The real Tron: IT security as a shoot 'em up

ALERT to a sudden threat, you race down a virtual corridor of servers, hot on the tail of malicious software. You ping a message to your partner, pointing them to a bottleneck in the network which should let you pin down the malware and destroy it before it does any more harm. Doing your job has never been so much fun.

This is a long way away from traditional IT security, but the drama of video gaming actually enables analysts to watch over their networks more effectively. Developed at the Lincoln Laboratory, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the approach allows people to patrol their assigned environments as if they were playing a first-person shooter - much like in the cult film Tron.

Humans are important in network security because they are still more adept than algorithms at filtering out false alarms. The job typically involves scanning lists of IP addresses corresponding to the various computers in a network. Colour coding, symbols and graphs can help operators sift through the huge volumes of data for signs of intruders - unfamiliar IP addresses trying to access the network, for example. It's important work, but can be rather dull. A dramatic 3D environment means analysts can deal with far more data, says Jeremy Kepner of MIT.

His system, developed over the last three years with MIT colleague Matthew Hubbell, combines data from network access control systems with existing plans of the building that houses an organisation's computers. These are fed into a gaming engine called Unity, which generates a navigable 3D environment.

The analysts' avatars can teleport around the network they are assigned to protect, using a keyboard and mouse or a Playstation controller to investigate and block intrusions. If part of the network detects an anomaly and so seems to be under attack it flashes red, appears to catch fire or can even explode, using built-in animations. "Players" can then dash across the corporate complex and shut a machine down if it is under attack.

Other players show up in the game, allowing a team to cooperate in a way that is more natural than screen-sharing or teleconferencing. "Everyone can see everyone else," Kepner says. "You could say, 'Follow me while I walk over to this machine that's behaving weirdly', and people could be in physically different places while having this interaction."

Making the first-person shooter world seem realistic is key to making the "game" effective, says Kepner. "The moment I add all this context to the environment - grass, gravel, cars and buildings - it turns out that the amount of information we can push to the analysts is far greater," he says.

Kepner says the game was tested successfully on a 5000-machine network. It was presented at the IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing conference in Waltham, Massachusetts, last month.

Frank Zinghini, CEO of visualisation software company Applied Visions, says the concept of building real-world functions into a navigable 3D environment is "phenomenal". "The gameplay metaphor is very compelling to get people to interact with the work," he says.

Though players can't yet gun down the malware in hand-to-hand combat, that may not be far off. "The challenge isn't in the technology," says Zinghini. What is important is making the game as immersive as possible without compromising the work that network analysts do, he adds.

Turn training into gaming

Games can liven up dull tasks in all walks of life. A Boston firm called True Office has turned the compliance course, normally guaranteed to make an office worker's heart sink, into a comic-style app. The idea is that most people would rather learn about what constitutes sexual harassment by quizzing a virtual boss about her relationship with a handsome employee than trawl through tedious checklists and Powerpoint slides.

The US Department of Defense is also spicing up the training process. CyberCIEGE teaches network security concepts through a gamified office environment. Like The Sims for IT workers, networking mistakes can result in computers bursting into virtual flames.

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Webcam sunshine time = 3D model of your world

WANT a detailed three-dimensional model of your house or back garden? Just stick up a webcam and wait. Current 3D models of outdoor places, such as those seen in Google Earth, are typically created using laser scans or painstaking manual measurements. But anyone may soon be able to make one - using just daylight, time and a humble webcam.

It is all down to how sunlight bounces off surfaces differently at various times of year, as the relative position of the sun changes. "As the sun passes over the scene, different pixels will light up at different times," says Austin Abrams at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. The software he and his colleagues created uses a GPS reading, which can be taken separately, and time-stamp data to calculate the position of the sun in relation to a webcam image. By watching how reflections change over the course of a few months, it can figure out the orientation of all the surfaces in the scene.

