Are Rich People Unethical?

Are Rich People Unethical? - At last, an explanation for Wall Street's disgrace, Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and other high-society crimes and misdemeanors: A new study published in the Proceedings of that National Academy of Sciences found that wealthier people were more apt to behave unethically than those who had less money.

Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley analyzed a person's rank in society (measured by wealth, occupational prestige and education) and found that those who were richer were more likely to cheat, lie and break the law than those who were poorer.

"We found that it is much more prevalent for people in the higher ranks of society to see greed and self-interest … as good pursuits," said Paul Piff, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at Berkeley. "This resonates with a lot of current events these days."

In the first of two studies, researchers found that those who drove more expensive cars (an admittedly questionable indicator of economic worth) were more likely to cut off other cars and pedestrians at a busy San Francisco four-way intersection than those who drove older, less-expensive vehicles.

In other experiments, wealthier study participants were more likely to admit they would behave unethically in a variety of situations and lie during negotiations. In another, researchers found wealthier people were more likely to cheat in an online game to win a $50 prize.

Greed is a "robust" determinant of unethical behavior, according to the study.

"This has some pretty clear implications," said Piff. "Inequality is very much on Americans' minds, and the potential effects of severe inequality on individual levels of behavior are major."

Large sums of money may give people greater feelings of entitlement, causing those people to be the most averse to wealth distribution, Piff continued. Poorer people may be less likely to cheat, because they are more dependent on their community at large, he said. In other words, they don't want to rock the boat.

"People in power who are more inclined to behave unethically in the service of gains and self-interest can have great effects on society as a whole," said Piff.

And it's difficult to say whether richer people get to the top because of their unethical behavior or whether wealth causes people to become this way. "It seems like a vicious cycle," he said.

Nevertheless, Piff said these results obviously don't apply to all wealthy people. He noted that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were among the wealthiest people in the world and also the most philanthropic. He also pointed to high rates of violent crime in the poorest neighborhoods in the country that counteract the study's findings.

Piff said he hoped to further his research by figuring out ways to curb these patterns of behavior among wealthier individuals.

"What it comes down to, really, is that money creates more of a self-focus, which may account for larger feelings of entitlement," said Piff. "We hope to further study how we can curb these patterns and how that will affect our social environment." ( ABC News )

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US belief in warming rises with thermometer

US belief in warming rises with thermometer — Americans' belief in global warming is on the rise, along with temperatures and surprising weather changes, according to a new university poll.

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2012 file photo, people walk in the South Chagrin Reservation Metropark on a sunny and mild afternoon in Bentleyville, Ohio. A new poll shows Americans' belief in global warming is on the rise, along with temperatures and surprising weather changes. The survey by the University of Michigan and Muhlenberg College says 62 percent of those asked last December think the Earth is getting warmer. That's an increase from 55 percent in the spring of that year. It's the highest percentage in two years. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

The survey by the University of Michigan and Muhlenberg College says 62 percent of those asked last December think the Earth is getting warmer. That's up from 55 percent in the spring of that year and 58 percent in December 2010. It is the highest proportion in two years.

Nearly half the people who say they believe in global warming base that on personal observations of the weather. Climate researchers say that's reaching the correct conclusion for reasons that aren't quite right.

When asked an open-ended question about why they thought the Earth was warming, one-quarter of those surveyed pointed to temperatures they experience and another quarter cited other weather changes. One in 7 mentioned melting glaciers and polar sea ice, and 1 in 8 noted media coverage. Only 8 percent mentioned scientific research.

"It seems to be driven by an increased connection that the public is making between what they see in terms of weather conditions and climate change," said Chris Borick, the director Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.

The poll was conducted from Dec. 4 to Dec. 21, after the U.S. experienced a record 14 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2011, including killer tornadoes, an unusual northeastern hurricane, a devastating southwestern drought and floods along major rivers.

At the same time, this poll was done before the official start of winter, so people were not yet affected by what has been a mild season for many regions.

Borick said that after the previous two winters, which were quite snowy, belief in global warming dropped dramatically. So he says the findings from a fresh poll to be conducted in upcoming weeks may again reflect views based on the latest weather trend.

Climate scientists say daily local weather is not evidence of climate change. But they also say long-term climate change is so dramatic that people recognize and experience it.

"I'm pleased that Americans believe in thermometers," said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. "People feel confident about what they personally experience. They mix up the difference between weather and climate. It's not unexpected. It's human nature."

While it is a misconception to think that every short-term extreme weather event — like a flood or drought — is caused by climate change, a warming world does make such events more frequent, Weaver said.

NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt called strange daily weather "the visceral experience of climate" for people.

Earlier versions of the Michigan and Muhlenberg survey showed that Americans' belief in global warming peaked in December 2008 with 72 percent.

In the most recent survey, 78 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of independents and 47 percent of Republicans said they thought there was "solid evidence" of climate change. Of those who did not believe climate change was occurring, 81 percent thought that scientists were overstating the evidence for their own interest.

The survey of 887 people has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The findings are similar to other recent polls, including a 2010 AP-Stanford University Poll showing 3 out of 4 Americans thought global temperatures were going up, said Stanford poll chief Jon Krosnick. That survey, too, indicated local weather affected people's views about climate change. ( Associated Press )

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UFO 'Lands' Near Roswell Crash Site

UFO 'Lands' Near Roswell Crash Site - Gliding slowly against a backdrop of a rain-sodden sky, it looks completely at odds with its surroundings. Footage of a 'flying saucer' approaching and then landing at an industrial estate - supposedly near to the infamous Roswell alien landing site in New Mexico - has taken the Internet by storm.

The real deal The UFO hovers above an industrial estate - supposedly near to the infamous Roswell alien landing site in New Mexico - in amateur footage that has taken the Internet by storm

Final destination: The flying saucer, which looks to have a logo similar to the star that adorns U.S. military aircraft, slowly lands behind the estate

Heavens above: The footage was recorded by a passenger in a car driving along a motorway. The exact location and time of the sighting is unknown, but many claim the terrain is nothing like that found in New Mexico


Elaborate hoax: Some YouTube viewers spot what they claim are giveaway clues in the use of special effects to create the illusion of a UFO

It was recorded by a passenger in a car driving along a motorway. The exact location and time of the extra-terrestrial event is unknown. However, all may not be as it seems, with many online conspiracy theorists claiming the landing is nothing more than an elaborate hoax.

The video was uploaded to YouTube by Stephen Hannard of Alien Disclosure Group UK. He commented: 'Possible leaked footage of a UFO arriving then landing at an unknown location in New Mexico.

