Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Nev. Student Opens Fire, Kills Teacher And Himself


SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — A student at a Nevada middle school opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun on campus just before the starting bell Monday, wounding two 12-year-old boys and killing a math teacher who was trying to protect children from their classmate.


The unidentified shooter killed himself with the gun after a rampage that occurred in front of 20 to 30 horrified students who had just returned to school from a weeklong fall break. Authorities did not provide a motive for the shooting, and it's unknown where the student got the gun.


Teacher Michael Landsberry was being hailed for his actions during the shooting outside Sparks Middle School.


"In my estimation, he is a hero. ... We do know he was trying to intervene," Reno Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson said.


Both wounded students were listed in stable condition. One was shot in the shoulder, and the other was hit in the abdomen.


The violence erupted nearly a year after a gunman shocked the nation by opening fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., leaving 26 dead. The Dec. 14 shooting ignited debate over how best to protect the nation's schools and whether armed teachers should be part of that equation.


Landsberry, 45, was a military veteran and leaves behind a wife and two stepdaughters. Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said Landsberry served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada National Guard.


"He proudly served his country and was proudly defending the students at his school," Martini said.


On his school website, Landsberry posted a picture of a brown bear and took on a tough-love tone, telling students, "I have one classroom rule and it is very simple: 'Thou Shall Not Annoy Mr. L.'"


"The kids loved him," his sister-in-law Chanda Landsberry said.


She added his life could be summed up by his love of his family, his students and his country.


"To hear that he was trying to stop that is not surprising by any means," she said.


Police said 150 to 200 officers responded to the shooting, including some from as far as 60 miles away. Students from the middle school and neighboring elementary school were evacuated to the nearby high school, and classes were canceled. The middle school will remain closed for the week.


"As you can imagine, the best description is chaos," Robinson said. "It's too early to say whether he was targeting people or going on an indiscriminate shooting spree."


At the evacuation center, parents comforted their children.


"We came flying down here to get our kids," said Mike Fiorica, whose nephew attends the school. "You can imagine how parents are feeling. You don't know if your kid's OK."


The shooting happened on the school's campus and ended outside the school building, according to police.


"I was deeply saddened to learn of the horrific shooting at Sparks Middle School this morning," Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a statement extending his thoughts and prayers to those affected.


About 700 students in 7th and 8th grades are enrolled at the school, in a working class neighborhood.


"It's not supposed to happen here," Chanda Landsberry said. "We're just Sparks — little Sparks, Nevada. It's unreal."


The mayor praised the quick response from law officers who arrived at the scene within three minutes of a flood of 911 calls to find the gunman already dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.


"They got it under control very quickly and shut down the scene," Martini said.


A statement from Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed in the Connecticut shooting, appeared on the website of gun control advocacy group Sandy Hook Promise. "It's moments like this that demand that we unite as parents to find commonsense solutions that keep our children — all children — safe, and prevent these tragedies from happening again and again," the statement said.


The Washoe County School District held a session in the spring in light of the Newtown tragedy to educate parents on its safety measures. The district has its own 38-officer police department. No officers were on campus at the time of the shooting.


Sparks, a city of roughly 90,000 that sprung out of the railway industry, is just east of Reno.


"You see it on TV all the time. You just don't think it's going to happen to you," Martini said.


__


Associated Press writer Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.


Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=239112906&ft=1&f=
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Monday, October 21, 2013

6 Horrifying Parasites That Will Gross You Out

Need an easy way to gross yourself out? Watch this video that describes six different parasites by Asap Science. You have worms that create a nest around your butt hole, parasites that take over the tongue of a fish, ants that can become zombies and a whole lotta other scariness. What's least comforting is how unavoidable it all seems. The littlest things can eventually be the most damaging. [AsapSCIENCE]

Read more...


    






Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/8WfIu5DQLPY/6-horrifying-parasites-that-will-gross-you-out-1449716616
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First look: Microsoft Remote Desktop apps for iOS and Android



After what seemed like an absurd amount of time, Microsoft has released the first official Remote Desktop client for iOS and Android. Until now, people had to make do with a patchwork of third-party programs -- some good, some bad, and some abysmal. (I know -- I've tried.) Microsoft's official solution is not quite as ingenious or convenient to work with as I'd hoped it would be, but it gets the job done. (No version for Windows Phone has been released yet, but Microsoft has stated it is working on one to be released later.)


Remote Desktop works a lot like its Windows counterpart: It connects to any Windows PC that can support a Remote Desktop connection and is accessible through a network. Once connected, you're presented with the remote computer's screen and can pass mouse gestures and key commands. To use the mouse, swipe with a finger and tap to click, and long-press to simulate a right-click. For typing, the program provides you with the native onscreen keyboard in iOS or Android, albeit with additions for sending special keys. Attached Bluetooth keyboards, such as on my iPad Mini, also work.


Because your local device and the remote desktop are likely to be at different resolutions, Remote Desktop tries to set the remote system to use the display resolution of the local device. For a device like the iPad or an Android tablet, with its relatively large screen, this isn't a bad idea. But for a phone -- such as my HTC One, which sports a 1,080-line HD display -- this can result in serious eyestrain.


