“Young brains operate like Ferraris – shifting between forward and reverse, making and breaking memories with a facility that surpasses that of older brains, which are less plastic,” said Dale Bredesen, MD, Buck Institute faculty member and leader of the research group. “We believe that in aging brains, AD occurs when the ‘molecular shifting switch’ gets stuck in the reverse position, throwing the balance of making and breaking memories seriously off kilter.”

Läs mer: Paradoxical Alzheimer's finding may shed new light on memory loss | Science Blog

At my work I have reasonably fast Linux workstation running CentOS 5. It also has a good 24" screen.  I prefer not to switch it off between work sessions and sometimes one of the other guys would like to run his stuff on my machine.

Problem is I am logged in and the screen is locked with my password. My colleague is running Ubuntu and he has a nifty "switch user" option on the menu.

Now I have figured out how to get the same functionality in CentOS 5. You need to follow these steps.

Install the Gnome configuration editor. Start "Add/Remove Software" from the "Applications" menu

and search for "gconf".

Select gconf-editor and apply.

Then start gconf-editor from the command line:

gconf-editor&

Select "Find" from the "edit" menu:

Search for "user_switch" and rember to also search in keys:

find the key user_switch_enabled in the top right pane and tick its value:

Close the editor (there is no save button or command).

Now select Lock Screen" from the "System" menu.

The password box will now have a "Switch User" button! remember that the user you're switching to must also have his settings changed as above to get a "Switch User" button from his or her account.

FOI rapporterar detta:

Om ett par år börjar oljan att minska och gasen har redan gjort det. Ryssland importerar gas som man sedan exporterar till väst. Och vad kan Medvedev göra? Enligt Jan Leijonhielm säger han de rätta sakerna, men hans förflutna talar ett annat språk. Medvedev har själv bäddat för dagens problem och är en fånge i systemet. Han kan inte bekämpa korruptionen. Det är för många mäktiga som är beroende av den. Vid seminariet tecknade amerikanska och brittiska experter en dyster bild av Rysslands framtid där den ekonomiska krisen står för dörren och där man nu har en regering som inte kan klara den.

There was no evidence that subjects with poorer lung function were more likely to quit. A 45-year-old who was told her lung age was normal was as likely to stop as one told her lung age was 65. Although the study could not prove it, merely being presented with the facts of lung function in a vivid and understandable way was apparently enough to encourage people to stop smoking.

Läs mer: Reminder to Smokers: Your Lungs Are Aging - New York Times

Hela texten om läderlappsbombarna är så välskriven att den skulle platsa som monolog i en Quentin Tarantino-film. Utsnitt:

Because bats can carry a good amount of weight and tend to sneak into buildings and such, the plan was to make an army of flying rodent suicide bombers and release them over Japan. The little fellas had small napalm explosive kits made for them, which were probably the cutest incendiary devices ever

Jag har faktiskt inte kommit längre än den till den texten när detta postas...

Läs mer: The 10 Most Bizarre Military Experiments | Cracked.com

I attempted to tell Jim what was happening and to stay with the airplane until we reached a lower speed and altitude. I didn't think the chances of surviving an ejection at Mach 3.18 and 78,800 ft. were very good. However, g-forces built up so rapidly that my words came out garbled and unintelligible, as confirmed later by the cockpit voice recorder. The cumulative effects of system malfunctions, reduced longitudinal stability, increased angle-of-attack in the turn, supersonic speed, high altitude and other factors imposed forces on the airframe that exceeded flight control authority and the Stability Augmentation System's ability to restore control. Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion. I learned later the time from event onset to catastrophic departure from controlled flight was only 2-3 seconds. Still trying to communicate with Jim, I blacked out, succumbing to extremely high g-forces. Then the SR-71 . . literally . . disintegrated around us. From that point, I was just along for the ride. And my next recollection was a hazy thought that I was having a bad dream. Maybe I'll wake up and get out of this mess, I mused. Gradually regaining consciousness, realized this was no dream; it had really happened. That also was disturbing, because . . I COULD NOT HAVE SURVIVED . . what had just happened.