'Could be one of ours, CGI, or could be the real deal. As always you decide.'

The chief complaint from YouTube users unconvinced by the footage is that the terrain the UFO is hovering over looks distinctly like northern Europe, and nothing like the parched deserts of New Mexico.

The vehicles glimpsed in the footage also appear to be small European cars and lorries, as opposed to their larger American equivalents. One viewer, 3492crusherdestroyer, writes: 'Can tell this is in the UK, British road signs on the road, European models of cars and trucks in the car park.

'So it's fake but it's well done and still cool.'

However, some users dismiss the likelihood of the terrain being in Britain, citing the fact the car is driving along the right, and not left, side of the road.

Others spot what they claim are giveaway clues in the use of special effects to create the illusion of a UFO. Vented 10 writes: 'There are tracking issues. The car hits a bump and the UFO moves in time with this motion.' ( dailymail.co.uk )

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Wake up with a bang... with the battle-ready coffee mug that you can add a laser sight too

Wake up with a bang... with the battle-ready coffee mug that you can add a laser sight too - Staying awake during commando surveillance operations has never been easier – thanks to a mug that comes with three military-spec scope rails.

The Battle Mug, made by U.S firm OpticsPlanet, is clearly the meanest looking mug on the planet, especially when it’s carrying its full complement of hardware.

Made from a block of aluminium, the Battle Mug can hold over a pint of your favourite frothy beverage.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

There's a cup in there somewhere: Battle Mug can be outfitted with a range of scopes

Tough: The Battle Mug is made from aluminium and can hold over a pint of coffee

OpticsPlanet’s Steve Ledin demonstrates in a YouTube video the mug’s capabilities.

He attaches a night vision unit to it, three different laser dots, a bottle opener, two carry handles with night sights – and a bipod for standing it up on.

Each $250 (£160) mug is custom-engraved with its own unique serial number, includes a removable AR15 carry handle – and can be carried safely through customs, because it’s not actually capable of firing bullets.

MailOnline has contacted OpticsPlanet to find out if it can be converted to a gun. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Wake up with a bang... with the battle-ready coffee mug that you can add a laser sight too

300-million-year-old 'Chinese Pompeii' found buried under volcanic ash

300-million-year-old 'Chinese Pompeii' found buried under volcanic ash - Researchers near Wuda, China, have uncovered a tropical forest that was preserved by ash from a volcanic eruption during the early Permian era.

About 300 million years ago, volcanic ash buried a tropical forest located in what is now Inner Mongolia, much like it did the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

This artist's painting shows a tropical forest before it was preserved in volcanic ash 300 million years ago in what is now Inner Mongolia. Courtesy of Jun Wang / Painting: Ren Yugao

This preserved forest has given researchers the unusual opportunity to examine an ecosystem essentially frozen in place by a natural disaster, giving them a detailed look at ancient plant communities and a glimpse at the ancient climate.

This ancient, tropical forest created peat, or moist, acidic, decaying plant matter. Over geologic time, the peat deposits were subjected to high pressure and became coal, which is found in the area.

The volcano appears to have left a layer of ash that was originally 39 inches (100 centimeters) thick.

"This ash-fall buried and killed the plants, broke off twigs and leaves, toppled trees, and preserved the forest remains in place within the ash layer," the authors, led by Jun Wang of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China, wrote in an article published Monday (Feb. 20) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The ash layer dated to about 298 million years ago, early in the Permian Period, when the supercontinent Pangea was coming together.

The researchers examined three sites with a total area of 10,764 square feet (1,000 square meters) near Wuda, China. At these sites, they counted and mapped the fossilized plants. The tallest trees that formed the upper canopy — species in the genera Sigillaria and Cordaites — grew to 82 feet (25 meters) or more. Lower down, tree ferns formed another canopy. A group of now-extinct, spore-producing trees called Noeggerathiales and palm-like cycads grew below these, they found.

"It's marvelously preserved," University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist and study researcher Hermann Pfefferkorn said in a press release issued by the university. "We can stand there and find a branch with the leaves attached, and then we find the next branch and the next branch and the next branch. And then we find the stump from the same tree. That's really exciting." ( csmonitor.com )

READ MORE - 300-million-year-old 'Chinese Pompeii' found buried under volcanic ash

Face Lifts Erase an Average of 7 Years Off Age

Face Lifts Erase an Average of 7 Years Off Age, Study Finds -- A small, new study finds that people who had facial plastic surgery looked an average of seven years younger than they did before the procedure.

There are some caveats to the research. Almost all of the study participants were women who were middle-aged or older, and the findings don't prove that the surgeries -- instead of other factors such as the mood of the patients -- directly caused them to look younger.

Face Lifts Erase an Average of 7 Years Off Age

Also, only a single surgeon performed all of the procedures, each of which costs thousands.

Still, the study "does give us some quantifiable evidence that we do achieve significant success in terms of our ability to rejuvenate patients and help them achieve a less tired look," said study author Dr. Nitin Chauhan, a facial plastic surgeon in Toronto.

One of Chauhan's colleagues performed one or more facial plastic surgery procedures on the 60 patients in the study between 2005 and 2008. One group underwent face and neck lifts; another had those procedures plus upper and lower eyelid lifts; and a third group had all the procedures plus a forehead lift.

The ages of the patients ranged from 45 to 72; only six were male.

The study authors then asked a group of first-year medical students to estimate the ages of the patients after looking at photos of them before and six months after their procedures.

The goal of the research was to "see if we can effectively quantify how much we can turn back the hands of time with certain rejuvenation procedures," Chauhan said.

The results of the study were published in the Feb. 20 online edition of the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.

After they adjusted their findings for statistical reasons, the researchers found that, on average, the raters estimated that the patients looked 1.7 years younger than their actual age before surgery, and 8.9 years younger afterward.

On average, the estimated age dipped by 5.7 years in the first group and by 8.4 years in the third group, which had all of the procedures.

The researchers tried to standardize the photographs by, among other things, asking participants to not wear makeup, Chauhan said. But some factors, such as a person's level of happiness, are hard to gauge, he said.

As of 2010, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons estimated that on average, eyelid lifts cost $2,800, forehead lifts cost $3,200 and facelifts cost $6,200.

Dr. Michael Olding, chief of the division of plastic surgery at George Washington University, reviewed the research and said it "points to the obvious" when it comes to multiple procedures: "The more the merrier, or in this case, the more the younger."