To help offset this, Remote Desktop has a zoom function. Tap an icon at the top of the screen and you get a zoomed-in view of a portion of the remote screen. To scroll around, tap on a four-way arrow icon near the middle of the screen and drag in the direction you want to move the viewport to. It's somewhat clumsy on a smaller screen, as a lot of dragging is required to get around.


What's really inexplicable is the way neither client version supports pinch-zoom as a workaround. Time and again I caught myself trying to pinch-zoom both in and out of a remote view, but no dice. Maybe Microsoft can add this as an option in a future version?


Microsoft claims "high quality video and sound streaming with improved compression and bandwidth usage" for the app. My experiences weren't quite so rosy. Audio streamed from the remote machine came through OK, but playing back 1,080p video was too laggy to be useful, even on a local LAN. I suspect the results may vary widely depending on the hardware you're using.


The iOS and Android versions that I tested vary slightly. On Android, there's a graphics acceleration option (you can choose "hardware" or "software") that I didn't see in the iOS edition. But both have gateway and certificate management options, and the behavior of the two is similar enough that a user of one could jump to the other without issues.


Important to remember: Remote Desktop doesn't do anything except connect directly to other machines. It's not a front end for a service like LogMeIn, which allows machines behind firewalls to be reached from any other client. But if you are already using the desktop version of Remote Desktop and have been itching for a proper mobile version from Microsoft, here it is. Just don't expect it to be anything more.


This article, "First Look: Microsoft Remote Desktop apps for iOS and Android," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.


Read more about virtualization in InfoWorld's Virtualization Channel.


Serdar Yegulalp is a senior writer at InfoWorld, focused on the InfoWorld Tech Watch news analysis blog and periodic Test Center reviews. Before joining InfoWorld, has written for the original Windows Magazine, Information Week, the briefly resurrected Byte, and a slew of other publications. When he’s not covering IT, he’s writing SF and fantasy published under his own personal imprint, Genji Press. Follow him on Twitter at @syegulalp and Google+.


Source: http://podcasts.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/first-look-microsoft-remote-desktop-apps-ios-and-android-229146?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_
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Remastered Sonic 2 for Android among SEGA winter line-up

SEGA

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed also coming to Android this winter

Veteran games publisher SEGA has announced its winter line-up of mobile titles, which includes a remastered version of fan-favorite Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Android. Like the original Sonic and Sonic CD, the remastered Sonic 2 will feature upgraded audio and visuals, and 60fps gameplay. Release is scheduled for sometime in November.

Four other SEGA titles are coming to mobile this winter, though three — Demon Tribe, Go Dance and Rhythm Thief & The Paris Caper — will be skipping Android and heading to iOS only. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed brings transformable vehicles and four-player online and local multiplayer to the kart-racing series. The title will be heading to both Android and iOS, though there's no firm release window just yet.

Presser's after the break.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/A4h7rHC3bCw/story01.htm
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Imagining iPad 5 and iPad mini 2: iSight and FaceTime cameras, storage

Analyzing rumors and speculation surrounding Apple's 5th generation iPad and 2nd generation iPad mini chipset and potential fingerprint identity sensor

Some of the bigger questions surrounding the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 involve things like the lighter design for the former, Retina display for the latter, and the potential for Touch ID for both, but what also remains to be seen is what will happen with the iSight and FaceTime HD cameras, tablet editions. While not as dismal as the original iPad camera, they've still lagged enormously behind the iPhone. Will this year be any different?

iSight that can actually see

Taking photos with an iPad has become something of an internet joke. But the truth is, for people for whom the iPad is their only device, the iPad really, truly is the best camera they have with them, and their only way to capture the moments that are precious to them. Sure, it can look a little funny to see someone with a 7.9-inch, never mind 9.7-inch camera out in the wild, but what's not so funny is them taking the photo only to have it not turn out due to the inferior optics on the iPad.

The current iPad 4 and iPad mini have the same 5 megapixel cameras as the current iPod touch, and similar ones to the 2010 iPhone 4. It's not terrible, but it's nowhere approaching modern. The iPhone 5s, meanwhile, has an 8 megapixel camera that's on its third generation and can go toe-to-toe with almost any other camera phone on the market. Ultra-modern.

It's hard to see Apple giving the iPad line the same camera as the iPhone 5s, but it's not hard seeing Apple giving the iPad line an 8 megapixel camera. Worst case, it's the dated but still decent iPhone 4s camera. Better case, it's the good iPhone 5 camera currently still found in the iPhone 5c. Either way, it'll be a substantial improvement over the 2012 iPad camera.

The iPad 5 is also almost certain to get the Apple A7 chipset, which comes with a remarkable image signal process (ISP) that, optics be damned, will produce much better photos all on its own. Whether the iPad mini gets the A7 as well, or moves up only incrementally to the Apple A6 is hard to say, but even the A6 ISP would be a good upgrade.

Either way, while people might still laugh at the idea of taking photos with the iPad, they won't be laughing at how well the iSight photos turn out any more.

