This process can be applied by both beginner and advanced designers, though we encourage you to follow the process very closely for cutest results. We suggest beginning with a photo of an animal.
Choose your favorite photo of a kitty cat, sloth, hamster, whatever tickles your fancy. We advise against working with lizards, however, as they are not cute and we don’t like them.
Venezuela’s new, legal currency market, the Sicad II foreign exchange platform, was supposed to curb the country’s appetite for illegal US dollars, but so far, it seems to be doing just the opposite. The rate for buying black market US dollars fell from nearly 90 bolivars to the dollar to about 58 over the past month, but it has jumped by almost 40% since the new way to buy greenbacks was launched yesterday morning. Buying US dollars in Venezuela is actually fairly complicated. There are at least four different official rates (pdf): one for exchanging money to be used while traveling abroad; another for corporations; another, using the new currency market, for individuals hoping to save using US dollars; and then the country’s official rate, which is used for essential imports, and over 85% of the country’s foreign exchange needs.
It’s the fifth rate—the black market rate—for US dollars that’s most important to monitor, since it’s the best indicator of what Venezuelans actually think their currency is worth. The falling black market rate in the last month indicates some excitement about the launch of the new currency market, but that excitement seems to have run dry, perhaps because the trade hasn’t been as free as expected.
“The only way to make the black market disappear is to allow free legal trading in dollars,” Henkel Garcia, director of Caracas-based consultancy Econometrica, told Bloomberg. “It appears the government is placing some restrictions on the operation of the new platform, which is fueling demand for the black dollar again.”
Allowing locals to buy US dollars at will is easier said than done in Venezuela, because the country is running dangerously low on American currency. The country’s international reserves have tumbled from nearly $35 billion in 2009 to barely $20 billion today (for comparison, Colombia has nearly $45 billion). The scarcity of dollars in Venezuela has both led to and exacerbated a number of problems, including sporadic hyperinflation, rampant basic goods shortages, and even the withholding of billion of dollars from international airlines.
Exposing leafy vegetables, grown during spaceflight, to a few bright pulses of light daily could increase the amount of eye-protecting nutrients produced by the plants, according to a new study by researchers at the Univ. of Colorado Boulder.
One of the concerns for astronauts during future extended spaceflights will be the onslaught of eye-damaging radiation to which they’ll be exposed. But astronauts should be able to mitigate radiation-induced harm to their eyes by eating plants that contain carotenoids, especially zeaxanthin, which is known to promote eye health.
Zeaxanthin could be ingested as a supplement, but there is evidence that human bodies are better at absorbing carotenoids from whole foods, such as green leafy vegetables.
Already, NASA has been studying ways to grow fresh produce during deep space missions to maintain crew morale and improve overall nutrition. Current research into space gardening tends to focus on getting the plants to grow as large as possible as quickly as possible by providing optimal light, water and fertilizer. But the conditions that are ideal for producing biomass are not necessarily ideal for the production of many nutrients, including zeaxanthin.
“There is a trade-off,” says Barbara Demmig-Adams, professor of distinction in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a co-author of the study published in the journal Acta Astronautica. “When we pamper plants in the field, they produce a lot of biomass but they aren’t very nutritious. If they have to fend for themselves — if they have to defend themselves against pathogens or if there’s a little bit of physical stress in the environment — plants make defense compounds that help them survive. And those are the antioxidants that we need.”
Plants produce zeaxanthin when their leaves are absorbing more sunlight than they can use, which tends to happen when the plants are stressed. For example, a lack of water might limit the plant’s ability to use all the sunlight it’s getting for photosynthesis. To keep the excess sunlight from damaging the plant’s biochemical pathways, it produces zeaxanthin, a compound that helps safely remove excess light.
Zeaxanthin, which the human body cannot produce on its own, plays a similar protective role in our eyes.
“Our eyes are like a leaf — they are both about collecting light,” Demmig-Adams says. “We need the same protection to keep us safe from intense light.”