In his own practice, Olding said, he believes that "doing a number of small things makes a tremendous difference when combined, rather than making a tremendous difference in one area."

Olding said he'd like to see a larger study that follows people over time instead of looking backward. Also, he said, the study doesn't look at fat injections or address a major factor in plastic surgery -- the quality of the patient's skin.

Another expert, Dr. Malcolm Roth, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and chief of the division of plastic surgery at Albany Medical Center in New York, has advice on how to find a dependable plastic surgeon.

"Do your homework and check that the doctor is board-certified in plastic surgery," Roth said. "There is too much white-coat deception. Virtually any kind of doctor can legally claim to be a plastic surgeon without any formal training in plastic surgery. Members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons are seeing increasing numbers of patients -- who have not done their homework -- with complications and unsatisfactory outcomes." ( HealthDay News )

READ MORE - Face Lifts Erase an Average of 7 Years Off Age

Extraordinary pictures of solar 'tornado' as large as the Earth moving at 300,000mph

Extraordinary pictures of solar 'tornado' as large as the Earth moving at 300,000mph - These amazing pictures, captured by a NASA satellite, show a gigantic tornado moving across the sun.

The tornado is larger than it might look - in fact, it is probably bigger than the Earth, and could extend hundreds of thousands of miles out into space.

And while its progress over the sun's surface seems almost stately, it is moving at 300,000 miles per hour.

Twister: This tornado, which is as large as the Earth, is moving at 300,000mph across the Sun

The extraordinary phenomenon - which cannot yet be fully explained by scientists - was filmed by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory over a 30-hour period earlier this month.

That satellite, known as the SDO, is in the middle of a five-year mission to monitor how solar activity affects the Earth, particularly changes in the sun's magnetic field.

While the tornado - called a 'solar prominence' by scientists - looks very similar to twisters here on Earth, its origins are completely different.

Rather than being the result of atmospheric pressure, the solar activity comes from fluctuations in the sun's magnetism.

Powerful: But scientists have not yet cracked all the mysteries of this unusual magnetic phenomenon

However, researchers cannot explain much more than that - Nasa's Terry Kucera told Fox News that she and her colleagues were 'still looking to understand what’s happening with these things'.

The tornado, at 15,000 degrees Fahrenheit (8,000C), is much cooler than its surroundings, which are around 2million degrees.

The phenomenon was not caught on camera until 1996. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Extraordinary pictures of solar 'tornado' as large as the Earth moving at 300,000mph

Could the Milky Way's 'phantom black holes' pose a danger to our solar system?

Could the Milky Way's 'phantom black holes' pose a danger to our solar system? - If the latest simulation of what happens when black holes merge is correct, there could be hundreds of rogue black holes, each weighing several thousand times the mass of the sun, roaming around the Milky Way galaxy.

‘Rogue black holes like this would be very difficult to spot,’ said astronomer Kelly Holley-Bockelmann from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

‘Unless it's swallowing a lot of gas, about the only way to detect the approach of such a black hole would be to observe the way in which its super-strength gravitational field bends the light that passes nearby. This produces an effect called gravitational lensing that would make background stars appear to shift and brighten momentarily.’

Fast and dangerous: Scientists believe that hundreds of black holes could be zooming around the Milky Way at thousands of kilometres a second

The research focused on modelling ‘intermediate mass’ black holes, whose very existence was doubted by some until recently.

So far, only one medium-sized black hole has been confirmed. It was discovered three years ago by the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope at the edge of the galaxy ESO 243-49, which is 290 million light-years from Earth.

The researchers looked at what happens when black holes of this size merge with other black holes, using Einstein’s theory of relativity.

One of the big surprises to come from this effort is the prediction that when two black holes that are rotating at different speeds or are different sizes combine, the newly merged black hole receives a big kick due to conservation of momentum, pushing it away in an arbitrary direction at velocities as high as 4,000 kilometres per second.

‘This is much higher than anyone predicted. Even the average kick velocity of 200 kilometres per second is extremely high when compared to the escape velocities of typical astronomical objects,’ said Holley-Bockelmann. ‘We realised that basically any black hole merger would kick the new remnant out of a globular cluster, because the escape velocity is less than 100 kilometres per second.’

Using the facilities of Vanderbilt’s Advanced Center for Computation, Research and Education, Holley-Bockelmann’s team ran a number of simulations of the growth of intermediate mass black holes as they combine with a number of stellar-sized black holes, which are plentiful in globular clusters, paying close attention to the kick they received after each merger.

She said: ‘We used different assumptions for the initial black hole mass, for the range of stellar black hole masses within a globular cluster, and assumed that the spins and spin orientations were distributed randomly.

This picture was the first evidence of a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The star closest to the galactic hub is orbiting a tiny central object containing 3.7 million times more mass than the Sun - a supermassive black hole

‘With our most conservative assumptions, we found that, even if every globular cluster started out with an intermediate-sized black hole, only about 30 per cent retain them through the merger epoch. With our least conservative assumptions, less than two per cent of the globular clusters should contain intermediate mass black holes today.’

If the roughly 200 globular clusters in the Milky Way have indeed spawned intermediate-sized black holes, this means that hundreds of them are probably wandering invisibly around the Milky Way, waiting to engulf the nebulae, stars and planets that are unfortunate enough to cross their paths.

Fortunately, the existence of a few rogue black holes in the neighbourhood does not present a major danger.

‘These rogue black holes are extremely unlikely to do any damage to us in the lifetime of the universe,’ Holley-Bockelmann stressed. ‘Their danger zone, the Schwarzschild radius, is really tiny, only a few hundred kilometres. There are far more dangerous things in our neighbourhood!’

The two biggest black holes ever discovered - are each about ten billion times bigger than the Sun.

They are so large they would dwarf our entire solar system and lie 270million light years from Earth in two elliptically shaped galaxies.

This new pair lie in galaxies known as NGC 3842 and NGC 4889 and are about one-and-a-half times bigger than the previous record holder which had a mass of 6.8 billion suns, a mere tiddler in comparison. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Could the Milky Way's 'phantom black holes' pose a danger to our solar system?

Princess Mary feeling exposed

Princess Mary feeling exposed - What to do when you catch the husband of a visiting head-of-state checking out your assets?

That's what happened to Princess Mary of Denmark when she busted the husband of the Finnish president - ironically called the First Gentleman - staring down her dress at a state dinner.

While she may have been tempted to land a left hook Princess Mary kept a smile fixed on her face as she adjusted the neckline of her dress and cast a modest hand over her chest.

