SoylentNews

LaminatorX writes:

Back in his heyday as a cocaine kingpin, the late Pablo Escobar built a zoo on his palatial hacienda. According to a BBC report, the descendants of the four hippos he imported have not only survived, but are thriving in Colombia's drought-free climate.

From the article:

Here, conditions for hippos are idyllic. The river is slow moving and has plenty of shallows, perfect for larger animals which don't actually swim but push themselves off banks, gliding through the water. Moreover, the region never experiences drought, which tends to act as a natural brake on the size of herds in Africa.

How much the hippos like Colombia can be judged from how much sex they are having. In Africa they usually become sexually active between the ages of seven and nine for males, and nine and 11 for females, but Pablo Escobar's hippos are becoming sexually active as young as three. All the fertile females are reported to be giving birth to a calf every year.

frojack writes:

Quartz is running a story on an increasingly found ingredient in your burgers. The best you can say about it: It's non-fattening.

There may be more fiber in your food than you realized. Burger King, McDonald's and other fast food companies list in the ingredients of several of their foods. It's in an ingredient called microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) or "powdered cellulose".

Or, in plain English, wood pulp.

A key supplier of MCC, Hawkins Watts Limited in New Zealand has a pretty good, if somewhat obfuscated, description of MCC and its uses, and origins:

The raw material for MCC is purified plant fibre, or alpha cellulose.

MCC can be separated into two quite different grades in terms of function and application. These are powdered MCC and colloidal MCC.

Powdered MCC is used as a source of dietary fiber, non-caloric bulking agents, opacifiers, carriers, anti-caking agents etc.

Colloidal MCC is used to improve the "mouth feel" and impart fat-like properties (without the fat). It is, therefore, commonly used in beverages, batters and breading, chocolate drinks, dressings, fillings and sauces, icings, low fat sour cream and whipped toppings and desserts.

yanom writes:

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of Neuromancer, William Gibson's groundbreaking novel about a post-Cold War era dominated by digital technology. The forward-thinking novel popularized the term "cyberspace" (coined by Gibson in an earlier work) and foreshadowed many elements of our modern world - from powerful, feudalistic multinational corporations to human-like AI to virtual reality, the Internet, and cyberwarfare. It would establish the cyberpunk genre and inspire the likes of Neal Stephenson. 30 years later, it remains relevant for its vision of life in a world of powerful digital technology that may not be fully within our control.

cafebabe writes:

The article How common are cruel comments posted to online news sites?, suggests that more than 20% of forum comments were uncivil. Some topics were worse than others:

As might be expected, stories that focused on well-known leaders with clear partisan positions garnered more impolite comments. In stories that quoted President Barack Obama, for example, nearly 1 in 3 comments were uncivil.

Sports discussions are worst of all. However:-

The researchers noted one cause for optimism in their findings. When one commenter was directly replying to another commenter, they were more likely to be courteous.

"We tend to be more respectful in our public discourse when we recognize other citizens' perspectives, even when we do not agree with them," noted Kate Kenski, associate professor of communication at the University of Arizona and co-author of the study. "When we quote others participating in an online discussion, we tend to focus on their arguments, not on personal attributions, which makes the conversation more civil."

Does this indicate that threaded forums - in which replies are nominally directed at one person - produce the most civil discourse?

Bill The Cowboy writes:

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court released a 5-4 decision that declares employees may object, on personal grounds, to being forced to pay membership fees to unions with whom they are not a member.

Leebert writes:

Citing a Canadian anti-spam law, Microsoft last week announced that it would discontinue its security bulletin e-mail lists. From the e-mail: "In lieu of email notifications, you can subscribe to one or more of the RSS feeds described on the Security TechCenter website". Legal experts said the decision was unnecessary, as there were specific provisions in the legislation to take such email into account.

However, in an apparent reversal of its decision, Microsoft now says it will be re-starting its security notifications via email early next month. From a Microsoft's spokesperson: "On June 27, 2014, Microsoft notified customers that we were suspending Microsoft Security Notifications due to changing governmental policies concerning the issuance of automated electronic messaging. We have reviewed our processes and will resume these security notifications with our monthly Advanced Notification Service (ANS) on July 3, 2014."