Läs mer: 916 Starfighter

Ända sedan 1926 då man började mäta pulser i djurs neuroner, har man trott att det är antal pulser per tidsenhet som är det viktiga. Man kunde inte se någon precision i tajmingen direkt. Nu har man simulerat en flugas naturliga omgivning mer precist, och si, då avfyras pulserna med stor precision.

“Biological organisms have an interest in conserving energy,” Nemenman said. “Fly eyes account for about one-tenth of the fly’s energy consumption. The fly wants to be very efficient, but it costs energy and molecular resources to emit many precise spikes in the neurons. “If you are presenting simple stimuli where little changes with time, then the most efficient way to encode them may be to generate few randomly positioned spikes, which would be sufficient to convey whatever small changes, if any, happened. Similarly, if the stimulus is unnaturally fast, the neurons may not be able to encode it well.

Vi får se om modernare teknik och metoder gör någon skillnad. Vi är ju dock helt säkra på att en rysk U-båt varit långt inne på svenskt territorialvatten, eftersom den gick upp på land.

FOI genomför för närvarande en analys av inspelningar från ubåtsjakten i och utanför Hårsfjärden 1982. Totalt rör det sig om drygt en timmes inspelningar som FOI har fått i uppdrag av Försvarsmakten att analysera. Av särskilt intresse är en sonarliknande signal och vad den härrör från.

Läs mer: Analys av ubåtsljuden ordentligt igång - FOI, Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut

Enligt Times Online så beror hatet mot plastpåsen på felaktig information:

The central claim of campaigners is that the bags kill more than 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds every year. However, this figure is based on a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland, which found that, between 1981 and 1984, more than 100,000 marine mammals, including birds, were killed by discarded nets. The Canadian study did not mention plastic bags

Den belgiska centralbanken har 2000 anställda, vilket är dubbelt så mycket som Storbritannien (som har en valuta) och 4 ggr så mycket som Sverige eller Danmark har!

Man måste väl ge en eloge till dessa belgiska byråkrater som lyckats hålla igång (eller vad man ska kalla det) i nio år sedan Euron infördes. På Bankens webbsajt bedyras det också att centralbanken inte förlorat något av sin nytta allas sedan Euron infördes. Det här är hard core-byråkrater, respekt!

The National Bank has lost none of its usefulness since the Eurosystem was established. Its governor is a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), which takes the monetary policy decisions in which he participates. The National Bank takes part in the preparation and implementation of those decisions.

Siffran om anställda kommer från Alain Destexhe, liberal belgisk senator:

On a appris par Guy Quaden hier à la RTBF qu'il y avait plus de 2.000 employés à la BNB. Mais que font-ils depuis que la Banque centrale européenne et l'euro existent ?

Läs mer: Alain Destexhe : blog et site 2008: 2.000 employés à la Banque Nationale de Belgique

Hitta via Economistbloggen, Läs mer: Belgium's unsackable central bankers | Certain ideas of Europe | Economist.com

THANKS TO Alain Destexhe, a Belgian senator (and that rarest/loneliest of beings, a Belgian free market liberal), for today's fact of the day. Mr Destexhe reports on his blog that the Belgian central bank still employs more than 2,000 people, even though it has not had a currency to oversee since 1999, when Belgium joined the euro.