The video of the dinner shows Pentti Arajarvi - the husband of president Tarja Halonen - looking at the princess’s cleavage during the dinner hosted by the Queen of Denmark on Wednesday.

He might even have got away with it had he not hurriedly looked away as Pricess Mary turned in his direction.

Tasmanian-born Princess Mary was Mary Donaldson before she met the Crown Prince of Denmark Frederik in a Sydney pub during the 2000 Olympics. ( news.com.au )

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Scientists melt mystery over icecaps and sea levels

Scientists melt mystery over icecaps and sea levels - U.S. scientists using satellite data have established a more accurate figure of the amount of annual sea level rise from melting glaciers and ice caps which should aid studies on how quickly coastal areas may flood as global warming gathers pace.

John Wahr of the University of Colorado in Boulder and colleagues, in a study published on Thursday, found that thinning glaciers and icecaps were pushing up sea levels by 1.5 millmetres (0.06 inches) a year, in line with a 1.2 to 1.8 mm range from other studies, some of which forecast sea levels could rise as much as 2 metres (2.2 yards) by 2100.

Boulders deposited by a glacial icecap dot the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, June 23, 2011. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

Sea levels have already risen on average about 18 centimetres since 1900 and rapid global warming will accelerate the pace of the increase, scientists say, threatening coastlines from Vietnam to Florida and forcing low-lying megacities to build costly sea defences.

To get a better picture of the pace of the melting, Wahr and colleagues used a satellite that measures variations in gravity fields to study changes in the mass of large ice-covered areas. The data covered 2003-2010.

The glaciers and ice caps included those in the Arctic, South America, Asia as well as Greenland and Antarctica.

Globally, the rate of sea level rise has accelerated in recent decades to reach about 3.5 millimetres a year, with more than half coming from thermal expansion of the oceans.

Water expands as it gets warmer.

While the creeping annual increase might seem small, the rate of sea level rise is expected to grow. Yet scientists have struggled to refine estimates given the uncertainty about the future pace of global warming, growth trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions and the rate at which ice caps will melt.

Using satellite data instead of more limited and time-consuming data from ground measurements was crucial, Wahr said in an email to Reuters.

The team found that loss ice from Greenland and Antarctica was pushing up sea levels by just over one millimeter a year, comprising most of the 1.5 mm annual rise.

Glaciers and mountain ice caps elsewhere comprised the rest, at 0.4 mm/yr between 2003-10.

"That's a large number, and represents a lot of melting ice," said Wahr. "But it's at least 30 percent smaller than previous global estimates, none of which have used GRACE," he said, referring to the name of the satellite.

FASTER MELTING

The United Nations' Climate Panel estimates sea global sea level rise of 18 to 59 centimetres from 1990 to the 2090s. But those numbers do not include melting from polar regions where the vast majority of the world's freshwater is locked away.

Some climate scientists say the rise is more likely to be between and 1 and 2 metres. They point to accelerating melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic icesheets over the past two decades. Both contain enough water to raise global sea levels by about 60 metres.

Other glaciers and mountain icecaps contain enough water to raise sea levels by nearly a metre.

GRACE measured the changes to ice mass over regions greater than 100 square kilometres. The data showed ice-covered areas in Asia, including the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, was much less than other estimates, meaning the region contributed very little to sea level rise, in part because many glaciers were at freezing high elevations.

Wahr said the study gave a much clearer picture of what was happening to large ice-covered areas globally, particularly in remote parts of the Himalayas.

"There are simply too many glaciers, and most of them too remote to access, to be able to monitor all of them from the ground. There are more than 200,000 glaciers world-wide," he said, adding only a few hundred have been monitored over time spans of several years or more.

"With GRACE, though, we're able to directly monitor the sum total of all ice loss in an entire glacier system or ice cap."

Ongoing monitoring by the satellite should help scientists get a better handle on the pace of ice melting and sea level rise as the planet heats up.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, all 11 years in the 21st century so far, including 2011, rank among the 13 warmest in the 132-year temperature record. ( Reuters )

READ MORE - Scientists melt mystery over icecaps and sea levels

Is Facebook more addictive than alcohol or cigarettes?

Is Facebook more addictive than alcohol or cigarettes? - According to a new study out of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the desire to check a social network like Twitter or Facebook is stronger than the need to smoke a cigarette or have an alcoholic beverage. As reported by The Guardian, test subjects between the ages of 18 to 85 were armed with BlackBerry smartphones and asked to send messages seven times a day related to recent desires.

Splitting the messages up over 14 hours a day covering an entire week, respondents were asked to list any desire felt in the last 30 minutes and describe the level of strength of that desire. The 205 participants were also asked to describe how it interfered with other desires and if the desire was resisted.

After collecting over 10,000 responses from the group, approximately three fourths were related to some type of desire. Sexual activity and sleep ranked at the top of the desire list, but checking social networks and attempting to avoid work were very close behind.

However, respondents were able to resist the majority of sexual and spending impulses. In addition, addictive vices such as caffeine, tobacco and alcohol were much lower on the overall list of desires. Researchers also discovered that the ability to resist certain desires is much stronger at the start of the day and participants were more likely to give into a desire if they continually attempted to resist it throughout the day.

According to Wilhelm Hofmann, the University's assistant professor of behavioral science, he stated "Resisting the desire to work was likewise prone to fail. In contrast, people were relatively successful at resisting sports inclinations, sexual urges, and spending impulses, which seems surprising given the salience in modern culture of disastrous failures to control sexual impulses and urges to spend money."

Specifically regarding social media, he went on to say "The fact sleep and leisure were the most problematic desires suggests pervasive tension between natural inclinations to rest and relax and the multitude of work and other obligations. Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not ‘cost much' to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist."

The study has been submitted to Psychological Science and is scheduled to be published in the journal soon. Another recent study out of Utah Valley University explored the possibility that Facebook is making people sad due to the high amount of happy pictures and status updates found on the social network. ( Digital Trends )

READ MORE - Is Facebook more addictive than alcohol or cigarettes?

Why Yuor Barin Can Raed Tihs

Why Yuor Barin Can Raed Tihs - You might not realize it, but your brain is a code-cracking machine.

For emaxlpe, it deson't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm.

S1M1L4RLY, Y0UR M1ND 15 R34D1NG 7H15 4U70M471C4LLY W17H0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.

Passages like these have been bouncing around the Internet for years. But how do we read them? And what do our incredibly low standards for what's legible say about the way our brains work?

