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Your app makes me fat

In 1999, Professor Baba Shiv (currently at Stanford) and his co-author Alex Fedorikhin did a simple experiment on 165 grad students.They asked half to memorize a seven-digit number and the other half to memorize a two-digit number. After completing the memorization task, participants were told the e...

Click to view the original at seriouspony.com

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Computer scientists develop 'mathematical jigsaw puzzles' to encrypt software

(Phys.org) —UCLA computer science professor Amit Sahai and a team of researchers have designed a system to encrypt software so that it only allows someone to use a program as intended while preventing any deciphering of the code behind it. This is known in computer science as 'software obfuscation,'...

Click to view the original at phys.org

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A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA

Growers turned to genetics in hopes of building a tougher orange tree. But what intervention would the public accept?

Click to view the original at nytimes.com

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Ruins of forgotten empires: APL languages

One of the problems with modern computer technology: programmers don't learn from the great masters. There is such a thing as a Beethoven or Mozart of software design. Modern programmers seem more ...

Click to view the original at scottlocklin.wordpress.com

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Women in Science

Summers was deservedly castigated, but not for the right reasons. He claimed to be giving a comprehensive list of reasons why there weren't more women reaching the top jobs in the sciences. Yet Summers, an economist, left one out: Adjusted for IQ, quantitative skills, and working hours, jobs in scie...

Click to view the original at philip.greenspun.com

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Denis Dutton

ou’re probably thinking that a talk called “Is there anything good about men” will be a short talk! Recent writings have not had much good to say about men. Titles like Men Are Not Cost Effective speak for themselves. Maureen Dowd’s book was called Are Men Necessary? and although she never gave an e...

Click to view the original at denisdutton.com

Hasnain says:

"Is There Anything Good About Men?"

This is one of those rare articles that, albeit long, suffices to change your viewpoint about something. It's a pretty refreshing and interesting take on gender inequality.

Posted on 2013-07-21T17:18:36+0000

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A faster Internet — designed by computers? - MIT News Office

Computer-designed algorithms for controlling network congestion yield transmission rates two to three times as high as those designed by humans.

Click to view the original at web.mit.edu

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Why Does Every Movie Released These Days Feel Exactly the Same? This Book.

If you’ve gone to the movies recently, you may have felt a strangely familiar feeling: You’ve seen this movie before. Not this exact movie, but some of these exact story beats: the hero dressed down by his mentor in the first 15 minutes (Star Trek Into Darkness, Battleship); the villain...

Click to view the original at slate.com

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J.K. Rowling and the Chamber of Literary Fame

Last weekend’s revelation that J.K. Rowling is the author of the critically acclaimed and -- until now -- commercially unsuccessful crime novel “The Cuckoo’s Calling” has electrified the book world and solidified Rowling’s reputation as a genuine writing talent: After all, if she can impress the cri...

Click to view the original at bloomberg.com

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Unhappy Truckers and Other Algorithmic Problems - Issue 3: In Transit - Nautilus

When Bob Santilli, a senior project manager at UPS, was invited in 2009 to his daughter’s fifth grade class on Career Day, he struggled…

Click to view the original at nautil.us

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The Forbidden Island

The following is an article from Uncle John's 24-Karat Gold Bathroom Reader.Ever heard of North Sentinel Island? Probably not …even thought's one of the most unusual places on Earth. What makes it so odd? The people -they've been there a long time, completely cut off from the rest of the worl...

Click to view the original at neatorama.com

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Nations Buying as Hackers Sell Computer Flaws

Governments pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn about and exploit flaws in the computer systems of foreign adversaries.

Click to view the original at nytimes.com

Hasnain says:

It's interesting how people used to just find vulnerabilities as a hobby and report them for free (and get maybe a T-shirt in return); and now they go for hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Posted on 2013-07-14T19:06:53+0000

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Chinese Citizens on Tour in Europe

Online version of the weekly magazine, with current articles, cartoons, blogs, audio, video, slide shows, an archive of articles and abstracts back to 1925

Click to view the original at newyorker.com

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When Italians Chat, Hands and Fingers Do the Talking

Gesticulating is a vital part of communication in Italy, where about 250 gestures are used regularly and studied by scientists and philosophers.

Click to view the original at nytimes.com

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