Google generates the 3D models that populate Google Earth by using a fleet of camera-equipped planes that fly over cities snapping photos. The program also lets users create their own 3D models of local buildings and upload them. Those models are kept simple to ensure that Google Earth runs smoothly. The researchers' models, by contrast, capture minute detail. "In some cases, we can even capture the 3D structure of individual shingles on a rooftop," says Abrams.

The new method cannot handle sudden changes in depth, however, such as a building with a mountain behind it in the far distance, because it calculates depth by comparing neighbouring pixels on the webcam images. The best models would result from combining the system's data with other techniques that are able to more accurately capture broader structures, says Gabriel Brostow, whose team does related research at University College London.

Abrams says the system could also help to automate the study of plants' life cycles. It is detailed enough to, say, pick up how the wooden structure of a tree changes over time. "We look forward to deploying this algorithm across the tens of thousands of webcams across the world," says Abrams. He will show the work at the European Conference on Computer Vision in Florence, Italy, next week.

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Firefly glow lights up better LEDs

LEDs of the future may owe their shine to one of nature's brightest sparks, the firefly, which uses its bioluminescence to attract a mate.

Many insects have evolved light-bending biological features. The figeater beetle's bright green iridescence is achieved by selectively reflecting light, and moths' eyes contain antireflective structures which boost light collection to let them go about their nocturnal lives. Like firefly bioluminescence, these features rely on tiny biological structures that selectively shift light either according to its colour or its polarisation. For example, if the wavelength of the incoming light matches size of the structures, it is reflected at odd angles, altering the perceived colour. The effect is similar to that of a diffraction grating or of polarised sunglasses.

Fireflies use this property to snag a mate: the brighter a firefly shines, the better its chances of attracting romantic attention. The light-bending nanostructures - known as lanterns, located on the outer surface of their light emitting organs - help send light into the environment efficiently by reducing the optical impedance between the air and lantern. This lets the insects maximise their light output while minimising their energy output. In all animals that rely on bioluminescence, efficient versions of these nanostructures have been selected for over hundreds of millions of years.

But researchers at the Biophotonics Lab of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology found another use for them: a better LED lightbulb.

Led by Ki-Hun Jeong, the team measured the dimensions of the firefly nanostructures with an electron microscope, then built replica structures onto the surface of an LED lens. Their new LED lens transmitted 3 per cent more light than a traditional smooth lens, a small gain, but potentially significant in squeezing even more efficiency out of LED bulbs that are already dramatically more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs.

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Health alert: lethal after-effects of hurricanes

 by Debora MacKenzie

For similar stories, visit the Hurricanes Topic Guide

The death toll from the superstorm that hit eastern North America this week continues to climb as more victims of wind, waves and downed electrical wires emerge. But storms and flooding on this scale cause illness and death long after the actual storm is over. The most obvious risks are injuries during the clean-up, as people try to demolish or rescue belongings from unstable structures. But some threats are more subtle.

What are the immediate risks?

Some depend on how long problems go on, because failures of different support systems, such as transport, electric power and medical care, start to affect each other. Refrigerated and frozen food will spoil in electricity outages, and people unable to get to shops might eat it, risking food poisoning – for which they may not be able to get medical care. In Manhattan, electric failure has stopped elevators and stranded people who cannot manage stairs in high-rise buildings, sometimes without water or necessary medicines.

Other risks are posed by carbon monoxide from small electric generators. In the longer term, mould and bacteria are likely to grow on persistently damp walls, especially in lightly damaged residential areas. Both can exacerbate or trigger asthma.

Do all the affected areas have good medical care?

Volunteer organisations like the Red Cross have been working flat out, but the disaster covers such a huge area that they have been spread thin. For example, people in Staten Island, where 19 have died as a result of the storm, say they're being ignored.

People most at risk now include those who need regular medical care, such as kidney dialysis, or those who suffer an emergency such as a heart attack. Transport is sparse, and some hospitals are stretched or shut.

This seems to be because vital equipment was located in basements that flooded, despite the publicity over a similar loss of back-up power at hospitals in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. New York University's Langone Medical Center lost one back-up generator, then the back-up to that one, because even though one of the generators was located prudently on a roof, its fuel pump was not.