According to Marta Kutas, a cognitive neuroscientist and the director of the Center for Research in Language at the University of California, San Diego, the short answer is that no one knows why we're so good at reading garbled nonsense. But they've got strong suspicions.

"My guess is that context is very, very, very important," Kutas told Life's Little Mysteries.

We use context to pre-activate the areas of our brains that correspond to what we expect next, she explained. For example, brain scans reveal that if we hear a sound that leads us to strongly suspect another sound is on the way, the brain acts as if we're already hearing the second sound. Similarly, if we see a certain collection of letters or words, our brains jump to conclusions about what comes next. "We use context to help us perceive," Kutas said.

[Related: More Cool Optical Illusions]

It's not a perfect system, however. In the above passages, Kutas suspects that you probably didn't get every single word right just from knowing what came before it. You onlythought you were reading the passage perfectly, because you automatically (and subconsciously) went back and filled in any gaps in your knowledge based on subsequent context — the words that came later.

Additionally, in the case of the first example (the words with jumbled middle letters), it helps that your brain processes all the letters of a word at once, rather than one at a time. Thus, the letters "serve as contexts for each other," Kutas said.

In the case of the second passage (with the numbers in place of some letters), a 2007 study by cognitive scientists in Spain found that reading such passages barely activates the brain areas that correspond to digits. This suggests that the letter-like appearance of the digits, as well as their context, has a stronger influence on our brains than their actual status as digits. The researchers think some sort of top-down feedback mechanism (our consciences telling our sensory processors what to do, sort of) normalizes the visual input, allowing us to ignore the funny bits and read the passage with ease.( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Why Yuor Barin Can Raed Tihs

Beyoncé and Jay-Z 'trademark Blue Ivy's name'

We mean business, baby: Beyoncé and Jay-Z 'trademark Blue Ivy's name' - She appeared on her father's single at just a few hours old, so it comes as no surprise that Beyoncé and Jay-Z's daughter Blue Ivy is a brand in the making.

According to reports in the US, the new parents have moved to trademark their one-month-old baby's name.

The power-couple have filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect Blue Ivy's name against others using it.

They mean business: Beyoncé and Jay-Z have moved to trademark their baby Blue Ivy Carter's name, according to US reports

The application was filed under Beyoncé's company BGK Trademark Holdings and is still pending, according to MTV.

If approved Beyoncé, 30, and Jay-Z, 42, could use their daughter's name for any brand or endorsements, but it is more likely they took action in order to prevent others cashing in on their already famous offspring.

Family law attorney Vikki Ziegler told MTV: 'Seeking the trademark forestalls competitors from using the child's name and or third parties from attempting to sell the baby's name back to the couple. They are likely trying to protect what they rightfully own or created, shall we say, by trademarking Blue Ivy's name.'

The Patent Office has already denied two attempts by other parties to trademark the name since Blue Ivy was born on January 7, noting that the name belonged to a 'very famous infant' as the reason for the rejection.

Generous: Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband Chris Martin are reported to have splashed out £880 on a Bugaboo pram for the baby

A spokesperson for the couple is yet to respond to Mail Online's request for comment.

While little Miss Carter awaits the decision on her trademarked name, the pampered baby is being wheeled about in a very posh pram.

According to Us Weekly, Beyoncé's BFF Gwyneth Paltrow splashed out £880 on a black Bugaboo Chameleon stroller for the baby - but that's something of a downgrade compared to the other extravagant transport at Blue Ivy's disposal.

The new parents reportedly paid £400,000 on a solid gold rocking horse, and a mini Bugatti car for when her motor skills are more developed. And in the mean time, a £10,000 Swarovski-studded high chair and £30,000 'coach carriage' crib will keep Blue Ivy comfortable while stationary.

Beyoncé's mother Tina Knowles recently spoke out about her granddaughter, telling People magazine: 'She's doing great. She's beautiful.'

'[Being a grandma is] amazing. It's the second best job I've ever had.' ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Beyoncé and Jay-Z 'trademark Blue Ivy's name'

Use a partner

Use a Partner - How Do You Win the Claw Game? - An Australian 3-year-old climbed inside a coin-operated claw game at a family restaurant Sunday, and proceeded to hand out the game’s candies and toys. Similarly frustrated players have busted into claw machines in Wisconsin and Minnesota over the last few years. If you’re playing by the rules, what’s the best way to grab a prize with the claw?

It depends on the machine. Claw games can be adjusted to make the prizes either easier or harder to grab. The difficulty is controlled by setting the length of time allotted for each attempt and the number of attempts given for each quarter spent. Operators can also change the strength of the claw’s grip. Given these variables, claw-game experts recommend spending a few minutes on the sideline while others play. Once you have a sense of the machine’s idiosyncrasies, ask a partner to stand on one side of the machine to help you align your claw on the depth axis. If the prize is a plush toy or stuffed animal, aim for the chest, which allows for the firmest grip. If the claw has a weak grip, try knocking objects sideways into the prize chute. Experts differ as to whether it’s easier to win with a three-pronged or a four-pronged claw.

How often can you win when you play a claw game? Photo by Robert Benson/Getty Images For Bloomingdale's.

There are other ways that a claw-game operator can tweak the odds. In some machines, the prizes are crammed together such that it requires more force to pull them out. According to the British TV show Brainiac, some claw machines (or “fairground grabbers,” as they’re known in the United Kingdom) are programmed so that they only maintain a firm grip on every fifth or 10th play; they’re guaranteed to drop the prizes the rest of the time. Whatever their methods, claw-machine operators lean toward settings that allow a ratio of about $3 worth of prizes doled out for every $10 in revenue.

While claw games have been compared to kiddy slot machines by critics, the law considers them to be to be games of skill, as opposed to games of chance. In several states, so-called “Chuck E. Cheese laws” ensure that children’s arcade games won’t be tagged with regulations designed for casinos. (Even under these rules, claw games are illegal when they don’t give players a fair shot.) ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Use a partner

Russian Scientists Reach Vast Underground Antarctic Lake

Russian Scientists Reach Vast Underground Antarctic Lake - Some believe the body of water might hold secrets to both our past and our solar system.

How long does it take to drill two miles under Antarctica to a reach a lake that has been virtually untouched for the past 20 million years and might just hold insight into both our distant past and to interplanetary life? Twenty years, it turns out, in some of the worst working conditions on the planet.

