Undead Astronauts

1. 90% of Asian schoolkids are nearsighted. That’s insane.

2. Some very original tutting to dubstep by two south Asians. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen hair tutting before.

3. Narrative science improves. While previously relegated to sports tickers, advances may broaden the horizon of computer written news.

4. In 10 years, will our brains be wired for browsing?

The military has picked up on the idea of using games to train top soldiers in keeping track of multiple moving objects. The system was already being used by top athletes to help them keep track of things moving on the playing field, and the military has picked up on it too. The game as it currently exists shows players 8 balls moving in 3D space and asks them to keep track of 4 of them while ignoring the others. There’s an evaluation session and further training is based on how well you tested in that session. The better players perform, the faster the balls move. There’s also a pvp mode and they plan to integrate physical conditioning into it too.

In addition to training, the military is going to use the game as a tool to see which soldiers need to work harder at brain training. I wonder if there’s a future where soldiers who have consistently poor performances will get cut from the program, just as if they had repeatedly failed physical tests. It would be interesting to see how progamers performed at the game. My guess is that SC2 players’ scores would be off the charts, but it’s also possible that top QB’s like Manning or Brady would naturally score well.

Imagine what could happen if this game became a widely available cognitive evaluation tool. Kids could get tested at a young age and adjust their sports/gaming expectations accordingly. As an athlete, if you’re terrible but physically fast, run track. If you’re decent and fast, play runningback. If you’re amazing and fast, you’re Cam Newton. If you’re a gamer and terrible, stick to Farmville or the Sims.

Phillippe Rushton, the always controversial race researcher, has a new study out with inflammatory implications. His study involved investigating the behavior of 40 different species of vertebrates to see if the amount of pigmentation in individual animals could be correlated to violent behavior and sexual activity. Apparently he found positive correlation between the two in animals and then compares the results to similar studies in humans.

Darker colored offspring placed with lighter colored adoptive parents and vice versa didn’t affect the behavior of the offspring. The range of animals included mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and fish. Domestication of a fox species for desirable behavior towards humans pulled lighter patches of coat color along with tameness. Similar results from the domestication of rats are mentioned.

The result of this study makes me wonder if there’s a deeper reason that some cultures, notably in various regions of Asia (but certainly not limited to those regions), use skin whitening products for women. Yes, Japan has had counterculture movements like ganguro girls, but they were always noted for their contrast to traditionally held notions of beauty.

Might there be an evolutionary reason to prefer lighter skin? Is there some inner unconscious bias towards less pigmentation because it’s presence indicates higher potential for violence? Of course, the greatest challenge to this theory are white people like tanning mom. While she’s an obvious outlier, tanning in general amongst whites is prevalent. The other problem is that the behavioral traits associated with pigmentation don’t seem to benefit each other. It makes sense that people might desire partners with less violent tendencies, but does that logic hold true when sexual activity also falls, and is it true in equal measure for both sexes? Across different societies? Perhaps the two traits follow each other because they’re both regulated by impulsive tendencies and not for other reasons. Also, what of high latitude animals or ones that change coat color through the year? Wild polar bears don’t resemble the cute and cuddly ones seen in Coke commercials.

Note: I don’t discuss the rather… loathsome political/ethical aspects of this paper or why he concentrates his research in these areas on purpose. Whatever motivation Rushton had for undertaking this study, data über alles.

(First seen here)

Haven’t kept up with Kpop much, but this Korean American girl’s voice is amazing. Yes, I said voice.

She sang this cover of Beyoncé’s Halo while still an amateur last fall. Heaven is her debut single.

Maybe it’s because I am a huge Clara C fan, but this video is awesome. Like a freddiew video with fewer guns and more singing.

It’s always hard to snoop on cell traffic…unless you are the law. I wonder how this isn’t abused by the many hacktivist groups out there.

http://gizmodo.com/5898964/this-is-how-much-carriers-charge-for-cellphone-wiretaps

The EU Commission put this commercial out featuring “street fighters” from China, India and Brazil that threaten and surround a white woman in Kill Bill garb (once upon a time known as Bruce Lee garb but no more). She then pulls out her Shadow Clone Jutsu and surrounds them instead. Then the group decides to sit down and have tea or crumpets or whatever it is you do in the EU. Try as I might, it’s difficult to escape the racial imagery and implications here but I suppose that’s what the creators were going for. I would say they succeeded in their effort. I mean, what European youth wouldn’t get all nationalistic seeing a single white girl take down 3 of the BRIC nations that threaten their way of life? Oh, but they left out the “R” in BRIC. I suppose the EU didn’t particularly want the Russians thinking they were anti-Russian. They just didn’t feel the same about the rest apparently.

(First seen here)