Constantly taking photos stops brain from remembering moment... - dubbed 'photo-taking impairment effect' -

Constantly taking photos stops brain from remembering moment... - dubbed 'photo-taking impairment effect' - 



Taking a photo may seem like the most obvious way to remember a special occasion, but it could in fact be causing significant damage to your memory.
Researchers from Connecticut asked a group of students to recall what items in a museum looked like. 
Those who had taken photos of the artefacts struggled to describe the objects, while those who hadn’t, remembered them more clearly.

Dr Linda Henkel, from Fairfield University, who ran the study, calls this phenomenon ‘photo-taking impairment effect’. 
Dr Henkel is currently investigating whether the content of a photo, such as whether a person is in it, for example, affects memory.

Some cases, for example, have found people think they remember a certain event, such as a childhood party, but may be confusing actual memories with memories from a photograph.
To test this, Dr Henkel led a group of university students on a tour of an art museum in Connecticut.
Participants were asked to either photograph items as they walked around the museum, or told to remember certain objects. 
Participants were directed to take pictures of particular objects while ignoring others and the next day their memory was tested.
Following the tests, data showed people were less accurate in recognising the objects they had photographed compared to those they had only looked at. Furthermore, their memory of detail for the objects they had photographed was poorer.
If participants took a photo of each object as a whole, they remembered fewer objects and remembered fewer details about the objects, including their locations within the museum.


Read more: - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2520743/Want-remember-event-DONT-photos-Study-finds-using-camera-stops-brains-recalling-crucial-details.html

The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light -

The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light - 



The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light, a former official revealed to the Washington Post in an article published Friday.

According to the Washington Post’s account of what Marcus Thomas — former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico — said, “The FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years, and has used that technique mainly in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations.”

“Because of encryption and because targets are increasingly using mobile devices, law enforcement is realizing that more and more they’re going to have to be on the device — or in the cloud,” Thomas added, in reference to remote storage services. “There’s the realization out there that they’re going to have to use these types of tools more and more.”

TheBlaze has previously reported on hackers using remote access tools to activate an individual’s webcam and spy on them.

Read more - 

Woman Hospitalized After Being Glued To Toilet Seat at Home Depot -

Woman Hospitalized After Being Glued To Toilet Seat at Home Depot - 



According to an incident report filed at the Banks County Sheriff's Office, a woman found herself glued to a toilet seat after using the restroom at the Home Depot store in Banks Crossing last week.  Someone allegedly put glue on every toilet seat in the women's restroom. Unfortunately, the woman didn't realize this until she was already stuck. 
Emergency medical services personnel were called in to help remove the woman from the toilet.  She was then transported to a Gainesville hospital where she received treatment. 
The store manager found a brown paper sack in the restroom containing a bottle of Loctite GO2 glue, a product that not only boasts of durability, but also versatility. 

Read more - 

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/12/06/Woman-Hospitalized-After-Being-Glued-To-Toilet-Seat-at-Home-Depot

Runaway reindeer escapes from Santa at Colorado mall -

Runaway reindeer escapes from Santa at Colorado mall - 



A runaway reindeer broke free from Santa Claus at a Colorado mall Thursday while the Big Man was inside visiting with children.

KYSL in Summit County reports that the reindeer escape happened outside the La Riva Mall in Dillon.

While Santa was inside listening to children's Christmas wish lists, the reindeer jumped over its enclosure, leading police officers on a healthy jog through town.

The reindeer was located on the other side of a nearby reservoir. The Summit County sheriff's office brought in another reindeer to lure the runaway and get it back into a trailer.

Read more -

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/07/runaway-reindeer-escapes-from-santa-at-colorado-mall/?intcmp=latestnews

United States Federal Prison Population Grows 27% in Decade... -

United States Federal Prison Population Grows 27% in Decade... - 



The number of federal prison inmates has grown 27 percent in the last decade, according the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In a report examining the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) budget, the GAO found that prison population is rising:

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is responsible for the custody and care of over 219,000 federal inmates—a population that has grown by 27 percent over the past decade. BOP is composed of 119 institutions, 6 regional offices, 2 staff training centers, 22 residential reentry management offices (previously called community corrections offices), and a central office in Washington, D.C. With a fiscal year 2013 operating budget of about $6.5 billion—the second-largest budget within DOJ—BOP projects that its costs will increase as the federal prison population grows through 2018. […]

A variety of factors contribute to the size of BOP’s population. These include national crime levels, law enforcement policies, and federal sentencing laws, all of which are beyond BOP’s control.

