Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/f49RGY7IGuE/the-russian-computer-that-ran-on-water
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The Russian Computer That Ran On Water [Past Perfect]
To 'think outside the box,' think outside the box
ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) ? Want to think outside the box? Try actually thinking outside of a box. In a study to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers had students think up solutions to problems while acting out various metaphors about creative thinking and found that the instructions actually worked.
The authors of the new paper were inspired by metaphors about creativity found in boardrooms to movie studios to scientific laboratories around the world and previous linkages established between mind and body. Angela Leung of Singapore Management University and her coauthors from the University of Michigan, Cornell University, and others wondered if the same was true of metaphors about creativity. "Creativity is a highly sought-after skill," they write. "Metaphors of creative thinking abound in everyday use." Their experiments went beyond metaphors that activate preexisting knowledge and demonstrated for the first time some metaphors "work" by activating psychological processes conducive for generating previously unknown and therefore creative ideas.
People talk about thinking "outside the box" or consider problems "on the one hand, then on the other hand." So Leung and her colleagues created experiments where people acted out these metaphors. In one experiment, each participant was seated either inside or outside of a five-by-five-foot cardboard box. The two environments were set up to be otherwise the same in every way, and people didn't feel claustrophobic in the box. Participants were told it was a study on different work environments. Each person completed a test widely used to test creativity; those who were outside did the test better than people who were inside the box.
In another experiment, some participants were asked to join the halves of cut-up coasters before taking a test -- a physical representation of "putting two and two together." People who acted out the metaphor displayed more convergent thinking, a component of creativity that requires bringing together many possible answers to settle on one that will work. Other experiments found that walking freely generated more original ideas than walking in a set line; another found truth in "on the hand; on the other hand."
All this suggests that there's something to the metaphors we use to talk about creativity. "Having a leisurely walk outdoors or freely pacing around may help us break our mindset," says Leung. "Also, we may consider getting away from Dilbert's cubicles and creating open office spaces to free up our minds."
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/7gQ-tOQYo6w/120123175800.htm
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Entrepreneurs bring Internet coding skills to everyday users (Reuters)
CHICAGO (Reuters) ? Not too long ago, Web coding was the rarified realm of computer geeks, but a new crop of entrepreneurs is making this valuable computer skill available to just about anyone with an inclination to learn.
In New York, a nascent startup called Codecademy (), the brainchild of two former Columbia University students, has managed to sign up hundreds of thousands of users since launching in August. Celebrity participants such as New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg have helped create buzz.
"Coding is the new literacy," said cofounder Zach Sims.
"As the world moves toward becoming increasingly complicated, it's important to know what you're doing."
Codecademy's self-guided courses, with names like "Hello New York," and "FizzBuzz," are free. An introductory segment to JavaScript, a language often used to build websites, took about five minutes and was admittedly addictive.
Sims, who at 21 has already worked for prominent startups including the former file-sharing service Drop.io and group messaging site groupme - now part of Skype - took a leave of absence from Columbia so that he and partner Ryan Bubinski could dedicate their time fully to the effort. The project was born in part from Sims' frustration when learning to code.
"I was reading books and taking classes and watching video," he recalled. "I was always dissatisfied.
Codecademy had more than 500,000 users through early November, the last time figures were disclosed. Its latest initiative, dubbed Code Year, challenges would-be users to make coding a New Year's resolution; the campaign pulled in close to 300,000 adherents in just eight days time, Sims said.
In October, Codecademy announced $2.5 million in startup funding from a group of high-profile investors. Among them was Union Square Ventures, a VC firm that has backed powerhouses such as Twitter and Zynga.
"On a really fundamental level their vision is teaching the world how to program for free," said Andy Weissman, a Union Square partner. "That's a really big vision; it's a vision that's really right for the time that we're in now. It's an important skill for people to learn."
