Top 10 Brain-Damaging Habits

The human brain is considered a very delicate part of a human being. The damage to the brain can lead to a number of health complications. World Health Organization has recently released the Top 10 biggest Brain damaging habits according to their latest research findings.

 1. No Breakfast People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.
2. Overeating It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.
3. Smoking It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.
4. High Sugar consumption Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.
5. Air Pollution The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.
6.  Sleep Deprivation Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.
7.  Head covered while sleeping Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.
8.  Working your brain during illness Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.
9.  Lacking in stimulating thoughts Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.
10.  Talking Rarely Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

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The 7 Best Headphones for Gamers

1. Astro A50

If money is no object, the Astro A50 is about the best pair you can get. For a $300 price tag, you'll get a wireless headset with some of the best sound quality in gaming headphones. The set usually rates high for comfort, despite being a little heavier than most similarly sized models. It has great features for volume control and a mixer on the right earplate.

Image: Astro Gaming

2. Skullcandy PLYR 2

This brand has been turning out quality headphones for years. One of its wireless sets, the Skullcandy PLYR 2 has three different audio profiles to match different types of games. The lightweight model is especially good for comfort. It's also an inexpensive choice, running about $130 for a pair.

Image: Skullcandy

3. Logitech G230

If you're looking for your first pair of PC gaming headphones, or you just want to stay on a budget, then the Logitech G230 is a good entry point. It has fewer snazzy features than the more expensive models, and the microphone setup may not be ideal for serious voice chatters. But at $59, it's one of the best bargains in terms of cost for sound quality and comfort.

Image: Logitech

4. Razer Kraken Pro

Razer makes many accessories for gamers and has expanded into a few choices for headphones. The Razer Kraken Pro is one of the strongest options available from the brand. It has powerful sound quality and range for such an inexpensive set, as well as a built-in microphone. A set costs $70 to $80.

Image: Razer

5. Razer Hammerhead Pro

This option from Razer has the distinct benefit of portability. Razer Hammerhead Pro is a good choice if you might be gaming at a friend's house or if you want a set to perform double-duty as transit headphones. The in-ear headphones have great sound quality, with serious bass for such small buds.

Image: Razer

6. Sound Blaster Recon3D Omega Wireless

This is a headset for controlling your audio experience. With options to create and save sound profiles for different games, and a multiplayer-focused Scout Mode, the Sound Blaster Recon3D Omega Wireless is a solid choice for people who want serious audio across multiple gaming platforms. They're not a cheap investment considering the almost $200 list price, but nevertheless, a solid all-around choice.

Image: Sound Blaster, YouTube

7. Corsair Vengeance 1500

This model uses a USB wire, so it's a PC-only option. For that subset of gamers, the Corsair Vengeance 1500 is an excellent choice, using a built-in sound processor and large 50 mm drivers to deliver top audio quality. It's reasonably priced at about $100.

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Google: We're Winning Against Phishing and Spam Emails

Google can't say "mission accomplished" just yet, but the search giant made it clear that the Internet is winning its decade-old war against phishing and spam emails.

In a blog post published Friday, Google said the Internet-wide efforts against unauthenticated emails, which can be used by spammers and phishers to fake email addresses and deceive users, are working. In fact, the vast majority of non-spam email that Gmail users receive is authenticated with standards designed to fight phishing.

"91.4% of non-spam emails sent to Gmail users come from authenticated senders, which helps Gmail filter billions of impersonating email messages a year from entering our users’ inboxes," Google security researchers Elie Bursztein and Vijay Eranti said in the post.

Since 2004, Internet industry groups and authorities have been pushing for authentication standards, called DomainKey Identified Email and Sender Policy Framework, to be widely enforced. Google said that as much as 74.7% of incoming email on Gmail use both DKIM and SPF, while 14.4% use SPF only and 2.25% use DKIM only. That leaves just 8.6% of emails as non-authenticated.

