As if we needed any further convincing of the wonderful potential of flexible displays, a Japanese company called SEL has developed a high-resolution screen that can be rolled to a tight four-millimeter radius, allowing it to wrap around the edge of a smartphone while still working.
Today in international tech news: German journalists are told to stay away from Google and Yahoo; Rand Paul wants President Obama to address Vatican snooping suspicions; Vietnam plans to create its own Silicon Valley-ish atmosphere; and Swedish children are apparently annoyed with their parents' device usage.
The German Federation of Journalists advised members to quit using Google and Yahoo because those providers are vulnerable to U.S. and British intelligence agencies.
Citing "scandalous" reports, the warning implored journalists to look elsewhere for both "research and digital communication."
While there has been no shortage of scandalous reports lately -- last week, for instance, news broke that the U.S. had monitored phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- the union's announcement was likely prompted by Wednesday's article in The Washington Post detailing how the NSA had tapped into communications links used by Google and Yahoo.
The U.S. was in cahoots with Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency, the Post report said.
Given its history, Germany is particularly touchy about surveillance and boasts some of the strictest data-protection laws in the world. As a testament to its anti-snooping mindset, German telecoms have taken to touting their email services as NSA-proof.
Republican Senator Rand Paul introduced a resolution calling on President Obama to address the "serious allegations" that the U.S. "monitored the calls of Pope Francis or the conclave selecting the Pope."
Paul, a Presbyterian, was likely worked up about an article in Italy's Panorama magazine that claimed the NSA eavesdropped on nearly 50 million Italian phone calls between December 2012 and January 2013. (That is, for what it's worth, the same time period during which the NSA is accused of executing rampant eavesdropping within France.)
The U.S. intelligence operation in Italy is believed to have intercepted communications going into and out of the Vatican.
The Vietnamese government is backing an initiative -- dubbed "Silicon Valley Vietnam," or SVVN -- designed to foster tech innovation in the country.
By plopping down US$400,000, the government hopes to develop entrepreneurship, provide seed money, support IPOs and more. Vietnam has reportedly invited experts from Silicon Valley to advise on the nationwide program.
Things will get kicked off with a pair of startup accelerators, one in Hanoi, the other in Ho Chi Minh City.
As The Register points out, Vietnam's propensity to intervene in the goings-on of the Web could hamstring the project. A few months ago, the country launched Decree 72, a new censorship law, and then this week, a 30-year-old was placed under house arrest for what was deemed unacceptable Facebook behavior.
About one-third of children living in Swedish cities have complained that their parents are too preoccupied with phones and devices, according to a survey by YouGov, a UK-based market research firm.
The survey polled 521 people and asked if they had received complaints from their kiddos about device usage. The tykes had indeed complained at a 33 percent clip.
The survey also suggests 20 percent of parents had at some point lost sight of their children because they were distracted by their phones.
"Dickensian" is one of those literary modifiers that's overused. But before I officially retire this ruined adjective (or exile it to Australia, as Dickens himself would have done), I want to give it one final outing, because no other word will do. Here goes: Donna Tartt's grand new novel, The Goldfinch, is Dickensian both in the ambition of its jumbo, coincidence-laced plot, as well as in its symphonic range of emotions. The Goldfinch far exceeds the expectations of those of us who've been waiting on Tartt to do something extraordinary again, ever since her debut novel, The Secret History, came out in 1992. Hell, I feel like I've been waiting for a novel like this to appear not only since I read The Secret History, but also since I first read David Copperfield.
There's a lot of Copperfield in Tartt's hero, Theo Decker, who's 13 years old at the start of this story, which he narrates in retrospect as an adult. Young Theo lives with his adored beautiful mother in Manhattan. (His dad, a shiftless actor and gambler, has deserted them — and good riddance, too.) Unfortunately, Theo is not as pure as David Copperfield was as a boy; in fact, on the most fateful morning of his life, Theo and his mother have an appointment at his prep school to discuss his suspension for smoking on school grounds — or maybe it's for stealing (Theo is guilty of that crime, too). But what Theo will ultimately spend the rest of his life atoning for is the death of his mother. It wasn't his fault. Adults will assure him: It was "a terrible accident, rotten luck, could have happened to anyone." "[I]t's all perfectly true," Theo admits, "and I don't believe a word of it."
Donna Tartt's other works include The Secret History and The Little Friend.
Bruno Vincent/Getty Images
Donna Tartt's other works include The Secret History and The Little Friend.