Russian scientists completed the decades-long project, an inverted space race deep underground, just before the team had to leave at the end of the Antarctic summer. As the Associated Press explains, the long-anticipated reaching of Lake Vostok, as it's called, opens up the possibility of exploring a part of our planet that's been, essentially, untouched for 20 million years.

Scientists believe the undergroup lake will provide a chance to explore an area that's been virtually untouched in 20 million years Photo by Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images.

Scientists are relatively confident that life exists in the lake, as they've previously found bacteria on ice removed from the borehole, Discover Magazine notes. If it does, the discovery could have significant implications for research and exploration of our solar system: The lake exists in conditions believed to be similar to those under ice crusts on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa, and Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Lake Vostok is part of a chain of about 200 underground lakes under Antarctica. Some of them were formed while Antarctica and Australia were still connected. The Washington Post''s feature on the lake explains that the site is the "crown jewel" of Antarctic exploration as far as scientists are concerned. In addition to providing research opportunities applicable to our solar system, the lake might also provide an unprecedented glimpse into bacterial life forms on Earth from before the Ice Age.

The methods used to drill the borehole have come under fire from some, however. The team used over 66 tons of lubricants and antifreeze in the process which might contaminate the lake and compromising any possible research there. Russian scientists responded to the criticism by saying that the pressure built up in the lake had, as they anticipated, pushed water up into the hole immediately upon the drill breaking through, freezing and blocking out the chemicals.

Assuming that the lake is still pristine, scientists (and science lovers) worldwide are excited about the discovery. NASA's chief scientist Waleed Abdalati told the AP that the significance of the lake, apparently, can't be understated: "In the simplest sense, it can transform the way we think about life," he said. ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Russian Scientists Reach Vast Underground Antarctic Lake

Orangutan 'exterminators' on trial in Indonesia

Orangutan 'exterminators' on trial in Indonesia - Three Indonesians and a Malaysian went on trial Tuesday for killing endangered orangutans and other protected primates as a means of pest control at a palm oil plantation on Borneo island.

Prosecutors said the plantation manager, Malaysian national Phuah Chuan Hun, and his employee Widiantoro paid two men between 2009 and 2010 to kill the primates.

The plantation employees and the two killers, Imam Muhtarom and Mujianto, were charged with killing endangered species and all face five years in jail.

An orangutan pictured on an island in Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, in 2006. Three Indonesians and a Malaysian went on trial Tuesday for killing endangered orangutans and other protected primates as a means of pest control at a palm oil plantation on Borneo island

"The two men were paid one million rupiah ($111) for each orangutan and 200,000 rupiah ($22) for other monkeys," prosecutor Suroto told the Tenggarong district court.

The plantation, in East Kalimantan province on Indonesian Borneo, is a subsidiary of the publicly listed Malaysian-owned Metro Kajang Holdings.

"The two used a 4.5-millimetre calibre airsoft gun to shoot the orangutans out of trees before their six hunting dogs chased them," Suroto said.

They would then hit the orangutans afterwards with rocks or wooden sticks before tying them up with rope to take photographs as evidence, he said.

Police arrested the four men in November after photos of them with their prey, including long-nosed monkeys found only on Borneo, circulated around the community.

The men were charged with killing one baby and two adult orangutans, but police said earlier that at least 20 had been killed based on receipts of from the company amounting to 25 million rupiah ($2,775).

Experts say there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 80 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

They are faced with extinction from poaching and the rapid destruction of their forest habitat, driven largely by palm oil and paper plantations. ( AFP )

READ MORE - Orangutan 'exterminators' on trial in Indonesia

Google’s Chrome web browser finally arrives on Android

Google’s Chrome web browser finally arrives on Android - For years Android device owners have been using a generic “browser” app to surf the web on their smartphones. MeanwhileGoogle has toiled away at its increasingly popular desktop browser,Chrome, but remained quiet on the smartphone browser front.

Now Android owners running version 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich(approximately 1 percent of the current Android-owning population) will be able to download the mobile version of Chrome.

Chrome for Android is currently in its beta phase. Like its desktop cousin, Chrome for Android Beta aims to make the browsing experience simple yet speedy.

Chrome for Android is designed from the ground up for mobile devices.

Chrome for Android “features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices,” said Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome and Apps in a February 7 blog post.

It will be interesting to see if Google creates an iOS version of its browser to compete with Apple’s own mobile Safari browser. Rival mobile web browsers including Opera, (a slimmed down version of) Firefox, Atomic and Skyfire are already available in the Apple App Store.

In Novemer 2011 ZDNet drew parallels between the Google Search for iPad app and Google’s Chrome OS -- an operating system that uses web apps within Google’s Chrome browser -- and called the “updated Google Search app for iOS ... a dead ringer for Chrome OS when running on the iPad.”

The Chrome for Android app is available now in the Android Market for smartphones and tablets running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. ( AFP )

READ MORE - Google’s Chrome web browser finally arrives on Android

Google Restores Banned Travel Website

Google Restores Banned Travel Website - EVEN in this day and age, Goliath can still be humbled by a David - in this case a small businessman who went to the regulators after Google arbitrarily kicked him off its network.

In December, entrepreneur Mark Bowyer of the travel website Rusty Compass outlined his grievances to New South Wales Fair Trading after Google ruled his site ''posed a risk of generating invalid activity'' - the company's euphemism for click fraud.

Julian Lee - David v Goliath: In this case Mark Bowyer (above) v Google

He is one of a number of publishers to have found themselves arbitrarily locked out of Google for apparently contravening the rules around its AdSense advertising program. Sharing revenue from ads served on sites covered by Google accounts for a quarter of its revenues and covers about 70 per cent of the internet.

Attempts to see Google's evidence and appeal directly to a Google employee came to nothing, forcing Mr Bowyer to complain to Fair Trading that Google was abusing its power by failing to tell him why his site was banned and Google was withholding money made from ads.

Last month, after an initial investigation by Fair Trading, Google told him that after ''thoroughly reviewing'' his AdSense account it had reinstated it and refunded him the $131 it had withheld when it had suspended his account last September.

A Fair Trading spokeswoman confirmed that ''full redress was provided to the consumer following our intervention''. While reversal of decisions at appeal stage do happen, it is extremely rare for Google to reverse an appeal decision. (Mr Bowyer's appeal was turned down last year.)

The chief executive of E-Web Marketing, Gary Ng, said that given it was a case of David up against Goliath, Mr Bowyer could have either turned to social networks or appealed to Fair Trading.

''There's really only those two options when it comes to Google. It's when you make a lot of noise that they'll act.''

