Turns out the first fix wasn't actually a fix...

[url]https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2014-7169[/url]

[url]http://carnegiescience.edu/news/smallestpossible_diamonds_form_ultrathin_nanothread[/url]

Cave Paintings in Indonesia Redraw Picture of Earliest Art
 

[url]http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141008-cave-art-sulawesi-hand-science/[/url]
[QUOTE]A hand painted in an Indonesian cave dates to at least 39,900 years ago, making it among the oldest such images in the world, archaeologists reported Wednesday in a study that rewrites the history of art.[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://www.futurity.org/brain-volume-aging-mri-768612/"]BRAINS GROW AND SHRINK LIKE ‘RAINBOWS’ AS WE AGE[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140925100404.htm"]How brain handles tactile sensations: New findings[/URL]

[URL="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/music-unlocks-teachers-voice-brain-090000911.html"]Music unlocks teacher's voice in brain aneurysm recovery[/URL]

[URL="http://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/runner-shows-resiliency-ingenuity-in-wake-of-accident"]Runner Shows Resiliency, Ingenuity in Wake of Accident[/URL]

[URL="http://chronicle.com/article/Madnessthe-Muse/148845/"]Madness and the Muse[/URL]

[URL="http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/09/27/New-study-explains-the-brain-of-multitaskers/4691411862816/"]New study explains the brain of multitaskers[/URL]

[URL="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/15-words-you-didnt-realize-were-named-after-people"]15 words you didn't realize were named after people[/URL]

[URL="http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/10/03/how.curiosity.changes.brain.enhance.learning"]http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/10/03/how.curiosity.changes.brain.enhance.learning[/URL]

[URL="http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/genetics/how-tech-traced-hiv-to-its-beginnings-17270225??src=rss=="]How Technology Traced HIV to Its Very Beginnings[/URL]

[URL="https://medium.com/message/how-to-tell-when-a-robot-has-written-you-a-letter-701562705d59"]How to tell when a robot has written you a letter[/URL]

[URL="http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/09241109-maven-returns-first-images-of-mars.html"]MAVEN returns first images of Mars' atmosphere[/URL]

[URL="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/"]How social media is reshaping news[/URL]

[URL="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/nea-girls-leadership-study_n_5910944.html?ir=Science"]Boys Are Much More Likely To Take On Leadership Roles In Science And Math Class, Say Teachers[/URL]

[QUOTE=rogue;384981]
[URL="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/15-words-you-didnt-realize-were-named-after-people"]15 words you didn't realize were named after people[/URL][/QUOTE]
That's a lie! Only one of them (bloomers) was previously not known to me as an eponym.

[URL="http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/oct/09/are-weak-values-quantum-after-all"]Are 'weak values' quantum after all?[/URL][QUOTE]Ferrie and Combes say that their example shows that weak measurements are merely an artefact of classical statistics and classical disturbances, and they argue that when a classical explanation suffices, there is no need to invoke a quantum explanation. "Statistics can fool you," says Combes. "We think this particular weak-value puzzle is a statistical question, not a fundamentally quantum question. There might be something genuinely quantum about weak values, but to my eye that's not clear yet."
Rainer Kaltenbaek of the Quantum Foundations and Quantum Information group at the University of Vienna found the general idea underlying Ferrie and Combe's analysis very interesting. "In particular, it shows that there's often still confusion about what to make of weak values," he says.[B][/B][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=xilman;384986]That's a lie! Only one of them (bloomers) was previously not known to me as an eponym.[/QUOTE]

I confess most of these were shockingly new to me, but it seems I'm a [strike]dumbass[/strike] follower of the late Mr. Scotus who figures into #8.

Now that the initial shock has subsided somewhat, my comments and questions:

1. saxophone - So shouldn't it be the Adolphone? (And is Adolphe's brother Goldman the on who founded the eponymous investment bank?)

2. nicotine - Makes sense that this is named after a Frenchman, that is also what is predicted by the branch of mathematics known as Galoises theory.

3. bloomers - And knickers are named after the famous NYC basketball franchise, yes?

4. mausoleum - I thought it was after the folks who made those "Corn - we call it maize" [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuOlD0JZhM4"]cooking-oil and margarine TV commercials[/url], a kind of "bury my heart-clogging fats at Wounded Knee" ad theme. Shows you how much I know.

5. chauvinism - Another predictable "Of course ahm Fransh - why do you theenk I have thees outrrrrrrrrrageous acc-ent?" import. Note that the UK equivalent, jingoism, is confusingly named after a German, John Jacob Jingoheimerschmidt. I think it's a Hanoverian-dynastic thing.

6. Cyrillic - Ah, wrong again. (I had always thought "Cyrillic" was the Russian for "It's Greek to me, comrade").

7. lynching - I just hope this doesn't mean I'm gonna have to stop drinking Jack Daniel's out of moral principle. Please tell me the -burg is named after a different Lynch...

8. dunce cap - Speaking of lazy pupils, my ophthalmologist (derived from the name of Ophthalmus, a famous Greek seer who lived around 2500 BC) told me I have a case of those recently, but he prescribed eye exercises and some medicinal drops, pointy-cap-wearing didn't figure into it. Is he ripping me off by prescribing substandard care? If hat-wearing is an important part of the cure, I want to know.

9. fuchsia - Ah, I thought this was some kind of bizarre anti-honor for Klaus Fuchs, the (in)famous Manhattan Project leaker. So this means I can actually wear this color wihout being accused of being a crypto-commie? That would be cool.

10. Uzi - Yowzers. I though it was Hebrew for "Kalashniknov".

11. gardenia - Not your garden-variety eponym here. Oh wait...

12. braille - On the hearing-challenged side of the ledger, ASL is not an initialism for "American Sign Language" as commonly assumed, but rather is in honor of the late Turkish Dr. Aslan Canuhearmenowoglu, a famous 19th-century worker-with-deaf-children.

13. diesel - Not after Vin? C'mon, you're pulling mein Bein!

14. macadam - Wrong, wrong, wrong, it's because the stones in the mix look like the eponymous - and very expensive - nuts. Next they'll be telling us "tarmac" is short for "tar macadam". Pull the other one, guys!

15. bougainvillea - Not after the S. Pacific island? Dagnabbit, I really thought I had that one right, too.

[QUOTE=only_human;384992][URL="http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/oct/09/are-weak-values-quantum-after-all"]Are 'weak values' quantum after all?[/URL][/QUOTE]

Interesting - But doesn't the whole notion of QM weak measurements contradict the uncertainty principle to begin with? (That would have been enough to render it extremely dubious in my book, but OTOH I have great respect for the work of the likes of Aharonov and his longtime collaborator Bohm.)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;385140]Interesting - But doesn't the whole notion of QM weak measurements contradict the uncertainty principle to begin with? (That would have been enough to render it extremely dubious in my book, but OTOH I have great respect for the work of the likes of Aharonov and his longtime collaborator Bohm.)[/QUOTE]Dunno, even if I had a wheelhouse, my opinion would be outside [I]that[/I] and hanging out with Snoopy next door.

Physics World called a weak measurement experiment [I]Breakthrough of the Year[/I] in 2011:
[URL="http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2011/dec/16/physics-world-reveals-its-top-10-breakthroughs-for-2011"]Physics World reveals its top 10 breakthroughs for 2011[/URL][QUOTE]We have also awarded nine runners-up (see below). The choice between first and second place was particularly close this year because the number-two finding also involves weak measurement – this time to map the wavefunction of a bunch of photons. But we felt that Steinberg's finding edged it. Other breakthroughs in the list include the first "space–time" cloak, a laser made from a living cell and a new way to measure cosmic distances.