Om man detaljanalyserar Dumavalet i december 2007 visar det sig tydligt att valet var styrt. Till exempel förekommer regioner och valkretsar med absurt högt valdeltagande och med ett närmast hundra-procentigt stöd för Putin. – Det vore naivt att tro att inte presidentvalet kommer att styras på samma sätt, avslutar Carl Holmberg. Läs rapporten: http://www2.foi.se/rapp/foir2474.pdf

Ur rapporten:

The overwhelming political dominance of United Russia can be explained by the
fact that political parties have never served as the real power bases in Russian
post-Soviet politics. They are used to mobilise support and legitimise the current
system instead and in the last few years most efforts have been spent on getting
United Russia to perform this function. The party is best characterised as a huge
corporation of various national and regional political and economic interests.
Conflict between these groups mostly takes place behind the political scene and
within the political parties and the bureaucratic system. A power struggle could
therefore very well provoke a major crisis within or between political parties, but
this would not be a reflection of different political opinions among the

Läs rapporten: http://www2.foi.se/rapp/foir2474.pdf
Pressmeddelande: Pressrum - FOI, Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut

I have an old Logitech QuickCam web camera lying around so I thought I'd put it to use.

See if Linux recognises it as a USB unit

Run the command lsusb

Gave back among others this line:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:092c Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Chat

46d indicates the vendor and 92c the model.

Install a driver for the Web camera.

Unplug the camera

I found info on this page.

Here it says that the correct driver for my camera is"spca".

Install the spca driver the normal way with the package manager (search for spca).

You may need to add a repository beyone the normal ones, I am not sure.

Check with lsmod that is is loaded as a kernel module.

Module                  Size  Used by
gspca                 650704  1 
videodev               25025  2 gspc

Use dmesg to see that the driver recognises the camera

usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
/root/gspcav1-20071224/gspca_core.c: USB GSPCA camera found.(SPCA561A)
/root/gspcav1-20071224/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_probe:4275] Camera type S561 
/root/gspcav1-20071224/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_getcapability:1249] maxw 352 maxh 288 minw 160 minh 120
/root/gspcav1-20071224/Sunplus/spca561.h: [spca561_init:467] Find spca561 USB Product ID 92c
/root/gspcav1-20071224/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_set_light_freq:1932] Sensor currently not support light frequency banding filters.

Check that the video works

Change the permissions of /dev/vide0 (or where it was installed), so that the user running the video application can use it.

Use Videolan client capture to check if you now can see the camera

Install frame capture software

Install cameE.

configure it by copying example.camErc to ~/.camErc

Put  camE into daemon mode with the command:

camE -d

I wanted to publish the files to the same computer that captures the frames so I added a public key to the same user as is capturing the images and scp:s that to the web directory of the httpd server.

Läs mer: [LinuxBrit] - camE

Enligt nyhetssajten Bloomberg har Hugo Chavez regering i Venezuela bistått FARC-gerillan i Colombia med åtminstone $300 miljoner dollar. Farc:s andremans dator innehåller enligt uppgift dokument som påvisar detta.

The documents on the computer of Raul Reyes, the second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, indicate that Venezuela provided the guerrillas with at least $300 million and would help Chavez in the event of a U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Om detta är en kursändringar kan ju vara för tidigt att sia om, men Fidel Castro har tidigare blockerat Kubas signatur på dessa dokument.

Just days after Raúl Castro took office as this country's new president, Cuba's Communist government has signed two important international human rights treaties that Fidel Castro had long opposed, another sign the new administration might set a new course.

På svenska väderlekssändningar, och även danska, använder man för vindstyrka måttet meter per sekund eller som det också något oegentligt kallas, sekundmeter. Det är en standardiserad SI-enhet. Mått som används i andra länder är miles per hour och knop. Nu verkar många i världen standardisera på kilometer i timmen. Det låter väl mer metriskt än miles per hour och mer välbekant än knop (för de som kör bil t ex).

Men km/h är inte en metrisk SI-enhet. Det är meter per sekund som är det. Så jag ber härmed svenska väderrapportörer:

Om ni tänker använda något annat än m/s, kan ni då åtminstone använda knop? 40 knop är nästan exakt 20 m/s osv, så det blir bra mycket enklare än att behöva mentalt dividera med 3,6 som man får göra i huvudet nu för att konvertera km/h till m/s.

Det är svårt att sätta sig in i eller leva sig in i andras väder när man får vindstyrkan i ett obekant mått.

