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What is Google Stadia? Feb 17, 2020

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What is Google Stadia?

Stadia is the name of the cloud gaming service launched by Google in late 2019. The American tech company observed the high levels of pollution generated by video game consoles and computers. That could be due to the production process or regular use by gamers.

They decided to launch Stadia, allowing users to play on their TV, smartphone or computer without the need for any additional hardware. With cloud gaming, you just need to click on a link to set up a game from whatever connected device you’re using. In simple terms, the launch of Stadia aims to provide a viable alternative to PC gaming.

Gamers have become accustomed to obtaining powerful PCs and consoles. The constant evolution of gaming graphics means many feel the need to regularly change equipment in order to keep up.

With Stadia, image processing is handled in real time by Google data centers, so the computer simply receives the video stream. Gamers can therefore play high-quality games on a low-quality device, at least in theory!

Google isn’t really known as a big player in gaming, so the company has to be commercially aggressive in order to make its mark. That’s exactly the aim of the Founders’ Pack, which includes a limited edition blue Stadia controller, a Chromecast Ultra, the game Destiny 2 and a free 3-month subscription to Stadia Pro, all for 130$.

There are two regular subscription options, the first of which is Stadia Pro. For around 10$ a month, you get access to a limited selection of games. The second option, Stadia Base, is totally free. But image resolution is limited to 1080p while Stadia Pro subscribers get to play in 4K. Players also have to pay for every individual game they want to play.

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What is the Mozart Effect? Feb 15, 2020

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What is the Mozart Effect?

What if listening to 10 minutes of Mozart could increase your IQ? That’s exactly what Frances Raucher and her Californian research team suggested back in 1993. The theory spread like wildfire around the world, leading to much speculation about the so-called Mozart Effect.

The myth comes from the publication of an experiment in American scientific journal Nature. The study required participants to listen to The Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K 448 by Mozart. After just 10 minutes, they were better able to solve spatial intelligence tasks which are part of IQ testing.

These findings made headlines all over the globe. Soon Mozart was being played to everyone from pregnant women to newborns babies and rats. Some American states made it compulsory for kindergartens and nurseries to play Mozart to children on a daily basis. Needless to say, the market for Mozart audio products exploded.

But controversy followed as a number of subsequent studies contradicted Rauscher’s findings. A team in the University of Vienna’s psychology department looked at around 3,000 cases across 40 studies. The team’s leader, Jakob Pietschnig, stated that “there is no proof of the Mozart effect”, while reminding everyone that the 1993 study was only carried out on a very small sample size of 36 students.

The reality is whether you’re listening to Mozart, Michael Jackson, Beyonce or Eminem, there’s no real difference. Music we enjoy improves our cognitive faculties because it stimulates increases in our mood and arousal.

Rauscher herself actually later disclaimed the idea that listening to Mozart could somehow make a person smarter. She referred to this as a misconception, underlining that the effect was limited to spatial-temporal tasks involving mental imagery and temporal ordering.

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What is freeganism? Feb 13, 2020

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What is freeganism?

Freeganism is a portmanteau word made up of the words “free” and “veganism”. As you may already know, vegans reject animal abuse. They avoid consuming products which are derived from, or have been tested on, animals.

Meanwhile, freegans choose an alternative lifestyle which limits their participation in the conventional economy. Where possible, they avoid buying things in favour of recovering food from other sources.

The basis for this anticonsumerist ideology is that primary needs such as eating, sleeping or having a place to live should be freely available to all. Freeganism’s ethics also extend to environmental values linked to responsibility and sustainability.

A person may become freegan due to their personal convictions, or by necessity. In any case, the practice opposes overconsumption by recovering food surplus from households and businesses, from trash cans, dumpsters and other waste receptacles.

Freeganism is often associated with “dumpster diving”, a practice which basically means searching through dumpsters, containers and waste storage locations to find food which is still suitable to eat. Those who do it consider the health risk to be low and some even say it boosts the immune system. Depending on the type of food, and the place where it is recovered, the risk is acceptable.

If it’s in a public location, there’s no legal problem at all as waste is considered as not belonging to anyone. Therefore it can in theory belong to anyone and everyone.

However, some food chains take a negative view towards freeganism for fear of getting a bad reputation or on management orders. Some supermarkets destroy their waste on-site or spray bleach on it to combat freeganism. Recovering food can therefore sometimes be problematic.

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What is carbon footprint? Feb 12, 2020

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What is carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the energy and raw material consumption of a person, organisation or event. It is measured in the volume of CO2 emitted.