Sims declined to provide specifics on the business model, but said once the site builds scale, it should be able to attract a range of business partners. Weissman said the creation of a large network of engaged users could generate interest among corporate recruiters and as well as those looking to find jobs.
To be sure, skilled IT professional are hard to find. According to a May 2011 survey from ManpowerGroup, the employment services agency, IT staff and engineers were among the top ten most difficult U.S. jobs to fill.
Even those who don't plan on becoming professional coders are finding the skills beneficial, whether they run their own businesses, work in large companies or use them in everyday life.
One is David Whittemore, the co-founder of Clothes Horse (), an emerging startup that offers advise about clothing fit and sizing to consumers who purchase apparel online. He has been taking Codecademy courses, but has no plans to become a Web engineer.
"I actually think almost everybody should learn to code," said Whittemore, adding that his new knowledge has eased the burden on his company's chief technology officer. "The more I can get involved and help him out, the better it is for our business - being able to put a prototype together for him, get access on the data on how a product is performing so I don't have to ask him," he said. "How much will it save us? Basically hiring a consultant or contractor or having to hire another team member."
Therein lies the rub. At a time when more and more new ventures are deploying so-called "lean" startup practices, the more skills and services they can perform in house will help to keep their costs down.
Other entrepreneurs have recognized this need. In Chicago, Mike McGee and Neal Sales-Griffin, a team of recently minted Northwestern University graduates, are tapping demand for coding skills with a different kind of training model under a similar name: Code Academy (). Theirs charges students $6,000 a pop for a 10-week course at an actual school.
The two began working on the idea in April, eventually quitting their jobs and jumping in headlong.
Demand for initial classes beginning in October quickly outstripped supply. There were 88 applicants for just 12 spots, all willing to plunk down tuition before Code Academy had even secured actual office space. So the founders upped class size to 35, and lucked out leasing space inside of the headquarters of Groupon, the online couponing site.
"We didn't have to take in any investment," said McGee, at 23 younger than many of his students. "We went from having no money to being profitable by the first week of September."
The program recently began its second series in the city's John Hancock building with 57 students, including some who are taking instruction in website design.
"It's just exploding," said McGee, whose business is already profitable. "We have people that are 21 and people that are 52 - from all over the world. It's just a big mixing pot."
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Investing in beaten-down market sectors could be good bet in 2012 ...
Investors placing their bets for 2012 are faced with the classic dilemma. Stick with market sectors that performed best last year, or search for value in beaten-down names?
The question is especially tricky considering that 2011 was a turbulent ride of mixed economic news at home, worse news abroad and painful sell-offs that tested even seasoned traders. Investors? reaction was textbook ? dive into stock mutual funds stuffed with big, dividend-paying companies known for relative stability in good times and bad.
That meant top-performing funds focused on utilities, consumer staples and health care companies. On the other hand, mutual funds heavy on financial stocks were among the worst, sideswiped by Standard & Poor?s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and continued financial turmoil in Europe.
With the U.S. economy showing more signs of strength, now might be a good time to move some money into depressed sectors.
But is that strategy a good policy for personal investing in 2012? Here?s a look at the sectors that analysts are watching:
Financials flop ? Mutual funds that focus on banks and brokerages are certainly trading at prices well below a year ago, but many analysts are not yet ready to jump in.
The S&P 500 financials were crushed in 2011, falling 18 percent amid Europe?s tumult and lingering trouble in the battered real estate industry. Not surprisingly, mutual funds that are heavy in financials got battered last year. Analysts say the banking industry remains under pressure, especially with no sign that the European debt crisis is ready to let up. There are a number of reasons to be concerned about the sector.
Story continues below
?You?ve got other factors, like regulation, Dodd-Frank, that are crimping the way large banks do business,? said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. He also pointed out that low interest rates hamper the sector.
Defensive moves ? With the state of the global economy in doubt, as it was for much of 2011, investors flocked to defensive stocks, companies that produce things people buy whether or not the economy is thriving. Utilities were the top-performing sector in the S&P 500. Consumer staples jumped 10.5 percent.