What is the biggest health threat after a disaster like this?

The biggest is also one of the most overlooked, says Bruce Altevogt of the US Institute of Medicine's forum on medical preparedness for catastrophe: mental health.

"Research shows 30 to 40 per cent of disaster victims are at risk of a new mental disorder", especially depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, says Merritt Schreiber of the University of California at Irvine. Both can be debilitating, even fatal.

Schreiber has developed a tool for spotting those at risk early. Red Cross workers helping people displaced by Sandy are wearing cards around their necks, with a checklist developed for his PsySTART mental health triage system. "It doesn't help to ask people how they're feeling," says Schreiber, because right after a disaster, people who will bounce back feel as upset as those who will suffer long-term problems.

If people have experienced certain trials – separation from family, being trapped, severe panic or loss of home, for example – they are likely to need help.

Those people are identified by the volunteers and then earmarked for attention from a mental-health professional. Work with people who survived the 2005 London bombings showed that a few hours of cognitive therapy – which includes emotional and relaxation exercises and talking through specific anxieties – could prevent long-term psychological problems. "I want to get those people earlier through triage," says Schreiber.

What about all the rats in the New York subway?

Many New Yorkers think the notorious rodents were killed when floodwaters rushed into tunnels. Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist and rodent specialist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, suspects that many of them survived by swimming and climbing.

That could be a problem. Between 30 and 60 per cent of the rats in any group carry a hantavirus called Seoul, similar to the one that struck Yosemite park in California earlier this year. "Higher prevalence in rats will mean higher transmission probabilities to people. So, an increase in human risk is plausible from the basic biology," says Ostfeld.

Moreover, with people dumping all that spoiled food from their darkened refrigerators, there might soon be many more rats in New York, rather than fewer. Clean-up crews would be advised to wear face-masks.

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Tips to Overcome Emotional and Stress While Pregnant

Women who are pregnant tend to be very emotional because of the condition of continuing their pregnancy, hormones, and their living conditions. Pregnancy can make you feel excited, happy, depressed, worried, anxious, angry, proud, cheerful. This feeling is very normal when you get caught in the excitement of bringing a new life into the world, and practical matters such as the problem of money, jobs and lifestyles that should be addressed when the baby is born. A major factor that contributes to a variety of emotions during pregnancy pregnant women feel they are hormones. That is a scientific fact that the chemicals in our bodies affects our emotions, and during pregnancy incredible amount of chemical processes take place in the body of pregnant women. Two major contributors to emotional instability during pregnancy is increased production of the hormones progesterone and estrogen.
Progesterone plays a huge role in pregnancy and hormone levels increased dramatically during pregnancy. This hormone helps prevent improper uterus to contract, thus allowing the fetus to grow and develop. Estrogen helps build networks and direct increase in blood flow to the fetus and to help mothers produce milk for the baby is born.
Perhaps the best advice for pregnant couples can give is: Be patient. Remember that your partner is experiencing intense physical changes and that these changes may make him cranky, irritable and just plain. This change is not her fault and does not mean it will hurt your feelings. Try to listen and provide support. Sometimes the best way to prevent an angry outburst or simply sloppy hug and tell her that you love her.
The best way for a pregnant woman and her partner can deal with emotions during pregnancy is to keep communication open and honest about how you feel each - respectively. By talking about how you feel each - one, a pregnant woman can prevent emotional outburst or fight because it reached its peak. By being able to express his emotions, couples can vent some frustration by convincing the wife will love and support. Communication is vital to any case, and especially for couples who had started the journey to become parents together.
The fact that the mother will bring new life into the world woke own kind of anxiety and fear in him. Questions prescription medications began flashed in his mind:

1.     Am I able to be a good mother?
2.     What will happen to my relationship and your partner?
3.     What about romance and sex life later?
4.     Does the size of my body will be like this continue?
5.     What about my career?
6.     Am I going to turn out to be like my mother or mother him?