FaceTime HD-er

Not only did the iPhone 5s get an updated FaceTime HD camera - one that kept the same 720p resolution but added a back illuminated sensor (BSI) and larger pixel size - the iPhone 5c got it as well. It was one of only two internal updates the iPhone 5c enjoyed this year. (The other had to so with LTE radios.)

That makes it seem highly likely that both the new iPad 5 and new iPad mini 2 will get the same treatment, and be able to better capture selfies and FaceTime video calls in low-light conditions.

Because everyone needs a little FaceTime after dark, right?

128GB for one, or everyone?

Taking bigger pictures and better video means needing lots of space to either store them, or stage them until you can move them to the cloud or Mac or Windows PC. What's more, on devices like iPads, they're even more likely to be competing for that space against large games, documents, and video files.

While the iPad 4 first shipped with a maximum of 64 gigabytes (GB) of storage, last spring Apple added a 128GB option. Once you make something like that available, it's really hard to roll it back. So, an iPad 5 with 128GB of storage makes a lot of sense.

The iPad mini isn't as easy to predict. It's a tablet, like the full-sized iPad, but focused more on portability than power. It didn't get a 128GB option earlier this year - nor did the iPhone 5s last month - and Apple might be content to leave it topping out at a more affordable 64GB.

That would be one more differentiator between 7.9-inch and 9.7-inch tablets that increasingly have less differentiation other than that between them.

More to come

iMore will be providing complete coverage of Apple's October 22 iPad and Mac event, including and especially the iPad 5 and iPad mini 5.

iPad mini

iPad mini (2nd gen)
Apple's most popular tablet goes next-generation. Rumored features include:

Complete preview >

Anticipated
October, 2013

Current
iPad mini, iPad 4

Replacement
iPad mini 3
Fall, 2014

Resources
Buyers guide
Rumors forum

iPad 5

iPad (5th gen)
Apple's full-sized tablet gets slimmed down. Rumored features include:

Complete preview >

Anticipated
October, 2013

Current
iPad mini, iPad 4

Replacement
iPad 6
Fall, 2014

Resources
Buyers guide
Rumors forum


    






Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/sngADR1Qflg/story01.htm
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Ill and long isolated, Iranian opposition leaders scent freedom


By Marcus George


DUBAI (Reuters) - Four months after President Hassan Rouhani's election, Iran is reviewing the house arrest of two opposition leaders, but conservatives may fear the consequences of freeing men who remain heroes to many Iranians.


Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, candidates who led the "Green Movement" that disputed the 2009 re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have never been charged with any crime. Yet both men, former top officials now in their 70s and in ill health, have been held under tight surveillance since early 2011.


But now, as Iran seems keen to heal old conflicts both at home and with the West, their living conditions have been eased and their case referred to a powerful state security council.


To some, this shows Iran's most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wants to resolve the issue - although so far the council has had no contact with either opposition leader or their families.


Under Ahmadinejad's hardline presidency, they were denounced as "seditionists" and accused of helping Iran's enemies to undermine the Islamic theocracy. Doors and windows of the house where Mousavi is held were welded shut, and both were allowed little contact with their families.


But since Rouhani's election, they now enjoy weekly visits from their families. Relations with security guards have softened and access to specialist medical treatment improved.


"The political situation has completely changed since Mr Rouhani came to power and in some aspects the confinement of my father is absolutely better than before," said one of Karoubi's sons, Mohammad Taghi who lives in Britain. "But this confinement according to Iranian law is completely illegal. No doubt about it."


Under Rouhani the atmosphere is very different both in Iran's troubled relations with the outside world and at home.


Tehran has hinted at a possible readiness to scale back nuclear work - which it says is peaceful but the West fears is aimed at developing weapons - in exchange for relief from trade and financial sanctions which are crippling the Iranian economy.


NO GUARANTEE OF RELEASE


In Iran, dozens of political prisoners have been pardoned and Rouhani seems intent on reversing the social and political restrictions imposed during Ahmadinejad's two terms in office.


But the case of a Mousavi, who was prime minister for much of the 1980s, and Karoubi, a former speaker of parliament, is complex. Four years ago, huge crowds protested against an Ahmadinejad victory which they believed was rigged.


Security forces put down the movement and in 2011 the two opposition leaders lost their freedom after calling for a rally in support of protests that were sweeping the Arab world.


Earlier this month, Minister of Justice Mostafa Pour Mohammadi announced their cases were being re-examined by the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).


This body, which is responsible for setting defense and security policy, has undergone a reshuffle reflecting the changed times in Tehran.


Both men's health problems will worry the clerical leadership, as any significant deterioration while they remain detained would arouse fury among their supporters. Nevertheless, this does not guarantee their release.


"The authorities simply don't know what the reaction would be. Mousavi and Karoubi are lionized figures and their hero status will go through the roof. The right-wing camp still has serious misgivings," said Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, an Iran expert at Britain's University of Manchester.


Security agencies are likely to fear their release would provoke huge rallies in their support and disrupt Iran's new political chapter under Rouhani. Above all, supreme leader Khamenei is almost certainly intent on ensuring there is no repeat of the unrest in 2009 that eroded his authority and threatened the very existence of the Islamic Republic.


