Dynamic Journal

07/28/2015

Study shows losers are more likely to harass women online

A new study suggests that people who lose in online games are more likely to harass women.

Written by a pair of researchers from the University of New South Wales and Miami University of Ohio and published by the Public Library of Science, the study investigated player communication during 126 Halo 3 matches.

Dividing matches into three groups, the researchers would either stay silent, or play recorded statements like "good game everyone" in male and female voices.

The researchers tracked responses from players, comparing their tones against wins/losses, skill rankings, and kill/death ratios.

Not only did the "female" players receive more negativity than their male counterparts, but that negativity scaled up the less skill the commenting player had.

The conclusion is that those players who perform poorly are more likely to harass female players, while their harassment of male players remains about level.

The results would seem to confirm suspicions that harassment of women online is at least in part due to perceived disruption of "male" spaces – sore losers can't handle being beaten by women.

07/27/2015

A newly discovered lizard fossil has shown scientists as much about the changing climate of Wyoming as it has about a unique family of “Jesus lizards.”

A newly discovered fossil shows "Jesus lizards" walked on water when the badlands of the American west were a tropical rain forest 40 million years ago.

07/25/2015

Amazonians' ancient links to Indigenous Australians

Distant DNA links have been discovered between Aboriginal Australians and tribes living deep within the Amazon rainforest.
Researchers in the US and Denmark have established that people sharing DNA links with Aboriginal people crossed the Bering land bridge between Siberia and the Americas thousands of years ago.
The revelations, published in Nature and Science Magazine, are the strongest signs yet that there could have been multiple migrations from Siberia to the Americas tens of thousands of years ago.
The findings have captivated the international science community, with Jennifer Raff, an anthropological geneticist at the University of Texas, telling Nature on Tuesday they were, "honestly one of the most exciting results we've seen in a while."
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The authors of the Nature study concluded that a mysterious ancient people they dubbed "Population Y" migrated from Siberia to the Americas more than 15,000 years ago.

07/22/2015

Microsoft reported a $3.2 billion (€2.9 billion) quarterly net loss, its biggest ever, as the company wrote down its Nokia phone business and demand fell for its Windows operating system.

The company took a charge of $7.5 billion in the fourth quarter related to the restructuring of its Nokia handset business, which it bought last year.
Microsoft's shares fell 4 percent to $45.38 in extended trading on Tuesday.
Under Chief Executive Satya Nadella, the company has been shifting its focus to software and cloud services as demand for its once-popular Windows operating system slows.
Sales of Windows to computer manufacturers to install on new PCs fell 22 percent in the quarter. The company is scheduled to roll out Windows 10 on July 29, a much-awaited launch after a lackluster response to Windows 8.
Microsoft wants to generate revenue by building search and gaming into the Windows 10 interface, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said in April.
Bing, the company's online search engine, will be profitable in the year ending June 2016, Hood said on Tuesday.
Sales of Windows to businesses fell 21 percent from the year-earlier quarter, when demand for the operating system had surged after Microsoft discontinued support for Windows XP.
Revenue from Microsoft's commercial cloud business, which includes offerings such as Office 365 and Azure, rose 96 percent, excluding the impact of a strong dollar.
Microsoft said it added 3 million subscribers for Office 365 in the quarter, taking the total number of subscribers for the product to 15.2 million at the end of June.
The company said this month that it would cut 7,800 jobs, or nearly 7 percent of its workforce, mainly in the phone hardware business.
Microsoft reported a net loss of 40 cents per share for the quarter ended June 30. The company had posted net income of $4.61 billion, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier.
Microsoft also took a charge of $940 million related to job cuts announced this month and last year.

07/22/2015

'Ragtime' Author E.L. Doctorow Dies in New York at 84

NEW YORK — Few minds were as playful and as serious as E.L. Doctorow's.

Conjurer of old-time gangsters and ragtime stars. Commentator on wars and presidents and the laws of the land. Student of political and literary history and how they tell us who we are now.

Doctorow, who died Tuesday at age 84, was the rare American writer to move gracefully between lives as engaged citizen and solitary inventor.

