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Sleep is one of the great mysteries of biology. It's obviously dangerous to do it – you're unaware of both predators and potential food going by – and yet it's been observed in everything down to roundworms, and without it, we die. Clearly it does something extremely important.
A discovery by three Caltech grad students adds another layer to this: Cassiopea jellyfish, also known as "upside-down jellyfish," sleep – even though they don't have brains at all, just a diffuse network of neurons. They show the same symptoms that more complex animals do: reversible quiescence (they can be woken up), increased arousal threshold, (they don't jump at things they would normally notice), and homeostatic regulation of sleep (they have trouble if they don't do it regularly).
Apparently, whatever sleep does, it's so basic to survival that even diffuse neural networks need to do it.
A discovery by three Caltech grad students adds another layer to this: Cassiopea jellyfish, also known as "upside-down jellyfish," sleep – even though they don't have brains at all, just a diffuse network of neurons. They show the same symptoms that more complex animals do: reversible quiescence (they can be woken up), increased arousal threshold, (they don't jump at things they would normally notice), and homeostatic regulation of sleep (they have trouble if they don't do it regularly).
Apparently, whatever sleep does, it's so basic to survival that even diffuse neural networks need to do it.
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ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 available for pre-order at $299
Back at Computex in May, ASUS announced a successor to the original Chromebook Flip C100 — a convertible Chromebook that achieved success thanks to its small, compact design and aluminum build. Now, the successor — the ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 — is finally available for pre-order.
The new ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 features the same overall design as its predecessor and it is still built completely out of aluminum. However, there were a few notable improvements that were made. While the display (which is still IPS) size and screen resolution remain at 10.1-inch and 1280x800, respectively, the display is actually brighter at 400 nits. Internally, you'll find an upgraded OP1 processor (which is the same MediaTek 3399 SoC used in the Samsung Chromebook Plus), 4GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, dual-band 802.11AC Wi-Fi. Bluetooth 4.0, and a 38Wh battery that can deliver up to 9 hours of battery life. On the outside, you'll find two USB Type-C (3.1) ports that can be used to charge the Chromebook, as well as a USB Type-A (2.0) port and a microSD card slot. The new ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 will also support Android apps via the Google Play Store.
You can pre-order the ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 today on the ASUS Store and Amazon for $299, and according to the ASUS Store the Flip C101 should be delivered by September 25th (Amazon does not have a release date set yet).
#ChromeOS #ASUS
Back at Computex in May, ASUS announced a successor to the original Chromebook Flip C100 — a convertible Chromebook that achieved success thanks to its small, compact design and aluminum build. Now, the successor — the ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 — is finally available for pre-order.
The new ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 features the same overall design as its predecessor and it is still built completely out of aluminum. However, there were a few notable improvements that were made. While the display (which is still IPS) size and screen resolution remain at 10.1-inch and 1280x800, respectively, the display is actually brighter at 400 nits. Internally, you'll find an upgraded OP1 processor (which is the same MediaTek 3399 SoC used in the Samsung Chromebook Plus), 4GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, dual-band 802.11AC Wi-Fi. Bluetooth 4.0, and a 38Wh battery that can deliver up to 9 hours of battery life. On the outside, you'll find two USB Type-C (3.1) ports that can be used to charge the Chromebook, as well as a USB Type-A (2.0) port and a microSD card slot. The new ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 will also support Android apps via the Google Play Store.
You can pre-order the ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 today on the ASUS Store and Amazon for $299, and according to the ASUS Store the Flip C101 should be delivered by September 25th (Amazon does not have a release date set yet).
#ChromeOS #ASUS
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Battlefront II Locations Revealed
These are supposedly the planets that will have maps upon launch (at least for the Galactic Assault mode):
Naboo
Kamino
Kashyyyk
Endor
Death Star II
Hoth
Mos Eisley
Yavin IV
Jakku
Takodana
Starkiller Base
3 prequel planets. 5 original trilogy planet/locations. 3 sequel trilogy planets. (Mind that you that for the Battlefront launch in 2015 there was only four planets upon launch: Tatooine, Endor, Hoth, and Sullust)
What do you think about this initial selection?
More planets, locations, maps will be coming with the free "seasons" of content after the initial launch - the first being a TLJ season with Finn, Phasma and the Krait planet.
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Star Wars: Battlefront II will be released November 17 and the beta comes out in two weeks.