A growing prison population has increased Justice Department spending on the federal prison system from just over $5 billion in fiscal year 2008 to nearly $7 billion today.

The current budget of $6.9 billion allots $2.5 billion for inmate programs, including $65.7 million for “psychology services,” $115.5 million for drug treatment, and $435 million for food services.

“According to BOP officials, BOP’s biggest challenges are managing the continually increasing federal inmate population while providing for inmates’ care and safety, as well as the safety of BOP staff and surrounding communities, within budgeted levels,” the GAO said.  “BOP officials project continuing inmate population growth and estimate increases in funding needs for the foreseeable future.”

Read more -
http://freebeacon.com/federal-prison-population-grows-27-percent-in-10-years/

Car And Student Loans Account For 95% Of All Consumer Credit Issued In Past Year -

Car And Student Loans Account For 95% Of All Consumer Credit Issued In Past Year - 



Today's consumer credit report did not tell us anything we didn't already know: in October, total consumer credit rose by $18.2 billion, the most since May 2013, with the usual massive historical revisions. However, of this $18.2 billion, $13.9 billion was non-revolving credit, while revolving (credit card) debt rose by $4.3 billion. Which means revolving credit is still a woefully low $856.8 billion, or well below the $1.02 trillion when Lehman failed, even as credit issued mostly by Uncle Sam to fund car purchases and liberal educations, has exploded.

Total monthly consumer credit broken down by revolving and non-revolving.



Finally, and most troubling, in the past year over 95% of all consumer credit has been used to purchase rapidly amortizing cars and even more rapidly amortizing college educations. 



Read more -

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-06/car-and-student-loans-account-95-all-consumer-credit-issued-past-year

Ikea's Spanish Servers Crash When 20,000 People Apply For 400 Jobs -

Ikea's Spanish Servers Crash When 20,000 People Apply For 400 Jobs - 



A few years back, we were stunned when we reported that as a result of McDonalds' first hiring day in 2011, the company retained the services of 62,000 very qualified line cooks and other minimum wage workers. What was stunning is that one million Americans applied for these jobs, or a 6.2% success rate, or just a fraction above the 5.8% admission rate at Harvard. Alas, as we speculated at the time, this was merely the first of many such indications of the historic mismatch between labor supply and demand, both domestically and globally. Sure enough, today we find an even more glaring example of just how unprecedented the New Normal demand for labor is in a world drowning with unemployment, courtesy of an NPR report according to which on Monday, Spain's Ikea's started taking applications for 400 jobs at a new megastore set to be opened near the Mediterranean coast town of Valencia.

As NPR says, "The company wasn't prepared for what came next. Within 48 hours, more than 20,000 people had applied online for those 400 jobs." An "acceptance rate" of 2%.

 It gets better, as Spain experienced its own mini Obamacare debacle: the sheer volume of applicants promptly "crashed Ikea's computer servers in Spain."

"We had an avalanche of applicants!" Ikea spokesman Rodrigo Sanchez told NPR in a phone interview. "With that quantity, our servers just didn't have the capacity. They collapsed. After 48 hours, we had to temporarily close the job application process. We're working on a solution, to reopen the as soon as possible."
And since the analogies to Obamacare never end, one has no idea how many additional applicants would have tried to get a job had the servers continued to run:

... that's factoring in only the applicants in the first 48 hours, who managed to apply online before Ikea's servers crashed. Once Ikea gets its servers back up and running, the job application window will still stay open until Dec. 31, allowing potentially tens of thousands more job seekers to file applications, Sanchez said.

"I feel lucky to have a job. Ikea is a great company. In this case we have 20,000 initial people who want to work with us," he said. "But we know we're in this situation at least in part because of the state of the Spanish economy."
Why the deluge of applicants? Simple: Spain's record high unemployment rate of 26.7% is the second highest in the eurozone, matched only by Greece's 27.3%. What's worse: Spain's youth unemployment is also a record high 57.4%: nearly two out of every three people under 25 have no job. But that's ok: according to the Spanish prime minister, Spain's economy is growing and the recovery is so bright everyone's ECB rehypothecated shades will be made available shortly (together with the latest batch of Spiderman towels).

