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FROM LIABILITY TO VIABILITY: GENES ON THE Y CHROMOSOME PROVE ESSENTIAL FOR MALE SURVIVAL

According to new research published by Whitehead Director David Page, the Y chromosome is not just important in the reproductive tract. Instead, approximately a dozen genes conserved on the Y are expressed in cells and tissue types throughout the body and are involved in decoding and interpreting the entirety of the genome.

http://wi.mit.edu/news/archive/2014/liability-viability-genes-y-chromosome-prove-essential-male-survival

Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting fraction of a second, the universe expanded exponentially, stretching far beyond the view of our best telescopes. All this, of course, was just theory. Researchers from the BICEP2 collaboration today announced the first direct evidence for this cosmic inflation. Their data also represent the first images of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. These waves have been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang." Finally, the data confirm a deep connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity. "Detecting this signal is one of the most important goals in cosmology today. A lot of work by a lot of people has led up to this point," said John Kovac (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), leader of the BICEP2 collaboration.

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2014-05

India set to challenge U.S. for election-spending record.

Indian politicians are expected to spend around $5 billion on campaigning for elections next month - a sum second only to the most expensive U.S. presidential campaign of all time - in a splurge that could give India's floundering economy a temporary boost. India's campaign spend, which can include cash stuffed in envelopes as well as multi-million-dollar ad campaigns, has been estimated at 300 billion rupees ($4.9 billion) by the Centre for Media Studies, which tracks spending. That is triple the expenditure the centre said was spent on electioneering in the last national poll in 2009 - partly a reflection of a high-octane campaign by pro-business opposition candidate for prime minister, Narendra Modi, who started nationwide rallies and advertising last year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/09/us-india-election-spending-idUSBREA280AR20140309

PowerPointless:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/03/powerpoint_in_higher_education_is_ruining_teaching.html

Mind-reading, prediction and intelligence - these three books promise three superpowers. But do they make Kate Douglas a better person? SELF help. Now try to keep an open mind. This is the world's bestselling genre, with around 45,000 titles in print. What's more, it has intellectual credibility. Today's cutting-edge titles are written by respected scientists and journalists, and include a sophisticated blend of neuroscience, psychology and philosophy. It's only human to want to better oneself, if just to outsmart the competition. So we should applaud the trend to bring the latest insights from the human sciences to a wider audience. But, having read a fair few of these titles, I can't help noticing a distinct lack of personal growth. Sure, I know more about my brain, mind and behaviour, but am I a better person?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129581.000-can-these-popsci-selfhelp-books-make-you-smarter.html

fixed save/load routines and currently working on refining authentication to allow for smooth bot restart

coming up next (still)... detecting other players within unit/city sight range

====
pushed latest code to github: https://github.com/crutchy-/test
note: irciv.php and irciv_lib.php contain most of the game functionality and can be found in the scripts directory
latest web map demo here: http://irciv.port119.net/?pid=2

join #civ channel in soylent irc to get involved, or use the github source for your own project

more info:
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRCiv
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRC:exec

got fog of war working... thanks to chromas for the idea of using a gd filled circle image :-D

city name and proximity detection also implemented

coming up next... detecting other players within unit/city sight range

====
pushed latest code to github: https://github.com/crutchy-/test
note: irciv.php and irciv_lib.php contain most of the game functionality and can be found in the scripts directory
latest web map demo here: http://irciv.port119.net/?pid=2

join #civ channel in soylent irc to get involved, or use the github source for your own project

more info:
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRCiv
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRC:exec

got basic city building working last night. only settlers can build cities using the "build" or "b" command in irc

city images cover 3x3 terrain tiles, with the reference as the center tile. this will allow big cities to look big on the map.

pushed latest code to github: https://github.com/crutchy-/test
note: irciv.php and irciv_lib.php contain most of the game functionality and can be found in the scripts directory
latest web map demo here: http://irciv.port119.net/?pid=1

coming up next... city building proximity detection, and fog of war implementation

join #civ channel in soylent irc to get involved, or use the github source for your own project

more info:
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRCiv
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRC:exec

I realize this is a bit of a longshot, and I don't want to run a QA on the site for this, but does anyone have a lead on a lawyer in New Hampshire to help me through incorporation? I'm also looking for a CPA, but those are relatively easiler to locate.

I've looked at various services such as Harbor Compliance, but they don't seem to be legal help, just document filing services ...

fixed up some of the map image stuff last night.
thanks to Brylarke for correcting my misconception about png filesize; i incorrectly assumed that gif output would be smaller than png (without testing my assumption), but i was very wrong. png++
painted gridlines on the map if "grid" player flag is set.

when a player moves, the irc bot outputs two URLs; the long one is specific for that instance of the game (for timeline feature to be added later) and the other just shows the latest map image. if you open the latest image URL and move again, you can just refresh the browser and it will update the map. in some (probably most) browsers you can scroll to the area of the map where your units are, and when you refresh the browser will keep that position.

demo here: http://irciv.port119.net/?pid=1

civ2 fans might recognize the map graphics... i won't tell if you don't. if anyone is handy with game graphics, replacement images will be welcome. images are png format with magenta (255,0,255) for transparent regions. have a squiz in the scripts/images directory. i might reduce the unit image down to 48x48 tonight.

pushed to github: https://github.com/crutchy-/test
note: irciv.php and irciv_lib.php contain most of the game functionality and can be found in the scripts directory

coming up next... fixing bug in map_img function (vertical unit image offset is wrong, but i might change the unit image as well), and adding a city to the map :-)

http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRCiv
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRC:exec