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Beer Googles - Image 1 We're pretty sure you've heard of a hilarious beer goggle story - or is the main character in one. Don't be ashamed, we all get Shallow Hal vision every time we empty a bottle of beer.

How do beer goggles work? Say you enter a bar and drink a couple of alcoholic beverages and poof! everybody who looked less than attractive when you entered has turned a supermodel in your bleary eyes. Scientists found that alcohol doesn't just impair judgement, it also stimulates the nucleus accumbens, the part of the brain that decides facial attractiveness.

While under the influence, alcohol stimulates that part of the brain - all by itself. So everybody you see goes up a couple of notches up in your beauty meter. The results of a study done on students at St. Andrews University and Glasgow University showed that moderately tipsy people rated people's attractiveness 25% higher than the sober people.

Just how many beers do you have to drink to get beer goggles? In another study conducted at Manchester University in England in 2005, scientist came up with an equation that calculates the beer goggle effect.

the Beer Goggle equation - Image 1 


An is the number of servings of alcohol
S is the smokiness of the area on a scale of 0 - 10
L is the lighting level of the area, measured in candelas per square meter, in which 150 is normal room lightning
Vo is Snellen visual acuity, in which 6/6 is normal and 6/12 is the lower limit at which someone is able to drive
d is the distance between the observer and the observed, measured in meters

At β = 1, beauty perception is the same as while sober. At 100... Man, you're in trouble.



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The Mind Reader? - Image 1No, no, not THAT mind reader, silly! Ushering a possible "Minority Report" age to our lives, a brain-scan technique developed by neuroscientists now can help pattern a person's thoughts in their brain before they act. Something like thinking about someone and then hearing the phone ring a few seconds after...

How do they do it exactly? Well, it revolves around the principle that the brain generates certain thought patterns whenever it sends signals to the rest of the body or thinks. It is also believed that a thought is formed right before it becomes action, which is called intention.

Predicting, or reading, intention, is what functional magnetic imaging resonance does. Well, actually it is used to scan the brain for thought patterns in periods before the targeted thought occurs or while it is occurring. Coupled with software that spots subtle differences in brain activity, the method predicts a person's intention with a 70% accuracy.

So you can be sure 70% of the time, you know what your date is going to do (hurray?). While it isn't anything precognitive (precognition is knowing the future before it happens), it does make us think about the ethical ramifications of it's uses. No one likes a telepathic Big Brother...well, not yet.

Barbara Sahakian, a professor of neuro-psychology at Cambridge University, said that a neuroethics society was formed following the rapid advances in neuroscience. It was to monitor and single out the impact of each research being conducted in the field. She said:

Do we want...a 'Minority Report' society where we're preventing crimes that might not happen? A lot of neuroscientists in the field are very cautious and say we can't talk about reading individuals' minds, and right now that is very true, but we're moving ahead so rapidly, it's not going to be that long before we will be able to tell whether someone's making up a story, or whether someone intended to do a crime with a certain degree of certainty.


Professor Colin Blakemore, a neuroscientist and director of the Medical Research Council, said that people shouldn't go overboard about the power of these techniques at the moment, but what others can be absolutely sure of is that the developments will continue to roll out. By then they will have more ability to probe people's intentions, minds, background thoughts, hopes and emotions.

The method is now being looked into, so it can be made to discern between an actual intention and just a passing thought.



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Tenth International Ufology Conference - Image 1Recently, more than a thousand aficionados and experts gathered in Viña del Mar for the Tenth International Ufology Conference, organized by Chile's Ufology Investigation Group. The highlight of the meeting was the display of photos and videos allegedly taken by the members of Chile's Armed forces.

The military video and photos included a photo of a spherical metallic object captured flying over Antarctica and a video of Navy ships being pursued by a luminous object. Aside from that, Rodrigo Bravo, Captain of the army's Fifth Division also talked about his thesis entitled "Observations of unidentified aerial phenomena identified by the Civil Air Force."

Although the captain's words do not represent the Chilean Armed Force's position on UFOs, he had been given the authorization by his superiors to participate in the conference.

Also present in the conference is retired official Armando Valdés who is involved in one of Chile's first documented UFO abductions, known as the Valdés case. This happened on April 1977 when Armando and five members of an army patrol, saw two bright objects descending from the sky.

He checked it out by himself and according to his colleagues, he just vanished. 15 minutes later, he re-appeared and passed out. It was reported that the date on his watch had been advanced by five days and he had about a week's growth of beard. His colleagues also mentioned that when Valdés regained consciousness, he uttered these words: "You do not know who we are, nor where we come from. But I tell you that we will soon return."

Fact or pure fiction? Your guesses are as good as ours.