The CU-Boulder research team — which also included undergraduate researcher Elizabeth Lombardi, postdoctoral researcher Christopher Cohu and ecology and evolutionary biology Prof. William Adams — set out to determine if they could find a way to “have the cake and eat it too” by simultaneously maximizing plant growth and zeaxanthin production.
Using the model plant species Arabidopsis, the team demonstrated that a few pulses of bright light on a daily basis spurred the plants to begin making zeaxanthin in preparation for an expected excess of sunlight. The pulses were short enough that they didn’t interfere with the otherwise optimal growing conditions, but long enough to cause accumulation of zeaxanthin.
“When they get poked a little bit with light that’s really not a problem, they get the biomechanical machine ready, and I imagine them saying, ‘Tomorrow there may be a huge blast and we don’t want to be unprepared,’” Demmig-Adams says.
Arabidopsis is not a crop, but past research has shown that its behavior is a good indicator of what many edible plant species will do under similar circumstances.
The idea for the study came from Lombardi, who began thinking about the challenges of growing plants during long spaceflights while working with CU-Boulder’s Exploration Habitat graduate projects team in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, which built a robotic gardening system that could be used in space.
While the study is published in an astronautics journal, Lombardi says the findings are applicable on Earth as well and could be especially relevant for future research into plant-based human nutrition and urban food production, which must maximize plant growth in small areas. The findings also highlight the potential for investigating how to prod plants to express traits that are already written in their genetic codes either more fully or less fully.
“Learning more about what plants already ‘know’ how to do and trying to manipulate them through changing their environment rather than their genes could possibly be a really fruitful area of research,” Lombardi says.
Source: ‘Pulses of Light May Improve Veggie Nutrition in Space' [Laboratory Equipment]
Images: (main) Astronauts exploring Mars will build hydroponic growth labs where vegetables can be grown. These crops will provide the crew with added nutrition and variety; (1) Growing Plants and Vegetables in a Space Garden; ISS/NASA; (2) NASA growing food in space farming project; (3, 4) Learn more about zeaxanthin; (5) Arabidopsis has been the subject of intense study regarding microRNA’s in plants
Caillou -- one of the worst creations spawned by man -- has made a mortal enemy in Arian Foster. Now, the Texans running back is looking to rally against this despicable, hairless child.
Arian Foster isn't wrong about anything, ever. He answered questions in pterodactyl-speak at Tennessee, wants to take DMT when he retires from the NFL, and curses on Twitter just like you do. He congratulates long-dead geniuses for inventing calculus, and also hates the children's television program Caillou:
I can tolerate most of these kid shows, but caillou is unbearable. There's no plot and the animation is avg. Can't take it.
If you are not familiar, you lucky person: Caillou is a despicable, spineless 4-year-old boy who cannot do anything. He can't grow hair, not because he has cancer or progeria, but because he sucks, and even his own body recognizes that he does not deserve hair or food or love. He has a baby sister who dominates his life because she is a normal, loving child who does not whine about the slightest fart of the breeze. Caillou's parents love her better because she is a better person.
Someday Caillou will realize this, and probably whine while falling face-first onto the pavement in front of a Tim Horton's for no reason whatsoever. Maybe he'll die from his injuries. That would be great, especially because Caillou is Canadian and his health care in event of catastrophic injury isn't on my tab. Win-win for American parents everywhere, really.
Caillou can't grow hair, not because he has cancer or progeria, but because he sucks, and even his own body recognizes that he does not deserve hair or food or love.
Arian Foster is not lying: There is indeed no plot whatsoever to any episode of Caillou. The average episode involves Caillou being challenged by something: dogs, loud noises, the wind, stairs, cats, vegetables, sitting up, taking really big breaths. He fails at all of these and cries before being left by the side of the road by his laughing parents. They drive off, ecstatic and free, as the credits roll and the screen fades on a shivering silhouette of Caillou alone in the wilds of rural Quebec.
