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Monday, June 29, 2015
Dino-Chicken Gets One Step Closer
Given these obstacles, how close are scientists to creating a dino-chicken?
"From a quantitative point of view, we're 50 percent there," said Jack Horner, a professor of paleontology at Montana State University and a curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies. [See Images of the Chicken Embryos with Dinosaur-Like Snouts]
Horner has long supported the idea of modifying a chicken to look like a dinosaur, and unlike the researchers on the latest study, he actually wants to raise a live one. And why stop there? By understanding how and when to modify certain molecular mechanisms, countless changes could be within reach. As Horner pointed out, a glow-in-the-dark unicorn is not out of the question.
There are four major modifications needed to make a so-called chickenosaurus, Horner said. To turn a chicken into a dinosaurlike beast, scientists would have to give it teeth and a long tail, and revert its wings back into arms and hands.
The creature would also need a modified mouth — a feat accomplished by the researchers who did this latest study, he said.
"This dino-chicken project — we can liken it to the moon project," Horner told Live Science. "We know we can do it; it's just there are … some huge hurdles."
Challenges ahead
One of those "huge hurdles" was cleared in the latest study, published May 12 in the journal Evolution, in which researchers turned chicken beaks into dino snouts. But even that seemingly small step involved seven years of work. First, the researchers studied beak development in the embryos of chickens and emus, and snout development in the embryos of turtles, alligators and lizards.
It's likely that millions of years ago, birds and reptiles had similar developmental pathways that gave them snouts, but over time, molecular changes led to the development of beaks in birds, the researchers said.
It's difficult for scientists to get embryos of present-day animals, such as crocodiles, to compare because they have to find farms that raise them. And then, the molecular work — determining exactly which developmental pathways are different, how they're different and what controls them — can take "countless hours and hundreds of experiments for a few successful ones," said the study's lead researcher, Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, a paleontologist and developmental biologist currently at the University of Chicago and cross-appointed at Yale University, where he will be starting as full-time faculty. "It's kind of the same as fossil finding."
For their "fossil finding," the researchers needed an extensive fossil record of birds and their ancestors to see what birds looked like at different stages of their evolution.
"You have to understand what you're tracing before you try to trace it," Bhullar told Live Science.
Bhullar; his doctoral advisor Arkhat Abzhanov, a developmental biologist at Harvard University; and their teammates focused on two genes that are active in facial development. Each gene codes a protein, but the proteins — which carry out the work of genes — showed different activities in modern-day chicken and reptile embryonic development, the researchers found. When the researchers blocked the activity of these two proteins in chickens, the birds developed structures that resembled snouts, not beaks.
Unexpected find
And then there's the unexpected finding that revealed the complex task at hand: When the group transformed the beaks of chicken embryos into snouts, they also inadvertently changed the chicken's palate, or roof of the mouth.
In contrast, the palates of the bird embryos were broad and flat, and connected "to the rest of the skull in a way that ancestral reptiles' palatines did, but bird palatines do not," Bhullar said.In birds, "the palatine bone is really long and thin, and it's not very connected with other bones of the skull," Bhullar said. In fact, birds can lift up their top jaw independently of their lower jaw — an ability not seen in most other vertebrates.
So, by changing the beak, the researchers also changed the palate. When the researchers went back to the fossil record, they found that the snout and palatine bone appeared to change together throughout evolution. For instance, an 85-million-year-old fossil of a birdlike creature that had teeth and a primitive beak also had a birdlike palate, they said. [Infographic: How to Make a Dino-Chicken]
However, in an even older fossil, the palatine was not transformed, and neither was the beak, Bhullar said.
"Part of that is verifying experimentally whether the molecular changes we see are actually able to change the anatomy in the ways we predicted," Bhullar said. "In a way, that recapitulates the change we see in the fossil record."
But his goal "is simply to understand, in as a deep a way as possible, the molecular mechanisms behind major evolutionary transitions," he said. He's not interested in making "a more nonavian, dinosaurlike bird."
Will it work?
But Horner is interested in making a so-called chickenosaurus. His group is currently working on giving the chicken a long tail— arguably, the most complex part of making a dino-chicken, he said. For instance, they just screened genes in mice to determine what types of genetic pathways block tail development. This knowledge could help them figure out how to switch on tail growth, he said. [Real of Fake? 8 Bizarre Hybrid Animals]
But it remains to be seen how chickens would react to tails, arms, fingers and teeth, Bhullar said.
But, on the other hand, chickens may be resilient creatures."Just because you changed one part doesn't mean that the animal will be able to use it or be able to use it correctly," he said. "You could perhaps give a chicken fingers, but if the fingers don't have the right muscles on them, or if the nervous system and the brain are not properly wired to deal with a hand that has separate digits, then you may have to do a considerable amount of additional engineering."
"People also sometimes underestimate plasticity [flexibility] of the body," Bhullar said. "It's amazing how much compensation goes on, and the nervous system, in particular, is very plastic."
Bhullar said that, if dinosaurlike features, such as a snout and teeth, were to be restored, he wonders "whether the brain wouldn't rewire itself in some way that would permit these animals to use these features."
Horner likened giving a chicken a dinosaurlike tail to breeding a wolf into a Chihuahua, except that it was on an accelerated timescale.
"We've got all sorts of genetically modified animals already just from breeding," he said. "We [could] make a dino-chicken, and we [could] make a glow-in-the-dark unicorn. Basically, we can make anything we want, I think, once we understand the genes.
"And the question is, 'Why would anyone care if they don't care about a Chihuahua?'" Horner added.
For him, the chickenosaurus is about answering the biggest question of all.
"Any of us that have any curiosity about how we all got here and where everything came from has to be interested in evolutionary biology," Horner said. "It's basically the blueprint of life on this Earth."
Surviving 42 Minutes Underwater…How Boy Beat the Odds
The 14-year-old boy, identified only as "Michael" by the Italian newspaper Milan Chronicle, reportedly dove off a bridge into a canal with some friends last month and never resurfaced. His foot became caught on something underwater and it took firefighters and other first responders nearly an hour to free him from the depths. Though Michael remained on life support for an entire month, he recently woke up and seems to be doing fine, Time reported.
While Michael's story is certainly unusual, it's not unheard of for people to survive prolonged stints underwater, according to Dr. Zianka Fallil, a neurologist at North Shore-LIJ's Cushing Neuroscience Institute in New York. Fallil, who called the teenager's recovery "quite remarkable," told Live Science that there are two physiological processes that may come into play when a person is submerged underwater for an extended period of time with no oxygen. [7 Common Summer Health Concerns]
"The body protects the most efficient organs — the brain, the heart, the kidneys — and pulls the blood away from the extremities and other, not-as-essential, organs," Fallil said.
The diving reflex is often cited as the thing that saves people from nearly drowning. However, it's difficult to study this reflex in humans (likely because of the obvious dangers of recreating near-drowning experiences in a lab), said Fallil, who pointed to another, less controversial explanation for how people survive long stretches underwater — the selective brain cooling hypothesis.
"The selective brain cooling hypothesis [states] that, the quicker the brain cools, the more likely it is to survive," she said.
When you're immersed in cold water for a prolonged period of time, your body may carry out several processes that allow cooled blood to enter the brain, according to Fallil. One of these processes, hypercapnic vasodilation, occurs when the body retains carbon dioxide as a result of not breathing. This extra carbon dioxide causes blood vessels in your brain to dilate (become wider), which in turn allows more cool blood to enter the brain.
While the selective brain cooling hypothesis has also not been widely tested in humans, it's considered a more likely explanation for how the brain might be protected during episodes of prolonged submersion than the diving reflex, Fallil said. And there have also been several other studies conducted to see what factors, besides the body's reflexes, can help you survive underwater.
"There are a few studies that have looked at near-drowning victims to see if age, the duration of submersion or the temperature of the water had anything to do with survival," Fallil said. "And the one thing that they did find a correlation with was time of submersion."
