 USA TODAY | US: North Korea agrees to suspend nuclear activities USA TODAY WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States said Wednesday North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear activities and accept a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, in a breakthrough in negotiations with the secretive communist nation. North Korea Agrees to Curb Nuclear Work, US SaysNew York Times US: North Korea suspends nuclear activitiesFox News US says N.Korea agrees to nuclear moratoriumReuters all 327 news articles » |
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
US: North Korea agrees to suspend nuclear activities - USA TODAY
US: North Korea agrees to suspend nuclear activities - USA TODAY:
Official: Man seized in Cairo apparently not al-Qaeda leader - USA TODAY
Official: Man seized in Cairo apparently not al-Qaeda leader - USA TODAY:
 USA TODAY | Official: Man seized in Cairo apparently not al-Qaeda leader USA TODAY WASHINGTON (AP) – The US does not believe that a man arrested in Cairo is a long-sought senior al-Qaeda military leader, US officials said Wednesday. FBI via AP Saif al-Adel, also known as Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi, is wanted by the FBI in connection ... Egypt detains Islamist, confusion over al Qaeda linkReuters Suspected key al-Qaida figure detained in Cairo, NBC News reportsmsnbc.com Report: Egypt arrests al Qaeda leaderCNN The Associated Press -ABC News all 620 news articles » |
4 killed as tornadoes rake Midwest states - msnbc.com
4 killed as tornadoes rake Midwest states - msnbc.com:
 USA TODAY | 4 killed as tornadoes rake Midwest states msnbc.com First in breaking news and analysis: Msnbc.com reporters and NBC correspondents bring you compelling stories from across the nation. By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services BRANSON, Mo. -- At least four people were killed overnight as a line of ... Powerful storm sweeps Midwest leaving at least 4 dead, dozens hurt; Mo ...Washington Post 4 dead, dozens hurt after possible tornadoes rip through MidwestFox News all 674 news articles » |
Coast Guard copter crash: 1 dead, 3 missing - CBS News
Coast Guard copter crash: 1 dead, 3 missing - CBS News:
 ABC News | Coast Guard copter crash: 1 dead, 3 missing CBS News An MH-65 Dolphin US Coast Guard helicopter is seen during a training exercise in a Sept. 2011 file photo. (AP) MOBILE, Ala. - One crewmember died and rescuers were searching Wednesday for three others missing after a Coast Guard helicopter crashed in ... Ala. Coast Guard chopper crash: 1 dead, 3 missingThe Associated Press One dead, 3 missing in Coast Guard helicopter crashReuters 3 missing, 1 dead in US Coast Guard helicopter crashCNN Washington Post all 812 news articles » |
iPad 3: 10 Hot Features Apple Needs to Include - eWeek
iPad 3: 10 Hot Features Apple Needs to Include - eWeek:
 USA TODAY | iPad 3: 10 Hot Features Apple Needs to Include eWeek NEWS ANALYSIS: Apple's iPad 3 is right around the corner, and when the device launches, there are several features that users want to see. Apple will be holding a special even March 7 at which the company is expected to finally unveil the iPad 3. Will Apple Unveil a New Apple TV Alongside the iPad 3?PC Magazine iPad 3 is almost official: Apple invites media to March 7 eventTechSpot New, faster Apple iPad expected next weekReuters Boston Herald -Wall Street Journal all 1,388 news articles » |
Leap Year: The Trials and Tribulations - ABC News
Leap Year: The Trials and Tribulations - ABC News:
 ABC News | Leap Year: The Trials and Tribulations ABC News Have you ever been told you look like an actor or musician, perhaps one with whom you'd rather not be associated? Maybe you heard it over and over again, for years and years, to the point of nervous exhaustion. You addressed the matter with close ... Leap into puddles today; heavy rain expectedPhiladelphia Inquirer Chat: What's special about 29 February?BBC News Birthdays well worth the waitBoston.com Dekalb Daily Chronicle -DesMoinesRegister.com -KJCT8.com all 574 news articles » |
5 things we learned from Tuesday's primaries - CNN
5 things we learned from Tuesday's primaries - CNN:
 Los Angeles Times | 5 things we learned from Tuesday's primaries CNN By Mark Preston, CNN Political Director (CNN) -- It seems that every week a different Republican presidential candidate has felt "Super" on a Tuesday. Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have all experienced that "Super" feeling of victory. Gingrich targeting 'Super Tuesday' statesBoston.com Gingrich talks trees, not losses, in primary night speechCBS News Gingrich kicks off focus on South in GeorgiaUSA TODAY Detroit Free Press -WMUR Manchester -Los Angeles Times all 1,434 news articles » |
Announcing Quantified Self Week!
