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POPS104 Performance Tips for Windows XP. The topics are in the clip. Visit the source for the 99 individual tips and how to do them. Updated Source Link As Of 10-29-06, thanks paul: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1681
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POPSThe Future of Gaming I have tried to capture some hints about the future of gaming. As the author remarks: "For now, the only way to predict the future of gaming is to predict that all predictions will be wrong." Yet, it seems that in the not so far future, games are going to deeply affect the way we perceive our world. Especially the younger generations will be affected, and to some extent it is already happening. It seems that eventually games will not only affect our perception of the world, they WILL become a substantial part of our world.
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POPSAbraham Lincoln on religion Two lesser-known pieces of writing from Lincoln that give some hints about his religious beliefs. Lincoln was notoriously cagey about his religious commitments -- he never attended church regluarly, nor did he ever make a public proclamation of faith.
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POPSMinding Mistakes: How the Brain Monitors Errors and Learns from Goofs Where in the brain does the ERN originate? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, among other imaging methods, researchers have repeatedly found that error recognition takes place in the medial frontal cortex, a region on the surface of the brain in the middle of the frontal lobe, including the anterior cingulate. Such studies implicate this brain region as a monitor of negative feedback, action errors and decision uncertainty—and thus as an overall supervisor of human performance.
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POPSThe Male Brain, Explained "We have been assuming that the ways in which emotions are organized in the brain are essentially similar in men and women," but they aren't. Parts of the limbic cortex, which is involved in emotional responses, are smaller in men than in women. Additionally, scientists at McMaster University have found that guys have a smaller density of neurons in areas of the temporal lobe that deal with language processing. Appreciate his naturally upbeat nature Does he seem to be "up" most of the time? It's not your imagination: Male brains produce 52 percent more serotonin (the chemical that influences mood) than female brains, according to a study done at McGill University. And studies show that fewer men than women suffer from depression. Remember his brain is his largest sex organ The preoptic area of the hypothalamus is greater in volume, in cross-sectional area and in the number of cells. This area of the hypothalamus is in charge of mating behavior.
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POPSRobots Detect Behavioral Cues to Follow Humans
“As humans, we constantly incorporate other peoples' current actions as clues (cues) as to what they may do in the future,” Sanjay Joshi of the University of California, Davis, told PhysOrg.com. “For instance, we have a ‘sixth sense’ on the highway to know that a certain car will swerve into our lane soon, based on the driver's current driving patterns. Then, we may become more defensive in our own driving. In our work, we wanted to begin the process of allowing robots to use behavioral cues (of humans or other robots), to make the robot's mission more reliable and accurate. In social work environments populated by numerous people and robots, these types of cues should be abundant.” The researchers explained that behavioral cues that robots might use could include any action or signal that the leader exhibits that hints at a future action. These might be intended behaviors, such as pointing or waving. Other cues might be unconscious, such as behaviors that indicate stress or sadness,
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POPSFermilab Looks for Visitors from Another Dimension The prospect of extra dimensions is fascinating. ET might already be here in a neighbour dimension. :-) Estimated to cost about $15 million, the MicroBooNE tank would be located near the MiniBooNE detector at Fermilab so that it could observe the same beam of neutrinos. This past June the lab’s physics advisory committee approved the design phase for the project; if all goes well, the detector could begin operating as soon as 2011.
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POPS In Tough Times, Nature Favors Female Brains - A new study.. The image: "After 24 hours of starvation, neurons from females (left) mobilize free fatty acids and form lipid droplets (bright green), keeping them alive. In contrast, neurons from males (right panel) begin eating themselves from the inside to break down proteins, presumably to use as fuel"
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POPSQuiet Explosion: Object Intermediate Between Normal Supernovae And Gamma-ray Bursts Found Stars that were at birth more massive than about 8 times the mass of our Sun end their relatively short life in a cosmic, cataclysmic firework lighting up the Universe. The outcome is the formation of the densest objects that exist, neutron stars and black holes. When exploding, some of the most massive stars emit a short cry of agony, in the form of a burst of very energetic light, X- or gamma-rays.
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POPSAutonomous VW says, "Look, Ma - No Hands" Traffic signals and stop signs were adhered to while oncoming traffic, three-way intersections and sudden stops by the demonstration cars in front of the Passat were recognized. Another engineer sat in the driver seat for safety precautions, but his hands never touched the wheel or foot pedals. It was like the Passat had become possessed!
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POPSTwo-word refutation to "The Gathering Storm" anti-gay marriage ad: "Fred Phelps!"
More: But the point here is that Fred Phelps is a free man. His only legal troubles stem from instances of direct physical assault -- not from the hateful content of his beliefs. So when the folks at NOM insist that their opposition to same-sex marriage is a matter of "religious liberty," the liberty they're talking about has to be the liberty to exceed the Fred Phelps standard -- the liberty not just to restrict membership on religious grounds, or just to preach against homosexuality as a sin, or to condemn and denounce homosexuals as people hated by God, but the liberty, apparently, to go beyond all that, beyond anything even Fred Phelps has imagined. Fred Phelps is a free man, so if you think your freedom is going to be restricted, you must be planning to outdo Fred Phelps. So there's the two-word answer for every…dubious claim about being persecuted or punished or threatened or jailed or whatever for their anti-gay beliefs.
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POPSGood Collection of Talks on Neuroscience and Neurophilosophy Useful in conceptually mapping our way around some of the big ideas associated with neuroscience. Damasio, as ever, particularly helpful. More than a nod towards complexityu and emergence with the sunsequent necessity of reworking the conceptual apparatus that reflects upon itself and concepts.
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POPSCrystal clear? think again "of fast-moving and slow-moving regions in a solidifying glass were seen in experiments, and computer simulations predicted that this pattern, called dynamical heterogeneity, should exist." interesting stuff.. what amazes me, is as one zooms in (and out:) new levels of complexity that were not seen before, are discovered.
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