according to a U.S. study.

Researchers David Luna from Baruch College and Torsten Ringberg and Laura A. Peracchio from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee studied groups of Hispanic women, all of whom were bilingual, but with varying degrees of cultural identification.

"Language can be a cue that activates different culture-specific frames," the researchers said in a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

The researchers said the women classified themselves as more assertive when they spoke Spanish than when they spoke English.

"In the Spanish-language sessions, informants perceived females as more self-sufficient and extroverted," they said.

Tags: language, psychology, news, science, gender, via:twitter

Mugabe: Sir no more. Queen strips him.

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:27:15 GMT

clipped by: righthand

Clip Source: www.thelondonpaper.com

Robert Mugabe stripped of honour as Queen takes a stand against 'abuse of human rights'

Robert Mugabe was stripped of his honorary knighthood today over his "abuse of human rights" and "abject disregard" for democracy, the Foreign Office said.

Clip Source: timesonline.typepad.com

Clip Source: www.thelondonpaper.com

The move comes as the Zimbabwean leader faces condemnation from around the world ahead of Friday's presidential run-off.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed today that he was seeking to block a Zimbabwe cricket tour of England planned for next year.

Clip Source: www.theage.com.au

Clip Source: robskinner.typepad.com

Clip Source: www.thelondonpaper.com

The Queen - seen here with Mugabe before a State banquet - has now approved the annulment of Mr Mugabe's knighthood - awarded in 1994 - on the recommendation of Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Clip Source: siasaduni.blogspot.com

Mugabe building a palace with 30 bedrooms set in 44 acres of landscaped gardens. Jewels drip from crystal chandeliers amid marble columns and velvet drapes. The front of the building looks like the White House while the inside recalls the worst excesses of the Palace of Versailles

Tags: uk, africa, dictator, election

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:12:11 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "Speaking at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference this past March, Peter Norvig, Google's research director, offered an update to George Box's maxim: "All models are wrong, and increasingly you can succeed without them."

Clip Source: www.wired.com

"All models are wrong, but some are useful."

So proclaimed statistician George Box 30 years ago, and he was right. But what choice did we have? Only models, from cosmological equations to theories of human behavior, seemed to be able to consistently, if imperfectly, explain the world around us. Until now. Today companies like Google, which have grown up in an era of massively abundant data, don't have to settle for wrong models. Indeed, they don't have to settle for models at all.

Sixty years ago, digital computers made information readable. Twenty years ago, the Internet made it reachable. Ten years ago, the first search engine crawlers made it a single database. Now Google and like-minded companies are sifting through the most measured age in history, treating this massive corpus as a laboratory of the human condition. They are the children of the Petabyte Age.

Tags: theory, data, scientific model, computation cloud, google

How a Man-Made Tornado Could Power the Future

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:27:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Coiled up in a tornado is as much energy as an entire power plant. So a Canadian engineer has a plan to spin up his own twister and extract energy from its tethered tail.

It all depends on heating the air near the surface so that it is much warmer than the air above.

"You can generate energy whenever you have a temperature gradient," said Louis Michaud. "The source of the energy here is the natural movement of warm and cold air currents."

These so-called convective air currents are only useful if they can be channeled in some way. That is why Michaud proposes using a tornado as a kind of drinking straw between the warm ground below and the cold sky above. Wind turbines placed at the bottom could generate electricity from the sucked-up air.

Whirlwind tour

Tornadoes and hurricanes form when sun-heated air near the surface rises and displaces cooler air above. As outside air rushes in to replace the rising air, the whole mass begins to rotate.

Tags: energy, man made, tornado

Physicists Produce Quantum-Entangled Images

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:33:03 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.kurzweilai.net

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland (UM) have produced "quantum images," pairs of information-rich visual patterns whose features are entangled (linked by the laws of quantum physics).

Matching up both quantum images and subtracting their fluctuations, their noise is lower (so their information content potentially higher) than it is from any two classical images.

In addition to promising better detection of faint objects and improved amplification and positioning of light beams, the researchers' technique for producing quantum images may someday be useful for storing patterns of data in quantum computers and transmitting large amounts of highly secure encrypted information.

Tags: quantum, quantum entanglment, computing, images

The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn't Just More — More Is Different

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:05:03 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.wired.com

Sensors everywhere. Infinite storage. Clouds of processors. Our ability to capture, warehouse, and understand massive amounts of data is changing science, medicine, business, and technology. As our collection of facts and figures grows, so will the opportunity to find answers to fundamental questions. Because in the era of big data, more isn't just more. More is different.

Feeding the Masses:
Data In, Crop Predictions Out

Chasing the Quark:
Sometimes You Need to Throw Information Away

Watching the Skies:
Space Is Big — But Not Too Big to Map

Scanning Our Skeletons:
Bone Images Show Wear and Tear

Spotting the Hot Zones:
Now We Can Monitor Epidemics Hour by Hour

Sorting the World:
Google Invents New Way to Manage Data

Visualizing Big Data:
Bar Charts for Words

Tags: petabyte, data

Artificial Intelligence - The future of AI is here

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:49:17 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: If your definition of artificial intelligence is a humanoid robot that can walk, talk, and chew gum then AI hasn't yet delivered on its promise. But just wait. AI researchers are making major strides in developing machines that can perform human functions. Here are some examples.

Clip Source: www.networkworld.com

The future of AI is here: It's just widely distributed

If your definition of artificial intelligence is a humanoid robot that can walk, talk, and chew gum then AI hasn't yet delivered on its promise. But just wait. AI researchers are making major strides in developing machines that can perform human functions. Here are some examples.

Care-O-bot

Care-O-bot is a mobile robot assistant designed to assist elderly or handicapped people in daily life activities.

Luke

Mind-controlled prosthetic arm

Segway-inventor Dean Kamen has been working on a mind-controlled prosthetic robot arm

Phoenix

The Mars lander is able to navigate on the surface of the Red Planet

that can do delicate brain surgery

Ultra Hal Assistant

is described as a digital secretary that uses AI to understand spoken English commands and to learn over time

Roomba

A floor-cleaning robot

Dexter (not the serial killer)

Walk like a man

iLimb Hand

Bionic man hands

Boss

Robot Chevy drives itself to the levee

Flame

Clearflow

anaesthetics as pain boosters?

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:14:01 GMT

clipped by: mona

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Anaesthetics 'could worsen pain'

Some general anaesthetics could actually worsen the pain following surgery, say scientists.

So-called "noxious" anaesthesia drugs - used commonly worldwide - stimulate nerves to cause irritation long after the operation is over.

The drugs act on the same receptors on nerve cells which are activated by contact with other irritants, such as garlic, mustard or chilli.

Thousands die in India custody!

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:37:48 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee
clipper's remarks: By Chris Morris
BBC News, Delhi

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A new report by a human rights group says nearly 7,500 people have died in official custody in India over the last five years.

The report by Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights says many of these people were tortured in custody.

It says the Indian government is in a state of denial about torture.

Even when action is taken against officials who are accused of wrongdoing, the report argues, the system tries to cover up any crimes.

The Indian report was released to coincide with the United Nations' global day against torture on Thursday.

Nearly all the deaths, it says, were the result of torture.

But the government routinely attributes deaths in custody to illness, attempted escape, suicide and accidents.

Tags: india, custody, deaths, thousands.