National Instruments Introduces miniSystems to Bolster STEM Education

Posted on May 9, 2012 by admin

ational Instruments is working hard to make STEM education more accessible to both students and teachers. Last year, National Instruments (NI) announced the release of LabVIEW for Education, an academic version of its widely popular and very customizable system design and development software. Also recently, NI overcame the hurdles of costs and accessibility to data acquisition by delivering myDAQ, an inexpensive, durable unit that allowed kids to work at home and freed up teachers to tackle more complex concepts in the classroom.

This year, the Austin-based company upped the ante for STEM education once again by introducing a number of hardware add-ons that allow students to have access to equipment at a low cost, allowing for education, experimentation, and innovation outside of the classroom. These miniaturized systems provide students the opportunity to explore everything from electrical grids to dynamometers to air foils and shaker tables. The miniSystems give students an experience that fits in the palms of their hands, rather than a theoretical idea from a textbook.

NI’s Brad Armstrong says, “Our inspiration was Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park where he brought in the best and brightest and gave them equipment and said ‘do what you want.’ That drove a lot of innovation and that’s what we’re trying to do with kids — not just limit learning to the classroom.

“The students can take [the miniSystems] home,” continues Armstrong. “It’s a legitimate miniature version of something they might work with in industry and the programming that they use with it, though not as complex, is very similar.”

So the next time a student asks “When will I ever use this?,” the answer can be, “Right now.”

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National Instruments Introduces miniSystems to Bolster STEM Education

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Study Finds Bad Guys Wear Black in Hockey, Too

Posted on April 27, 2012 by admin

The cultural archetype that bad guys wear black holds true for hockey, too.

A detailed analysis of stats from 25 seasons of the National Hockey League found players wearing black are penalized more frequently than those in lighter colors. No one’s sure why this happens, but the findings are robust enough to suggest the phenomenon is real, not the result of a few ruffians who happened to wear black.

“Although our findings suggest a color–aggression link, one question they cannot address directly is whether uniform colors affect aggression or perceptions of aggression — or both,” psychologists led by Gregory Webster of the University of Florida wrote in a study published in the May issue of Social Psychological & Personality Science.

The findings mirror those of a Cornell University study, published in 1988, that found NHL and NFL teams wearing black uniforms ranked near the top of their leagues in penalties. And for what it’s worth, the two teams with the most penalties in this year’s NHL playoffs are the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins wear black on the road, while the Flyers wear orange.

 

Webster’s research is rooted in a decades-old body of literature describing what psychologists call the “valence” of color: Even among infants ostensibly untainted by social custom, black shades are generally perceived more negatively than white. We apply the same habit to dark sports jerseys, which viewers associate with malevolence.

A logical question is whether jersey color might affect behavior, and hockey — a sport marked by aggression, frequent penalties and meticulous record-keeping — is an obvious subject of inquiry. But whereas earlier studies were methodologically limited, wrote Webster, the new study crunches data from 52,098 NHL games played between 1984 and 2010.

In that time, many teams adopted black as a primary color for their jerseys — and received more penalties, on average, after doing so. The league also changed its custom of having teams wear primary-color jerseys during home games, switching to white jerseys instead. And guess what? Teams were penalized less frequently while wearing white.

Over that quarter century, teams accumulated 969,690 penalty minutes. On average, teams racked up 1,528 minutes during seasons when they wore black and 1,386 when wearing other colors, according to NPR, a difference of 10 percent. Teams wearing black were penalized about two minutes more per game than teams in lighter colors.

“In professional hockey, uniform color is related to aggression,” Webster’s team wrote.

There are many theories why. Perhaps players wearing black subconsciously see themselves as more badass and play the role. Conversely, white jerseys might have a calming effect. Maybe referees are quicker to think players in dark jerseys behave badly, or perceive white-clad players to be extra-sportsmanlike.

“We believe both factors may contribute to our findings,” Webster said of whether actual aggression, or merely perceived aggression, led to more penalties.

For all the added aggression, it didn’t do much for the box score. According to the researchers, jersey color had no impact on goal-scoring.