One study, published in the journal Resuscitation in 2002, found that submersion time serves as a predictor of survival for near-drowning victims. The average amount of time spent underwater by the 61 patients in the study was 10 minutes. But, the patients who spent less time underwater (just five minutes) had the least amount of neurological disability after the incident. The victims who didn't survive spent an average of 16 minutes underwater. A similar study, conducted in 2013, found that there was a very low likelihood of a "good outcome" following a submersion lasting longer than 10 minutes.
However, neither of these studies found a strong correlation between the likelihood of survival and the temperature of the water in which a person was submerged, or a person's age. So while several news reports about the Italian teenager's harrowing 42-minute ordeal have concluded that his survival was a result of his youthor the relatively cold temperature of the Milanese canal in April, these are actually just guesses. It's just as likely that he survived because he received excellent medical attention, including the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO (a form of life support that removes carbon dioxide from the blood and oxygenates red blood cells), Fallil said.
Charlie Charlie Challenge: Can You Really Summon a ghost?
That is the seemingly innocent question that begins a new "spirit-summoning" game that is taking the Internet by storm. The so-called Charlie Charlie Challenge is based on shaky science (the objective is to summon a malignant spirit from beyond the grave), but there are some real and powerful forces behind this parlor game, according to one expert.
Here's how the Charlie Charlie Challenge works: players balance one horizontally aligned pencil on top of a vertically aligned pencil (essentially, in the shape of a cross). Both writing utensils sit atop a piece of paper divided into four quadrants. Two of the quadrants are labeled "yes" and two are labeled "no." Players then invite a spirit, Charlie, to play with them. If the spirit is feeling playful, the top most pencil will allegedly spin until it points to "yes." Then the players can ask Charlie other yes or no questions and wait for the pencil to move again. [The Surprising Origins of 9 Common Superstitions]
"Trying to balance one pencil upon another results in a very unstable system," said Christopher French, head of the anomalistic psychology research unit at the University of London in the United Kingdom. "Even the slightest [draft] or someone's breath will cause the top pencil to move."
And the precariously placed pencils will move around regardless of whether you summon a demon after balancing them, French told Live Science. This proves that there's no demonic force necessary for the pencil-moving effect to occur, he said.
Of course, pencils that move without anyone touching them might seem spooky in the right setting (i.e., in a candlelit room in the middle of the night), but as French pointed out, the situation is really no more threatening than a curtain blowing in the breeze.
Mind games
To be fair, gravity is not the only force at work in the Charlie Charlie Challenge. It's also possible that another formidable power, the power of suggestion, has a role to play.
A 2012 study published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science found that people often employ a "response expectancy" in certain situations. In other words, by anticipating that something will occur, a person's thoughts and behaviors will help bring that anticipated outcome to fruition. In the case of this spirit-summoning game, it could be that players expect a certain result and their actions during the game help bring it about (for instance, a well-timed breath or a subtle wave of the hand).
This hypothesis is similar to one suggested by French, who pointed out that many forms of recreational divination — like Ouija (the board game where you put your hands on a piece of plastic that allegedly moves of its own accord to answer your questions) or table turning (an old-school parlor game where people put their hands on a table and wait for the table to turn of its own volition) — involve the subconscious actions of participants. [Really? The World's Greatest Hoaxes]
The "magic" behind the Ouija board and turning tables, along with pendulums and dowsing rods (two other popular forms of divination), has been scientifically explained through something known as the "ideomotor effect," French said.
The ideometer effect was first described in the 19th century by the English doctor and physiologist William Carpenter. It suggests that it's the involuntarily muscular movements of the people using the plastic planchette in Ouija, or the people sitting around the table in table turning, that causes these objects to move. The ideometer effect doesn't completely explain the Charlie Charlie phenomenon, because players don't touch the pencils used in the game. However, the game is similar to these other examples because it involves what French calls "magical thinking," or the belief that a random event (the spinning of a pencil) is related to some unconnected, and in some cases imaginary, force or energy (a spirit).
"Often the 'answers' received [in divination games] might be vague and ambiguous, but our inherent ability to find meaning — even when it isn't there — ensures that we will perceive significance in those responses and be convinced that an intelligence of some kind lay behind them," French said.
The Charlie Charlie Challenge is magical thinking at its finest, according to French, who explained that this sort of thinking may have played an important role in human evolution. It made sense for our human ancestors to see "sentience and intention" in unexplained everyday events, he said, because these events may have represented real threats that needed to be avoided.
"The cost of avoiding a threat that wasn't really there was far less than that of missing a threat that was really there," French said.
This tendency to attribute a deeper meaning to meaningless or unrelated events persists in modern brains, French said. He added that this innate tendency could help explain why so many people believe that the random responses in the Charlie Charlie Challenge really are coming from an intelligence that is trying to send them a message.
Python Eats Porcupine, Regrets It Later (Here's Why)
On June 14, a cyclist riding along one of the mountain bike trails at the Lake Eland Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, spotted a very engorged snake. The cyclist snapped a few photos of the gluttonous python and posted them to social media, where they quickly attracted the attention of locals who wanted to see the python themselves. Lots of people came to the park in the following days just to view the swollen snake, according to Jennifer Fuller, general manager at the game reserve.
At the time the photos were taken, no one knew what the snake had eaten, just that it must have been something fairly large. On the Lake Eland Game Reserve Facebook page, park staff and visitors speculated as to what the snake may have swallowed for dinner, suggesting everything from a small warthog to a baby impala to an errant child (that last one was posted as a joke). [See Images of the Engorged Python Dining on Porcupine]
But on Saturday, June 20, park rangers found the python dead near the bike trail. They decided to cut it open and have a look inside. What they found was one heck of a snack: a 30-lb. (13.8 kilograms) porcupine.
It isn't unusual for pythons to eat porcupines, Fuller told Live Science in an email. In fact, many species of snakes eat porcupines and other horned or quilled animals, according to a study published in 2003 in the Phyllomedusa Journal of Herpetology. And while a 30-lb. meal might sound like too much to digest, it isn't if you're a python.
As Fuller noted, pythons in the Lake Eland Game Reserve have been spotted consuming even larger prey, including adult oribi antelope, which can weigh nearly 50 lbs. (22.7 kg). Pythons possess the incredible ability to alter their metabolism, as well as the size of their organs, after a meal. This allows the a python to digest prey that is much larger than the snake is, according to a study published in 2013 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It still isn't clear if this python's spiky meal was actually responsible for the predator's death. Rangers found the snake underneath a rocky ledge, where it had apparently fallen. On impact, the quills inside its engorged belly may have pierced the python's digestive tract, which could have killed the animal, Fuller said.
In the 2003 study, entitled "Prickly food: snakes preying upon porcupines," researchers found that when a snake eats a porcupine, the animal's quills are left undigested and are easily detectable in the snake's gut. Sometimes, the quills will even pierce all the way through the snake's body, according to the study. But there's no word yet on whether this particular snake died because it was pierced by quills or because it fell off a ledge (or because it was pierced by quills as a result of falling off the ledge), Fuller told the Australian news website News.com.
Rangers at the reserve stripped off the python's skin after removing the porcupine from the predator's digestive track. They also took measurements of the snake's massive body, which was 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) long. Special attention was paid to the animal's head, which features a highly flexible jaw that allows the animal to open its mouth wide to swallow prey whole.
Despite popular belief, a python's jaw does not actually dislocate when the snake is eating. The two lower jaws move independently of one another, and the quadrate bone at the back of the head attaches the jaw loosely to the skull, allowing the jaw to move around freely.
Solar Plane Takes Off on Record 120-Hour Flight Across Pacific
The Solar Impulse 2 took off from Nagoya Airfield at 3:03 a.m. local time in Japan (2:03 p.m. EDT on June 28). The flight, which is expected to take five days and five nights, is part of an ambitious attempt to circumnavigate the world using only solar power.