1st place: Shifting the morals of quantum measurement

Steinberg's work stood out because it challenges the widely held notion that quantum mechanics forbids us any knowledge of the paths taken by individual photons as they travel through two closely spaced slits to create an interference pattern.

This interference is exactly what one would expect if we think of light as an electromagnetic wave. But quantum mechanics also allows us to think of the light as photons – although with the weird consequence that if we determine which slit individual photons travel through, then the interference pattern vanishes. By using weak measurements Steinberg and his team have been able to gain some information about the paths taken by the photons without destroying the pattern.
In the experiment, the double slit is replaced by a beamsplitter and a pair of optical fibres. A single photon strikes the beamsplitter and travels along either the right or the left fibre. After emerging from the closely spaced ends of the parallel fibres, it creates an interference pattern on a detector screen.

The weak measurement is performed by passing the emerging photons through a piece of calcite, which imparts a tiny rotation in the polarization of the photon. The amount of rotation depends on the direction of travel of the photon – in other words, its momentum. The photons are then "post-selected" according to where they strike the screen, which allows the researchers to determine the average direction of travel of photons that arrive there.
The experiment reveals, for example, that a photon detected on the right-hand side of the diffraction pattern is more likely to have emerged from the optical fibre on the right than from the optical fibre on the left. While this knowledge is not forbidden by quantum mechanics, Steinberg says that physicists have been taught that "asking where a photon is before it is detected is somehow immoral".

"Little by little, people are asking forbidden questions," says Steinberg, who adds that his team's experiment will "push [physicists] to change how they think about things".

2nd place: Measuring the wavefunction

Second place goes to another group that has asked a "forbidden question". Led by Jeff Lundeen at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa – a former colleague of Steinberg – a team has used weak measurement to map out the wavefunction of an ensemble of identical photons without actually destroying any of them. Quantum tomography, in contrast, maps out the wavefunction at the expense of destroying the state. As well as boosting our understanding of the fundamentals of quantum mechanics, the technique could prove useful in cases where tomography cannot be used.[/QUOTE]

[B][SIZE=2]Ultra-fast charging batteries that can be 70% recharged in just two minutes[/SIZE][/B]

[URL]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141013090449.htm[/URL]

I prefer this news:

[B][SIZE=3]Space-based methane maps find largest U.S. signal in Southwest[/SIZE][/B]


[url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141009163805.htm[/url]

PS( means cows and US citizens fart alot...hehehe)

I wonder what places like Nigeria and the northern reaches of Siberia look like on a methane map. In the first, oil exploiters are flaring off huge quantities of methane because it's not worth their trouble. Those flare zones are [U]really[/U] bright in night, visible light satellite photos. It seems pretty likely that a great deal of methane can escape unburned.

What I'd be looking for in Siberia is signs of methane plumes from thawing permafrost, or from methane clathrates in a warming ocean.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_clathrate[/url]

It is official. Today's [URL="http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/tech/innovation/partial-solar-eclipse/index.html"]solar eclipse[/URL] went almost completely unnoticed even by the people who could see it. ;-)

[QUOTE=Batalov;385903]It is official. Today's [URL="http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/tech/innovation/partial-solar-eclipse/index.html"]solar eclipse[/URL] went almost completely unnoticed even by the people who could see it. ;-)[/QUOTE]

Took the kids out and saw it with a pinhole projection. They thought it was pretty neat. Also if you looked at the sun, just for a split second, then looked away and closed your eyes, you could see the eclipse as an afterimage, even though the glimpse was too fast to see it. :smile:

You will be in a relatively good spot for the [URL="http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2017Aug21Tgoogle.html"]2017 total eclipse[/URL].
I am thinking about combining a Yellowstone trip and seeing the total.

Saw the annular in 2012 in S/W corner of Utah (drove especially for that).

[QUOTE=Batalov;385941]Saw the annular in 2012 in S/W corner of Utah (drove especially for that).[/QUOTE]

I watched that one about 15 m west of [URL="https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.42815,-113.203943&spn=0.000705,0.00142&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=37.428186,-113.203954&panoid=AivY2ids8yXBXXAWAZCx2A&cbp=12,264.65,,0,6.09"]this point.[/URL]

We spent a day at Bryce and then headed to where the NASA and NP people were setting a telescope with the projection of a giant image (into the inside of a U-Haul truck because it was too bright otherwise). This was [URL="https://www.google.com/maps/search/UT-63/@37.6678406,-112.1580561,3a,75y,13.84h,86.6t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sgs8wvY4RHYpYg-O5QBqZ7Q!2e0"]across from Ruby's Inn[/URL].

So, will we stay six days in the dark in december, or not?

:canofworms[URL="http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/570871/20141027/hoax-alert-6-days-darkness-december.htm#.VE5ruRbLIio"]:[/URL]

[URL="http://www.examiner.com/article/newly-discovered-asteroid-approaching-earth-monday"]Newly discovered asteroid approaching Earth Monday[/URL]

[QUOTE]An asteroid, only discovered on Saturday, will be passing uncomfortably close to Earth on Monday, Oct. 27, as reported in an article published by Science 2.0 on Oct. 26. The asteroid, designated as 2014 UF56 by NASA, is about the size of a small house and would do considerable damage if it struck the planet. Apparently, the chances of that happening are small, but, considering this object has only been known of for a few days, it's possible there hasn't been enough time to ensure it will pass safely.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=science_man_88;386252][URL="http://www.examiner.com/article/newly-discovered-asteroid-approaching-earth-monday"]Newly discovered asteroid approaching Earth Monday[/URL][/QUOTE]
Please never link to the examiner. They also publish UFO and statues found on Mars :poop: Yahoo seems to think that most of their stories are real.

Here is a better link:
[url]http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2014/10/26/near-earth-asteroid-2014-uf56-close-encounter-online-event-27-oct-2014/[/url]

It will pass 0.41 earth-moon distances.

See this thread: [url]http://mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=17889[/url] for many more 'close calls'.

[QUOTE=science_man_88;386252][URL="http://www.examiner.com/article/newly-discovered-asteroid-approaching-earth-monday"]Newly discovered asteroid approaching Earth Monday[/URL][/QUOTE]

Indications that the examiner.com article is sensationalist rather than informative:

1. Lead photo (of Comet ISON) is completely unrelated to the asteroid.

2. Loose, non-quantitative wording, with fear-provoking phrases/questions:

"passing uncomfortably close",

"The big question is, how sure is NASA that asteroid 2014 UF56 is harmless?"
(By the time a passing asteroid has received its provisional designation -- 2014 UF56 in this case -- its orbit has almost certainly been well-enough observed to determine whether it will collide with Earth this time. However, whether it might collide on future passes will take more than just a few days of observations. Ask your Congresscritters to ensure adequate funding for that followup work.)

3. Just plain ol' false statements:

"considering this object has only been known of for a few days, it's possible there hasn't been enough time to ensure it will pass safely"
(It takes only a few hours of observation to determine that an approaching rock will miss Earth. Basically, by the time almost anyone outside the professional community has even heard of it, its "safe" passage (or collision) will have been determined. There's a professional network of observatories that will swing their scopes to do the positional measurements (astrometry) on very short notice.)

"comet [URL="http://www.vice.com/read/siding-springs-comets-earth-at-risk-204"]Siding Spring[/URL] passing close to Mars last week (and causing a massive explosion in the planet's atmosphere)"
(No, Comet Siding Spring did _not_ cause a massive explosion in Mars's atmosphere. Only the sensationalist sites claim it did.)