Perhaps it was a case of Microsoft not reading the small print, or even the large print.

present_arms writes:

The BBC is reporting , along with USA Today, that Google is going to be sued in the USA over snooping, rejecting the appeal from Google to dismiss legal action accusing it of breaking privacy laws. From the article:

Google must face a class action lawsuit alleging the Internet giant violated federal wiretap law when its Street View vehicles collected data from private Wi-Fi networks. The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it would not consider Google's challenge to the class action lawsuit.

The federal Wiretap Act bans the interception of electronic communications. Google had argued that it was not illegal to collect radio communications or any "form of electronic communication readily accessible to the general public".

But a San Francisco federal judge and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not agree and refused to dismiss the class action. The class action was filed on behalf of individuals whose information was collected from unsecured Wi-Fi networks when Google's Street View cars rode past unsuspecting households.

AnonTechie writes:

For nearly a century, "reality" has been a murky concept. The laws of quantum physics seem to suggest that particles spend much of their time in a ghostly state, lacking even basic properties such as a definite location and instead existing everywhere and nowhere at once. Only when a particle is measured does it suddenly materialize, appearing to pick its position as if by a roll of the dice. This idea that nature is inherently probabilistic -- that particles have no hard properties, only likelihoods, until they are observed -- is directly implied by the standard equations of quantum mechanics. But now a set of surprising experiments with fluids has revived old skepticism about that world-view. The bizarre results are fueling interest in an almost forgotten version of quantum mechanics, one that never gave up the idea of a single, concrete reality.

monster writes:

I've been looking for some time to get a 3D printer for some hobbyist use. I've explored different options, like RepRap, Makerbot or Ultimaker, finding many different printers with different aims and grades of refinement. However, although I have some experience with 3D modelling, I have no previous experience with 3D printers, so apart from a very basic knowledge of how they work and where to find their forums, I'm stuck about my decision of what to get, or even if they are really worth it. Also, I don't want to get a very cheap one and find that it's too limited, but neither want to spend a lot of money without having some confidence about their suitability to my use cases. Being able to interface with it from multiple OSs would also be interesting, as I would share it with my family.

Here is where I ask my fellow Soylentils: Anyone have some insight about choosing 3D printers to give to me? Comments about the real difficulty of buying and mounting DIY kits and how they compare with getting a pre-assembled one are also welcome.

Enormous Coward writes:

An ongoing cyber-espionage campaign against a range of targets, mainly in the energy sector, gave attackers the ability to mount sabotage operations against their victims. The attackers, dubbed Dragonfly by Symantec, but also known as Energetic Bear, managed to compromise a number of strategically important organizations for spying purposes and, if they had used the sabotage capabilities open to them, could have caused damage or disruption to energy supplies in affected countries.

Among the targets of Dragonfly were energy grid operators, major electricity generation firms, petroleum pipeline operators, and energy industry industrial equipment providers. The majority of the victims were located in the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Poland.

McGruber writes:

"Baton Bob" (wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_Bob) is a street performer in Atlanta, Georgia. In June 2013, Atlanta police arrested Baton Bob during the middle of a street performance, after a verbal altercation Bob had with mall security guards.

Baton Bob has now filed a federal lawsuit accusing Atlanta police of violating his constitutional rights, assault, discrimination, privacy violations and identify theft.