But the war isn't over yet. As Google points out in the post, phishers can still target unprotected domains, and even protected ones, if they use weak encryption. That's why Bursztein and and Eranti suggested using at least 1024 bit keys, as "the use of weak cryptographic keys — ones that are 512 bits or less — is one of the major sources of DKIM configuration errors (21%)."

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How to Get a Time Traveler to Visit You

If you often find yourself waiting with bated breath for a time traveler to appear in your midst, and give you the secret to the time-space continuum, we've got just the thing for you: a Craigslist ad.

Because all time travelers must be seeking out friends somewhere, right?

This Doghouse Diaries comic describes the best way to address time travelers so you don't spook them. And remember, you really have to emphasize your ability to keep secrets.

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The World's Largest Vessel Is Bigger Than the Empire State Building

The world's largest vessel just set sail off the coast of South Korea.
The Prelude is 1,601 feet long — that's 150 feet longer than the Empire State Building is tall. Owned by Shell, the vessel's massive size has earned it the title of largest object currently afloat.
The bright red vessel weighs 600,000 tons and is 243 feet wide, according to Wired.

Construction of the Prelude, which has three engines that pack 20,100 horsepower, took a full year to complete.

So how does Shell plan to use the mammoth vessel? It will be a floating liquefied natural gas facility, where natural gas will be harvested from the depths of the ocean, processed on board and transferred to transport ships waiting in the sea. Wired reported that the Prelude will produce 3.9 million tons each year.

The floating facility will take some of the strain of gas production off the environment, Shell said in a release. "It also avoids the potential environmental impact of constructing and operating a plant on land, including laying pipelines to shore and building other infrastructure."

Since the Prelude is so large, it will require a system of pulleys and levers to haul it across the sea. So while it is entirely mobile, the vessel will remain stationary for large blocks of time. Its first destination, for example, is off the coast of Western Australia, where it will anchor for 25 years.

Responsible for 175 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth of natural gas at any time, it isn't hard to understand why the vessel has put safety systems in place to combat weather troubles. A turret the height of the Statue of Liberty has been constructed to run through the Prelude, ensuring stability even during a Category 5 hurricane, as the mooring system gently absorbs the force of winds.

While the Prelude will begin its trek to Australia in 2017, Shell is already working on the designs of an even bigger vessel, according to Reuters.

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Starbucks Brings Back $450 Laser-Etched Gift Cards

What do you get the coffee drinker who has everything? Consider Starbucks‘ version of the “Black Card”— a limited-edition, $450, fancy looking gift card, ideal for that special someone who can’t bear paying with something as pedestrian as cash, credit or even an app. For the second holiday season in a row, the coffee chain is offering its over-the-top metal gift cards, which go on sale at Gilt.com starting Friday at noon.

Before you spit out your latte, consider that this may not be as ridiculous as it sounds. Superfluous, yes, but the gift/reward cards come with $400 in Starbucks credit (enough for 200 coffees!) and offer the highest-level rewards membership. The company claims that the $50 difference doesn’t even cover the cost to produce each card, “so there really is a strong value to the customer,” spokeswoman Linda Mills said in an email. She went on: “It’s completely handmade and features an artisan rose metal base with rose-colored coating. Starbucks lettering is laser-etched on the front, and since it’s in such a small quantity, we do incur quite a bit of expense to produce them.”

Recent history suggests the chain is on to something. Last year, Starbucks offered 5,000 cards in a stainless steel color, and USA Today reports they sold out in about six minutes. Recap: That’s $2.25 million worth of gift cards in 360 seconds. (Now you can spit out your latte.) This year, only 1,000 of the cards will be sold — for a total of $450,000 — because Starbucks wants it to be “a very premium, exclusive offering.” Well, it sure beats a fruitcake.

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Bitcoin: It's not just loopy tulip land, it's worse

Congratulations, libertarians, your clever little digital currency based on nothing but arithmetic, arrogance and faux-revolutionary Kool-Aid has been smeared in US Senate-love and slid all the way up to the US$1200 mark. Bitcoin is being taken seriously in serious quarters, it seems. Well done. So now it's time to build some structure and regulation around it.