Foster's right about the art, too. Caillou started out life as a cartoon baby, and when he got bigger, the animators simply gave him longer legs and arms. At his rate of current growth, Caillou will look like a human version of a Daddy Long Legs when he reaches adulthood. Adult faces are frozen and expressionless. This is because it is in Canada, which is very cold, and also because the mundane horror of living with Caillou has killed anything human in their souls. Backgrounds are barely fleshed out; the animators hate this show as much as you do, and want to give it as little effort as possible before returning to making anime pornography and drinking to forget their pain.
It's not even that Caillou is bad at things. I have a 4-year-old. They are astonishingly inept at things, but they try, and also randomly excel at things they've never even tried before. They are people, in other words. Caillou is not human. No human has ever given up and cried at every single thing they have ever attempted, and then whined into his parents sweater. Which parent? Either, any, whoever: It is a Canadian cartoon, so everyone wears a sweater all the time, even when nude.
This is Caillou playing baseball before crying and giving up completely:
This is actually pretty good effort by Caillou on the "Caillou sucks at life and quits" curve. Maybe the design of the show was to show 4-year-olds another 4-year-old who would go through many of the same scary things they would undergo in life. Then, they would take that 4-year-old, rob him of all will, skill and character, and show him failing and being the worst child on the planet. Then the 4-year-old viewer would feel better about everything because at least they weren't Caillou, who even to 4-year-olds is the walking embodiment of failure and everything they will never, ever be.
This is not an isolated opinion. Every parent I know hates Caillou with a passion usually reserved for cockroaches and Hitler, and with good reason: Children who watch Caillou get whinier after watching the show, and become more like Caillou, and thus less lovable and more likely to wind up abandoned by their parents on a cold Canadian roadside as bear food.
Arian Foster has the solution for this, too:
I'm sure if we rally together we can get it off air. My mentions are full of caillou disgust lol
In summary: Bullying is no laughing matter, unless it is done to Caillou. Caillou is awful, and Arian Foster will get it off the air as soon as he retires and finally takes some DMT.
This Sunday, two talents who've spent their lives among the stars will join forces as Stewart star in an animated Cosmos segment. He'll be the voice of 19th century astronomer William Herschel, who explains to his young son about how time and gravity affect light — or, in layman's terms, SPACE GHOSTS.
You might think of them as casual gamers, but actually, many are just as hardcore in their own way as the hardest hardcore Titanfall player. On a recent train journey, I overheard two fiftysomething commuters swapping Candy Crush tips, revealing along the way that they had both a.) spent less than a tenner on the game, and b.) progressed well past level 200.
That, to me, is hardcore gaming. It's also a sign of the new audience that games like Candy Crush Saga have created on smartphones and tablets. They're not stupid: they just want to play games that are accessible, very polished, playable in short sessions, and which make their friends a factor without it being real-time multiplayer.
(Incidentally – although entirely anecdotally – there's a sizeable sub-section of the Candy Crush audience consisting of hardcore gamers taking time out from their PCs or consoles in order to stick it to King by completing its sweety Saga without spending any money. Based on my friends, a significant number of them have ended up enjoying it.)
GBA Metroids were the best in the entire franchise
Following yesterday's reveal of Advance Wars, we now know the other Game Boy Advance games coming to the Wii U Virtual Console in North America and Europe next month, as well as Japan. They each cost $8 with the exceptions of WarioWare Inc: Mega...
'Why wait for the Unicode Consortium to catch up instead of just using custom characters to fill this gap now? Using the Unicode standard for its emoji instead of going its own way provides important benefits—well, as important as anything involving emoji gets, anyway. Use the Unicode character set, and any other platforms using Unicode will render emoji properly. Go your own way, and people using your platform will have to use bland, pedestrian words to communicate instead of tiny pictures.'
Apple's working with the Unicode Consortium to augment the whitewashed set of emoji.
Andrew Cunningham
If you use emoji regularly, you might have noticed something unfortunate about the adorable and surprisingly expressive pictures. Emoji faces, bodies, and hands are almost universally white.
News made the rounds last night that Apple was working to change this situation and add more racially diverse emoji. "There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set," Apple's Katie Cotton wrote to MTV Act, "and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard."