Understanding the effect of pregnancy in the mindset of someone will help you organize your emotions change. It would be better if the mother also know that emotional stress does not have a negative effect on the condition of pregnancy. The growth of the fetus in the womb will be quite strong and healthy as long as it continues to be monitored, maintained, and met their needs. While it is the health know that stress can still affect the mother and fetus, but there is no sure indicator. Health circles today only know that stress can increase heart rate and the fetus can feel this change.
What must be alerted not stress, but what would you do to cope with stress. Are you going to do things that are not healthy for the baby, for example, eating unhealthy food, and so on. In order not to endanger herself and her pregnancy, here are strategies that you can do to overcome anxiety during pregnancy:

1. Find the cause. Reflect on and discuss with your husband and family what are the things that become a heavy burden of your mind.
2. Keep your nutritional intake. Keeping food intake can also help pregnant women reduce the risk of stress and depression.
3. Routine exercise. A healthy body is very helpful in maintaining the health of your soul and mind.
4. Avoid bad habits, such as smoking and drinking alcohol. Divert your attention every time the desire to do these bad habits come up with activities that could bring more benefits to you. These bad habits can lead to stress and depression.
5. Establish communication. Not only with her husband and family, communication can also be forged among pregnant women. Equation fate and experience can help ease your mind.
6. Regularly active. Active in activities that are beneficial for pregnant women, such as yoga, hanging out with friends, and recreation, will make your mind is not focused on the things that you normally think of weight and also lowers stress hormones.
7. Rest comfortably and fairly. In addition to the house, a break can also be done while traveling out of town. Select where on vacation a comfortable and quiet, so you can rest with ease. Note also the exact position of rest for pregnant women.
8. Consult a physician. As much as possible, all complaints and uncomfortable feelings you discussed with your physician confidence. The doctor will assess whether you need medical or psychological treatment so that precautions can be done immediately.
9. Understand that what you are feeling is normal.
10. Believe in emotions and increase self-confidence.
11. Try to keep in touch with friends.
12. Get support from friends, family, physician, or other communities.
13. Do not try to be a hero in any way. Just do your best, and always prioritize your health and your baby.
14. Expand knowledge of what is happening to your body, and armed yourself with knowing what will likely happen in the future later.
15. Follow the relaxation exercises, such as yoga and meditation.
16. Release the pressure with a safe exercise but still energetic, like walking, swimming, and a little dancing.
17. Listen to your favorite songs or read inspirational books.
18. If possible, try to find a spa offering massages specifically for pregnant women.
19. Soaking in warm water for not rupture the amniotic fluid is still considered safe. If possible, try to soak in warm water to release the tension.
20. Learn relaxation techniques through books or by taking special classes.
21. Consumption of a balanced and nutritious diet.
22. Save and record the daily activities in a diary.
23. Pamper yourself with a delightful foods, like ice cream or chocolate high quality.
24. If you still feel a sense of melancholy erratic during pregnancy, you should see a doctor specifically to get proper treatment.
25. Think that you are not alone, because believe even people who do not know you are in any way going to help you if there is something in the way of yourself.

Well I hope these tips help and make you better prepared while keeping the pregnancy and postpartum

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Tips to stay healthy in the office

We sat in the office approximately 8 hours a day that often brings back problems. There are many ways to maintain your health while in office. Listen nine stretching exercises that will lower your tension during work, as follows:

1. Do not cross your legs. Crossing your legs can cause lower back pain. It can also reduce circulation can contribute to varicose veins.
2. Straighten your legs. Straighten the legs while sitting able to keep the pelvis and hips balanced over your seat.
3. Add loads. By placing one foot in the phone book or a box, you put pressure on the lumbar spine. Do both legs alternately.
4. Reaching down. Straighten your arms beside your chair to bring blood flow to the spine.
5. Stretch chest. Straighten your arms parallel to the chest and fingers pointing upward to squeeze your shoulder blades. This stretch opens the chest muscles that are feeling the stress during work.
6. Set workspace. Ergonomics is the key to health as long as you are in the office; adjust your computer monitor to eye level, try not to lean back while talking on the phone but use a headset instead, and so on.
7. Walk. Get up from your office chair. Give pause regularly to walk in between your work. Standing at least every 30 minutes to improve blood circulation and stretch your muscles are tense.
8. Good posture. When you sit down, practice good posture by pulling the stomach into.
9. Inhale. Breathe in to the count of the right can reduce blood pressure, stress, and give you more energy

