Curiosity Fueled

Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:54:16 -0400

Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin:

” [Google co-founder Sergey Brin] warned there were “very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world”. “I am more worried than I have been in the past,” he said. “It’s scary.”

The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry’s attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of “restrictive” walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms.”

China's Qingming festival Tomb-sweeping and bodysnatching

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:25:00 -0400

China's Qingming festival Tomb-sweeping and bodysnatching:

“Ghost marriage (minghun) is a 3,000 year-old custom practiced especially in northern China. Huang Jichun, a scholar at Shanghai University who studies Chinese folk traditions, says the majority of rural families in the north, whose relatives die unbetrothed , seek “ghost spouses” for the departed. According to custom, the bodies are buried together in a ceremony that is a cross between a wedding and a funeral. Their ghosts, it is believed, will then no longer be lonely, and the family’s fortunes will be restored.

…

Trade in female corpses is flourishing in these poor rural areas. Bodies are typically procured through brokers, with the typical quoted price of a fresh corpse rising at least 25% in the past five years to 50,000 yuan.”

A new chapter in human history: Startling discovery of Stone...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:08:00 -0400

A new chapter in human history: Startling discovery of Stone Age cavemen (skulls) in China who ‘are an entirely new species’

‘Red deer people’ lived 14,500-11,500 years ago in Asia
Previously thought that homo sapiens had continent to themselves
‘Highly unusual’ mixture of ancient and modern - could be new species
Could also be relic of early migration out of Africa which died out

First Tim Cook, now Mark Zuckerberg is spotted visiting China

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:29:09 -0400

First Tim Cook, now Mark Zuckerberg is spotted visiting China

Borat anthem played by mistake at medals ceremony

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:25:26 -0400

Borat anthem played by mistake at medals ceremony:

Kazakhstan’s shooting team demanded an apology after a spoof national anthem from the comedy film Borat was played instead of the real one at a medal ceremony in Kuwait, the BBC reported on Friday.

"100,000 Americans die each year from hospital-acquired infections that are resistant to most..."

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:46:06 -0400

“100,000 Americans die each year from hospital-acquired infections that are resistant to most antibiotics.”

- Toward a Drug-Free Burger: Ruling May Curb Antibiotics in Meat

Drowning in Email, Photos, Files? Hoarding Goes Digital

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:02:00 -0400

Drowning in Email, Photos, Files? Hoarding Goes Digital:

“Digital hoarding is a huge problem. There is so much available storage, we don’t have to make decisions anymore,” says David D. Nowell, a neuropsychologist specializing in attention issues in Worcester, Mass. “The problem isn’t that it slows down your computer—it slows down your brain,” he warns, since each of those photos, links and folders demands some mental energy.

…

There isn’t a set number of emails in an inbox or photos saved that defines a hoarder. Accumulating crosses the line into hoarding, experts say, when it is disorganized and dysfunctional and gets in the way of other relationships and responsibilities.

…

When a Busy Inbox Signals a Problem

There are no official criteria for ‘digital hoarding’ but there are some tell-tale signs:

• You’ve exceeded your 7 gigabytes of free space in Gmail and have to buy more.

• Deleting anything makes you anxious—even things you can’t remember why you saved.

• You spend more time searching for a file than it would take to download it again.

• You have dozens of icons on your desktop and don’t know what they’re for.

• You can’t remember all your email or social-media accounts or how to access them.

• You have flash drives scattered in drawers, pockets and purses and no idea what’s on them.

• Of your thousands of digital photos, the vast majority are duds.

• You have entire seasons of bad TV shows you have no intention of watching.

Digging Out

Professional organizers who specialize in technology issues offer these tips for conquering digital hoarding:

•Practice ‘zero email.’ Discipline yourself to clean out your inbox completely every day, answering, filing or deleting each item.

• Declare ‘email bankruptcy.’ Delete every unread email in your inbox and alert your 10 best friends and colleagues that if they have sent something crucial, they should send it again.

• Unsubscribe to every newsletter and mailing list you don’t need or want immediately.

• Set your spam filter to block any regular emails you don’t want to receive.

• Don’t check your inbox continuously, and disable the ‘dinger’ alerts. Set specified times to read and answer email each day.

• Don’t copy and save documents; save Internet addresses where you can find them later, if necessary.

• Remember, people typically use only about 20% of what they save.

Apple tipped to further distance itself from Google with the inclusion of China’s Baidu in iOS

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:06:17 -0400

Apple tipped to further distance itself from Google with the inclusion of China’s Baidu in iOS:

“Given that Baidu is streets ahead of Google – holding 83.6 percent of China’s search space — it is likely that the option to move would significantly lessen usage of Google amongst China iOS users.”

