Shared posts

02 Nov 16:26

Computer tracking of billiard balls

by Brian Benchoff

The folks at the London-based startup GoCardless have a pool table at their office. Being the techies they are, they decided to build a system that automatically scores games. The results, while not fully complete, are still pretty impressive for something whipped up during a 48 hour hackathon.

The automated score keeper uses a webcam duct taped to the ceiling right above the center of the pool table, The balls – red and yellow balls replace the rainbow of solids and stripes to make things easier – are found using OpenCV.

This build isn’t quite finished yet. The people at GoCardless are looking to improve the accuracy of their setup by using a camera with a higher frame rate and possibly moving on to physics simulation to predict where the balls should be. If these guys get the time, they could add something like augmented reality pool table to improve shot accuracy.

Vidia after the break.


Filed under: misc hacks, Software Development


02 Nov 16:07

Meus folhetos de cordel

by Marco Haurélio

Recebo muitos e-mails solicitando títulos de minha autoria para compra. Os livros são encontráveis nas principais livrarias. Mas os folhetos e livretos de cordel, à venda em bancas de jornal ou de folhetos tradicionais, não são encontrados com a mesma facilidade. Um site, pelo menos, tem quase todos os meus títulos tradicionais à venda. É o Magazine Gibi, coordenado por Wanderson Nicoló. Nele, o leitor encontrará uma ampla gama de folhetos e livros, de autores clássicos e contemporâneos. Vale uma visita.

LIVRO AS BABUCHAS DE ABU KASEM

LIVRO AS BABUCHAS DE ABU KASEM 
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2010 - EDITORA: CONHECIMENTO 

R$ 15,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - GALOPANDO O CAVALO PENSAMENTO

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - GALOPANDO O CAVALO PENSAMENTO
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2007 - EDITORA: TUPYNANQUIM

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - PRESEPADAS DE CHICÓ E ASTÚCIAS DE JOÃO GRILO

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - PRESEPADAS DE CHICÓ E ASTÚCIAS DE JOÃO GRILO 
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2007 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO 

R$ 5,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - SERRA DO RAMALHO UM BRASIL QUE O BRASIL PRECISA CONHECER

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - SERRA DO RAMALHO UM BRASIL QUE O BRASIL PRECISA CONHECER 
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2005 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO 

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - O ROMANCE DO PRÍNCIPE DO REINO DO LIMO VERDE

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - O ROMANCE DO PRÍNCIPE DO REINO DO LIMO VERDE
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2005 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - OS APUROS DE CHICÓ E A ASTÚCIA DE JOÃO GRILO

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - OS APUROS DE CHICÓ E A ASTÚCIA DE JOÃO GRILO 
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO 2005 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO 

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - NORDESTE TERRA DE BRAVOS

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - NORDESTE TERRA DE BRAVOS
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2005 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - HISTÓRIA DA MOURA TORTA

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - HISTÓRIA DA MOURA TORTA 
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2006 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO 

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - A BRIGA DO MAJOR RAMIRO COM O DIABO

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - A BRIGA DO MAJOR RAMIRO COM O DIABO 
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2008 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO 

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - AS TRÊS FOLHAS DA SERPENTE

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - AS TRÊS FOLHAS DA SERPENTE 
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2005 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO 

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - A IDADE DO DIABO

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - A IDADE DO DIABO 
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2008 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO 

R$ 3,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - O CORDEL SUA HISTÓRIA, SEUS VALORES

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - O CORDEL SUA HISTÓRIA, SEUS VALORES
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO E JOÃO GOMES DE SÁ - ANO:2011 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO

R$ 5,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - O HERÓI DA MONTANHA NEGRA

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - O HERÓI DA MONTANHA NEGRA
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2009 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO

R$ 5,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - OS 3 CONSELHOS SAGRADOS

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - OS 3 CONSELHOS SAGRADOS
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - ANO: 2006 - EDITORA: LUZEIRO

R$ 5,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - HISTÓRIA DE BELISFRONTE O FILHO DO PESCADOR

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - HISTÓRIA DE BELISFRONTE O FILHO DO PESCADOR
AUTOR: MARCO HAURÉLIO - EDITORA: LUZEIRO - ANO: 2010

R$ 5,00
LITERATURA DE CORDEL - TRAQUINAGENS DE JOÃO GRILO

LITERATURA DE CORDEL - TRAQUINAGENS DE JOÃO GRILO
AUTOR - MARCO HAURÉLIO

R$ 3,00


02 Nov 16:05

Sobre não falar inglês

by Juliana Cunha

Uma parte considerável do meu trabalho atual consiste em escrever sobre pesquisas novas que têm sido feitas nas áreas de saúde e comportamento. A maior parte dessas pesquisas vem de países de língua inglesa por motivos que eu sempre questiono, mas raramente consigo mudar.

