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Teller of “Penn and Teller” TALKS… about magic, consciousness and the art of visual illusion!
*Video clips courtesy of the Mind Science Foundation and the ASSC – 2007
Currently the sounds on the clip requires external speakers or headphones...especially when using a laptop. We are working to fix the issue thanks for the patience
Cast: Dean McCall
Tags: Consciousness, MSF, MindScience, MindScienceFoundation, ASSC11 and 2007
Steve Jackson Shows Off the Texas Brick Railroad (Video)
Imagine game designer Steve Jackson and a bunch of friends building Lego trains and tracks and scenery, including buildings and other props. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? The group calls itself the Texas Brick Railroad. A lot of members have children, so their meetings tend to be family affairs. Plus, as they're doing here, they often display their train sets at public events where -- yes -- their trains attract children like crazy. This video shows off both current Lego trains and some of the classic, no-longer-sold Lego trains that members have collected over the years, including the highly-prized monorails. There's a transcript, but face it: This is basically visual material, and worth checking out on a computer or handheld that runs Flash if your normal one doesn't. (We've requested an upgrade from Flash-only video, but don't hold your breath. It might be a good while before we get it.)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Book Review: Locked Down: Information Security For Lawyers
benrothke writes "Had Locked Down: Information Security for Lawyers not been published by the American Bar Association (ABA) and 2 of its 3 authors not been attorneys; one would have thought the book is a reproach against attorneys for their obliviousness towards information security and privacy. In numerous places, the book notes that lawyers are often clueless when it comes to digital security. With that, the book is a long-overdue and valuable information security reference for anyone, not just lawyers." Read below for the rest of Ben's review.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dell Dumps Its Public Cloud Offerings
itwbennett writes "Last week, Dell said that it would be 'refining' its OpenStack plans. Now we know that 'refining' means 'backing away from'. Although the company wouldn't answer direct questions on the subject, a press release spells it out like this: 'Sales of Dell's current in-house multi-tenant public cloud IaaS will be discontinued in the U.S. in favor of best-in-class partner offerings.' Interestingly, none of Dell's initial partners, including Joyent, ScaleMatrix and ZeroLag, have platforms built on OpenStack."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Narrowing Down When Humans Began Hurling Spears
sciencehabit writes "Archaeologists have long debated when early humans began hurling stone-tipped spears and darts at large prey. By throwing a spear, instead of thrusting it, humans could hunt buffalo and other dangerous game from a safe distance, with less risk of a goring or mauling. But direct evidence of this hunting technique in early sites has been lacking. A new study of impact marks on the bones of ancient prey shows that such sophisticated killing techniques go back at least 90,000 years ago in Africa and offers a new method of determining how prehistoric hunters made their kills."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
What Professors Can Learn From "Hard Core" MOOC Students
jyosim writes "Hundreds of people are spending 20 or 30 hours a week just taking free Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs. They're not looking for credit, just the challenge of learning. This Chronicle of Higher Ed story looks at whether these MOOC addicts think they're learning as much as they would in a traditional college course. From the article: 'Consider Anna Nachesa, a 42-year-old single mother in a village near Amsterdam who logs on to MOOCs for several hours each night after dinner with her teenage kids. She has always found TV boring, she says, and for her, MOOCs replace reading books. She is a physicist by training, with a degree from Moscow State University, and she works as a software developer. "This stuff is actually addictive," she says. In some ways the lure is like Everest: Some want to climb it to see if they can. "The Dutch have the proverb 'If you never shoot, you already missed,'" she says.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FDA To Decide Fate of Triclosan, Commonly Used In Antibacterial Soaps
kkleiner writes "The FDA is finalizing its review of the antibacterial agent triclosan common to many soaps and other health/household products after four decades of use. Recent studies suggest the chemical may be harmful to animals and could interfere with the human immune system along with increasing the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The agency has been slow to cast a verdict, to much criticism considering its widespread use."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Cyber Attack From Inside India Hits Pakistan Government
