Controversial Theory about Universe

This Controversial Theory Says Our Universe Is Just One of Many Previous Universes | @curiositydotcom https://curiosity.com/topics/this-controversial-theory-says-our-universe-is-just-one-of-many-previous-universes-curiosity?utm_source=androidapp

5 stunning stats about Google

Google's

data collection is hard to escape, study claims

By Heather Kelly August 21, 2018: 12:26 AM ET
@ CNN tech

 
Short of chucking your phone into the river, shunning the internet, and learning to read paper maps again, there's not much you can do to keep Google from collecting data about you.

So says a Vanderbilt University computer scientist who led an analysis of Google's data collection practices. His report, released Tuesday, outlines a myriad ways the company amasses information about the billions of people who use the world's leading search engine, web browser, and mobile operating system, not to mention products like Gmail, platforms like YouTube, and products like Nest.

Although the report doesn't contain any bombshells, it presents an overview of Google's efforts to learn as much as possible about people. And it comes at a time of heightened concern about how much information tech companies collect, what they do with it, and how they secure it. Google has largely escaped the public and regulatory backlash directed at Facebook.

"There's been a lot of attention obviously on Facebook in light of Cambridge Analytica," said Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, which published the study. (DCN is a trade organization representing media publishers, including CNN.) "This quantifies and kind of establishes a baseline of, 'Here is everything Google is doing.'"

According to the 55-page report, Google is doing a lot.

"This report is commissioned by a professional DC lobbyist group, and written by a witness for Oracle in their ongoing copyright litigation with Google. So, it's no surprise that it contains wildly misleading information," said a Google spokesperson.

Google collects far more data than Facebook, according to the report, and it is the world's largest digital advertising company. Its vast portfolio of services, from Android to Google Search to Chrome to Google Pay, create a firehose of data.

Professor Douglas Schmidt and his team intercepted data as it was transmitted from Android smartphones to Google servers. They also examined the information Google provides users in its My Activity and Google Takeout tools, as well as the company's privacy polices and previous research on the topic.

The researchers claims that almost every move you make online is collected and collated, from your morning routine (such as music tastes, route to work, and news preferences) to errands (including calendar appointments, webpages visited, and purchases made).

"At the end of the day, Google identified user interests with remarkable accuracy," the report states.

Google can collect data even if you aren't using your phone. The study says that a dormant Android phone with Chrome running in the background sent location data to Google servers 340 times in one 24-hour period. The study claims 11.6 MB of data passed between an Android device and Google's servers after a day of "typical" internet use.

The torrent of data includes information people actively provide when they type something into Google Search or seek directions on Maps.

But Google collected two-thirds of its data without any input at all from users in the researchers experiment. The Android mobile operating system, Chrome web browser, applications like Search and Maps, and publisher tools like Google Analytics and AdWords can glean information from web searches, map inquiries, and other online activities without you knowing -- or controlling -- it, claims the study.

Google has said in the past it uses much of that data to improve its products. The information can lead to more relevant search results, for example.

But it also uses much of the information to more effectively deliver ads, which accounted for 86% of Google's revenue in the second quarter of this year. The more information it has about someone's interests, the better it can target ads.

Most people have long since accepted that using Google's suite of free products means turning over your data. And the report stops short of outlining effective tactics for increasing your privacy.

Google's own settings don't necessarily stop collection. A recent investigation by the Associated Press found that the company continued to record location data even after a user disables the Location History option. Google said the data is used to improve services, but has updated the wording of the setting to make it clear that location information is still collected.

Switching from Android to an iOS device can minimize the data collected, according to researchers. They say an iOS device does not typically send location data to the company unless using a Google product or visiting a website that uses Google tracking tools. It did not compare it to how much data an iPhone sends to Apple servers.

But even on an iPhone, using Safari and deleting all Google apps, a person is still sharing some information with Google through ad and publisher services. Google owns its own popular marketing and online advertising services.

"It's nearly impossible to do anything digitally without Google collecting data on you," said Kint.