Em geral, são os países mais ricos, com mais cultura acadêmica e que mais se empenham em divulgar as pesquisas que fazem. O meio acadêmico brasileiro é, na minha percepção, mais fechado em si mesmo, com mais desprezinho por jornalistas e menos sedução pelo mercado, o que faz com que se importe menos com a imprensa leiga (oi).

Quando me vejo diante de uma dessas pesquisas gringas, meu procedimento é quase sempre o mesmo: tento entrevistar os autores de fora e falar com pesquisadores brasileiros que possam contrapor/reiterar o estudo gringo.

Só recentemente consegui entender por que um trabalho tão simples — enviar o estudo por e-mail aos pesquisadores brasileiros, esperar eles lerem, ligar e conversar com eles — acaba sendo sempre tão complicado.

A imensa maioria dos professores e médicos que eu entrevisto me dá um fora assim que recebe o e-mail com o estudo. Não dá para dizer que é falta de tempo porque eu explico o procedimento logo na primeira conversa, antes de enviar qualquer coisa.

Começo a acreditar que o motivo seja um só: eles não falam inglês e não querem admitir isso para mim.

Para a classe média brasileira, saber inglês deixou de ser uma ferramenta ou uma habilidade. Não é sequer um “diferencial”, como os RHs gostavam de falar. Saber inglês é visto como condição fundamental para que a pessoa seja merecedora do cargo que ocupa. Não falar inglês é humilhante, algo a ser escondido.

Na prática está longe de ser assim. A maior parte das pessoas que eu conheço e que ocupa cargos legais merece estar nesses empregos mesmo tendo um domínio precário do idioma. As pessoas que eu entrevisto — ou tento entrevistar — para o jornal são todas destacadas em seus meios e, se eu estiver certa, poucas delas falam inglês com desenvoltura.

Falar um idioma é uma habilidade como outra qualquer, como cozinhar e jogar tênis, diz uma das minhas melhores professoras da Letras. É uma pena que as pessoas tenham transformado essa habilidade tão legal em um motivo de humilhação mútua e de competição.

Aqui na redação a coisa mais rara do mundo é uma pessoa ter coragem de fazer suas entrevistas em inglês na frente dos colegas. Quase todos recorrem às salinhas reservadas. E quase ninguém admite que ainda estuda o idioma — ou que gostaria de estudar — porque, afinal, são repórteres da Folha, o que vão pensar deles se souberem que não têm um bom inglês?

Fico impressionada que tanta gente no mundo seja ruim de matemática — uma habilidade muito mais básica — e assuma isso até com uma ponta de orgulho enquanto quem não sabe inglês tenha que trazer isso como um segredo sujo, uma mancha no currículo.

O certo não seria meus entrevistados me dizerem: “Oh sua fulana, você trate de traduzir isso pra mim.  Meu inglês é péssimo, mas você depende de mim do mesmo jeito porque eu sou é foda naquilo que faço”?

♫ Os Mutantes, Baby

02 Nov 15:04

Oooh shit! Jesus cat!

Submitted by: janiblum
Posted at: 2012-11-01 07:58:18
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/5737704


02 Nov 14:56

Went to a considerate bar and saw this salt bottle today.

Submitted by: circoilolo
Posted at: 2012-10-31 22:09:53
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/5737495


02 Nov 13:10

Power to the people!

by Carlos Cardoso

318766_10151153147804753_314103466_n

Antigamente não fazia muita diferença, mas hoje o pior dos apagões é ficar incomunicável. Nem que seja para a gente se distrair ouvindo podcasts enquanto a luz não volta, energia é essencial. Quando é um desastre sério (existe outro tipo?) com blecautes prolongados, eletricidade se torna mais vital ainda.