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4 Characteristics If Love Him Not Serious

If you are currently undergoing a love affair, make sure your partner is really sincere love. Not pretend or just want to take advantage of the relationship being undertaken. It is not easy to know whether the couple is now genuinely love you. These four characteristics / signs if a man gives a false love:
4 Characteristics If Love Him Not Serious

1. Always say "I just want to be with you"
while he was away. Be careful when a guy is always saying that sentence when he is not with you. The phrase could be just a rag. While we were away he actually shared with another woman. With those words he just wants you calm down and not be disturbed by sms or phone call from you.

2. No focus when showing affection When he hug or kiss you
eyes do not focus your attention. He just looked around or staring at his cell phone. It is not just the indifferent attitude, but it could also be drawing on your feelings.

3. Make an appointment at the same time cancel
He made ​​a promise to you, but then canceled. For example, he promised to introduce you to their friends or family, but at the last minute he canceled it.

4. Talking about the future that never was
He always talked about the future but it is only limited to talk and not realize it. The first time he spoke of the future may sound sweet. However, if the long run what he's talking about is starting to sound crap, be careful. Follow your heart and do not get complacent.

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7 Signs He Wants Sex

1. Pupil distention. Her pupils were dilated, making the black ball on the eyes dilate. This could be a strong signal that a spike in sex drive in men.
2. Linking thumb into his trousers belt hole. This sign is to be done to provide a code for sex.
3. He touched his nose time and again. A study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine showed that the nerves in the nose of a man erection interconnected networks. Unless he was sick with the flu or a cold.
4. Talk With More Gentle Voice Of Usually. Research in 2010 showed that men instinctively lowered his voice that could be a signal that an increase in the desire for sex.
5. She touches your shoulder. Rubbing or wiping your hands shoulder usually indicates he wants you.
6. Hugging and Laying Down His hand on your waist. If she suddenly hugged you and hold your buttocks, it may be a sign to you that he wanted more than a hug.
7. Lip Biting Down and Wiggle head. Men who do it when speaking in front of their partner may be anxious because you want right away.

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10 human ability beyond human limits

These will appear 10 human capabilities beyond the limits of human thought:

1. People who get kicked in the groin without getting hurtYong Hsueh, a Shaolin monk, appearing on the Chinese version of Britain's Got Talent to demonstrate his ability to get kicked in the crotch without suffering injury.He told the audience: "Steel crotch Kongfu is an ancient art, with roots stretching back to ancient China. "This is an exercise to strengthen and protect the male genital organs so less chance they are injured or unable to battle."Cross legged male members of the audience watched aghast when some members of the panel were invited to kick the monk - who simply bowed and smiled after each got a kick between the crotch.The monk said that these skills can only be learned by a student that began in childhood - and it involves pushing the testicles into the body where the testes are protected and can not hurt.

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How smartphones make us superhuman

 

Editor's note: This story kicks off an in-depth CNN series, "Our Mobile Society," about how smartphones and tablets have changed the way we live.

(CNN) -- Both men lit themselves on fire in protest. But only one of them is credited with starting a revolution.

The difference between the two? Mobile phones recorded Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit vendor, as he set himself ablaze in despair over his economic plight. Those videos kicked off the wave of 2011 Arab Spring demonstrations.

Abdesslem Trimech, the other man, fell into relative obscurity.

The example, cited in the book "The Mobile Wave," highlights just one of the many superpowers that mobile phones -- and to a lesser extent, tablets -- have bestowed upon humanity. In addition to enabling us to video events on a second's notice, potentially altering the course of global politics, these high-tech human "appendages" increasingly have become tools for fighting corruption, buying stuff, bolstering memory, promoting politics, improving education and giving people around the world more access to health care

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Nasa's 'untried' technology to land Curiosity on Mars

On 6 August, the largest rover ever sent to Mars should touchdown on the planet’s surface. For the landing, the mission uses a complex – and untried – “sky crane”. Our space columnist finds out how it’s going to work. (Video of landing courtesy of Nasa).

