Face-reading software to judge the mood of the masses

IF THE computers we stare at all day could read our faces, they would probably know us better than anyone.

That vision may not be so far off. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab are developing software that can read the feelings behind facial expressions. In some cases, the computers outperform people. The software could lead to empathetic devices and is being used to evaluate and develop better adverts.

But the commercial uses are just "the low-hanging fruit", says Rana el Kaliouby, a member of the Media Lab's Affective Computing group. The software is getting so good and so easy to use that it could collate millions of peoples' reactions to an event as they sit watching it at home, potentially replacing opinion polls, influencing elections and perhaps fuelling revolutions. More..

Face-reading software to judge the mood of the masses - tech - 28 May 2012 - New Scientist

Inside Norway's 'luxury' prison

Halden prison smells of freshly brewed coffee. It hits you in the workshop areas, lingers in the games rooms and in the communal apartment-style areas where prisoners live together in groups of eight. Halden is one of Norway's highest-security jails, holding rapists, murderers and paedophiles. Since it opened two years ago, it has acquired a reputation as the world's most humane prison. It is the flagship of the Norwegian justice system, where the focus is on rehabilitation rather than punishment. More..

TODAYonline | World | Inside Norway's 'luxury' prison

2-minute Pulitzer-winner video: ‘Austerity’ a debt/death spiral for fools

Pulitzer-winner Mark Fiore’s two-minute animation shows what is self-evident: anything done within a system that creates and uses debt as a so-called “monetary system” can only produce increasing aggregate debt.

The most cultured flash mob in the world: Copenhagen Philharmonic strike up on busy train

In April 2012 Copenhagen Phil (Sjællands Symfoniorkester) surprised the passengers in the Copenhagen Metro by playing Griegs Peer Gynt. The flash mob was created in collaboration with Radio Klassisk http://radioklassisk.dk/. All music was performed and recorded in the metro.

TeleHuman:Life-Size Hologram-Like Telepods Revolutionize Videoconferencing

A Queen's University researcher has created a Star Trek-like human-scale 3D videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they are standing in front of each other. "Why skype when you can talk to a life-size 3D holographic image of another person?"

The Man Who Quit Money

Daniel Suelo is 51 years old and broke. Happily broke. Consciously, deliberately, blessedly broke.

Not only does he not have debt, a mortgage or rent, he does not earn a salary. Nor does he buy food or clothes, or own any product with an "i" before it. Home is a cave on public land outside Moab, Utah. He scavenges for food from the garbage or off the land (fried grasshoppers, anyone?). He has been known to carve up and boil fresh road kill. He bathes, without soap, in the creek. More..
Utah Caveman Quits Money - ABC News

Human Genes In Rice: Opening up Pandora's Box?

Rice engineered to contain human genes will be grown for the first time outdoors instead of in a laboratory, bringing it one step closer to commercial production, according to The Washington Post. The genes that the California-based biotechnology company Ventria Bioscience has infused into rice enable the plant to produce bacteria-fighting proteins found in human breast milk and saliva. "We can really help children with diarrhea get better faster," Scott E. Deeter, the company's president and chief executive, explained of the product.

But many consumer groups are worried the engineered rice will do more harm than good. Genetically modified (GM) plants have a history of migrating out of their target plots and contaminating other plants, critics note, and it would be difficult to control the doses of human proteins that people purposely or inadvertently take in. "This is not a product that everyone would want to consume," Jane Rissler of the Union of Concerned Scientists told the Post. "It is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors."  More..

Human Genes In Rice: Opening up Pandora's Box? -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/244927-Human-Genes-In-Rice-Opening-up-Pandora-s-Box-

Forget WiFi and Radio Waves, LiFi Uses Lightbulbs to Connect to the Internet

Whether you're using wireless internet in a coffee shop, stealing it from the guy next door, or competing for bandwidth at a conference, you've probably gotten frustrated at the slow speeds you face when more than one device is tapped into the network. As more and more people - and their many devices - access wireless internet, clogged airwaves are going to make it increasingly difficult to latch onto a reliable signal.

One German physicist, Harald Haas, has come up with a solution he calls "data through illumination" - taking the fiber out of fiber optics by sending data through an LED lightbulb that varies in intensity faster than the human eye can follow. It's the same idea behind infrared remote controls, but far more powerful. More..

Forget WiFi and Radio Waves, LiFi Uses Lightbulbs to Connect to the Internet -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/244434-Forget-WiFi-and-Radio-Waves-LiFi-Uses-Lightbulbs-to-Connect-to-the-Internet