Why wait for the Unicode Consortium to catch up instead of just using custom characters to fill this gap now? Using the Unicode standard for its emoji instead of going its own way provides important benefits—well, as important as anything involving emoji gets, anyway. Use the Unicode character set, and any other platforms using Unicode will render emoji properly. Go your own way, and people using your platform will have to use bland, pedestrian words to communicate instead of tiny pictures.
A DJI F450 quadcopter with an onboard GoPro and a Spektrum DX6i remote control unit.
SensePost
Seven months ago, Ars documented CreepyDOL, a low-cost, distributed network of Wi-Fi sensors that stalks smartphone-toting people as they move about neighborhoods or even entire cities. As each node is small enough to be slipped into an overlooked nook at the nearby gym, cafe, or break room, the system can assemble a shockingly detailed dossier of personal data, including the schedules, e-mail addresses, personal photos, and current or past whereabouts of the person or people it monitors.
Now, CreepyDOL—short for Creepy Distributed Object Locator—is about to be outdone by a newly updated DIY stalker device that has the potential to collect orders of magnitude more data from people. Dubbed Snoopy, it can track not only Wi-Fi, but also signals based on radio frequency identification (RFID) and the Bluetooth and 802.15 specifications. Combined with a GPS card that correlates signals to the location where they're detected, the capabilities let Snoopy spy not only on phones, tablets, and computers, but also, potentially, on pacemakers, fitness bracelets, smartcards, and other electronics. Plus, the geographically aware Snoopy can also be mounted on a low-cost aerial drone so it can locate and maintain radio contact even when subjects are on a morning run or situated in a high-rise building, a country inn, or some other out-of-the way location.
The researchers behind an earlier version of Snoopy that tracked only Wi-Fi signals have already used it to track more than 42,000 unique devices during a single 14-hour experiment in 2012 at the King's Cross train station in London. They have also unleashed Snoopy in a variety of other environments over the past two years, including at several security conferences. By taking careful notice of the Wi-Fi networks the devices have previously accessed (and continue to search for), the researchers were able to detect likely relationships among users. Four devices that hailed an SSID that the researchers geolocated to a London branch of one of the UK's largest banks, for instance, were presumed to belong to coworkers of the financial institution.
'They renamed the course previously called “Introduction to programming in Java” to “Creative approaches to problem solving in science and engineering using Python.” Using words like “creative” and “problem solving” just sounded more approachable. ... Then they implemented Operation Eliminate the Macho Effect: guys who showed-off in class were taken aside in class and told, “You’re so passionate about the material and you’re so well prepared. I’d love to continue our conversations but let’s just do it one on one.”
Literally overnight, Harvey Mudd’s introductory CS course went from being the most despised required course to the absolute favorite, says Klawe.'
'the college offered a summer of research between freshman and sophomore years so female students could apply their new skills and make something. “We had students working on things like educational games and a version of Dance Dance Revolution for the elderly. They could use computer technology to actually work on something that mattered,” says Klawe.'
BAM! POW! PEOPLE WITHOUT A LIFELONG INTEREST IN A SPECIFIC TOPIC CULTURALLY DEFINED AND CODED AS EXCLUSIVE LEARN TO ENJOY IT WHEN ITS PRACTICAL ASPECTS ARE DEMONSTRATED IN A SAFE SPACE!
Yes, we know there aren’t enough women in tech. Yes, we know we need to change the ratio.
One college has found the answer.
With a three-step method, Harvey Mudd College in California quadrupled its female computer science majors. The experiment started in 2006 when Maria Klawe, a computer scientist and mathematician herself, was appointed college president. That year only 10% of Harvey Mudd’s CS majors were women. The department’s professors devised a plan.
They no longer wanted to weed out the weakest students during the first week of the semester. The new goal was to lure in female students and make sure they actually enjoyed their computer science initiation in the hopes of converting them to majors. This is what they did, in three steps.
