89% of Newspaper Reading is Still in Print, Researchers Find

That's compared with 7% of the news-reading time spent on mobile devices and 4% on computers, even though online publishers reach 2 or 3 times the amount of people print publishers do. The study used UK data, but it's likely not far off what North Americans do.

The time-spent-reading numbers also reflect revenues for the publishers. The brands studied took in 88% of their revenues from print, 12% from digital.

The research was the first ever done to comprehensively account for the time spent reading news.

According to the scientist, "My research shows that while print newspapers are read for an average of 40 minutes per day, online visitors to the websites and apps of those same newspapers spend an average of just 30 seconds per day. Scale those numbers up and you can see why newspapers still rely on print for the vast majority of the attention they receive."

New Cameras That Don't Use Lenses

They can be super tiny, light, and very thin. They're the new cameras being developed by Caltech that use OPAs (optical phased array).

They made a new version of the same project they did last year; this time an 8x8 (64 receptor) lensless camera, as a small proof-of-concept that works.

"We've created a single thin layer of integrated silicon photonics that emulates the lens and sensor of a digital camera, reducing the thickness and cost of digital cameras. It can mimic a regular lens, but can switch from a fish-eye to a telephoto lens instantaneously -- with just a simple adjustment in the way the array receives light," according to the lead investigator.

The OPA is a grid of receptors. They each can be controlled to take in light from a particular direction. So, when they focus all their 64 receptors on a target that has 2 lights on in front, the 2 lights are perceived in the recorded image. The concept can be scaled up from there to higher resolution.

Get Ready for Fake Video News

A team of computer science researchers have made an ex-president "lip-sync" words as they chose, and in a very realistic way.

The scientists used a neural network -- the AI tech everyone is talking about these days, and that recently beat the world Go champion.

They had the neural net study hours of Obama video and understand how his face moves. Then they used a program based on this understanding to make new videos of Obama's lips saying what they wanted them to. They cut and pasted Obama's body into two different scenes to show how realistic their fairly simple project could make anyone say anything on video.

The report, from a University of Washington team, is called "Synthesizing Obama: Learning Lip Sync from Audio."

China Threatens Death Penalty for False Scientific Reports

Fraud in China's scientific community has led to recent reports that a large percentage of the science that comes out of the nation is false (a report this week had it that 40% of biomedical papers are false). The peer review system there is not working.

China's Ministry of Science said the mass retractions "seriously harmed the international reputation of our country’s scientific research and the dignity of Chinese scientists at large."

The government's response this month: A "no tolerance" policy. For anyone caught fabricating scientific research, a stiff jail term. If their report leads to actual harm (for example, if drugs end up getting made that result in someone's death), a death penalty for the scientist is possible.

China already executes way more people each year than the rest of the world combined, as reported by Amnesty International and others.

Finally, an Energy Efficient Clothes Dryer ... It Uses Sound Waves

The new machine uses high-frequency sound waves to vibrate water molecules out of fabric, which becomes mist inside the machine which is siphoned out (the same way a regular dryer removes the water).

Did you know that if you combine your fridge, dishwasher, and clothes washer, you still have less energy use than just your dryer alone in some houses?

These new sound wave dryers can dry in 20 minutes what would take a normal machine 50, and they use about 70% less energy. At least this is what the current prototype is reported to be doing.

The company behind it is called Oak Ridge, and they're working with GE to eventually put out a commercially available model.

Note for scientists: the machine's drum is lined with piezoelectric ultrasound transducers.

Geography Linked to Circle Drawing

The way a person draws a circle has been tied to where they come from.

If you want to do the experiment before reading, simply draw a circle with your finger, or use a pen and paper if you have them handy.

Americans, Brits, Czech, Australian and Finnish people draw their circles starting from the top and in a counterclockwise motion 80% of the time. In France, German, and the Philippines, 90%. Meanwhile in Japan 80% of circles are drawn the opposite way (from the bottom and counterclockwise). Around 55% for Chinese.

The research was done by Quartz, using data from Google's online "Quick, Draw!" game (which had 120k unique circles for them to study). Quartz doesn't know what the reason behind the standardized circle-drawing is, but they guess it might have to do with the way people in these countries learn to write.

They looked at triangle-drawing, too. Almost 100% of Taiwanese and 90% of Japanese and Korean triangles (which are also drawn with only one stroke) are drawn with counterclockwise. In the U.S., it was only a bit more than half the time.

$15 Minimum Wage Could Cost State 382,200 Jobs

This is according to Ben Gitis of the American Action Forum.

The current wage in Illinois is $8.25, but lawmakers are thinking about making it $15 (by 2022). There is also a tax credit for small businesses (under 50 employees) that would give them some of the money back, but that credit is planned to be phased out as the higher wage is phased in, and small businesses would only save a max of around 5% in 2022, and then the tax credit would end in 2023.

The almost 400k figure Gitis got from a study (Meer & West, 2015) that found that a 10% increase in real minimum wage is associated with a 0.3 - 0.5% decrease in net job growth, so, for example, 3 years after such a wage hike, there would be around 0.7% less employment.

Since the Illinois $15 minimum wage represents an 82% increase, employment would be almost 6% lower according to that math. Gitis measured this against projections for the state's employment from IDES, which expects around 370k jobs to be created in Illinois between 2014 and 2022, just a few less than would be negated by the wage increase. In other words, Gitis concluded, the pay raise could cost more jobs overall than the state plans to create over the coming years.

Gitis' Report on AAF

How to Succeed, According to the National Science Foundation

They did a study of studies (of 61 success studies) and their conclusion was that 3 things come up again and again. The subjects of the studies were students, but the findings can be extended outside of academia:

First, students succeed more if they have a sense that they fit or belong in their college. They tend to be "socially integrated."

Second, they succeed more if they embrace the idea that they will improve as they go along -- something the researchers refer to as a "growth mindset."

Third, if students can see a future desired end, and link that with what they are doing, students succeed more often.

Study

PFOA Chemicals in Water

A study has now shown that residents of the Mid-Ohio River Valley had higher than normal levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), based on blood samples collected over a 22-year span (1991-2013).

The exposure source was likely drinking water contaminated by industrial discharges upriver.

The researchers identified three known industrial sources who discharge PFOA into the Ohio River: DuPont's Fort Washington Works and on-site landfill, Dry Run Landfill in Washington, WV, and Letart Landfill in Letart, WV.

The issue is increasingly common. It has been reported that every person now has around 4 or 5 parts per billion in their blood, which is around 10x the EPA provisional limit.

And, while PFOA is being phased out, it's only one chemical in a large class of fluorine-derived substances called fluoropolymers (PFAs), so all the industry has to do is simply switch to different ones that aren't registered by the EPA, and have not been studied to the same extent.

The recourse taken by those affected tends to be lawsuits. A lawyer recently made headlines for suing DuPont for PFOA after a farmer called him to complain his cattle were getting sick and dying left and right and a soapy froth of chemical buildup in his creek.

Study

Swearing Makes You Stronger, Psychologists Say

It might not be a surprise to anyone who has ever used strong language in a difficult situation as part of their natural strategy for getting through it, but scientists have tested it.

They had people repeat swear words and perform physical tasks, like riding exercise bikes and squeezing hand grips. Compared with people who didn't swear, those who used strong language had higher performance.

The research was done by Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele University.