"This flight will be demanding and challenging particularly given its duration and the fact that no immediate landing is possible and will be a feat never accomplished before in the world of aviation," Solar Impulse officials said in a statement. [See more photos of the plane's round-the-world flight]
"Now fully into the flight to Hawaii. Very strong emotions as I passed the point of no return: exploration starts here," pilot Andre Borschberg, who is also the CEO and co-founder of Solar Impulse, wrote in an update on Twitter. Borschberg included a photo of the Solar Impulse 2 soaring over a bed of fluffy clouds.
Bertrand Piccard, the chairman and founder of Solar Impulse and its other pilot, will support Borschberg from the Mission Control Centre in Monaco. Borschberg and Piccard have been alternating being at the controls of the single-seater plane.
Staying alert for such a long solo flight poses many challenges, but Borschberg plans to take 20-minute naps and meditate to keep his blood moving and his muscles relaxed. Piccard previously told Live Science that he uses self-hypnosis to keep focused during long flights. Piccard is expected to pilot the solar plane on the next leg of its journey, from Hawaii to Arizona.
The Solar Impulse 2 is powered by 17,000 photovoltaic cells on its wings, which drive propellers during the day and charge batteries that power the aircraft at night. After arriving in Hawaii, the plane will continue to Phoenix, with a stop planned in the middle of the U.S., before the pilots head to New York City. Following these stops in the U.S., the plane will fly to Europe, and eventually will return to Abu Dhabi to complete their round-the-world expedition. There will be 13 flights in total, if all continues as planned, according to Solar Impulse officials.
Art-ificial Intelligence? Algorithm Sorts Paintings Like a Person
From assembly-line work to self-driving cars, computers are taking over
many tasks once performed by humans. Artistic jobs, however, have been
relatively safe — until now.
A team of researchers has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) program that can classify famous works of art based on their style, genre or artist — tasks that normally require a professional art historian.
The AI program classified approximately 80,000 works of art with unprecedented accuracy, and revealed surprising connections among different artists and painting styles, stated the study, which was posted to the preprint server arXiv on May 5. [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures]
"We're definitely not replacing art historians, but with a growing number of paintings in online collections, we need an automatic tool" for organizing them, said study researcher Babak Saleh, a computer scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The field of computer vision has advanced significantly in recent years, but AI still lags far behind humans in basic tasks. A human can look at a painting and easily draw inferences from it, such as whether it's a portrait or a landscape, whether the style is impressionist or abstract, or who the artist was.
"The average person can tell these things, but that's very challenging when it comes to a machine," said study researcher Ahmed Elgammal, who is also a computer scientist at Rutgers. "Our goal is to push what machine intelligence can do."
To create a machine capable of classifying art, Saleh and Elgammal used a database of more than 80,000 paintings by more than a 1,000 artists across 15 centuries, spanning 27 different styles.
The researchers used a variety of machine-learning algorithms to pick out particular features in a subset of the paintings, including low-level attributes, such as colors and edges, as well as more abstract ones, such as what an object is — whether it's a horse or a human, for example. One approach they used is known as deep learning, a method employed by Google and other companies in image searches and translation tools.
Then, the researchers tested their algorithm on a set of paintings the machine had never seen, and it performed remarkably well. The program was 63 percent accurate at identifying the artist, about 60 percent accurate at figuring out the genre and about 45 percent accurate at determining the style.
It's difficult to compare the AI's performance to that of an art historian, because the historian has a lot of prior knowledge, Elgammal said. However, he estimated the algorithms would "do much better than the average human," though "not as good as an expert."
In addition, the paintings the algorithm had trouble categorizing offered insight into the influences different painters may have had on each other. For example, the algorithm had difficulty distinguishing between a painting by the 18th-century Danish painter Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg in the neoclassical style and one by the early 19th-century Dutch painter Cornelis Vreedenburgh in the impressionist style.
These parallels are no surprise to art historians, but are nevertheless impressive for a computer program, the researchers said.
A team of researchers has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) program that can classify famous works of art based on their style, genre or artist — tasks that normally require a professional art historian.
The AI program classified approximately 80,000 works of art with unprecedented accuracy, and revealed surprising connections among different artists and painting styles, stated the study, which was posted to the preprint server arXiv on May 5. [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures]
"We're definitely not replacing art historians, but with a growing number of paintings in online collections, we need an automatic tool" for organizing them, said study researcher Babak Saleh, a computer scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The field of computer vision has advanced significantly in recent years, but AI still lags far behind humans in basic tasks. A human can look at a painting and easily draw inferences from it, such as whether it's a portrait or a landscape, whether the style is impressionist or abstract, or who the artist was.
"The average person can tell these things, but that's very challenging when it comes to a machine," said study researcher Ahmed Elgammal, who is also a computer scientist at Rutgers. "Our goal is to push what machine intelligence can do."
To create a machine capable of classifying art, Saleh and Elgammal used a database of more than 80,000 paintings by more than a 1,000 artists across 15 centuries, spanning 27 different styles.
The researchers used a variety of machine-learning algorithms to pick out particular features in a subset of the paintings, including low-level attributes, such as colors and edges, as well as more abstract ones, such as what an object is — whether it's a horse or a human, for example. One approach they used is known as deep learning, a method employed by Google and other companies in image searches and translation tools.
Then, the researchers tested their algorithm on a set of paintings the machine had never seen, and it performed remarkably well. The program was 63 percent accurate at identifying the artist, about 60 percent accurate at figuring out the genre and about 45 percent accurate at determining the style.
It's difficult to compare the AI's performance to that of an art historian, because the historian has a lot of prior knowledge, Elgammal said. However, he estimated the algorithms would "do much better than the average human," though "not as good as an expert."
In addition, the paintings the algorithm had trouble categorizing offered insight into the influences different painters may have had on each other. For example, the algorithm had difficulty distinguishing between a painting by the 18th-century Danish painter Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg in the neoclassical style and one by the early 19th-century Dutch painter Cornelis Vreedenburgh in the impressionist style.
These parallels are no surprise to art historians, but are nevertheless impressive for a computer program, the researchers said.
Rough Roach Bots Barrel Over Obstacles
Although many research teams have designed robots that can avoid obstacles, these bots mostly do so by evading stumbling blocks. This avoidance strategy typically uses sensors to map out the environment and powerful computers to plan a safe path around the obstacles.
"This approach has been very successful — for example, Google's self-driving car," said lead study author Chen Li, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley.
"However, it does have limitations," Li told Live Science. "First, when the terrain becomes densely cluttered — where gaps become comparable to, or even smaller than, robot size — a clear path where robots do not hit obstacles cannot be planned, because obstacles are just too close to each other. Second, this approach requires sophisticated sensors and computers, which are often too large or heavy for small robots to carry around."
Instead, Li and his colleagues wanted to design robots that did not avoid obstacles, but traversed them. They sought their inspiration from discoid cockroaches, which are about 2 inches (4.9 centimeters) long. These roaches usually live on the floor of tropical rainforests, where they frequently encounter a wide variety of clutter, such as grass, shrubs, leaves, tree trunks and mushrooms.
The scientists used high-speed cameras to analyze how the cockroaches moved through artificial obstacle courses with closely spaced, grasslike beams made of card stock. Over the course of hundreds of runs, the insects usually completed the obstacle courses in about 3 seconds. Although the roaches sometimes pushed through the beams or climbed over them, nearly half the time, the insects quickly and effectively slipped past the beams by rolling their bodies to fit through the gaps and using their legs to push off the beams.
Then, the researchers fitted the cockroaches with three artificial shells of different shapes — an oval cone similar to the roaches' bodies, a flat oval and a flat rectangle — to see what factors influence the insects' movements. When the glued-on shells made the roaches less round, the insects were less able to perform a roll and maneuver past the obstacles, the researchers found.