In the meantime, it is three times more difficult to get a minimum wage job at Ikea in Spain than it is to get into Harvard.

Read more -

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-06/ikeas-spanish-servers-crash-when-20000-people-apply-400-jobs

Is Moore's Law coming to an end? - Intel explains rare stumble keeping pace with Moore’s Law -

Is Moore's Law coming to an end? - Intel explains rare stumble keeping pace with Moore’s Law - 



Intel executives have long showed slides that illustrate its progress in shrinking transistors on chips, featuring nearly identical fever lines as new generations of production technology are perfected. The chart William Holt produced at a recent analyst meeting didn’t look right.

Ordinarily, Intel slides show a smooth upward curve, indicating that a small number of defects on chips gradually decline to nearly zero–as happened when Intel’s current manufacturing recipe was refined. But the line Holt showed for the successor technology started with a much smaller yield of good chips, and actually got worse for several months before Intel engineers began to get defect problems under control.

Intel had said in mid-October that the new process would be delayed three months, a blemish on its steady two-year pace observing what the industry calls Moore’s Law. But the company did not then say why.

Holt, the executive vice president in charge of Intel’s manufacturing operations, for the first time laid the blame at yield problems. He added that such a hiccup is rare but not unprecedented at the company.

“It’s the first time in quite a number of generations,” said Holt. “It’s just getting really hard.”

Read more - 

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/12/06/intel-explains-rare-stumble-keeping-pace-with-moores-law/?intcmp=features

Olympic outsourcing - Team USA gets foreign-made uniforms - AGAIN -

Olympic outsourcing - Team USA gets foreign-made uniforms - AGAIN - 



The newly-unveiled uniforms for the U.S. Olympic snowboarding team are star-spangled and red, white and blue — but they're not made in America.

The hodgepodge design, which designer Burton Snowboards says was inspired by a vintage quilt, features the faded colors of Old Glory and stars on the shoulder, base-layer henleys, hats and gloves. But like Ralph Lauren, which designed U.S. Olympic gear for the 2012 games in London, Vermont-based Burton is now defending its decision to use a global set of vendors to complete the job ahead of the Sochi Games, which begin on Feb. 7.

“To achieve this level of performance and function, Burton turned to its best, long-standing and most trusted technical partners around the world to produce the uniforms, to ensure that our high technical and design standards were met,” Burton Snowboards said in materials obtained by FoxNews.com. “For example, the original quilt was sourced in the U.S. and brought back to Vermont to be deconstructed and reconstructed for jacket fabrication with Vermont-based designers.”

The quilt was then sent to Japan for final technical fabrication, company officials said.

“The fabric of the competition fleece was woven in Italy, and the technical and waterproof corduroy pant fabric was developed in Taiwan and sewn in Vietnam,” the statement continued. “Next, we turned to our longstanding, trusted vendors in China to produce several of the accessories.”

Read more - 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/06/olympic-outsourcing-team-usa-snowboarders-uniforms-foreign-made/

MICROSOFT developing 'smart bra' to combat emotional overeating... -

MICROSOFT developing 'smart bra' to combat emotional overeating... - 



Microsoft is working on a smart bra with sensors to monitor a wearer's mood and trigger a smartphone app to reduce emotional overeating, U.S. researchers said.

Alerts from the wearable technology would be constantly refined by user feedback, enabling the bra to improve its ability to read a specific person's feelings, InformationWeek reported Thursday.

Microsoft researchers worked with the University of Rochester and Britain's University of Southampton on the project, attempting to associate emotions with poor eating habits and to determine whether wearable devices can help reduce the resulting weight gains.

A wearable smart bra was chosen primarily because it allows sensors to be placed near the heart, the researchers said, but follow-up research is intended to yield more gender-neutral devices such as bracelets.

To establish a link between a person's emotional state and the likelihood they would overeat, participants in a study were asked to record their emotions and eating patterns with a smartphone app.

Those who reported they felt stressed, upset or bored were most likely to eat outside of regular meals, the researcher found.

Microsoft said the smart bra is part of its ongoing research into possible uses for wearable technology and it has no plans to make it into a commercial product.

Read more - 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/12/06/Smart-bra-with-sensors-part-of-research-into-overeating-triggers