Bruno Vincent/Getty Images
What happens is that on the way to the school appointment, Theo and his mom take shelter from a sudden thunderstorm by ducking into The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Theo's mom studied art and she steers him over to one of her most beloved paintings: It's called The Goldfinch and it's an actual painting done in the mid-17th century by a teacher of Vermeer's named Carel Fabritius. Theo half-listens to his mother's lecture on the glories of this painting of an alert yellow bird "chained to a perch by its twig of an ankle"; then, just as they're moving off to the dreaded school appointment, a terrorist bomb explodes in The Met. Theo's mother is killed and life as he knew it is shattered.
As in The Secret History and her second, less successful novel, The Little Friend, which centered on an unsolved murder, Tartt plays here with the conventions of the suspense thriller. In the aftermath of the explosion, Theo comforts a dying man who gives him a ring and points to the small painting of The Goldfinch, lying in the rubble out of its frame. Theo takes custody of both objects and they lead him on a baroque coming-of-age adventure that includes a season in hell in Las Vegas with his deadbeat dad, brushes with the Russian mob, unrequited love, excessive teen drug use and the discovery of a place almost like home in a New York antique shop — an old curiosity shop, if you will — run by an open-hearted mensch named Hobie, who becomes Theo's guardian. I have, by the way, only taken us halfway through this 700-plus-page novel.
As ingenious as Tartt's plot is, this novel would be but a massive scaffolding feat, were it not for her uncanny way with words. Here's Theo, as an adult, telling us about a feverish dream he had of his mother:
"[S]he came up suddenly beside me so I saw her reflection in a mirror. At the sight of her I was paralyzed with happiness; ... [S]he was smiling at me, ... not a dream but a presence that filled the whole room ... I knew I couldn't turn around, that to look at her directly was to violate the laws of her world and mine; ... our eyes met in the glass for a long moment; but just as she seemed about to speak ... — a vapor rolled between us and I woke up."
Like the goldfinch in the painting he can't bring himself to relinquish, Theo is chained, forever yearning for the mother he lost on that terrible day in the museum. His loneliness is the realistic emotional constant in this crowded, exuberantly plotted triumph of a novel. And if that ain't "Dickensian," I don't know what is.
Sci-fi epic Ender's Game is poised to win the North American box-office race this weekend with a solid $25 million or more opening, hoping to reverse a disturbing downturn in movie adaptations of young-adult books. Overseas, the film has already opened in the U.K., where it is doing softer-than-expected business.
The big headline internationally this weekend will be Disney and Marvel Studios' sequel Thor: The Dark World, which began rolling out Wednesday in the U.K., France and a handful of other markets, grossing north of $8 million and pacing ahead of the first Thor. On Thursday and Friday, Thor 2, with Chris Hemsworth returning in the title role, opens in a number of other major markets before hitting theaters in North America on Nov. 8.
Ender's Game, a co-production between Summit Entertainment, OddLot Entertainment and Digital Domain, will need to do substantial business worldwide in order to make up its $110 million budget. The action-adventure is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Orson Scott Card, whose anti-gay comments have riled many (though he has said Ender's Game isn't a YA property, it has been made widely available in schools).
Directed by Gavin Hood, Ender's Game stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, HaileeSteinfeld and AbigailBreslin. The film should be boosted by a run in Imax theaters.
Outside of the Hunger Games and Twilight film franchises, YA properties have struggled at the box office. This year, The Host, BeautifulCreatures and Mortal Instruments: City of Bones all flopped.
Set in the near future, Ender's Game revolves around a young boy (Butterfield) who is recruited by the military to stop an alien race from destroying the world.
Ender's Game is a sizeable gamble for GigiPritzker's OddLot, which financed much of the movie and dispatched sister company Sierra/Affinity to sell the movie internationally. Last weekend, Ender's Game debuted at No. 5 in the U.K. with just under $2 million, but the film could make up ground as it continues to roll out in additional foreign markets.
Relativity Media and Reel FX's animated 3D pic Free Birds is getting an early jump on Thanksgiving by rolling out now. The movie -- about a pair of turkeys who travel back in time to prevent their kind from becoming the traditional holiday meal -- should benefit from being the only new family entry in the market and hit $20 million in its debut (Entertainment One is distributing in Canada), although Relativity insiders are expecting a figure more in the $16 million to $19 million range. The voice cast is led by Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler.
