colby pre-posterous

 

New computer chip models how neurons communicate with each other at synapses.

Fabricated analog very-large-scale integration (VLSI) chip used to mimic neuronal processes involved in memory and learning. Image: Guy Rachmuth

For decades, scientists have dreamed of building computer systems that could replicate the human brain’s talent for learning new tasks.

MIT researchers have now taken a major step toward that goal by designing a computer chip that mimics how the brain’s neurons adapt in response to new information. This phenomenon, known as plasticity, is believed to underlie many brain functions, including learning and memory.

Read rest of article by Anne Turner here:
 

A milestone in description of complex processes - measuring the distance of processes - #stationarity #mathematics #stats

A milestone in the description of complex processes -- for example the ups and downs of share prices -- has been reached by mathematicians at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Researchers led by Prof. Dr. Holger Dette (stochastics) have developed a new method in spectral analysis, which allows a classical mathematical model assumption, so-called stationarity, to be precisely measured and determined for the first time. 

The approach also makes it possible to construct statistical tests that are considerably better and more accurate than previous methods. 

The researchers report on their results in the Journal of the American Statistical Association.

Read the full eScience article here:
 

Answers could be in your #dreams when true inspiration can strike - #consciousness #creativity

When you fall asleep, you enter an alternative state of consciousness—a time when true inspiration can strike

From Scientific American Magazine By DeirdreBarrett 

 | October 20, 2011

Image: Photoillustration by Aaron Goodman

In Brief

  1. The act of dreaming is simply thinking about our usual concerns in a different state of consciousness.
  2. Dreams can be especially helpful for problems that require creativity or visualization to solve.
  3. By thinking about specific dilemmas before bed, we can increase our chances that we will dream a solution.
















As a young mathematician in the 1950s, Don Newman taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology alongside rising star and Nobel-laureate-to-be John Nash. Newman had been struggling to solve a particular math problem: “I was ... trying to get somewhere with it, and I couldn’t and I couldn’t and I couldn’t,” he recalled.

One night Newman dreamed that he was reflecting on the problem when Nash appeared. The sleeping Newman related the details of the conundrum to Nash and asked if he knew the solution. Nash explained how to solve it. Newman awoke realizing he had the answer! 

He spent the next several weeks turning the insight into a formal paper, which was then published in a mathematics journal.


Read article from Scientific American:
 

SpyPhone: Do not put smart phone near computer - #hackers use it to #spy - no more #privacy

 It's a pattern that no doubt repeats itself daily in hundreds of millions of offices around the world: People sit down, turn on their computers, set their mobile phones on their desks and begin to work. 

What if a hacker could use that phone to track what the person was typing on the keyboard just inches away?

SpyPhone picks up keystrokes, vibrations & more...
 

Scientists trace #typhoid routes with genetic #biotech & #GPS
In the mid-nineteenth century, John Snow mapped cases of cholera in Soho, London, and traced the source of the outbreak to a contaminated water pump. Now, in a twenty-first century equivalent, scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust working in Kathmandu, Nepal, have combined the latest in gene sequencing technology and global positioning system (GPS) case localisation to map the spread of typhoid and trace its source.

Read the article:
 

#Psychopathic killers: Computerized text analysis uncovers the #word #patterns of a #predator - #criminal #behaviour unmasked

Fascinating. Pay attention.


As words can be the soul's window, scientists are learning to peer through it: Computerized text analysis shows that psychopathic killers make identifiable word choices – beyond conscious control – when talking about their crimes.


This research could lead to new tools for diagnosis and treatment, and have implications law enforcement and social media.

The words of psychopathic murderers match their personalities, which reflect selfishness, detachment from their crimes and emotional flatness, says Jeff Hancock, Cornell professor of computing and information science, and colleagues at the University of British Columbia in the journal Legal and Criminological Psychology.

Hancock and his colleagues analyzed stories told by 14 psychopathic male murderers held in Canadian prisons and compared them with 38 convicted murderers who were not diagnosed as psychopathic. Each subject was asked to describe his crime in detail. Their stories were taped, transcribed and subjected to computer analysis.

Psychopaths used more conjunctions like "because," "since" or "so that," implying that the crime "had to be done" to obtain a particular goal. They used twice as many words relating to physical needs, such as food, sex or money, while non-psychopaths used more words about social needs, including family, religion and spirituality. Unveiling their predatory nature in their own description, the psychopaths often included details of what they had to eat on the day of their crime.

Past as prologue: Psychopaths were more likely to use the past tense, suggesting a detachment from their crimes, say the researchers. They tended to be less fluent in their speech, using more "ums" and "uhs." The exact reason for this is not clear, but the researchers speculate that the psychopath is trying harder to make a positive impression, needing to use more mental effort to frame the story.

"Previous work has looked at how psychopaths use language," Hancock said. "Our paper is the first to show that you can use automated tools to detect the distinct speech patterns of psychopaths." This can be valuable to clinical psychologists, he said, because the approach to treatment of psychopaths can be very different.

More information: "Hungry like the wolf: A word-pattern analysis of the language of psychopaths," Legal and Criminological Psychology (online Sept. 14, 2011)

 

Celebrating with @sierdo - 1st copies of our #book Quick Start Guide to Making Choices from the printer @MediaDok - #read ! #yam

 Both versions of The Quick Start Guide to Making Choices - in English and in het Nederlands (Dutch) - in our hands this afternoon. Of course, they are the proofs, yet we are so excited. Dancing and drinking champagne! Thank you @sierdo ;oP

Photo

sent from Colby's iPhone

 

Scary new #drugs #law passed in USA with #global impact on positive actions in other countries. #yam
The USA House Judiciary Committee passed a bill yesterday that would make it a federal crime for USA residents to discuss or plan activities on foreign soil that, if carried out in the USA, would violate the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). 

Even if the planned activities are legal - and further scientic reserach or government policy - in the countries where they're carried out, participants would be arrested and put in prison like convicts. 

USA will now legally impose their short-sighted moral & cultural preferences on rest of the world in this new drug law - making dangerous felons of planners, researchers, academics & others for any participation in advice. 

Where does the USA get funding to do this when it is beyond broke and so deep in debt - and has 6 million homeless children that require funding for health, education and welfare?

Read this article to understand the global impact of setting a law like this in place. 

 

The origins of greatness

The origins of greatness

Friday, 07 October 2011
Story Source

What makes people great? Popular theorists such as the New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell and the New York Times’ David Brooks argue that intelligence plays a role – but only up to a point. Beyond that, they say, it’s practice, practice, practice.

 

iSad. Steve Jobs leaves the world a much more inspired place. His Ted Talk: How to live before you die

 The TED Talk: Steve Jobs - How to Live Before You Die by Steve Jobs, produced by Stanford University and available on TED.com http://goo.gl/y3m4

"Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." ~ Steve Jobs Thank you, Steve Jobs.

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