1. Semantics count
They renamed the course previously called “Introduction to programming in Java” to “Creative approaches to problem solving in science and engineering using Python.” Using words like “creative” and “problem solving” just sounded more approachable. Plus, as Klawe describes it, the coding language Python is more forgiving and practical.
As part of this first step, the professors divided the class into groups—Gold for those with no coding experience and Black, for those with some coding experience. Then they implemented Operation Eliminate the Macho Effect: guys who showed-off in class were taken aside in class and told, “You’re so passionate about the material and you’re so well prepared. I’d love to continue our conversations but let’s just do it one on one.”
Literally overnight, Harvey Mudd’s introductory CS course went from being the most despised required course to the absolute favorite, says Klawe.
But that was just the beginning.
2. Visualize success
After successfully completing the introductory class, how to ensure female students voluntarily signed up for another CS class? The female professors packed up the students and took them to the annual Grace Hopper Conference, which bills itself as a celebration of women in technology. Klawe says the conference is a place for students to visualize women in technology; humans who happened to be female who love computers. Not everyone looks like the dudes in the trailer for HBO’s Silicon Valley.
3. Make it matter
Finally, the college offered a summer of research between freshman and sophomore years so female students could apply their new skills and make something. “We had students working on things like educational games and a version of Dance Dance Revolution for the elderly. They could use computer technology to actually work on something that mattered,” says Klawe.
The three-step strategy resulted in a domino effect. Female students loved the CS introductory course. They loved going to the conference. So they took “just one more course” and they loved that.
Before they knew it, women were saying, “‘I could be a computer science major, I guess.’ And so they are!” says Klawe.
By the time the first four-year experiment was over the college had gone from 10% female computer science majors to 40% female. UC Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern have had some success with similar tactics.
Is it too late for me?
I have a 3-year-old daughter so I felt relieved to hear there is a way to get women into computer science. Sadly, this strategy did not exist when I was a young woman. So in a middle-aged attempt to dip my toes into coding, I took a one-day crash course.
Watch the video below to see me confront my computer science fears, have an existential crisis, and attempt to build an app. All in one day.
'When I see the ads and applications above I keep thinking of Las Vegas and people with money being douchey. So, as weird a compliment as that may sound like, that's what it's meant as.'
Luxury Hoofs
Established in 1996 in Salina, Kansas, Krystal (formerly Krystal Koach) is a manufacturer and seller of luxury passenger buses. Now, I bet that's an industry you hadn't even considered. (I hadn't). To clarify: it's not a service provider of luxury shuttle service but a seller of these buses to companies that may have a use for such a vehicle. After plant relocations and a bankruptcy, Krystal's bus operation assets were purchased by ElDorado National, a manufacturer of commercial buses. Looking to create some distance from previous ownership but recognizing that its name had equity in the industry, Krystal introduced a completely reinvented identity designed by Wichita, KS-based Gardner Design.
Krystal's bus models.
The new mark is a throwback to the original source of power for multi-passenger coaches — the horse. And this thoroughbred represents strength as well as prestige. Its faceted, crystal structure is not merely a play on words; it is indicative of the brand's high-end products and service, as well as the company's dedication to transparent business practices.
The wordmark is important because it provides linkage to the former brand. The custom face creates symmetry with an inverted Y and A. It connotes a sense of style and high readability that is easily scalable; and within it appears a small nod to the name itself.
The new color palette gives a sense of regality without being flashy. It is fresh and modern, and breathes new life into the bus manufacturing industry's visual landscape.
Provided text
Logo detail.Alternate lock-up and background.
There is nothing nice to say about the previous logo other than the icon was symmetric. The new one clearly establishes a new kind of company with a renewed sense of pride in its products with the choice of a strong horse that also alludes to the vintage and romantic charm of riding around in a carriage coach. The faceted execution of the horse and the gold color give it a diamond-like quality that appropriately represents the product it's selling: luxurious, opulent, attention-grabbing. The wordmark is a little odd. Okay, maybe plenty odd with the flipped "Y" as an "A" and the protruding "R" — without those extra maneuvers it would have been a perfectly acceptable, simple wordmark.