"it was reported that the Australian observatory which originally discovered the comet is closing down. The closure leaves a gaping hole in the sky watch program, leaving the southern hemisphere largely unmonitored."
(No, there has been no report that Siding Spring Observatory is shutting down. Last year, a large bush fire threatened it for a few days, but no major damage occurred. However, there is a [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/21/siding-spring-observatory-threat-coal-seam-gas-light-pollution"]real [I]potential future threat[/I] that could force closing the observatory[/URL].)

"Comet Siding Spring passed within 90,000 miles of Mars, while this latest asteroid is reported as passing Earth at about twice that distance, or a little over 160,000 miles. That leaves open the possibility that asteroid 2014 UF56 could have a similar effect on Earth's atmosphere. It means this space rock doesn't even have to hit the Earth for it to do considerable damage."
(This claim just reveals the ignorance -- real or feigned -- of astronomy by the writer. The interaction between Comet Siding Spring and Mars was entirely due to gas and dust, emitted by the comet, that traveled many thousands of miles away from the comet nucleus. Asteroid 2014 UF56 is emitting no such stuff.)

- - -

Those wishing a more informative timely source of information about NEOs, comets, Mars rovers, and other Solar System stuff can join the Yahoo group "MPML" (stands for Minor Planet Mailing List) and subscribe to its mailing list (I recommend the digest rather than individual notices).

[url]http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2014/october/documents/papa-francesco_20141027_plenaria-accademia-scienze.html[/url]

[URL="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/7/6910485/13-charts-that-explain-why-your-college-major-matters"]13 charts that explain why your college major matters[/URL]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/10/07/354243631/ever-changing-technology-challenges-filmmakers"]How Do U Film Txts? Here's How Technology And Cinema Evolve Together[/URL]

[URL="http://time.com/3481898/amazing-chemical-reactions-true-beauty-of-science/"]These Amazing Chemical Reactions Will Show You the True Beauty of Science[/URL]

[URL="http://www.news-medical.net/news/20141009/Neuroscientists-solve-mystery-of-e28098chemo-braine28099.aspx"]Neuroscientists solve mystery of ‘chemo brain’[/URL]

[URL="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/10/08/ability-to-see-single-molecules-gets-chemistry-nobel/"]Ability to See Single Molecules Gets Chemistry Nobel[/URL]

[URL="http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-video-science-explains-pizza-tastes-good-20141014-story.html"]Science explains why pizza tastes so darn good[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141017101339.htm"]How the brain leads us to believe we have sharp vision[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/which-are-the-most-educated-cities-in-the-us/education"]Which are the most educated cities in the US — and why[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141015142831.htm"]Researchers develop world's thinnest electric generator[/URL]

[URL="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-legos-first-female-scientist-kit-is-selling-out/"]Why Lego's first female scientist kit is selling out[/URL]

[URL="http://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2014/10/17/science-is-divided-about-music-in-the-workplace-but-it-doesnt-matter/"]Science Is Divided About Music In The Workplace, But It Doesn't Matter[/URL]

[URL="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/02/tech/innovation/prosthetics-mecha-athletes/index.html"]Beyond Pistorius: Rise of 'cyberathletes' could change sport as we know it[/URL]

[URL="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-of-monster-storms1/"]The Science of Monster Storms[/URL]

[URL="http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/10/20/back_to_the_future_tense_big_bang_theory_and_douglas_adams_on_time_travel.html"]Back-to-the-Future Tense: How Does Time Travel Affect Grammar?[/URL]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding"]What Happened To Women In Computer Science?[/URL]

[URL="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/531911/isaac-asimov-asks-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/"]Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?”[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141022123024.htm"]Mathematical model shows how brain remains stable during learning[/URL]

[URL="http://time.com/3529629/motionsavvy-deaf/"]This Technology Could Change the Way Deaf People Live[/URL]

Sorry, just one link - a poor linkSpammer, I am.

[url=techcrunch.com/2014/10/26/this-scientist-is-using-open-sourced-software-techniques-to-turn-bugs-into-patent-free-drugs/]This Scientist Is Using Open Sourced Software Techniques To Turn Bugs Into Patent-Free Drugs[/url] | TechCrunch

Lowest of the Low?
 

[QUOTE=rogue;386432][URL="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/7/6910485/13-charts-that-explain-why-your-college-major-matters"]13 charts that explain why your college major matters[/URL]
[SNIP][URL="http://time.com/3529629/motionsavvy-deaf/"][/URL][/QUOTE]

This is depressing:

[url=news.discovery.com/history/us-history/aluminum-fragment-appears-to-belong-to-earharts-plane-141028.htm]Amelia Earhart Plane Fragment Identified[/url]

Before anyone gets too excited: I have inserted in the Pacific Ocean section of an old world atlas a 20-year-old news clipping centered around a similar claim by the same outfit, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), but featuring a different Pacific islet (Howland island). Apparently the business model here is one of every-few-years-trotted-out juicy claims about a "new discovery!" accompanied by requests for funding. An NC reader [url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/links-103014.html#comment-2344735]explains the very dubious confirmation-biased approach used by TIGHAR[/url]:
[quote]Amelia Earhart’s life and final flight make for a compelling story. Sadly TIGHAR seems to be basically a fraud (unintentional or not). They have something of a bad reputation among the historical aircraft recovery and restoration community, have accomplished basically nothing, and use exceedingly poor methodology. The problems with TIGHAR are summed up in [url=http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4295]this takedown from skeptoid[/url]:
[i]
“Here’s the problem with TIGHAR’s findings. Even though they meticulously document and preserve every artifact, they exhaustively research each one to find matches with real objects from the 1930s, and they look exactly like what such an expedition should look like, their overall methodology is fundamentally, fatally unscientific. It’s unscientific in that it’s done completely backwards. TIGHAR begins with the assumption that Amelia Earhart crashed, camped out, and died on Nikumaroro. They take everything they find — every anomaly in a photograph or in a story, every piece of bone or manmade artifact found on the island — and try to match it to their assumption, rather than trying to objectively assess its origin.
[/i]
Nikumaroro, this tiny island where TIGHAR has recovered its artifacts, is in Kiribati, a nation of 100,000 people spread over millions of square kilometers of the South Pacific. People leaving artifacts come and go all the time.”

It makes me sad to see how every year or so (in time for a new round of fundraising), TIGHAR has “Found Earharts’ plane!” again and again and again.[/quote]

[QUOTE=ch4;386320]Indications that the examiner.com article is sensationalist rather than informative:
[ snip ]
"it was reported that the Australian observatory which originally discovered the comet is closing down. The closure leaves a gaping hole in the sky watch program, leaving the southern hemisphere largely unmonitored."
(No, there has been no report that Siding Spring Observatory is shutting down. Last year, a large bush fire threatened it for a few days, but no major damage occurred. However, there is a [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/21/siding-spring-observatory-threat-coal-seam-gas-light-pollution"]real [I]potential future threat[/I] that could force closing the observatory[/URL].)
[ snip ]
[/QUOTE]
Possibly just misreporting that the [B]program[/B] at Siding Spring Observatory is closing due to funding cuts - "the only program in the southern hemisphere actively searching for potentially hazardous comets, asteroids and meteors", according to [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/20/funding-cuts-leave-earth-with-blind-spot-for-potentially-catastrophic-comets"]this article[/URL], linked to from the end of the article you linked.

Leaving out key words & phrases and other sloppy reporting is widespread unfortunately, not just when reporting science.

