Here’s Alexander Glenfield demonstrating the seven styles of Tuvan Throat Singing, a method of singing which produces sounds that seemingly no human throats should be able to make. It’s like having a flute inside your throat!
Your posture affects your decision making
Lean to the left. Lean to the right.
Scientists have found that if you lean to the left, you think Michael Jackson had fewer number one hit singles than if you lean to the right or stand up straight.
If your posture leans to the right, on the other hand, your estimate increases. If you lean left you also think the Eiffel Tower is shorter than if you lean to the right. You think there is less alcohol in whiskey, and you will guess that Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has fewer grandchildren than if you leaned to the right. This is a real study soon to be published in the scientific journal Psychological Science…
Continue reading… “Your posture affects your decision making”
Kinect 2 so accurate it can lip read
No voice required.
Microsoft plans to release a next-generation Kinect device so accurate it can lip read, sources have told Eurogamer.
Kinect 2 will come bundled with future Xbox consoles, we understand.
The intention is that Kinect 2 will offer improved motion sensing and voice recognition…
Fun-Vii: Toyota’s futuristic concept car a giant ‘smartphone on four wheels’
Toyota Fun-Vii
A futuristic concept car resembling a giant smartphone was unveiled by Toyota’s president to demonstrate how Japan’s top automaker is trying to take the lead in technology at the upcoming Tokyo auto show.
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Large families good for mother’s health: study
Having four or more children halves a woman’s chances of suffering a stroke.
Despite the stresses involved with having a large family, having four or more children might be good for women, a study has found.
New trend in anti-bullying: teaching victims to stand up for themselves
Some parents are going old-school when it comes to dealing with bullies.
What would your first instinct be if you found out that bullies were hassling your child? Would you help him rehearse comeback lines or would you show him how to open a can of whoop-ass, and knock those jerks into next week?
Continue reading… “New trend in anti-bullying: teaching victims to stand up for themselves”
Electrical stimulation to the brain speeds up learning
Air Force operator receiving transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) to accelerate learning.
By running a mild electric current through the brains of pilots during lessons, Air Force researchers have cut their personnel’s learning time in half. Pilots were being taught how to identify targets using drones—the practice is increasingly important to modern warfare and one which, due to its difficulty, is holding back the deployment of drones. Caffeine and other stimulants have been tested to aid learning but none work as well as two milliamperes of direct current for 30 minutes to pilot’s brains during training sessions on video simulators.
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Mike Cassidy: How to build a $500M company in 500 days
Mike Cassidy
No one embodies the classic, sniff-it-out serial entrepreneur more than Mike Cassidy, who has now built and sold four companies (Stylus Innovation, Direct Hit, Xfire and Ruba), some of them with very impressive exits.
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Google drops ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal’ research project
Did Google give up on the planet?
Google is quite a big proponent of renewable energy. They have made all kinds of investments in wind, solar, geothermal, etc. Some are to generate clean energy for their own needs, others are more akin to financing deals to help big wind and solar farms get built. In any case, it is very commendable work and if more big corporations had the long-term vision of Google, the world would definitely be in better shape.
But sadly, one of their most promising clean energy projects has just gotten the axe. Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal which was launched in 2007 via the Google.org Foundation, aimed to drive down the cost of renewable energy via R&D efforts until it was cheaper than coal, the magic point at which adoption would reach escape velocity…
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Malls go Big Brother with holiday shopping cell phone tracking
Where are you going and where have you been? No need to tell me, I already know.
With mobile phone privacy in the forefront of our minds, it was a bit disconcerting to hear that this holiday season (Black Friday through New Years) certain malls will be tracking shoppers’ phones. Right now, just two US malls have said they will be anonymously tracking visitor’s phones, the Promenade Temecula in Temecula, California and the wonderfully-named Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Virginia.
A notice was posted at the Promenade stating that anonymous data will be collected using the signals from visitors’ mobile phones. The data will be anonymized and is collected using a number of “monitoring units” placed around the mall. The purpose of the data collection, according to both the mall’s signage and website is to “enhance the shopping experience,” something we’re not quite sure all the visitors will appreciate as much as the malls might hope…
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Cyber Monday piggybacks on social media to become top online shopping day
When the term Cyber Monday was coined in 2005, the Monday after Thanksgiving was the 12th biggest online shopping day of the year. That year, Facebook had 5.5 million users and Twitter didn’t exist. In 2010, Cyber Monday was the #1 biggest online shopping day of the year, with sales topping $1 billion. I believe the growth of social media and the importance of Cyber Monday are correlated because peer -to-peer sharing of deals and owned marketing channels like Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts are bringing promotions directly to where users spend their time online.
The red line is where Cyber Monday ranked among the top online shopping days (from comScore press releases) for that year. Aside from 2008, which is an outlier due the recession, there is a trend in Cyber Monday popularity growing along with Facebook users…
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Top 10 Photos of the Week
With the world collapsing around us, it will be the innovative few
who see brilliant opportunities and take us to a whole new level
“I’m spending a year dead for tax reasons.” – – Douglas Adams