I Alperna uppmättes vindar på 190 kilometer i timmen. Meteorologer varnade skidåkare för hög lavinfara på grund av ovädret.

Och som alltid, dödsolyckor är tragiska. 190 km/h är över 50 m/s.

Läs mer: Fem döda i europeiska oväder

End Software Patents är en organisation som har som mål att förbjuda mjukvarupatent.

Jag kan se många fördelar med att inte ha mjukvarupatent. Patent i allmänhet kom till för att se till att det fanns motivation och pengar för att göra och marknadsföra nya uppfinningar, dvs för samhällets bästa.

Patent har senare tolkats som framsprunget som en naturlig del av äganderätten, dvs som en individuell rättighet.

Min uppfattning är att mjukvarupatent minskar uppfinnings- och utvecklingstakten, och därmed inte tjänar något samhälleligt syfte. Jag anser inte heller att de är en naturlig del av äganderäten.

Man kan donera pengar til organisationen här.

Software innovation happens without government intervention. Virtually all of the technologies you use now were developed before software was widely viewed as patentable. The Web, email, your word processor and spreadsheet program, instant messaging, or even more technical features like the psychoachoustic encoding and Huffman compression underlying the MP3 standard—all of it was originally developed by enthusiastic programmers, many of whom have formed successful business around such software, none of whom asked the government for a monopoly. So if software authors have a proven track-record of innovation without patents, why force them to use patents? What is the gain from billions of dollars in patent litigation?

Attention, at least the kind we care about, is an intrinsically scarce resource [ 4 ]. Consider yours, right now. You are reading this paper, or more likely, since it is intended to be delivered at a conference, listening to me speaking it. You have a certain stock of attention at your disposal, and right now, a large proportion of the stock available to you is going to me, or to my words. Note that if I am standing in front of you it is difficult to distinguish between paying attention to me and paying attention to my words or thoughts; you can hardly do one without doing the other. If you are just reading this, assuming it gets printed in a book, the fact that your attention is going to me and not just to what I write may be slightly less obvious. So it is convenient to think of being in the audience at this conference in order to consider what attention economics is all about.

Läs mer: The Attention Economy: The Natural Economy of the Net

Några brasilianare har nu gjort i ordning några script, IES4Linux,  som automatiskt kan installera Internet Explorer 6, 5.5 och 5 på din linuxmaskin. Vi har provat på Ubuntu och CentOS, och det fungerade utmärkt på båda (även om CentOS-installationen gav ett felmeddelande).

Internet Explorer 6 körande på CentOS 5 Linux och Gnome.

I några år har det funnits ett sätt att köra en del Windowsprogram på Linux, genom en miljö som heter Wine. IE4Linux använder bl a Wine för att få webbläsarna att fungera. Det här är första gången det har gått så här smidigt!

IEs4Linux is the simpler way to have Microsoft Internet Explorer running on Linux (or any OS running Wine). No clicks needed. No boring setup processes. No Wine complications. Just one easy script and you'll get three IE versions to test your Sites. And it's free and open source.

Läs mer: Main Page - IEs4Linux

These tetraether lipids contribute to the cell membrane of ocean-dwelling Crenarchaeota, ancient organisms that are found at a wide variety of temperatures. In 2004, a team of paleooceanographers showed that the type of tetraether lipids in these cell membranes varies directly with ocean temperature. That means chemical analysis of these compounds can serve as a makeshift thermometer. The TEX86 data confirm that the Turonian tropical ocean was just like a warm bath, with temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit.

Sea levels, past and future

Previously, studies have shown that during the mid-Turonian, sea levels were decreasing.

Läs mer: Supergreenhouse Climate Mystery: Science Videos - Science News - ScienCentral

“We have created a three-dimensional neural network, a mini nervous system in culture, which can be transplanted en masse,” explains senior author Douglas H. Smith, MD, Professor, Department of Neurosurgery and Director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at Penn.

Läs mer: Researchers engineer first system of human nerve-cell tissue | Science Blog