IMPROVED CONDITIONS


Mehdi Karoubi, 76, is being held in a house in northern Tehran. He is now visited by his wife Fatemeh, two of his children and his grandchildren every Wednesday for several hours. During the visits, just one security guard is present in the room and the family can talk in relative privacy.


Before the election families of both men went for months without any contact. "We were so worried. No one knew what was going on," Mohammad Taghi Karoubi said. During some visits up to eight guards were present and family members were not allowed any private contact. Any breach of the rules was punished by further visits being postponed.


Karoubi keeps himself busy reading books his wife is allowed to bring and two newspapers he is given. He also spends time writing his diary.


He has suffered serious back pain for the last two months and has trouble walking. After making a request, a doctor chosen by the family was allowed to treat him at the house. "It's a change. It took four to five weeks but at the end of the day, they let the doctor come," said Mohammad Taghi.


In late July Karoubi senior was admitted to Tehran Heart Centre where he was treated for a blocked coronary artery.


Early that month, 71-year-old Mousavi was also taken to the same hospital twice in 24 hours suffering from rapidly fluctuating blood pressure.


Security guards escorted Mousavi, who suffered heart problems in mid 2012, to the hospital with his wife Zahra Rahnavard but refused to let him be formally admitted.


Mousavi suffers from stomach, heart and leg problems. His health and well being is "at the mercy of security forces", Ardeshir Amir Arjomand an adviser to Mousavi, said from France.


"There is a certain amount of medical treatment but the family is still very concerned because the situation requires regular treatment in a calm atmosphere, without stress and by a doctor which the family trusts," said Arjomand.


Mousavi and his wife now also have weekly visits from their daughters. "These are positive signs. We have new hope for the future," said Arjomand, referring to the referral of the case to the SNSC. "But there has been no judiciary procedure and their confinement amounts to an illegal imprisonment."


A POLITICAL CHALLENGE


The SNSC comes under the presidency, giving Rouhani some influence over any decision on the two men's fate. Saeed Jalili, a hardline war veteran, was removed as its secretary in the reshuffle which installed several of Rouhani's most important cabinet members.


"The Council's new head, Ali Shamkhani, is someone who has a track record of going against the tide and being a frank and rational security official. It's a very different outlook to the Jalili period," said Randjbar-Daemi at Manchester university.


However, Khamenei also appoints a number of important SNSC members, including the chiefs of the armed forces and Revolutionary Guards. These men are likely to avoid any decision to release if they fear this would lead to mass rallies. In any case, Khamenei must approve any decision the SNSC makes.


The two opposition leaders' isolation has now lasted for more than 950 days and it appears that neither will promise to remain silent in return for their liberty.


"Such a condition is totally and utterly unacceptable," said Mohammad Taghi Karoubi. "During the last family visit, my father made it clear. He said, 'If I am a free man I will use all my rights as a free man. I will talk to my people, express my thanks and talk about the issues that people expect politicians to talk about. This is my job'."


(editing by David Stamp)



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ill-long-isolated-iranian-opposition-leaders-scent-freedom-122811716.html
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Logging In to the Brain's Social Network


Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.


JOHN DANKOSKY, HOST:


This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm John Dankosky. Every day, maybe more times than you want to admit, you probably log onto Facebook, post an article you think your friends might find interesting or maybe you like someone's status. Maybe you notice a sick co-workers and ask how they're feeling. Our days are filled with these small social interactions. But have you ever stopped to think about how your brain is responding during these experiences?


There's a center in our brain for understanding what other people are feeling and why exactly their minds evolve this way. In his new book "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect," neuroscientist Matthew Lieberman looks at how our brains are geared to solve one of the most complicated puzzles, human interaction. Matthew Lieberman joins us now. He's director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory and professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Welcome.


MATTHEW LIEBERMAN: It's a pleasure to be with you, John.


DANKOSKY: Now, if you have a question for Matthew Lieberman, you can join us at 1-800-989-8255, that's 1-800-989-TALK. You can also Tweet us @scifri. So you study social cognitive neuroscience, how our brains think socially. What exactly does all that mean?


LIEBERMAN: Well, you can't really go very far in life at all if you're not able to interact well with those around you. You can't really built a rocket ship or a radio station or really anything at all. And so our species has evolved to really master this feat of bringing us together and being able to work well together in teams. And we need mental machinery to be able to allow us to do this sort of thing. And that's what I and all the folks in my field tend to study in one form or another.


DANKOSKY: You write that mammals evolved a need for social connection. Can you explain how this worked evolutionarily?


LIEBERMAN: Sure. So mammals tend to have oversized brains compared to their bodies. And this creates a very difficult problem, which is getting that brain out of the birth canal. And the way evolution has solved that is by having a smaller brain come out of the birth canal and then continue to grow once it's out. The benefit of that is that you can then have that brain fine tuned by the culture or environment it is finished being built in. The downside of that is that all mammalian infants are incapable of taking care of themselves.


So we tend to think of people as needing food, water and shelter in order to survive. But if you're a mammalian infant, what you really need to survive is a caregiver who has an urge to connect with you so strong that when they hear you cry and smell the smells that come from babies, they actually go towards you instead of away from you.