Para a sorte do pessoal de Nova York e Nova Jersey, a Duracell estava preparada. Dois anos atrás criaram o Power Forward Community Center, um trailer com tomadas, carregadores e computadores com acesso à Internet. A idéia é fornecer conectividade e energia para regiões atingidas por desastres.

Junto enviaram o Rapid Responder, uma pickup 4×4 que consegue chegar a áreas onde o trailer não alcança. Além dos carregadores, estão distribuindo pilhas para rádios e lanternas.

 

318699_10151154433419753_757219920_n

A resposta nas redes sociais está sendo excelente. Alguns dos posts no Facebook já tem mais de 1500 likes, as pessoas estão acompanhando o roteiro dos carros e sugerindo locais onde há mais necessidade.

É um excelente exemplo de marketing útil. Ninguém está tentando fazer graça ou se aproveitar de tragédia, tipo “modelo” brasileira fazendo foto em escombros. Estão provendo um serviço, e pelo retorno, estão agradando.

Eles não são os únicos, claro. A população está mostrando uma solidariedade que vai contra a imagem tradicional dos nova-iorquinos, talvez a idéia de ficar desconectado seja tão assustadora que desperte o melhor nas pessoas.

 powertothepeople

A parte triste é saber que se fosse aqui provavelmente alguém iria roubar a extensão.

Fonte: AdAge



02 Nov 13:07

Curse of the Mummy

by Doug

Curse of the Mummy

Here are more Halloween cartoons, and there’s still time to enter my annual Halloween contest!

02 Nov 13:06

The Look of Love

by Doug

The Look of Love

A belated dedication today, to Erik and Emily, who celebrated their 9th anniversary yesterday. Happy anniversary you two!

Here’s more love.

02 Nov 13:06

Food! Food! Food!

by Doug

Food! Food! Food!

Dedicated to Ann M., who is celebrating a birthday tomorrow (and she loves cats). Happy birthday Ann!

Here are more cat cartoons!

02 Nov 13:03

Pressa

by O Criador
02 Nov 13:03

Comic for October 31, 2012


02 Nov 13:03

Comic for November 1, 2012


02 Nov 13:03

Doe livros - Autor(Adão Iturrusgarai)

Fiz dois cartuns para essa campanha de doação de livros. Se não entendeu Ulysses, passe adiante, pô! AQUI o link.

 

Leia mais...

02 Nov 13:02

Em Brasília... - Autor(Adão Iturrusgarai)

02 Nov 13:01

29. October, 2012

02 Nov 00:46

Boxee and Walmart: The War for Your Living Room Just Got Real

by Mat Honan

The Boxee TV player and remote. The system will be for sale at Wal Mart in time for the holidays.

Everybody wants to hang out in your living room. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon — they all want to be there. Some already are. All of them are already on your other screens — the tiny one in your pocket, the medium-sized one in your bag, the big one on your desktop. But the biggest prize, the huge screen in your living room, is still very much up for grabs.

Still, it ain’t a full-scale war just yet. Google TV has utterly failed to catch on. Microsoft’s newly revamped Xbox Video is, well, newly revamped. Amazon Instant Video is still geared more towards tablets and apps than televisions and entertainment centers. And for now, at least, Apple TV remains a hobby, if a “beloved” one. But an announcement from Boxee — until now a minor player, at best, in this market — is a signal that the living room wars are on.

Wal Mart is going to carry Boxee TV this holiday season. And not just carry it. Wal Mart is going to push it, heavily, with in-store promotions and marketing mailers, according to Bloomberg.. This means the retail giant has decided that Internet television, and, more broadly, cord cutting, is a thing it needs to pay attention to.

Boxee TV is a combination cable box, cloud-based dual-tuner DVR with unlimited storage (that for now is limited to a handful of cities), and Internet video delivery service. It even comes with an antenna so people can watch HD shows over the air. You don’t have to choose between getting shows from the the Internet or through traditional means. Boxee TV lets you do both.