Business card and pattern.Mug and cap.Ads.A bus decked in the identity.
In application, there is a gold-hued faceted pattern that is not very different from other faceted patterns we've seen but I think it works well here and feels like the right amount of restrained opulence needed to sell luxury passenger buses. When I see the ads and applications above I keep thinking of Las Vegas and people with money being douchey. So, as weird a compliment as that may sound like, that's what it's meant as. The design works for the industry and end-consumer and Gardner has done it with commendable restraint and proper execution.
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: "Alan Travis and Mark Tran report in The Guardian that new rules introduced by the justice secretary in the UK ban anyone sending in books to prisoners It's part of a new earned-incentives and privileges scheme, which allows better-behaved prisoners to get better access to funds to buy their own books. But members of Britain's literary establishment have combined to condemn Justice Secretary Chris Grayling's ban on sending books to prisoners. 'While we understand that prisons must be able to apply incentives to reward good behavior by prisoners, we do not believe that education and reading should be part of that policy,' says a letter signed by more than 80 leading authors. 'Books represent a lifeline behind bars, a way of nourishing the mind and filling the many hours that prisoners spend locked in their cells. In an environment with no internet access and only limited library facilities, books become all the more important.' Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman says the prime minister backs the ban on receiving books and entirely supports Grayling, whose department imposed the ban to preserve a rigid system of rewards and punishments for prisoners and said there was no need for prisoners to be sent books as prisoners could borrow from prison libraries and keep some reading material in their cells. However a former prisoner told the Guardian that although libraries existed, access could be severely restricted, particularly in closed prisons. 'I've been in places where prisoners only get 20 minutes a week to visit the library and change books.'"
'While a fascist government would be happy to try and trick its users into clicking enlist, I can’t imagine what benefit they get from having them accidentally clicking exit to close the propaganda engine. These should not just be visually distinguished, but given different visual weight. They’d probably want enlist large and exit smaller, if there at all.
“Welp. All the links in Federal, Galaxy, and Top News are purple. I wonder what’s happening in ENLIST news? Oh hey, who’s that pounding on the door?” ' ... 'Was it just good fortune that a live feed happened to be available at this moment? More likely the application and media coordination system are smart enough to know a live feed was coming up, and played the trailer in advance as an advertisement for the content, implying a well-coordinated propaganda/content management system.'
One of the most unusual conceits of the movie is “Would you like to know more?” These consist of short video news sequences with overlaid graphics and narration. At the top of the screen the user can click one of three categories for different categories of video feed, and two functions. At the end of each video sequence the “user” is prompted to interact—should they want to learn more—by clicking the legend at the bottom of the screen.
The user here is ambiguous. It might be that the audience member is the user, but of course it’s not interactive. There’s probably room here for some other writer to investigate the narrative tactic/semiotics of using an interactive interface in a passive story.
At the top of the screen are menu headers labeled “FEDERAL,” “GALAXY,” “TOP NEWS," "ENLIST," and "EXIT." For the usability purist, the collection is problematic for a number of reasons.
The information categories aren’t parallel, and there’s no clear reason why they shouldn’t be. What’s the relationship between Galaxy and Federal?
The functions (enlist and exit) are not visually distinguished from content categories.
The current state of the interface is a mystery. Am I currently watching Top News or something else?
Why does the interface chrome persist? Aren’t they distractions from the content? Maybe they should appear just only for the few seconds it’s inviting the user to interact, and fade at other times.
While a fascist government would be happy to try and trick its users into clicking enlist, I can’t imagine what benefit they get from having them accidentally clicking exit to close the propaganda engine. These should not just be visually distinguished, but given different visual weight. They’d probably want enlist large and exit smaller, if there at all.
“Welp. All the links in Federal, Galaxy, and Top News are purple. I wonder what’s happening in ENLIST news? Oh hey, who’s that pounding on the door?”
The presence of the "EXIT" control implies that this is an application running in an operating system or media computer space. This opt-in news application with its small windows of time for interaction helps to paint a picture of a highly engaged and ready-to-respond audience, fitting for the mid-war society portrayed in the movie.
