How long before they use this on the general population, because these drugs could make us ‘obey their commands’?

By John Swaine, The Telegraph (UK)
Posted on August 18, 2008, Printed on August 20, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/95488/

Landmines releasing brain-altering chemicals, scanners reading soldiers’ minds and devices boosting eyesight and hearing could all one figure in arsenals, suggests the study.

Sophisticated drugs, designed for dementia patients but also allowing troops to stay awake and alert for several days are expected to be developed, according to the report. It is thought that some US soldiers a re already taking drugs prescribed for narcolepsy in an attempt to combat fatigue.

As well as those physically and mentally boosting one’s own troops, substances could also be developed to deplete a n opponents’ forces, it says.

“How can we disrupt the enemy’s motivation to fight?” It asks. “Is there a way to make the enemy obey our commands?” Research shows that “drugs can be utilized to achieve abnormal, diseased, or disordered psychology” among one’s enemy, it concludes.

In the online community Cellufun, troublemakers found guilty by other users get their virtual alter egos placed behind bars. (Cary Torkelson)

By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 20, 2008; Page D01

Virtual worlds have often been called the digital equivalent of the Wild West, where animated alter egos can live in a fantasy frontier. But in some of these universes, a sheriff has come to town.

Slipping a four-letter word into an instant message now could land a user in a virtual timeout. Repeated attempts to make friends with an uninterested character could result in a loss of blogging privileges. And if convicted of starting a “flame war,” or an exchange of hostile messages, a user may endure the ultimate punishment — permanent exile. more>>>

By LiveScience Staff

posted: 20 August 2008 12:15 pm ET

Tiny futuristic batteries will be half the size of a human cell and built with viruses, researchers announced today.

Engineers at MIT have developed two of the three parts of such microbatteries. They could be used to power implantable medical sensors or laboratories the size of computer chips, among other small things. The could also be integrated with other living things in ways not yet envisioned.

The tiny power packs would be stamped or printed right onto the surface of a device.

“To our knowledge, this is the first instance in which microcontact printing has been used to fabricate and position microbattery electrodes and the first use of virus-based assembly in such a process,” write MIT professors Paula T. Hammond, Angela M. Belcher, Yet-Ming Chiang and colleagues in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. more>>>

Evolution didn’t quite hit perfection when it comes to human thought processes.

The human mind, we like to think, is an embodiment of perfection. For those with a religious inclination, our ability to think through issues logically, to construct narratives about our surroundings, and to recall events that happened decades earlier is proof positive of a divine hand at work. For the nonreligious, the mind is a secular miracle, an indication that, left to its own devices, evolution produces something akin to a Panglossian vision of the best outcomes in the best of all possible worlds. more>>>

Published: 15:13 EST, August 19, 2008

(PhysOrg.com) — Nerve cells constantly create new contact points to their neighbouring cells. This is how the basic structure of our brain develops. In adults, new contact makes learning and memory possible. However, not all contact between cells is useful – most of it is dismantled again very quickly. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Martinsried near Munich have now described a completely new technique with which nerve cells can evaluate the quality of the cells they contact in a very time- and energy-saving way. (Neuron, July 31, 2008)

The brain consists of a hundred billion nerve cells. What’s more, each of these cells is linked to its neighbours by many thousands of contact points. During brain development, young nerve cells must come into contact with the correct partner cells so that the brain can carry out its complex functions. However, contact between nerve cells is also constantly being set up and dismantled in adults. It is this continuous restructuring of the brain that allows us to learn and to forget. more>>>

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene from pro on Vimeo.

By Claudine Beaumont
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 11/08/2008

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, has confirmed there is a ‘kill switch’ built into the iPhone that allows Apple to remotely delete malicious or inappropriate applications stored on the device. more>>>

Ok, this is just ridiculous. Made me laugh. Yes, I laughed.

