Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania form joint military unit. 19 September 2014Last updated at 14:13 ET Soldiers from Poland and Lithuania took part in Nato-led military exercises in Ukraine earlier this month Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania have agreed to set up joint military unit of several thousand soldiers. Defence ministers from the three countries signed the deal on Friday. Poland's defence ministry said the brigade would be based in the eastern Polish city of Lublin but the soldiers would remain in their home countries.
Poland and Lithuania are eager to bolster defences following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula earlier this year. Russia sent thousands of troops to the peninsula in March, eventually forcing Ukrainian soldiers to withdraw. Shortly afterwards, pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions declared their independence. More than 3,000 people have died in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and separatists since April. Peacekeeping role. Grubhub targets cash-rich, brain-poor consumers with “Bro, do you even takeout?” ad campaign. By Paul Carr On September 21, 2014 Silicon Valley gets a lot of shit — rightly so — for the brogrammer culture that has infected some, though not all, west coast tech startups. Uber, Snapchat, Secret, Tinder all hop readily to mind when you think of companies operated by, or staffed by, dicks.
Still, at least most companies on the left-hand side of America are slowly realizing that a “for dudes, by dudes” image is great for “male lifestyle brands” but best avoided if you want to maintain widespread popularity. Apparently that message has yet to reach all the way to the east coast. In New York earlier this week for Pando Monthly, I spotted this just. plain. weird. ad campaign for Chicago-based Grubhub. The tagline: “Bro, do you even takeout?” Evoking bro-culture generally, let alone using the actual word “bro”, to sell to young consumers has long since shot past douchy, overtaken irony, lapped douchy again and come to rest firmly in the backyard of gross. Japanese construction giant Obayashi announces plans to have a space elevator up and running by 2050. By North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney Updated Once the realm of science fiction, a Japanese company has announced they will have a space elevator up and running by the year 2050.
If successful it would revolutionise space travel and potentially transform the global economy. The Japanese construction giant Obayashi says they will build a space elevator that will reach 96,000 kilometres into space. Robotic cars powered by magnetic linear motors will carry people and cargo to a newly-built space station, at a fraction of the cost of rockets. It will take seven days to get there. The company said the fantasy can now become a reality because of the development of carbon nanotechnology. "The tensile strength is almost a hundred times stronger than steel cable so it's possible," Mr Yoji Ishikawa, a research and development manager at Obayashi, said.
"Right now we can't make the cable long enough. A team at Kanagawa University has been working on robotic cars or climbers. A Star Trek writer revisits his 20-year old vision of a futuristic, tech-ruined San Francisco. By Dan Raile On September 20, 2014 In 1994, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine showrunner and executive producer Ira Steven Behr had a profound experience along the Santa Monica boardwalk. The weather was beautiful, and daytrippers and tourists were frolicking and taking pictures. “People were just ignoring them completely… stepping over them to get better views through their cameras.
I found it very disturbing. It was like now the homeless aren’t even considered dangerous. In “Past Tense,” an African American Star Fleet Captain, British Arab ship’s Doctor and Trill symbiont Chief Science Officer find themselves stranded at the Embarcadero Bart station in San Francisco, 2024. Captain Sisko and Doctor Bashir are picked up by shotgun-wielding police officers and processed into the city’s main ‘Sanctuary District’. Twenty years have passed since Behr took his walk in Santa Monica. Past Tense takes an ambivalent view of the social side-effects of technology. Internet Trolls Are Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Sadists. In this month's issue of Personality and Individual Differences, a study was published that confirms what we all suspected: internet trolls are horrible people.
Let's start by getting our definitions straight. An internet troll is someone who comes into a discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation. Often, it seems like there is no real purpose behind their comments except to upset everyone else involved. Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response. What kind of person would do this? Canadian researchers decided to find out. [Edit to add: these are technical terms with formalized surveys to measure them. They found that Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite internet activity. Look at how low the scores are for everyone except the internet trolls! Trolls truly enjoy making you feel bad. "Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others.