August 21

SAN FRANCISCO

First Time in China: GE’s 9FA Advanced Gas Path Technology to Boost Efficiency at Shanghai Caojing’s Power Station

March 28, 2017

GE’s Advanced Gas Path Technology Will Help Increase Output by Approximately 25 Megawatts, Boost Efficiency and Reduce Emissions at the PlantStation Serves as Model for Utilities in China Seeking to Make Their Plants More Efficient and Reliable

SHANGHAI—March 28, 2017—GE’s Power Services (NYSE: GE) signed a milestone agreement to provide Advanced Gas Path (AGP) upgrades for two GE 9FA gas turbines at the Caojing combined-cycle power station in China, marking the company’s first 9FA AGP upgrade in the country. The deal will help increase the output and efficiency of the 790-megawatt (MW) plant—the largest industrial cogeneration facility in Shanghai. In addition, GE signed a 25-year services agreement with Shanghai Caojing Co-Generation Co., Ltd., the owner of the Caojing power station, extending a previous collaboration between the two companies.

“China’s surging energy demands and continued growth in the petrochemical industry make it essential for us to continually improve the performance and availability of the Caojing combined-cycle plant to support local production requirements,” said Mr. Peigang Shi, general manager of Shanghai Caojing Co-Generation Co., Ltd. “This upgrade project will enable us to boost our supply of power and steam to the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park—one of the leading petrochemical bases in Asia—with higher efficiency and without increasing emissions.”

The gas turbine AGP technology, part of GE’s Fleet360* platform of total plant solutions, is engineered to increase turbine output by more than 6 percent, reduce heat rate by more than 1.5 percent and extend maintenance intervals from 24,000 to 32,000 factored hours—a leading figure in the industry.

Increasing the efficiency of existing thermal power plants has become a top global priority as countries seek to reach their emissions-reduction goals. GE’s recent Ecomagination study found that carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the world’s fleets of natural gas and coal-fired plants can be reduced by 10 percent when existing hardware and software solutions are fully applied. Upgrades to existing plants can be done relatively quickly and cost-effectively. According to the study, the average global efficiency of gas plants can be improved by up to 1.8 percent through hardware improvements such as turbine and boiler upgrades and an additional 1.5 percent through software solutions and data analytics.

“The AGP and software upgrades can be implemented in the upcoming major outage, therefore delivering immediate benefit to Caojing,” said Sunny Xue, commercial general manager for GE’s Power Services in China. “Thanks to advanced material and flow-path design, our AGP technology provides 9FA.03 gas turbines with improved efficiency, longer maintenance intervals and longer parts life, helping to assure our customer’s units remain competitive over time.”

The deal extends a previous services agreement signed by GE and Shanghai Caojing Co-Generation Company in 2013, which saw implementation of the first Dry Low NOx 2.6+ combustion system upgrade for 9FA.03 gas turbines in Asia. That upgrade helped the Caojing plant achieve NOx emissions levels below 15 parts per million, a 40 percent reduction from the previous level.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com

About GE Power

GE Power is a world leader in power generation with deep domain expertise to help customers deliver electricity from a wide spectrum of fuel sources. We are transforming the electricity industry with the digital power plant, the world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine, full balance of plant, upgrade and service solutions as well as our data-leveraging software. Our innovative technologies and digital offerings help make power more affordable, reliable, accessible and sustainable.

For more information, visit the company's website at www.gepower.com/. Follow GE Power on Twitter @GE_Power and on LinkedIn at GE Power.

About GE’s Power Services

GE’s Power Services, headquartered in Baden, Switzerland, delivers world-class solutions for our customers across total plant assets and their operational lifetimes. This organization supports 2,800+ customers worldwide with an installed base of 28,000+ power generation assets, which includes other OEMs, and taps into the Industrial Internet to improve the performance of our solutions over the entire life cycle through the power of software and big data analytics.

For more information, please visit powergen.gepower.com. Follow GE’s Power Services on Twitter @GEPowerServices and on LinkedIn at GE Power Services.

* Trademark of GE: may be registered in one or more countries. 

China’s New “Weather-Controlling Tech” Could Make it Rain on Demand

Third Party Contents

 FuturismMS

IN BRIEF

China has spent $168 million on cloud seeding technology to hopefully manipulate the weather and combat drought and extreme weather due to climate changeCloud seeding technology has existed for a long time, however because of early false claims and deep-rooted skepticism, there isn't sufficient research to back up the tech

CLOUD SEEDING

The China Meteorological Administration wants to increase rainfall and snow across 960,000 square kilometers of the country. A more effective way of making this happen that doesn’t involve a ritualistic rain dance? Spending $168 million on cloud seeding technology that they hope will allow them to manipulate the weather.

