January 28, 2009 by sean.

Posted in innovation, science, pervasive computing, collective intelligence, social networks | No Comments »

January 26, 2009 by sean.

Bringing everything to the cloud [via xxx]:

Google is to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection, according to industry reports. But campaigners warn that it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals’ personal data.

The Google Drive, or “GDrive”, could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user’s personal files and operating system could be stored on Google’s own servers and accessed via the internet.

Posted in innovation, pervasive computing, software | No Comments »

January 25, 2009 by sean.

Posted in fun, pervasive computing, collective intelligence, social networks | No Comments »

January 25, 2009 by sean.

Researchers from Sweden and Denmark find that drinking coffee may reduce risk or Alzheimer’s and age-related dementia [via medheadlines.co]:

[P]articipants who drank between three and five cups of coffee a day were 65% less likely to develop dementia than those who drank less…

While not advocating someone start drinking coffee as a preventive measure, Dr. Miia Kivipelto, associate professor of neurology at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, suggests the following factors may be involved:

Previous studies have found drinking coffee decreases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a disease that raises the risk of dementia

Animal studies have shown that caffeine reduces formation of amyloid plaques in the brain. These plaques are a distinguishing characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

Coffee may be a bloodstream-protecting antioxidant that protects the vascular system enough to reduce the likelihood of dementia

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January 20, 2009 by sean.

New research on the relationship between social interaction and the brain [via msnbc.com]:

Socially active people who were not easily stressed had a 50 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared with men and women who were isolated and prone to distress, they reported in the journal Neurology.

“In the past, studies have shown that chronic distress can affect parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus, possibly leading to dementia,” Hui-Xin Wang of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who led the study, said in a statement.

“But our findings suggest that having a calm and outgoing personality in combination with a socially active lifestyle may decrease the risk of developing dementia even further.”

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January 7, 2009 by sean.

Brain research on playing video games to overcome grief [via lifehacker]:

According to researchers at Oxford University, playing the popular, classic puzzle game Tetris after a traumatic experience could significantly reduce emotional scars. Apparently Tetris—which requires serious brain power on your part—blocks your brain from storing those bad memories. The catch: It needs to be played immediately following the traumatic event

…while urban life may dull our brains [via boston.com]:

Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it’s long been recognized that city life is exhausting — that’s why Picasso left Paris — this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.

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