The artwork, entitled Complex Shit, was carried 200 metres on the night of 31 July, reportedly breaking a greenhouse window before it landed again. more>>

Perimeter Institute physicist Cliff Burgess talks about the Large Hadron Collider, doomsday scenarios and why physics matters

Last Updated: Friday, August 15, 2008 | 4:05 PM ET
By Paul Jay, CBC News

Sept. 10 is a date particle physicists around the world have undoubtedly had circled on their calendars for some time: the official start-up of the Large Hadron Collider. But the rest of the world is only now beginning to pay attention to the $9-billion project.

The collider, which lies in a 27-kilometre-long underground circuit beneath the French-Swiss border, will use a ring of super-cooled magnets to push two proton beams to speeds and energies never before reached under controlled conditions, crashing the protons into one another to create and detect a host of new particles.

It is expected to be the most powerful tool yet for physicists hoping to uncover the secrets behind the laws of the universe, both on the tiny scale of quantum mechanics and the huge domain of galaxies and black holes. more>>>

CLICK ON THIS SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN LINK TO WATCH THE VIDEO:

http://www.sciam.com/video.cfm?id=AE158F95D6F734922F2394D69B2B59AB

ScienceDaily (Aug. 8, 2008) — Today’s growing third generation (3G) of mobile data services are only a taste of what is to come. Now, European researchers are paving the way to a world where ultra-fast internet access is available from every mobile device.

This is all I’m gonna give you…READ THIS ARTICLE:

He adds: “Technology is always moving, it’s always improving. We can decide either to be in the group which is improving and innovating or we are not in that group. I think it’s better to be in the group that’s improving.” more>>>

See the amazement HERE

We all know that music can alter your mood. Sad songs can make you cry. Upbeat songs may give you an energy boost. But can music create the same effects as illegal drugs?

This seems like a ridiculous question. But websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects.

All your child needs is a music player and headphones.

Understanding binaural beats

There are different slang terms for digital drugs. They’re often called “idozers” or “idosers.” All rely on the concept of binaural beats.

It is incorrect to call binaural beats music. They’re really ambient sounds designed to affect your brain waves. more>>>

August 04, 2008 11:40am

THE US National Legal and Policy Centre (NLPC) has allegedly exposed the home of Google co-founder Larry Page using his company’s own mapping services.

Photos of “a top Google executive’s address” were posted by the NLPC in response to a current Pennsylvanian court case regarding privacy issues in Google Street View.

Images taken from Google Street View highlighted the licence plates of a Lexus and a Mercedes parked outside the Californian property, while an aerial image measured the distance from the gate to the front door using Google Earth’s measurement tool.

The NLPC also mapped a driving route from the house to Google offices nearby, with street-level images of each intersection on the way.

“There is no better evidence that individual privacy simply does not exist in Google’s world than by the chilling amount of detailed visual information Google now collects on all of us, information that any internet user can now compile in a dossier in less than 30 minutes,” the NLPC said in an accompanying statement. more>>>

Websites routinely capture data that can reveal pictures of users’ lives, US military academy professor Greg Conti told an audience at the annual DefCon hackers gathering in Las Vegas.

The danger is being heightened by a growing Internet trend toward “cloud computing,” software being offered online with applications hosted on outside computers instead of programs being installed on people’s machines.

A common example of the practice is Web-based email services such as those offered by Google and Yahoo.

The world of cloud computing is expanding to include software for documents, accounting, spread sheets, photo editing and more.

“With cloud computer looming on the horizon it is important for us all to think of the privacy threats there as well,” Conti said.

“The tool resides with someone else and the data is stored somewhere else. Generally, that is a bad idea.”

Internet users are already giving away copious amounts of information using online search and mapping software.

Prime examples are social networking websites where people post personal videos, pictures, and thoughts that supposedly can only be viewed by selected friends.

The potentially revealing data in people’s profiles is stored on computers maintained by the social networking firms.

If someone does an Internet search of their own name and then maps a route from their home, who they are and where they live is on record indefinitely in data bases of the firms that provided the services.

With cloud computing, copies of documents, spreadsheets or other files created using outside applications could be stored by companies providing the services.

“When information is in the public domain, it is game over,” Conti said. more>>>