Why natural cycles only play small role in rate of global warming

Why natural cycles only play small role in rate of global warming

Global surface temperatures from observations (Cowtan/Way land temperature data combined with HadISST2 sea surface temperature data over ocean, in black) and model results for forcings-only (yellow) and forcings plus ENSO (light blue). Global land and ocean surface temperatures from observations and model results for forcings plus ENSO (light blue). Global surface temperatures from observations (black) and model results for all factors (grey), greenhouse gases (red), aerosols (dark blue), natural forcings (light blue) and the short-term variability due to ENSO (yellow).

Source: www.carbonbrief.org

A Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath (2013)

A Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath (2013)

Eventually, based on further neurological and behavioral research into psychopathy, he decided he was indeed a psychopath—just a relatively good kind, what he and others call a “pro-social psychopath,” someone who has difficulty feeling true empathy for others but still keeps his behavior roughly within socially-acceptable bounds. Not all psychopaths kill; some, like Fallon, exhibit other sorts of psychopathic behavior. Why has Fallon been able to temper his behavior, while other people with similar genetics and brain turn violent and end up in prison?

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Google’s Shadow Work Force: Temps Who Outnumber Full-Time Employees

Google’s Shadow Work Force: Temps Who Outnumber Full-Time Employees

Ms. Cruz became one of Google’s many temps and contractors — a shadow work force that now outnumbers the company’s full-time employees. But the company’s increasing reliance on temps and contractors has some Google employees wondering if management is undermining its carefully crafted culture. As of March, Google worked with roughly 121,000 temps and contractors around the world, compared with 102,000 full-time employees, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times.

Source: www.nytimes.com

I can see your local web servers

I can see your local web servers

Those untrusted programs are web pages! Here’s an example vulnerable app, using Express, a popular web framework:

To make things worse, many servers bind to , meaning the server is available from anywhere that can reach the machine. It is not sufficient security to hide behind a NAT (e.g. your WiFi router), because there are untrusted programs running on your network right now that have access to every machine – again, those untrusted programs are web pages!

Source: http.jameshfisher.com

Every Vehicle Should Have an Electric Motor, Even If It Doesn’t Have a Plug

Every Vehicle Should Have an Electric Motor, Even If It Doesn’t Have a Plug

If that is too detailed for you, the short difference between them:

In a series hybrid, the gas engine isn’t connected to the wheels, it just generates electricity to go to either an electric motor or a battery, to later go to the electric motor. The chart below shows all the cost savings of the Nissan E-Power vs not just a plug-in hybrid and fully battery electric car, but also a parallel hybrid. Even when all your customers want electric vehicles at once, you can’t meet their demand because:

The conclusion I have come to is that if you can drive your wheels with an electric motor — which you can do with an EV, a series hybrid, and sometimes a PHEV — the car will have instant torque, have good regenerative braking, be efficient, have low emissions, and be fun to drive.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Text rendering using multi channel signed distance fields

Text rendering using multi channel signed distance fields

This is a utility for generating signed distance fields from vector shapes and font glyphs, which serve as a texture representation that can be used in real-time graphics to efficiently reproduce said shapes. If you choose to use this utility inside your own program, there are a few simple steps you need to perform in order to generate a distance field. Using a multi-channel distance field generated by this program is similarly simple to how a monochrome distance field is used.

Source: github.com

Robocrop: world’s first raspberry-picking robot set to work

Robocrop: world’s first raspberry-picking robot set to work

The robot has gone on trial in the UK, as the farming industry battles rising labour costs and Brexit-related shortages of seasonal workers. UK farms growing apples, berries and field crops need 70,000 seasonal workers a year. The UK is not alone – with a population shift from rural areas to cities, other European countries, the US and China are all struggling to attract enough seasonal workers to harvest their crops, so robots could be the answer in the long run.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Quantum Information in Quantum Cognition

Quantum Information in Quantum Cognition

Some research topics, says conventional wisdom, a physics PhD student shouldn’t touch with an iron-tipped medieval lance: sinkholes in the foundations of quantum theory. Hydrogen suffers from other vulnerabilities, so phosphorus nuclear spins store QI in Matthew’s story. So entanglement between phosphorus nuclear spins in Posner molecules might stimulate coordinated neuron firing.

Source: quantumfrontiers.com

The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath (2013)

The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath (2013)

Eventually, based on further neurological and behavioral research into psychopathy, he decided he was indeed a psychopath—just a relatively good kind, what he and others call a “pro-social psychopath,” someone who has difficulty feeling true empathy for others but still keeps his behavior roughly within socially-acceptable bounds. Not all psychopaths kill; some, like Fallon, exhibit other sorts of psychopathic behavior. Why has Fallon been able to temper his behavior, while other people with similar genetics and brain turn violent and end up in prison?

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Blocking cryptominers from Firefox

Blocking cryptominers from Firefox

Cryptocurrency miners may be using your computer’s resources to generate cryptocurrency without your consent. To evade the cost of power and computing resources, people (aka “cryptojackers”) deploy cryptominers to use your system’s computing capacity to do the calculations on your dime. If an unauthorized cryptominer is using your system resources to generate cryptocurrency you may notice things like your battery power draining quickly, your fan spinning (an indication that the computer is using more resources and generating heat) or your electricity bill going up.

Source: blog.mozilla.org