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Exposure to Insecticide Chlorpyrifos May Lower IQ in Boys but Not Girls
A 2011 study determined that children who had been exposed to the insecticide Chlorpyrifos in the womb had a markedly lower IQ at age seven than those children who had not been exposed. However, a recent follow-up study conducted by researchers at Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health found that the negative effects of Chlorpyrifos are only found in males who came in contact with the chemical; females, on the other hand, are unaffected. The study also evaluated the impact of nurturing parenting on working memory, a good indicator of IQ in children.
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The Kitty Cam Will Expose Your Cat As a Cold-Blooded Murderer
You know everything there is to know about Mr. Minxie-Bums, right? You know just the way he likes his belly rubbed, you know exactly when he wants his supper, and you know at what time he likes to go outside every night, but do you know what he does when he's out where the streetlights replace the sun and the rules don't mean a thing? A study conducted by students and researchers from the University of Georgia are catching a glimpse of the secret lives of outdoor cats with their Kitty Cams. The unobtrusive video cameras where attached to 60 urban free-roaming cats whose owners volunteered them for this project. Make the jump to watch a short video from USA Today and learn about the atrocities your precious Mr. Minxie-Bums is committing in your very own neighborhood!
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Make Your Geek Dream A Geek Reality With ThinkGeek’s IdeaFactory
Have you ever had an idea that keeps you up at night because it's just that awesome? Have you ever seen the next big thing in geekdom so clearly in your head that you could reach out and touch it? Have you ever wanted to have some amount of money? Well, you're in luck. GeekLabs, the R&D team behind the wonderfully nerdtastic webshop, ThinkGeek, is launching a shiny new project to help average everyday geeks realize their visions of a hot new product. It's called the IdeaFactory, and it'll take your idea and make a real life product out of it. Learn all about it after the jump.
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What if Great Writers Were Great JavaScript Coders?
What if the Bard of Avon was the Bard of Python? What if Hemingway wrote The Old Man and The C? These are the questions that run through the head of coding guru and Twitter programmer, Angus Croll, as he downs his fourth cup of coffee infront of the glow of a monitor at four in the morning. Croll imagined how five prominent writers would write a program using the JavaScript language and returning a Fibonacci series. If you're a lover of literature, if you're a seasoned veteran of coding, or even if you have no idea what I'm talking about, seeing how Hemingway would've written JavaScript is pretty amusing. Check it out after the jump.
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Caffeinated “Black Drink” Points to Pre-Colombian Trade Network, Jitters
Next time you order that extra shot of espresso, know that you are continuing a tradition that has been around in America for thousands of years. Archaeologists recently discovered the residue of a highly-caffeinated ritual beverage known as "black drink" in pottery beakers recovered from Cahokia, the largest Pre-Colombian city North of Mexico. The trees used to produce the beverage, however, are not native to the region surrounding Cahokia and could have only been made available to the city by way of trade. Anthropologists believe that this discovery is indicative of a large North American trade network. Let that simmer as you enjoy that white chocolate mocha.
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Fact or Fiction: MIT Grad Student Saved Apollo 13
In an "ask me anything" thread on Reddit, a 97 year old man who allegedly worked on Apollo 1 through Apollo 14 made a claim that Apollo 13's brilliant "slingshot maneuver" idea was not the work of NASA, but that of a grad student at MIT. NASA then covered the whole thing up when they found out that the student in question was "a real hippy type." If this story is true, it completely rewrites one of the most heroic rescue efforts in United States aerospace history; many redditors, however, are calling "BS." Make the jump for the full scoop as well as our take on the matter.
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EA Sues Zynga for Copyright Infringement
What? You're telling me that Zynga steals games, repackages them, slaps "Ville" on the title, and then unashamedly releases them? Say it ain't so! But today, the folks over at Zynga realized that there are always bigger fish out there. Electronic Arts, Inc. didn't take too kindly to the blatant ripping-off of their game, The Sims Social, in the form of Zynga's brand-new game, The Ville. The folks over at EA decided to sue Zynga back to the Stone Age and have published a 50-page legal complaint describing in detail how The Ville is essentially identical to The Sims Social in everything from the animation sequences to the RGB color values in the custom skin tones. Zynga messed with the bull and they seem surprised about what they're about to get.
