dispense

I cannot read the article or watch the video without enabling Javascript.

I can't read this article without allowing Javascript.

The minor inconvenience of re-entering my shipping data every time clearly outweighs the possibility that some crime syndicate gets their hands on my personal data. At least for me. I would appreciate it to at least have the option to not create an account when I make a purchase. I've seen too many data breaches to have much confidence in the security of the majority of webshops. The only secure safeguard against theft of personal information is to not have it stored in the first place.

How about not requiring personal data when it's necessary anyway, and removing it as soon as it isn't necessary anymore? If I buy a LaCie drive in a brick-and-mortar store and I pay with cash, there is exactly none of my personal data there to be stolen. I don't see why this shouldn't apply to my online purchases. In fact, I'm quite annoyed that it doesn't apply at all.

Patches of Disorganization in the Neocortex of Children with Autism

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1307491

doi://10.1056/NEJMoa1307491

Background

Autism involves early brain overgrowth and dysfunction, which is most strongly evident in the prefrontal cortex. As assessed on pathological analysis, an excess of neurons in the prefrontal cortex among children with autism signals a disturbance in prenatal development and may be concomitant with abnormal cell type and laminar development. Methods

To systematically examine neocortical architecture during the early years after the onset of autism, we used RNA in situ hybridization with a panel of layer- and cell-type–specific molecular markers to phenotype cortical microstructure. We assayed markers for neurons and glia, along with genes that have been implicated in the risk of autism, in prefrontal, temporal, and occipital neocortical tissue from postmortem samples obtained from children with autism and unaffected children between the ages of 2 and 15 years. Results

We observed focal patches of abnormal laminar cytoarchitecture and cortical disorganization of neurons, but not glia, in prefrontal and temporal cortical tissue from 10 of 11 children with autism and from 1 of 11 unaffected children. We observed heterogeneity between cases with respect to cell types that were most abnormal in the patches and the layers that were most affected by the pathological features. No cortical layer was uniformly spared, with the clearest signs of abnormal expression in layers 4 and 5. Three-dimensional reconstruction of layer markers confirmed the focal geometry and size of patches. Conclusions

In this small, explorative study, we found focal disruption of cortical laminar architecture in the cortexes of a majority of young children with autism. Our data support a probable dysregulation of layer formation and layer-specific neuronal differentiation at prenatal developmental stages. (Funded by the Simons Foundation and others.)

There was an entertaining lecture about it this (and other stuff) at the 30C3: http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2013/30C3_-_5604_-_en_-_...

That's a human problem, not a Bitcoin problem.

There is no such thing. In a 2 out of 3 transaction, 2 out of 3 parties have to agree for the transaction to happen. Thus, if the winner agrees and the arbitrator also agrees, the transactions is conducted. It's a cryptographically secure agreement.

At least they do offer the option relatively seamlessly (or so I hope). It might be cumbersome and awkward to explain to your non-tech friends why you want to enable it, but at least it's an option (although not necessarily proven to be secure).

"800,000 users from the Netherlands and counting." https://twitter.com/telegram/status/437275755312345089

This is speculative, but I think Telegram actually has enough momentum at the moment to overtake WhatsApp as the main instant messaging service in the Netherlands--if they are able to adequately handle the massive amount of new registrations. The general public definitely seems to be uncomfortable privacy-wise with the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook. So much for privacy being dead.

https://twitter.com/search?q=telegram%20lang%3Anl&src=typd&f... Telegram is definitely a trending topic on Twitter in the Netherlands.

Semantics. Obviously, theoretically, everybody can be fooled. The common sense definition of secure is not "secure with zero possibility of the security being broken". Storing diamonds in a safe at the bank is secure. Printing your private key and storing it at the bank is not any less secure than storing diamonds there.

Social engineering applies to pretty much everything. It has nothing to do with Bitcoin (or whatever else a social engineer wants from you) and everything with your own lack of due diligence and gullibility.

