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POPS10 Important Differences Between Brains and Computers "These differences may be crucial to understanding the mechanisms of neural information processing, and ultimately for the creation of artificial intelligence. Below, I review the most important of these differences (and the consequences to cognitive psychology of failing to recognize them)".
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POPSIs Intelligence Sexy? <<<Many traits in many species have evolved through sexual selection specifically to function as fitness indicators that reveal good genes and good health. Sexually selected fitness indicators typically show (1) higher coefficients of phenotypic and genetic variation than survival traits, (2) at least moderate genetic heritabilities and (3) positive correlations with many aspects of an animal's general condition, including body size, body symmetry, parasite resistance, longevity and freedom from deleterious mutations. These diagnostic criteria also appear to describe human intelligence (the g factor).>>> (from abstract). So then, is there some sort of mirror neuron circuitry in the brain that excites a cortical g spot?
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POPSWhy is a U.S. Army brigade being assigned to the "Homeland"? Cont.... The 1st BCT's soldiers also will learn how to use "the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded," 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them. "It's a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they're fielding. They've been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it." The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.
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POPSVarying Environments Can Speed Up Evolution Using computer simulations, we find that evolution toward goals that change over time can, in certain cases, dramatically speed up evolution compared with evolution toward a fixed goal. The highest speedup is found under modularly varying goals, in which goals change over time such that each new goal shares some of the subproblems with the previous goal. The speedup increases with the complexity of the goal: the harder the problem, the larger the speedup. Modularly varying goals seem to push populations away from local fitness maxima, and guide them toward evolvable and modular solutions. This study suggests that varying environments might significantly contribute to the speed of natural evolution.
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POPSOrigami: 15 Most Amazing Paper Sculptures History: Origami originated in China as "Zhe Zhi" in the first or second century AD, and it reached Japan in the sixth century. Over the next few hundred years, origami became familiar in many aspects of Japanese culture. By the Heian period of Japanese history, origami was a significant aspect of Japanese ceremony. Samurai warriors would exchange gifts adorned with noshi, a sort of good luck token made of folded strips of paper. Origami butterflies were used during the celebration of Shinto weddings to represent the bride and groom. In the 1960's the art of origami began to spread out, first with modular origami and then with various movements developing, including the kirikomi. http://www.answers.com/topic/origami?cat=technology thanks to alanocu and einbar>
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POPSApply a skeptic’s careful eye "1. Unnatural environment for cognition 2. Scans are indirect measurements of brain activity. 3. Colors exaggerate the effects in the brain. 4. Brain images are statistical compilations. 5. Brain areas activate for various reasons."
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POPSTop 10 Parent Hacks of 2006 I really liked No. 2. Sharpie your cell phone number on your kid's belly "When we go to crazy places like amusement parks and fairs, we just use a Sharpie and write on the kids' stomachs "My mom's cell # is...." The kids are all drilled on what to do if they get lost, and we have photos of them at Disneyland and everywhere else, flashing their bellies with the emergency plan. "
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POPSOpen-Source Hardware - The Bug Users of the Bug can put modules together as they see fit and then write or download code to make them operate as required. They are then free to share designs and programs with other users. ... Eric von Hippel, head of the innovation and entrepreneurship group at MIT's Sloan School of Management, says that Bug Labs is part of a general economic trend toward letting users do things for themselves. Von Hippel expects that early adopters will come up with useful innovations, encouraged by the Bug's relatively cheap modular components and the community spirit that Bug Labs is trying to foster. "Ordinary users can benefit from the hacking efforts of the leading edge," he adds.
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POPSMilitary To Pervert More Innocent Fun Someone just will not be happy until your teddy bears are lethal killing machines. Is it true that the torture facilities in Cuba look like playgrounds on the outside? What's next? Have they been working on music that kills? Is that what Colin is really searching for on American Idol?
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