Then, the scientists tested a 4-inch-long (10 cm) six-legged robot named VelociRoACH on a similar obstacle course. When it had a rectangular body, the robot had only a 19 percent chance of passing the course, since it frequently got stuck between the grass like beams. However, when it was fitted with a cockroach-inspired round shell, it had a 93 percent chance of finishing the obstacle course by rolling through the beams, in much the same way real roaches did. This move did not involve any change to the robot's programming or the addition of any sensors — it was a natural consequence of the shell, the researchers said.
"Robots can take advantage of effective physical interactions with the environment to traverse even densely cluttered obstacles," Li said.
This research shows how body shapes can help animals and robots traverse terrain, much like how the streamlined body shapes of many birds and fishes (and mimicked by airplanes and submarines) help reduce drag, Li added. "This is why we named this new concept 'terradynamic streamlining,'" he said.
Terra dynamic streamlining may prove especially useful for small, inexpensive robots in applications like search and rescue, precision farming, or military reconnaissance because it allows the bots to traverse obstacles like rubble and vegetation without having to add more sensors and computers, Li said.
"There may well be other body shapes that are good for other purposes, such as climbing up and over obstacles," Li said. In the future, the researchers plan to analyze how animal and robot body shapes affect other kinds of movement in a variety of environments.
The scientists detailed their findings online June 23 in the journal Bio inspiration & Biometrics.
Environmental Special Interests
Many Americans place a high degree
of trust in environmental special interest groups. A 2002 poll
commissioned by the Sierra Club found that 57 percent of Americans trust
environmental groups for information on environmental issues. But do
environmental groups deserve so much trust? Are they truly benign
do-gooders only out to protect the public's health and the environment?
Like any movement, there are some good
seeds and some bad seeds, but most environmental groups share some
general characteristics. First, environmental groups tend to exaggerate
and even fabricate environmental crises in order to justify their
existence and to maintain financial support. Second, unbeknownst to
their contributors, environmental groups often use their resources to
support other liberal causes and politicians that have little to do with
the environment. Third, environmental groups frame the debate as good
versus evil, which justifies nasty attacks on those with different
opinions.
As environmental groups continue to flex their muscles and influence policy, it's important to look behind the curtain to see what is really driving many organizations.
As environmental groups continue to flex their muscles and influence policy, it's important to look behind the curtain to see what is really driving many organizations.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Poltergeist 2015 HDrip
: Trailer :
Screenshot
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FileRio
! Hope u Enjoy !
Cyber-Attacks & Warfare
Most Internet users have seen it at some point, if not often.
Many have faced more serious threats and in some cases, had their entire
lives changed by this problem. Although it sounds like an idea out of
an old science fiction book, the issue of cyber-crime is a growing
phenomenon that even now threatens the most powerful governments across
the world.
The many problems a cyber-attack could cause presents individuals with several important questions that must be considered as cyber-technology continues to advance. On an individual level, what can be done to prevent a cyber-attack? How can you protect yourself, your family, or your business? However, at the national level, the stakes are raised. Some have argued that a state-sponsored cyber-attack is an act of war.
Cyber-attacks began decades ago. Rudimentary viruses were distributed by random individuals hoping to annoy the technologically inept, middle-aged computer greenhorn, while also using their computer knowledge in a less productive, albeit more fun, way. Cyber-attacks have now become more malicious and much more of a threat. Credit card information, personal records, and sensitive business documents began to be at risk. By 2010, 1 in every 10 American consumers had been a victim of identity theft. Over $50 billion was stolen from individuals and businesses in 2009, and in spite of a rapid expansion of new businesses producing protective software, cyber-attacks have only grown in number. In fact, LifeLock (identity security) CEO Todd Davis offered a challenge to any anonymous hacker to steal his identity. It was successfully accepted 13 times.
But cyber-attacks have not stopped with individuals or small businesses. In recent years we have seen some of the largest, most protected corporations around the world attacked. Moreover, dozens of national governments, including America's, have been electronically attacked, allowing the intruder access to sensitive military information, defense secrets, or even embarrassing diplomatic events. Some of these instances have been linked to foreign governments, while others have been carried out by independent people from groups such as WikiLeaks.
Currently there is debate surrounding the legality of these events and how to respond to them. Due to the fact that these situations could compromise U.S. national security, even if it relates to a private corporation, some argue that these cyber-hackings must be stopped by a larger role of government. Others contend that revelations by organizations like WikiLeaks encourage more government transparency and stifle the bent toward corruption in government bureaucracies.
Going a step further, there is significant evidence that several militaries are beginning to use this technology against other nations. North Korea and Iran, despite sparse evidence that they have advanced capabilities, have openly boasted of their superior "cyber-warriors." Russia, too, has warned of their potential in the cyber-realm, famously using it against Estonia’s government following Estonia’s decision to disassemble a Soviet-era statue in Tallinn. Most notably, China has a massive cyber-force as part of the People's Liberation Army.
Despite officially denying any state-sponsored attacks, U.S. officials remain convinced China has been behind several of the most destructive and intrusive cyber-attacks. The United States is certainly a player in this as well. There is vast evidence that the U.S. military was involved in the infamous cyber-attack against an Iranian nuclear plant, setting back months of progress.
This topic will investigate what a cyber-attack is, what it is capable of doing, and how it could potentially affect the U.S. and the personal lives of its citizens.
The many problems a cyber-attack could cause presents individuals with several important questions that must be considered as cyber-technology continues to advance. On an individual level, what can be done to prevent a cyber-attack? How can you protect yourself, your family, or your business? However, at the national level, the stakes are raised. Some have argued that a state-sponsored cyber-attack is an act of war.
Cyber-attacks began decades ago. Rudimentary viruses were distributed by random individuals hoping to annoy the technologically inept, middle-aged computer greenhorn, while also using their computer knowledge in a less productive, albeit more fun, way. Cyber-attacks have now become more malicious and much more of a threat. Credit card information, personal records, and sensitive business documents began to be at risk. By 2010, 1 in every 10 American consumers had been a victim of identity theft. Over $50 billion was stolen from individuals and businesses in 2009, and in spite of a rapid expansion of new businesses producing protective software, cyber-attacks have only grown in number. In fact, LifeLock (identity security) CEO Todd Davis offered a challenge to any anonymous hacker to steal his identity. It was successfully accepted 13 times.
But cyber-attacks have not stopped with individuals or small businesses. In recent years we have seen some of the largest, most protected corporations around the world attacked. Moreover, dozens of national governments, including America's, have been electronically attacked, allowing the intruder access to sensitive military information, defense secrets, or even embarrassing diplomatic events. Some of these instances have been linked to foreign governments, while others have been carried out by independent people from groups such as WikiLeaks.
Currently there is debate surrounding the legality of these events and how to respond to them. Due to the fact that these situations could compromise U.S. national security, even if it relates to a private corporation, some argue that these cyber-hackings must be stopped by a larger role of government. Others contend that revelations by organizations like WikiLeaks encourage more government transparency and stifle the bent toward corruption in government bureaucracies.
Going a step further, there is significant evidence that several militaries are beginning to use this technology against other nations. North Korea and Iran, despite sparse evidence that they have advanced capabilities, have openly boasted of their superior "cyber-warriors." Russia, too, has warned of their potential in the cyber-realm, famously using it against Estonia’s government following Estonia’s decision to disassemble a Soviet-era statue in Tallinn. Most notably, China has a massive cyber-force as part of the People's Liberation Army.
Despite officially denying any state-sponsored attacks, U.S. officials remain convinced China has been behind several of the most destructive and intrusive cyber-attacks. The United States is certainly a player in this as well. There is vast evidence that the U.S. military was involved in the infamous cyber-attack against an Iranian nuclear plant, setting back months of progress.
This topic will investigate what a cyber-attack is, what it is capable of doing, and how it could potentially affect the U.S. and the personal lives of its citizens.
Ancient Western Political Thought
Western civilization has been
described as the synthesis of Jerusalem and Athens. Athens represents
the classical influences of the Greek and Roman civilizations. Jerusalem
represents the Jewish and Christian influences. Western political
thought consequently draws from each of these ancient sources.
Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle provided the vocabulary for talking about different kinds
of government. They offered ideas of what justice, virtue, and "the
good life" mean, creating criteria by which to judge governments.
Perhaps most importantly, they provided an ideal of critical thought,
reflection, and self-examination that allowed people to question the
institutions around them. Greek leaders were thus able to attempt
experiments in government, such as the Athenian democracy or the Spartan
military state. The Greek states eventually fell under the control of
Rome, which at that time had an innovative form of government itself:
the Roman Republic. Even when the Republic became the empire, an idea of
the rights and duties of citizenship continued to provide order and
stability.
The idea of "covenant" from Jewish
thought, transmitted by Jewish thinkers or indirectly through Christian
writers, provides another strain of thought which helped develop later
ideals of constitutional government. The arrangements of the ancient
covenants provided for the supremacy of the Law over the rulers, and
consequent limitations on the powers of kings and judges.
The two currents, Athens and Jerusalem,
met in Rome. The Roman Empire brought both under one government and
provided a common language. But the exact mix of ideas that forged
Western civilization was created by Christianity. The Jewish origins of
Christianity met the classical world in numerous authors, who either
attempted to refute one or the other, or to form some type of synthesis.
In political thought, writers such as St. Augustine and St. Gelasius I
proposed ideas that became foundational to Western civilization.
Environmental Special Interests
Many Americans place a high degree
of trust in environmental special interest groups. A 2002 poll
commissioned by the Sierra Club found that 57 percent of Americans trust
environmental groups for information on environmental issues. But do
environmental groups deserve so much trust? Are they truly benign
do-gooders only out to protect the public's health and the environment?
Like any movement, there are some good
seeds and some bad seeds, but most environmental groups share some
general characteristics. First, environmental groups tend to exaggerate
and even fabricate environmental crises in order to justify their
existence and to maintain financial support. Second, unbeknownst to
their contributors, environmental groups often use their resources to
support other liberal causes and politicians that have little to do with
the environment. Third, environmental groups frame the debate as good
versus evil, which justifies nasty attacks on those with different
opinions.
As environmental groups continue to flex their muscles and influence policy, it's important to look behind the curtain to see what is really driving many organizations.
As environmental groups continue to flex their muscles and influence policy, it's important to look behind the curtain to see what is really driving many organizations.
Secularism
"God is dead."
Nietzsche's famous words came from the mouth of the "Madman" in The Gay Science. He obviously did not mean that men and women had literally killed God. Rather, he was referring to the fact that the traditional Christian understanding of God had become less believable in a late nineteenth-century world living in the aftermath of the Enlightenment.
Nietzsche's phrase has served as the banner of the phenomenon in the West known as "secularism." The word secularism comes from the Latin word saeculum, meaning "age" or "world." Thus, secularism is commonly used to refer to a more "worldly"-centered existence as opposed to a religiously-centered one.
From a Christian perspective, evaluating secularism involves evaluating what kind of relationship Christianity should have with the world. There's no easy answer to this question.
For Christians, the idea that they are to maintain some separation from the world has biblical roots. Especially in the writings of the Apostle John, one finds a distinction between Christians and the "world." In John 17, Jesus says of Christians that "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." This and other biblical passages gave rise to the maxim that Christians are "in the world, but not of the world." This maxim is most commonly interpreted to mean that Christians now dwell in the world, but that they should be more focused on the world they believe will come about at the "Last Judgment" with the "Second Coming" of Jesus.
At the same time, the Bible also makes clear that Christians are to have some sort of active engagement with the world. Jesus tells his followers in the Sermon on the Mount that they are to be a "light to the nations" (Mt 5:14), implying that they are supposed to be a visible example of the world. Before his Ascension into heaven, Jesus also gives the disciples the mandate to "baptize all nations" (Mt 28:19), which Christians have traditionally understood as a mandate to convert people all over the world to Christianity.
This tension between Christians' obligation to remain separate but engaged with the world has resulted in disagreements among them about the exact role Christianity should play in the larger culture and society.
Some Christians believe they are called to transform all aspects of culture and society—government, education, the arts, etc. They look at the Roman Empire's official recognition and adoption of Christianity in 381 A.D.as a positive development. Many Catholics and Orthodox look at the establishment of Holy Roman Empire ("Christendom") and the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages as the height of the Church's life in history.
Other Christians, however, believe they should keep a greater distance from worldly matters than they have in the past. They have a tendency to view Christianity as in its purest form in its simple beginnings, when it was being persecuted by the larger, secular culture. They tend to view Rome's endorsement of Christianity as the official religion of the empire as compromising the Christian message. They regard the age of Christendom as the "Dark Ages," when ignorance reigned among the people, and corruption infected the Church due to its worldly power.
But the fact is that Christianity played a much more central role in Western culture and society throughout history than they do now. Secularism is more of a modern anomaly.
An interesting question is when exactly the West began its turn toward secularism. Former Harvard historian Christopher Dawson locates its historical beginnings in the Protestant Reformation, which represented the breaking up of the Christian unity that had previously held the West together. The Reformers desired to return Christianity to its supposed original purity by freeing it from its ties with the modern culture. This desire, Dawson believes, led to an increased separation between Christianity and culture, and thus, the increased secularization of the West. Ironically, then, the desire to purify Christianity may have led to the marginalization of Christianity.
Dawson argues that religion has historically been the foundation of cultures. Now, in the West, religion has become merely one part of culture among others. Indeed, this might be a more accurate understanding of secularism than simply a "worldly"-centered existence. According to this understanding, secularism is not necessarily anti-religious, but represents a view that religion is merely one aspect or compartment of life.
Without religious unity, Western man was forced to look for another source of unity to maintain civil order. He was forced to create a more strict separation between church and state than previously existed in the West. Thus came the birth of political liberalism in Europe and America, which established order on the basis of shared values such as equality, prosperity, and above all, liberty (hence the term "liberalism"). But there remains the question of whether a secular political order based solely on values separated from religion can be maintained.
In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor offers a different thesis about the origins of secularism in the West. Interestingly he locates it in Christianity itself, which he portrays as having a greater focus on free, individual identity than religions of the past. That emphasis on free individuality (which Taylor regards as a good thing!) created the grounds for an age in which one can choose between belief and unbelief, which is Taylor's primary marker of a secular age.
But many think the secularism of the West is exaggerated. Go to any Barnes & Noble and you will find a rather large section of books devoted to the subject of religion. Four out of five Americans still identify themselves as members of a particular religion, and 39% report that they attend church every week. (The numbers are less in Europe.) While less people may be participating in organized religion than in the past, many in the West still have a great interest in religious themes and profess to be "spiritual."
The greater exposure of the Christian West to Islam in recent years has brought greater exposure to the question of secularism. Muslim countries still have a very religiously-centered culture. The legal codes in most Muslim countries are influenced by Sharia—the religious law derived by the Qur'an and the Sunnah (life of Mohammed). In the more secular United States and Europe, there is concern about how increasing Muslim populations will affect the principle of separation of church and state.
This topic presents data on the prevalence of secularism in the world today, while providing a variety of research, commentary, and primary sources on the pros and cons of this issue.
Nietzsche's famous words came from the mouth of the "Madman" in The Gay Science. He obviously did not mean that men and women had literally killed God. Rather, he was referring to the fact that the traditional Christian understanding of God had become less believable in a late nineteenth-century world living in the aftermath of the Enlightenment.
Nietzsche's phrase has served as the banner of the phenomenon in the West known as "secularism." The word secularism comes from the Latin word saeculum, meaning "age" or "world." Thus, secularism is commonly used to refer to a more "worldly"-centered existence as opposed to a religiously-centered one.
From a Christian perspective, evaluating secularism involves evaluating what kind of relationship Christianity should have with the world. There's no easy answer to this question.