Free Birds, costing $55 million to make, marks Relativity's first foray into the animation business. The company could use a box-office win after suffering a string of disappointments.
CBS Films' sexagenarian comedy Last Vegas, the weekend's third new nationwide entry, is looking at a more modest opening in the $14 million range. Directed by Jon Turteltaub, the film's high-profile cast -- Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline -- should result in strong legs, however. A geezer version of The Hangover, Last Vegas stars four friends in their 60s who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. Mary Steenburgen also stars.
Older moviegoers rarely rush to see a film on its opening weekend. CBS Films believes Last Vegas will serve as strong counterprogramming throughout the month. In August 2012, Hope Springs, starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, opened to a modest $14.7 million on its way to earning $63.5 million domestically and a hearty $114.3 million globally.
The specialty box office sees a number of high-profile debuts, including awards contender Dallas Buyers Club, which Focus Features opens in six theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and Diana, the biopic of Princess Diana starring Naomi Watts. Entertainment One is opening Diana in 38 markets.
Dallas Buyers Club has drawn raves for its performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.
Universal also releases Richard Curtis' romantic fantasy-comedy About Time, starring Rachel McAdams opposite Tom Hollander, in the U.S. From Working Title Films, About Time is only opening in 175 theaters domestically. Overseas, the film has grossed $32 million from 40 markets, with 17 countries still left to go.
On the documentary side, Tom Donahue's acclaimed documentary Casting By -- which laments the fact that casting directors are snubbed by the Academy Awards -- opens in one theater to New York. In a rare letter to Hollywood that appeared in the The Hollywood Reporter timed to the film's opening, Woody Allen extolled the work of the casting director he has worked with over the years.
Animal personalities are more like humans than first thought, according to Deakin University study
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
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Contact: Mandi O'Garretty mandi.ogarretty@deakin.edu.au 61-352-272-776 Deakin University
A Deakin University study has found for the first time that, just like humans, un-predictability is also a consistent behavioural trait in the animal world.
Animals are known to show consistent individual differences in behaviour, which is often referred to as them displaying 'personality'. In contrast to previous research into these predictable aspects of behaviour, this latest study has shown for the first time that some individual animals, just like humans, are consistently more un-predictable than others over time.
Un-predictability is a known and accepted aspect of human behaviour much like we've always viewed predictable aspects of personality. However, until now it has never been studied in animals.
"We all know someone who is notoriously unpredictable happy, friendly, supportive one day and grumpy and unhappy the next. My experience is that those people tend to be extroverts. Even though I don't know what to expect of them, I am often torn between liking them because they are easy to talk to and fun to be with, and disliking them for their volatility," said Associate Professor Peter Biro, a behavioural ecologist with Deakin's School of Life and Environmental Sciences and lead researcher on this study.
"Until now, un-predictability has only been studied extensively in humans, where it has been linked to learning, ageing, and to certain diseases that produce erratic behaviour due to fluctuations in brain chemicals.
"The results of this new study shed light on another important aspect of animal personality that has previously not been considered."
Working with Dr Bart Adriaenssens at the University of New South Wales, Dr Biro observed the behaviour of adult male mosquitofish over 132 days. They found that the behaviour of some individuals was consistently more predictable in a given context than others. Mosquitofish were used for the study because they are widespread and easily sampled from ponds in and around cities.
"We observed that individuals differed in their average levels of activity, but also differed in variability about their average activity," Dr Biro explained. "Some individuals chose to be active, others chose to be sedentary, some were consistent in their chosen level of activity, others not. But, we found no association between activity levels and predictability.
"What this tells us is that the fish differed in how un-predictable they were, and that this un-predictability is a consistent attribute over time.
"We believe that un-predictability might represent a form of behavioural flexibility that facilitates learning, or makes animals un-predictable to predators or competitors. Some have even referred to this phenomenon as representing 'free will' in animals. Our study, having confirmed that un-predictability is a trait, now sets the stage for further studies to test for this phenomenon in other species, and to tease out the causes and consequences of this behavioural variation."
###
The results of this study are published in the November issue of The American Naturalist, one of the world's premier peer-reviewed publications in ecology, population biology, evolution, and conservation research.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Animal personalities are more like humans than first thought, according to Deakin University study
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Mandi O'Garretty mandi.ogarretty@deakin.edu.au 61-352-272-776 Deakin University
A Deakin University study has found for the first time that, just like humans, un-predictability is also a consistent behavioural trait in the animal world.