DANKOSKY: So mammals can't really take care of themselves as they're growing up so they learn to rely on others. Now, this big human brain that we have, one of the things that we think about is we've got this big brain in order to help us with abstract reasoning. It's what sets us apart from the other animals. But you suggest that one of the things that our big brain does is help us to develop these social cognitive skills.


LIEBERMAN: Yeah, so the sort of long standing intuition is that our brain got larger over evolution to allow us to do very complex analytical things like math and calculus. And that's certainly consistent with data, but there's a really elegant theory from Robin Dunbar in England suggesting that the best predictor of why our brains are bigger than other primates' brains is actually it's letting us be able to connect and group with larger and larger numbers of other humans. And we seem to be much better at this than any other species, living in larger groups.


And living in larger groups means understanding the dynamics of the different people in the group. And that actually is why gossip turns out to be a really important function. It's how we communicate about our relative status with others in the group.


DANKOSKY: We're going to get some of your questions in a moment at 1-800-989-8255 or 1-800-989-TALK. One of the things that's most fascinating in your book is how you write about pain. And obviously we all know about physical pain but there's social pain, rejection, or when someone dies you feel pain. And we talk about it in those terms.


But one of the things that you've studied is that this pain is not just, as we say, in our head. It's real. We feel it. Maybe you can talk about some of this work you've done with social pain and how we actually feel it as humans.


LIEBERMAN: Sure. When we hear about someone saying that they're feeling social pain, the pain that comes from loss, death, rejection, things like that, we tend to think of the word pain as being used metaphorically. And about a dozen years ago, Naomi Eisenberger and I decided to look into whether or not it was more than just a metaphor.


And so we had people play this little ball tossing game on the computer while they were laying in an MRI scanner. And you think you're playing with two other people who are also in scanners. And then at a certain point in the game we actually arrange it so that the other two players stop throwing you the ball. And so you get left out of the game for the remainder of the game. You're just sitting there waiting for the ball to come back to you.


And when we looked at the brains of these individuals who had just been rejected, we saw two fascinating things. The first thing we saw was that the same brain regions that registered the distress of physical pain were also more active when people were left out of the game compared to when they were included. And then the second thing we saw was that the people who told us they were more bothered by being left out of the game were the people who activated these brain regions the most intensely.


And then I think the finding that tends to really grab people after they hear these initial findings is much later work that shows that if you take Tylenol, it can actually make these effects go away.


DANKOSKY: My goodness. But - okay. These are people that don't know each other. This isn't like losing your girlfriend here. This is just a stupid ball-tossing game.


LIEBERMAN: No, that's right, it is. And I think that speaks to sort of how fundamentally it's wired into our operating system that even something as trivial as two strangers or two people you've only met for a few moments can produce this effect. Other work has actually looked at people thinking back on being romantically rejected and they see similar findings there as well.


DANKOSKY: Brian's on the line from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hi, Brian. Go ahead.


BRIAN: Good afternoon. Speaking of social pain, when somebody tells me a story of someone they know that has had a fall, like a trip or something, I almost immediately feel a cramp or like being punched in my gut. Why is that?


LIEBERMAN: Yeah, well, we're built to be an empathic species. And humans aren't the only species that feel empathy. But I think pain is actually a very strong example, at least physical pain, where when we see someone else in pain we actually show responses in the same body parts. You'll see changes in the electrical activity in the same body part in the person watching someone in pain as the person in. And I think this speaks to us being built to be deeply socially interdependent.


The fact that when we see someone in pain it motivates us to help them, makes us very different than the sort of selfish and self-interested creatures that I think we sometimes believe we are. But I think that's a mistaken belief about ourselves.


DANKOSKY: Before we move away from this idea of pain, I guess one question I'd have is, social pain - I guess I'm not sure what really it does for us. I mean, if we have physical pain, it might tell us to stay out of trouble. You know, you put a hand on a hot stove, you don't put it back there again. What exactly does social pain do for us as humans?


LIEBERMAN: I think it does the same thing that physical pain does. So, physical pain does two things for us. It turns our attention to the thing that's going on right now. So if your hand is touching a hot stove, it gets you to remove your hand very quickly from that hot stove. And then it teaches you a lesson. Don't put your hand there again. And I think when it comes to social pain, it does these two things and probably one more.


So it reorients our attention and says, okay, if I'm being rejected from a group, how do I need to change my behavior or what I say or think in order to not be excluded or rejected from that group? It teaches me lessons about how to behave differently in the future. And because we can imagine the future, we can also use that preemptively. We can feel social pain at the threat of being excluded from a relationship or a group.


And so I think we often use that to manage our behavior prospectively before the bad events happen. The fear of that rejection can drive us to behave in more group-friendly ways.


DANKOSKY: We're talking with Matthew Lieberman. His new book is called "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect." Mackenzie's on the line in St. Louis. Hi, Mackenzie.


MACKENZIE: Hi, how are you?


DANKOSKY: Doing well. What's on your mind?