[url=http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0111081]Always Gamble on an Empty Stomach: Hunger Is Associated with Advantageous Decision Making[/url] | PLOS One

As one commenter noted, that (along with the general theme of "never let them leave the casino without extracting as much moolah as possible") explains the free buffet offered by many casinos.

[url]http://news.discovery.com/animals/endangered-species/thirty-one-species-get-new-un-protection-status-141110.htm[/url]

A big day on 12 November (Earth time) for Rosetta:
[URL]http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/[/URL]

The first ever landing of a probe on a comet has been achieved, by the European Space Agency:
[URL]https://www.facebook.com/RosettaMission/photos/a.1431900770359006.1073741829.1423532354529181/1546728488876233/?type=1[/URL]

[QUOTE=Nick;387486]The first ever landing of a probe on a comet has been achieved, by the European Space Agency:
[URL]https://www.facebook.com/RosettaMission/photos/a.1431900770359006.1073741829.1423532354529181/1546728488876233/?type=1[/URL][/QUOTE][URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30083969"]Nice pictures of Philae on the way in, the first landing site and then mid-bounce.[/URL]

[QUOTE=Nick;387486]The first ever landing of a probe on a comet has been achieved, by the European Space Agency:
[URL]https://www.facebook.com/RosettaMission/photos/a.1431900770359006.1073741829.1423532354529181/1546728488876233/?type=1[/URL][/QUOTE]

Nice, but alas safety concerns have made "Plan B" backup power generation options in the form of radioisotope generators a no-go.

Thus, we can only hope that they can revive the lander sometime next year when the comet is in a more favorable position w.r.to the sun.

[url]http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141118-nasa-video-carbon-dioxide-global-warming-climate-environment/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;388018][URL]http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141118-nasa-video-carbon-dioxide-global-warming-climate-environment/[/URL][/QUOTE]


The difference in CO2 values in that video from green to dark red is ~7ppm.

How big of an impact does an annual variation of 7ppm have on climate? The fluid dynamics in that model are beautiful.

Just to be clearer, imagine an [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vital_capacity"]average person[/URL] going in a average room (say 5x4 meters big, and 2.5 meters high, which would give a 50k liters of air) holding his/her breath. Then he/she breaths-in deep, and breath out. Exactly 3 times. One, two, three. Then he/she goes out.

That is a change of about 7.2 ppm in the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathing#Composition"]CO2 concentration in the room[/URL], like from the darker to the brighter on the chart.

I didn't see anybody dying around me after 3 breaths... Well, in spite of the farts in the room/office/etc...

Additionally, the chart is very biased due to the fact that the Earth is round, the northern and southern parts are ridiculously exaggerated, looking that half of the northern hemisphere is red. Look to a globe and see that Antarctica is not half of the southern hemisphere, but a "small spot" in the south. Same way, the big-red-north is just a spot around the polar circle.

But well, the animation is beautiful... :wink:

[URL]http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-prevent-reverse-obesity-fasting-20141203-story.html[/URL]

Side story: We have some sort of "food disorder". We are not sure if it is physical or mental or both, but it results in us being hungry all of the time. With intense exercise and ultra-restrictive diets, we have gotten as low as 159.5 pounds, but at the other extreme we weighed so much that our old mechanical scale spun past the highest mark of 280 pounds and wrapped around to go past zero again!

Over the last 20 years or so we have been testing various methods to scientifically master our fat allocation and burning system. We have attached a chart that shows our successes and failures over the last few years.

What we do know is:

Our eating patterns are closely related to how we feel psychologically.
Our feelings of hunger are exacerbated by holidays and close proximity to snacks.
Our body processes sugar as if it is crack cocaine, and if we eat sugar we experience "highs" and (unfortunately) "lows".
The medications we take have a great affect on how much we eat and how hungry we are.
Whatever mechanism in our brain that signals that we are full is either absent or malfunctioning.

About 10 years ago we discovered this excellent free book: [URL]https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/[/URL]

It is not only a book. There is a web interface and apps to track weight using sophisticated "averaging" methods. We have been logging our weight for that entire time but we lost 8 years of data and had to start over again in 2012.

Being obese, or even morbidly obese, is a very depressing situation to end up in. Our old plan from 2004 or so involved hours of exercise a day. It worked for a year or two until we tore the patellar tendon in our left knee. Up until that point we had ridden 95 centuries in less than a year. (A century ride is 100 miles on a bicycle.) We rode them very fast, averaging 16-18MPH. That plan allowed us to eat anything we wanted but when the exercise ended with injury we didn't stop eating.

Our new plan is stationary rowing (rowing ergometer) for 2,000 meters a day and a sugar restricted diet. The diet has a lot of meat (and fat) which signals the brain that we have eaten a lot even though it is not much. Our cholesterol count has doubled since we started the diet but we think it is better the be the proper weight with bad cholesterol numbers than to be morbidly obese with low cholesterol numbers. We could be wrong but there are other reasons that bear into this decision, like quality of life. Being "normal weight" is infinitely more comfortable and socially acceptable. Our previous injuries still hurt a lot but not nearly as much as when we are carting around a tub of lard.

Anyways, we could talk about this for hours and get even more boring. We'll leave it at this for now.

Chart:

The red line is the "smoothed average".
The gray line is actual weight that day.
Days above our "smoothed average" are like bobbers on a fishing line.
Days below our "smoothed average" are like lead sinkers on a fishing line.
The red line could be thought of as a fishing line.
There are days that we cheat on our diet. We try to do so scientifically. You may notice that we have recently found a way to cheat that affects the fishing line less than previous attempts. We think occasional days of sugar "shock" our metabolism and reignite our weight loss. Plus, we like sugary snacks!
We know when we are losing weight when we are freezing all of the time, even in 100 degree weather.
Our newest approach could be summed up as trying to be less extreme. (?)

Having medication which increases your appetite can make life very difficult.
Looking at the graph, I would say you are doing very well! :smile:

[QUOTE=Nick;389112]Looking at the graph, I would say you are doing very well![/QUOTE]It would be easy to say that weight loss means that we are doing well, but we think that repeated losses and gains are hard on the body, so our (newer?) metric for success is a stable long-term weight loss.

Currently we are just exploring how our body reacts to different inputs. Ideally we would keep the weight at or around 170 pounds indefinitely. Using [URL="http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/av.htm"]BMI[/URL] isn't a fool-proof method of determining ideal weight but it is better than just guessing.

:mike:

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;389166]It would be easy to say that weight loss means that we are doing well, but we think that repeated losses and gains are hard on the body, so our (newer?) metric for success is a stable long-term weight loss.


:mike:[/QUOTE]


agreed, have you considered joining or looking at the [URL]http://nwcr.ws/default.htm[/URL] which is a collection of data from people who have lost 30 or more pounds and kept it off for more than a year. Lots of good data on various paths to success. (some interesting to me are that merely by limiting the number of hours of TV a person watches per week can have a dramatic impact on long-term weight loss and walking every day is just as good a predictor of successful weight loss as running.)

I also recommend the book Diet Cults by Matt Fitzgerald (right up until the last chapter where he ignores his own science of diets advice and recommends his own special diet).

The TL;DR version of the book is that all diets are BS. And they all work to one extent or another. Find a system of eating that works for you without all the cultish trappings that go with popular diets. For example, the Paleo diet has some good things to say about the kinds of foods we overeat, but the historical narrative that Paleo dieters espouse is utter nonsense.

There are many paths up the mountain.

[QUOTE=chappy;389176]...
There are many paths up the mountain.[/QUOTE]

But it must be climbed !

