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AnonTechie writes:

Medical researchers have received approval to begin safety and performance testing of the Wearable Artificial Kidney. The federal Food and Drug Administration and the University of Washington Institutional Review Board accepted the protocol for the clinical trial. Expected to start this autumn in Seattle, it will be the first human study in the United States to be conducted on the device.

The Wearable Artificial Kidney, also known as the WAK, is a miniaturized dialysis machine that can be worn on the body. The carrier resembles a tool belt; the device connects to a patient via a catheter. Like conventional dialysis machines, it is designed to filter the blood of people whose kidneys have stopped working. Unlike current portable or stationary dialysis machines, it can run continuously on batteries and is not plugged into an electrical outlet or attached to a water pipe. The present version weighs about 10 pounds, but future modifications could make it lighter and more streamlined.

AnonTechie writes:

One giant leap for mankind, again. Russia’s space agency said Tuesday it will launch a “full-scale” exploration of the Moon as part of a long-term mission to get a human being on the lunar surface for the first time in decades.

The head of Roscomsos, Oleg Ostapenko, said that designs were already underway for a manned spacecraft that he estimated could reach the moon by the end of the next decade. “By that time, based on the results of lunar surface exploration by unmanned space probes, we will designate [the] most promising places for lunar expeditions and lunar bases,” Ostapenko said, according to a translation ( http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/750900 ) by Russian state-owned news agency ITAR-TASS.

Robotron writes:

Mere days after the wildly successful iPhone 6 Plus launch, enraged buyers have taken to the Internet to demonstrate an undesired attribute: the phone's pliancy. Owners began noticing an unhealthy gradient developing after having kept the phone in their pocket for a time. Though smartphones bending is nothing new, Apple's premium pricing and reputation make this news likelier to form a setback for the company. A YouTube video examining the iPhone 6 Plus's structural quality has already racked up millions of views.

[Editor's Note: The follow-up video mentions when trying to bend the iPhone 6 Plus back to shape, the screen cracked. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 does not appear to have the same problems.]

tonyPick writes:

There's an article at The Conversation from last week on our ability to process information and make decisions while we sleep.

The article is written by Neuroscientist Sid Koudier and PhD Student Thomas Andrillon on research they have performed at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris together with the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge.

In essence the research asked subjects to classify words by pressing an appropriate button, and when the subjects fell asleep during this test EEG readings showed that the brain continued to prepare the "correct" motor responses to classify incoming words (even though they did not complete the actions).

The paper is available for download and has been published in Current Biology.

There's another summary available at the BBC.

Anonymous Coward writes:

The newest release of C++ has been characterized by Bjarne Stroustrup as "the completion of the work that became C++11". Mark Nelson discusses some new features in C++14, including the use of the auto keyword as the return type of a function, auto as the data type for lambda function parameters, and "capturing" external variables by reference for use within a lambda function. Nelson also mentions some minor, fit-and-finish features including the deprecated attribute, and digit separators for long integer literals, which will be familiar to programmers in languages such as Java and Perl.

An intro to C++11 lambda functions is here.

Nelson was the author of one of the first books on STL (and still one of the best, though it is out of print; worth trying to snag a copy IMO).

AnonTechie writes:

From Men's Journal:

Every time you walk into a physician's office, you run the risk of overtreatment: Tests you don't need, medications that are ineffective (or dangerous), procedures that cause more problems than they solve. In many cases the best thing for your health is to do nothing.

Make no mistake: A good doctor is, or should be, your most trusted resource if you're sick. If you're not sick and he wants to treat you anyway, that doesn't necessarily make him a bad doctor. But it does make him a player in a system that operates according to the unspoken and often unexamined assumption that more treatment is better for the patient. It's unquestionably better for the financial health of the stakeholders in the system: the doctors, the pharmaceutical industry, the health-insurance companies, and the hospitals. If you don't know how the game is played, the odds go up that you'll wind up the loser.

