By Richard Allen Greene, CNN London (CNN) — Religion comes naturally, even instinctively, to human beings, a massive new study of cultures all around the world suggests. “We tend to see purpose in the world,” Oxford University professor Roger Trigg said Thursday. “We see agency.

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While media addiction may not be a clinical diagnosis (yet), the language used by the media-deprived students clearly suggested no small measure of physical dependency.

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An anonymous reader writes “A new study analyzing interactions among 300,000+ players in an online game universe, called Pardus, has for the first time provided large-scale evidence to prove an 80-year-old psychological theory called Structural Balance Theory. The research, published in PNAS, shows that individuals tend to avoid stress-causing relationships when they develop a society, resulting in more stable social networks.”

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Using brain-imaging scans, researchers study the postrelationship feelings of jilted lovers still pining for their exes. Turns out, it looks a lot like addiction.

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An anonymous reader writes “IEEE Spectrum reports that German researchers, seeking to find out what would happen if a robot handling a sharp tool accidentally struck a human, set out to perform a series of cutting, stabbing, and puncturing tests. They used a robotic manipulator arm, fitted with various sharp tools (kitchen knife, scalpel, screwdriver) and performed striking tests at a block of silicone, a pig leg, and at one point, even the arm of (more…)

coondoggie sends in a Network World interview with HD Moore on the occasion of the commercial release of Metasploit by Rapid7, the company that bought it half a year ago. The pseudonomous author uses the occasion to explore the question of what happens to a vital open source project once it is sold commercially. “Metasploit might become one of the first examples of how a completely FOSS project grows up to be successful. It is the venture capital (more…)

BonesSB writes “I’m a student at a university in Massachusetts, where I have a federal work-study position. Yesterday, I got an email from the office that is responsible for student run organizations (one of which I work for) saying that I need to go to their office and have my finger prints taken for the purposes of clocking in and out of work. This raises huge privacy concerns for me, as it should for everybody else. I am in the process of contacting (more…)

According to a new study by the ESPN Sports Poll and EA Sports, placing advertisements in sports games is one of the most effective ways to reach the sports fan audience.

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The N.F.L. conceded publicly for the first time that concussions and can have lasting consequences.

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In the landmark article, published in the Journal of Opioid Management, University of Washington researcher Sunil Aggarwal and colleagues document no fewer than 33 controlled clinical trials — published over a 38-year period from 1971 to 2009 — confirming that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine for specific medical conditions.

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