In essence, it’s a transitional device. Much like Google TV, it allows you to get traditional signal and apps all in one place. That makes it easy to transition back and forth from Internet to broadcast TV. But even more intriguing, from a transition standpoint, is the included antenna. If you decide to fully cut the cable, you can still easily get a live high-definition television signal from the major networks and even record it to the DVR.

It’s an interesting device, to be sure. But the bigger deal is distribution. Wal Mart gives Boxee instant legitimacy. This is the biggest retailer in the world, which means Boxee is going to be everywhere — it hits some 3,000 stores in November.

The two are a good fit. The antenna makes the $99 Boxee TV an attractive option for the cost- conscious consumers who are Wal Mart’s bread and butter. And it comes preloaded with VuDu, Wal Mart’s video-on-demand service. That means the more Boxee TVs Wal Mart can sell, the more living rooms it can convert into storefronts for its video service. Clearly, Wal Mart has lots of incentive to make sure people buy it.

Another reason the deal is so important is that in addition to being the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart is the second largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States. It already sells Apple TV and Roku, and streaming video players from Netgear and Sony and others. But it’s not exactly geared towards early adopters. Wal Mart is all about big data and predictive analytics. It’s been applying those tactics to retail longer and better than just about everyone else. So a big bet on Boxee TV, which this certainly seems to be, means Wal Mart sees real tension in the industry. More to the point, it means that cord cutting is clearly on the event horizon.

And that’s exactly why the deal is likely to be the opening salvo in the next big war. If Wal Mart is betting, you can be sure there’s a lot of cash on the table, and everyone is about to try to grab it. Boxee TV is out in front right now in terms of what it can pull off in combining signals and sources and getting them all back to your television on a single input. Don’t expect that to last.

02 Nov 00:45

iPad Mini Teardown: Tiny Screws, Lots of Adhesive

by Christina Bonnington

Image: iFixit

The iPad mini isn’t even officially on sale yet, but iFixit managed to get its hands on one to tear apart.

Like many of Apple’s other gadgets, the iPad mini isn’t very easy to open up and repair yourself. iFixit gives it a 2 out of 10 repairability rating.

Unlike with the iPhone 5, the mini’s LCD and glass are not fused together into a single unit, so these parts can be replaced individually if needed. Also, the battery is also not soldered to the logic board here. Still, the battery and other parts like the front- and rear-facing cameras, front glass, and logic board are held together with “copious amounts of adhesive,” according to iFixit.

Surprisingly, the camera specs of the iPad mini match the Retina display iPad more closely than the iPad 2. It’s got a 1.2-megapixel front-facing shooter, and a 5-megapixel rear camera that can shoot HD video. Beneath the dual speaker grilles at the bottom of the device, it has stereo speakers, unlike the larger 9.7-inch Retina display iPad (or any other iOS device to date).

The iPad mini also uses lots of tiny, hidden screws, which can easily be lost if you play operation on this little tablet.

The display (at least on this particular unit) is manufactured by Samsung, but it seems Apple steered clear of sourcing Samsung parts as much as necessary. For example, the iPad mini uses Hynix for NAND flash memory. Like the iPod touch, the Apple-developed A5 processor has 512 MB of RAM.

For the full teardown goodness, head on over to iFixit.

Image: iFixit

02 Nov 00:42

Efficient Power Amplifier Could Double Battery Life of Smartphones

by Roberto Baldwin

Power up. Image: Wired

The modern smartphone is the Hungry Hungry Hippo of the electronics world. Tablets, e-readers, and even notebooks are more efficient than the power-sucking smartphone in your pocket. While battery technology is slowly moving forward, an MIT spinout company is working to reduce the power consumed by not only smartphones but the base stations that keep them connected to the world.

MIT Technology review reports that startup Eta Devices is bench testing a new power amplifier chip that consumes less power than those currently found in smartphones and base stations. Power amplifier chips transform electricity into radio signals and keep your smartphone connected to your carrier’s network.

In current power amplifier chips the standby mode pulls a hefty amount of power in order to be ready to communicate with cell towers. Smartphones like the iPhone 5 have up to five power amplifier chips in them. These chips lose more than 65 percent of their energy to heat. It’s the reason your smartphone gets warm when you download large files.

Eta Devices hopes to create a single chip that would regulate the amount of power needed by the radio by determining how much power is needed as many as 20 million times per second. Called asymmetric multilevel outphasing, the new technology would find the optimal energy usage needed by the radio without sacrificing the connection between smartphone and cell tower.