"Underlying everything — the evocative flashes, the dogged working of language — is the writer's belief in the story as a system of knowledge," he wrote in the introduction to his essay collection "Creationists," published in 2006. "This belief is akin to the scientist's faith in the scientific method as a way to truth."

Doctorow was among the most honored authors of the past 40 years. His prizes included the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle award and both competitive and honorary National Book Awards.

He forged his reputation around a series of novels — most set in and around New York City — that carried readers from the 1800s to modern times. Mixing fictional characters with historical figures, he looked back to the Civil War ("The March"), the post-Civil War era ("The Waterworks"), the turn of the 20th century (the million-selling "Ragtime"), the 1930s ("Billy Bathgate," ''Loon Lake," ''World's Fair") and the Cold War ("The Book of Daniel").

"I don't know what I set out to do," Doctorow told The Associated Press in 2006. "Someone pointed out to me a couple of years ago that you could line them up and in effect now with this book, 150 years of American history. ... And this was entirely unplanned."

A balding man with a soft goatee and impish expression, Doctorow was little known to the general public before age 40, but by late middle age was not just a popular author but a kind of wise man and liberal conscience. He might write an open letter to then-President George H.W. Bush and urge him not go to war against Iraq or, to some boos, criticize the second President Bush and second Iraq War in a commencement speech at Hofstra University on Long Island.

07/22/2015

Brian Johnson can’t stop Red Sox’ skid

When Red Sox lefthander Brian Johnson walked to the mound at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night, he had gone 15 days without pitching in a game.

That’s unusual for any pitcher but especially for somebody making his major league debut. Going back to June 25, Johnson had thrown only five innings.

Part of that was by design as the Red Sox believed Johnson needed some extra rest. Part of it was circumstance because there was a four-day break for the All-Star Game. The rest was a lack of planning.

The result was an 8-3 loss against the Houston Astros as Johnson was not able to get through the fifth inning.

“Obviously I could have done better,” he said.

Box score: Astros 8, Red Sox 3

The 24-year-old had some good moments but was undone by poor command. Johnson threw only 50 of 87 pitches for strikes and two of the four batters he walked scored.

The Red Sox have lost six straight and seven of their last eight. They are 10 games out of first place for the first time since June 20 and have been outscored, 30-7, over the first five games of their road trip.

At 42-52, the Red Sox have the worst record in the American League. Even the mutinous 2012 bunch that gave up wasn’t that bad.

07/22/2015

Cars on fire as California brush fires spread

A fast-moving brush fire in the Los Angeles area has shut down a major freeway and set cars on fire.
The flames, swept by desert winds, burned on both sides of Interstate 15, the main connecting road between southern California and Las Vegas.
Dozens of vehicles were abandoned as drivers ran to safety.
Regan Morris reports from Los Angeles.

Cars on fire as California brush fires spread - BBC News BBC - 3 hours ago Cars on fire as California brush fires spread. 1 hour ago. A fast-moving brush fi...

07/22/2015

Sports Illustrated to have 25 separate covers for U.S. women’s soccer team after World Cup win

Sports Illustrated has created 25 different covers in celebration of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team's World Cup victory. Pictured: Carli Lloyd.

Sports Illustrated's July 20 issue will make history with 25 different covers of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team that won the World Cup, featuring every player, coach Jill Ellis and a group shot.

Subscribers will receive a separate cover featuring Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Julie Johnston, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn.

"On Tuesday, July 7, we alighted on the idea of one cover for each of The 23, plus a 24th for the coach," SI managing editor Chris Tone said. "The USWNT has plenty of recognizable, even famous names, but we couldn't think of a group so thoroughly identified with a team as this one. We could go two ways: a team shot, which seemed a little conventional here or something different and fresh: honoring not just one or two players, but all 23 of them with their own cover. Each player deserves her own cover, that's what we settled on."

07/08/2015

If you can spot the dog in this picture then your eye sight level is better than most of the people in this world. Like if you can spot it.

07/08/2015

Crazy pictures from Japan show a nearly 60ft tall life-size RX-78-2 Gundam robot. Word so far is that the rocket packs are NOT operable. What a relief.