For Christians, the idea that they are to maintain some separation from the world has biblical roots. Especially in the writings of the Apostle John, one finds a distinction between Christians and the "world." In John 17, Jesus says of Christians that "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." This and other biblical passages gave rise to the maxim that Christians are "in the world, but not of the world." This maxim is most commonly interpreted to mean that Christians now dwell in the world, but that they should be more focused on the world they believe will come about at the "Last Judgment" with the "Second Coming" of Jesus.
At the same time, the Bible also makes clear that Christians are to have some sort of active engagement with the world. Jesus tells his followers in the Sermon on the Mount that they are to be a "light to the nations" (Mt 5:14), implying that they are supposed to be a visible example of the world. Before his Ascension into heaven, Jesus also gives the disciples the mandate to "baptize all nations" (Mt 28:19), which Christians have traditionally understood as a mandate to convert people all over the world to Christianity.
This tension between Christians' obligation to remain separate but engaged with the world has resulted in disagreements among them about the exact role Christianity should play in the larger culture and society.
Some Christians believe they are called to transform all aspects of culture and society—government, education, the arts, etc. They look at the Roman Empire's official recognition and adoption of Christianity in 381 A.D.as a positive development. Many Catholics and Orthodox look at the establishment of Holy Roman Empire ("Christendom") and the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages as the height of the Church's life in history.
Other Christians, however, believe they should keep a greater distance from worldly matters than they have in the past. They have a tendency to view Christianity as in its purest form in its simple beginnings, when it was being persecuted by the larger, secular culture. They tend to view Rome's endorsement of Christianity as the official religion of the empire as compromising the Christian message. They regard the age of Christendom as the "Dark Ages," when ignorance reigned among the people, and corruption infected the Church due to its worldly power.
But the fact is that Christianity played a much more central role in Western culture and society throughout history than they do now. Secularism is more of a modern anomaly.
An interesting question is when exactly the West began its turn toward secularism. Former Harvard historian Christopher Dawson locates its historical beginnings in the Protestant Reformation, which represented the breaking up of the Christian unity that had previously held the West together. The Reformers desired to return Christianity to its supposed original purity by freeing it from its ties with the modern culture. This desire, Dawson believes, led to an increased separation between Christianity and culture, and thus, the increased secularization of the West. Ironically, then, the desire to purify Christianity may have led to the marginalization of Christianity.
Dawson argues that religion has historically been the foundation of cultures. Now, in the West, religion has become merely one part of culture among others. Indeed, this might be a more accurate understanding of secularism than simply a "worldly"-centered existence. According to this understanding, secularism is not necessarily anti-religious, but represents a view that religion is merely one aspect or compartment of life.
Without religious unity, Western man was forced to look for another source of unity to maintain civil order. He was forced to create a more strict separation between church and state than previously existed in the West. Thus came the birth of political liberalism in Europe and America, which established order on the basis of shared values such as equality, prosperity, and above all, liberty (hence the term "liberalism"). But there remains the question of whether a secular political order based solely on values separated from religion can be maintained.
In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor offers a different thesis about the origins of secularism in the West. Interestingly he locates it in Christianity itself, which he portrays as having a greater focus on free, individual identity than religions of the past. That emphasis on free individuality (which Taylor regards as a good thing!) created the grounds for an age in which one can choose between belief and unbelief, which is Taylor's primary marker of a secular age.
But many think the secularism of the West is exaggerated. Go to any Barnes & Noble and you will find a rather large section of books devoted to the subject of religion. Four out of five Americans still identify themselves as members of a particular religion, and 39% report that they attend church every week. (The numbers are less in Europe.) While less people may be participating in organized religion than in the past, many in the West still have a great interest in religious themes and profess to be "spiritual."
The greater exposure of the Christian West to Islam in recent years has brought greater exposure to the question of secularism. Muslim countries still have a very religiously-centered culture. The legal codes in most Muslim countries are influenced by Sharia—the religious law derived by the Qur'an and the Sunnah (life of Mohammed). In the more secular United States and Europe, there is concern about how increasing Muslim populations will affect the principle of separation of church and state.
This topic presents data on the prevalence of secularism in the world today, while providing a variety of research, commentary, and primary sources on the pros and cons of this issue.
Islam and Women
Over the last few decades,
Americans and Western Europeans have had increasing interaction with
followers of Islam both domestically and internationally. As a result of
these interactions, much has been seen and learned about Islam and
women. To many Westerners, both secular and non-secular, the apparent
treatment of women under Islam is unacceptable.
But is this critique fair? Yes and no.
How women are treated in Islam depends
greatly upon the country in which the women reside. Many Muslim women in
America, as well as Western Europe, report that they are not oppressed
or treated poorly in any way. They are not subject to beatings or
treated like second-class citizens. They argue that the reason they
dress modestly and wear a headscarf is because they believe they are
being virtuous. The United States certainly has had a long tradition of
women dressing modestly (men, too, for that matter). Furthermore, these
Muslim women argue that they are just as free to act and do what they
want, but because of their beliefs they choose to restrict their
lifestyles. Many Christians and Jews in the United States do the same.
On the other hand, women's attire in
Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan is
restricted by the state. Beyond simply restricting clothing attire, in
certain Islamic countries women have been beaten, stoned, or killed by
agents of the state for violating Sharia (Islamic law). Additionally,
husbands and men are often given great leeway in how they can treat
women. Worse still, honor killings, as well as forced female genital
mutilation, occur with far too much frequency in Islamic societies.
Apologists for Islam often contend that
much of the maltreatment of women is a result of culture or society, and
not because of the religion of Islam. Because many Islamic countries,
such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, actually enshrine the religion of
Islam into their legal codes, this defense of Islam doesn't necessarily
stand. Additionally, the argument still admits that in cultures or
societies dominated by Islam, women are not treated well. To be fair,
apologists also contend that the numbers of women oppressed or harmed
aren't nearly as high as what people they label as "Islamophobes" would
have Westerners believe. This point, though, is also up for debate.
As more Muslims immigrate to America and
Western Europe, many of the practices listed above also are being
imported, including honor killings and female genital mutilations. To
protect the individual rights of women, "secular" Muslims and the West
will need to shake off the multicultural mindset and forge a culture
that demands that all women are treated with respect and dignity. As for
the treatment of women in other cultures and countries, it will likely
take organic, cultural reform to protect women's individual rights,
something that is increasingly likely as more Muslim women become
well-educated and enter the workforce.
Is Environmentalism a Religion?
Religion can be defined as a
reverence for and devotion to something greater than the self; it is a
system of belief that supersedes all else; and it is a belief in the
sacred. Modern environmentalism, influenced by the ideas of Deep Ecology
and other New Age or Pagan belief systems, has become for many a
religion.
At its simplest form, the environmental
religion proposes that the earth is one organism with one energy; a
super bio-organism. We (humans, plants, water, animals, etc.) are all
connected and are all one. Man happens to have reached the highest level
of consciousness and as such has the greatest responsibility to tend to
the Earth. This oneness arguably extends beyond the Earth to the
universe.
In this belief system, environmental
activists naturally become so zealously involved that they revere
environmental concerns above all else. And while they might not believe
in a supernatural being, their devotion is no different than the Muslim
pilgrim, born-again Christian, or Buddhist monk.
A quick look around society will tell
one that the environmentalists are fast at work evangelizing the world
with their beliefs. The message is in schools, on TV, in ads, and
heavily influencing many levels of government in America and around the
world.
Deflation : Cause & Effects
Although inflation has been the norm
during the latter half of the 20th century, there were long periods in
U.S. history during which prices actually fell - a phenomenon called
deflation. In 1836, the money supply contracted by at least 30%; pushing
prices down. Between 1875 and 1896, prices fell in the United States by
1.7% a year. Between 1930 and 1933, prices fell almost 10% a year. In
2008-9, the United States experienced the first deflation since the
1950s. Deflation is commonly defined as a general decrease in the price
level. By that definition, it can be caused by a decreasing money
supply, an increasing demand for money, a decreasing demand for goods,
and/or an increasing supply of goods.