#StarWars #BattlefrontII #StarWarsVideogames
These are supposedly the planets that will have maps upon launch (at least for the Galactic Assault mode):
Naboo
Kamino
Kashyyyk
Endor
Death Star II
Hoth
Mos Eisley
Yavin IV
Jakku
Takodana
Starkiller Base
3 prequel planets. 5 original trilogy planet/locations. 3 sequel trilogy planets. (Mind that you that for the Battlefront launch in 2015 there was only four planets upon launch: Tatooine, Endor, Hoth, and Sullust)
What do you think about this initial selection?
More planets, locations, maps will be coming with the free "seasons" of content after the initial launch - the first being a TLJ season with Finn, Phasma and the Krait planet.
Star Wars: Battlefront II will be released November 17 and the beta comes out in two weeks.
#StarWars #BattlefrontII #StarWarsVideogames
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The Verge has a very positive take on the HTC deal - and more importantly Google's hardware outlook. Personally I'm not so sure (which might partly be because I'm living outside of the US). Right now Google is really, really bad at marketing to consumers and if they ever want to be a serious contender to Apple (or Samsung for that matter) they will have to figure that out soon. Same goes for distribution and deals with global partners. If the Pixel 2 won't be available on a broader base than the first generation, I'm going to start to wonder if Google is actually serious about that hardware thing.
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President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he had signed an executive order authorizing additional sanctions against North Korea by targeting individuals, companies and financial institutions that do business with what he called "this criminal rogue regime."
Speaking before a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump said his goal is the "complete denuclearization" of North Korea and added that the nation led by Kim Jong Un posed a “grave threat to peace and security in our world.”
Speaking before a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump said his goal is the "complete denuclearization" of North Korea and added that the nation led by Kim Jong Un posed a “grave threat to peace and security in our world.”
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Angry Woman Verbally Abuses Man for Bringing PTSD Dog into Restaurant
An angry woman was captured on video screaming at a man for bringing his PTSD dog into a restaurant. The man remained silent during the verbal onslaught until cooly telling her to calm down.
Shocking footage captured the moment a woman yelled at a military veteran after he brought his PTSD dog inside the restaurant. Workers and diners queued up to defend the serviceman who remained silent during the unpleasant verbal onslaught.
Emigrate While You Still Can! Learn More...
Holding his dog’s leash, the veteran stands near his dog, which appears to be a Great Dane mix with an official military coat wrapped around its body. These animals help victims of serious injury or accident feel safe during potentially difficult social situations. And the dog was probably handy in this particular social situation.
The video immediately went viral with online users criticising this verbally abusive tirade.
More https://goo.gl/5x1TCN
An angry woman was captured on video screaming at a man for bringing his PTSD dog into a restaurant. The man remained silent during the verbal onslaught until cooly telling her to calm down.
Shocking footage captured the moment a woman yelled at a military veteran after he brought his PTSD dog inside the restaurant. Workers and diners queued up to defend the serviceman who remained silent during the unpleasant verbal onslaught.
Emigrate While You Still Can! Learn More...
Holding his dog’s leash, the veteran stands near his dog, which appears to be a Great Dane mix with an official military coat wrapped around its body. These animals help victims of serious injury or accident feel safe during potentially difficult social situations. And the dog was probably handy in this particular social situation.
The video immediately went viral with online users criticising this verbally abusive tirade.
More https://goo.gl/5x1TCN
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A reported FCC filing has hinted that a Nokia 8 variant will launch in the US with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage space. #News #HMDGlobal #Nokia
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Intelligence and Identity
Access to collective information can be a source of individualistic egotism, inflating our 'cognitive self-esteem'.
"Our failure to appreciate the degree to which we rely on others to know things is magnified by the universe of information available in the palm of our hands."
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We turn to the community of knowledge so often and so unthinkingly that we don’t even realize we’re doing it. As a result, our culture is premised on the worship of individual performance, and fails to recognize the degree to which we are all standing not only on the shoulders of giants but on the backs of our friends, family and neighbors, as well as our forebears.
Bill Gates couldn’t have achieved what he did without the ideas and hard work of countless other people. So the fact that he was able to reap such huge rewards is an injustice, a failure of the system to assign credit fairly. Wealth disparities follow in part from our failure to recognize the community of knowledge.
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We all tend to mistake our shallow puddles of understanding for vast oceans, cognitive scientists Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach write in their essential new book “The Knowledge Illusion,” and this gap between what we think we know and what we truly know leads us to bungle decisions at work, at home, at the ballot box and in our social organisation and economic accounting.
