Computer to pass college entrance exams

Fujitsu said Monday it will lead a project to create artificial intelligence capable of passing the math portion of the entrance exams to one of Japan's top universities.

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/computer-pass-college-entrance-exams

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Vernor Vinge - a techno-optimist

A brief interview with Vernor Vinge at Singularity University. Vinge gives his insights on life, groupminds, the future, and of course, the Singularity.

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http://machineslikeus.com/videos/vernor-vinge-techno-optimist

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Marijuana use may increase risk of testicular
cancer

A new study from the University of Southern California (USC) has found a link between recreational marijuana use and an increased risk of developing subtypes of testicular cancer that tend to carry a somewhat worse prognosis.

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/marijuana-use-may-increase-risk-testicular-cancer

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Curiositys self-portrait

I’m on travel in the UK right now – I’m filming a part for a documentary which I’ll talk more about in a later post – but I want to make sure you get a chance to see this really quite fun self-portrait the Mars Curiosity[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BadAstronomyBlog/~3/IhOu6-F6MjA/

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Lush Antarctic past suggests more monsoons in
future

Tropical plant fossils in Antarctica hints at a monsoon climate – similar to modern-day South Asia – during the warm Eocene period, 34 million years ago



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http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/424048/s/2342db1d/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cart
icle0Cdn222530Elush0Eantarctic0Epast0Esuggests0Emore0Emonsoons0Ein0Efuture0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fenvironment/story01.htm

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India: From Ferrying Rockets on Cycles to Eyeing
Mars

Chennai, India (IANS) Sep 10, 2012
From the days of having a church as control room, the bishop's house as office, a bicycle as ferry, naked eyes to track the smoke plume at Thumba in Kerala, converting a toilet into a satellite data receiving centre in Bangalore, the Indian space odyssey has come a long way to launching lunar probes, working on a Mars mission and ferrying foreign satellites up for a fee. On Sunday, ISRO wi

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http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/India_From_Ferrying_Rockets_on_Cycles_to_Eyeing_
Mars_999.html

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Arianespace concurrently manages six missions
with Ariane 5 and Soyuz

Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Sep 10, 2012
Arianespace is managing concurrent activities for six different upcoming missions, underscoring the company's capability to accommodate a diverse range of payloads for customers worldwide, and marking a world's first in the launch services sector. These missions will utilize two members of Arianespace's launcher family: the heavy-lift Ariane 5 and medium-lift Soyuz, involving flights with

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http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Arianespace_concurrently_manages_six_missions
_with_Ariane_5_and_Soyuz_999.html

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Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity
Greets Curiosity, Roves to Clay Mineral Hunting Grounds

Opportunity stood down for nine days in early August as Curiosity landed and went through check-out, but on the tenth day the Mars Exploration Rover was back on the road, driving along the northwestern rim of Endeavour Crater and into the "sweet spot" of the clay mineral hunting ground at Cape York.

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http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/mer-updates/2012/08-
mer-update-opportunity-greets-curiosity.html

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MAHLI sees Curiosity's wheels firmly on Martian
ground

MAHLI opened its "eye" on sol 33, seeing Mars clearly for the first time. On sol 34, Curiosity used MAHLI to survey the parts that Mastcam can't see, including a view right underneath the rover.

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http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/09092220-mahli-sol33-belly-p
an.html

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Man in Coma for 7 Years was Given a Sleeping Pill
and Woke Up

Lazarus pill miracle for E Cape man, 9 September 2012

After reading a report in City Press last month, his wife, Nomfundo, insisted that he be given a prescription for the sleeping pill Stilnox, which has the opposite effect on those with brain injuries.

It worked ? and brought him out of a seven-year coma.
…
But on August 12, family friend Nceba Mokoena came across an article in City Press about a miracle recovery made by another car crash victim, hundreds of kilometres away in Gauteng.

Louis Viljoen was given the sleeping pill by chance by his mother, Sienie.

She had noticed he wasn?t sleeping peacefully and asked her doctor if she could give him half a sleeping tablet. After she did, Louis opened his eyes and said ?Hello Mamma?, his first words in five years.

Very cool anecdote and example that modern medicine has many miraculous cures but the medical system can’t always use them as well as we would hope. Even with all the knowledge we have today just getting that information into the right doctor’s minds is very hard. And the complexity of diagnoses and interactions makes medical care still an art as well as a science.

So is this just some freak accident. Partially, in the mother giving her son a sleeping pill to reduce his seeming restlessness in the coma. But the effect of Stilnox in bringing coma victims out of a coma has been documented previously.

Reborn from persistent vegetative state, 12 September 2006

Four three years, Riaan Bolton has lain motionless, his eyes open but unseeing. After a devastating car crash doctors said he would never again see or speak or hear. Now his mother, Johanna, dissolves a pill in a little water on a teaspoon and forces it gently into his mouth. Within half an hour, as if a switch has been flicked in his brain, Riaan looks around his home in the South African town of Kimberley and says, “Hello.” Shortly after his accident, Johanna had turned down the option of letting him die.

Three hundred miles away, Louis Viljoen, a young man who had once been cruelly described by a doctor as “a cabbage”, greets me with a mischievous smile and a streetwise four-move handshake. Until he took the pill, he too was supposed to be in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state.

Across the Atlantic in the United States, George Melendez, who is also brain-damaged, has lain twitching and moaning as if in agony for years, causing his parents unbearable grief. He, too, is given this little tablet and again, it’s as if a light comes on. His father asks him if he is, indeed, in pain. “No,” George smiles, and his family burst into tears.

It all sounds miraculous, you might think. And in a way, it is. But this is not a miracle medication, the result of groundbreaking neurological research. Instead, these awakenings have come as the result of an accidental discovery by a dedicated – and bewildered – GP. They have all woken up, paradoxically, after being given a commonly used sleeping pill.

Medical care is still today an extremely difficult area where highly trained and continuously learning doctors still have a great deal of trouble keeping up with the latest medical knowledge.

Related: Hospital Reform, IHI’s efforts to get good practices adopted – Norway Reduces Infections by Reducing Antibiotic Use – Majority of Clinical Trials Don?t Provide Meaningful Evidence – Continual Learning – Physical Activity for Adults: Inactivity Leads to 5.3 Million Early Deaths a Year

Read The Full Article:
http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2012/09/09/man-in-coma-for-7-years-was-give
n-a-sleeping-pill-and-woke-up/

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