Newsy: DEA to Hire Ebonics Translators

The Drug Enforcemnt Agency's plan to hire nine translators to interpret conversations between African American drug dealers is causing controversy, as many don't consider Ebonics a language.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is recruiting nine translators — in Ebonics. 

That revelation is reigniting the debate over whether the DEA is unfairly targeting African-Americans, and whether Ebonics is a legitimate dialect of its own.

The DEA says the translators will help decipher wiretapped communication between African-American drug suspects. For some in the media, the very idea is laughable. Fox News’ Bret Baier quotes an anonymous DEA official: “The official added there is nothing racial about it, describing rapper Eminem as ‘one of the best speakers of Ebonics there ever was.’ No word whether Eminem has actually applied for any of these openings.”

But on BV Blackspin, Boyce Watkins says this isn’t a joke. And Ebonics isn’t the official language of black people: “The first thought that came to mind was whether the agency is presuming that drug dealers speak a dialect of English that matches that of the rest of urban black America? ... most of my urban friends don't understand drug dealers either. ... the DEA would be better off hiring a former drug dealer.”

San Francisco’s KPIX-TV says the revelation should remind its viewers of the firestorm of criticism Oakland, California’s school board faced in 1996, when it tried to mandate some instruction in Ebonics, which ended up sparking a nationwide debate over whether Ebonics should be sanctioned as a legitimate dialect.

REPORTER: “... many linguists have concluded Ebonics actually is its own language variety with its own set of rules. ... Alim, who has written books on black language and hip hop culture says there’s a rich irony in the fact that teachers were not able to use Ebonics, but now police are.”

H. SAMY ALIM: “So rather than legitimizing African-American language in schools in order to help students learn, we legitimize it in the streets in order to imprison them.”

A reporter for Memphis Fox affiliate WHBQ-TV spoke with a University of Memphis professor who says the specific hiring of Ebonics experts raises a troubling question: “The very fact the agency at the forefront of the country’s war on drugs should ask for aid in this fashion should send up at least one immediate red flag.”

DR. LARRY MOORE: “We’ve entered in this country in which people with degrees have a total lack of common sense. If they don’t have some undercover agent, maybe black inner-city, that can’t speak inner-city hip-hop language. For them to advertise is very scary. It means, how are you busting people right now?”

But the non-profit, Blog Critics says the recruitment of Ebonics experts ISN’T a bad thing. An article on the organization’s website makes a historical comparison: “This situation is not unlike that of Native American code talkers ... who especially distinguished themselves in the South Pacific during World War II. Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, went so far as to declare, ‘Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would have never taken Iwo Jima.’”

So is the DEA recruitment of Ebonics experts offensive, practical or a little bit of both? 

Writer: Christinga Hartman

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Aliens 'may be thinking machines' according to Seti astronomer

A senior Seti astronomer has argued that aliens 'may be thinking machines' rather than 'biological life-forms'.

Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at Seti - the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, reasoned that the hunt should focus on 'sentient machines' rather than biological life-forms. 

Shostak believes that the odds of finding alien AI is far greater than the traditional hunt for extraterrestrial life. 

The hunt for aliens has so far followed many standard rules of biochemistry, based on the belief that we may discover 'living' beings. 

Shostak, writing in Acta Astronautica, argued that while evolution can take a large amount of time to produce beings capable of inter-planetary communication, technology could advance fast enough to move beyond the species that created it. 

'If you look at the timescales for the development of technology, at some point you invent radio and then you go on the air and then we have a chance of finding you,' he told BBC News. 

'But within a few hundred years of inventing radio - at least if we're any example - you invent thinking machines; we're probably going to do that in this century. 

'So you've invented your successors and only for a few hundred years are you... a 'biological' intelligence.'

If you want to know more, click here.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Moon is Shrinking

A recent study of the moon’s crust reveals the moon may have experienced some shrinking in the recent past.

Have you noticed anything different about the moon lately? A recent study reveals the moon is shrinking! If you haven’t noticed anything, well, that’s probably because it’s been a slow process. 

