News Today 10/20/13

[galiraju]

[b] When Playing Video Games Means Sitting On Life's Sidelines[/b]

A facility outside Seattle, surrounded by pine trees, is a refuge for addicts — of technology.

The reSTART clinic in Washington State treats Internet addicts. Many of the young men who go through the program have been using video games as an escape for years, only to lose themselves in the process. But avoiding the Internet can be nearly impossible, and finding the right balance is a "constant struggle," one patient says. (full news on NPR)

[b] JPMorgan Strikes Tentative $13B Mortgages Settlement[/b]

In what would be the largest such settlement in U.S. history, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has reportedly reached a tentative deal with the Justice Department that would see the bank pay $13 billion to settle civil charges related to wrongdoing by some of its units just before and during the housing crisis.

[i]The New York Times[/i] : JPMorgan and Justice "are moving closer to a $13 billion settlement." The[i] Times[/i] adds that:
[indent=1]

"The bank would be expected to pay about $9 billion in fines, according to a person briefed on the negotiations. JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, is also likely to spend $4 billion in relief for struggling homeowners, another person briefed on the talks said.[/indent]
[b] Chinatowns: A Little Bit Of Beijing, Wherever You Are[/b]

about the once-thriving Chinatown in Kolkata, India, caught our eye. Chinese migrants arrived in the area in the . As recently as 2000, there were 10,000 Chinese living there. That number is now 2,000.

"Earlier this year, following representations by some eminent citizens and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, a proposal was sent to restore and renovate Chinatown and promote tourism there," the report said. "The local government has also agreed to partner in the project."

[img]http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/10/18/108931535_custom-5edf047b12aad3e95f7f508fc0dba3df16ef1a49-s40-c85.jpg[/img]
There is, of course, the Chinatown in , that NPR's Frank Langfitt reported on in 2011. But many of the Chinatowns in unlikely places have seen better days — such as this one in . (see npr)

[size=6]There’s a chink of hope[/size]
Iran sounds serious about wanting a nuclear deal, but getting one will be hard

[galiraju]

[b] How science goes wrong[img]http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/20131019_LDP010_3.jpg[/img][/b]

A SIMPLE idea underpins science: “trust, but verify”. Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed the world beyond recognition, and overwhelmingly for the better.

But success can breed complacency. Modern scientists are doing too much trusting and not enough verifying—to the detriment of the whole of science, and of humanity.

[u][i]Too many of the findings that fill the academic ether are the result of shoddy experiments or poor analysis (see [url="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21588057-scientists-think-science-self-correcting-alarming-degree-it-not-trouble"]article[/url]). A rule of thumb among biotechnology venture-capitalists is that half of published research cannot be replicated.[/i][/u]

[u][i]A leading computer scientist frets that three-quarters of papers in his subfield are bunk.[/i][/u]

One reason is the competitiveness of science. In the 1950s, when modern academic research took shape after its successes in the second world war, it was still a rarefied pastime. The entire club of scientists numbered a few hundred thousand. As their ranks have swelled, to 6m-7m active researchers on the latest reckoning, scientists have lost their taste for self-policing and quality control. [color=#ff0000][u]The obligation to “publish or perish” has come to rule over academic life[/u][/color]. Competition for jobs is cut-throat. Full professors in America earned on average $135,000 in 2012—more than judges did. Every year six freshly minted PhDs vie for every academic post. Nowadays verification (the replication of other people’s results) does little to advance a researcher’s career. [u]And without verification, dubious findings live on to mislead.[/u]

Science still commands enormous—if sometimes bemused—respect. But its privileged status is founded on the capacity to be right most of the time and to correct its mistakes when it gets things wrong. And it is not as if the universe is short of genuine mysteries to keep generations of scientists hard at work. The false trails laid down by shoddy research are an unforgivable barrier to understanding. (refer economist for full article)

[galiraju]

[b] All dried up[/b]

[b] [font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=4]Northern China is running out of water, but the government’s remedies are potentially disastrous[/size][/font] (full article at economist)[/b]

[HAPPYLESS]

[img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-yd3K1MPvHIo/Te8AYkXiOYI/AAAAAAAABN0/dXarlopd2O0/s34/playing.gif[/img]

[pinky123]

[Vinuu]

GP