Here’s how it works. The money will be invested into four new aircrafts, upgrading eight existing planes, and launching 900 rocket systems that will allow them to sprinkle substances above the clouds that could induce the rainmaking process. These substances range from silver iodide to dry ice. Adding these chemicals into clouds might lower their temperature and speed up the condensation process.

While this method has yet to be scientifically proven, the country claims it has already helped them to increase precipitation by 55 billion cubic meters from 2006 to 2016, especially in the western part of China.

“The […] project is expected to help with “ecological security, water resource allocation, drought fighting and forest fire prevention” in Gansu, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, all of which are western regions plagued by water shortages.” reports The South China Morning Post.

MAKE IT RAIN

Cloud seeding schemes have been around for years. And theoretically, the method makes scientific sense. However, unrealistic claims regarding its success when it was first introduced prompted experiments with cloud seeding to be regarded with apprehension. Through the years, the consensus among weather scientists was that cloud seeding’s positive results had to be supported with greater scientific data. Ultimately, even with advanced tools and techniques, it’s still very difficult to establish whether weather conditions were prompted artificially or naturally-occurring.

However, this lack of concrete evidence hasn’t stopped people from using this weather modification technique. China, for instance, has used the method to ensure weather conditions for major events like the Beijing Olympics. Back in 2008, China launched over a thousand rockets to release silver iodide over the city sky to clear storm clouds and ensure that the international event would remain rain-free.

To that end, they’re now hoping that the same technique will work to address changes in temperature and precipitation caused by climate change, especially in drought-stricken regions, cities where they need to increase rainfall, or in cities suffering from heavy smog where they need rain to clear the air.

There is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding cloud seeding, and scientists are still trying to find concrete solutions in the technique. But continued research into the field will indeed prove to be invaluable during a time where countries continue to experience extreme weather events due to climate change.

References: Tech Insider, South China Morning Post

AUTHORJune Javelosa February 15, 2017EDITORChelsea Gohd@chelsea_gohd Website

This is what happens in your brain when you quit sugar

Third party content

This is what happens to your brain when you give up sugar.

Image: REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

This is what happens to your brain when you give up sugar.

Image: REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

Written by

Jordan Gaines Lewis, Neuroscience Doctoral Candidate, Pennsylvania State University

Thursday 16 March 2017

Anyone who knows me also knows that I have a huge sweet tooth. I always have. My friend and fellow graduate student Andrew is equally afflicted, and living in Hershey, Pennsylvania – the “Chocolate Capital of the World” – doesn’t help either of us.

But Andrew is braver than I am. Last year, he gave up sweets for Lent. I can’t say that I’m following in his footsteps this year, but if you are abstaining from sweets for Lent this year, here’s what you can expect over the next 40 days.

Sugar: natural reward, unnatural fix

In neuroscience, food is something we call a “natural reward.” In order for us to survive as a species, things like eating, having sex and nurturing others must be pleasurable to the brain so that these behaviours are reinforced and repeated.

Evolution has resulted in the mesolimbic pathway, a brain system that deciphers these natural rewards for us. When we do something pleasurable, a bundle of neurons called the ventral tegmental area uses the neurotransmitter dopamine to signal to a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. The connection between the nucleus accumbens and our prefrontal cortex dictates our motor movement, such as deciding whether or not to taking another bite of that delicious chocolate cake. The prefrontal cortex also activates hormones that tell our body: “Hey, this cake is really good. And I’m going to remember that for the future.”

Not all foods are equally rewarding, of course. Most of us prefer sweets over sour and bitter foods because, evolutionarily, our mesolimbic pathway reinforces that sweet things provide a healthy source of carbohydrates for our bodies. When our ancestors went scavenging for berries, for example, sour meant “not yet ripe,” while bitter meant “alert – poison!”

Fruit is one thing, but modern diets have taken on a life of their own. A decade ago, it was estimated that the average American consumed 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day, amounting to an extra 350 calories; it may well have risen since then. A few months ago, one expert suggested that the average Briton consumes 238 teaspoonsof sugar each week.

Today, with convenience more important than ever in our food selections, it’s almost impossible to come across processed and prepared foods that don’t have added sugars for flavour, preservation, or both.

These added sugars are sneaky – and unbeknown to many of us, we’ve become hooked. In ways that drugs of abuse – such as nicotine, cocaine and heroin – hijack the brain’s reward pathway and make users dependent, increasing neuro-chemical and behavioural evidence suggests that sugar is addictive in the same way, too.