The first application of the new technology will be in cell towers in 2013, according to the company. Towers currently lose 67 percent of their energy to heat and need to have cooling units installed to keep the power amplifiers from overheating. According to Eta Devices CEO Mattias Astrom, their chips will reduce the energy needed by towers by 50 percent.

Once the technology hits smartphones, the mad search for an available power outlet at around 2 p.m. might go the way of searching for a pay phone when got a page on your beeper.

02 Nov 00:00

Awkward me

Submitted by: shikaziruki1997
Posted at: 2012-10-31 19:47:55
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/5734047


02 Nov 00:00

Disney's new ad

Submitted by: rnoor001
Posted at: 2012-11-01 03:38:41
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/5736914


31 Oct 10:04

955 – Papa x Vento

by Carlos Ruas

31 Oct 00:08

Google Releases Free Siri Competitor for iOS

by Christina Bonnington

Image: Christina Bonnington/Wired

Watch out Siri. Google updated its Google Search app for iOS Tuesday, and the app now features a robust, intuitive voice search functionality that gives Apple’s integrated digital companion a run for its money.

Where Siri’s strengths lie in providing quick, direct access to select categories of information (things like movies, sports, weather, and business information, for example) and in letting users dictate messages and status updates, the voice search in Google Search sticks to search. But, this being Google, that means all types of search. With Google’s knowledge graph, you can pull up direct results for questions like “What’s the time in China?” or “What’s the population of New York?” Google also ties into its vast stores of photo and video data. Ask “What does the Golden Gate Bridge look like?” and the app will pull up images of the bridge.

You can even ask for directions and get a map showing the route and estimated travel time. You can then tap to get the full list of directions from the Google Maps web app.

For other types of searches, like “What movies has Brad Pitt been in?” Google Search brings up traditional search results, including listings from IMDB and Wikipedia. (In my brief test, Siri won this matchup, delivering a list of Pitt’s 25 most recent films, sourced from Rotten Tomatoes.)

The app’s ability to interpret spoken text was at least as good as Siri’s, if not slightly better. It struggled to distinguish between “has” and “is” in my test, but even when it misheard me, it still turned up the correct search results.

However, if you’re in love with Siri’s voice responses, you might find this app missing. Here all results come in Google’s familiar list format; they’re not read back to you.

If you’d like to try it out for yourself, the app is available now, for free.

30 Oct 21:20

Price gouging and the elasticity of supply

by Tyler Cowen

Jeff writes:

…in fact it is quite typical for the consumer surplus maximizing solution to be a rationing system with a price below market clearing. I devoted a series of posts to this point last year. The basic idea is that the efficiency gains you get from separating the high-values from the low-values can be more than offset by the high prices necessary to achieve that and the corresponding loss of consumer surplus.

Why would we only care about consumers’ surplus and not also the surplus that goes to producers? We normally we care about producer’s surplus because that’s what gives producers an incentive to produce in the first place.  But remember that a natural disaster has occurred. It wasn’t expected. Production already happened. Whatever we decide to do when that unexpected event occurs will have no effect on production decisions. We get a freebie chance to maximize consumer’s surplus without negative incentive effects on producers.

This is a very clever post and it provides much to think about.  But I don’t accept the main premise that supply is inelastic.  Last night most stores were closed!  At higher prices more of them might have opened, and in fact in most places it was logistically possible to have a store open in Fairfax.  There might also be effects from mechanisms such as “should I leave these flashlights out for sale, or take the extra home to the family?”  Furthermore the periodic demand for batteries, flashlights, bottled water, etc. around here has become (sadly) a regular event, where longer-run “option ready” supply arguably is linked to precedents from previous experience.

30 Oct 21:19

Are Americans losing their perspective?

by Tyler Cowen

Being a member of the opposite party often beats religious difference, unattractiveness, and low educational and professional attainment on Ms. Adler’s clients’ list of turnoffs…

“People now say ‘I don’t even want to meet anybody who’s from the other party,’ even if it’s someone who’s perfect in every other way,” Ms. Adler says. In past election years, about a quarter of her clients wouldn’t date a member of the opposite party. Now it is three-quarters, Ms. Adler says.