Cue the sound of a million crypto-currency fans screeching a thousand well-parrotted slogans that "explain" why every other monetary system will soon collapse and nations-states will crumble — and why anyone who disagrees is just an ignorant slave to outmoded economic thinking.

Actually, the "why" is never explained, it's just asserted.
Back in April I discussed how Bitcoin is more ideology than trustworthy currency, noting such fun facts as Bitcoin's value seeming to track the number of people searching for it on Google, and that even boosters like Pirate Party founder Rickard Falkvinge consider it "still far from ready for prime time".

The comments in reply were a fascinating jumble of ideas, admittedly not all of which were completely loopy. But you'll get a much better idea of the effervescent assertions emanating from the Bitcoin wonderland by following the Twitter account @bitcoin_txt, which picks out the highlights.

These recent examples illustrate the image problems Bitcoin needs to overcome before ordinary non-geek folk can start taking it seriously.

Bitcoin as magic: "BitCoin will end ALL Hunger & Poverty (at last) through humanities caring and sharing, by instantaneously providing funds to those in need" and "BitCoin heralds the end of the misuse of money and other ponzi schemes including, pensions, copyright, patents, insurance, etc."

Bitcoin is for real men: "The Rise of Bitcoin: Why I for one welcome our new Neckbeard Overlords and how it will lead to Game-Over for Feminism" and "You cannot suppress the free currency. Go back to your clan of ugly, hairy, women" and "Feminism will suffer if crypto currencies take off simply because of reduced tax receipts; no more feminist suckling at the State teat." and "Not only are men going their own way, but they're starting their own currency and economy separate from the feminist system."

Bitcoin as infinite money: "Sigh. Bitcoins are worth at least 126k dollars each." and "a lot of assumptions are made, but i think eventually the bit coin might be worth 1 million or even more."

Bitcoin as alternate history: "THIS IS HUGE! The stuff we are working with is what scared Bill Gates into retirement!"
OK, it's easy to ridicule an idea by focusing on its loopiest supporters. But if Bitcoin wants to be a serious contender for an everyday digital currency, it doesn't need any more of this over-the-top rhetoric, it needs stability and trustworthiness — and while its monetary value may have been soaring on the back of rampant speculation these last few months, those two key attributes haven't exactly been keeping pace.

Bitcoin's wild price swings represent a risk factor that should prevent any sane business from entering into contracts based on the currency. But even if that risk can be hedged against, there's the core issue of trust — not trust in the integrity of Bitcoin's seemingly robust cryptographic protocols, although researchers have warned of fundamental flaws, but trust in Bitcoin's financial community.

When young Australian TradeFortress had a million dollars worth of Bitcoin stolen last month, he didn't report it to the police. "The police don't have access to any more information than any user does when it comes to Bitcoin," he told ABC Radio, seemingly oblivious to all the news stories about law enforcement's access to network data and his own responsibilities as a good-faith custodian of other people's money — although perhaps he was also worried about what the police might think of some of his other online activities.
When some $100 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen from the Sheep Marketplace a few weeks later, we see a few lone hackers trying to track the bandits, but once more no professional law enforcement activity — but given that Sheep Marketplace was a successor to Silk Road, we can guess why.

People accept the risks inherent in handling physical cash because they can mitigate against them with appropriate security procedures. There are specialists to help them, and when cash does get stolen the police are generally brought in to help.

But with Bitcoin, at least so far, the balance seems all wrong. The computing power devoted to transaction-verification and mining is now 256 times the power of the world's top 500 supercomputers combined — does that strike you as efficient? — but rather less effort seems to go into building a trustworthy community.
Meanwhile the speculative Bitcoin bubble continues to inflate. Hard-core Bitcoiners are presumably getting sick of it being compared with the tulip mania of 1637, but the parallels are obvious, what with the constant hype about the ever-soaring value of some random commodity — because Bitcoin is generally being treated as a commodity rather than a currency.

But personally, I'm with former president of the Dutch Central Bank, Nout Wellink, on this one. "This is worse than the tulip mania," he told students this week. "At least then you got a tulip."

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