Tenth International Ufology Conference photos - Image 1 photo 3 - Image 1





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Seeing red: love, death, and fertility

Posted Feb 09, 2007 at 05:17AM by Rio S. Listed in: Biology Tags: Texas
Stop - Image 1Red is the color of war, revolution, love, death (by way of blood), stop signs, coming of age (red flag), pride, shame (blushing), heat, extreme danger (danger color code), and many others.

February is upon us, and it only means one thing. Valentine's Day. The day of lovers, Hallmark cards, cheesy movies, and roses. The day when everywhere you turn you see the color red splashed on display windows via cut out cupids and hearts.

How do we see red? There are two forms of photosensitive cells: cones and rods. Rods are light sensitive and has something to do with night vision (dim light and dark conditions) but cannot detect color. Cones are piqued by high light intensities and different cones take to different wavelengths of light - thus we can see color.

For example, you spot a red stop sign. As light bounces off the sign, it absorbs the different wavelengths of light save for red. The red lightwaves bounces off straight to your eyes' retinas.

Studies show that our eyes are mostly attuned to the color red as evolution dictated it for fruit finding. In nature, red can mean danger (for something poisonous) and fertility (for the back ends of a certain species of primates).

Red has other effects on our daily life. In an study done on workers by the University of Texas, they found that poor workers did more poorly in red rooms than in a turquoise room. On the other hand, strong workers did just the opposite and did better in red rooms. White washed walls got both types of workers brokenhearted and depressed.



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No-brainers for waking up at 5 a.m.

Posted Feb 08, 2007 at 02:25PM by Tim Y. Listed in: Self Well-being, Mental Health
Yaaaawn - Image 1Admit it - not too many of us like the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn, unless our jobs demand it. However, for the guys who'd prefer to learn how to get up early sans the "under pain of a salary cut" clause stuck in their head during their morning bustle, we picked up some easy-to-follow pointers on how it can be done:

Relocate your alarm clock
The first (and easiest) thing you can do is move your alarm clock out of arm's length. One of the bigger reasons we tend to stay bed-bound is because we can just reach the said clock and turn it of with a good thwack. The author recommends placing the alarm somewhere that requires you to physically get off the bed, like say on a table far from your bed.

Don't use the snooze button
Better yet, get a clock with no snooze function.

Rotate the alarm tones
Using a specific alarm tone will eventually cause you to become used to it, hence making it more difficult to wake up. The solution for this problem is just a matter of habitually switching alarm tones to keep your mind on its toes. There are several alarm clocks out there with this feature, and the guys who use their cell phones as alarms should easily find a new tone to swap to per week.

Challenge yourself
Make it challenging to shut down the alarm clock. However you do it, make sure that your brain is stimulated enough that by the time you finish the task, you're already too warmed up to go back to bed. And on the note of incredibly annoying clocks...

Make it a habit
Like smoking, waking up early just gets easier if you do it regularly. Set a regular schedule on when you plan to wake up early, and stick to it.

Plan ahead
Plan something fun to do when you wake up. For some, it can mean a delicious breakfast (skip the toast), or an exhilirating  2-km jog (my personal fave). But then again, given this is a gaming site, that would mean something in the lines of an early morning raid in the Outlands...



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Gynecomastia: a man's nightmare

Posted Feb 08, 2007 at 04:40AM by Rio S. Listed in: Self Well-being Tags: UK
Gynecomastia - Image 1This is a delicate subject, especially for the guys. So for those guys out there, you might experience some discomfort while reading this post.

You still there? Courageous, huh? Anyway, this is about a condition that strikes men, usually starting during the pre-adolescent period - Gynecomastia. It is a condition striking men that enlarges - err... something that isn't really normally enlarged. Better known as man breasts, man boobs, or simply moobs, it's not really a serious medical condition but a great source of embarrassment.

This is commonly known as caused by obesity but according to medical studies, they found that gynecomastia is actually idiopathic (which means it has no clear cause). Records show that 4,000 men in the UK had their moobs cosmetically altered (read: removed). Gynaeplasty, the surgical removal of the iffy things has gone up to number three in the list of cosmetic surgeries undergone by men.

The procedure for the *cough* ample chested costs around GDP 4,000 (around US$ 7,900) and usually takes a day. So for those aiming for a (*clears throat*) flatter chest, should probably save up.



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Artist's impression of Ulysses (David Hardy/ESA) - Image 1Before Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott braved the harsh environment of the South Pole, it pretty much equated to one of those areas on old maps where the only description is, "Here Be Dragons."