Here is more.

29 Oct 14:12

In case you haven’t been paying attention

by Tyler Cowen

And now the world’s largest general scientific society is weighing in on the debate.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science says labeling would “mislead and falsely alarm consumers.” The AAAS – best known for publishing Science magazine – says genetically modified foods are fundamentally no different from conventionally bred foods. In fact, the organization says they are tested more extensively than most new crop varieties.

And:

Opponents of genetically modified foods have a variety of concerns. Some have a gut feeling that these crops are unwholesome. Others worry that the technology is driven simply by corporate profits for seed companies as well as herbicide producers. Indeed, industry has poured nearly $41 million into advertising to defeat the ballot measure, with “No on 37” TV and radio ads warning that the labels could lead to higher prices at the store, according to The Wall Street Journal. ..

Sometimes worries about genetically modified foods are expressed as concern over food safety, but the AAAS says that concern isn’t supported by the science.

“Civilization rests on people’s ability to modify plants to make them more suitable as food, feed and fiber plants and all of these modifications are genetic,” the AAAS statement says.

Here is more, with hat tip to Michael.  Isn’t it time for some of the respected left-wing economists to weigh in on this one?

29 Oct 11:56

Why Milk?

by Alex Tabarrok

Throughout evolutionary history, most adult homo sapiens could not drink milk. Even today, most adults cannot drink milk. Adults who cannot drink milk don’t seem to lose very much, particularly as they can still eat yogurt and cheese. And yet the gene that allowed some adults to drink milk spread incredibly rapidly suggesting massive advantages to milk drinkers. Why? No one knows for sure but it seems to coincide with civilization. Slate has more:

[A]round 10,000 B.C….a genetic mutation appeared, somewhere near modern-day Turkey, that jammed the lactase-production gene permanently in the “on” position. The original mutant was probably a male who passed the gene on to his children. People carrying the mutation could drink milk their entire lives. Genomic analyses have shown that within a few thousand years, at a rate that evolutionary biologists had thought impossibly rapid, this mutation spread throughout Eurasia, to Great Britain, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, India and all points in between, stopping only at the Himalayas. Independently, other mutations for lactose tolerance arose in Africa and the Middle East, though not in the Americas, Australia, or the Far East.

In an evolutionary eye-blink, 80 percent of Europeans became milk-drinkers; in some populations, the proportion is close to 100 percent. (Though globally, lactose intolerance is the norm; around two-thirds of humans cannot drink milk in adulthood.) The speed of this transformation is one of the weirder mysteries in the story of human evolution, more so because it’s not clear why anybody needed the mutation to begin with.

…A “high selection differential” is something of a Darwinian euphemism. It means that those who couldn’t drink milk were apt to die before they could reproduce. At best they were having fewer, sicklier children. That kind of life-or-death selection differential seems necessary to explain the speed with which the mutation swept across Eurasia and spread even faster in Africa. The unfit must have been taking their lactose-intolerant genomes to the grave.

…The rise of civilization coincided with a strange twist in our evolutionary history. We became, in the coinage of one paleoanthropologist, “mampires” who feed on the fluids of other animals. Western civilization, which is twinned with agriculture, seems to have required milk to begin functioning. No one can say why.

Hat tip: John Chilton.

29 Oct 11:51

Comic for October 29, 2012


29 Oct 09:19

Jornalista é agredido por skinheads na Savassi e relata momentos de terror

by admin

Um relato de agressão feito por um jornalista belo-horizontino está repercutindo nas redes sociais neste fim de semana. Juliano Cardoso de Azevedo, de 32 anos, desabafou em seu blog após ser espancado por dois skinheads na esquina da avenida Cristóvão Colombo com a rua Antônio de Albuquerque.

Um amigo do jornalista também foi atacado por chutes e pedras. No texto, Juliano conta que a agressão aconteceu na última sexta-feira, após os dois saírem do show do Kid Abelha no Chevrolet Hall. Eles foram abordados após se despedirem com um abraço.

“Não sei o nome do que passei na madrugada de sexta-feira. As cenas aparecem quando fecho os olhos. Uma voadora no peito. Uma pedrada na cabeça. As frases de efeito: vamos exterminar você. Vou matá-lo”, descreveu Juliano no texto.