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Study Finds Bad Guys Wear Black in Hockey, Too

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small cars with the worst gas mileage

Posted on April 26, 2012 by admin

Small cars are the bread and butter for car manufacturers in almost every market except the United States because they’re compact, fuel-efficient, easy to maneuver in congested cities, and typically more economical than larger models. While small cars are not as popular in the U.S. as they are in other countries, the segment as a whole has been on the rise in the U.S. due to soaring gas prices. If you’re a looking to buy a small car to achieve better fuel economy and save money at the pump, don’t just assume all small cars will feature similar fuel economy; sports-tuned models with turbocharged high-horsepower engines and manual transmissions tend to have much lower fuel economy than their non-sporty counterparts. In fact, as you will see, the difference in fuel economy between trim levels of the same model can vary greatly.

5. 2012 Volkswagen Golf R

MPG: 19 city/27 hwy/22 combined
MSRP: $33,990
Alternative Model: Golf 2.0L TDI 2dr
MPG: 30 city/42 hwy/33 combined
MSRP: $24,136

The 2012 Golf R is an enthusiast’s version of the Volkswagen Golf and Volkswagen GTI offering turbocharged power, precise handling, and 243 lb-ft of torquey fun via a 256-horsepower/2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine. The Golf R is the type of hatchback that racecar drivers would enjoy driving when they’re not circling the racetrack, and it offers a sophistication and formidable list of standard options. If you want higher fuel economy and a lower selling price, try the diesel-powered Golf TDI — although diesel fuel is pricey, so is premium gas, which is the fuel required for the Golf R. Diesels are known for their torque-driven power and their fuel economy, as well as their higher price tags. This one is still just under $10K less than the Golf R and it gets 42 mpg on the highway. Not too shabby.

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Betty White to Appear in Finale of The Client List

Posted on April 26, 2012 by admin

Betty White and Jennifer Love Hewitt are teaming up for what could be one very happy ending.

The former Golden Girls star is paying a visit to Hewitt’s racy Lifetime show, The Client List, about single mom Riley Parks, who works at The Rub of Sugar Land, a day spa in Texas that offers a little more than standard massage therapy.

In the show‘s season finale, Riley, played by Hewitt, will be left in charge of the spa when her boss goes on vacation.

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Betty White to Appear in Finale of The Client List

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U.S. Drones Can Now Kill Joe Schmoe Militants in Yemen

Posted on April 26, 2012 by admin

A Reaper drone returns from a mission in Afghanistan. Photo: USAF

In September, American-born militant Anwar al-Awlaki and his son were killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen. In the seven months since, the al-Qaida affiliate there has only grown in power, influence, and lethality. The American solution? Authorize more drone attacks — and not just against well-known extremists like Awlaki, but against faceless, nameless, low-level terrorists as well.

A relentless campaign of unmanned airstrikes has significantly weakened al-Qaida’s central leadership in Pakistan, American policymakers say. There, militants were chosen for robotic elimination based solely on their intelligence “signatures” — their behavior, as captured by wiretaps, overhead surveillance and local informants. A similar approach might not work in this case, however. “Every Yemeni is armed,” one unnamed U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal. “So how can they differentiate between suspected militants and armed Yemenis?”

What’s more, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — the Yemeni affiliate of the terror collective — “is joined at the hip” with an insurgency largely focused on toppling the local government, another official told the Washington Post last week. So there’s a very real risk of America being “perceived as taking sides in a civil war.”

 

The Yemeni drone campaign — actually, two separate efforts run by the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command — will still be more tightly restricted than the Pakistan drone war at its peak. Potential targets need to be seen or heard doing something that indicates that they are plotting against the West, or are high up in the militant hierarchy.

“You don’t necessarily need to know the guy’s name. You don’t have to have a 10-sheet dossier on him. But you have to know the activities this person has been engaged in,” a U.S. official tells the Journal.

Gregory Johnson, a Yemen specialist at Princeton University, believes these “signature” strikes — “or something an awful lot like them” — have actually been going on for a quite a while in Yemen. There have been 13 attacks in Yemen in 2012, according the Long War Journal. Many of them have hit lower-level militants, not top terror names. This authorization only makes targeting killings legally and bureaucratically kosher.

But the despite the increased pace of strikes — those 13 attacks are more than there were in all of 2011 — al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula isn’t exactly begging for mercy. In fact, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan last week called it the terror group’s “most active operational franchise.”

All of which leads Micah Zenko at the Council of Foreign Relations to wonder where this drone campaign is going. “By any common-sense definition, these vast targeted killings should be characterized as America’s Third War since 9/11,” he writes. “Unlike Iraq and Afghanistan — where government agencies acted according to articulated strategies, congressional hearings and press conferences provided some oversight, and timelines explicitly stated when the U.S. combat role would end—the Third War is Orwellian in its lack of cogent strategy, transparency, and end date.”