Many of the year?s top-performing funds focused on the utilities sector, including top-ranked ProFunds Utilities UltraSector, which returned nearly 26 percent. But some experts say defensive sectors such as utilities and consumer staples now are a little too expensive.
Health care stocks remain promising despite last year?s run-up, several analysts said. That?s because even after a 10 percent gain for the S&P health care stocks in 2011, the sector is still far below historic highs. And even with uncertainty in Washington about the future of health care, an aging population will increasingly need medical care.
Technology boost ? An anticipated jump in business spending may make technology ? a flat sector last year ? a good bet in 2012.
Since the financial crisis in 2008, corporations across the globe dialed back spending and instead sat on their cash. This might be exactly the time when companies begin to replace aging computers and other technology, especially with the U.S. economy looking a bit brighter. Tech stocks in the S&P 500 inched up just 1.3 percent overall in 2011.
Next Page ?Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/53336362-79/investors-percent-sectors-care.html.csp
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
AP Exclusive: US talks to Afghan insurgent group
In this Feb. 13, 1996 file photo shows Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghan rebel leader and chief of the insurgent group Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. Anxious to accelerate peace moves, top-level U.S. officials have held talks with a representative of a major Afghan insurgent movement led by a former prime minister that Washington had branded as a terrorist. The meetings with the group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar show not only the degree of U.S. interest in pursuing a settlement but also the complexity of putting together an agreement acceptable to all sides in factious Afghanistan. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
In this Feb. 13, 1996 file photo shows Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghan rebel leader and chief of the insurgent group Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. Anxious to accelerate peace moves, top-level U.S. officials have held talks with a representative of a major Afghan insurgent movement led by a former prime minister that Washington had branded as a terrorist. The meetings with the group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar show not only the degree of U.S. interest in pursuing a settlement but also the complexity of putting together an agreement acceptable to all sides in factious Afghanistan. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
Afghanistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin, right, gestures as he speaks during a joint press conference with Marc Grossman the special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. Ludin says the Afghan government supports having a Taliban political office opened in Qatar and would back an American decision to transfer some Taliban detainees from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Qatar. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Marc Grossman the special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan speaks during a joint press conference with Afghanistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin, unseen, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. Marc Grossman, a top American diplomat visiting Afghanistan, says the United States wants the Taliban to issue statements disassociating themselves from international terrorism and saying they want to join a peace process to end the 10-year war. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
An Afghan man rides his bicycle during a snowstorm in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 photo, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, top NATO Commander in Afghanistan, gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan. Anxious to accelerate peace moves, top-level U.S. officials have held talks with a representative of a major Afghan insurgent movement led by a former prime minister that Washington had branded as a terrorist. The meetings with the group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar show not only the degree of U.S. interest in pursuing a settlement but also the complexity of putting together an agreement acceptable to all sides in factious Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Anxious to accelerate peace moves, top-level U.S. officials have held talks with a representative of an insurgent movement led by a former Afghan prime minister who has been branded a terrorist by Washington, a relative of the rebel leader says.
Dr. Ghairat Baheer, a representative and son-in-law of longtime Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (Gul-bu-DEEN HEK-mah-tyar), told The Associated Press this week that he had met separately with David Petraeus, former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan and now CIA director, and had face-to-face discussions earlier this month with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, currently the top commander in the country.
Baheer, who was released in 2008 after six years in U.S. detention at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, described his talks with U.S. officials as nascent and exploratory. Yet, Baheer says the discussions show that the U.S. knows that in addition to getting the blessing of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar ? a bitter rival of Hekmatyar even though both are fighting international troops ? any peace deal would have to be supported by Hekmatyar, who has thousands of fighters and followers primarily in the north and east.
Hizb-i-Islami, which means Islamic party, has had ties to al-Qaida but in 2010 floated a 15-point peace plan during informal meetings with the Afghan government in Kabul. At the time, however, U.S. officials refused to see the party's delegation.