It is perfectly possible. Your only task is to secure the private keys. These are short enough to be printed as a QR code or written down. keep that piece of paper somewhere safe. Alternatively, it is possible to use a good, random, long passphrase as your de facto private key. That way, the keys to your wallet are literally stored in your mind and nowhere else.

As of now, there are no known fatal flaws or weaknesses in the Bitcoin protocol itself. The network is secure and as long as you manage to secure your private keys, Bitcoin is extremely safe.

Either SR2 was hacked or someone ran off with the funds. Whatever the case may be, I do not see how the friction (or lack thereof) of Bitcoin has anything to do with this.

Perhaps it's been a while since you've last used Tor, but at least in my experience, the speed really isn't that bad, especially for tasks that aren't time critical. Speeds of hundred or several hundred KB/s are not uncommon. The latency is a couple of seconds at most, in most cases. You won't be streaming in HD over Tor, sure, but fetching your email over Tor is not significantly more tiresome than over a direct connection. There is usually no noticeable lag for instant messaging either. YouTube video streams in the Tor browser also works with no delays most of the time.

I would like to see more information on the botnet were or are operating. Is it fully theirs or did they rent it? If they rented it, how and from whom? If it is fully theirs, what did it consist of? Did they rent a bunch of servers, or did they use a collection of residential connections? Were these connections used with the consent of their owners, or did the GCHQ hack them? If there was consent, who gave it to them? ISPs?

The legality of this is interesting. I suppose it takes a peculiar legal structure to operate a botnet lawfully.

Why have parasites promoting mating success been observed so rarely?

Paywalled article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002251931...

Abstract:

Host manipulation by sexually transmitted parasites which increases host mating rate and thus parasite transmission rate has long been viewed as a plausible parasite adaptation. However, empirical evidence for it is rare. Here, using an adaptive dynamics approach to evolution, we explore conditions under which such disease-induced mating enhancement is (or is not) likely to occur. We find that increased mating success is less likely to evolve if the host reproduction rate, or the baseline disease transmission rate, is reduced, and the parasite affects just one sex, compared to when it affects both. We also find that it is less likely to evolve if the virulence-transmission trade-off curve is stronger, since we assume that enhanced disease transmission can only be achieved at the cost of increased virulence and as this trade-off is concave. In addition, we demonstrate that if disease-induced mating enhancement is equally acting in both sexes the mating system has no effect on evolutionary outcomes. On the contrary, if disease-induced mating enhancement is acting in just one sex, the potential for its evolution increases with the degree of polygyny in the host population. To study the examined phenomenon in greater detail we encourage further empirical research on this apparently less explored impact of sexually transmitted parasites on host fitness.

The impact of early parenting bonding on young adults' Internet addiction, through the mediation effects of negative relating to others and sadness

Paywalled article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030646031...

Abstract:

The aim of the present study is the investigation of the potential role of negative relating to others, perceived loneliness, sadness, and anxiety, as mediators of the association between early parental bonding and adult Internet Addiction (IA). The factorial structure of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the prevalence rates of it in a Greek sample will also be investigated. A total of 774 participants were recruited from a Technological Education Institute (mean age = 20.2, SD = 2.8) and from high school technical schools (mean age = 19.9, SD = 7.4). The IAT was used to measure the degree of problematic Internet use behaviors; the Parental Bonding Instrument was used to assess one's recalled parenting experiences during the first 16 years of life; the shortened Person's Relating to Others Questionnaire was used to assess one's negative (i.e. maladaptive) relating to others (NRO). Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the three-factor structure of the IAT. Only 1.0% of the sample was severely addicted to the Internet. The mediated effects of only the NRO and sadness were confirmed. Negative relating to others was found to fully mediate the effect of both the father's optimal parenting and affectionless control on IA, whereas sadness was found to fully mediate the effect of the mother's optimal parenting on IA. Overall, the results suggest that parenting style has an indirect impact on IA, through the mediating role of negative relating to others or sadness in later life. Both family-based and individual-based prevention and intervention efforts may reduce the incidence of IA.

Sorry for hijacking, but does Ribbon have an opinion on Bitcoin?