Segundo o jornalista, as autoridades não atenderam aos pedidos de socorro feitos logo após a agressão. Diante da dificuldade em registrar um boletim de ocorrência, as vítimas optaram por conseguir um atendimento médico e procurar a polícia somente neste domingo.

“Parados na avenida mais movimentada, iluminada e protegida – Cristóvão Colombo, debaixo da vigilância da Guarda Municipal. Sangrando, desesperados, pedimos ajuda e ouvimos: – não podemos fazer nada. Ligue para o 190. Os agressores rindo a poucos metros. As testemunhas silenciosas. Ninguém fez nada. O atendente sugere que devíamos ir diretamente ao hospital. A ocorrência ficaria a cargo da polícia que fica instalada no Pronto Socorro do João 23. Ele dormia. Acordado de seu sono dos deuses: não posso fazer nada. Para fazer ocorrência você deve ir à Seccional da Rua Carangola”, narra Juliano.

As duas vítimas ficaram cerca de 2 horas no Hospital de Pronto-Socorro João XXIII. O amigo do jornalista levou cerca de 7 pontos na cabeça.

Confira o texto publicado por Juliano na íntegra:

“É difícil falar daquilo que incomoda. O corpo dói pouco, mas a alma está detonada. Algumas coisas perdem a graça e, sobretudo, o sentido. Como dar significado à violência? Como explicar os motivos de tamanha crueldade? Como entender a barbárie humana, quando tudo pede paz?

Não sei o nome do que passei na madrugada de sexta-feira. As cenas aparecem quando fecho os olhos. Uma voadora no peito. Uma pedrada na cabeça. As frases de efeito: vamos exterminar você. Vou matá-lo.

Eu estava na Savassi, na região mais democrática de Belo Horizonte: ponto de encontro de emos, neogóticos, patys, playboys, fashionistas, gays, jovens, velhos, estudantes uniformizados, economistas, e uma minoria – os que abominam tudo isso – os skinheads. Dois deles me atacaram. Não me esqueço da careca, das tatuagens, dos olhos endemoninhados, do ódio.

O motivo aparente: abracei um amigo dizendo boa noite, após nos divertirmos no show do Kid Abelha. Estávamos felizes, brincando, falando amenidades. Parados na avenida mais movimentada, iluminada e protegida – Cristóvão Colombo, debaixo da vigilância da Guarda Municipal. Sangrando, desesperados, pedimos ajuda e ouvimos: – não podemos fazer nada. Ligue para o 190. Os agressores rindo a poucos metros. As testemunhas silenciosas. Ninguém fez nada. O atendente sugere que devíamos ir diretamente ao hospital. A ocorrência ficaria a cargo da polícia que fica instalada no Pronto Socorro do João 23. Ele dormia. Acordado de seu sono dos deuses: não posso fazer nada. Para fazer ocorrência você deve ir à Seccional da Rua Carangola.

Meu amigo ganhou uma cicatriz na cabeça de uns sete pontos. Vai carregar esta marca sempre que passar na esquina da Cristóvão Colombo com Antônio de Albuquerque. Nossa alma se desmanchou. Chorei, pedi ajuda, desabafei nas redes sociais. Quem devia me dar segurança, me humilhava com um jogo de empurra. Meu problema, não era compromisso de ninguém. Entendi que a culpa foi minha por ser simpático. Agradável e educado. Era uma despedida.

Senti que foi uma despedida de uns valores que acredito como cristão: não dá pra perdoar tudo. Perdoo o sujeito que não possui amor ao próximo, mas não perdoo a violência. A agressão, o ódio. Jamais perdoarei quem me bateu. Jamais esquecerei o descaso das forças de segurança, as quais eu pago diariamente com meu suor de trabalhador. Minha integridade foi machucada. Meu direito constitucional foi rasgado no momento que precisei dele especialmente.

Mesmo sendo esclarecido, percebi que nada adianta quando você é a vítima. Como vou reconhecer duas faces para colocar na cadeia, se eles estão soltos aos montes pelas ruas de uma capital considerada “amiga”? Eles devem estar felizes agora contando numa roda, enaltecendo os golpes, os palavrões, os agredidos – devem estar cuspindo no chão, arrotando, vomitando mentiras como batemos em cinco magrelos que precisavam de um corretivo. Eles batem muito mesmo. Atingiram um único golpe na minha dignidade.

