Month: February 2014

Big Brother, Curiositys, Globalization, Matrix, Media&Culture, TechnologyLeave a comment

People Unwilling to Pay for Privacy are Doomed to Lose It (de Volkskrant, The Netherlands)

Fernando Kaskais

“When WhatsApp was acquired last week by Facebook, it led to a wave of indignation. People feared for their privacy, because Facebook uses different terms of service. … There is an ancient economic law: if it costs nothing, it’s worth nothing. When we pay nothing for our privacy, we indicate the limited value we attach to it. Even if we are too lazy to read the terms of use, we know full well that we pay for those services from Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn and G-mail, with the personal data we leave behind.” By Chris Jongeneel Translated By Marion Pini … Continue reading People Unwilling to Pay for Privacy are Doomed to Lose It (de Volkskrant, The Netherlands)

Art, Media&Culture, PhotographyLeave a comment

Spectacular moving images compete to win inaugural Motion Photography Prize honoring gifs

Fernando Kaskais

CREDIT: Simon McCheun/ Courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London If a picture can tell a thousand words, motion photography can tell a whole story. That’s what Saatchi Art and Saatchi Gallery think anyway, and together with Google+ they are looking to celebrate these stories with the inaugural Motion Photography Prize. Photographers from around the globe are invited to submit one motion photo in .GIF format in any or all of six categories, which include Landscape, Lifestyle and Action. If budding photographers don’t know how to create a gif using Photoshop, they can simply upload between 5 and 50 stills into … Continue reading Spectacular moving images compete to win inaugural Motion Photography Prize honoring gifs

Eco, PlanetLeave a comment

California drought bare: Photos show how reservoir is almost COMPLETELY dry as NASA is brought in to help with the crisis

Fernando Kaskais

ByAssociated Pressand Daily Mail Reporters Folson  Lake, northeast of Sacramento California, has lost 80 percent of its water  capacity in 2.5 years Pictures  released by NASA this week show the dam almost full in 2011 with a capacity of  97 percent Today it  stands at 17 percent Lake is so low the remains of a Gold  Rush-era ghost town – which was flooded to create  the lake in the 1950s – are  visible for the first time in years Governor Jerry Brown has declared a  drought emergency, seeking federal aid as water drops dangerously low and  proposing a $687.4 million … Continue reading California drought bare: Photos show how reservoir is almost COMPLETELY dry as NASA is brought in to help with the crisis

Animals, Bizarre, Curiositys, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

A fowl find: Scientists stunned to discover a new state of matter – in a chicken’s EYE

Fernando Kaskais

ByMark Prigg .Disordered hyperuniformity is an arrangement of particles that allows material to behave like both a crystal and a liquid .Could lead to new types of light sensor A new state of matter has been discovered in the eye of a chicken. Never before seen in biology, ‘disordered hyperuniformity’ is an arrangement of particles that allows material to behave like both a crystal and a liquid. Along with eggs, soup and rubber toys the list of the humble rooster’s most lasting legacies may eventually include optics that can transmit light with the efficiency of a crystal and the flexibility … Continue reading A fowl find: Scientists stunned to discover a new state of matter – in a chicken’s EYE

Health, Media&Culture, Middle East, Photography, Politics, WarLeave a comment

Syria’s starving hordes: In a biblical picture of suffering, crowd stretching for as far as the eye can see gathers amid the rubble of Damascus for UN food hand-outs

Fernando Kaskais

.Yarmouk, the Palestinian area of Damascus has been sealed to the outside world on and off since July .These photographs show the first food parcel arrival in Yarmouk for months, hundreds lining in the streets .Yarmouk may yet again cut off from humanitarian aid following clashes in Syria’s capital, UN reports .Today, 175 rebel and foreign fighters were killed in a Syrian army ambush near Damascus Hundreds of men, women and children fight to get to the front of the queue as a refugee camp in Damascus receives food parcels after being cut off for months. Today the United Nations … Continue reading Syria’s starving hordes: In a biblical picture of suffering, crowd stretching for as far as the eye can see gathers amid the rubble of Damascus for UN food hand-outs

Curiositys, Matrix, Space, UFOLeave a comment

Do Intelligent Alien Civilizations Exist and How Can We Detect Them?

Fernando Kaskais

by Anna LeMind Any arguments on the subject of extraterrestrial intelligence have always triggered a lot of assumptive statements. Whether they exist. Whether they are advanced. Whether they are intelligent. Whether they have reached the stage of civilization and technological progress. Whether they have been developing in the same way as we do on Earth … One way or another, our planet gives us the only known example of existence of life so far, and having no precise data about other life forms, we can only speculate about extraterrestrial life. But if we rely on all of these assumptions, and … Continue reading Do Intelligent Alien Civilizations Exist and How Can We Detect Them?

Brain, Curiositys, Esoteric, MatrixLeave a comment

Exploring the Mystery of Intuition

Fernando Kaskais

by Anna LeMind Intuition is full of temptations. How can we keep from trying to explain something that came out of nowhere to solve a problem as something that was “sent down from above”? Intuition is often referred to as “readily available knowledge“, which has the property to “suddenly” appear in the head of an individual. But we often fail to take into account the fact that we have long been preoccupied with solving this problem. How it works Intuition is viewed as a method to attain philosophical knowledge, ability to perceive information, the method of decision-making in critical situations, … Continue reading Exploring the Mystery of Intuition

Art, Bizarre, Curiositys, History, Media&CultureLeave a comment

Codex Seraphinianus: the Most Mysterious and Weird Book Ever

Fernando Kaskais

by Anna LeMind It consists of 360 pages and describes a fantasy world with highly abstract and surreal illustrations. For example, you can find the depiction of a couple of lovers turning into an alligator or a ripe fruit dripping blood… The book is called Codex Seraphinianus, and this is an illustrated encyclopedia of a secret and unexplored world. Even today the book is an enigma for linguists, who cannot figure out the way to decipher the alphabet used for this spooky tale. The person behind this weird book, which was issued in 1981, is called Luigi Serafini and is … Continue reading Codex Seraphinianus: the Most Mysterious and Weird Book Ever

Brain, Curiositys, Health, Science, SexLeave a comment

What Happens to Your Body and Brain When You Are in Love

Fernando Kaskais

Cupid’s arrows are capable to take our breath away, make our hearts break and our minds go mad, support American scientists from the Loyola University. “When you fall in love, your body releases a cascade of chemical euphoria, which trigger specific reactions,” explains Dr. Patricia Mumby of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience of the University. “This inner erotic ‘elixir’ is responsible for the pinkish color in our cheeks, the sweat on our palms and the beat of our hearts,” adds the expert. The celebration of love The levels of chemicals such as dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine are responsible … Continue reading What Happens to Your Body and Brain When You Are in Love

Brain, Curiositys, Living, Science, SexLeave a comment

Scientists Discovered the Secret of Sexual Attraction

Fernando Kaskais

It is not the appearance or personality. New study reveals that the element that carries the strongest sexual attraction is the voice. Researchers in Canada say that we feel a physical attraction to a person who has similar voice to ours as regards pronunciation, volume and tone. Previous studies have focused on how manly or feminine a voice is. Men with deep voices and women with thin voices were considered by far the most charming. However, new research demonstrates that the mechanisms behind these preferences are more complex. Researchers of the University of British Columbia claim that “the voice is … Continue reading Scientists Discovered the Secret of Sexual Attraction