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WorldWeird: NEWSTRANGE -- the Informus Thread (Jan 2nd - Jan 30th)

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    • CommentAuthorFishelle
    • CommentTimeJan 19th 2012
     (10426.1)
    @teasmaid
    Ruins all your weekend plans, getting stabbed by a madman like that.
  2.  (10426.2)
  3.  (10426.3)
    'Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else:

    "Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,"'

    MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought
    •  
      CommentAuthorOsmosis
    • CommentTimeJan 21st 2012
     (10426.4)
    Re murders of (Iranian) nuclear scientists: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (they of the minutes-to-midnight doomsday clock) had an article in their journal on the phenomenon.

    William Tobey, "Nuclear scientists as assassination targets", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 68:1
  5.  (10426.5)
  6.  (10426.6)
    This is beyond cool:

    "This stealthy undertaking was not an act of robbery or espionage but rather a crucial operation in what would become an association called UX, for “Urban eXperiment.” UX is sort of like an artist’s collective, but far from being avant-garde—confronting audiences by pushing the boundaries of the new—its only audience is itself. More surprising still, its work is often radically conservative, intemperate in its devotion to the old. Through meticulous infiltration, UX members have carried out shocking acts of cultural preservation and repair, with an ethos of “restoring those invisible parts of our patrimony that the government has abandoned or doesn’t have the means to maintain.” The group claims to have conducted 15 such covert restorations, often in centuries-old spaces, all over Paris."

    The New French Hacker-Artist Underground
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      CommentAuthorsneak046
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2012
     (10426.7)
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      CommentAuthorsneak046
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2012
     (10426.8)
    Similar, but not copied, image found to breach copyright

    Despite significant differences between the two images (there was no implication that the second image was a duplicate of the first), the court found that the second image copied substantially from the 'intellectual creation' of the first (that is the elements that can be protected by copyright in the original image, including a consideration of the composition, lighting and processing of the image).


    The infringing image is the bottom of the two below:

    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2012
     (10426.9)
    @WORSETHANDETROIT

    What a shit ruling.

    In other news, having solved all of their state's actual problems, an Oklahoma Republican Senatory has decided to move on to issues that don't currently exist by putting forward a ban on using fetal tissue in food.
    •  
      CommentAuthorsneak046
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2012
     (10426.10)
    Well better to Ban This Evil Filth now before it even happens. Wait, does the ban include alien tissue as well? You can't be too careful I say.
    • CommentAuthorroadscum
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2012
     (10426.11)
    @RenThing: That's certainly what it looks like at first glance, dig deeper however, and things get considerably more complicated. You can see the original ruling here. I don't know about you, but once i'd gone through it a couple of times and stopped to have a quiet little think, i still couldn't quite decide whether i agreed or not.
  12.  (10426.12)
    Blast! RenThing beat me to Oklahoma's pre-emptive Soylent Green ban!
  13.  (10426.13)
    What the fuck? Nobody likes having their style ripped off, but we as artists all borrow from one another. Fucking ridiculous ruling.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeJan 26th 2012
     (10426.14)
    I believe the appropriaye resposne here is: Holy shit!

    Transcranial direct current stimulation is a simple, cheap, fast, safe non-invasive process which appears to increase intelligence and creativty and improve memory. The effects, if not permanent, are long-lasting.


    Recent research in Oxford and elsewhere has shown that one type of brain stimulation in particular, called transcranial direct current stimulation or TDCS, can be used to improve language and maths abilities, memory, problem solving, attention, even movement.

    Critically, this is not just helping to restore function in those with impaired abilities. TDCS can be used to enhance healthy people’s mental capacities. Indeed, most of the research so far has been carried out in healthy adults.

    TDCS uses electrodes placed on the outside of the head to pass tiny currents across regions of the brain for 20 minutes or so. The currents of 1–2 mA make it easier for neurons in these brain regions to fire. It is thought that this enhances the making and strengthening of connections involved in learning and memory.

    The technique is painless, all indications at the moment are that it is safe, and the effects can last over the long term.


    "This technology overcomes some standard objections to enhancement: It is not a set of cheat notes," says Julian. "You require effort and hard work to learn. It is just that you get more out of your effort. And because it is cheap, low tech, easily affordable, it could be widely available. This addresses the objection that it will introduce inequality and unfairness. It could be available and should be available to all, if it is safe and effective."

    The researchers’ concern is more that the technology is such that people could assemble all the components needed at home reasonably simply. Roi clearly says that this is not warranted yet with our limited current knowledge about the technique’s use: "The message should very much be 'Don’t try this at home'."
  15.  (10426.15)
    @Kosmopolit

    Where's the link?
  16.  (10426.16)
    @gov spy - What? You didn't get it via transcranial direct current like the rest of us? ;)
  17.  (10426.17)
    No, I'm a government employee. Our equipment is so outdated we're told to just stick a fork in a light socket.
    •  
      CommentAuthorsneak046
    • CommentTimeJan 26th 2012
     (10426.18)
    The technique is painless,


    I've had transcranial magnetic stimulation done on my visual cortex, and if that's anything to go by undergoing this procedure for up to 20 mins would be *incredibly* uncomfortable. Hopefully it is as painless as they say though....
    •  
      CommentAuthorjohnjones
    • CommentTimeJan 26th 2012
     (10426.19)
    The researchers’ concern is more that the technology is such that people could assemble all the components needed at home reasonably simply. Roi clearly says that this is not warranted yet with our limited current knowledge about the technique’s use: "The message should very much be 'Don’t try this at home'."


    And we have the makings of a new "1000 Ways to Die" episode now.
    • CommentAuthorKradlum
    • CommentTimeJan 26th 2012
     (10426.20)
    @Greasemonkey - there's ripping off and there's ripping off. Initially the guy just stole the other guy's copyrighted image, when he was told he couldn't do that by the courts, he paid someone to make a very similar image. I think the court stomped on him for taking the piss.

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