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Software to track our emotional outbursts

Tom Simonite
New Scientist
Mon, 11 May 2009 16:50 UTC
Image
© Fotex/Rex FeaturesThere isn't always someone there to temper your online outbursts, but software might help.
The internet allows anyone with the appropriate hardware to freely express themselves to the world at large using a website or blog. But we are not sharing our thoughts with only other humans: web pages are read by software agents all the time, including search engine spiders and spambots.

Now a new kind of agent is starting to roam the web that can understand the emotional content of what we write - and they could soon arrive on your desktop too.

These "sentiment analysis" tools are a branch of a wider area of computer science that is trying to teach computers to understand the feelings expressed in text just as well as humans do, and the commercial applications of such technology are already starting to be realised.

The early adopters of these tools are the owners of big brand names in a world where company reputations are affected by customer blogs as much as advertising campaigns. A small but growing group of firms is developing tools that can trawl blogs and online comments, gauging the emotional responses brought about by the company or its products.
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Evil Rays

Radiation Review: Some People May be 'Allergic' to Cell Phones, Computers


Physorg.com
Fri, 15 May 2009 21:35 UTC
Cell phone tower
© Wikimedia CommonsCell phone tower in Nyakrom, Agona District, Ghana
How exactly does the radiation from electromagnetic fields (EMF) affect the human body? Is it possible that cell phones, computer monitors, TVs, and other electronic devices - which operate within current EMF safety standards - cause illnesses, or are the people who claim to be sensitive to these devices just paranoid? The topic is one of the most controversial subjects in technology today, having important consequences in politics, consumerism, human rights, and health costs.

Olle Johansson, an associate professor and head of the Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has been investigating the effects of electromagnetic fields on human physiology since the early '80s. Johansson's research has led him to become an outspoken supporter of the view that the dangers of EMF radiation from our gadgets are real, and that existing safety standards, which are based on acute thermal effects only, do not adequately protect public health.
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Magnet

Researchers closer to the ultimate green 'fridge magnet'


Physorg.com
Fri, 15 May 2009 21:41 UTC
Scientists are a step closer to making environmentally-friendly 'magnetic' refrigerators and air conditioning systems a reality, thanks to new research published today in Advanced Materials.

Magnetic refrigeration technology could provide a 'green' alternative to traditional energy-guzzling gas-compression fridges and air conditioners. They would require 20-30% less energy to run than the best systems currently available, and would not rely on ozone-depleting chemicals or greenhouse gases. Refrigeration and air conditioning units make a major contribution to the planet's energy consumption - in the USA in the summer months they account for approximately 50% of the country's energy use.

A magnetic refrigeration system works by applying a magnetic field to a magnetic material - some of the most promising being metallic alloys - causing it to heat up. This excess heat is removed from the system by water, cooling the material back down to its original temperature. When the magnetic field is removed the material cools down even further, and it is this cooling property that researchers hope to harness for a wide variety of cooling applications.
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Satellite

Astronauts have trouble with repair work at Hubble

Marcia Dunn
Physorg.com
Fri, 15 May 2009 21:35 UTC
astronauts work on hubble
© Associated Press/NASA TVIn this image from NASA TV astronauts Mike Good, left, and Mike Massimino work to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope during a spacewalk, Friday, May 15, 2009
The struggle had NASA on edge for about two hours. The gyroscopes are needed to point the 19-year-old observatory, and getting them in was the top priority of the repair mission.

It was the second spacewalk in as many days for the Atlantis astronauts. On Thursday, another two-man team installed a powerful new camera and a computer data unit, after struggling with a stubborn bolt. NASA had hoped for an easier, less stressful spacewalk, but instead had to endure more drama.