What do you people think, will people change if they know this?

deconfliction writes:

Sometimes even people and publications that really ought to know better, seem to forget the basics about the 4th amendment. Namely that it is uncontested that the 4th amendment, and other manifestations of liberty and freedom help the good and the bad folks alike. This article from the Washington Post — famous for Woodward and Bernstein's famous revelations about government abuse of surveillance — shocks my conscience in how absent even cognizance of traditional pro 4th amendment arguments are present. I'll highlight some good bits. First, read the URL:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/23/i-helped-save-a-kidnapped-man-from-murder-with-apples-new-encryption-rules-we-never-wouldve-found-him/

Next, skip to the disclaimer at the bottom —

* Editors note: This story incorrectly stated that Apple and Google’s new encryption rules would have hindered law enforcement’s ability to rescue the kidnap victim in Wake Forest, N.C. This is not the case. The piece has been corrected.

Now, move on to the opening 'graph

Shortly before I retired as assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division in April, I watched a bizarre kidnapping unfold. An older man was tased, beaten and zip-tied,[a link in the article] then forcibly taken from his home in Wake Forest, N.C. The victim was the father of a local prosecutor who’d helped try members of a violent, nationwide gang.

Finally, check out this quote which crystallizes the opinion of someone who fails to understand the 4th amendment, and why many of us love it despite its inconveniently prohibiting law enforcement from performing periodic pseudo-random residential inspections. Such inspections would no doubt thwart many rapists, crooks, kidnappers, terrorist, and countless ne'er-do-wells.

"But Apple’s and Android’s new protections will protect many thousands of criminals who seek to do us great harm, physically or financially. They will protect those who desperately need to be stopped from lawful, authorized, and entirely necessary safety and security efforts. And they will make it impossible for police to access crucial information, even with a warrant."

AnonTechie writes:

India has triumphed in its first interplanetary attempt by successfully putting a satellite into orbit around Mars. India's Mars Orbiter Mission successfully entered Mars' orbit Wednesday morning, becoming the first nation to arrive on its first attempt and the first Asian country to reach the Red Planet.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/23/world/asia/mars-india-orbiter/

arulatas writes:

I found an interesting article on the background and history of the analog synthesizer. It helped me understand some of the basic premises on how it functions and was created. Just thought I would share it.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/50-years-of-moog-the-analog-synth-that-still-beats-1s-and-0s/

jbernardo writes:

Debian Jesse is going to have Gnome3 as the default desktop.

The desktop re-qualification page, used to help choose which desktop will be default, has in the Jesse version a weight for systemd integration, and of course only Gnome3 does it (at least for now). This will surely make the systemd/gnome3 fanbase happy, but possibly will make others unhappy, as it [may] be seen as another step towards mono-culture, until we soon end up with all distros being redhat clones.

lhsi writes:

A study into the best exercise for obese youths (Abstract) found that a combination of aerobic exercise with resistance training was best when done alongside healthy eating.

In the overall study population, each type of exercise reduced body fat significantly and similarly. All three exercise programs caused significantly more fat loss than in the diet-only control group. Among youths who completed at least 70 per cent of the study's exercise sessions, the percentage of body fat decreased "significantly more in those who did combined aerobic and resistance exercise than in those who only did aerobic exercise," says co-principal researcher Dr. Glen Kenny of the University of Ottawa. "Remarkably, among participants who completed at least 70 per cent of the prescribed exercise sessions, waist circumference decreased close to seven centimeters in those randomized to combined aerobic plus resistance exercise, versus about four centimeters in those randomized to do just one type of exercise, with no change in those randomized to diet alone."

Decreases in percentage body fat were −0.3 (95% CI, −0.9 to 0.3) in the control group, −1.1 (95% CI, −1.7 to −0.5) in the aerobic training group (P = .06 vs controls), and −1.6 (95% CI, −2.2 to −1.0) in the resistance training group (P = .002 vs controls). The −1.4 (95% CI, −2.0 to −0.8) decrease in the combined training group did not differ significantly from that in the aerobic or resistance training group. Waist circumference changes were −0.2 (95% CI, −1.7 to 1.2) cm in the control group, −3.0 (95% CI, −4.4 to −1.6) cm in the aerobic group (P = .006 vs controls), −2.2 (95% CI −3.7 to −0.8) cm in the resistance training group (P = .048 vs controls), and −4.1 (95% CI, −5.5 to −2.7) cm in the combined training group. In per-protocol analyses (≥70% adherence), the combined training group had greater changes in percentage body fat (−2.4, 95% CI, −3.2 to −1.6) vs the aerobic group (−1.2; 95% CI, −2.0 to −0.5; P = .04 vs the combined group) but not the resistance group (−1.6; 95% CI, −2.5 to −0.8).

n1 writes:

CNN reports:

American jets began bombing ISIS targets in Syria early Tuesday, raising U.S. involvement in the war-torn country and sending a forceful message to the terror group.