Sugar addiction is real

“The first few days are a little rough,” Andrew told me about his sugar-free adventure last year. “It almost feels like you’re detoxing from drugs. I found myself eating a lot of carbs to compensate for the lack of sugar.”

There are four major components of addiction: bingeing, withdrawal, craving, and cross-sensitisation (the notion that one addictive substance predisposes someone to becoming addicted to another). All of these components have been observed in animal models of addiction – for sugar, as well as drugs of abuse.

A typical experiment goes like this: rats are deprived of food for 12 hours each day, then given 12 hours of access to a sugary solution and regular chow. After a month of following this daily pattern, rats display behaviours similar to those on drugs of abuse. They’ll binge on the sugar solution in a short period of time, much more than their regular food. They also show signs of anxiety and depression during the food deprivation period. Many sugar-treated rats who are later exposed to drugs, such as cocaine and opiates, demonstrate dependent behaviours towards the drugs compared to rats who did not consume sugar beforehand.

Like drugs, sugar spikes dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Over the long term, regular sugar consumption actually changes the gene expression and availability of dopamine receptors in both the midbrain and frontal cortex. Specifically, sugar increases the concentration of a type of excitatory receptor called D1, but decreases another receptor type called D2, which is inhibitory. Regular sugar consumption also inhibits the action of the dopamine transporter, a protein which pumps dopamine out of the synapse and back into the neuron after firing.

In short, this means that repeated access to sugar over time leads to prolonged dopamine signalling, greater excitation of the brain’s reward pathways and a need for even more sugar to activate all of the midbrain dopamine receptors like before. The brain becomes tolerant to sugar – and more is needed to attain the same “sugar high.”

Sugar withdrawal is also real

Although these studies were conducted in rodents, it’s not far-fetched to say that the same primitive processes are occurring in the human brain, too. “The cravings never stopped, [but that was] probably psychological,” Andrew told me. “But it got easier after the first week or so.”

In a 2002 study by Carlo Colantuoni and colleagues of Princeton University, rats who had undergone a typical sugar dependence protocol then underwent “sugar withdrawal.” This was facilitated by either food deprivation or treatment with naloxone, a drug used for treating opiate addiction which binds to receptors in the brain’s reward system. Both withdrawal methods led to physical problems, including teeth chattering, paw tremors, and head shaking. Naloxone treatment also appeared to make the rats more anxious, as they spent less time on an elevated apparatus that lacked walls on either side.

Similar withdrawal experiments by others also report behaviour similar to depression in tasks such as the forced swim test. Rats in sugar withdrawal are more likely to show passive behaviours (like floating) than active behaviours (like trying to escape) when placed in water, suggesting feelings of helplessness.

A new study published by Victor Mangabeira and colleagues in this month’s Physiology & Behavior reports that sugar withdrawal is also linked to impulsive behaviour. Initially, rats were trained to receive water by pushing a lever. After training, the animals returned to their home cages and had access to a sugar solution and water, or just water alone. After 30 days, when rats were again given the opportunity to press a lever for water, those who had become dependent on sugar pressed the lever significantly more times than control animals, suggesting impulsive behaviour.

These are extreme experiments, of course. We humans aren’t depriving ourselves of food for 12 hours and then allowing ourselves to binge on soda and doughnuts at the end of the day. But these rodent studies certainly give us insight into the neuro-chemical underpinnings of sugar dependence, withdrawal, and behaviour.

Through decades of diet programmes and best-selling books, we’ve toyed with the notion of “sugar addiction” for a long time. There are accounts of those in “sugar withdrawal” describing food cravings, which can trigger relapse and impulsive eating. There are also countless articles and books about the boundless energy and new-found happiness in those who have sworn off sugar for good. But despite the ubiquity of sugar in our diets, the notion of sugar addiction is still a rather taboo topic.

Are you still motivated to give up sugar for Lent? You might wonder how long it will take until you’re free of cravings and side-effects, but there’s no answer – everyone is different and no human studies have been done on this. But after 40 days, it’s clear that Andrew had overcome the worst, likely even reversing some of his altered dopamine signalling. “I remember eating my first sweet and thinking it was too sweet,” he said. “I had to rebuild my tolerance.”

And as regulars of a local bakery in Hershey – I can assure you, readers, that he has done just that.