Maybe you're forgetful, completely insane, or part of a clinical trial—whatever the reason, someone needs to know if and when you're taking your medication. The simplest way of keeping track of your swallowing habits? Let the pills tattle. More »
The first iPad reviews are in and so far they're sounding pretty great with very few reservations. Here are the highlights of what the early reviewers are saying: More »
The painter Cavaradossi (Jeffrey M. Hartman), Tosca’s lover, is not just painting a Madonna; he is painting a mural of an ostensibly Futurist Madonna. Thus, added to the crime of aiding an escaped political prisoner is the implicit charge of “subversive art” (despite the fact that the Futurists tried so hard to ingratiate themselves with the Fascists).
The Marine in the photo above is in the middle of a fire fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan's Helmand province. AP photographer David Guttenfelder caught the moment, and many others just as captivating, with his iPhone camera. More »
The 60 days between the end of January and Saturday have given us, and other really smart people, a lot of time to think about the iPad and what it means. More »
Current artificial-intelligence systems are typically one of two types: logic-based or probability-based. But an MIT researcher has developed a new language, Church, that combines the best aspects of each, and it's making AI smarter than ever. More »
I'm no techno aficionado. I like bleeps and bloops. Who cares if they're acid house or space jam or whatever? But I can tell you this: "Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat" is amazing. And it's from 1982. More »
Publishers HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster have signed a deal with Amazon to follow the agency pricing model for their books—the same deal publishers have with Apple for the iBookstore—allowing the two publishers to set their own books prices. More »
As part of what is apparently an April Fool's Day Prank over at Google Japan, they've made a pretty impressive drumset keyboard, complete with emoticon keys. More »
Hey, folks !! nice to see you !
Since I am not an english native speaker, I actually have small problems with choosing a proper word (terminology). There is a word "suspension". When you hear that word at first, you might think about car or something related.. right ?!?
i am just wondering
Influence of the epicanthal fold on the perceived direction of gaze.
“Judged direction of gaze from straight and turned heads is known to be biased from its true direction. We have tested the additional influence of epicanthal folds on the perceived direction of gaze. Western observers (U.S. residents of Western appearance) and Eastern observers (native Japanese) judged the direction of gaze from cathode ray tube-imaged heads with and without epicanthal folds (Japanese vs. Western models) when the heads, both straight and turned, gazed in different lateral directions… When the gazers’ heads were straight and gave eye contact, both Western and Eastern observers judged the gaze to be giving eye contact. However, with straight heads and gaze to the side, epicanthal folds produced significant differences in the judged direction of gaze. Observers judged the right and left eyes to be gazing in nearly the same direction when the gazer had the eye appearance that the observers were used to viewing within their own country, but in very different directions when the gazer had eyes typical of the other country. When the gazers’ heads were turned, the Western and Eastern observers judged the direction of gaze of the Western gazer’s right and left eyes similarly, but both judged large differences in direction of gaze between right and left eyes for the Eastern gazer. CONCLUSION: Direction of gaze from eyes that have epicanthal folds is judged very differently than gaze from eyes that do not have epicanthal folds. This difference is sensitive to the cultural experience of the observers.”
Bonus figure:
“FIGURE 1. Photos of the Western and Eastern models that provided the background over which we layered their eyes as they looked in different directions of gaze. Top left—Western gazer, head straight. Top right—Western gazer, head turned 30° to the observer’s left. Bottom left—Eastern gazer, head straight. Bottom right—Eastern gazer, head turned 30° to the observer’s left. The observers viewed these images in color.”
Photo: flickr/himenohogosha
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Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: [Insert joke about women drivers here]
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Who ever said scientists were polically correct?
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: wtf?