“Researchers finding evidence by studying cracks in the moon’s crust. They say this is the result of the moon cooling down since it formed hundreds and millions years ago ...But don’t worry, it’s only lost about a 100 yards from its diameter, in ALL THAT TIME!” (Fox News)

National Geographic reports the cracks are younger than what scientists originally thought -- a BILLION years younger. The website features a statement by geophysicist Pat McGovern with the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, who says: "Heat is what drives the overall evolution of a planet, and the moon is thought to have lost most of [its heat] long ago. But the idea that you have very young faulting going on is very exciting, because it's somewhat unexpected."

Steve Snyder, a scientist with The Franklin Institute, tells MSNBC the shrinkage’s impact on the earth won’t be physical, although it certainly is emotional for astro-geeks: “You'll have a lot of excited scientists and hopefully a lot of future scientists as well. It means that the moon has for us really means the moon has a lot of mysteries to be solved and new surprises for us. Otherwise it's not something you're going to be able to see, not something that's going to affect the tides.”

The study’s co-author, Thomas Watters, tells NewScientist.com the shrinking and contracting of the moon shows it is not a dead geological object, as scientists originally thought. It may also explain one particular lunar phenomenon: “...the contraction might have triggered some of the moonquakes recorded by seismometers placed on the moon in the 1970s by NASA astronauts, he said.”

The moon’s shrinking process will continue to slow down and eventually it will come to a complete stop. AOL News features a statement by Watters, who stresses that the moon’s shrinkage should not be a cause for alarm: “The moon is not shrinking away. There's no fear that if you don't get out there and see the moon today, in the next cycle, it won't be there."

Share your thoughts on this story in our comments section and be sure to share this story on Facebook, Twitter and Digg.

WRITER: Harumendhah Helmy

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Miners Could be Trapped Until Christmas

After nearly three weeks of searching, rescuers found 33 men trapped in a collapsed Chile mine. Now officials say it may take four months to get them out.

“A camera lowered deep into the mine shaft, nearly 2,300 feet revealed just darkness at first... and then this: a face. After a desperate 17 day-long search, rescuer workers rejoiced.” (CBS)

A miracle in a Chilean mine. Thirty-three miners trapped 2,300 feet underground for nearly three weeks... are all O.K..

Rescue workers were finally able to drill a hole through solid rock. They lowered a probe into the darkness and when they pulled it out — a note was attached. A reporter for NBC’s Today Show has the details: “With great delight Chilean President Sebastion Pinera raised the miners’ hopeful words in the air: ‘All 33 of us are fine in the shelter’. One miner wrote in great detail of their living conditions explaining how they dug a channel to reach underground water and how they’ve used vehicles for light.”

The emergency shelter within the mine only had enough supplies to last 48 hours, so after 17 days of searching, rescuers were about to give up hope. Fox News’ Steve Harrigan explains how hard it was to reach the miners and what’s next in the rescue effort.

Steve Harrigan: “Now it did take eight tries to try and find that shelter with a drill bit, apparently there are some complaints about this company that the maps were out of date. What’s next is going to have to be a larger hole being drilled, about 27 inches in diameter. This could take up to four months.”

The company that runs the mine has come under fire since the collapse. The Chilean newspaper The Santiago Times reports before rescuers found the trapped miners, the Chilean government was already chipping away at the faulty mining system: “San Esteban, has been criticized over the past several weeks, as has... the national mining regulatory body, after it was reported the mine had been closed in the past over safety concerns. Piñera fired top officials from (the regulatory body) following the collapse and has called for a restructuring of the organization.”

Now all efforts are focused on making sure the miners stay physically — and mentally — healthy. Rescuers will be able to lower emergency supplies to the trapped men. But The Guardian interviewed a U.S. mining expert who says the stress of being trapped underground is the real concern. He explained... "There is a psychological pattern there that we've looked at; however, they've established communication with the guys; there are people who can talk them through that."

Though the real rescue may not come until Christmas, for now in Chile — celebrations.

WRITTEN BY: Mallory Perryman

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Van Gogh Painting Worth $50 Million Vanishes

“Oh no not again. Flower power. The Mahmoud Kalil Museum of Art in Cairo camera’s and alarm system were out of order.” (Euronews)

A multi-million dollar Van Gogh - vanished. But front-page headlines throughout the Middle East indicated that the painting was recovered – and Real Estate Radio USA thought so too: “The beautiful painting by Vincent Van Gogh ‘Poppy Flowers’ has been finally recovered on Saturday. This work of art is worth over 50 million dollars. ... The thieves were caught red handed trying to leave Cairo.”