America in 2017 is a stronghold of strongly held beliefs. Yet “public opinion is more extreme than people’s understanding justifies,” Sloman and Fernbach write, citing depressing studies that found many Americans with the firmest views on, say, the Affordable Care Act barely scratch the surface of understanding the law.
In fact, those of us with the most inflated sense of our own knowledge and skills may perform the worst, a phenomenon that psychologists call the Dunning-Kruger effect — and that I call my early 20s.
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The world’s greatest community of knowledge, the internet, is probably only making the problem worse. Our failure to appreciate the degree to which we rely on others to know things is magnified by the universe of information instantly available in the palm of our hands, research by Adrian Ward, a psychologist at the University of Texas, found. In the country of the mind, the one iPhone is king. WebMD makes us think we’re Dr. House. IMDB makes us think we’re Ken Jennings. These searches artificially inflate our “cognitive self-esteem”.
-------------------
But the internet was made in our own image. Knowledge has always been stored in a human network, with each individual mind merely a node.
In this way, the internet may also help us better appreciate how the community of knowledge makes our society possible.
Access to collective information can be a source of individualistic egotism, inflating our 'cognitive self-esteem'.
"Our failure to appreciate the degree to which we rely on others to know things is magnified by the universe of information available in the palm of our hands."
We turn to the community of knowledge so often and so unthinkingly that we don’t even realize we’re doing it. As a result, our culture is premised on the worship of individual performance, and fails to recognize the degree to which we are all standing not only on the shoulders of giants but on the backs of our friends, family and neighbors, as well as our forebears.
Bill Gates couldn’t have achieved what he did without the ideas and hard work of countless other people. So the fact that he was able to reap such huge rewards is an injustice, a failure of the system to assign credit fairly. Wealth disparities follow in part from our failure to recognize the community of knowledge.
We all tend to mistake our shallow puddles of understanding for vast oceans, cognitive scientists Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach write in their essential new book “The Knowledge Illusion,” and this gap between what we think we know and what we truly know leads us to bungle decisions at work, at home, at the ballot box and in our social organisation and economic accounting.
America in 2017 is a stronghold of strongly held beliefs. Yet “public opinion is more extreme than people’s understanding justifies,” Sloman and Fernbach write, citing depressing studies that found many Americans with the firmest views on, say, the Affordable Care Act barely scratch the surface of understanding the law.
In fact, those of us with the most inflated sense of our own knowledge and skills may perform the worst, a phenomenon that psychologists call the Dunning-Kruger effect — and that I call my early 20s.
The world’s greatest community of knowledge, the internet, is probably only making the problem worse. Our failure to appreciate the degree to which we rely on others to know things is magnified by the universe of information instantly available in the palm of our hands, research by Adrian Ward, a psychologist at the University of Texas, found. In the country of the mind, the one iPhone is king. WebMD makes us think we’re Dr. House. IMDB makes us think we’re Ken Jennings. These searches artificially inflate our “cognitive self-esteem”.
But the internet was made in our own image. Knowledge has always been stored in a human network, with each individual mind merely a node.
In this way, the internet may also help us better appreciate how the community of knowledge makes our society possible.
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The big LEGO UCS Snowspeeder, an interesting subject to shoot. The size of this monster is very different to what I'm used to with LEGO and snow, I wasn't sure if the powder I use to mimick snow would even work. I mean, I was a little worried that if the grain was too small in scale, the snow would look like dust.
In the end, it worked quite well. I used the big scale of the speeder to find angles I couldn't easily find with the smaller speeders. Going very low with a big camera isn't always that easy, the ground gets in the way.
Shot for a review I wrote for Blocks magazine.
#lego #starwars #snowspeeder #theempirestrikesback #snow #blizzard #toy #toyphotography #avanaut #originality
In the end, it worked quite well. I used the big scale of the speeder to find angles I couldn't easily find with the smaller speeders. Going very low with a big camera isn't always that easy, the ground gets in the way.
Shot for a review I wrote for Blocks magazine.
#lego #starwars #snowspeeder #theempirestrikesback #snow #blizzard #toy #toyphotography #avanaut #originality
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Stranded
Silhouette Island, Seychelles
At dusk and dawn, the landscape have many shapes, silhouettes and shadows that can make your imagination run wild. Here the daybreak seems to reveal a stranded whale half buried in the sand.
It is the same with some animals too – I remember one of my dogs barking incessantly to a mailbox on a pole as he could not make heads or tale of that strange shape in the low light. He might have thought it a very strange human being without arms.