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;389085]Side story: We have some sort of "food disorder". We are not sure if it is physical or mental or both, but it results in us being hungry all of the time.[/QUOTE]Often I just don't feel hungry and I forget to eat. Especially if I am in deep concentration with something or just very busy. My weight is 66.6kg and it appears to remain stable at that value whether I eat a lot or very little. Being so light I can climb hills on my bicycle like a rat up a drain pipe.

[size=1]Although I am not yet game to try and eat nothing at all for some extended period (like for many weeks or something) just to see if I can get my weight down. I suspect my weight would indeed drop but at this point in time I prefer to keep that suspicion unproven for now.[/size]

[QUOTE=retina;389212]..... My weight is 66.6kg .....[/QUOTE]

At least it isn't 666 Kg.

EDIT: That would be truly EVIL, and we know how virtuous you are.

[QUOTE=kladner;389217]At least it isn't 666 Kg.

[/QUOTE]

But it _is_ 666 hectograms.

[QUOTE=kladner;389217]At least it isn't 666 Kg.[/QUOTE]That would make riding a bicycle very difficult. Actually that would make buying a suitable bicycle very difficult.[QUOTE=kladner;389217]EDIT: That would be truly EVIL, and we know how virtuous you are.[/QUOTE]I am a true virtuoso. That is the word your meant, right?[QUOTE=ch4;389236]But it _is_ 666 hectograms.[/QUOTE]I like it when it is put it those terms.

We are all adults here, you can say Hell-ograms. The devil is in the details.

[QUOTE=chappy;389238]We are all adults here, you can say Hell-ograms. The devil is in the details.[/QUOTE]

:tu:

Our esteemed leader once again shares a thoughtful and enlightening (and personal) post, one that just might get me back on a bicycle. Thanks, Mike!

[QUOTE=chappy;389238]We are all adults here ...[/QUOTE]Sometimes I am not so sure about that. Perhaps in the physical sense only that that could be true.

[QUOTE=retina;389248]Sometimes I am not so sure about that. Perhaps in the physical sense only that that could be true.[/QUOTE]

When I joined, I was not (by any legal sense in my country of residence). By many other measures I currently am not.

All this talk about Hell-ograms and Kill-ograms makes me certain we're all adults here -
mersenne-forumers say the Darn-dest things.

As card-carrying human adults, we have the best playground on the internet.

Did you create the smoothed red line, or was this a package from someplace? I notice that in the long trending sections the smoothed red line is always to the right of the detailed gray line. This is a problem with many smoothing methods. There are techniques to fix that. One of the simple techniques is called "twicing." This forms the "rough", so that

actual data = smooth data + rough data

Then apply the original smoothing process to the rough, and plot

smooth data + smoothed(rough data)

[QUOTE=wblipp;389299]Did you create the smoothed red line, or was this a package from someplace?[/QUOTE][url]https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/[/url]
[url]https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/pencilpaper.html#PencilFeedbackLab[/url]

[QUOTE=VBCurtis;389239]…one that just might get me back on a bicycle.[/QUOTE]One of our long-term goals is to get back on our bicycle

The roads here in Arkansas are very rough and the drivers are not "tuned in" to the presence of bicyclists. When we lived in the suburb-o-topia of North Raleigh it was like living in bicycle heaven.

We have a room full of bicycles. This one is our favorite.

Edit1: Since we are getting all personal here, we will share an almost-eight-year-old link where we go into a lot of detail about our bike, training and health. Note that most of the links are broken due to age and you have to be logged in to see the pictures. [URL]http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=25167[/URL]
Edit2: Here is another message from that forum where we admit to "doping". We guess the Internet never forgets! [url]http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?p=350180#post350180[/url]

[url]http://www.philly.com/philly/health/topics/HealthDay694355_20141205_Obesity-Related_Ills_May_Shave_Up_to_8_Years_Off_Your_Life__Study.html[/url]

Cycling is a national hobby here in the Netherlands. We have a serious national network of cycle tracks with their own signposts and traffic lights, tunnels you can cycle through to get past the runways to the airport terminal if you cycle to catch a plane, police officers who patrol on bicycles, etc.
[URL]http://www.nederlandfietsland.nl/en[/URL]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;389333][url]http://www.philly.com/philly/health/topics/HealthDay694355_20141205_Obesity-Related_Ills_May_Shave_Up_to_8_Years_Off_Your_Life__Study.html[/url][/QUOTE]

Even more if you choke to death on food.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;389325][url]https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/pencilpaper.html#PencilFeedbackLab[/url][/QUOTE]

Did you implement one of these methods in Excel? If so, "twicing" will be easy to do and will improve the tracking. I'll do it for you if you send the spreadsheet.

[url=http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_27070897/california-drought-worst-1-200-years-new-study]California drought the worst in 1,200 years, new study says[/url] - San Jose Mercury News

On the positive side of things, we got almost as much rain in NoCal this past week as we did all last winter. More falling as I write this, more on tap for next week. Hopefully a trend change rather than a flukey storm series.

[QUOTE=wblipp;389408]Did you implement one of these methods in Excel?[/QUOTE]No, we just use the online tools.

[URL]http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html[/URL]

We have attached a dump of our data if you want to play with it.

:mike:

[QUOTE=ewmayer;389415][URL="http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_27070897/california-drought-worst-1-200-years-new-study"]California drought the worst in 1,200 years, new study says[/URL] - San Jose Mercury News

On the positive side of things, [B]we got almost as much rain in NoCal this past week as we did all last winter. More falling as I write this[/B], more on tap for next week. Hopefully a trend change rather than a flukey storm series.[/QUOTE]

I sincerely hope a meaningful part of it is falling in the watersheds of important reservoirs, and not disappearing through storm drains into the ocean.

[QUOTE=kladner;389431]I sincerely hope a meaningful part of it is falling in the watersheds of important reservoirs, and not disappearing through storm drains into the ocean.[/QUOTE]Ditto.
It sounds like this next storm is going to be very strong and possibly more coming.

Here's some back of the envelope numbers so far:
[URL="http://m.kcra.com/news/are-we-there-yet-how-much-more-rain-will-end-the-drought/30086452"]'Are we there yet?': How much more rain will end drought?[/URL][QUOTE]The California Department of Water Resources said it relies mainly on eight precipitation gauges in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains to determine how far the state has to go to end the drought.

Stretching in a line from Mount Shasta to Highway 50 in El Dorado County, the gauges are located upstream from the state's major reservoirs.

"Right now we're at, I think, 107 percent, of average," said Jay Lund, director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.

However, state water managers said precipitation will have to reach at least 150 percent of average between now and next fall to end the drought.

"We're still very, very early in the wet season. And the rest of the wet season could just as easily be dry as wet," said Lund.

In an average year, the eight gauges record about 50 inches of precipitation.

In order to reach the state's goal of 150 percent of average, at least 75 inches will have to fall.

As of Friday, the gauges had recorded 11.5 inches, or about 15 percent of the state's goal.

In other words, if California's journey out of drought were a trip from Sacramento to Disneyland, we would have traveled 61 miles of the 410-mile distance and be on Interstate 5 just past Lathrop.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=only_human;389555]Ditto.
It sounds like this next storm is going to be very strong and possibly more coming.

Here's some back of the envelope numbers so far:
[URL="http://m.kcra.com/news/are-we-there-yet-how-much-more-rain-will-end-the-drought/30086452"]'Are we there yet?': How much more rain will end drought?[/URL][/QUOTE]
The trouble that often happens is people (reporters) quoting the wrong figures. Saying "we are at 107% of normal" often leaves out the implied (or explicitly stated by the person-in-the-know) "for this point in the season" or maybe "for the calendar year". Saying that the rainfall is at 107% of normal at the end of October is different than saying that at the end of April. For my job I used to have to keep a close eye on the weather, the rainfall in specific.