Euronews has the latest report of what really happened with the suspected thieves: “The Egyptian state news agency says security had tracked down an Italian couple who was spotted visiting a museum and then leaving in a hurry but they turned out to be empty handed.”

Now, the search is back on. This is the second time the painting has been stolen. An independent Egyptian Publication, Al-Masry Al-Youm, reports the museum lacked operational efficiency: “… [The] Public Prosecutor … toured the museum grounds Sunday and issued a harsh assessment of the security set-up, calling it ‘a facade.’ Only seven of the 43 security cameras were operational, ‘and even those seven were not functioning perfectly,’

‘Each painting in the museum has an alarm. Not a single alarm for any painting is working.’"

And according to Bloomberg, another disaster at the museum the very next day: "A crowd of news photographers and cameramen attempting to take pictures of the prosecutor today stumbled over a statue of Cupid, which shattered on the marble floor of the entrance courtyard, raising cries of despair from museum staff.”

Security was so lax that the suspects were able to stand on a couch and simply cut out the painting. But what do you do with a Van Gogh? The Smithsonian.com reports the market for stolen art is a significant portion of the illicit global economy… roughly 4 to 6 billion a year. 

What do you think? Mastermind thieves? Or was it just too easy?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Music: "Handlebars" by The Flobots

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it's good to be
ALIVE
and I'm a famous rapper
even when the paths're all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to "De Colores"
And "I'm Proud to be an American"
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:

I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome

I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone

Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it's good to be
ALIVE
In such a small world
All curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine sixty four
Miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule

Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won't stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let'em all die in exasperation
Have'em all healed of their lacerations
Have'em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don't like'em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
and I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
and I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handle bars
No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Facebook Places: Critics Weigh In

Facebook is hawking its latest add on, a location-based app called “Places.” It lets users post their location like a status update.

“You can now say, ‘I’m here’ and you know, if people want to join you, they can. It’s a great way to let your friends know in kind of a lightweight way if they want to come and meet you.” (Facebook)

Facebook is hawking its latest add on – a location-based app called “Places.” It lets users post their location like a status update – and connect to nearby friends. Despite plenty of competing apps like Gowalla and Foursquare already on the market – Computerworld says Places still has potential: “Facebook offers one clear advantage over the competition: Critical mass. With more than 500 million users around the world, chances are your friends are on Facebook, and they're not on competing location-based services.”

A tech reporter for CNBC also notes Facebook’s size – saying it could be a blessing or a curse: “It means everyone, including all 500 million of Facebook’s users, had better start thinking about the implications of a future where friends, businesses and others can pinpoint your location.”

According to a tech expert on Tampa Bay’s WTVT – businesses already have big plans for Places users: “You’re in the supermarket and you pass by the barbecue sauce. It might flash up on your phone: Buy this barbecue sauce and you get $1 off, like an instant coupon because they know you happen to be standing in the barbecue sauce aisle.”

But a writer for Business Insider is more worried about annoying cousins than barbecue coupons clogging up his news feed: “No offense to certain distant relatives or distant in-laws, but we don't really care or need to know if you're at the grocery store in California. And frankly, sometimes we don't want you to know where we are.”

Finally, on ZDNet, a writer says some of Places’ features could become problems when it comes to your privacy: “…guests at a party at my home could turn my home address into a public ‘place’ on Facebook….I also didn’t like the idea of letting my friends ‘tag’ me at their locations. …Yes, I have to give my permission first and yes, I can also ‘untag’ myself - but who wants to be a party pooper like that?”

Places is a free add-on available for iPhones, iPod Touches and Androids. So do you plan to use Places?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Europa Press News Agency's Translation Mistake

Europa Press News Agency has distributed a piece of news to Spanish newspapers, radio stations and televisions containing a gross translation mistake in one of their headlines which has sparked Spanish F1 fans rage as as we can see at Marca.com:

Niki Lauda : "No hay nada que hacer con Alonso, no es como Michael Schumacher"

What the Austrian former driver had actually said, as published in Formula1.com was:

Question: So is Fernando Alonso following in Michael Schumacher's footsteps and taking a tight grip on Ferrari?