In this case you can just walk up and touch to realise it is just a beautifully carved granite rock. Its smoothness is the result of aeons of sandblasting of the waves swirling the sand around on its surface.
Image Copyright © 2016 +Morten Ross
Image Capture Date: 23 November 2016 05:57
Altitude: 0 meters
#seychelles #mahe #silhouetteisland #sea
#LandscapePhotography +Landscape Photography curated by +Margaret Tompkins +Eric Drumm +Chandler L. Walker +Krzysztof Felczak +AJ Lim +Jeff Beddow +H Peter Ji +Jani Westman +Dorma Wiggin +Ranco Sevla Sevla
#hqsplandscape +HQSP Landscape
#BTPLandscapePro +BTP Landscape Pro , owned and curated by +Nancy Dempsey
Silhouette Island, Seychelles
At dusk and dawn, the landscape have many shapes, silhouettes and shadows that can make your imagination run wild. Here the daybreak seems to reveal a stranded whale half buried in the sand.
It is the same with some animals too – I remember one of my dogs barking incessantly to a mailbox on a pole as he could not make heads or tale of that strange shape in the low light. He might have thought it a very strange human being without arms.
In this case you can just walk up and touch to realise it is just a beautifully carved granite rock. Its smoothness is the result of aeons of sandblasting of the waves swirling the sand around on its surface.
Image Copyright © 2016 +Morten Ross
Image Capture Date: 23 November 2016 05:57
Altitude: 0 meters
#seychelles #mahe #silhouetteisland #sea
#LandscapePhotography +Landscape Photography curated by +Margaret Tompkins +Eric Drumm +Chandler L. Walker +Krzysztof Felczak +AJ Lim +Jeff Beddow +H Peter Ji +Jani Westman +Dorma Wiggin +Ranco Sevla Sevla
#hqsplandscape +HQSP Landscape
#BTPLandscapePro +BTP Landscape Pro , owned and curated by +Nancy Dempsey
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A September Morning Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Tamas Ladanyi (TWAN)
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170921.html
The Moon, three planets, and a bright star gathered near the ecliptic plane in the September 18 morning sky over Veszprem Castle, Hungary. In this twilight skyscape, Mercury and Mars still shine close to the eastern horizon, soon to disappear in the glare of the Sun. Regulus, alpha star of the constellation Leo, is the bright point next to a waning crescent Moon, with brilliant Venus near the top of the frame. The beautiful morning conjunction of Moon, planets, and bright star could generally be followed by early morning risers all around planet Earth. But remarkably, the Moon also occulted, or passed directly in front of, Regulus and each of the three planets within 24 hours, all on September 18 UT. Visible from different locations, timing and watching the lunar occultations was much more difficult though, and mostly required viewing in daytime skies.
Image Credit & Copyright: Tamas Ladanyi (TWAN)
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170921.html
The Moon, three planets, and a bright star gathered near the ecliptic plane in the September 18 morning sky over Veszprem Castle, Hungary. In this twilight skyscape, Mercury and Mars still shine close to the eastern horizon, soon to disappear in the glare of the Sun. Regulus, alpha star of the constellation Leo, is the bright point next to a waning crescent Moon, with brilliant Venus near the top of the frame. The beautiful morning conjunction of Moon, planets, and bright star could generally be followed by early morning risers all around planet Earth. But remarkably, the Moon also occulted, or passed directly in front of, Regulus and each of the three planets within 24 hours, all on September 18 UT. Visible from different locations, timing and watching the lunar occultations was much more difficult though, and mostly required viewing in daytime skies.
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Best Players in the NBA - #T-1
Kevin Durant
Regular Season Stats:
PPG: 25.1
RPG: 8.3
APG: 4.8
SPG: 1.1
BPG: 1.6
FG: 54%
TS: 65%
Playoff Stats:
PPG: 28.5
RPG: 7.9
APG: 4.3
SPG: 0.8
BPG: 1.3
FG: 56%
TS: 68%
2017 Accolades:
All-NBA 2nd Team
NBA All-Star
Kevin Durant
Regular Season Stats:
PPG: 25.1
RPG: 8.3
APG: 4.8
SPG: 1.1
BPG: 1.6
FG: 54%
TS: 65%
Playoff Stats:
PPG: 28.5
RPG: 7.9
APG: 4.3
SPG: 0.8
BPG: 1.3
FG: 56%
TS: 68%
2017 Accolades:
All-NBA 2nd Team
NBA All-Star
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