Announcing Quantified Self Week!:
You are invited to learn and to share your knowledge!
What: QS Week 2012 – “Self-Knowledge Through Numbers”
When: September 7 – 14, 2012 Where: all over the world…. ;-)
What is QS Week?
This September, our Quantified Self community is coming together for a new experiment. Working together, we are going to create a world-wide, week long, open festival devoted to “self knowledge through numbers.” If you use or make self-tracking tools, or have knowledge or inspiration to share with a wider audience than you might find at a normal QS Show&Tell, I hope you will continue reading to learn how you can participate.
What will happen during QS Week?
For the last six months, Alex, Ernesto, and I have been hard at work trying to understand how to stage this festival this in the most simple, inclusive, and meaningful way. We are already quietly on track to put on dozens of separate events in the Bay Area and around the world during the days of the festival. (We will have a public announcement of the program when it is more complete.) QS Week is going to include: Demos of new self-tracking tools. Keynote talks and debates. Workshops on how to do meaningful tracking for health, sports & fitness, cognition, emotion, productivity, and play. Collaborative experiments. Self-tracking art and design.
How can I get on the program?
Let us know if you have a demo or a workshop to give, and/or a venue to offer. Our goal is to have an open, diverse program. If you have a tool to demo or a workshop you want to lead, fill out the short form below or at bit.ly/qsweek. We will follow up to discuss.
What is your editorial perspective? What are you looking for?
Much of the program will be “hand-crafted” by Alex, Ernesto, and me, in our normal style. However, since this event will be far bigger than anything we’ve ever tried, we have an open attitude about offers to participate. As always, our emphasis will be on the personal meaning of personal data – not on academic, managerial, or commercial data concerns. Our goal is to help people by creating a good context for collaborative discovery, guided by our three Prime Questions: What did you do? How did you do it? What did you learn?
Is there a deadline to propose something?
Please let us know as soon as you can. The earlier you propose, the easier it is for us to help you find your audience. The form is below.
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Draghi strikes back II
Draghi strikes back II:
AT LAST the waiting has ended. Over the past few weeks the markets have been obsessing over just how much liquidity banks would tap from the European Central Bank (ECB) in the second of its extraordinary three-year LTROs (long-term refinancing operations).
The answer came on February 29th from the Frankfurt-based central bank of the 17-country euro area. The ECB announced that it had lent €530 billion ($710 billion), a bit more than traders had expected. The funding also exceeded the previous LTRO, in late December, which had already provided a massive €489 billion. The number of banks dipping into the honeypot reached 800, well above the 523 that borrowed in the first operation.
Just as sequels rarely match the success of blockbuster movies, so with the ECB’s second funding operation. For one thing, since the amount was only a bit higher than expectations, it should broadly be priced into the markets (though such rationality should never be taken for granted). For another, more of the take-up is likely to have come from banks outside the euro area.
More important, the first three-year LTRO proved a runaway hit because the ECB showed its hand—or rather that of the wily Mario Draghi, who had taken the helm only weeks before, replacing Jean-Claude Trichet, the bank’s previous president. No, Mr Draghi clearly signalled, the ECB under his leadership would not become the lender of last resort to troubled governments. Instead, it would become the lender of first resort to troubled banks, which could in turn prop up toppling sovereigns by purchasing their debt. Moreover, it would provide funds for a record length (LTROs are usually for months rather than years and the previous record was just one year) and at dirt-cheap rates (the three-year average of the ECB’s main policy rate, currently at 1% and tipped to fall later this year to 0.5%).
The ECB’s eleventh-hour intervention in December dampened down the euro crisis, which had threatened to go critical. Italian and Spanish government bond yields had soared and scared investors had shunned European banks, causing an ominous funding drought. The first three-year LTRO broke this spiral of pessimism by removing fears of an imminent banking implosion.