Niki Lauda: What they did in Hockenheim was against all rules. Either the rules are changed or everybody observes them. What they've done is wrong and they got an immediate punishment - and they will get a pasting from the FIA World Motor Sport Council, that is for sure. And that has nothing to do with Alonso. He's no Schumacher." 

The correct translation should have been:

Pregunta: ¿Fernando Alonso sigue los pasos de Michael Schumacher y está apretándole las tuercas a Ferrari?

Niki Lauda: Lo que hicieron en Hockenheim incumple todas las reglas. O cambian el reglamento o lo cumple todo el mundo. Lo que han hecho está mal y recibieron un castigo inmediatamente, y recibirán una tunda del Consejo Mundial de Automovilismo de la FIA, seguro. Y Alonso no tiene nada que ver con esto. Él no es como Schumacher."

Europa Press reporters do not know that "to have to do with" does not mean "no hay nada que hacer", but "no tener nada que ver".

So, you can see what a bad translation can lead to...

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Scots Develop Biofuel from Whiskey

Scottish researchers have tapped into the UK’s $6.2 billion whiskey industry to produce a new biofuel that will power a car.

Scottish researchers have found a way to develop butanol for a biofuel using resources the country has in abundance - waste from whiskey production. The fuel will give cars 30% more output power then ethanol biofuel and unlike its ethanol counterpart, will be usable in ordinary cars.

We’re analyzing coverage from euronews, Cnet, Time, The BBC and Sky News.

Euronews explains the process: “Researchers have found a formula using the waste products from distilling Scotland’s famous tipple, namely the ‘pot ale’ or liquid from the copper stills, and draff, which is the spent grains. Put together they produce an alcohol called butanol which can drive a vehicle, much like ethanol.”

Cnet reports the new process is based on a method used to create explosives in World War I and on research started 100 years ago: “Some start-ups and researchers have highlighted the amusing correlation between drinkable alcohol and experimental biofuels ... explaining on a more serious note that early experiments in alcohol-based biofuels had been curtailed by the onset of Prohibition legislation.”

A writer for Time points out this could do well economically for Scotland: “It could be a financial windfall for the Scottish, who count whisky as a major industry. Plus, since the fuel needs only the byproducts from the whisky-production process, that would mean more (and cheaper) booze. Sounds like a win all around.”

The director of World Wildlife Fund Scotland tells the BBC he applauds the research, saying it’s a big boost for the environment.

Dr. Richard Dixon: "Last year the whisky industry published plans to help lower its impacts and it is clear that this scheme could assist them in doing just that. Since the whisky industry relies on Scotland's clean environment for its main ingredients it would be great if the industry could help Scotland reduce its emissions from road transport."

The head researcher Professor Martin Tangney tells Sky News he hopes commercial availability isn’t too far off.

Professor Martin Tangney: “With Scottish Enterprise support, we’ve, for the last two years, developed this to a pre-industrial stage now. And the next phase of development will be for the big industries to come and bring this to the market which I hope will happen in years and not decades.”

So what do you think? Is whiskey fuel a viable resource, and would you trust it in your car?

Writer: Kelly Chase

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: One in Five Teens Suffer from Hearing Loss

Researchers haven't identified an exact cause for the increase in hearing loss, but many say that the growing number of iPods and ear buds are to blame.

“The volume is turned way up for kids today, but they’re hearing less. There’s been a pretty significant increase over this time period in hearing loss in American adolescents." (CBS)

Researchers haven’t identified an exact cause for the increase in hearing loss – but many say that the rapid adoption of iPods and ear buds are to blame. A new study suggests one in five adolescents suffers from hearing loss, and the problem might be more common in boys.

But CTV and Channel One News highlight a problem in mentality – some teens just don’t really care.

Nick: “I already know that it’s sort of messing up my hearing. ... I don’t really care. I like my music loud.”

"Its so loud, they put it all the way to the max."

“All the way up every time … All the older folks will say don’t listen to that because that’s going to ruin your ears. But I’m young now so I mean like I guess I’ll worry about that 30 years from now.”