Only once do we see an unidentified and unseen "user" control a cursor to view more. In this sequence, he or she clicks on “more” after watching a clip on the bug homeworld Klendathu. (It’s worth noting/condemning that the clickable word “more” looks identical to the rest of the non-clickable text, offering no special affordance.) In response to the selection, the application shows a live video news feed from the conflict on Klendathu. Was it just good fortune that a live feed happened to be available at this moment? More likely the application and media coordination system are smart enough to know a live feed was coming up, and played the trailer in advance as an advertisement for the content, implying a well-coordinated propaganda/content management system.
'E McNeill is the mind behind Darknet, a game we called one of the Rift's killer apps. "As far as games are concerned, that's the only quote that matters," he said, referencing Mark Zuckerberg's blog post that said Oculus' plans won't be changing. "I'm not about to abandon making my dream game, and I'm just glad that they aren't abandoning me." '
But, uh, aren't you a little worried that Facebook can take that away from you whenever they want? Or now potentially exercise editorial control over your game, App Store style?
"Right now, I'm mostly worried about the PR hit they're taking among game devs," he said. "I want Oculus to be the good guys, and I hope they still can."
oh good, you _are_ worried
Facebook’s surprise acquisition of Oculus for $2 billion of cash and stock is a sudden turn in the story of retail virtual reality, and this move will have far-reaching implications in the world of consumer electronics, communication, and gaming. We reached out to a number of developers already working in virtual reality for their take on the news.
"I guess it makes me kind of curious. It’s not two things that you imagine putting in the same pot," Robin Arnott, the creator of Soundself, told Polygon. "Someone thinks these two things belong in the same pot and thinks strongly enough to spend $2 billion on it. I think this means that there’s going to be some very interesting uses of VR in the very near future. It’s very surprising, but I’m only excited about what that could be. I’m pretty it’s not going to mean stupid free-to-play Facebook games on VR. That doesn’t seem real to me."
"Could it be the dawn of a truly virtual alternative social reality? These are the questions that come to my mind," he continued.
"As far as being a developer for VR is concerned, the only way this affects me is that there are some social aspects in Soundself that we didn’t really explore because it didn’t seem like a good use of our development time. It makes me wonder if those things are worth exploring. I really don’t know. I’m more excited than anything, to be honest."
"…Everything that's come about in the past few weeks — from this to Sony's announcement to the half dozen VR-related things I saw on the GDC floor — gets me psyched about it," he told Polygon, "For Oculus, how can Facebook be aiming for anything less than Neal Stephenson's Metaverse — finally an actual, honest-to-goodness virtual world?"
"The fact that Sony and Valve are interested in it means that someone up high thinks there's some excellent gaming potential. The fact that Facebook is interested in it means that Zuckerberg thinks it's for everyone. That is phenomenally exciting," he stated.
"What's my place in all of it? I'm not sure, anymore — all these companies are doing big, tangible things, and it probably means that we'll benefit from thinking about huge, nontraditional things."
Mojang's Notch was more direct in a tweet. "We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus," he said. "I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out."
We reached out for further comment, and he clarified his position. "Well, VR has huge potential in many fields, including social. I can see why Facebook would want to get in to this," he told Polygon. "As a game developer, however, I don't ever want to get stuck trying to target a platform not focused on games. People have made this mistake before."
Justin Moravetz is the developer of Proton Pulse, one of the best early experiences on the Oculus Rift, and he's also a bit nervous.
"My two concerns are how this fractures the end user perspective and how this effects developers," he said. "Social media is polarized almost like politics. I think you'll find many users with an instant gut reaction to the news. The public image will need some work if they plan to shake any negative association with FaceBook."
"My other concern is how this effects developers. There are a few developers taking large risks creating VR content. It is very difficult to get publishing deals as it is," Moravetz continued. "This shift to FaceBook may reset or even close the lines to Oculus the developers rely on to get the content moving. With crowd funding becoming an increasingly unreliable source, developers are left with porting existing content to reduce costs. The barrier of entry needs to stay open."
