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Science

We Know Where You've Been and Who You've Been Talking To

Got an iPhone or an iPad? Did you know it was keeping track of your whereabouts? Link

Security researchers have discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of where you go - and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner's computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone's recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner's movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year's worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple's iOS 4 update to the phone's operating system, released in June 2010.

Imagine your parents getting a hold of that info.

On a totally unrelated note, i enjoy that the tech consultant they talked to felt it was completely acceptable to be quoted saying "cockup".


By min | April 20, 2011, 2:21 PM | Liberal Outrage & Science | Link



Lick them batteries

GamePolitics:

Here's an odd study to consider: using a 9 volt battery can make your skills at gaming better - as long as you can stand some small level voltage running through your head. According to an odd DARPA-funded study, running low-level electricity through the scalp might help the mind focus on tasks such as video games.
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Obviously you do not want to try this sort of thing at home unless you are a complete moron.

By fnord12 | April 19, 2011, 3:46 PM | Science & Video Games | Link



Vegetarians Stink Less

Here's an article that talks about body odors and how we perceive them. He mentions several studies that tested various aspects of our attraction/repulsion to body odor.

I just wanted to point out 2 things.

  1. The first thing - In one test, he has the participants sleep in the same shirt 3 nights in a row. No perfumes or scented products could be used during this time, and the shirts were kept in their own sealed plastic bag during the day. The point of this experiment was to see how people reacted to the BO of family members vs a control group.

    My question is why the hell are you so goddamned stinky in bed? I could understand if you'd been exercising or if you'd been wearing a cotton pad in your armpit all day to absorb your stink, but why the hell are you so stinky in your sleep? What must your sheets and blankets smell like cause i know they've been on your bed for way longer than 3 days?!?!? Just ew.

  2. The second thing, and the one that shows once again why vegetarians are just better is this:
    We now know that, even independent of where women are on their menstrual cycles, the "odor signatures" of men on a non-meat diet are perceived by fertile women to be less intense, more pleasant and more attractive than their meat-eating peers.

We win again.


By min | April 7, 2011, 8:34 AM | Science | Comments (1)| Link



I'm a Mosquito Magnet

Given the option of biting anyone else or me, mosquitoes inevitably go for me even if i'm covered in repellent and surrounded by citronella candles.

Researchers at the USDA are trying to figure out what chemicals attract mosquitoes the most in order to improve mosquito repellents - Link. What with people catching West Nile, dengue fever, and malaria all over the place, it's prolly a good idea. And they really ought to speed it up. I could be next!

Mosquitoes show the best response to combinations of compounds, and it's time-consuming to find the right mix of attractants. Bernier winnowed attractants from the list of 346 chemicals by methodically mixing the skin's most abundant compounds with lactic acid. He has found that a blend of three particular chemicals attracts at least 90 percent of the mosquitoes in the olfactometer every time.
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The group has filed a patent on the blend of three compounds, which Bernier declines to identify. [Emphasis mine]

Asshole!

Although by themselves some of the blends attract more mosquitoes than Bernier's arm, if both an arm and a blend are presented at the same time, the arm wins hands down.

Figures.


By min | April 7, 2011, 8:18 AM | Science | Link



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