Parents have been urging kids to turn down the music – but now they have at least some proof. One parent tells KTVT in Dallas that the study isn’t shocking based on teen tech habits: “I’m not surprised entirely, I have to say because they’re constantly connected to iPods, computers, and we’re constantly on them to turn them down.”

CBS explains - how when earbuds are used, sound waves travel deeper into the ear. A report show exactly what happens inside the ear when exposed to unsafe volume levels: “Sound waves travel through the ear canal to the inner ear. There, tiny hair cells convert the sound to never impulses that travel to hearing centers in the brain. Excessive noise can damage those cells and cause permanent hearing loss."

An article in Time looks at another side of hearing loss – saying when teens lose their hearing they are actually losing a lot more: “Difficulty in hearing among youngsters has been linked to slower language development, poorer performance in school and lower self-esteem. … even slight hearing loss in elementary and high school students can result in progressively lower scores on communication tests and greater anxiety.”

Researchers say 85 decibels of noise could be damaging - and when iPods are played full volume, decibel levels reach over 100

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Dustin Johnson's Costly Mistake

Dustin Johnson had a putt to win the PGA Championship, or so he thought. He received a controversial two stroke penalty on the 72nd hole - costing him a chance to win.

“Here it is right here, now this doesn’t look like a sandtrap does it? Just looks like grass. There’s a bunch of people standing in it here and there. Well that was his point. The point is, I wasn’t in a sand trap, but they’re saying no, right there, when you touched the ground that was a two stroke penalty. What’s that mean for him? He lost the chance to compete for his first major championship.” (HLN)

Dustin Johnson appeared headed to a playoff at the PGA Championship. But before signing his card - he was informed that he received a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a VERY controversial sand trap.

While the no-grounding rule seems fair enough, the controversy lies in whether this particular sand trap at Wisconsin's Whistling Straits -- really was a sand trap at all. ESPN shares Johnson’s post-penalization reaction.

REPORTER 1: “Were you aware all week that even waste areas were considered bunkers here? I mean, that’s unusual. I mean, you should’ve read the sheet.”

DUSTIN JOHNSON “Yeah, I guess. Well, I mean, I even asked Nick, I said, ‘Did you know that?’ He didn’t know it either, so.”

REPORTER 2: “Had you looked at the rule sheet?”

DUSTIN JOHNSON: “No. I never looked at it. I only look at it if I had a reason to, and I didn’t think I had a reason to.”

But according to PGA Championship rules official Mark Wilson, officials took special measures to make golfers aware of this particular bunker rule. ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi brings the view of other golfers who watched the situation play out.

ANCHOR: “What’s the reaction from other players and fans out there that this has happened?

TOM RINALDI: “You know, it was interesting. While the scene was unfolding, there were some players in the locker room who clearly understood that Dustin Johnson was in jeopardy. And you could see them reacting in a way to say, ‘watch out now, watch out,’ because of the clear posting of that rule.”

So, who’s to blame? CNBC’s Melissa Francis and Darron Rovell go back and forth.

MELISSA FRANCIS: “Who’s really at fault here? I mean, the rule was posted everywhere, we’ve all heard that, it was in the locker rooms. Shouldn’t his caddy have reminded him? I’m blaming the caddy.”

DARRON ROVELL: “No, it’s he and his caddy, you wish a rules official was there to remind him.”

MELISSA FRANCIS: “Well, it was posted everywhere. It was on the card, I mean come on, it’s not the rules official.”

But a writer for The Tampa Tribune blames the course: “Whistling Straits is a bunker occasionally interrupted by grass. There are more than 1,200 of the sandy suckers on it, some the size of steam boats and others the size of divots. ... In fact, there are so many bunkers at Whistling Straits that fans stood in them the whole tournament because, well, where else were they going to stand?”

So, what exactly did Johnson lose after his 18th hole penalty? CNBC reports it was more than a chance to win his first major championship; he lost a LOT of money: “So, let’s show you what he didn’t win. If he wasn’t assessed that penalty, got into the playoff, he could’ve won what Martin Kaymer won, that first place money of 1.35 million dollars. Or he could’ve at least picked up second place, or third place money, but his two stroke penalty resulted in a tie for fifth place, worth 270,833 [dollars], so winning versus fifth place is a loss of over 1 million dollars for Johnson. ...”