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Susan Sarandon, Carrie Fisher Make Video Game Debuts in Dishonored
We've seen a lot about Arkane Studio's Dishonored that has us itching to play it this October; but we never could have guessed at the announcement Bethesda Softworks made about the game this morning. Both Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon and two-time Emmy-nominee Carrie Fisher will be lending their vocal talent to their very first characters in a video game. The rest of the voice cast Bethesda announced is nothing to shake a stick at either, with more than a few familiar faces from movies and TV. But is it really best for a game that relies so much on atmosphere and mystery to bring in voice talent we can immediately place? Make the jump for the full list followed by our take on the situation!
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Court Rules That Embedding A Video Is Not Copyright Infringement
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a site that embeds copyrighted videos from another site is not committing copyright infringement. The court case between Flava Works, Inc. and myVidster.com came to a close after this ruling was passed in favor of the defendant, myVidster. The court also ruled that watching an infringing video does not constitute copyright infringement.
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Original 151 Pokémon in Nyan Cat Form [Video]
We've seen alternate versions of Pokémon before (here, here, here, here, and here), but never quite like this. Pokémon got a whole lot Nyanier with each of the original 151 Pokémon as Nyan Cats. According to uploader, Simon Johnson, this video took roughly 150 hours to complete and involved over 4,000 individual images. Thank you, Simon! Thank you for doing the thing that none of us had the courage or the will to do. Enjoy.
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Yes, Olympic Swimmers Do Pee in the Pool
We turn on our TVs to see them, standing on podiums with medals around their necks and their national hymns playing solemnly. What we forget is that these men and women are people too; they pee in the pool. According to Carly Geehr, a former swimmer on the U.S. National Swimming Team, Olympic swimmers relieve themselves right there in the pool. Whether or not you want to think about it, there it is, medal-winning Olympians swim in a pool full of pee.
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OUYA Pairs With VEVO, Reveals Limited Edition Console
Getting tired of hearing about the OUYA? Too bad! Here's a bit more. The little Android-powered gaming machine has entered its final week on Kickstarter and has revealed even more of its cool features. It turns out that it'll be getting the music video service VEVO, as well as a sexy new limited edition console for early backers. The OUYA has exploded and it seems like everyone wants in. But how much success is too much success? Will the new announcements compromise the OUYA's original mission?
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Olympic Wi-Fi Catchers Are Out to Get You
LOCOG's ban on 3G Wi-Fi hotspots at the London Olympics may seem ridiculous to some, but the equipment used to enforce it will seem ridiculous to everyone else. Laugh as much as you want, that Wi-Fi detector will sniff out your hotspots and shut them down before you can say "United Kingdom Office of Communications."
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A Slew of Indie Bundles All Over the Web
Steam decided to re-release their 11 Indie Bundles all at once as "Indie Bundle Madness." Now's your chance to get in on anything you missed during the Summer Sale! Steam isn't the only kid on the block, though; bundles from Indie Gala, Indie Royale, and Groupees make for a tough decision about where your hard-earned cash is going. Geekosystem is here to help! We'll be taking a look at the bundles in question and helping you decide which ones will make both you and your wallet happy. That said, good things can't last forever, so you better get your hands on these great deals before they disappear for good.
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Should You Bury Betaworks’ New Digg v1?
Digg, the news aggregation site that took the Internet by storm back in 2004, is back once more. The site has been given a complete makeover by Betaworks, a news media site that bought Digg for $500,000 back in July. There's no question that this isn't the Digg we've seen before, for better or for worse. Is it worth your time, though? After all, there are a number of similar websites out there now that didn't exist when Digg first popped up.
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