judgecorp writes "Government institutions are among the targets of an attack on Pakistani bodies, which originates in India, according to reports. The campaign is using vulnerabilities in Microsoft software to install the HangOver malware, according to Norwegian security firm Norman Shark (PDF). From the article: 'In the attacks on Pakistani organizations, spear phishing emails were sent out purporting to contain information on "ongoing conflicts in the region, regional culture and religious matters," according to Norman. Norman could not provide direct attribution to the attacks, but its report did note the following: "The continued targeting of Pakistani interests and origins suggested that the attacker was of Indian origin." Snorre Fagerland, principal security researcher in the Malware Detection Team at Norman, told TechWeekEurope it appeared Pakistani government bodies had been attacked.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Jolla Announces First Meego Phone Available By End 2013
x_IamSpartacus_x writes "Jolla, the Finnish company that continued Nokia's work on the MeeGo mobile platform, announced details of its first smartphone on Monday. Availability for the Jolla device is expected by year end and can be pre-ordered now; the phone will be priced at no more than €399 (US $512.26). The Jolla hardware looks similar to that of Nokia's Lumia, with a clean, button-less front face that houses the 4.5-inch touchcscreen. The phone will use a dual-core processor and support 4G LTE in some regions. Internal storage tops out at 16 GB, but can be expanded via microSD card. The phone also includes an 8 megapixel rear camera with auto focus. The phone is also 'Android app compliant' which, in a move similar to that of BlackBerry, can help with available apps at launch."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Over 100 Hours of Video Uploaded To YouTube Every Minute
jones_supa writes "Google's YouTube is celebrating its 8-year birthday, and at the same time they reveal some interesting numbers. 'Today, more than 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. That's more than four days of video uploaded each minute! Every month, more than 1 billion people come to YouTube to access news, answer questions and have a little fun. That's almost one out of every two people on the Internet. Millions of partners are creating content for YouTube and more than 1,000 companies worldwide have mandated a one-hour mid-day break to watch nothing but funny YouTube videos. Well, we made that last stat up, but that would be cool (the other stats are true).'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Interviews: McAfee Says House Fire Was No Accident
According to reports a bush fire burned down John McAfee's home in Belize on Thursday. The local fire department was unable to to contain the blaze and the the two main buildings were completely destroyed. Property Manager Noel Codd (who was not there at the time) estimated the value of the buildings at $250,000 each. Despite the reported cause of the fire, McAfee says that the destruction of his compound was no accident. We caught up with him to talk about why he thinks the fire was set and what he plans to do now. Read below to see what he had to say.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Modeselektor feat. Otto von Schirach "Evil Twin"
Modeselektor, leur dernier morceau diabolique
Après le planant "Shipwreck" en collaboration avec Thom Yorke, "Modeselektor" nous livre aujourd'hui le second single "Evil Twin" issu de leur dernier album "Monkeytown".
Suite de l'article : eatart.fr/musique/modeselektor-leur-dernier-morceau-diabolique
Cast: eatart
Tags: Apple, Bananamac, breakcore, DentdeCuir, electro tech, Evil Twin, Happy Birthday !, Hyper Hyper, Macintosh, Marshall, MiaouStudio, Modeselektor, Monkey, Monkeytown, Otto von Schirach, Puppetmastaz, Quicktime, Siriusmo and TTC
Obsidian Joins Skyforge Team
GamesIndustry International has word from a Russian Game Developer's Conference that Mail.ru announces Obsidian Entertainment will be participating in the development of Skyforge, an MMORPG...
Free 16 Bit Arena Experiment Underway
The 16 Bit Arena website has word that their promised experiment is underway to see if this multiplayer came can be supported by free downloads and donations. The game is offered free on most digital...
Sunday Interviews
Travis Day Diablo 3 Interview Live Stream - IncGamers. Wyatt Cheng Diablo 3 Interview via a live stream - IncGamers. Austin Wintory Interview: Exploring Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded, The Banner Saga,...
Steam Top 10
Here's Valve's list of the ten bestselling games on Steam for the week: Borderlands 2 Metro Last Light XCOM: Enemy Unknown Borderlands 2 Psycho Pack Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Total War: ROME...
Gatherings & Competitions
ShootMania Royal Feast. Thanks Frans.
Sunday Previews
Distant Worlds: Shadows on Space Game Junkie. Thief on PC Gamer. Thanks Acleacius.
Sunday Metaverse
Yahoo will purchase Tumblr for $1.1 billion according to WSJ report. Google remove 8.8 million lines of code from their Blink engine. Don't blink or you'll miss it. Hell No, Tumblr Users Won?t Go To...
Sunday Tech Bits
Thanks Ant. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 specs arrive, launches on May 23. Everything you need to know about Windows 8.1. HWiNFO32 / HWiNFO64 versions 4.18.

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