Monthly Archives: July 2008

Thousands of jobs threatened as US reneges on &18bn defence deal – Times Online

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article4305215.ece

More than 11,000 British jobs were under threat last night after the Pentagon tore up the world’s biggest defence contract to allow an American company to rebid.

Airbus stands to lose an 18 billion contract to build tankers for the US Air Force, awarded only four months ago, after aggressive lobbying by US politicians, including the presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.

Unions reacted with fury. John Wall, general secretary of the Confederation of Ship Building and Engineering Unions, which represents the Airbus workers, said: “Airbus beat Boeing in every single major feature in this competition and I don’t see that changing, but what has changed is the political pressure to buy American.

Brain implant helps stroke victim speak again – tech – 09 July 2008 – New Scientist

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14277-brain-implant-helps-stroke-victim-speak-again.html

Nine years ago, a brain-stem stroke left Erik Ramsey almost totally paralysed, but with his mental faculties otherwise intact. Today he is learning to talk again – although so far he can only manage basic vowel sounds.

In 2004, Ramsey had an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex [in the hope that] the signal from Ramsey’s cortex could be used to restore his speech.

Game theory could save the world – Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/07/09/scigame109.xml

A team has been using “game theory” – where mathematics is used to capture how people deal with each other – to show that a classic problem that undermines the ability of individuals to cooperate can be overcome, if people are diverse enough, as is the case when it comes to the 6.5 billion citizens of planet Earth.

Working together for the common good is crucial for progress in any society – not least for effectively addressing big issues such as recycling and tackling climate change. But there is a basic problem with how to make the public share responsibility for common problems, such as climate change.

Shooting holes in gaming theories – Articles – Games – Digital Life

http://www.theage.com.au/news/articles/shooting-holes-in-game-theories/2008/07/09/1215282891184.html

Young people are being corrupted by a seductive new form of popular entertainment. Oddly enough, this seems to happen in every generation.

In his 1883 book Traps for the Young, US postal inspector Anthony Comstock warned of the sinful hazards of reading dime novels. In his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent, child psychiatrist Fredric Wertham warned of the psychosexual perils of poring over comic books.

In their 2008 book, Grand Theft Childhood, Harvard Medical School psychiatrists Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson warn about video games. The gist of their warning: don’t jump to conclusions.

The couple, who are also the parents of a video game-playing teenage son, surveyed more than 1200 US school students aged 12-14 and 500 of their parents.

Their survey did not directly ask about serious criminal behaviour, in part to avoid children incriminating themselves, but their book uses statistics published by the Justice Department to conclude that “videogame popularity and real-world youth violence have been moving in opposite directions.