MACKENZIE: I was wondering how, like young children, how they're playing more on electronic devices. How is that impacting them with understanding emotions, like physical pain, those sorts of things, especially like really little kids around, like, two who are maybe living more experience with like tactile sort of sensory experiences because of things such as iPads.


LIEBERMAN: Yeah, you know, I think with any technology, going back to the ancient Greeks and the development of writing, there has always been a fear of us lowing a part of ourselves and that the next generation isn't going to sort of be as good as we are. And I think the reality is more complicated. I think future generations always become different as they adapt to the technologies and opportunities they have. I think that technology, if you spend too much time away from social interaction, I think that can impair your social skills.


But I'm not sure what this will really shake out to be. I think that Facebook and Twitter and so-on have given us a new arsenal of ways to connect. And I'm not suggesting that they fully replace the other kinds, but they are different kinds that we really never had in the history of mankind. And I think it will be fascinating to see how those folks who are kids - I have a six-year-old. How will he look back and evaluate what has been good or bad about the life he has led as a result of this constant access to digital technology and all the screens that we tend to be in front of?


DANKOSKY: Over a longer period living in front of these screens with a different sort of social interaction, do you expect that it would change us biologically if our brains have evolved this way so far to interact face to face? Over time, do you think that that changes us?


LIEBERMAN: You know, I think we're always going to be brought back to things that are fundamental needs. You can't away from things like the urge to eat and to be warm or cold, or whatever it is. And I think that when it comes to social connection, I think we have basic biological needs that are wired into us because of the purposes they serve. And so the question will be: Are those needs being served?


And if they aren't being served, I think people will disengage and say, you know, I need to create more space in my life for a different kind of social connection that my old fogey parents and grandparents keep telling me that I need, even though I, you know, ignored them for the last 20 years. Or, maybe they'll say: You know what? This really satisfies me in a way I wouldn't have guessed, and they'll look back and say they just didn't get it.


And I think we won't know until we get there. But I suspect it won't necessarily change us at an evolutionary level, because I'm not sure that these are the kinds of things that would really change who's going to be successful at reproducing or not.


DANKOSKY: You studied grief, as well, and that it can actually trigger our reward system, which sounds a bit counterintuitive. What did you find about this?


LIEBERMAN: Yeah. I just had a minor role in a study that was published a number of years ago, and the strange thing is if you look at the folks who are experiencing normal grief, you'll see activity in the pain distress regions of the brain. But if you look at folks who are experiencing chronic grief, where they don't seem to recover - my grandmother, I think, went through this when my grandfather passed away.


She spent 15 years really in a true grief state, for the rest of her life. When you look at these individuals, in addition to that social pain response in the brain, you will also see a reward response that's also being activated, a little bit like someone who would, say, like to quit drugs, but still finds those things rewarding because there is an addiction to those things that are bad for us.


And so I think that that was what differentiated folks who couldn't recover, is that there was still something rewarding about staying attached to this memory in a way that other folks seem to - little by little, seem to let go of their tight clinch on.


DANKOSKY: Interesting. You mean hanging on to these even painful memories.


LIEBERMAN: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I think that - you know, we do all sorts of things that are good and bad for us at the same time, where we're trading off a temporary positive thing for something that, in the long-term, might be better if we chose a different course of action. I think that's a human duality that plays out through lots of decisions and behaviors we engage in.


DANKOSKY: I'm John Dankosky, and this is SCIENCE FRIDAY, from NPR. Let's go to Megan, who's calling from Ames, Iowa. Hi, Megan. Go ahead. You're on SCIENCE FRIDAY.


MEGAN: Hi. Afternoon. I had a question about empathy, since that was topic. Everyone knows a sensitive soul. Is there a biological basis for people who are better at empathizing than the rest of the population? Is that purely social, or is there a biological reason for that?


LIEBERMAN: Well, as a social neuroscientist, I guess I would never say something is purely social or biological. I think that almost everything biological is shaped by social factors, and social events are always rooted in our biology, as well as the environment we're in. But to speak to your question, there are certainly individual differences in empathic ability.


They are rooted in a number of different brain systems. So, empathy is kind of the perfect storm of different capacities we have as social creatures, coming together. It relates to an ability to kind of resonate with what we see going on with others, to hear stories about people being fired or winning a gold medal, and being able to then translate that into feelings of concern or celebration with those around us.


And then there's a very ancient part of the brain involved in caregiving, called the septal region of the brain. And that seems to translate these feelings into an urge to actually help assist or do something that aids the other person, and not so much focus on the consequences for ourselves. Empathy with someone on TV who's suffering that gets us to change the channel isn't very functional.


But when we empathize and it gets us to pick up the phone and make a donation or go volunteer, that's something that I think really is a magnificent part of what this orchestrated difference that our brain networks can do for us.


DANKOSKY: On the flip side, what can you tell us about people with conditions like autism, where empathy, the ability to connect with others, is limited in some way?


LIEBERMAN: Yeah. I mean, some say that autism is sort of the perfect storm of things not going right in the social brain. When I was looking into autism when I was writing my book - because I don't actually study autistic individuals myself - when I was looking into it, I was fascinated to find that autism, in many ways, seems to be perhaps the opposite of some of our intuitions about it.