If you’re contemplating a mission to Mars, Nasa’s Chronology of Mars Exploration makes depressing reading. For every successful Russian Mars 3 or American Viking 1, there’s a failed Beagle 2 (UK) or Mars Polar Lander (US). In fact, of the 42 missions listed, only 17 have been successful. The odds, over the past half-century, of a Mars mission succeeding are around 40%.

To be fair, several early missions didn’t even make it off the launch pad and the chances of success have improved considerably over the decades. But you don’t have to go back far to see failure. Only last year, Russia’s Phobos-Grunt mission to the Martian moon Phobos failed to make it out of Earth orbit (well, it did eventually when it burned up on re-entry). Perhaps the most infamous though is Nasa’s 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter, where a mix-up between imperial and metric measurements sent the spacecraft careering into the Martian atmosphere to be destroyed.

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Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?

 

Claudia Hammond examines what causes the wince-inducing sound, and sifts through the evidence to see whether it actually damages your joints.

Some people crack their knuckles by pulling the tip of each finger one at a time until they hear a crack. Others make a tight fist or bend their fingers backwards away from the hand, cracking the lot at once. If you are one of those people who sits and cracks your knuckles while others wince, at some point somebody is bound to have told you that cracking your joints gives you arthritis.

For some it’s a nervous habit; for others the sensation brings relief. Depending on which research you read, between 25 and 54% of people do it, with men more likely to do so than women.

Whichever method is used, the noise is created in the same manner. The space between the joints increases, causing the gases dissolved in the synovial fluid bathing the joint to form microscopic bubbles.  These bubbles merge into large bubbles which then get popped by additional fluid which rushes in to fill the enlarged space.

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Just Giving awards for Midsummer Skinny Dip's Alison Powell, and Richard Parks

The organiser of a beach skinny dip that saw hundreds of naked swimmers take to the sea has won an award from a charity website.

 

Alison Powell's Midsummer Skinny Dip at Rhossili, Gower, in June raised over £25,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and the National Trust.

She was named most creative fund raiser at the JustGiving Awards.

Meanwhile, former Welsh rugby international Richard Parks picked up the celebrity fundraiser award.

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Hundreds of swimmers have braved the cold of the Northumberland coast in an attempt at a record-breaking skinny dip.

 

Despite more than 200 naked people running into the 12C sea at Druridge Bay at sunrise, they failed to break the world record.

Organiser Jacqueline Higginson said the event was still a "lot of fun".

The North East Skinny Dip was organised to held to raise money for mental health charity Mind.

Miss Higginson, 34, from Whitburn, took part in a previous Guinness World record dip last year in south-west Wales.

She said: "Today loads of us ran naked into the sea to raise money for Mind and to celebrate ourselves and our bodies.

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Pictures Flying cars

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Flying cars: Grounded reality or ready for take off?

Despite centuries of promise, flying cars remain largely confined to films and fiction. But a host of new projects hope to finally let them fly.

 (more Flying cars picture, please click here)

Blade Runner. Back to the Future. The Fifth Element. Science fiction classics that all have one thing in common: flying cars.

Whether it’s gliding taxi cabs or hovering DeLoreans, Hollywood has embraced the idea of a vehicle that is as happy on the motorway as it is in the clouds. But away from the silver screen, this science fiction staple has failed to take off.

Over the years, there have been ambitious and attempts – such as the Taylor Aerocar - but few would agree that the designs are in any way practical or user-friendly.

But the ever increasing number of cars on the roads means that a vehicle that can soar into the skies remains an attractive option.  “We need to try to relive congestion on our road, and one potential solution is an aerial vehicle” says Dr Michael Jump, a lecturer in aerospace at Liverpool University in the UK.