As confidence returned, funding markets re-opened for stronger banks in stronger European economies. And crucially, the ECB’s backdoor approach worked a treat in Italy and Spain. Banks there lapped up the central bank’s funds and purchased their own governments’ debt. That pushed down Italian and Spanish sovereign bond yields whose spreads over German Bunds narrowed markedly.
At best, the second LTRO will maintain that return of confidence for a while. But the ECB’s provision of liquidity buys time rather than solving the euro area’s deep-seated problems, which are as much political as economic. A sharp reminder of the dangers ahead came on February 28th when Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, unexpectedly announced that Ireland would hold a referendum on the European treaty to enshrine budget discipline in national law. Even if the Irish vote against it, the “fiscal compact” will take effect, since it requires only 12 countries in the euro area to back it. But the referendum will reveal public resentment against the harsh austerity that has been imposed on Ireland under its bail-out.
There are other tripwires ahead, highlighted by this week’s decision by Standard & Poor’s, a credit-rating agency, to put Greece into “selective default” as a result of the debt-exchange deal that will slash the face value of private-sector holdings of Greek public debt by more than half. A vote in the German parliament endorsed the linked second bail-out of €130 billion, but opinion polls revealed that over 60% of Germans were opposed to it. Even if the debt swap goes according to plan, an election in April could move Greece closer to an exit from the euro area, with potentially forbidding consequences not just for Greece but the rest of the single-currency zone.
Perhaps most worrying of all, the economic prospects are not just bleak for bailed-out and beleaguered Greece and Portugal but also for much larger Italy and Spain. Italian and Spanish borrowing costs may have fallen but that will be of little avail if these economies, already forecast to shrink this year, are unable to return to growth. Moreover, the austerity that Spain must undergo is fiercer than had been expected since its deficit last year has turned out to be 8.5% of GDP rather than the 6% that had been targeted.
The ECB’s second dollop of easy money has comforted markets. But the euro crisis has not gone away. It would not take that much for it to turn acute again.
Are we thinking of the children?
Are we thinking of the children?:
MY LAST post on Germany’s economy and its low rates of female employment generated some criticism in the comment section. One aspect in particular seems to bother some readers: isn’t it good for children if mothers stay home? If children benefit from a mother who stays at home and the government encourages women to work, there are long-term losses through lower future economic welfare of the children—counteracting the short-term gains of increased economic output.
But do children benefit? Empirical research on this issue is tricky, as it is generally unknown exactly why a parent chooses to stay at home, and these unknown reasons may affect the child in numerous ways. Which part of a child’s development is therefore caused by the mother staying at home, and which by these unobserved factors? We don’t and can’t know. Unless, of course, we find a change in mothers’ time at home that was driven by an outside force, that is, which was unrelated to the unknown reasons. A maternal leave reform, say. And apparently, Norway has had plenty of those.
One older reform that affected children born in the late 1970s, was analysed by Pedro Carneiro (University College London), Katrine Løken (University of Bergen) and Kjell Salvanes (Norwegian School of Economics). They find that during their first year children benefit if their mothers are at home. However, children born in 1977 had litte in the way of public, high-quality child care available, so the comparison is between the mother and some form of informal child care. The results might be different today.
Another recent paper from Norway by Eric Bettinger (Stanford University), Torbjørn Hægeland (Statistics Norway) and Mari Rege (University of Stavanger), exploits a reform from 1998. Interestingly, this reform is quite comparable to the German “cooker premium” that I criticised in the last post: an allowance for parents who do not use public child care. It incentivised mothers to stay at home—and succeeded. The authors focus on older children, even though the reform targeted younger children. But naturally, their older siblings are affected, too. They find positive effects of mothers who stay at home on 10th-grade test scores, although the effect at the bottom half of the income distribution is zero—which may indicate that disadvantaged children may benefit from being in public child care.
But why look at Norway, when there is evidence on Germany, the country that I was discussing in my earlier post?Christian Dustmann and Uta Schönberg (both of University College London) have done the maths for us. They use three reforms on parental leave in 1979, 1986 and 1992 and find—nothing. So for Germany, it seems the benefits for children are limited.
There are many more studies like these, but the bottom line is that there are probably some effects on child outcomes, especially during the first year, if the mother stays at home. These seem to be smaller than might be expected. Why might the effects be so small? One reason is described by David Blau and Janet Currie in a paper that provides a good overview of the subject:
[T]ime use studies indicate that except for very young children, maternal employment has only modest effects on the amount of time mothers spend with their children, and tends to increase the amount of time that fathers spend with their children in two-parent households. Mothers apparently reduce both leisure time and housework in order to maintain their time inputs into child raising...