Mr Ng, who advises small businesses on search marketing, questioned Google's insistence of refusing to deal with aggrieved clients by phone or in person.

''How do we know what Google actually does when you launch an appeal? We don't. They won't tell you so it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence.''

Mr Bowyer said he was relieved to have the ''reputational slur'' lifted, but for four months he was left wondering the fate of his two-year-old website, which offers independent advice to people travelling to Asia.

''Google still hasn't seen fit to introduce a human into the process. Anonymous template emails are still the order of the day. And I still don't even know what happened,'' he said.

''Google's market power in platforms like AdSense, search and now the revamped YouTube give them a big hand in determining which start-up publishers and broadcasters make it and which don't. That's a lot of power for a company that refuses to have a conversation.'' ( kompas.com )

READ MORE - Google Restores Banned Travel Website

My Rapist Tried to FRIEND Me on Facebook

My Rapist Tried to FRIEND Me on Facebook - It was a trauma that she had spent more than a decade trying to come to terms with, and a Facebook request brought it all back to the surface.

One night in 1997, Emily McCombs found herself in a neighbourhood warehouse when three males made her perform oral sex on them. Then, one of them raped Ms McCombs, who was only 14 years old at the time.

Years later, the memories of that night were blurred, with many details lost in an alcohol and drug-induced blackout. Today, she's the managing editor and writer at xoJane.com, a blog about relationships and sex.

In 2010, some 13 years after that grim night, Ms McCombs was shocked to find the man who raped her had sent her a Facebook friend request. While she admitted that her first impulse was to close her computer and 'quietly relocate somewhere in the desert,' she had unanswered questions, so after exchanging several messages, she called him.

The two spoke for an hour, starting with some basic chit chat, but moving to the particulars of that horrible night in 1997. She transcribed some of the conversation on a blog post she published last year.

As the man, who was not identified offered to help in 'any way I can,' Miss McCombs left him with these parting words:

'Just take care of your daughters. Just love them so they value themselves. And teach your son, too. That no means no'.

While she admits the conversation was upsetting at times, it 'actually did more to help me process and get over being raped than the thousands of hours I've spent discussing it with mental professionals'.

And, as Ms McCombs writes, she never accepted the friend request. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - My Rapist Tried to FRIEND Me on Facebook

Could a Super-Earth plus Triple Stars Equal Life?

New Planet Found: Could a Super-Earth plus Triple Stars Equal Life? - The search for exoplanets, or worlds orbiting other stars, is evolving so fast that discoveries that seemed exotic just a few months ago have become commonplace. Multiple-planet solar systems? Astronomers expected to find just a handful; now we know of more than 200. Planets orbiting double or even triple stars? It was big news when just one was announced back in September; we've already got several more examples in hand. In short, the unexpected is something planet hunters have learned to expect — and in most cases, these surprises have tended to expand the possibilities for finding worlds where life might thrive.

It's just happened again: astronomers from the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of California, Santa Cruz, writing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, have announced the discovery of yet another new world that defies everyone's expectations. Not only does the new planet orbit one of the suns in a triple-star system — rare enough in itself — but the stars in this system have surprisingly low levels of the heavy elements planets are made from. Theory suggests that such stars shouldn't form planets in the first place, so if this isn't a fluke, there may be many more planets in the Milky Way than anyone thought.

An artist depiction of the planet GJ667Cc and the three stars it orbits

That's not all: the new planet, called GJ667Cc, is just 4.5 times Earth's mass. That's big enough to qualify it for the astronomical label "super-Earth" but still quite small by exoplanet standards. Indeed, it's so small that GJ667Cc is thought to be made of earthlike rock rather than gas — even if those rocks had to coalesce from a smaller supply of raw material circling the parent sun. Beyond that, it orbits in its star's habitable zone: if there's water there, that water could be in life-friendly liquid form. GJ667Cc whips around its star once every 28 days or so; in our solar system, that would put it so scorchingly close to the sun that water would boil off. But the star in this case is an M-dwarf, much dimmer and redder than our own. Given its mass and its temperature, says co-discoverer Steve Vogt, of UC Santa Cruz, "I think it's going to be pretty historic. We've been gnawing at the bone of an earthlike planet in the habitable zone for years now, and I think we're just about there."

Actually, this isn't the first time he's said something like that. A bit over a year ago, Vogt and Paul Butler, of Carnegie, announced a similarly earthlike planet they called Gliese 581g, but other astronomers were (and remain) dubious about the legitimacy of the find. "We haven't backed off," says Vogt, "but that one will always be controversial, because it's a difficult measurement."

This one, he says, is a much more clear-cut case. Along with Butler, lead author Guillem Anglada-Escudé (now at the University of Göttingen, in Germany) and several others, Vogt combined data from three different ground-based telescopes, dating back 10 years, to come up with the solid signal of a planet. "We were basically able to say, stick a fork in this one and put it in a referred journal — it's done."

What's most exciting of all about GJ667Cc, though, is not just that it's a super-Earth in its star's habitable zone, nor that it was found in a solar system where planets have no right to be. It's that this new world is impressively close to our own Earth. The great majority of exoplanets known to date have been found by the Kepler space probe, but most of these are hundreds of light-years away. That's much too far away to search for even indirect signs of alien life — and that will continue to be true after the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble's successor, launches in 2018.

But GJ667Cc is a mere 22 light-years away — practically next door — and while the planet can't be seen directly yet, it's not impossible that the next generation of ground or space telescopes could take readings of its atmosphere to look for telltale signs of life. And we have the technology today, says Vogt, "to send a Droid cell phone out there to take closeup images. It would take about 200 years, plus another 20 to send the pictures back."

Nobody's actually planning to do that, but the fact that it's even possible speaks volumes about how close astronomers are to finding and studying places in the universe where life might be thriving at this very moment. In the world of exoplanet science, the improbable things don't seem to stay improbable for very long. ( time.com )

READ MORE - Could a Super-Earth plus Triple Stars Equal Life?

Facebook IPO Will Leave Zuckerberg Firmly in the Driver's Seat

Facebook IPO Will Leave Zuckerberg Firmly in the Driver's Seat - Facebook unveiled plans for the biggest ever Internet IPO that could raise as much as $10 billion, but made it clear CEO Mark Zuckerberg will exercise almost complete control over the company, leaving investors with little say.

The Harvard dropout, who launched the social networking phenomenon from his dorm room, will control 56.9 percent of the voting shares in a company expected to be valued at up to $100 billion when it goes public. Facebook says it has 845 million active monthly users.