Many free marketers argue that deflation
isn't necessarily something that should be feared. Price levels have
steadily decreased in the past without leading to a Great
Depression-style environment and the economy still grew. In fact, lower
prices are often good for the consumer and a deflationary environment
rewards savers.
Monetarists and Keynesians
(and others who believe the economy can be managed) see deflation as a
great scourge that must be stopped through monetary policies or
government intervention. Inflating the currency is one management tool
used by the Federal Reserve to do so. The Fed also can stimulate demand
by lowering interest rates. However, once the Fed has lowered nominal
interest rates all the way to zero, it is unlikely to be able to affect
demand. If these low interest rates fail to stimulate the economy,
monetary policy can become ineffective. This is called a liquidity trap.
As of 2009, the Fed has doubled
the money supply in less than a year and lowered interest rates to
almost zero in order to fight deflation. Time will tell whether or not
it can succeed in its efforts.
When deflation strikes a credit-based
economy (think cheap money), free marketers argue that normal business
cycle rules simply do not apply. There is less money and credit
available, which means people and companies often cannot maintain
spending while continuing to meet their debt obligations. As corporate
and personal incomes decline, defaults on debt begin to take place and
then spread through the economy until the debt is literally flushed from
the system. This process is inevitable and often takes many years to
complete.
An Egyptian TV Show Pranked Paris Hilton With A Horrific Fake Plane Crash
Paris Hilton recently appeared on Egyptian actor Ramez Galal's prank show, "Ramez in Control" ("Ramez Wakel Elgaw") and was subjected to a terrifying hoax.
A YouTube video from an episode of "Ramez in Control" shows Hilton in Dubai for the opening of a new hotel. Midway through the episode, the celebrity is invited on a jet for a 15-minute aerial tour of the city with Galal and other passengers. A few minutes after the plane is in the air, the pilot begins doing stunts that make it appear as if the plane is crashing.
In the video, Hilton and the other passengers begin to panic and scream as an alarm goes off and the plane appears to plummet. One passenger opens up the jet's side door and tosses a man out as Hilton screams "No" and "I don't want to jump."
"I almost thought I was going to die," she says, crying. "That's been my biggest fear my whole life, dying in a plane."
It's unclear when this episode of "Ramez in Control" originally aired, but Galal has pulled this prank -- and others -- during the past four Ramadans. Another video posted to YouTube includes a preview of various people involved in the plane crash hoax.
The show faced cancelation earlier this year, but not because of how upsetting the pranks appear to be for the show's victims. According to website Albawaba, Egypt's prosecutor general filed a lawsuit against Galal for reportedly "stealing the show's idea from Prosecutor General Ashraf Atef."
Previously, the host has tricked guests into believing they were being eaten by live sharks in the ocean, so clearly, Galal has no limits.
Why the Navy Still Pays Millions for Microsoft’s Windows XP
That’s because some customers just can’t let go of it. The United States Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), for instance, inked a $9.1 million contract with the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant this month to keep its XP-based systems afloat. Microsoft, in exchange, will supply the command with custom security fixes for its products such as Windows XP, which no longer gets security updates, and Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Windows Server 2003, which lapse in mid-July, reports IDG News.
“The Navy relies on a number of legacy applications and programs that are reliant on legacy Windows products,” SPAWAR spokesman Steven Davis told the news service. “Until those applications and programs are modernized or phased out, this continuity of services is required to maintain operational effectiveness.”
In fact, as many as 100,000 machines at SPAWAR may rely on the outdated technology, according to a federal contract extension.
But the Navy isn’t the only holdover. The Army recentlygreen-lit an extension of Windows XP support for “over 8,000 devices,” Ars Technica points out. And federal agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service are still paying for support while they transition to Windows 7, for which free security updates won’t end until the beginning of 2020. (Microsoft is releasing Windows 10 at the end of July.)
All this may seem weird, but it would be far more dangerous for the Navy to let its contract expire—or for it to roll out an emergency operating system refresh that it might potentially botch. Letting its Windows XP support expire might leave “critical command and control systems” vulnerable to attack, as IDG notes, citing Navy documents.
“A plan for migrating to current and supported capabilities has been developed and is being executed,” Davis said.
This article originally appeared on Fortune.com
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Le sport
Les sportifs professionnels bénéficieraient d'une
longévité accrue par rapport au reste de la population.
Un effort à haute dose, en fréquence ou en intensité, est même associé à une meilleure santé physique et mentale. «Chez les athlètes professionnels, comme chez les sportifs amateurs assidus, le fait de repousser sans cesse ses limites s'associe à un gain en qualité et en durée de vie, en dépit du risque de mort subite et d'accident lié à l'activité», a expliqué jeudi le Pr Jean-François Toussaint, directeur de l'Institut de recherche biomédicale et d'épidémiologie du sport (Irmes). Deux études de l'Irmes consacrées aux sportifs professionnels qui seront bientôt publiées vont dans ce sens.
Selon la première étude, réalisée auprès de tous les anciens coureurs du Tour de France arrivés dans les dix premiers depuis 1903, l'espérance de vie des sportifs est supérieure à celle de la population générale. Dans la deuxième étude, en reprenant les 3 430 athlètes français ayant participé aux Jeux olympiques depuis 1896, les chercheurs observent une réduction de moitié de la mortalité.
Une étude de l'Inserm centrée sur les performances des coureurs du marathon de New York ces trente dernières années, montre en outre qu'une activité physique intense est tout à fait compatible avec l'âge. «La participation des concurrents de plus de 40 ans connaît une forte augmentation, et leurs performances ne cessent de s'améliorer, observe Romuald Lepers, auteur de l'étude et chercheur à l'Inserm. Pour la première fois, un centenaire a même terminé le marathon en moins de 10 heures. Tout cela montre que le haut niveau ne fatigue pas le cœur.»
Plus l'effort est fréquent, plus le bénéfice sera grand
La question est de savoir si ces résultats très favorables sont transposables à la population. En effet, les prédispositions naturelles (génétiques) et l'hygiène de vie des sportifs de haut niveau en font des cas particuliers.«On sait désormais que ce qui est vrai pour les jeunes champions de vélo ou de tennis l'est aussi pour les autres», assure Jean-François Toussaint. Tout laisse à penser que plus l'effort est fréquent, plus le bénéfice sera grand, même si les scientifiques cherchent encore la posologie précise, et qu'au-delà d'une certaine quantité d'efforts, variable selon les individus, l'excès pourrait être délétère.
Le conseil minimal reste donc d'avoir une activité d'intensité modérée: pendant 30 minutes cinq fois par semaine ou une activité intense trois fois par semaine pendant 20 minutes. Au-delà, il semble qu'il y ait ce que les scientifiques appellent une relation dose/effet, c'est-à-dire que plus on fait de sport et plus le bénéfice est grand.
Car l'activité physique permet de lutter contre les phénomènes liés à l'âge, en particulier le vieillissement de l'organisme qui peut se manifester par exemple par une diminution de la capacité respiratoire ou de la force musculaire. Il est aussi fréquent de réduire son activité au fil des ans, même si certains seniors sont plus actifs que des gens plus jeunes. Dans tous les cas, des programmes d'activité permettent d'augmenter les capacités pulmonaires et musculaires de 20 à 30 %.
L'effort est aussi bénéfique au niveau cardio-vasculaire. L'exercice régulier permet notamment d'avoir un muscle cardiaque plus puissant, en meilleure forme. De plus, les efforts contribuent au développement de la microcirculation, ces petits vaisseaux sanguins qui pourront, si besoin, jouer un rôle d'itinéraire de secours pour le sang et l'oxygénation du cœur en cas d'infarctus du myocarde (grosse artère bouchée).
Le bénéfice cardio-vasculaire de l'activité physique apparaît d'ailleurs très rapidement, puisque les modifications sont observées dès trois mois d'entraînement. Rappelons tout de même aux sédentaires que la reprise du sport lorsque l'on n'en a plus fait depuis de nombreuses années impose une visite chez un cardiologue.