I could go all Rainman on the subject, but I won't. Suffice it to say that I don't trust any short reports from TV news. Print and NPR are much better at getting the complete picture.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;389571]The trouble that often happens is people (reporters) quoting the wrong figures. Saying "we are at 107% of normal" often leaves out the implied (or explicitly stated by the person-in-the-know) "for this point in the season" or maybe "for the calendar year". Saying that the rainfall is at 107% of normal at the end of October is different than saying that at the end of April. For my job I used to have to keep a close eye on the weather, the rainfall in specific.

I could go all Rainman on the subject, but I won't. Suffice it to say that I don't trust any short reports from TV news. Print and NPR are much better at getting the complete picture.[/QUOTE]I knew that the 107% number was not complete enough to be meaningful but I chose this particular article because I like the information about the locations of the gauges near reservoirs that they rely upon and what they consider a drought ending circumstance.

Anyway all of us here are pretty clear on the fact that reported values are almost always botched in some way compared to what an educated person in a particular topic would like to see reported. Sure print is better, and NPR and BBC are great at most reporting.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;389571]Suffice it to say that I don't trust any short reports from TV news. Print and NPR are much better at getting the complete picture.[/QUOTE]Noted. I'll try to exercise more care what I flag for attention in the future. I poorly selected and I implicitly endorsed it especially by suggesting that these were back of the envelope numbers. That being primarily a term for a rough calculation from a expert.

[QUOTE=only_human;389575]Noted. I'll try to exercise more care what I flag for attention in the future. I poorly selected and I implicitly endorsed it especially by suggesting that these were back of the envelope numbers. That being primarily a term for a rough calculation from a expert.[/QUOTE]
I wasn't faulting you or your quote or source. I was just expressing frustration the way things often get expressed. Reporters are often careful to spin things to make them sound more extreme.

[SPOILER]"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."[/SPOILER]

[URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/18/a-vital-brain-structure-was-forgotten-for-100-years-because-scientists-couldnt-agree/"]A vital brain structure was forgotten for 100 years because scientists couldn’t agree[/URL]

[URL="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-build-a-time-machine1/"]How to Build a Time Machine[/URL]

[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141118-exoskeleton-neuroscience-brain-monkey-wheelchair-science/"]Monkeys Steer Wheelchairs With Their Brains, Raising Hope for Paralyzed People[/URL]

[URL="http://www.livescience.com/48775-humor-brain-activity.html"]Laughing Matter: Finding the Roots of Humor in the Brain[/URL]

[URL="http://gizmodo.com/a-periodic-table-that-tells-you-about-how-elements-real-1665078960"]A Periodic Table That Tells You How Common Elements Really Are[/URL]

[URL="http://www.livescience.com/49009-future-of-artificial-intelligence.html"]Artificial Intelligence: Friendly or Frightening?[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/tomorrows-buildings-may-be-built-by-robots/construction-building-materials"]Tomorrow’s buildings may be built by robots[/URL]

[URL]http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/12/15/a-northern-white-rhino-has-died-there-are-now-five-left-in-the-entire-world/[/URL]

[QUOTE]Following his death, there are just five northern white rhinos left worldwide, all in captivity.[/QUOTE]

Re. CA rains: Rained all last night, got a brief respite this afternoon, now next storm is blessing us. Holy opposite-of-last-year, Batman!

W.r.to the various touted statistics, all I know is here in Silicon Valley we've already gotten more rain in December than we did all last winter. Let's hope the trend continues, because the only way to make up a huge multiyear deficit is to run a similar multiyear surplus. (And the timescale for replenishing central valley aquifers is likely much longer, due to "deficit spending" on top of "collapsed revenues". I'm afraid Keynesian economics fails epically in the field of hydrology.)

============

[url=gizmodo.com/how-greenpeace-wrecked-one-of-the-most-sacred-places-in-1669873583]How Greenpeace Wrecked One of the Most Sacred Places in the Americas[/url] -- Nazca Drawings :(

[QUOTE][URL="http://gizmodo.com/how-greenpeace-wrecked-one-of-the-most-sacred-places-in-1669873583"]How Greenpeace Wrecked One of the Most Sacred Places in the Americas[/URL] -- Nazca Drawings :( [/QUOTE]

My feelings are beyond disgust and outrage.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;390193]Re. CA rains: Rained all last night, got a brief respite this afternoon, now next storm is blessing us.[/QUOTE]

And I can repeat the very same words today, and they are still (or better, once again) true.

[url=www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141224103113.htm]Putting bedbugs to bed forever[/url] | ScienceDaily

[url]http://www.citiesatnight.org/[/url]

[URL="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/a-cube-with-a-view-will-the-offices-of-the-future-take-cues-from-our-evolutionary-past/361263/"]The Mind does not Belong in a Cubicle[/URL]

[URL="http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/19/health/iq-score-meaning/index.html"]What your IQ Score does not Tell You[/URL]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/2014/03/26/294823375/it-was-the-best-of-sentences"]It was the Best of Sentences...[/URL]

[URL="http://www.wired.com/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/"]How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love[/URL]

[URL="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/05/phineas_gage_neuroscience_case_true_story_of_famous_frontal_lobe_patient.html"]Phineas Gage, Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient[/URL]

[URL="http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2014/01/gifted-children-study/"]Are Gifted Children Being Lost in the Shuffle[/URL]

[URL="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20140122-a-new-physics-theory-of-life/"]A New Physics Theory of Life[/URL]

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html?_r=0"]Why do Americans Stink at Math[/URL]

[URL="http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/02/black-death-left-mark-human-genome?rss=1"]Black Death Left a Mark on Human Genome[/URL]

[URL="http://www.medicaldaily.com/what-dreams-mean-and-what-they-say-about-you-based-science-314558"]What Dreams Mean And What They Say About You, Based On Science[/URL]

[URL="http://www.wired.com/2014/12/tracking-holiday-lights-from-space/"]You Can See Our Holiday Lights All the Way From Space[/URL]

[URL="http://mashable.com/2014/12/15/robots-take-jobs/"]9 jobs robots could replace in 2015[/URL]

[URL="http://news.sciencemag.org/social-sciences/2014/12/want-influence-world-map-reveals-best-languages-speak"]Want to influence the world? Map reveals the best languages to speak[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/how-the-brain-interprets-reality-vs.-imaginary-thought/science-technology"]How the brain interprets reality vs. imaginary thought[/URL]

[URL="http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/articles/2014/12/reading-leaves-dramatic-imprint-brain"]Reading Leaves a Dramatic Imprint on the Brain[/URL]

[URL="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/changing-our-dna-through-mind-control/"]Changing Our DNA through Mind Control?[/URL]

[URL="http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/orion-launch-ushers-in-next-generation-of-space-travel/science-technology"]Orion launch ushers in next generation of space travel[/URL]

[URL="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/533106/artificial-skin-that-senses-and-stretches-like-the-real-thing/"]Artificial Skin That Senses, and Stretches, Like the Real Thing[/URL]

[URL="http://www.science20.com/news_articles/good_at_math_33_percent_of_the_time_people_think_they_are_but_they_arent-150882"]Good At Math? 33 Percent Of The Time People Think They Are - But They Aren't[/URL]

[QUOTE=rogue;391364]
[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html?_r=0"]Why do Americans Stink at Math[/URL]

[URL="http://www.science20.com/news_articles/good_at_math_33_percent_of_the_time_people_think_they_are_but_they_arent-150882"]Good At Math? 33 Percent Of The Time People Think They Are - But They Aren't[/URL][/QUOTE]Good articles, but why is "math" equated with numeracy?