In other words, female employment does not reduce the time that mothers spend with their children all that much.
Comparing the economic gains from having more women in the (paid) labour force to the gains from potentially improved child outcomes is difficult, of course. But in an ageing society, the burden of economic support for the elderly falls on an ever shrinking share of the population. Such support has efficiency costs of its own. Whatever the economic gains from encouraging female employment are in Germany now, they are likely to increase considerably in the not-so-distant future. Germany’s solid economic performance these days may be the perfect time to make the necessary investments.
For those interested in more readings on the subject, the print edition had a special report in late November on women and work. We also ran an interesting debate around that time. A blog post in July over at Blighty also covered a British study on the subject in detail.
Toolmaker Talk: Alexander Grey (Somaxis)
Toolmaker Talk: Alexander Grey (Somaxis):
Q: How do you describe Somaxis? What is it?
Grey: We have developed a small, wireless sensor for measuring muscle electrical output. The sensors stick onto the body adhesively (like Band-Aids) and transmit data to our smartphone app. One version “MyoBeat” uses a well established heart metric to provide continuous heart rate measurement (like a “chest strap” style sensor). A second version “MyoFit” uses proprietary algorithms to measures the energy output of other muscles. For instance, one on your quads while running can give you insight into how warmed up you are, how much work you are doing, fatigue, endurance, and recovery level. If you use two at the same time, it can show you your muscle symmetry (when asymmetry develops during exercise like running or bicycling, it can indicate the onset of an injury). Our goal is to get people excited about understanding how their bodies work.
Grey: My parents used to run a clinic that used muscle energy technology (sEMG) along with a special training method called Muscle Learning Therapy to cure people with RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) and other work-related upper extremity disorders involving chronic pain. Each sEMG device they bought cost them $10K. I started to develop early symptoms of TMD (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder) when I was only 10, and my father used sEMG to teach me how to control and reduce my muscles’ overuse. The training worked, and I still have it under control today.
Years later, I decided to start a company to develop and commercialize more accessible / less expensive sEMG technology, with my mom as my investor. (My father has passed away, but I think he would have supported the idea.) At first we were going after a workplace safety service — I developed an algorithm that quantified people’s likelihood of developing an RSI injury in the future, and envisioned a prevention-based screening/monitoring service to offer to progressive companies. The feedback I got from VCs was that we needed to start with a bigger market. So we redesigned the product to make it small, cheap, and completely wireless. I also started working on a new set of sports-related algorithms to interpret muscle use into useful metrics.
Q: What impact has it had? What have you heard from users?
Grey: Having this new kind of tool at my disposal has really been a lot of fun, and has allowed me to run some new kinds of experiments that haven’t really been practical before.
For example, I wondered: for a given running speed, what cadence or stride rate would use the least energy, and so delay the onset of fatigue? I put sensors on my both quads, hamstrings, and calves. I created an audio track that increased from 120 – 170 bpm in increments of 5pm, 15 seconds on each. I kept my treadmill locked at 6.5 mph (my “comfortable pace”). By adding up the work done by all 6 muscles in the legs, I got a snapshot of the energy expenditure at each stride rate / cadence. The resulting curve [see graph above] answered my question: for me, at 6.5 mph, 130 bpm is my “sweet spot” that minimizes energy expenditure. It also showed a second trough in the graph, not as low as 130, but still pretty low, at 155 bpm. So if I need to run uphill or downhill, and want to keep the same speed but take shorter steps and still try to minimize energy burn as much as possible, I should shoot for 155 bpm.
Another test that these tools allow us to do is to figure out how recovered someone is from exercise. I did a test where I ran at a fixed speed every 24 hours (that’s not enough recovery time for me – I’m not in good shape). The first day, the muscle amplitude was about 1000 uV RMS (microvolts, amplitude). The second day, the amplitude started out at 500 uV and decreased from there. So the lack of sufficient recovery showed up in the data, which was quite interesting to see.
Whenever we have volunteers in the lab offering to help out (runners, usually) they geek out over these devices and the insight that they can get into the muscles of their bodies for the first time. We’ve had about 40 volunteers help out with muscle data gathering, and about 60 with heart rate testing.