The airstrikes focused on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, a U.S. official told CNN, though other locations were hit as well.

At least 20 targets in an[sic] around Raqqa were hit, the opposition group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

They're the first strikes against the terror group inside the country since President Barack Obama's announcement this month that he was prepared to expand the American efforts beyond targets in Iraq.

The Telegraph reports on comments from Tony Blair:

The former Labour Prime Minister has said air strikes would not be enough to defeat the jihadists who have taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria, sending in combat troops to fight Islamic State militants on the ground should not be ruled out.

[...] Speaking to the BBC, he said: "What I say is maybe having been through all of this, having faced these decisions in government and having faced the difficult choices in Iraq after 2003, and when the very type of terrorism that we're facing today we faced then, maybe it's worth appreciating the fact that there are lessons I have learnt from the experience of having gone through the process of taking these decisions, of having to deal with the situation in Iraq where, as I say, precisely the same type of terrorist forces we were facing in Iraq in 2006-07 is exactly what we face now in 2014."

Glenn Greenwald makes some observations:

The U.S. today began bombing targets inside Syria, in concert with its lovely and inspiring group of five allied regimes: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan.

That means that Syria becomes the 7th predominantly Muslim country bombed by the 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate – after Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq.

The utter lack of interest in what possible legal authority Obama has to bomb Syria is telling indeed: empires bomb who they want, when they want, for whatever reason (indeed, recall that Obama bombed Libya even after Congress explicitly voted against authorization to use force, and very few people seemed to mind that abject act of lawlessness; constitutional constraints are not for warriors and emperors).

AnonTechie writes:

Physicists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) ( http://cms.unige.ch/gap/quantum/wiki/research:quantum_communication:teleportation ) have succeeded in teleporting the quantum state of a photon to a crystal over 25 kilometres of optical fibre. The experiment, carried out in the laboratory of Professor Nicolas Gisin, constitutes a first, and simply pulverises the previous record of 6 kilometres achieved ten years ago by the same UNIGE team. Passing from light into matter, using teleportation of a photon to a crystal, shows that, in quantum physics, it is not the composition of a particle which is important, but rather its state, since this can exist and persist outside such extreme differences as those which distinguish light from matter.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140921145007.htm

n1 writes:

From an article published by Forbes which I can very much relate to:

Just came across an intriguing stat this morning from GlobalWebIndex that 71% of those aged 16 to 24 want "wearable tech." Which they define as a smart watch, smart wristband or Google Glass.

Globally, 64% of internet users have worn a piece of wearable tech already or are "keen to do so in the future." Men, at 69%, are keener in the aggregate than women, at 56%.

All of this reminded me yet again how dinosaurish I am, not that I need a whole lot of reminding, and how disconnected I am from most of the world. True story: When I was in high school back in the Pleistocene Era someone gave me a watch as a birthday gift. I wore it for three weeks, didn’t like having a piece of leather and metal attached to my wrist, didn’t enjoy the constant reminder of what time it was, took it off, gave it away and have never worn a watch since.

[...] Why do my minimalist needs and wants feel so radically different from those of most humans?

It’s not that I’m uninterested in technology. I just don’t want to wear it. I love the power of Twitter, and have thought about and written about the management implications of Google Glass. But do I need them as clothing items?

lhsi writes:

Kim Dotcom's album has been targeted multiple times by takedown requests. IFPI and others are claiming that it infringes the rights of their artists. TorrentFreak investigated and it looks like someone had put a link to Kim Dotcom's album alongside the name of other artists.