In today's Remainders: feats of amazement. Superman's first comic book appearance sells for $1.5m at auction; RIM posts its most impressive quarter ever; Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet performed...over Twitter; researchers create a full-screen Braille display; and more. More »
Some parts of Russia's Pushchino Radioastronomy Observatory, constructed in 1956, have been plundered by metal thieves. The rest is still operational today. See a full tour at: [English Russia] More »
When it comes to picking up clever tricks and learning to do something the way everybody else does it, social animals like humans, birds, and monkeys excel. One individual looks at what others in the group are doing and quickly learns to follow suit—an invaluable skill that scientists previously thought evolved in step with communal living.
But what about an individual that doesn’t live in a group and spends most of its life in solitude–would it still have that ability to watch and learn? Cognitive biologist Anna Wilkinson set out to answer that question by studying the red-footed tortoise, one of the loneliest beasts on the planet. These South American tortoises grow up without parents or siblings, and adults rarely cross paths. If a head-bobbing display determines that a stranger is of the opposite sex, the two will mate perfunctorily–otherwise they just ignore each other [ScienceNOW]. Yet in a new study published in Biology Letters, Wilkinson showed that even these hermits possess the ability to learn by watching others.
In her experiment, Wilkinson set up a V-shaped wire mesh with a bowl of treats placed inside the point of the vee. She then let a tortoise named Wilhelmina try to get to the treats, but the tortoise couldn’t figure out how to get around the mesh and instead tried unsuccessfully to go through it. After weeks of arduous training and about 150 attempts, Wilhelmina finally learned to go around the mesh to get to the treats.
Then the researchers let four other tortoises try the navigation test. Like Wilhelmina initially, they all failed to find a way around the mesh–but when they watched the trained tortoise maneuver her way to the bowl of goodies, they quickly picked up cues. Two tortoises caught on the first time they watched Wilhelmina, and two, including [Wilkinson's pet tortoise] Moses, managed on at least 11 out of 12 days [Science News] (but he could not part the mesh to get to the other side).
The antisocial tortoises’ remarkable accomplishment suggests that social learning, rather than a unique ability that evolved in social animals because it makes them more successful in group living, is simply another dimension of general learning, which depends only on an animal’s cognitive abilities, Wilkinson says [ScienceNOW]. Louis Lefebvre, an animal behaviorist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, added: “Information in the environment is information in the environment, whether it’s given to you by an animal” or not…. “This study confirms it in a nice way” [ScienceNOW].
Related Content:
80beats: Careful Crossbreeding Could Resurrect Extinct Galapagos Tortoise
80beats: Lonesome George, the World’s Rarest Tortoise, Isn’t Ready to Be a Dad
80beats: Monkey Schoolmarms: Vervet Monkeys Learn Better From Female Teachers
80beats: Dogs Think Like Babies, While Wolves Think for Themselves
Image: Martin Krondorfe
Senators Demand Explanation of NASA's Flawed Climate Data, Fox
"Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and David Vitter (R-La.) have written a letter to NASA chief Charles Bolden demanding answers to questions surrounding newly uncovered irregularities in the space agency's climate data. Not everyone is sipping the global warming Kool-Aid. Concerns about the validity of NASA's climate research are being raised following revelations that the space agency admitted its data was less accurate than other weather trackers'. Disturbed by these reports, as well as the growing Climate-gate scandal that has left global-warming theorists reeling, Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and David Vitter (R-La.) have written a letter to space agency chief Charles Bolden demanding answers."
G'day Yall,
Why do Petrol Bowsers dispense fuel full of air bubbles?
I pose this question because I've noticed this "phenomenon" over a few years now. It usually rears its head as an issue when I'm trying to fill, one or other of my 7 series Volvo's. As when the tanks are 3/4 f
Making pleasing noises your ears will appreciate, and looking like dinosaur bones that have been strung up together by a crafter, this is a 21st century version (or should that be 20th century?) version of the traditional kokiriko instrument. More »
We have Vade - knifegate valves complete with pneumatic linear actuators. we have been looking for the seals but emails have not been responded to.(TP- Tajadera Pasante(through going))
the seals that we are after, are for the pneumatic cylinder actuator, they include the metal case rod wip