Michael Massimino, who was working from inside Hubble, and his partner, Michael Good, had no problem removing all six of Hubble's 10-year-old gyroscopes. They easily plugged in the first new set of two gyroscopes, but despite repeated efforts, could not get the second set properly mounted.
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Magnify

2,000-Year-Old Caves Found in Raigad


Sakaal Times
Thu, 14 May 2009 23:53 UTC
Image
© Sakaal TimesAn ancient cave found in Raigad district during exploration by the Deccan College, Pune
Seven new Buddhist caves have been found at Dhondse and Bahirampada villages in Pali taluka of Raigad district, by the archaeology department of Deccan College here, according to a lecturer in history of ancient India and Sanskrit, Shrikant Ganveer.

The caves were found during exploration around and study of the 60 caves at Thanale and Nenawali in Raigad district.
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Info

Sexy "Venus" may be oldest figurine yet discovered

Michael Kahn
Reuters
Thu, 14 May 2009 23:35 UTC
Image
© REUTERS/Nature
London - A sexually suggestive Venus figurine with oversized breasts and thighs dates back at least 35,000 years and shows ancient humans had sex on their minds, researchers said on Wednesday.

The 60-millimetre-long figurine may be the oldest piece of its kind yet discovered and suggests Palaeolithic art was far more complex than many had thought, Nicholas Conard of Tubingen University in Germany wrote in the journal Nature.
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Magnify

Inside the baby mind

Jonah Lehrer
The Boston Globe
Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:27 UTC
mother and baby
© unknown
It's unfocused, random, and extremely good at what it does. How we can learn from a baby's brain.

What is it like to be a baby? For centuries, this question would have seemed absurd: behind that adorable facade was a mostly empty head. A baby, after all, is missing most of the capabilities that define the human mind, such as language and the ability to reason. Rene Descartes argued that the young child was entirely bound by sensation, hopelessly trapped in the confusing rush of the here and now. A newborn, in this sense, is just a lump of need, a bundle of reflexes that can only eat and cry. To think like a baby is to not think at all.
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Family

Don't! The secret of self-control

Jonah Lehrer
New Yorker
Thu, 14 May 2009 20:55 UTC
Image
Children who are able to pass the marshmallow test enjoy greater success as adults.
In the late nineteen-sixties, Carolyn Weisz, a four-year-old with long brown hair, was invited into a "game room" at the Bing Nursery School, on the campus of Stanford University. The room was little more than a large closet, containing a desk and a chair. Carolyn was asked to sit down in the chair and pick a treat from a tray of marshmallows, cookies, and pretzel sticks. Carolyn chose the marshmallow. Although she's now forty-four, Carolyn still has a weakness for those air-puffed balls of corn syrup and gelatine. "I know I shouldn't like them," she says. "But they're just so delicious!"

A researcher then made Carolyn an offer: she could either eat one marshmallow right away or, if she was willing to wait while he stepped out for a few minutes, she could have two marshmallows when he returned. He said that if she rang a bell on the desk while he was away he would come running back, and she could eat one marshmallow but would forfeit the second. Then he left the room.
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Snowman

Theory: Dark energy froze the universe

Heather Catchpole
Cosmos Magazine
Mon, 11 May 2009 18:51 UTC
Antigravity effect
© NASAAntigravity effect: Image shows the changing rate of expansion of the universe since the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. Dark energy is thought to have accelerated the rate of expansion
Dark energy froze the universe 11.5 billion years ago, says a new theory, which researchers claim could be tested within 15 to 20 years.

"We have convincing evidence that there is some kind of dark energy out there - that is, some antigravity substance that makes up 70% of the universe and is accelerating its expansion," said lead author of the research, astrophysicist Sourish Dutta, from the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

"We just don't know what the nature of that substance is," he said.

The pop of virtual particles

Dutta and colleagues have come up with a theory that dark energy is related to vacuum energy, the underlying background energy of empty space. Quantum mechanics predicts that a vacuum - such as space - is dotted with 'virtual particles' that pop in and out of existence. This sub-atomic activity could be the key to dark energy.
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Satellite

NASA set for shuttle launch to help Hubble telescope


The Telegraph
Mon, 11 May 2009 18:02 UTC
NASA is on target for its launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on its final mission to service the Hubble telescope, the US space agency said on Sunday.

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