Group items tagged

"More than a buzzword, "open" is our best means for creating new and powerful modes of collaboration."

"More than a buzzword, "open" is our best means for creating new and powerful modes of collaboration."

"High Times / By Paul Mcadory 10 Reasons Marijuana is Better For You Than Alcohol One of these drugs kills people. Guess which one."

"High Times / By Paul Mcadory 10 Reasons Marijuana is Better For You Than Alcohol One of these drugs kills people. Guess which one."

"by Monica Thunder on March 26, 2015 Combine the number of overdose deaths caused by heroin and cocaine, and you still haven't matched the number of deaths caused by pharmaceutical prescription medications each year in the United States. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, pharmaceutical abuse was responsible for about 23,000 deaths in 2013 - that's more than half of the overdose deaths in the U.S. that year."

"Executive Summary GMO Myths and Truths report Genetically modified (GM) crops are promoted on the basis of a range of far-reaching claims from the GM crop industry and its supporters. They say that GM crops: Are an extension of natural breeding and do not pose different risks from naturally bred crops Are safe to eat and can be more nutritious than naturally bred crops Are strictly regulated for safety Increase crop yields Reduce pesticide use Benefit farmers and make their lives easier Bring economic benefits Benefit the environment Can help solve problems caused by climate change Reduce energy use Will help feed the world. However, a large and growing body of scientific and other authoritative evidence shows that these claims are not true. On the contrary, evidence presented in this report indicates that GM crops: Are laboratory-made, using technology that is totally different from natural breeding methods, and pose different risks from non-GM crops Can be toxic, allergenic or less nutritious than their natural counterparts Are not adequately regulated to ensure safety Do not increase yield potential Do not reduce pesticide use but increase it Create serious problems for farmers, including herbicide-tolerant "superweeds", compromised soil quality, and increased disease susceptibility in crops Have mixed economic effects Harm soil quality, disrupt ecosystems, and reduce biodiversity Do not offer effective solutions to climate change Are as energy-hungry as any other chemically-farmed crops Cannot solve the problem of world hunger but distract from its real causes - poverty, lack of access to food and, increasingly, lack of access to land to grow it on. Based on the evidence presented in this report, there is no need to take risks with GM crops when effective, readily available, and sustainable solutions to the problems that GM technology is claimed to address already

"Half a billion people around the world spend more than 20 hours a week "wearing" avatars, that is, using digital representations of themselves. Did you know that a virtual representation of a politician could be more convincing than the politician himself? That your heart beats just as fast when your girlfriend winks at you from your computer screen as when she walks into the room? That if you make your onscreen surrogate mimic your friend's head movements, he's more likely to do what you say? Within three years, many online interactions will not simply involve passages of text typed on a keyboard but will instead be rich exchanges involving sophisticated representations of ourselves. Those digital beings are called avatars, and today at least half a billion people around the world are routinely socializing through them over the Internet, for example in online games."

"Starving artists have been affected by more than just piracy and streaming royalties"

"Data keeps debunking myths about Millennials and their music. Baby Boomers are famously self-important when it comes to the importance of their generation and the music it created. But a new study shows that the 55+ demographic actually listens to substantially less music than their 16-34 cohorts. In fact, Millennials - loosely defined as those born in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s - listen to 75.1% more music on a daily basis, according to data shared this morning with Digital Music News."

" By Ernesto on May 28, 2016 C: 20 The Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing Adobe, Apple and Microsoft, is known to offer cash payments to people who help them find companies that run unlicensed software. Today we speak with an attorney who has represented more than 250 defendants in these cases, which are regularly triggered by disgruntled employees."

" By Ernesto on May 28, 2016 C: 20 The Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing Adobe, Apple and Microsoft, is known to offer cash payments to people who help them find companies that run unlicensed software. Today we speak with an attorney who has represented more than 250 defendants in these cases, which are regularly triggered by disgruntled employees."

" By Ernesto on July 20, 2016 C: 20 Breaking The U.S. military is being accused of installing 'pirated' copies of 3D virtual reality software onto hundreds of thousands of computers without permission. Bitmanagement, the makers of the software, accuse the Navy of willful copyright infringement and are suing the Government for more than half a billion dollars in unpaid licenses."

" By Ernesto on July 20, 2016 C: 20 Breaking The U.S. military is being accused of installing 'pirated' copies of 3D virtual reality software onto hundreds of thousands of computers without permission. Bitmanagement, the makers of the software, accuse the Navy of willful copyright infringement and are suing the Government for more than half a billion dollars in unpaid licenses."