References Buckels, Erin E., Paul D. Prevalence and impacts of genetically engineered feedstuffs on livestock populations. Globally, food-producing animals consume 70 to 90% of genetically engineered (GE) crop biomass. This review briefly summarizes the scientific literature on performance and health of animals consuming feed containing GE ingredients and composition of products derived from them. It also discusses the field experience of feeding GE feed sources to commercial livestock populations and summarizes the suppliers of GE and non-GE animal feed in global trade. Numerous experimental studies have consistently revealed that the performance and health of GE-fed animals are comparable with those fed isogenic non-GE crop lines. United States animal agriculture produces over 9 billion food-producing animals annually, and more than 95% of these animals consume feed containing GE ingredients. Key words: Health | Mystery of the forgotten plague.
Just a few months ago, a paper was published, with very little fanfare, in an obscure medical journal. But the contents of the paper were astonishing. In it was a potential solution to what has been called the biggest medical mystery of all time. Two young doctors had tracked down the probable cause of one of the most baffling epidemics of the 20th Century - a disease called Encephalitis Lethargica. Encephalitis Lethargica was a devastating illness that swept the world in the 1920's. It attacked the brain, leaving victims like living statues, speechless and motionless. During the outbreak, nearly a million died, and millions more were left frozen inside their useless bodies, in institutions. No-one knew what had caused it, or how to treat it.
Reppearance For virologist Professor John Oxford, the disease was not just a disease of the past. "I certainly do think that whatever caused it could strike again. And in 1993, it seemed his fears were being realised. "I said goodbye. More cases Analysis. CBBC Newsround | Guides | 2005 | Fireworks | Fireworks: What are they made of? Rand Paul blisters Obama and Clinton, calls for GOP diversity - LA Times. Fewer than 50 days before an election that may give Republicans control of the Senate as well as the House, Sen.
Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Saturday skipped past those contests entirely to focus on one in which he may play a more central role — the 2016 presidential race. Paul, the featured speaker at the California Republican convention, made no mention of the party’s national advantages this year. He blasted President Obama and potential Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton as insufficient present or future commanders-in-chief. He insisted that the GOP must dramatically expand its reach in order to win presidential contests — a strategy that coincides with his pre-presidential efforts. He accused Obama of confounding the Constitution when he expanded Obamacare, moved against overseas targets without specific congressional authorization, and announced plans — since delayed — to use executive action to change the nation’s immigration laws.
“I think she had a 3 a.m. moment. Scientists attempt to see a vast, invisible universe. The universe is made up mostly of dark energy and dark matter, physicists believeHumans cannot detect dark matter; it is invisibleA device in space may have found hints of it in anti-matter particlesThese could come from other sources but look consistent with dark matter (CNN) -- Take a look around you, and in your mind's eye, randomly wipe out all but a small fraction of what you can see.
Pretend the vast rest of reality is there but invisible. You'd probably like a device that helps you see much more of it. Scientists working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, have made some progress in that direction with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which has been riding aboard the International Space Station since 2011. Physicists believe that mental exercise in blindness reflects the reality of our universe, only about 4% of which manifests as the kind of matter and energy we can perceive.
Device on the ISS searches for dark matter Physicists in the CMS control room. Scottsievert/xkcd-688. Oculus Reveals Its New “Crescent Bay” Prototype With 360-Degree Head Tracking And Headphones. Oculus gave the world the first look at its new prototype Crescent Bay today at the Oculus’ Connect conference (livestream), and I got the very first hands-on demo. Crescent Bay has a faster frame rate, 360-degree head tracking, and integrated headphones, plus it’s lighter. Oculus also announced the new Oculus Platform coming to the Samsung VR, which brings VR to a large audience through mobile apps, web browsers, and a VR content discovery channel. You can read our full story on Oculus Platform here.