What makes this SoylentNews-worthy is that Atlanta Police forced Baton Bob to post a pro-police statement on his Facebook page before officers would allow Bob to be released on bond. According to the lawsuit:

At approximately 3:40 p.m., while Plaintiff sat handcuffed and without an attorney, he was told to dictate a public statement to Officer Davis, who then typed and posted the message to the Baton Bob Facebook account. The message read:

First of all, the atl police officer that responded to the incident thru security has been very respectful and gracious to me even in handcuffs. So, the situation escalated from a complaint from a security officer in the area and for some reason she rolled up on me like she didn't know who I was and like I had not been there before. For them to call police to come to intervene was not necessary. So, out of it, because of my fury, the Atlanta police officer did not understand the elements of the situation, so he was trying to do his job, respectfully and arrested my ass!!!!!!!!! I'll be out tomorrow so look out for my show at 14th and Peachtree. So now I'm waiting to be transported so I can sign my own bond and get the hell out of here. I want to verify, that the Atlanta police was respectful to me considering the circumstances. See you when I see you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As promised, Plaintiff was then given a signature bond and released from jail.

AnonTechie writes:

Many readers took heart in the news a few weeks ago that museums in the U.S. outnumber McDonald's and Starbucks restaurants combined. But like so many other quantifiable preferences that Americans have, there's a political dimension to the affinity for museums.

Gun stores outnumber museums and libraries by nearly seven-to-one in Deschutes County, Ore., giving it the most lopsided ratio in favor of gun stores among counties with at least 10 of each. Eight of the top 25 gun-favoring counties are in the Lone Star State. Don't mess with Texas!!

Data Source: https://www.atf.gov/content/firearms/firearms-industry/listing-FFLs

zizban writes:

Metal is a new shading language from Apple to allow developers to get much closer to the hardware (i.e. the metal) of the A7 processor found in Apple's iDevices.

Apple aims to improve the opportunities for developers to get more control of the GPU:

Metal represents a much more no-nonsense approach to getting the most out of the Apple A7's gaming performance, assuring users of the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display that their devices will continue to be top-notch game systems come this fall.

Right now in iOS 7 software called OpenGL ES sits in between the game and the core hardware that runs it, translating function calls into graphics commands that are sent to the hardware. It's a lot of overhead. Apple has developed a faster way to do it. They call the new system Metal, and it's not a reference to heavy metal music. It's a nod to the programming expression "close to the metal". But in Apple's hands, it's even closer than that.

Draw calls, used to render all the objects in a scene in a 3D game, are up to ten times faster on the same hardware when using Metal. That means much faster, more responsive games with incredibly detailed environments.

lhsi writes:

A report ("Vision for science and mathematics education" PDF) by the Royal Society aims to raise the general level of mathematical and scientific knowledge and provide confidence in the population and the skills employers need.

The Royal Society's ambition for the next 20 years of science and mathematics education is that it should enable people to make informed choices, empower them to shape scientific and technological developments, and equip them to work in an advanced economy.

One suggestion to achieve this is to introduce a stable curriculum that will teach mathematics and science to the age of 18; stable in that it is overseen by independent body so it does not become a "political football".

We can only have a democratic society if people are capable of balancing the benefits and risks of new science and are able to reason mathematically.

The roots of scientific and mathematical literacy lie in an excellent science and mathematics education gained early in life. This is why our report addresses specific issues relating to the ongoing and persistent shortages of specialist science and mathematics teachers and the poor progression rates of students to post-16 science and maths across much of the UK.

We need a new approach to science and mathematics education, with all young people studying science and mathematics to the age of 18, alongside the arts and humanities, as part of a new baccalaureate-style framework that provides a broad education.

Of course we are not suggesting all young people study A-levels in chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics. It is important to create new and rigorous post-16 courses and qualifications to engage students who are not specialising in the sciences.

lhsi writes:

Researchers have found that when a player performs an immoral action in a video game, their moral sensitivity increases outside of the video game.

"Rather than leading players to become less moral," Grizzard says, "this research suggests that violent video-game play may actually lead to increased moral sensitivity. This may, as it does in real life, provoke players to engage in voluntary behavior that benefits others."

Grizzard points out that several recent studies, including this one, have found that committing immoral behaviors in a video game elicits feelings of guilt in players who commit them.

The current study found such guilt can lead players to be more sensitive to the moral issues they violated during game play. Other studies have established that in real life scenarios, guilt evoked by immoral behavior in the "real-world" elicits pro-social behaviors in most people.

Studies like this need to get more mainstream coverage.