A recent article from NASA reveals that the situation on the sun is much the same today. According to solar physicist Arik Posner of NASA headquarters, "The sun's south pole is uncharted territory." It can barely be seen from Earth, and most of NASA's sun-studying aircraft have a poor view of it. Except for Ulysses, that is, and today the spacecraft is making a rare South Pole flyby.

"On February 7th, the spacecraft reaches a maximum heliographic latitude of 80oS—almost directly above the South Pole," says Posner who is the Ulysses Program Scientist for NASA. The spacecraft, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency, has flown briefly over the sun's poles only twice before--in 1994-95 and 2000-01.

Ulysses's south pole flyby will attempt to bring solar physicists closer to solving the following mysteries:
  • The sun's north magnetic north pole sticks out the south end of the sun. Magnetically, the sun is upside down. The Earth actually has the same situation. On the sun, the flipping happens every 11 years on the sun in synch with the sunspot cycle. On Earth, it happens every 300,000 years or so, but scientists have no idea yet what the flipping is in synch with. They that studying the sun's polar magnetic field will lead to a better understanding of the Earth's own magnetic field.
  • There are holes over the sun's poles--"coronal holes." These are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. "Flying over the sun's poles, you get slapped in the face by a hot, million mph stream of protons and electrons," says Posner. Ulysses is experiencing and studying this polar wind right now.
  • There is evidence from earlier flybys that the north pole and the south pole of the sun have different temperatures. "We're not sure why this should be," says Posner, "and we're anxious to learn if it is still the case." Ulysses will also be flying over the sun's north pole in early 2008 for a direct comparison of the sun's two poles.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate dedicates its efforts during the Ulysses' South Pole flyby to Ronald Amundsen, Robert F. Scott and Richard E. Byrd - brave explorers who dared to defy nature and the elements and learn more about the South Pole. Much like Scott, whose entire team - including him - never made it home again after reaching the South Pole, Ulysses will never come home either. It will remain in space when its internal power sources fail.



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infinite love - Image 1And this coming in just in time for the season of love. A dig at the northern city of Mantova in Italy have brought to surface the skeleton of what appears to be a couple hugging each other. Dig this. They've been measured to have been buried some 5,000 to 6, 000 years ago.

Wow. Now that surely gives "Til death do us part" a whole new different twist to it, eh? Says Elena Menotti, dig leader, "There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging -- and they really are hugging." The skeletons are believed to be that of a young man and woman's, whose age are suggested by their intact teeth.

They are now trying to determine the specific age of the couple at the time of death and for how long exactly have they been buried. "But I have never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special." Sniff. Sniff.



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Image from sevencastles.spaces.live.com - Image 1It's still sinking, but Shanghai's gradual descent into the sea is now at its slowest pace since 2000 thanks to massive engineering efforts to keep the city above water.

According to Reuters, the Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted the Shanghai Engineering Administrative Bureau on Tuesday as saying that the city sank only 7.5 millimeters (0.3 inches) last year. In 2005, the city sank 8.3 mm while in 2004, it sank 8.7 mm. Officials say however that more has to be done.

"Shanghai plans to control the yearly subsidence level to within seven millimeters by 2010," Liu Shouqi, of the city's land subsidence supervision department, was quoted as saying. Authorities have deployed sensors around the city to detect subsidence and cause water to be pumped underground to shore up the subsurface if necessary.

Reuters note that Shanghai, China's commercial and financial hub, is built on swamp land at the mouth of a powerful river, and lies a scant 4 meters (13 feet) above sea level on average. Its soft soil, massive development and overuse of underground water reservoirs have raised the threat of inundation.



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Hackers make bunny cry. - Image 1QJ may have seemed down all day, but we were hard at work churning out the latest (and not-so-latest) news this side of the afterlife. When Joecool mentioned something about DNS attacks, we were all on the alert.

As Joecool mentioned on our comments for the downtime:

Not to mention today (rather yesterday now that i'm saying this), there was a huge attack on 3 out of 13 of the root DNS servers that run the internet, the largest global internet attack since 2002.


A little digging confirms his story. Apparently, three of the world's 13 computers responsible for managing a lot of the world's internet traffic was assailed by hackers for around 12 hours, one of the biggest attacks on the net since 2002. As Yahoo mentions,


The attacks appeared to target UltraDNS, the company that operates servers managing traffic for Web sites ending in "org" and some other suffixes, experts said. Officials with NeuStar Inc., which owns UltraDNS, confirmed only that it had observed an unusual increase in traffic.


Among the targeted "root" servers that manage global Internet traffic were ones operated by the Defense Department and the Internet's primary oversight body.


Well folks, now you know. If anyone knows who hacked the net, send them a prompt email asking them to stop. You made many World of Warcraft players around the world (and a few million Korean Starcraft players) cry.



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