Relutei em dividir esta história. A coragem foi dada pelos amigos. E ao escutar uma das minhas músicas prediletas (Proud – Heather Small), senti meu coração dizer que o mundo precisa saber que a violência cruel está nas nossas ruas. Crueldade máxima. Sou orgulhoso do que sou, do que faço, das minhas conquistas, das minhas opiniões, do desejo de mudar este cenário. E peço que todos tenham cuidado por onde andam, em quem confiam. O mundo de rosas existe, mas as minhas pétalas estão despedaçadas até a próxima primavera.”

Foto: Reprodução/Blog Juliano Azevedo

 

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28 Oct 20:47

The Decades That Invented the Future, Part 2: 1911-1920

by Wired
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Today's leading-edge technology is headed straight for tomorrow's junk pile, but that doesn't make it any less awesome. Everyone loves the latest and greatest.

Sometimes, though, something truly revolutionary cuts through the clutter and fundamentally changes the game. And with that in mind, Wired is looking back over 12 decades to highlight the 12 most innovative people, places and things of their day. From the first transatlantic radio transmissions to cellphones, from vacuum tubes to microprocessors, we'll run down the most important advancements in technology, science, sports and more.

This week's installment takes us back to 1911-1920, when machine guns on planes were synchronized with their propellers, the Model-T came off the first assembly line and the Panama Canal was completed.

We don't expect you to agree with all of our picks, or even some of them. That's fine. Tell us what you think we've missed and we'll publish your list later.

1918: The Flip-Flop Circuit (Enterprise)

Between 1911 and 1920, Alan Turing was born, one of the founding fathers of the computer age. G. N. Lewis also started work on the lithium battery, and a British Admiral became the first person in recorded history to use an essential part of the modern internet lexicon: “OMG!” But as far as the history of computing goes, the most important development of the second decade of the Twentieth Century is the flip-flop.

A flip-flop is an electronic circuit that can move between two separate states. If you can flip-flop, you can store information. And if you can store information, you can build an honest-to-goodness computer.

The first flip-flop circuit was built in 1918 by British physicists William Eccles and F. W. Jordan. They called it the Eccles-Jordan trigger circuit, and it was made with a pair of vacuum tubes, which had arrived a decade earlier, thanks to a man named Lee De Forest. Basically, you could change the state of this trigger circuit by sending the appropriate signal.

Such circuits were also known as multivibrators. But don’t let that distract you. By the forties, IBM and others were using these flip-flopping circuits to build adding machines -- and, yes, honest-to-goodness computers.

Photo: Courtesy of the Computer History Museum


<< Previous | Next >> View all Since 2007, Wired.com’s This Day In Tech blog has reflected on important and entertaining events in the history of science and innovation, pursuing them chronologically for each day of the year. Hundreds of these essays have now been collected into a trivia book, Mad Science: Einstein’s Fridge, Dewar’s Flask, Mach’s Speed and 362 Other Inventions and Discoveries that Made Our World. It goes on sale Nov. 13, and is available for pre-order today at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other online book stores.
28 Oct 20:45

Hand Crank Is a Backup for Your Backup Battery

by Karissa Bell

The BoostTurbine Series of backup batteries come with a hand crank so you can generate backup power by hand. Image: Eton

A backup battery for your phone can be essential in emergencies. But even the best ones can die or lose their charge.

EtonC has released a series of backup batteries that come with their own fallback for when the initial charge runs out. The BoostTurbine Series batteries come equipped with a hand crank that will let you generate power manually. Eton claims that just one minute on the hand crank can produce enough power for a 30-second phone call or a few text messages.

There are two models: the BoostTurbine1000 and the BoostTurbine200. The company claims that a fully charged 1000 can provide most devices with about half of a full charge, while the 2000 can provide a full charge for most devices. Both models have both a standard USB and micro USB port, making them compatible with most phones, including Android and iOS devices.

The devices are available for pre-order, $50 for the BoostTurbine1000 and $60 for the 2000.