Enfin, l'important est de trouver une activité que l'on fait avec plaisir. C'est la seule condition pour persévérer dans ses efforts.
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Take your fitness on holiday
More and more travelers are not only including exercise in their
vacation plans, but also making it the main theme of their getaway. It's
called a fitcation!
Taking a vacation doesn’t have to mean sipping margaritas
poolside and indulging in the all-inclusive buffet. Sure there’s aqua
aerobics, and many resorts now have gyms, but more and more travelers
are not only including exercise in their vacation plans, but also making
it the main theme of their getaway.Fitcations-—growing in popularity
Wellness tourism is the latest vacationing trend. From cycling holidays to yoga retreats, fitcations are a great way to improve your fitness while soaking up the atmosphere and culture of an exotic locale. According to the Global Wellness Institute, wellness tourism worldwide is a multimillion dollar business, growing at a faster rate than tourism in general.
Anne Dimon, CEO of Travel to Wellness, a website dedicated to wellness-inspired travel destinations, says she’s seen traffic to her site steadily increase since its launch in 2004. As we spoke, Dimon was heading to a stretch class before hitting the hiking trails while on a wellness retreat in Malibu, California. Her four-day fitness holiday included four hours of morning mountain hiking, an afternoon exercise class, organic vegetarian cuisine, and a daily massage.
“I try to take an annual wellness vacation, and fitness is typically my main focus,” says Dimon. “Over the years, I have incorporated climbing Mount Kenya, trekking down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, hiking to the top of a volcano in Guatemala, kayaking around the BC Gulf Islands, and cycling in France.”
Dimon says it’s all about changing lifestyle priorities. “As consumers become more educated about what they need to do to feel better and live healthier longer, they’re working elements of wellness into their lifestyles and they don’t want to give up some of those elements when they travel,” she says. “Vacationers have so many more options today than simply sitting around a pool.”
Alistair Butchers, innovation manager with the Canadian adventure travel company G Adventures, says he’s seen an increase in bookings for active vacations, particularly the company’s trekking, cycling, and multisport trips. For some travellers, it’s the challenge that motivates them—hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro, for example, provides instant bragging rights. For others, an active holiday is simply a way to incorporate a hobby into their vacation.
“A lot of people cycle to work every day and it’s something they enjoy so much that they want to work it into their vacation time,” Butchers says. An active holiday can also be a great opportunity to try a new sport, such as rappelling or canyoneering, that you wouldn’t typically get to experience at home.
Are you ready for a fitcation?
While you don’t have to be super athletic to enjoy a fitcation, there are a number of things to consider before booking. Take a look at these popular fitcation ideas.
Trekking holidays
Whether committing to a three-day trek in Machu Picchu or weeklong climbing expedition up Mount Kilimanjaro, your legs are sure to thank you for the workout.
Before booking: Be sure to consider your physical condition. You may love walking around town, but can you walk 20 kilometres a day on gravel roads or up mountainous terrain? If you aren’t sure your legs will carry you the distance, look into trips that provide options. Some Machu Picchu trips, for example, offer a train ride so you don’t have to hike for three days.
Yoga retreats
Take your asanas to the beach, the mountains, or the jungle with a yoga retreat. Retreats can be as short as a two-night weekend getaway or 10 days or more in an exotic locale.
Before booking: Consider the type of landscape that will inspire your yoga practice and familiarize yourself with the instructors’ teaching style. If you prefer an intensive flow practice but the retreat offers restorative, you’ll be disappointed. Consider how much yoga you’ll want to practise while you’re on the retreat. While some retreats offer only one hour of yoga daily, others offer several classes a day.
City running tours
Run at a comfortable speed and spend time visiting sites that interest you—just make sure you pack a decent pair of running shoes.
Before booking: Research the many US and European cities that offer daily or weekly running tours, allowing fit-minded travellers to soak up the city sights on foot.
Cycling tours
Riding a bike is a great way to experience a new landscape and culture.
Before booking: Consider your level of fitness and the type of riding you’ll be doing. Some cycling trips will have you riding long distances every day to a new location while others incorporate sightseeing stops along the way and allow you to go at your own pace.
Protect your health while traveling
Your health should always be your number one priority, but even more so when you’re on holiday. Keep these health tips in mind when planning your fitcation.
Visit a health care practitioner
International travel means exposure to unfamiliar ailments. Visit a health care practitioner before embarking on a foreign journey to get informed about the risks of disease and receive necessary immunizations. Gio Miletto, MD, of Vancouver Travel Medicine and Vaccination Centre, advises scheduling your appointment a minimum of six weeks ahead of your trip in case immunizations require more than one shot.
Fend off airplane germs
Dry cabin air causes the mucous lining in airways to deplete, increasing your risk of developing a respiratory virus. Drink plenty of water and avoid dehydrating drinks such as alcohol and caffeinated beverages.
Watch what you eat
Eat at clean, reputable restaurants and make sure foods are cooked to kill bacteria. Only eat fresh fruits that you can peel, and avoid the skins. Take special caution with drinking water, ensuring bottles are sealed before drinking.
Get plenty of sleep
Sleep helps your body recover and fend off illness. Getting adequate sleep is even more important while embarking on a fitcation to allow your muscles time to heal from exertion.
Written By
Lisa Evans
Saturday, June 27, 2015
New Software Lets Sailors Use Navy-Issued Phones for Personal Use
The Navy has green lighted a plan that allows sailors to stop carrying their work and personal phones.
Navy leaders authorized mobile software for Defense Department-issued phones that will separate a user’s official calls, messages and images from their personal ones.
Newly issued devices, starting with Apple’s iPhone 5S and 6 models running IOS 8, will utilize systems developed by Good Technology that segregate official business uses of the phone and securing it with enhanced encryption and passwords, according to the Navy’s April 21 announcement.
“Mobility is transforming how the Navy operates, connects, and supports our personnel and the fleet,” Vice Adm. Ted Branch, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance and Director of Naval Intelligence said in the announcement.
“To meet this growing demand the Naval Enterprise Networks program office has implemented a mobile solution to meet operational needs while complying with architectural and security requirements to protect the Navy enterprise,” he said.
The solution uses “Good Container” technology that will enable sailors to use their Navy-issued phones for government work and personal activities in keeping with Navy policies on acceptable use of government IT, Branch said.
Users may load non-work apps to the phone, but only outside the Good Container system.
However, only apps available through the iTunes or the Android apps stores may be downloaded, and “users are responsible for all charges and installations of personally desired applications and data installed on the non-secure portion of the device,” Branch said.
The technology will also be added to newer iPhones/IOS versions, as well as Androids, as they are certified on the Navy Marine-Corps Intranet network.
Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@military.com.
Navy leaders authorized mobile software for Defense Department-issued phones that will separate a user’s official calls, messages and images from their personal ones.
Newly issued devices, starting with Apple’s iPhone 5S and 6 models running IOS 8, will utilize systems developed by Good Technology that segregate official business uses of the phone and securing it with enhanced encryption and passwords, according to the Navy’s April 21 announcement.
“Mobility is transforming how the Navy operates, connects, and supports our personnel and the fleet,” Vice Adm. Ted Branch, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance and Director of Naval Intelligence said in the announcement.
“To meet this growing demand the Naval Enterprise Networks program office has implemented a mobile solution to meet operational needs while complying with architectural and security requirements to protect the Navy enterprise,” he said.
The solution uses “Good Container” technology that will enable sailors to use their Navy-issued phones for government work and personal activities in keeping with Navy policies on acceptable use of government IT, Branch said.
Users may load non-work apps to the phone, but only outside the Good Container system.
However, only apps available through the iTunes or the Android apps stores may be downloaded, and “users are responsible for all charges and installations of personally desired applications and data installed on the non-secure portion of the device,” Branch said.
The technology will also be added to newer iPhones/IOS versions, as well as Androids, as they are certified on the Navy Marine-Corps Intranet network.
Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@military.com.
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