Animals are known to show consistent individual differences in behaviour, which is often referred to as them displaying 'personality'. In contrast to previous research into these predictable aspects of behaviour, this latest study has shown for the first time that some individual animals, just like humans, are consistently more un-predictable than others over time.
Un-predictability is a known and accepted aspect of human behaviour much like we've always viewed predictable aspects of personality. However, until now it has never been studied in animals.
"We all know someone who is notoriously unpredictable happy, friendly, supportive one day and grumpy and unhappy the next. My experience is that those people tend to be extroverts. Even though I don't know what to expect of them, I am often torn between liking them because they are easy to talk to and fun to be with, and disliking them for their volatility," said Associate Professor Peter Biro, a behavioural ecologist with Deakin's School of Life and Environmental Sciences and lead researcher on this study.
"Until now, un-predictability has only been studied extensively in humans, where it has been linked to learning, ageing, and to certain diseases that produce erratic behaviour due to fluctuations in brain chemicals.
"The results of this new study shed light on another important aspect of animal personality that has previously not been considered."
Working with Dr Bart Adriaenssens at the University of New South Wales, Dr Biro observed the behaviour of adult male mosquitofish over 132 days. They found that the behaviour of some individuals was consistently more predictable in a given context than others. Mosquitofish were used for the study because they are widespread and easily sampled from ponds in and around cities.
"We observed that individuals differed in their average levels of activity, but also differed in variability about their average activity," Dr Biro explained. "Some individuals chose to be active, others chose to be sedentary, some were consistent in their chosen level of activity, others not. But, we found no association between activity levels and predictability.
"What this tells us is that the fish differed in how un-predictable they were, and that this un-predictability is a consistent attribute over time.
"We believe that un-predictability might represent a form of behavioural flexibility that facilitates learning, or makes animals un-predictable to predators or competitors. Some have even referred to this phenomenon as representing 'free will' in animals. Our study, having confirmed that un-predictability is a trait, now sets the stage for further studies to test for this phenomenon in other species, and to tease out the causes and consequences of this behavioural variation."
###
The results of this study are published in the November issue of The American Naturalist, one of the world's premier peer-reviewed publications in ecology, population biology, evolution, and conservation research.
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Staying slim in the midst of Halloween indulgence, Buberry model Rosie Huntington Whiteley went to the gym for a workout in Studio City, CA today (October 31).
The British babe looked great, wearing a gray shawl over a black tee and sexy yoga pants, sporting a pair of blue and bright green running treads.
In related news, the 26-year-old revealed that she was not always exulted for her angelic good looks, saying in an interview with MailOnline, "I was teased about the way I looked at school. I got teased because of my lips. I used to get called t*t lips – because I had big lips but no breasts. And then I was called Kipper Lips."
She continued, saying, "There was a big group of girls that was Devon’s answer to Mean Girls, and they would storm the bathrooms shouting, "I’m going to f****ing deck you, Lips! See you on the school bus. And boys didn’t really go out with me."
The notion of bring-your-own devices is common at most companies; according to research firm estimates, two-thirds to three-quarters of all companies now allow people to use their own mobile devices for work, meaning at least for email access. We should expect companies to allow the same for PCs, right?
Bring-your-own PCs have been around as long as there have been PCs -- aka the home computer. People have been taking work home with them (that's why all those lost USB sticks and CDs end up causing embarrassing breach notifications) and accessing email from home since the mid-1980s. That's BYOPC, even if it's been widely ignored in official IT circles.
But today's BYOPC means something else: employees buying their own PCs for use for work as well as for personal needs. Some organizations have been experimenting with that BYOPC notion for years, in fact. It's been driven mainly by executive-level employees who want to use a Mac, which few companies historically allowed outside of specific functions like marketing or development. Those initial exceptions sometimes translated into a more programmatic experiment.
Those experiments typically were about choosing your own PC from an approved list, as well as getting greater admin rights or flexibility, such as the ability to install your own software, often at the price of providing your own tech support. Many companies, especially tech firms like Cisco Systems, Intel, IBM, and BT, have adopted choose-your-own programs and provided flexibility in terms of personal software and usage for employees who travel a lot.
That approach to PC flexibility is likely to grow. But not strict BYOPC, says Chriz Hazelton, a mobile analyst at 451 Research. He notes several reasons why BYOPC is not a natural follow-on to BYOD.
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