Q: What makes it different, sets it apart?
Grey: Our design goals for our sensors are “good enough” data, wireless, long battery life, and comfort (wearability). Key to this is using a low-power, low-bandwidth radio. The trade-off is a much lower sample rate and a/d resolution than medical-grade sensors. Our sensor transmits processed data, not the raw data. However, our data is good enough for sports and fitness, where you want to see some predigested metrics and not raw graphs or frequency analysis. The benefit is that our battery life is 100 hours, and our sensor is small and light enough to attach using an adhesive patch. The up-side of an adhesive-based solution is that one-size fits all, it’s very comfortable, and there is no tight and annoying strap around your chest.
Q: What are you doing next? How do you see Somaxis evolving?
Grey: We are mainly focusing on improving the physical sensor itself: rechargeable battery, completely waterproof (current version is water resistant), and a smaller size. And maybe a medical-grade version with much higher sample rate and a/d resolution.
We also want to open up the hardware platform so that others can develop applications for it. For example, maybe someone wants to develop software for Yoga that uses muscle isolation to help do poses correctly. Or perhaps someone wants to focus on a weight-lifting application that assesses power and work done during lifting. We can envision many possibilities for sports, gaming, physical therapy, and health.
Q: Anything else you’d like to say?
Grey: I would love to hear from anybody who has ideas about potential uses of our technology! Also, we are fairly early-stage, so if anyone wants to work with us (individuals) or partner with us (companies) we definitely want to hear from you. You can reach me at agrey@somaxis.com
Product: MyoLink platform: MyoBeat (heart) and MyoFit (muscle)
Website: www.somaxis.com (coming soon – there’s nothing there right now, but check back again soon)
Platform: Sensors stream data to an iPhone app (Android under development) and certain sports watches (Garmin, etc.)
Price: $25 for a starter set of 1 Module (MyoBeat or MyoFit) and 4 adhesive patches. Or you can buy 1, 2 or 3 Modules, with a one-year supply of patches, for $75, $125, or $170, respectively.
This is the 11th post in the “Toolmaker Talks” series. The QS blog features intrepid self-quantifiers and their stories: what did they do? how did they do it? and what have they learned? In Toolmaker Talks we hear from QS enablers, those observing this QS activity and developing self-quantifying tools: what needs have they observed? what tools have they developed in response? and what have they learned from users’ experiences? If you are a “toolmaker” and want to participate in this series, contact Rajiv Mehta at rajivzume@gmail.com.
Personal Informatics In Practice: A Cross-Platform Smartphone Brain Scanner
Personal Informatics In Practice: A Cross-Platform Smartphone Brain Scanner:
This is a guest post by Jakob Eg Larsen, an Associate Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) at the Cognitive Systems Section where he heads the mobile informatics lab (milab). His research interests include human-computer interaction, personal informatics, and augmented cognition.
Better understanding of the intricate relations between our brains and behaviors is key to future improvements in well-being and productivity. Conventional tools for measuring these relations such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET) typically rely on complex, heavy hardware that offer limited comfort and mobility for the user. This means that measuring brain activity has been confined to expensive laboratories and that it has been a challenge to perform longer term continuous monitoring of brain signals in real life conditions.
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method for recording the electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measurements can determine different states of brain activity, for instance is this signal used by the popular Zeo Sleep Manager to determine when the user is in different sleep stages, using just a few electrodes. More electrodes enable a richer picture of the brain state and in laboratory settings typically 64, 128, or 256 electrodes are used. However, these systems are time consuming and cumbersome to install and their wiring limits user mobility and behaviors.
With our ‘Smartphone Brain Scanner’ system we aim to enabled continuos monitoring and recording of brain signals (EEG) in everyday natural settings. For that purpose we use an off-the- shelf low-cost wireless Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset with 14 electrodes, which we have connected wirelessly to a smartphone. The smartphone receives the EEG data with a sampling rate of 128 Hz and our software on the smartphone then perform a complex real-time analysis in order to do brain state decoding. That is, estimate the sources from which the brain activations occurred and then show the result in a 3D model of the brain on the smartphone display. This allows the user to observe his/her brain activations in 3D in real time. The video below provides a demonstration.