"The VR industry needs solid content to survive," he said. "It's taken decades just to make the hardware viable. If the developers can't create, the hardware can't float."
Sergio Hidalgo is working on Dreadhalls, a horror title for the Oculus Rift. "Seeing the numbers involved, my first thoughts is that it will probably mean Oculus now has almost 'unlimited' resources, which I guess could accelerate the research and development process, and how fast they are able to put a product into the consumer's hands," he said.
"As an indie developer myself, I hope Oculus will keep the same openness towards us as they have done in the past. They have always been an open company and very easy to work with, fostering the indie community, with the VRJam, for instance, and I believe the indie community will have to play an important role in the early days of VR, so I hope they still count with us!"
This could change any number of things announced about the hardware and software plans as well. "Also, I guess we will have to wait for further announcements on Oculus' part to know whether the plans they've announced publicly in the past still stand," Hidalgo said.
"As much as I enjoyed seeing Oculus as a scrappy underdog, they were never going to stay that way for long"
Others see nothing but possibility. "Oculus being bought by Facebook offers the platform a number of unique opportunities, which are potentially a snug fit with the key things that we as a studio think are offered by VR, and where we put a lot of focus for our own VR game World of Diving: its multiplayer and social elements," Richard Stitselaar, Creative Director on the World of Diving, told Polygon.
"With an eye on the enormous amount of Facebook users and the virility potential of the platform, full integration of Facebook features in your VR game might just be the way to break into the social space and to add that important layer to your game that will make the VR experience so much more personal and relevant."
E McNeill is the mind behind Darknet, a game we called one of the Rift's killer apps. "As far as games are concerned, that's the only quote that matters," he said, referencing Mark Zuckerberg's blog post that said Oculus' plans won't be changing. "I'm not about to abandon making my dream game, and I'm just glad that they aren't abandoning me."
"Palmer has always said that VR is going to be huge outside the gaming sphere, and I guess this just goes to show that Mark Zuckerberg believes him," he continued. "As much as I enjoyed seeing Oculus as a scrappy underdog, they were never going to stay that way for long. They've been wonderful to me as an indie dev so far, and I'm just hoping that this won't change them too much."
"Right now, I'm mostly worried about the PR hit they're taking among game devs," he said. "I want Oculus to be the good guys, and I hope they still can."
Buying US dollars in Venezuela is actually fairly complicated. There are at least four different official rates (pdf): one for exchanging money to be used while traveling abroad; another for corporations; another, using the new currency market, for individuals hoping to save using US dollars; and then the country’s official rate, which is used for essential imports, and over 85% of the country’s foreign exchange needs.
The scarcity of dollars in Venezuela has both led to and exacerbated a number of problems, including sporadic hyperinflation, rampant basic goods shortages, and even the withholding of billion of dollars from international airlines.
Zeaxanthin could be ingested as a supplement, but there is evidence that human bodies are better at absorbing carotenoids from whole foods, such as green leafy vegetables.
“There is a trade-off,” says Barbara Demmig-Adams, professor of distinction in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a co-author of the study published in the journal Acta Astronautica. “When we pamper plants in the field, they produce a lot of biomass but they aren’t very nutritious. If they have to fend for themselves — if they have to defend themselves against pathogens or if there’s a little bit of physical stress in the environment — plants make defense compounds that help them survive. And those are the antioxidants that we need.”
“Our eyes are like a leaf — they are both about collecting light,” Demmig-Adams says. “We need the same protection to keep us safe from intense light.”
“When they get poked a little bit with light that’s really not a problem, they get the biomechanical machine ready, and I imagine them saying, ‘Tomorrow there may be a huge blast and we don’t want to be unprepared,’” Demmig-Adams says.
NFL Rule Changes 
Technology | The Guardian.
Following yesterday's reveal of Advance Wars, we now know the other Game Boy Advance games coming to the Wii U Virtual Console in North America and Europe next month, as well as Japan. They each cost $8 with the exceptions of WarioWare Inc: Mega...
