Seeing pictures of food with calorie information not only makes food less appetizing but it also changes the way your brain responds…
December 23, 2018
...according to a Dartmouth-led study published in PLOS ONE. When food images appeared with the calorie content, the brain showed decreased activation of the reward system and increased activation in the control system. In other words, foods that you might otherwise be inclined to eat became less desirable once the calorie content was displayed.
The study is the first of its kind to examine how your brain makes food choices when calorie information is presented. The results are timely given that earlier this year, certain food chain establishments had to comply with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s menu labeling law requiring the disclosure of calorie information on menus and menu boards.
Transhumanists Continue to Dream Of Eternal Life…
December 23, 2018
Brain implants, longer lives, genetically modified humans: for the prophets of transhumanism -- the scientifically assisted evolution of humans beyond our current limitations -- it is just a matter of time. But many scientists insist that some problems are not so easily solved. Sooner or later, they argue, the movement that crystalised in the can-do culture of 1980s California will hit the brick wall of the scientifically impossible.
Google recruited computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, a leading light in the transhumanist movement. And it is backing Calico, a research company devoted to using technology to help people live longer and healthier lives. And Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, has set up Neuralink in San Francisco to develop "implantable brain-machine interfaces to connect humans to computers".
Blay Whitby, who studies the ethical implications of transhumanist research at the University of Sussex, England, is sceptical. "Some transhumanists sign their emails to me with slogans like 'Death is now optional' or 'The first person to live to 500 has already been born'," he remarks.
"They are clearly more optimistic than me."
Advancing technology within the last 30 years has given rise to an emerging Transhumanist movement looking to achieve immortality, but so far there has been no scientific breakthrough to suggest they're moving closer. But that's not deterring them, instead, they continue looking for such breakthroughs that will save them from death itself.
At least 62 killed, hundreds injured after tsunami hits Indonesia…
December 23, 2018
A tsunami apparently caused by the eruption of an island volcano killed at least 62 people around Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, sending a wall of water crashing some 65 feet inland and sweeping away hundreds of houses, including hotels, the government and witnesses said.
Some 600 people have been reported injured after the tsunami hit at 9:27 p.m. Saturday, the Disaster Management Agency said. At least 20 others are unaccounted for.
President Trump has signed a $1.2 billon law to boost US quantum tech…
H.R.6227 - National Quantum Initiative Act...
December 23, 2018
The US president just signed into law a bill that commits the government to providing $1.2 billion to fund activities promoting quantum information science over an initial five-year period. The new law, which was signed just as a partial US government shutdown began, will provide a significant boost to research, and to efforts to develop a future quantum workforce in the country.
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It will also encourage large companies and startups to pool some of their knowledge and resources in joint research efforts with government institutes.Trump is ahead of the game in this. This isn't just about advancing computing power, but about maintaining cryptographic dominance. Computers running Quantum technology will be used break a lot of todays encryption. Think about this; We are in a cyber-arms race where the first country that successfully break public key/private key encryption wins. The winner's advantage is total control of the internet's battelfield. On top of this, it's about pushing AI and machine learning.
Some of you might be asking, what is quantum tech? It's technology that uses quantum properties to do computations. That is quantum information. So as an example, in a classical computer, a bit can have either the value 0 or 1, but a quantum bit can have the value 0 and 1 at the same time. Imagine the advantages. For all the nerds out there, this means - in simple terms - that if you have N q-bits, then you can test 2N cases in one step.
Winter Chills Mix…
December 23, 2018