Per capita emissions in the USA are estimated at around 16 tons per year. That includes CO2 produced directly by an individual’s household, and emissions created by products they consume. The rough split is 70/30 between the two.

Carbon footprint is measured based on an index called global warming potential. It’s defined by scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and allows researchers around the world to base their work on the same frame of reference.

Calculating carbon footprint allows us to understand the impact of a product, service or organisation on the planet. The higher the figure, the worse the impact is and the greater the need to reduce it. It’s mainly down to this that the index has become more popular across the world.

Carbon offset schemes allow individuals and companies to invest in environmental projects to counter their own carbon footprint. For example, a household which invests in a reforestation program which reduces carbon emissions by 16 tons, would have offset its entire carbon footprint for a year.

In 2019, the UN announced that over 60 countries have committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. That requires reducing emissions through a range of measures.

The carbon footprint index does however have some limits. It doesn’t take into account waste production, water pollution, land pollution or the depletion of natural resources for example. It’s certainly a useful indicator, but there are other measures for environmental impact which are more far-ranging.

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What is zetetic? Feb 10, 2020

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What is zetetic?

Zetetic is the practice of giving a scientific explanation to apparently paranormal activity. In other words, zetetic is the art of skepticism and doubt, a tool for critical thinking, which researchers and popularizers use to bring reason into public debates.

The word zetetic comes from the Greek “zetein”, which means to look for. Humans have an inherent need to look for reasons and explanations about the world they live in. However, the human brain is not always smart enough to uncover the truth. Our perceptions and intuitions are often incorrect, which is what we know as cognitive bias. This is where zetetic has an important role to play. It’s a tool that can be used by any individual trying to understand and describe reality.

As far back as the ancient Greek era, Plato was lecturing about Socratic questioning, which looked to identify contradictions in a line of reasoning. But zetetic in the modern term isn’t simply about philosophical posturing. Rather, it’s a tool for critical thinking. Use of the term grew first among American researchers in the 1970s, then in France, where it was given a framework by professor Henri Broch. He defined zetetic as a “method of scientific investigation into so-called paranormal events.”

Broch wrote a lot about paranormal activity and pseudosciences, theories which are often disguised as science. We’re talking about astrology, homeopathy, UFOs and other myths. Broch oversaw the International Zetetic Challenge, which offered a large cash prize to anyone who could scientifically prove paranormal activity.

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What is biomass? Feb 08, 2020

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What is biomass?

Biomass is organic matter, mainly coming from plants or animals, used for energy production. European governments consider biomass to be the world’s main source of renewable energy. But some NGOs have refused to agree that biomass is green energy.

Biomass may sound like the latest futuristic invention that biological engineers have come up with. But really, humans have been using biomass since the prehistoric ages, for example burning wood to cook food or heat homes. It’s only in recent decades that industrialised countries abandoned biomass energy in favour of fossil fuels. The problem is that current consumption rates would see us run out of petrol in 50 years. In 100 years, we could also run out of gas, carbon and uranium. So, governments have started taking an interest in biomass again.

The burning of wood accounts for a portion of biomass energy and it is encouraged in several countries. But biomass energy can also come from biogas, the mixture of gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter, mainly from our waste. Biomass centers have been created to collect methane from fermentation in order to produce steam and electricity.

The Energy Information Administration reported that biomass fuels provided about 5% of total primary energy use in the United States for the year 2017. Those figures should increase as researchers are investing heavily in ways to use biomass for more fuel.

The United Nations do indeed believe that biomass is a renewable energy source. However, there are debates about its use, as it is not necessarily totally clean. For example, burning wood is still one of the main sources of fine particle pollution.

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What is cyberbullying? Feb 06, 2020

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What is cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is the practice of repeatedly insulting or threatening a person online. Anyone can become a victim of cyberbullying, but it does tend to be children and teenagers who are most often subjected to it. In the worst cases, it can have serious consequences, with a number of suicides attributed to cyberbullying in recent years.

For some kids, school has always been synonymous with harassment, often for simply being different. For example, they could be targeted due to their religion, gender identity, nationality, or disability. So when the school bell rang to mark the end of the school day, kids could at least find peace at home.

The problem for victims is that since the 2000s and the advent of social media, harassment is no longer limited to the playground. Everybody is online all the time, whether it be on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter or Facebook.

Cyberbullying can take the form of creating fake profiles, spreading rumors, sending insulting messages, or sharing photos in private and public groups. In the digital age, a message can reach thousands of people within a matter of seconds.