The smartphone brain scanner enable complete user mobility and continuous logging of brain activities either for real-time neuro feedback purposes or for later analysis. The user can interact with the 3D brain model on the device using touch gestures and the system allow up to 7.5 hours continuos recording.
From a personal informatics perspective the ability to obtain continuous bio-feedback is interesting as it has been shown that such bio-feedback may lead to improvements in behavior, reaction times, emotional responses, and musical performance. Within the clinical domain it has been shown to have a positive effect on attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, and epilepsy. For such applications a low-cost and easy-to-use brain monitoring system enabling complete mobility could be beneficial. Furthermore, the ability to monitor and record brain signals over longer durations in natural settings might allow the user to gain new insights, and the low-cost setup even allow studying EEG signals in group settings.
More information about the smartphone brain scanner is available here: http://milab.imm.dtu.dk/eeg
With a Nokia N900 and the Emotiv EPOC headset you can try the system for yourself by downloading the brain scanner software from the Maemo repository. We also have a version for Android-based smartphones and tablets, however the software is not released yet.
This article is a summary of a position paper by Jakob Eg Larsen, Arkadiusz Stopczynski, Carsten Stahlhut, Michael Kai Petersen, and Lars Kai Hansen that will be discussed at the Personal Informatics in Practice workshop at CHI 2012 in Austin, TX on May 6, 2012. The workshop will be a gathering of researchers, designers, and practitioners exploring how to better support personal informatics in people’s everyday lives.
Personal Informatics In Practice: A Cross-Platform Smartphone Brain Scanner
Personal Informatics In Practice: A Cross-Platform Smartphone Brain Scanner:
This is a guest post by Jakob Eg Larsen, an Associate Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) at the Cognitive Systems Section where he heads the mobile informatics lab (milab). His research interests include human-computer interaction, personal informatics, and augmented cognition.
Better understanding of the intricate relations between our brains and behaviors is key to future improvements in well-being and productivity. Conventional tools for measuring these relations such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET) typically rely on complex, heavy hardware that offer limited comfort and mobility for the user. This means that measuring brain activity has been confined to expensive laboratories and that it has been a challenge to perform longer term continuous monitoring of brain signals in real life conditions.
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method for recording the electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measurements can determine different states of brain activity, for instance is this signal used by the popular Zeo Sleep Manager to determine when the user is in different sleep stages, using just a few electrodes. More electrodes enable a richer picture of the brain state and in laboratory settings typically 64, 128, or 256 electrodes are used. However, these systems are time consuming and cumbersome to install and their wiring limits user mobility and behaviors.
With our ‘Smartphone Brain Scanner’ system we aim to enabled continuos monitoring and recording of brain signals (EEG) in everyday natural settings. For that purpose we use an off-the- shelf low-cost wireless Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset with 14 electrodes, which we have connected wirelessly to a smartphone. The smartphone receives the EEG data with a sampling rate of 128 Hz and our software on the smartphone then perform a complex real-time analysis in order to do brain state decoding. That is, estimate the sources from which the brain activations occurred and then show the result in a 3D model of the brain on the smartphone display. This allows the user to observe his/her brain activations in 3D in real time. The video below provides a demonstration.
The smartphone brain scanner enable complete user mobility and continuous logging of brain activities either for real-time neuro feedback purposes or for later analysis. The user can interact with the 3D brain model on the device using touch gestures and the system allow up to 7.5 hours continuos recording.
From a personal informatics perspective the ability to obtain continuous bio-feedback is interesting as it has been shown that such bio-feedback may lead to improvements in behavior, reaction times, emotional responses, and musical performance. Within the clinical domain it has been shown to have a positive effect on attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, and epilepsy. For such applications a low-cost and easy-to-use brain monitoring system enabling complete mobility could be beneficial. Furthermore, the ability to monitor and record brain signals over longer durations in natural settings might allow the user to gain new insights, and the low-cost setup even allow studying EEG signals in group settings.
More information about the smartphone brain scanner is available here: http://milab.imm.dtu.dk/eeg
With a Nokia N900 and the Emotiv EPOC headset you can try the system for yourself by downloading the brain scanner software from the Maemo repository. We also have a version for Android-based smartphones and tablets, however the software is not released yet.