Perhaps Americans in the large really don't understand mathematics. How depressing.

[url=www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/us-health-antibiotic-discovery-idUSKBN0KH10S20150108]Scientists find antibiotic that kills bugs without resistance[/url] | Reuters

"Without resistance" is overblown - compare to what the discoverers actually say:
[quote] co-researcher, Bonn's Tanya Schneider, explained in a teleconference that teixobactin belongs to a new class of compounds and kills bacteria by causing their cell walls to break down. [b]It seems to work by binding to multiple targets, she said, which may slow down the development of resistance[/b].[/quote]
Prediction: If the new compound ever does pass human trials, it will quickly become so over- and mis-used that resistance will develop nonetheless. The only long-term solution here is to drastically cut our overuse of antibiotics, in both human medicine and animal husbandry.

[url=http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=38627.php]Quantum optical hard drive breakthrough[/url]

Edit: Okay, even though it doesn't say in the article that the data is random, I'm assuming it is. But if we(the human race) learns to do this stuff with non-random data, holy crap. The following is the rant I posted before I had the random data thought, please be merciful. :)

Can scifi novels count as prior art, because if this weren't a science article, the author of the Ell Donsaii scifi series would probably be calling his lawyers right now about plagiarism. This is spot on to what Ell Donsaii made, except that stuff is supposedly happening 20-30 years from now if you think of the book as actual history. And, yes, I know it's just a story.

If this concept makes it to production, I'm going to write to Mr. Dahners and ask him for investment advice.

I mean, think of the potential for Chinese dissidents. You could hook up one of these things to a high throughput internet connection in the US and the only way to trace it would be to use normal detective work on the data. And even then the Chinese government wouldn't be able to do much about it. You could transmit data from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world.

The million dollar question, though, is whether this is limited by the speed of light. Even if it's exactly as fast as light, think of the potential for things like exploration of the Titan moon, you wouldn't even need to worry about intervening material like with regular radio waves. I could hook my tablet up directly to my home network, go anywhere in the country and have the equivalent of a direct connection with no NSA spying unless I was already compromised. The Netflix security measures they implemented recently wouldn't work anymore because people would simply need a willing American to plug them into their network. An extra step that's a bit difficult, but definitely not impossible.

Not only what I said before, but think of the potential when it comes to internet lag. COD fans would no longer be able to blame lag on their hit to death ratio because they'd be able to pay for a direct connection to a server. You could have your local cable provider deal with the hassle of handshaking with a server, then you'd simply use a special dongle to connect to said server; 2 hops there, 2 hops back and way less lag. Hell, while we're talking about servers, let's all get Google Fiber without any actual fiber in the ground. How good is cell phone service going to be if we don't need towers? The only difference between a cell phone and a land line would be that the cell phone needs a battery.

You could forget about laptop hard drives, you'd just need a monitor, a keyboard and a computer SOMEWHERE. Off-site backups at the speed of your USB port.

I could go on forever.

[QUOTE=jasong;391999][url=http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=38627.php]Quantum optical hard drive breakthrough[/url]

Edit: Okay, even though it doesn't say in the article that the data is random, I'm assuming it is. But if we(the human race) learns to do this stuff with non-random data, holy crap. The following is the rant I posted before I had the random data thought, please be merciful. :)

Can scifi novels count as prior art, because if this weren't a science article, the author of the Ell Donsaii scifi series would probably be calling his lawyers right now about plagiarism. This is spot on to what Ell Donsaii made, except that stuff is supposedly happening 20-30 years from now if you think of the book as actual history. And, yes, I know it's just a story.

If this concept makes it to production, I'm going to write to Mr. Dahners and ask him for investment advice.

I mean, think of the potential for Chinese dissidents. You could hook up one of these things to a high throughput internet connection in the US and the only way to trace it would be to use normal detective work on the data. And even then the Chinese government wouldn't be able to do much about it. You could transmit data from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world.

The million dollar question, though, is whether this is limited by the speed of light. Even if it's exactly as fast as light, think of the potential for things like exploration of the Titan moon, you wouldn't even need to worry about intervening material like with regular radio waves. I could hook my tablet up directly to my home network, go anywhere in the country and have the equivalent of a direct connection with no NSA spying unless I was already compromised. The Netflix security measures they implemented recently wouldn't work anymore because people would simply need a willing American to plug them into their network. An extra step that's a bit difficult, but definitely not impossible.

Not only what I said before, but think of the potential when it comes to internet lag. COD fans would no longer be able to blame lag on their hit to death ratio because they'd be able to pay for a direct connection to a server. You could have your local cable provider deal with the hassle of handshaking with a server, then you'd simply use a special dongle to connect to said server; 2 hops there, 2 hops back and way less lag. Hell, while we're talking about servers, let's all get Google Fiber without any actual fiber in the ground. How good is cell phone service going to be if we don't need towers? The only difference between a cell phone and a land line would be that the cell phone needs a battery.

You could forget about laptop hard drives, you'd just need a monitor, a keyboard and a computer SOMEWHERE. Off-site backups at the speed of your USB port.

I could go on forever.[/QUOTE]That is not even close to how quantum entanglement communication works.

[QUOTE=retina;392007]That is not even close to how quantum entanglement communication works.[/QUOTE]
Have you no imagination? Figure out how to transmit non-random information and this is EXACTLY what it would look like.

[QUOTE=jasong;392013]Have you no imagination? Figure out how to transmit non-random information and this is EXACTLY what it would look like.[/QUOTE]No. That is not how quantum entanglement works at all.

[QUOTE=retina;392014]No. That is not how quantum entanglement works at all.[/QUOTE]
Naa, naa, rubber and glue and all that.

If you have two quantumly entangled particles and the ability to transmit their states in a non-random fashion you, at the very least, have a transmitter and receiver combination. Add some research assistants and lots of money, let sit for a time, and you have a ground-breaking communication technology. Obviously, there's a lot of middle ground to cover, but anyone can see the possible potential in this sort of thing.

I seem to remember someone saying you had a college degree, not sure how you can get one without the ability to think. Did it have particles of sugary candy sticking to the plastic it came in?

[QUOTE=jasong;392015]Naa, naa, rubber and glue and all that.

If you have two quantumly entangled particles and the ability to transmit their states in a non-random fashion you, at the very least, have a transmitter and receiver combination. Add some research assistants and lots of money, let sit for a time, and you have a ground-breaking communication technology. Obviously, there's a lot of middle ground to cover, but anyone can see the possible potential in this sort of thing.[/QUOTE]No. That is not how quantum entanglement works at all.[QUOTE=jasong;392015]I seem to remember someone saying you had a college degree, not sure how you can get one without the ability to think. Did it have particles of sugary candy sticking to the plastic it came in?[/QUOTE]I doubt anyone here knows my educational history. But no matter, your ad hominem attack doesn't make you right.

[QUOTE=retina;392016]No. That is not how quantum entanglement works at all.I doubt anyone here knows my educational history. But no matter, your ad hominem attack doesn't make you right.[/QUOTE]
Quantum entanglement means 2 particles share similar states, true or not?

Quantum entanglement isn't impaired by intervening material, true or not?

You can't spy on what the 2 particles are saying to each other without revealing your eavesdropping, true or not?

If you add to that the assumption that you can control the state on one particle and have that transferred automatically to the other, that could be used as a form of communication, true or not?