So what do you think about Johnson’s mistake? His own fault? The course’s fault? Or just a silly rule?

WRITER: Kyrsten Skulborstad

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Website Lets Students Bet on Grades

A company called Ultrinsic has initiated a plan that would be proposed at 36 colleges and universities that allows students to place bets on their grades. But is it alright to gamble on grades?

We’re analyzing coverage from WCCO, CNBC, KCBD, USA Today, and Fox News.

WCCO explains how the company, barely a year old, works: “You have to register, upload your schedule, and give the site access to your official school records. The website then calculates the odds, based on student’s college history, and any information it can dig up on the difficulty of each class, the topic, and several other factors. Now wages start at $25 and go up depending on usage…”

CNBC also explains that students can also secure themselves when at a potential loss: “If you think you might fail, well they allow you to hedge your bet by buying some grade insurance…”

While KCBD says students like the idea, but a gambling law expert isn’t sure the site can get away with what they’re doing: 

DANIEL GERRISH: “If there is that added incentive for getting a little extra cash for making an A, I may not be like ‘Oh, B’s fine.”

CHASEN SMITH: “Sometimes for college students, money is more important to them because they struggle, ya know, to make ends meet…”

ANCHOR: “Texas Tech law professor, HTRTRJ, specializes in gambling law, and he says this new wager, is on thin legal ice.”

WESLEY COCHRAN: “The way that this website attempts to get around that is to say they’ve taken out the element of chance, that grades are due to skill…”

The director of the National Survey for Student Engagement tells USA Today that this website will just make letter grade obsession worse and plagiarism more widespread: "Students who are determined to be academically dishonest can find out all sort of creative ways to do it…This might create even more incentive to figure out how to cheat the system."

And finally, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith tosses in his two cents: “The president of the website says it gives students an immediate pay off for their hard work. Nobody in America is learning anything anymore. We’re falling to the bottom of all of the charts. And now we have a website where you can bet on your grades. BET AWAY. We’re falling apart as you watch….”

So what do you think about gambling on grades?
Writer: Jenn Ballard

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Metaweb: Freebase, an Entity Graph of Open Data

Freebase is a service that helps you build your website around entities and not just words: it is an open, shared database of the world's knowledge of more than 12 million entities: an online collection of structured data harvested from many sources, including individual 'wiki' contributions. Freebase aims to create a global resource which allows people (and machines) to access common information more effectively. It was developed by the American software company Metaweb and has been running publicly since March 2007. Metaweb was acquired by Google in a private sale announced on July 16th 2010.

 

An entity is a single person, thing or concept that exists in the world. In Freebase terms, each entity is represented by a Topic node in the graph, and has a unique Id(entity).

Examples of entities:

• Olivia Newton-John
• Battle of Trafalgar
• the colour Blue

Things which are not entities:

• things expressed by adjectives or verbs, eg. "funny" or "speak"
• disparate groups or collections, eg. "people with blue eyes"
• higher-order ideas about things, eg. "history of Cambodia"

If you choose the "Watch on YouTube" option, press the CC button on the right-hand 
bottom corner and choose "Transcribir audio" to read the English subtitling

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Newsy: Internet Addiction in Teens Linked to Depression

Researchers are still not certain whether unhealthy Internet use leads to depression or whether it’s the other way around.

A new study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine suggests that teens who use the Internet obsessively are much more likely to suffer depression. But experts are still unsure which comes first — depression or Internet addiction.

We’re analyzing coverage of the study from The Daily Telegraph, KYW-TV, Time and MSNBC.

Researchers looked at more than a thousand teenagers, none of whom suffered depression at the beginning of the study. The Daily Telegraph explains the make up of the teens under study and how scientists characterize obsessive Internet use: “Just over 6 percent of the teenagers were found to be pathological users of the Internet, because they said they felt depressed, moody or nervous when not on the Internet, but this disappeared when they were back online.”

After nine months, researchers found that these teens were two and a half times more likely to be depressed. On Philadelphia’s KYW-TV, Pediatrician Robert Bonner explains how obsessive Web use can affect teens: “They were depressed much like somebody who is addicted to drugs or alcohol. The use of the Internet is much like an addiction. It looks like when the activity takes over the majority of the teenager’s time, when they’re away from it, they have the need to get back on it, and if they are unable to continue with the Internet activity, depression starts to come in.”