"After the Paris attacks late last year, we noted that it was clear that they were evidence of an intelligence community failure, rather than an "encryption" problem -- which kind of explained why the intelligence community quickly tried to blame encryption. But, as we noted, most of the attackers were already known to the intelligence community and law enforcement -- and there's still little evidence that they used any encryption. "

"After the Paris attacks late last year, we noted that it was clear that they were evidence of an intelligence community failure, rather than an "encryption" problem -- which kind of explained why the intelligence community quickly tried to blame encryption. But, as we noted, most of the attackers were already known to the intelligence community and law enforcement -- and there's still little evidence that they used any encryption. "

"The brains of people who get chills when the right song comes on are wired differently than others"

"The brains of people who get chills when the right song comes on are wired differently than others"

"I came back from OSCON this year with a new fire to contribute to an open source project. I've been involved in open source for years, but lately I've been more of an enthusiast-evangelist than a hands-on-contributor to an open source community. "

"I came back from OSCON this year with a new fire to contribute to an open source project. I've been involved in open source for years, but lately I've been more of an enthusiast-evangelist than a hands-on-contributor to an open source community. "

"Now 10 years old, the Open Invention Network protects more than 2,000 software packages By Katherine Noyes"

"Credit: flickr/Bob Bob Now 10 years old, the Open Invention Network protects more than 2,000 software packages Katherine Noyes By Katherine Noyes"

"by Cathleen O'Grady Nov 24 2014, 4:00am CET If you know how to do something and people around you start doing it differently, you have two options: stick to what you know, or change to use their strategy. If the new strategy is more efficient than yours, or gets better results, it's a no-brainer, so you switch. But if it's exactly as efficient and produces the same results, the decision to switch is based on another factor-conformity."

"by Cathleen O'Grady Nov 24 2014, 4:00am CET Share Tweet 24 If you know how to do something and people around you start doing it differently, you have two options: stick to what you know, or change to use their strategy. If the new strategy is more efficient than yours, or gets better results, it's a no-brainer, so you switch. But if it's exactly as efficient and produces the same results, the decision to switch is based on another factor-conformity."

"In 2014, cloud hosting provider DigitalOcean decided to encourage contribution to open source software projects, so they sponsored Hacktoberfest. More than 500 participants completed the challenge by making at least 50 commits to projects. This year, DigitalOcean wanted to focus on improving projects"

"In 2014, cloud hosting provider DigitalOcean decided to encourage contribution to open source software projects, so they sponsored Hacktoberfest. More than 500 participants completed the challenge by making at least 50 commits to projects. This year, DigitalOcean wanted to focus on improving projects"

"... By comparison, the band of taxpayers right below them, in the 95th to 99th percentile, pay on average about $1 out of every $4. Those in the bottom half pay less than $1 out of every $10. ... ... Eliminating the preferential rates on capital and dividends would generate $1.34 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office."

"... By comparison, the band of taxpayers right below them, in the 95th to 99th percentile, pay on average about $1 out of every $4. Those in the bottom half pay less than $1 out of every $10. ... ... Eliminating the preferential rates on capital and dividends would generate $1.34 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office."

" Ernesto on December 23, 2015 C: 143 Breaking The pirated screener of Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" has been traced back to a copy sent to a top Hollywood executive. The FBI is currently investigating the breach, which is part of series of leaked screeners that appeared online in recent days. Meanwhile, The Hateful Eight has been shared more than a million times through various unauthorized channels."

" Ernesto on December 23, 2015 C: 143 Breaking The pirated screener of Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" has been traced back to a copy sent to a top Hollywood executive. The FBI is currently investigating the breach, which is part of series of leaked screeners that appeared online in recent days. Meanwhile, The Hateful Eight has been shared more than a million times through various unauthorized channels."

[In the days since the tragedy of Aaron Swartz's suicide, many academics have been posting open-access PDFs of their research. It's an act of solidarity with Swartz's crusade to liberate (in most cases publicly funded) knowledge for all to read. ...]

*Collective Intelligence" ~ Open Knowledge

" Ernesto on October 30, 2016 C: 68 Breaking The Pirate Party in Iceland booked an important victory in the local parliamentary election today, scoring 14.5% of the total vote. While lower than most polls predicted, it marks the first time that a Pirate Party, anywhere in the world, has a serious shot at taking part in a government coalition."