We think of the autistic individual as sort of disengaged and really just preferring their own company and not really sensitive to the social world. But when you look even at one year old infants who are destined to become autistic, what you see is that they are coping with a social world that's too overwhelming for them, that some of their social emotional machinery is actually too sensitive. They're too sensitive to the social world.


And so what these autistic individuals or future autistic individuals are doing when they're one years old is what a lot of do when we're in the movie theater and the sound check comes on and it's too loud. We cover our ears, and we turn away. And these infants and then toddlers seem to be turning away from a lot of the social experiences that would train the social brain to become the social experts that we become by the time we're, you know, teenagers and young adults.


And one fascinating group that helps demonstrate this is individuals who are born deaf. So these individuals have no cognitive impairments, no brain impairments in most cases, and yet they show the same delay in being able to think socially, because when they're young, they're missing a lot of the sort of social lessons we get from seeing and hearing other people use social language and engage in social topics.


So it's not just that the autistic individual's brain is less interested in the social world. It seems to be something where they cope at a young age, and then this leads to a difference long-term. There's a beautiful quote from Jay Johnson, an autistic blogger, where he basically said: For me, looking at other people's faces, looking them in the eye is like putting my hand in a fire. It's just too intense. And I think that's a very different picture of autism than the one we usually have.


DANKOSKY: We're talking with Matthew Lieberman, whose book is "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect." We'll be right back after this short break.


(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)


DANKOSKY: This is SCIENCE FRIDAY, from NPR.


(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)


DANKOSKY: This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm John Dankosky, and we're talking about how our brains interact with the social world. My guest is Matthew Lieberman, director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, professor of psychology at University of California, Los Angeles, and he's the author of a new book called "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect."


One of our listeners emailed us and asked: So how does all of this explain bullying in our culture?


LIEBERMAN: Oh. Well, bullying is a complex issue that has to do with status, and often the bullies themselves are, in a sense, acting preemptively, because they are worried about being rejected, as well. But, I mean, bullying in general is obviously an increasing issue for our children, especially now that it's cyber-bullying as well.


We see these tragic cases every few months now of a 12 or 13-year-old taking their own lives because they say that the pain of this experience is worse than anything they could imagine. Now, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, unless you take this idea of social pain being a real kind of pain seriously. But once you do, it makes sense, and there's data that suggests that this is also really directly going to affect academic achievement in the classroom, even though that's where the bullying is taking place.


DANKOSKY: Let's go to Alex who is calling from St. Mary's, Georgia. Hi, Alex. Go ahead.


ALEX: Oh, thanks for taking my call. I'm just wondering what the overriding position, I guess the predominant theory is on whether social mores and expectations are something like object permanence that we learn and stay with us in our minds for the rest of our lives, or something that's constantly changing and shifting through social situations.


LIEBERMAN: Oh. Well, I'm afraid the answer won't be very satisfactory, because I think the answer is it's a bit of both. I think that, you know, we are evolved over time to have morals that, you know, serve the group well and help us live successfully as groups and discourage certain kinds of bad behaviors.


But there are certainly norms that change from culture to culture. There are norms that change from different ideologies within a culture. So I'm sorry that's not a, you know, more precise answer.


DANKOSKY: One of the things you write about is this ability that we have to gauge what someone else is thinking. It's almost like mind reading. And you write about a mentalizing system. Maybe you can explain what you're talking about.


LIEBERMAN: Yeah, sure. So I sometimes describe this as one of our social superpowers. So, we have the ability - and we use it countless times each day, so often we probably don't recognize it - where we can sort of peer into the minds of those around us and imagine how they're currently responding to some situation, what their thoughts and feelings are, or what their response would be to some novel situation.


And we can use that to then interact more successfully with those people, to advance shared goals or try to do nice things for other people, because we can appreciate their point of view. Now, the thing that makes this system, I think, really interesting is that thinking about other people and their thoughts and feelings doesn't feel that different than other kinds of thinking, but it turns out that there's a different network in the brain for thinking socially and for thinking non-socially.


And these two networks are not only separate, but they tend to act a bit like a neural seesaw, so that when you see activity in one go up, the activity in the other tends to go down. And I think the last important thing to know about this is that our brains are wired such that whenever we finish doing some kind of analytic thinking, this network for social thinking almost immediately and spontaneously pops back up.


And that's a pretty big sort of decision for evolution to have made over time, that this is the single thing that our brain seems to get ready to do every time there's a break in the action. It gets ready to see the world socially, and that suggests that it really has a place of great importance in the success of our species.


DANKOSKY: You call it a default system, essentially.


LIEBERMAN: Yeah. That's what it's been called over time. It's both a default system, because it comes on by default, but it's also a kind of mind-reading system, because largely these regions are involved in reading the minds of others and trying to understand what's going on with them.


DANKOSKY: Before we run out of time, I have to ask about self-control and how it's used not necessarily just for individual good, but for the greater good, the social good that you write about.


LIEBERMAN: Yeah, sure. So, you know, most of the self-control that we engage in, it may or may not benefit us, but it almost always benefits society. In a classroom, the teacher is always happy when you engage in self-control. You might not be, but the teacher certainly will be. And I use the example of doctors. There was a recent poll suggesting that most doctors would choose a different career if they had it to do over.