The social and psychological consequences of cyberbullying are potentially terrible. The self-esteem of young victims can take a real hit, with several high-profile cases of suicide. In 2012, Amanda Todd was just 17 years old when she ended her life. Shortly before committing suicide, the Canadian published a Youtube video explaining how she had been a victim of bullying for years. Todd used post its to explain just what a horrible impact the ordeal had had on her life.

NGO Ditch the Label published a report claiming one in 10 bullying victims ends up attempting suicide.

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What is juice jacking? Feb 03, 2020

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What is juice jacking?

Juice jacking is a type of cyber attack which involves hacking a smartphone or tablet through a public USB charging point. Imagine, it’s the middle of a fine day, the sun is shining and you’re looking forward to a spot of lunch. All of a sudden, shock horror your smartphone shows 3% battery.

Disaster, totally ruins your day right?! How are you going to find your way around, reply to emails, meet up with friends in the evening?

Fear not, technology has a solution for everything. Just find a charging point to connect your cell phone via USB. ambiance gare These are more and more common in public places like stations, malls, restaurants and public transport.

Well, it might not actually be the best idea to connect to the first USB port you come across. In November 2019, the LA district attorney actually warned travelers against using public charging points, saying they “may contain dangerous malware”.

Hackers are known for being resourceful people; they use a few different techniques to hack cell phones. Some install malware directly in the charging point. Others have developed clone charging points, which infect devices wih viruses, or steal personal data like bank details, emails and photos.

Juice jacking is not totally new. As far back as 2011, the Defcon hacker convention was trying to raise public awareness of this kind of cyber attack. Event organisers set up informational juice jacking kiosks, which displayed warnings any time a visitor plugged their device into the charging point. The first such kiosk changed its display from “Free charging station” to “You should not trust public charging stations with your devices”. In 2012 the NSA issued a warning to its employees about juice jacking. But the general public is relatively unaware of the risks of USB charging points.

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What is pinkwashing? Feb 01, 2020

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What is pinkwashing?

Pinkwashing is a practice used to appear LGBT-friendly for political or business gains. The choice of such a strategy by states and companies is motivated by a desire to have a modern, progressive image. Whereas in reality they are sometimes hiding practices that aren’t at all respectful towards sexual minorities.

The term pinkwashing was created in the early 2000s to critique companies taking advantage of breast cancer campaigns to improve their image. Soon, use of the term spread to also apply to communications strategies by brands or institutions wanting to appear gay-friendly.

One of the most flagrant and criticised examples of pinkwashing came from the Israeli government. It launched a “Brand Israel” campaign to paint the country as being modern and relevant. The Tel Aviv tourism board even invested $90 million in branding itself as an “international gay vacation destination”. Brands are also turning to pinkwashing more and more.

Many would see it as a good thing if institutions want to be inclusive to LGBTQ people, rather than rejecting them. But students and associations are critical of the supposed double standards behind pinkwashing. For example, homophobic attitudes are prominent in Israel outside of Tel Aviv. As explained by professor Sarah Schulman writing in the New York Times, many believe the pinkwashing campaign is just a smokescreen. They claim the aim is to manipulate the country’s international image, and conceal human rights violations in neighbouring Palestine.

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What is phage therapy? Jan 30, 2020

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What is phage therapy?

Phage therapy refers to the use of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections. While it has been used scarcely in the Western world in recent decades, some doctors and researchers see a need for it in the future, to combat antibiotic resistance among bacteria.

In 1917, French-Canadian microbiologist Félix d’Hérellee discovered phage therapy. Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are actually viruses which are extremely common in the biosphere. They’re able to kill bacteria by invading them and multiplying within them.

Phage therapy can be used to treat basic wounds, as well as different kinds of bacterial infection, like bone infection, respiratory infections and MRSA. Instead of using antibiotics, which destroy all bacteria they come across, specific strains or cocktails of phages are used for each patient.

At the time antibiotics were created, public authorities considered them more simple and effective than phages. To such an extent that phages were gradually forgotten and even destroyed in many countries.

But in the 21st century, certain bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, which is a major health issue. Researchers have renewed their interest in phages and are looking at their potential uses to fight otherwise incurable diseases.

Some countries actually already use phage therapy, most notably in Georgia. Sick patients from around the world are spending thousands of dollars to travel to Tblisi, the country’s capital. They then spend several weeks undergoing treatment at the Eliava Institute.

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