[QUOTE=jasong;392018]Quantum entanglement means 2 particles share similar states, true or not?

Quantum entanglement isn't impaired by intervening material, true or not?

You can't spy on what the 2 particles are saying to each other without revealing your eavesdropping, true or not?

If you add to that the assumption that you can control the state on one particle and have that transferred automatically to the other, that could be used as a form of communication, true or not?[/QUOTE]You need to read more abut it. It is not as simple as you make it out to be. Reading the state also has the side effect of destroying the entanglement. Anyhow, this is already used for communication, it is not a new thing. But your magical world in the post above is not anything close to how it actually works.

[QUOTE=retina;392019]You need to read more abut it. It is not as simple as you make it out to be. Reading the state also has the side effect of destroying the entanglement. Anyhow, this is already used for communication, it is not a new thing. But your magical world in the post above is not anything close to how it actually works.[/QUOTE]
No shit, dude, we barely understand it at all. I was talking about possibilities, not confirmed facts.

It's like Edison and the telephone, he could only guess at the potential of his device.

You're kind of a glass half empty kind of guy, huh? You ever fantasize about the possibilities of certain scientific discoveries? Like, I don't know, the possibility the speed of light limit can be worked around, or that maybe someday the cost of space travel will be pennies on the pound, like with aircraft?

[QUOTE=jasong;392021]No shit, dude, we barely understand it at all. I was talking about possibilities, not confirmed facts.[/QUOTE]
You want to live in your fantasyland of "infinite possibilities" by remaining ignorant of the science, fine - but then don't try to pretend you have any clue about, or interest in, the science.

[QUOTE]It's like Edison and the telephone, he could only guess at the potential of his device.[/QUOTE]
You are more correct than you realize - the factual (and even theoretical) basis for your 'argumentation' is very akin to "Edison and the telephone."

[QUOTE=ewmayer;392112]You want to live in your fantasyland of "infinite possibilities" by remaining ignorant of the science, fine - but then don't try to pretend you have any clue about, or interest in, the science.


You are more correct than you realize - the factual (and even theoretical) basis for your 'argumentation' is very akin to "Edison and the telephone."[/QUOTE]
I wasn't living in a fantasy-land, if we discover the ability to transfer non-random information using quantum entanglement, that opens a whole new world for us. Changing exactly one variable is science fiction, not fantasy. And since it was only the one variable, I considered it okay to post. If you re-read what I post, everything is totally possible with the new assumption of non-random information.

[QUOTE=retina;392019]You need to read more abut it. It is not as simple as you make it out to be. Reading the state also has the side effect of destroying the entanglement. Anyhow, this is already used for communication, it is not a new thing. But your magical world in the post above is not anything close to how it actually works.[/QUOTE]
You're assuming that the state will always be destroyed, but it's totally possible we could figure out how to maintain the connection.

The thing that fascinates me is the idea about the crystals. I wonder what the power requirements are.

[QUOTE=jasong;392120]You're assuming that the state will always be destroyed, but it's totally possible we could figure out how to maintain the connection.[/QUOTE]Yep, why not indeed. Those pesky laws of physics should be revoked and replaced with magical fairyland [i]suggestions[/i] instead. Then we can have our cake and eat it too.

People are exaggerating the impact of something like this but pretty neat all the same.

[url]http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/watch-rochester-cloak-uses-ordinary-lenses-to-hide-objects-across-continuous-range-of-angles-70592/[/url]

[QUOTE=jasong;392118]If you re-read what I post, everything is totally possible with the new assumption of non-random information.[/QUOTE]

Including going back in time and having Edison - rather than that other fellow - invent the telephone, presumably.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;392125]Including going back in time and having Edison - rather than that other fellow - invent the telephone, presumably.[/QUOTE]
You mean Elisha Gray? Or Antonio Meucci? :razz:
[edit: wiki has many nice articles about both the invention and the history of the telephone, by the way, together with all the "this guy versus that guy" casuistic for patents war, if I remember right].

ce Setting The Record Straight For Alan Turing
 

[url]http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2015/01/06/375356142/setting-the-record-straight-for-alan-turing[/url]

[QUOTE]Imagine, for a moment, that Albert Einstein's greatest contributions were kept secret at the highest levels of government. Imagine, for a moment, that while still relatively young, Einstein was prosecuted, shamed and driven to suicide for the inclinations of his affections. Imagine, for a moment, that in the wake of the secrecy, the shame and the suicide, you never knew Albert Einstein's name.
Seems crazy, doesn't it? In many ways, however, that narrative is the story of Alan Turing. Thankfully, it's a story that is finally getting aired in popular culture through the new film [I][URL="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/"]The Imitation Game[/URL][/I].
Until relatively recently, most folks wouldn't come across Turing's name unless they had a certain kind of computational orientation. "Turing" doesn't ring the same bells as Einstein, Newton, Darwin or even Heisenberg, Watson and Crick. But, without doubt, Alan Turing should be on their list of science giants.
It's not just that Turing's work was worthy of a Nobel Prize. He went far beyond that. Turing possessed an epoch-making genius of the highest order — and his impact on human civilization is in line with the heights that kind of genius yields. That's why Turing's omission from everyone's list of super-scientists is so galling. But worse, still, are the circumstances of that omission's occurrence, driven by a confluence of two remarkable factors — an accident of history and pure narrow-minded fear.
[/QUOTE]

If you want to know about Alan Turing's life and his achievements, read his biography "Alan Turing: The Enigma" (ISBN 9781784700089) by Andrew Hodges, a fellow at Oxford who developed twistor diagrams with Roger Penrose. It is a highly scholarly account, and a captivating read.

For just a taste of it, watch the play "Breaking the Code". This ran in London's West End and then on Broadway in New York in the 1980's before being made into a short film (with the same name) starring Derek Jacobi. The film was also broadcast in the US. And if you are in England, a visit to the museum at Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing next door is definitely worthwhile.

But, apparently, the makers of the new film "The Imitation Game" missed all this and are convinced that they are bringing his story to the world for the first time. They also gave themselves the right to change important facts about what happened.

Yes. I am aware that the are considerable faults in the current offering. It is something for Turing to get any attention at all in the wider world.

[QUOTE=jasong;392120]You're assuming that the state will always be destroyed, but it's totally possible we could figure out how to maintain the connection.
[/QUOTE]

This is the part where you are utterly, totally, "I've never read the science" mistaken. Your speculation of a future "figure out" is on the level of warp drives and antigravity fields. If such communication exists in the future such as you dream, it won't be because of quantum entanglement.

This is not a matter of a lack of imagination, and you should read even a basic wiki explanation of entanglement to get an idea why we're replying the way we are.

[QUOTE=VBCurtis;392239]Your speculation of a future "figure out" is on the level of warp drives and antigravity fields.[/QUOTE]I'm not so sure about warp drives here, but antigrav is definitely something I would put in the same class.

[size=1]So we only need to figure out how to switch off the gravity connection. It is only a change of one variable so therefore totally possible with some funding and a few post-grad students. Imagine the possibilities: flying cars should be here by now, it [i]is[/i] 2015 already.[/size]

[QUOTE=retina;392243]I'm not so sure about warp drives here, but antigrav is definitely something I would put in the same class.

[size=1]So we only need to figure out how to switch off the gravity connection. It is only a change of one variable so therefore totally possible with some funding and a few post-grad students. Imagine the possibilities: flying cars should be here by now, it [i]is[/i] 2015 already.[/size][/QUOTE]Doctor Emmett Brown should have written down the math to both flying cars and hovering skateboards for 2015. 1.21 Gigawatts doesn't just grow on trees.