“Since these attacks are covert, the administration will offer no public defense,” he adds. But “it begs [CIA director David] Petraeus’ haunting question at the onset of the Iraq war in 2003: “Tell me how this ends?”

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George Clooney, Josh Hutcherson, Lindsay Lohan Invited to White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Posted on April 26, 2012 by admin

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, held each year to honor journalists, including those who cover Washington, will once again be crowded with celebrity guests this Saturday, as media organizations bring star power to their tables in the Washington Hilton ballroom.

PEOPLE will be hosting Josh Hutcherson; recent cover star William Levy; Diane Keaton; Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s daughter Katherine; and Sen. Olympia Snowe.

Among the other VIPs: Lindsay Lohan, George Clooney and Zooey Deschanel – having been invited by Fox News, Time and Bloomberg, respectively, Politico reports. Ms. Lohan will be guest of Fox’s Greta Van Susteren and accompanied by her lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley.

Other A-listers expected to attend include Charlize Theron, Sofia Vergara, Viola Davis, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dakota Fanning, Jason Schwartzman, Aziz Ansari, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. Kim Kardashian will again be a guest of Fox.

President Obama, of course, will be the singular man of honor.

The dinner usually features a comedian as emcee. This year, it’s Jimmy Kimmel. Speaking to Reuters, the ABC talk-show host admitted he was nervous to perform in front of the president, but said the political season has given him plenty of material.

“I will feast on stupid comments,” he said. “There seems to be a glut of dumb things being said.”

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George Clooney, Josh Hutcherson, Lindsay Lohan Invited to White House Correspondents’ Dinner

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Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter Project Hits $1.5MM Super-Goal

Posted on April 26, 2012 by admin

For many of us geeks, Shadowrun was one of the best pen-and-paper RPGs we played as kids. The mix of Lord of the Rings monsters and magic with a Blade Runner dystopian future was rife with amazing stories to tell and adventures to run. Which is why the recent Kickstarter campaignby one of its original creators to develop a new computer game based on the original RPG has caught so much attention.

Originally asking for $400,000, the team at Harebrained Schemes met that goal within the first two days after going live. Since then they’re revised their goals a couple times, offering bigger and better game features if backers carried them just a bit further. Wednesday night, 3 days before the close of the pledge period, Shadowrun Returns hit the revised $1.5MM goal, meaning the game will launch with two fully-realized cities in which to play and create runs, a soundtrack by the musicians behind the lauded scores from the Genesis and SNES Shadowrun games, a full level editor, a Mac client as well as a PC client, and an entire adventure exclusive to backers for a set time.

Now, all we have to do is be patient until next year…

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Chimpanzee(2012)- Production Details

Posted on April 24, 2012 by admin

A new True Life Adventure introducing an adorable baby chimp named Oscar and his entertaining approach to life in a remarkable story of family bonds and individual triumph. Oscar’s playful curiosity and zest for discovery showcase the intelligence and ingenuity of some of the most extraordinary personalities in the animal kingdom. Working together, Oscar’s chimpanzee family-including his mom and the group’s savvy leader – navigates the complex territory of the forest. The world is a playground for little Oscar and his fellow young chimps, who’d rather make mayhem than join their parents for an afternoon nap. But when Oscar’s family is confronted by a rival band of chimps, he is left to fend for himself until a surprising ally steps in and changes his life forever.

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Chimpanzee(2012)- Production Details

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Trojan Horse Defeats State-of-the-Art Security

Posted on April 24, 2012 by admin

1184 B.C.: During the Trojan War, the Greeks depart in ships, leaving behind a large wooden horse as a victory offering. It is hauled inside the walls of Troy, and Greek soldiers descend from the horse’s belly after dark to slay the guards and commence destruction of the city.

Whether this actually happened, and whether the traditional date given is true, archeological evidence has established that a Trojan War did occur in Asia Minor around 1200 B.C. You can debate how much of the accounts in Homer’s Iliad, Virgil’s Aeneid and elsewhere is legend. But it is in no way mere legend. The war and its lore are a firm part of Western culture and have enriched our language.