"Hizb-i-Islami is a reality that no one can ignore," Baheer said during an interview last week at his spacious home in a posh suburb of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. "For a while, the United States and the Kabul government tried not to give so much importance to Hizb-i-Islami, but now they have come to the conclusion that they cannot make it without Hizb-i-Islami."
In Washington, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden would not confirm that such meetings took place but said the U.S. was maintaining "a range of contacts in support of an Afghan-led reconciliation process."
On Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he also had met recently with Hizb-i-Islami representatives. Baheer said he attended those meetings but added that the party considers the Afghan government corrupt and lacking legitimacy.
Karzai's announcement appeared intended to bolster his position as the key player in the search for peace. The U.S. repeatedly has said that formal negotiations must be Afghan-led, but Karzai has complained that his government has not been directly involved in recent preliminary talks with Taliban representatives and plans for setting up a Taliban political office in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Baheer said his meeting with Petraeus, whom he described as a "very humble, polite person," was marked by a few rounds of verbal sparring with each boasting a battlefield strength that the other dismissed as exaggerated.
"There was a psychological war in these first meetings," he said.
Baheer said Crocker and Allen tried to persuade Hizb-i-Islami to become part of Afghanistan's political network, accept the Afghan security forces and embrace the nation's current constitution. He said Hizb-i-Islami was ready to accept the security forces and the constitution, but wants a multiparty commission established to review and revise the charter.
"We are willing to make compromises," said Baheer. "We already have said we will accept the Afghan army and the police."
He said Hizb-i-Islami envisioned a multiparty government in postwar Afghanistan. At the same time, the group wants all U.S. and NATO forces, including military trainers, to leave Afghanistan, he said.
"The presence of any foreign forces will be not acceptable to us under any cover," he said. "Daily, there is another American killing of civilians. The longer they stay, the more they are hated by the Afghan people."
Overtures to Hekmatyar's group show not only the degree of U.S. interest in pursuing a settlement but also the complexity of putting together an agreement acceptable to all sides in factious Afghanistan. The U.S. formally declared Hekmatyar a "global terrorist" in 2003 because of alleged links to al-Qaida and froze all assets which he may have in the United States.
Hekmatyar, who is in his mid-60s, was among the major recipients of U.S. aid during the Afghan war against the Soviets in the 1980s. He and other anti-Soviet commanders swept into Kabul in 1992 and ousted the pro-Soviet government, only to turn against one another in a bitter and bloody power struggle that destroyed vast sections of the Afghan capital and killed an estimated 50,000 civilians before the Taliban seized the city.
A bitter rival of Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar fled to Iran and remained there until the Taliban were ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. He declared war on foreign troops in his country and rebuilt his military forces, which by 2008 had become a major threat to the U.S.-led coalition.
Contacts with Hekmatyar's group as well as parallel efforts to negotiate with the Taliban have taken on new urgency following the NATO decision to withdraw foreign combat forces, transfer security responsibility to the Afghans by the end of 2014 and bring an end to the unpopular war, which is increasingly seen as a drain on the financially strapped Western countries that provide most of the troops.
On Sunday, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, completed two days of meetings about the peace process with Karzai and other Afghan officials. Grossman, who was to travel to Qatar on Monday, urged the Taliban to issue a "clear statement" against international terrorism and affirm their commitment to the peace process "to end the armed conflict in Afghanistan."
U.S. officials also have reached out to the Pakistan-based Haqqani militant network to test its interest in peace talks. Haqqani fighters, the second largest insurgent group after the Taliban, have been blamed for most of the high-profile attacks in the heart of the Afghan capital.
___
Kathy Gannon is AP special regional correspondent covering Pakistan and Afghanistan. She can be reached at www.twitter.com/kathygannon
___
Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Kabul and Kimberly Dozier and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.
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