Now, doctors go through an incredible amount of self-control to get to the point in their career where they are, from the tests they have to take, all the training they get. And they may not be very happy with the outcome of all of that, but we as a society are spectacularly happy that lots of people engage their self-control to become doctors and make the rest of us healthier. So self-control seems like something that is there to help us move our own agenda forward, but a lot of time self-control is really serving to move the group's agenda forward and serve the group. So it's a much more social factor than I think we usually consider.


DANKOSKY: What's the next big thing you're looking at?


LIEBERMAN: Well, I'm really interested in how these types of things play out in the real world. So we're doing a lot of work right now on education and how you could think differently about education and learning once you take into account what we know about the social brain. One of the things that we and other labs have found, is that if you give people social motivations to learn instead of the motivation to just take a test, they learn better.


And when they learn better, they do it using the social brain rather than the traditional brain regions involved in trying to memorize material. And because of that neural seesaw when we use that traditional analytical brain from memorizing, we're actually turning off the social brain that may have an especially good way of learning material.


And so we're looking at what happened when you have people, instead of learning for a test, they are learning the material in order to teach the material to someone else. And we think that learning in order to teach may actually be one of the secrets to improving learning for that teacher. And the sort of upshot of that is that if someone isn't doing well in a class, the goal should be to put them in the role of teaching.


Maybe teaching someone a few years younger who they'll feel autonomy and authority helping out this younger student, but they'll also engage the social brain which seems to be a really good system for getting new knowledge into our brains.


DANKOSKY: Matthew Lieberman is director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of this interesting new book "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect." Thanks so much for joining us.


LIEBERMAN: Oh, thanks for having me.


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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/18/237100760/logging-in-to-the-brains-social-network?ft=1&f=1032
Tags: Nothing Was The Same Leak   rosh hashanah   NSync  

Hitch a ride to Engadget Expand aboard Gogo's private jet

The team at Gogo is flying high lately both in the sky and on the ground thanks to its new hybrid GTO technology, which brings in-air download speeds up to 60 Mbps. To test the future of in-flight WiFi, Gogo uses the "Gogo One," a flying laboratory that comes outfitted with some pretty intense ...


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/YY85D6sxIdY/
Category: Lara Flynn Boyle   Eiza González   djokovic   diana nyad   Raz B  

Carol Burnett receives top US humor prize in DC

Carol Burnett is honored with the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)







Carol Burnett is honored with the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)







Carol Burnett arrives at 16th Annual Mark Twain Prize presented to Carol Burnett at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)







Tina Fey arrives at 16th Annual Mark Twain Prize presented to Carol Burnett at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)







Martin Short arrives at 16th Annual Mark Twain Prize presented to Carol Burnett at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)







Tony Bennett with wife Susan Crow arrive at 16th Annual Mark Twain Prize presented to Carol Burnett at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)







(AP) — Carol Burnett has been awarded the nation's top humor prize in Washington in a show featuring top performers including Julie Andrews, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts awarded Burnett the 16th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Burnett deadpanned that the award is very encouraging. She says it was a long time in coming, but she understands because there are so many people funnier than she is, especially in Washington.

Fey opened the show with accolades for Burnett and some jokes about the recent government shutdown.

She says she loves the trailblazing Burnett "in a way that is just shy of creepy."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-20-Humor%20Prize-Carol%20Burnett/id-24129ba461de4312a6f872934383e680
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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Taylor Momsen Has an Orgy, Holds a Snake While Naked in New Pretty Reckless Music Video


Little J, is that you? In case you've forgotten, former Gossip Girl star Taylor Momsen is a certified bad girl. The 20-year-old, who got her start playing Cindy Lou Who in the 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas, has embraced her dark side over the past few years as the front woman for goth rock band The Pretty Reckless. 


PHOTOS: The Gossip Girl cast, then and now


The group's latest music video for the song "Going to Hell" pushes the envelope -- and then some. In it, Momsen rocks an all-leather ensemble, that is, when she's not naked and covered by a snake, or having a giant orgy. The punk rock princess is never without her signature dark eyeliner and even has her way with a member of the clergy at one point. 



PHOTOS: Gossip Girl's biggest OMG moments


She may not have reached the legal drinking age yet, but Momsen is already considered a sex symbol by some. The controversial star stripped down to some black lingerie in the November issue of Maxim, and despite sporting a more subdued look at New York Fashion Week, she doesn't seem to be ditching the sexy goth glam image anytime soon. 


PHOTOS: Gossip Girl's best style moments


Despite exiting Gossip Girl in season 4, Momsen returned to the hit show for the series finale, which aired Dec. 17, 2012. 


Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/taylor-momsen-orgy-snake-while-naked-new-pretty-reckless-music-video-20132010
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Sorry, Kids. We Ate It All.



By Thomas Friedman, New York Times - October 15, 2013





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Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/15/sorry_kids_we_ate_it_all_317939.html
Related Topics: glee   miss america   pharrell   Edward Snowden   Chucho Benitez