The war began when a prince of Troy eloped with the king of Sparta’s wife, Helen. Christopher Marlowe called her “the face that launch’d a thousand ships.” (Three millennia after the Trojan War, scientist and science-fiction author Isaac Asimov defined the milliHelen as the amount of feminine beauty sufficient to launch one ship. Generations of snickering male college students would rate women in various hundreds of milliHelens.)

Cassandra was a Trojan prophet who warned against accepting the gift. Today, her name means a person whose warnings are ignored. Another skeptic was Laocoon, who Virgil says first uttered, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”

Then, of course, there’s the name Trojan horse for software that seems to perform one action but actually performs another, usually with malicious intentions. So, what cybersecurity lessons might we learn today from the first Trojan Horse?

  • Persistence: The Greeks had besieged Troy for 10 years without result.
  • Epistemology: Things are not always what they seem to be.
  • Virgil, updated: Beware of strangers bearing gifts.
  • Social engineering: The horse flattered the Trojans, who loved horses and were delighted with the gift.
  • Engineering: The horse was on wheels, designed to make it easy for the Trojans to pull it inside their defenses.
  • Ignoring warning messages: Cassandra and Laocoon were both disregarded.
  • Delay: The Trojan Horse did not do its damage immediately, but waited for the opportune moment.
  • Size: It only took a handful of Greeks to unleash a lot of damage.
  • Negating security from inside: They killed the guards and opened the gates from within, rendering Troy’s strong walls useless. The Greek ships had come ashore again, and their army poured in.
  • Scope of damage: Troy was burnt and destroyed.
  • Permanent effects: Troy lost the war.

You, of course, could only lose your data, your hard drive, your thesis, your job, your money, your business, your identity or some awful combination of these.

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Harlem pastor: Killing of ex-Marine ‘racially charged’

Posted on April 24, 2012 by admin

NEW YORK – The Rev. Calvin O. Butts put his voice behind the family of slain White Plains resident Kenneth Chamberlain on Sunday, calling the killing “yet another racially charged murder of an African-American man.”

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Speaking in the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where he is pastor, the minister said Chamberlain, killed in his home by White Plains police, would not be forgotten.

“We will not let this go,” he said.

He mentioned Chamberlain several times throughout the 11 a.m. service, attended by about 1,000 people, including many visitors. About a dozen members of the Chamberlain family occupied three central pews.

Butts likened the death of Chamberlain, a 68-year-old former correction officer and Marine, to the cases of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black Florida teenager fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, and Ramarley Graham, a black Bronx teenager who was shot dead in his home by police.

After the service, Chamberlain family members and their lawyers continued to call for justice in the case at a news conference.

Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. said attention to the case is growing.

“Finally, it seems as if people are paying attention, and they’re saying, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” he said, stopping to struggle with tears. “My father is not here anymore. … I refuse to mourn him until there is some justice for my father. And when I say that, I mean indictments. Criminal indictments.”

The family and its lawyers have held community meetings to keep up the profile of the case. Chamberlain was slain Nov. 19 after an hour standoff with police. Officers had gone to his apartment when his medical alert device went off, apparently by accident.

Police Commissioner David Chong has said Chamberlain attacked officers with a hatchet and a knife and ignored orders to drop the weapons.

Randolph McLaughlin, a lawyer for the family, said Sunday that Chamberlain had his hands at his sides when he was killed and that he was “presenting a threat to no one.”

Chong did not return a call to his cellphone Sunday.

Some of the incident was recorded in an audio recording through a telephone connected to the life alert device and on video. Lawyers for the family said an officer can be heard on the audio cursing at Chamberlain and calling him a racial epithet.

McLaughlin said last week that city Police Officer Steven Hart shouted the racial slur at Chamberlain Sr. Hart is also named in a civil lawsuit alleging police brutality brought by a man who said he was slammed to the ground during an arrest more than a year ago.

Chong has confirmed that Officer Anthony Carelli fired the shots that killed Chamberlain. Carelli and other officers are defendants in another police brutality lawsuit in U.S. District Court in White Plains, which includes claims that he used racial slurs. Carelli has denied the allegations.

Also lending support to the family Sunday was actress Ruby Dee, a member of the church, whose son-in-law is a lawyer for the family.

McLaughlin said he believed a grand jury was expected to finish hearing testimony in the first week of May. He said if criminal charges do not come from the incident, he would call for an investigation of the entire White Plains police force.

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Harlem pastor: Killing of ex-Marine ‘racially charged’

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