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Druridge Bay skinny dippers set to attempt world record

 

Swimmers are preparing to bid for a record-breaking skinny dip, on the Northumberland coast.

Jacqueline Higginson, from Sunderland, is urging as many people as possible to take part in the attempt, at Druridge Bay on 22 September.
Miss Higginson, 34, took part in a previous Guinness World record dip last year in Wales.
Everyone who takes part in the North Sea attempt is expected to get at least waist deep during the sunrise swim.
Miss Higginson, a paramedic, said she loved every minute of the event on Rhossili beach last year when 413 people took part.
"I think it was arranged after a few drinks in the pub but it ended up being an amazing experience," she said.

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How a movie changed one man’s vision forever

 

Bruce Bridgeman lived with a flat view of the world, until a trip to the cinema unexpectedly rewired his brain to see the world in 3D. The question is how it happened.

Good movies change people’s view of the world all the time, but how many can say a movie has fundamentally altered their vision forever? One person who can is Bruce Bridgeman. In terms of how he sees the world, there is life before Hugo, and life after Hugo.

On 16 February this year, Bridgeman went to the theatre with his wife to see Martin Scorsese’s 3D family adventure. Like everyone else, he paid a surcharge for a pair of glasses, despite thinking they would be a complete waste of money. Bridgeman, a 67-year-old neuroscientist at the University of California in Santa Cruz, grew up nearly stereoblind, that is, without true perception of depth. “When we’d go out and people would look up and start discussing some bird in the tree, I would still be looking for the bird when they were finished,” he says. “For everybody else, the bird jumped out. But to me, it was just part of the background.”

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How the world’s oceans could be running out of fish

 

Global fish stocks are exploited or depleted to such an extent that without urgent measures we may be the last generation to catch food from the oceans. 

It has been some time since most humans lived as hunter-gatherers – with one important exception. Fish are the last wild animal that we hunt in large numbers. And yet, we may be the last generation to do so.

Entire species of marine life will never be seen in the Anthropocene (the Age of Man), let alone tasted, if we do not curb our insatiable voracity for fish. Last year, global fish consumption hit a record high of 17 kg (37 pounds) per person per year, even though global fish stocks have continued to decline. On average, people eat four times as much fish now than they did in 1950.

Around 85% of global fish stocks are over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. Only this week, a report suggested there may be fewer than 100 cod over the age of 13 years in the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. It’s a worrying sign that we are losing fish old enough to create offspring that replenish populations.

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Putting a price on computer nostalgia

 

Keep hold of your old computers, iPods and video games - they may be worth more than you think, say Tom Chatfield. 

For people who tend to have one eye on the future, geeks also indulge in their fair share of nostalgia.

Ask one of a certain age (ask me, indeed) about the changing nature of computing, and it won’t be long before they’re reminiscing about the look, feel, sense and weight of a beloved old BBC Micro Model B, Sinclair ZX81, Macintosh 128K, - or perhaps how they used to creep into the smoky semi-darkness of a local arcade to feed small change into Donkey Kong and Galaga.

Despite the rise of the internet and the amount of time we invest in seemingly transient, digital worlds, we cannot help becoming emotionally attached to physical objects.

The fetishistic power of them looms as large as ever in our lives. What is shifting, however, is the ways in which this fetish plays out.

Once upon a time, books, LPs, battered posters and photograph albums were the physical expression of our lives, on display for all to see. Today, in a word of Kindles and iPads, affection flows down narrower channels - towards the tools that gift us entry to the online world. Just ask a teenager how they feel towards the sleek smartphone in their pocket, or the tablet peeking out of their tote bag.

Or, for a more extreme example, look to a recent auction in New York where one of only 200 Apple 1 computers ever created was sold for $374,500 – more than double its estimate. It’s one of only a handful of working models remaining in the world, but it’s unlikely that the buyer is interested in actually using it. Like a Ming vase or a first folio of Shakespeare’s complete works (yours for not less than $5m), it’s the aura of the object that matters, along with its unique place in history.

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