But not all experts agree that depression is caused by too much time on the Web. TIME Magazine speculates that some users might become addicted to the Internet because they are already depressed: “It could also be, as past studies have found, that people whose Internet use reaches pathological levels are somehow already predisposed to depression... and that they turn to spending time online when they are unhappy.”

Regardless of which health problem leads to the other, experts encourage parents to keep an eye on how much time teens spend in isolation on the Internet, watching TV or playing video games. Pediatric psychologist Margaret Richards shares advice for parents on MSNBC: “They really need to make sure that they’re still involved in other activities, like sports or clubs or going out with their friends so that they’re still getting that social interaction.”

So what do you think? Are teens really spending too much time on the Internet? Or does this study focus too much on a small number of teens who are truly addicted to the Web?

WRITER: Jessica Stephens

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Inception

Inception: Your mind is the scene of the crime

In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job till date.

Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible-inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.

Inception is a 2010 American science fiction action film written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, andCillian Murphy. The film is inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming. The film, a variant on the heist genre, centers on Dom Cobb, an "extractor", who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. His abilities and questions about the death of his wife have cost him his family and his nationality, but he is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. This process of planting an idea, known as "inception", is less familiar and far more difficult than Cobb's usual job of "extraction".

Inception was first developed by Christopher Nolan, based on the notion of "exploring the idea of people sharing a dream space — entering a dream space and sharing a dream. That gives you the ability to access somebody’s unconscious mind. What would that be used and abused for?" Furthermore, he thought "being able to extract information from somebody’s brain would be the obvious use of that because obviously any other system where it’s computers or physical media, whatever — things that exist outside the mind — they can all be stolen ... up until this point, or up until this movie I should say, the idea that you could actually steal something from somebody’s head was impossible. So that, to me, seemed a fascinating abuse or misuse of that kind of technology." Nolan admits that Inception shares some basic ideas with short stories by Jorge Luis Borges such as The Circular Ruins and The Secret Miracle.

Nolan had thought about these ideas on and off since he was sixteen years old, intrigued by how he would wake up and then, while falling back into a lighter sleep, hold on to the awareness that he was dreaming, a lucid dream. He also became aware of the feeling that he could study the place and alter the events of the dream. He said, "I tried to work that idea of manipulation and management of a conscious dream being a skill that these people have. Really the script is based on those common, very basic experiences and concepts, and where can those take you? And the only outlandish idea that the film presents, really, is the existence of a technology that allows you to enter and share the same dream as someone else." Harvard University dream researcher Deirdre Barrett points out that Nolan did not get every detail accurate regarding dreams, but that films which really do that "... tend to have illogical, rambling, disjointed plots which wouldn’t make for a great thriller. But he did get many aspects right," she said, citing the scene in which a sleeping DiCaprio is shoved into a full bath and water starts gushing into the windows of the building he is dreaming, waking him up. "That's very much how real stimuli get incorporated, and you very often wake up right after that intrusion."

Hans Zimmer scored the film, marking his third collaboration with Nolan following Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. According to Zimmer, it's a "a very electronic score". Nolan asked Zimmer to compose and finish the score as he was shooting the film. The composer said, "He wanted to unleash my imagination in the best possible way". At one point, while composing the score, Zimmer incorporated a guitar sound reminiscent of Ennio Morricone and was interested in having Johnny Marr, former guitarist in the influential 80s rock band, The Smiths, play these parts. He asked Nolan, who agreed and then Zimmer approached Marr who accepted his offer. Marr spent four 12-hour days working on the score, playing notes written by Zimmer with a 12-string guitar. For inspiration, Zimmer read Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter because it combined "the idea of playfulness in mathematics and playfulness in music". Zimmer did not assemble a temp score but "every now and then they would call and say 'we need a little something here.' But that was OK because much of the music pieces aren't that scene specific. They fall into little categories".

While writing the screenplay, Nolan wrote in Édith Piaf's "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" but almost took it out when he cast Marion Cotillard, who starred as Piaf in 2007 film La Vie en rose. Zimmer convinced Nolan to keep it in the film and also integrated elements of the song into his score.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.