Tim Cook does what Jobs didn’t: Visit China as Apple’s CEO

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:47:50 -0400

Tim Cook does what Jobs didn’t: Visit China as Apple’s CEO

:D

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:36:29 -0400

listo: Fuga de cerebros

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:56:44 -0400

listo:

Fuga de cerebros

Who, What, Why: How do cats survive falls from great heights?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:50:30 -0400

Who, What, Why: How do cats survive falls from great heights?:

The answer

Cats have relatively large surface areas in proportion to their weight, so fall at a slower rate over a great height than larger mammals
Their bodies have evolved to allow them to survive falls from trees, their natural homes
Given the time, they twist to land on their feet
Their legs are long, muscular and extend under the body rather than straight down, allowing them to absorb the shock
But many cats who fall from heights are nevertheless severely injured and some die

Pentagon war game forecasts U.S. would be pulled into a new war if Israel strikes Iran

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:33:44 -0400

Pentagon war game forecasts U.S. would be pulled into a new war if Israel strikes Iran:

For one: my 8 year old cousin could have told them that… for free… plus… “War” and “Game” are two words that should’t be used in the same sentence…

India Has More People with Cell Phones Than with Proper Sanitation

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:24:16 -0400

India Has More People with Cell Phones Than with Proper Sanitation:

The country contains about 1/7th of the world’s population, clocking in at around 1.2 billion. Nearly half of those — 563.73 million the last time it was counted — have mobile phone subscriptions.

By comparison, in 2008, only 366 million had access to proper sanitation.

Equal Pay Day: Women in Europe still earn 16.4% less on average...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 04:38:24 -0400

Equal Pay Day: Women in Europe still earn 16.4% less on average than men

The gender pay gap – the average difference in gross hourly earnings between women and men across the economy as a whole – is persistently high, with considerable differences between countries and sectors.

The latest figures show an average 16.4% gender pay gap in 2010 across the European Union. They confirm a slight downward trend in recent years, when the figure was around 17% or higher. The rate ranges from around 2% in Poland to more than 27% in Estonia.

Apple reports it has sold 3 million new iPads since launch day, March 16th

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:42:20 -0400

Apple reports it has sold 3 million new iPads since launch day, March 16th:

The initial iPad sold some 300K units in its first day and hit the 1M unit mark at 28 days. The current iPad tripled that mark at just 4 days. The first Apple tablet tooksome 80 days to hit 3 million units in sales.

Monkey Business

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:07:07 -0500

Monkey Business:

Interesting article of the week:

Monkeys, Economy and the Oldest Profession in the World.
In 2005 a group of scientists tried to teach some monkeys how money works. The outcome of the experiment is somehow revealing.

Israel and Iran: Covert Warfare Raises Risks of Retaliation, and Conflagration

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:56:23 -0500

Israel and Iran: Covert Warfare Raises Risks of Retaliation, and Conflagration :

It’s happening today and you should know about it:

So here is the thing: Last Sunday there was a reported blast (officially two explosions) in a military base in west Tehran, the Iranian capital, which left 17 Iranian guardsmen dead. The government version assures it occurred at an ammunition depot due to mishandling of explosive material. But then, this week international reports started pointing to the Israeli secret service, Mossad, as the perpetrator of the explosions.

Why would Mossad want to do that? A TIME article explains the military base allegedly kept some Iranian missiles that could reach Israel at their longest range, and that had been modified to accommodate nuclear heads.

If this is true and Mossad is behind the Tehran blast, if you ask me (and apparently I’m not alone), it’s all just a provocation to see if Iran retaliates, offering this way an excuse to the long waited and recently hyped possible US or Israeli military attack to the Islamic Republic.

Anyhow it’s kind of shameful to see how a country might be trying to pick a fight, pushing another one to the verge of patience, just to cover their asses with a lame excuse for an attack.

Scientists boost battery strength with small holes

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:37:39 -0500

Scientists boost battery strength with small holes:

Please, please, make this happen!

Scientists working in batteries that could “charge from flat in 15 minutes and last a week before needing a recharge.”

Super sad news. thedailywhat: Extinct Species of the Day: The...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:03:04 -0500

Super sad news.

thedailywhat:

Extinct Species of the Day: The West African subspecies of Black Rhinoceros was declared officially extinct today by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

According to the conservation group, a survey of the animal’s natural habitat has yielded no living specimens, leading to the assessment that the last members of the subspecies had died.

In its report, the IUCN blamed “a lack of political support and willpower for conservation efforts” as well as commercial poaching for the Western Black Rhino’s extinction.

It warned that two other rhino subspecies, the Northern White Rhino and the Javan Rhino, were either perilously close to disappearing, or already extinct as well.

A large scale effort by the WWF to save the remaining Black Rhinos is presently underway. Current estimates suggest that a mere 4,240 Black Rhinos remain in the wild.

Watch a black rhino being transported by helicopter to a new range in South Africa’s Limpopo province below:

[ap / wwf / photo: greenren.]