Wednesday's long-awaited filing kicks off a process that will culminate in Silicon Valley's biggest coming-out party since the heyday of the dotcom boom and bust.

In its filing Facebook says it is seeking to raise $5 billion, but that is a figure used to calculate registration fees among others and analysts estimate it could tap investors for $10 billion.

That would value the company at $100 billion, dwarfing storied tech giants such as Hewlett Packard Co, while validating the explosive growth worldwide of social media as communication and entertainment.

Zuckerberg's economic control of about 28 percent of the shares would be worth $28 billion at a $100 billion valuation, ranking him as the fourth-richest American.

The 27-year-old's ownership position means Facebook, a company dissected in 2010's Oscar-winning "The Social Network", will not need to appoint a majority of independent directors or set up board committees to oversee compensation and other matters.

The company's ownership structure and bylaws go against shareholder-friendly corporate governance practices put in place in the United States after years of investor activism.

As Facebook states in its prospectus, Zuckerberg will "control all matters submitted to stockholders for vote, as well as the overall management and direction of our company."

Zuckerberg struck deals with several Facebook investors that granted him voting rights over their shares in all or most situations. Those included Yuri Milner's DST Global, venture capital firm The Founders Fund, and entities affiliated with Technology Crossover Ventures, the IPO filing shows.

Google Inc's Sergey Brin and Larry Page retained control of the search giant through similar arrangements and the Sulzbergers did much the same at the New York Times.

"Zuckerberg, at the time, probably had his choice of investors," said Steven Kaplan, a professor at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, who researches venture capital and corporate governance. "He basically had the ability to say 'my way or the highway.'"

"The downside of doing this is that the value of Facebook may be slightly lower than it would be if he were not retaining control."

Facebook could make its market debut in the middle of the year based on the usual timetable of IPOs.

Its IPO prospectus shows that Facebook generated $3.71 billion in revenue and made $1 billion in net profit last year, up 65 percent from the $606 million it made in 2010.

"We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television," Zuckerberg said in a letter accompanying the documents. "Today, our society has reached another tipping point."

"The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented."

Facebook appointed Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan as its lead underwriters. Other bookrunners include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Allen & Co.

Zuckerberg agreed to cut his compensation from $1.48 million last year to $1 effective January 1, 2013, following the example of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Facebook's chief operating officer and Zuckerberg's top lieutenant, Sheryl Sandberg, earned $30.8 million in total compensation last year.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Overview of the company: http://link.reuters.com/rev36s

User growth over the years: http://link.reuters.com/mut36s

Bankers fees -- how low? http://link.reuters.com/fep36s

Top 10 global IPOs: http://link.reuters.com/myn36s

The Zynga factor: http://link.reuters.com/paf65s

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

DOTCOM MANIA?

Facebook's growing popularity has pressured entrenched Internet companies from Yahoo to Google Inc. In 2011, the social network overtook Yahoo to become the top provider of online display ads in the United States by revenue, industry research firm eMarketer says.

A $10 billion IPO would be the fourth-largest in U.S. history after Visa Inc, General Motors, and AT&T Wireless, Thomson Reuters data shows.

The $5 billion figure in Wednesday's prospectus was an initial, reference figure -- a basis for registration fees, among other things -- and could change based on investor demand.

The prospectus said 85 percent of Facebook's 2011 revenue was derived from advertising. Social-gaming company Zynga, creator of Farmville, accounted for 12 percent of Facebook's revenue last year.

The IPO will dwarf any recent debuts of Internet companies, such as Zynga, LinkedIn Corp, Groupon Inc and Pandora Media Inc.

Their IPOs had mixed receptions. The last debut, from Zynga, closed 5 percent below its IPO price during its first trading day in December.

Google raised just shy of $2 billion in 2004, while Groupon last year tapped $700 million and Zynga $1 billion.

THE HACKER WAY

Facebook aims to be more attractive to potential large advertisers. It has improved its ad targeting capabilities as it collects user data through new features such as the Timeline, said George John, founder of Rocket Fuel, a digital marketing company.

Advertising revenue increased 69 percent in 2011 from 2010, and its average revenue per ad increased 18 percent.

"As Facebook gathers more and more users' time and data, it makes sense for advertisers to get more serious about allocating more budget to Facebook," he said.

In its prospectus, Facebook revealed an effective 2011 tax rate of 41 percent and warned it could climb in 2012. That rate surpasses the average corporate rate of 35 percent and far outstrips industry peers like Apple, which through offshore businesses pay far less.

Yet in his letter to investors, Zuckerberg stressed Facebook's "social mission" over the pursuit of profits.

"Facebook was not originally founded to be a company," he said. "Simply put: we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services."

He laid out his vision for a company that remained grounded in an engineering culture, devoting several paragraphs of his letter to what he called "The Hacker Way" at Facebook.

Some of Facebook's most successful products - including Timeline, chat and video - emerged from "hackathons" where coders gathered to build out prototypes and compare notes, Zuckerberg wrote.

"Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete," he said. "There's a hacker mantra that you'll hear a lot around Facebook offices: 'Code wins arguments.'" ( foxbusiness.com )

READ MORE - Facebook IPO Will Leave Zuckerberg Firmly in the Driver's Seat

Jumping Spiders Focus Like a Camera to Hunt

Jumping Spiders Focus Like a Camera to Hunt - Jumping spiders do not weave webs. Instead, they jump about and then pounce on their prey. For this reason, depth perception is very important to their survival.

Now Japanese researchers have discovered that the spiders use an unusual technique to estimate how close or far away an object is.

The technique, called image defocus, involves blurring out objects in the distance while keeping closer ones sharp. Jumping spiders are the only animals known to use it, but a camera with a good lens demonstrates the same principle — keeping a person’s face sharp in the foreground while blurring out the trees in the background.

A jumping spider's eyes show how far to pounce by sharpening the prey and blurring the background.

Takashi Nagata and Mitsumasa Koyanagi of Osaka City University and their colleagues write about the jumping spiders in the current issue of Science.

The researchers studied each of the four layers of the retina in one of the spider’s eyes. They found that green light is never in focus in one of the layers, and that in another layer it is always in focus.

“So the spider seems to capture a sharp image and a blurry image and compare the information to estimate the distance of an object,” Dr. Koyanagi said. Depending on whether a fly, for instance, looks blurry or sharp, the spider can decide how far to jump.

“It’s done in real time, so studying this may help develop better computer vision,” Dr. Koyanagi added. ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - Jumping Spiders Focus Like a Camera to Hunt