ThreeJS: Particle System and Raycaster

Selecting particle in ParticleSystem [wikipedia] using Raycaster [wikipedia].
Using ThreeJS.r58.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42803030/threejs_sample/webgl_particlesystem_raycaster.html
(Credit: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42803030)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4253186/three/examples/webgl_interactive_particles.html
(Credit: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4253186)

Nazca Lines, And Mountain Top Removed

Read More: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread878494/pg1

Read more: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread878494/pg3

Government must take over Fukushima nuclear cleanup

Recent weeks have seen increasingly concerned calls, from within and without Japan, for the Japanese government to take a direct role in managing the multifaceted crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The most recent opinion poll shows 91 percent of the Japanese public wants the government to intervene.

The Economist calls Fukushima a “nightmare,” and the editors of Bloomberg deem it “ground zero” for the Abe government. Tepco’s handling of the stricken plant continues to be a litany of negligence and error, raising grave doubts over whether the company is up to the incredibly difficult and important task of decommissioning the plant. While it may be politically inconvenient for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to accept, it is time to intervene and take over the plant before it is too late.

Government must take over Fukushima nuclear cleanup | The Japan Times

Researcher controls colleague’s motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.

University of Washington

University of Washington researcher Rajesh Rao, left, plays a computer game with his mind. Across campus, researcher Andrea Stocco, right, wears a magnetic stimulation coil over the left motor cortex region of his brain. Stocco’s right index finger moved involuntarily to hit the “fire” button as part of the first human brain-to-brain interface demonstration.

Using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation, Rajesh Rao sent a brain signal to Andrea Stocco on the other side of the UW campus, causing Stocco’s finger to move on a keyboard.

While researchers at Duke University have demonstrated brain-to-brain communication between two rats, and Harvard researchers have demonstrated it between a human and a rat, Rao and Stocco believe this is the first demonstration of human-to-human brain interfacing.

“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” Stocco said. “We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain.”

Source and Read more: http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/08/27/researcher-controls-colleagues-motions-in-1st-human-brain-to-brain-interface/

Don’t Fly During Ramadan

A couple of weeks ago, I was scheduled to take a trip from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles on JetBlue. Every year, my family goes on a one-week pilgrimage, where we put our work on hold and spend time visiting temples, praying, and spending time with family and friends. To my Jewish friends, I often explain this trip as vaguely similar to the Sabbath, except we take one week of rest per year, rather than one day per week.
Our family is not Muslim, but by coincidence, this year, our trip happened to be during the last week of Ramadan.
By further coincidence, this was also the same week that I was moving out of my employer-provided temporary housing (at NYU) and moving into my new apartment. The night before my trip, I enlisted the help of two friends and we took most of my belongings, in a couple of suitcases, to my new apartment. The apartment was almost completely unfurnished - I planned on getting new furniture upon my return - so I dropped my few bags (one containing an air mattress) in the corner. Even though I hadn’t decorated the apartment yet, in accordance with Hindu custom, I taped a single photograph to the wall in my bedroom — a long-haired saint with his hands outstretched in pronam (a sign of reverence and respect).

Read more full article here: http://varnull.adityamukerjee.net/post/59021412512/dont-fly-during-ramadan

Understanding Radiation: Becquerels and Sieverts

We now know about radiation, half lives, and radiation types. Next, let’s take a look at the units used to talk about radiation levels. The units we hear most often in the news at the moment are becquerels and sieverts.Radiation can damage our bodies by breaking the chemical bonds in our cells. The amount of damage done depends on how much radiation we are exposed to. This in turn depends on how much radioactive material is present in our environment, our food and so on. So it is important to have some way to talk about amounts of radiation. This is what the unit becquerel is for.

Full Article: http://tsukubascience.com/en/understanding-radiation-becquerels-and-sieverts/ 

Computer scientists develop 'mathematical jigsaw puzzles' to encrypt software

Concept illustration of mathematical jigsaw puzzle

UCLA computer science professor Amit Sahai and a team of researchers have designed a system to encrypt software so that it only allows someone to use a program as intended while preventing any deciphering of the code behind it. This is known in computer science as "software obfuscation," and it is the first time it has been accomplished. 

 

Sahai, who specializes in cryptography at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, collaborated with Sanjam Garg, who recently earned his doctorate at UCLA and is now at IBM Research; Craig Gentry, Shai Halevi and Mariana Raykova of IBM Research; and Brent Waters, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin. Garg worked with Sahai as a student when the research was done.

Read more: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-computer-scientists-develop-247527.aspx

Apple developer site targeted in security attack, still down

Apple's site for developers was attacked by an intruder last week, the company said Sunday.

In a note to developers, the company said that an "intruder" tried to gain access to developer information, prompting the company to take the service down. Sensitive information on that site was encrypted, Apple said, however it's keeping the site down while security is being hardened. No estimate was provided for when it will be back up.

Apple sent the following to developers on Sunday, detailing some of what happened:

Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers' names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.

In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we're completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.

An Apple spokesman told CNET that the company's developer Web site is "not associated with any customer information" and that "customer information is securely encrypted."

Apple's developer site is home to software downloads, documentation and forums for third-party software developers. The site became inaccessible to registered developers last Thursday, causing angst for users who could not access those features. On Friday the company noted that it would be extending membership periods to cover the outage, and that any published software would not be removed.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57594770-37/apple-developer-site-targeted-in-security-attack-still-down