This article is a summary of a position paper by Jakob Eg Larsen, Arkadiusz Stopczynski, Carsten Stahlhut, Michael Kai Petersen, and Lars Kai Hansen that will be discussed at the Personal Informatics in Practice workshop at CHI 2012 in Austin, TX on May 6, 2012. The workshop will be a gathering of researchers, designers, and practitioners exploring how to better support personal informatics in people’s everyday lives.
Matt Velderman on Improving Skin Health
Matt Velderman on Improving Skin Health:
Matt Velderman wanted to figure out his acne problem. He dove into researching acne treatments, tracking himself and modifying his diet and behavior. His approach was to try every possible thing that could help at once to solve the problem quickly, and then remove one thing at a time to figure out a minimal set of interventions. In the video below, Matt describes everything he tried, odd side effects, and how it’s working, as well as some other QS projects he’s doing, from bodybuilding to home energy usage. There’s a fun discussion at the end about how tracking yourself can impact romantic relationships. (Filmed by the Washington DC QS Show&Tell meetup group.)
What We Are Reading
What We Are Reading:
Seven Sunday snippets to stimulate your synapses…
Zap your brain into the zone: Fast track to pure focus. Can hooking up your brain to a battery induce a state of flow? New Scientist explores this question.
The Zynga Abyss: A fascinating excerpt from an essay by Benjamin Jackson in the new Distance quarterly on games and design that highlights the use of dark patterns in social game design.
The “Unhyped” New Areas in Internet and Mobile: A dozen predictions by investor Vinod Khosla of where disruptive new technologies will emerge. Mentions Quantified Self, for all you amazing QS toolmakers!
We, the Web Kids by Piotr Czerski: An essay on what is means to be part of the generation that grew up with the web as an omnipresent part of their lives. Touches on ideas of information, creation, and democracy. A great read.
Quantified Health Prize results: We didn’t catch this earlier, but Less Wrong did a contest asking “What are the best recommendations for what quantities adults (ages 20-60) should take the important dietary minerals in, and what are the costs and benefits of various amounts?” The winner explored potassium and sodium, and they will be running another contest soon.
The Patient of the Future: A look into Larry Smarr’s quantified self journey and possible future of truly personalized medicine.
Light Therapy for Seasonal and Nonseasonal Depression: Efficacy, Protocol, Safety, and Side Effects. (PDF) A very interesting review of light therapy for different flavors of depression, including SAD, bipolar, and major depression. Interestingly, it covers both dosage and *timing* of light administered.
Thanks to Ernesto, Gary, Daniel Reda and Simon Frid.
Justice on the High Seas
Justice on the High Seas:
In 1796, pirates who committed heinous crimes against individuals could be held liable under the Alien Tort Statute, which permits civil suits by foreigners in federal courts for violations of “the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” The law was passed by the first Congress in 1789. In 2002, 12 Nigerian nationals sued Royal Dutch Shell under the ATS, alleging that the oil company had colluded with the Nigerian military from 1992 to 1995 to suppress a grass-roots protest movement against oil exploration in the Niger delta. Specifically, members of the Ogoni people contend that Royal Dutch Shell aided and abetted the Nigerian government in torturing, executing, and arbitrarily detaining Ogoni activists. Esther Kiobel, the named plaintiff, is the widow of a victim.
Realizing the American DREAM
Realizing the American DREAM: This week, our elected officials are presented with the occasion to pass legislation, the DREAM Act that will propel the economic recovery of our
Ultrasound Smokescreen?
Ultrasound Smokescreen?:
The push in Virginia for mandatory vaginal ultrasounds before an abortion was met with national outrage that soon saw the measure modified. This week a representative in Alabama introduced a similar measure before also walking things back under pressure.
But by setting the bar to the extreme, and then drawing back, are the proponents of these measures actually changing the conversation in their favor? Our Jillian Rayfield reports.
Tempting Fate in the Philippines
Tempting Fate in the Philippines:
MAYON—My driver, for the days before we hike up the volcano, is named Felimon Panesa. But his nickname, what most people call him, is "Boy." Filipinos love nicknames. Everybody has one, and they range from the mundane—Junior and the like—to the bizarre, Dingdong or Ballsy. Felimon's happens to be particularly awkward. I do what I can to avoid saying it out loud, and yet there I am, an American tourist in a former colony, calling out "Boy" across a church plaza and making demands of him from the back seat of an SUV. "Boy, can you take me somewhere for lunch?" "Boy, I'd like to go back to the hotel."