CEO Brendan Iribe called Crescent Bay as big of a step up from the DK2 as the DK2 was from the DK1. This still isn’t a consumer version, but it’s getting closer. The Crescent Bay is not an official developer kit, but instead a “feature prototype” designed to show off the future of what Oculus is doing, similar to the pre-DK2 “Crystal Cove” prototype. Update: Hands-On By camping out, I just got the very first public demo of the Crescent Bay. Oculus Wants To Win PC and Mobile VR. ELI5: Why can't you cut all the wires in a bomb to prevent it from detonating? : explainlikeimfive. Mokes. f5QiNYt. Global Property Guide Worst Housing Markets. Theverge. Solar Panels Cost Less Than Electricity From Natural Gas. Business Published on September 21st, 2014 | by Zachary Shahan September 21st, 2014 by Zachary Shahan A new report out from Lazard tells us something those who follow the wind and solar industries already knew to some degree: large-scale solar and wind power projects can now compete purely on cost with natural gas power plants (as well as coal and nuclear, of course).
Solar panels cost less than electricity from any other source in some regions, and the cost continues to fall. We’ve seen solar come in lower than natural gas in Austin, Minnesota, and probably New Mexico. The city of Austin has actually made solar power a “default energy source” now. Wind power, meanwhile, is often the cheapest option for new electricity generation capacity. Worth noting is that this has long been the case with renewable energy subsidies, but the point of the report is that it’s also the case without those subsidies in a growing number of places, even while fossil fuels retain their subsidies. About the Author. DNA analysed from early European. Scientists have analysed DNA extracted from the remains of a 30,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer.
Studying the DNA of long-dead humans can open up a window into the evolution of our species (Homo sapiens). But previous studies of this kind have been hampered by scientists' inability to distinguish between the ancient human DNA and modern contamination. In Current Biology journal, a German-Russian team details how it was possible to overcome this hurdle. Svante Paabo, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues used the latest DNA sequencing techniques to study genetic information from human remains unearthed in 1954 at Kostenki, Russia. Excavations at Kostenki, on the banks of the river Don in southern Russia, have yielded large concentrations of archaeological finds from the Palaeolithic (roughly 40,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago).
The type of DNA extracted and analysed is that stored in mitochondria - the "powerhouses" of cells. A day in the life of a data mined kid. Education, like pretty much everything else in our lives these days, is driven by data. Our childrens’ data. A whole lot of it. Nearly everything they do at school can be — and often is — recorded and tracked, and parents don't always know what information is being collected, where it’s going, or how it's being used. The story begins at the bus stop. Your child swipes his ID card and climbs on the bus. “The data collection begins even before he steps into the school,” says Khaliah Barnes, director of the Student Privacy Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
And, says Barnes, in some schools it just keeps on going. “The issue is that this reveals specifically sensitive information,” says Barnes. Location information is just one small part of a child’s data file. In the classroom, teachers gather data on routine things like attendance, tardiness, test scores and grades. See what a day in the life of a data mined student looks like with our Quantified Student infographic.
Kurds say they have halted Islamic State advance on Syrian town. The American Middle Class Hasn’t Gotten A Raise In 15 Years. In 1988, the typical American adult was 40 years old, white and married, with a high school diploma. If he was a man, he probably worked full time. If she was a woman, she probably didn’t. Twenty-five years later, Americans are older, more diverse and more educated. We are less likely to be married and more likely to live alone. Work is divided more evenly between the sexes. The government’s release last week of income and poverty data for 2013 brought renewed attention to the apparent stagnation of the American middle class — not just since the financial crisis hit six years ago this month, but for much of the decade that preceded the crash.
“As a country,” New York magazine’s Annie Lowrey wrote Friday, “we peaked in the late 1990s.” There’s little doubt that the past 15 years have been hard ones for the middle class. To understand why, imagine a simple model in which there are five people. This scenario is oversimplified, but it illustrates a trend. History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places. One World Trade Center: how New York tried to rebuild its soul | Cities. You see it when you whip over the Brooklyn Bridge, or look downtown crossing Sixth Avenue: eight isosceles triangles of blue glass, taller than anything else on the skyline.