So you can't connect to Wikipedia using HTTPS? What's the policy on HTTPS in general?

Edit: Never mind, you already answered it in another comment.

If you would like me to, I can set up a Tor bridge for you. Unfortunately, YCombinator doesn't have a private messaging system, so we'll have to figure out a way to communicate the details securely. Cryptocat is blocked. If you're familiar with GPG, we could use that right here. IRC is possible too. Email is not safe.

I would not recommend you to do a mass censorship scan from your own IP. It's a given that one or more of the top 100,000 sites triggers some kind of flag, apart from the fact that such activity itself may mark you as a person of interest.

Another thing to consider is that the government can likely link your YCombinator account to you because there are few YCombinator users in Iran, and from that subset, only a small number (maybe 1) matches your posting timestamps. I'm of course assuming that they keep such traffic logs. Syria's surveillance system did/does.

Placebo Sleep Affects Cognitive Functioning.

Paywalled article: http://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0035546

Abstract:

The placebo effect is any outcome that is not attributed to a specific treatment but rather to an individual's mindset (Benson & Friedman, 1996). This phenomenon can extend beyond its typical use in pharmaceutical drugs to involve aspects of everyday life, such as the effect of sleep on cognitive functioning. In 2 studies examining whether perceived sleep quality affects cognitive functioning, 164 participants reported their previous night's sleep quality. They were then randomly assigned to 1 of 2 sleep quality conditions or 2 control conditions. Those in the "above average" sleep quality condition were informed that they had spent 28.7% of their total sleep time in REM, whereas those in the "below average" sleep quality condition were informed that they had only spent 16.2% of their time in REM sleep. Assigned sleep quality but not self-reported sleep quality significantly predicted participants' scores on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test and Controlled Oral Word Association Task. Assigned sleep quality did not predict participants' scores on the Digit Span task, as expected, nor did it predict scores on the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, which was unexpected. The control conditions showed that the findings were not due to demand characteristics from the experimental protocol. These findings supported the hypothesis that mindset can influence cognitive states in both positive and negative directions, suggesting a means of controlling one's health and cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Direct link to the study for the lazy: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cne.23464/abstrac...

Abstract:

Increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system is thought to play a role in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease. Recent work has shown that physical inactivity versus activity alters neuronal structure in brain regions associated with cardiovascular regulation. Our physiological studies suggest that neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) are more responsive to excitation in sedentary versus physically active animals. We hypothesized that enhanced functional responses in the RVLM may be due, in part, to changes in the structure of RVLM neurons that control sympathetic activity. We used retrograde tracing and immunohistochemistry for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) to identify bulbospinal catecholaminergic (C1) neurons in sedentary and active rats after chronic voluntary wheel-running exercise. We then digitally reconstructed their cell bodies and dendrites at different rostrocaudal levels. The dendritic arbors of spinally projecting TH neurons from sedentary rats were more branched than those of physically active rats (P < 0.05). In sedentary rats, dendritic branching was greater in more rostral versus more caudal bulbospinal C1 neurons, whereas, in physically active rats, dendritic branching was consistent throughout the RVLM. In contrast, cell body size and the number of primary dendrites did not differ between active and inactive animals. We suggest that these structural changes provide an anatomical underpinning for the functional differences observed in our in vivo studies. These inactivity-related structural and functional changes may enhance the overall sensitivity of RVLM neurons to excitatory stimuli and contribute to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in sedentary individuals. J. Comp. Neurol. 522:499–513, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

From my perspective, hundreds of unknown parties from unknown jurisdictions (likely not my own) potential collect, store (for unknown lengths of time and with unknown security measures) and analyze unknown amounts of my internet activity for purposes that include, possibly among other purposes, advertising, through means that are largely unknown to me (cookies? Flash supercookies? my browser fingerprint (which is quite distinct)?).

This is much more intrusive and not comparable to a company ad in my local newspaper or a magazine to which I'm subscribed.

Users of Bitcoin are likely to be proficient keyboard users. People that aren't proficient keyboard users are not likely to be users of Bitcoin.