One World Trade Center, finally approaching completion after 13 years of trauma and backbiting, has become a familiar, serene sight to New Yorkers – from a distance, at least. Up close, at the foot of the tallest building in America, it’s a different story. Trucks pull in and out of construction sites. Commuters trek through scaffolding and mazes of blue tarp. Office workers shove aside dawdling tourists, or try to. Advertisements promise forthcoming luxury boutiques, while street merchants sell New York Police Department jackets for dogs. It is at once a place of frenzy and flatness. In the plaza that many New Yorkers still call Ground Zero, two towers are open for business: 7WTC, a smaller building north of the site completed in 2006, and 4WTC, a sublime new office building to the east.
A tranquilised New York. How Social Media Affects Your Brain and Body. Steve Jobs Was Depressed The Day After Apple Released The iPad. ELI5: What will happen on the 'Internet Slowdown' day, and what can I do to help the cause? : explainlikeimfive. 5 High-Paying Jobs That Will Make You Miserable | Money.com. Zz0fwjz. Berg, maker of the Little Printer, shuts down after failed bid to connect Internet of Things companies. A Void in the History of September 11th. Braintree CEO: We want to offer the best payment experiences, and bitcoin is part of that. Another victory for Kim Dotcom, he's getting all Megaupload data back. The slimy rise of the “brand journalist”
2048. 1410264666_1908971229.gif (GIF Image, 250 × 188 pixels) A bittersweet love letter to Barnes and Noble. Sir John Franklin: Fabled Arctic ship found. The Trouble with Apple's Smartwatch. Less Than 1% Of Sweden's Trash Ends Up In Landfills. Gallery: the Apple Watch. Zoe Quinn’s Depression Quest - The New Yorker. WiBqjIF. The Revolutionary Technique That Quietly Changed Machine Vision Forever. The True Story of 'The Crying Indian' The top 100 sites on the internet. 16 Struggles Everyone Who Always Get Mosquito Bites Will Understand. 21 People Who Have A Worse Roommate Than You.
Why Amazon has no profit—and why it works. Study: Teens who smoke weed daily are 60% less likely to complete high school than those who never use. FVa7dGF. Welcome | Museum Day Live! New Zealand, taken by me, kittykat1986, on vacation. IamA dairy farmer AMA! : IAmA. The Best Language for Math - WSJ. When Scientists Give Up. 5 Million Gmail Usernames and Passwords Leaked. Elon Musk’s warning about Tesla is being ignored. The big problem with the Apple Watch is that time is an illusion. The Worst Governments in America Are Local -- NYMag. bRwvu16. What Happens if Scotland Votes for Independence? | TIME. CHART: Rise And Fall Of Modern Empires. More millennials read a book last year than older Americans, proving the Internet hasn’t ruined everything.
Millennials are out-reading older generations. What Exactly Is the Facebook Messenger App for iOS Tracking? | Motherboard. How 14 Choices Change Life Expectancy. How to Check If You Were Exposed by Today's 5 Million Password Leak. Hands down, people without kids have better lives—except for this one major thing - Quartz. Deezer launches in the US. But will Americans pay $20 a month for streaming music?
n7KTyj3.gif (GIF Image, 497 × 265 pixels) Log In - The New York Times. Synthetic biology on the cusp. O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies. The Dating Game: an Oral History of the Tinderverse. ELI5: How do Democrats and Republicans rationalize billions of dollars in tax breaks every year to oil companies? : explainlikeimfive. Living Simply in a Dumpster. Log In - The New York Times. Algorithms - Learneroo. 22 Parents Who Are Nailing Empty-Nest Syndrome. Chrome OS can now run Android apps, no porting required.
Car-Free City: China Builds Dense Metropolis from Scratch. This Man Amputated His Own Leg: That’s How Bad China’s Health Care Crisis Is | TIME. History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places. If Tesla’s Gigafactory can run on 100% renewable energy, why can’t others? | Computerworld. Tech Has a Depression Problem.
FdQkXS2. Volumetric Particle Flow. Science & Environment | The 'first true scientist' Tough love 'is good for children' Odfvhai. Tech Has a Depression Problem. Financial Crisis Scariest Moments. New math and quantum mechanics: Fluid mechanics suggests alternative to quantum orthodoxy -- ScienceDaily. The Verge Playlist: I'm not buying an iPhone | The Verge. The Power of Sleep.