Knipperen is zo’n vanzelfsprekend iets dat we er nauwelijks bij stilstaan. Tot je hoort wat Canadese onderzoekers onlangs ontdekten: je knippert minder wanneer je luistert naar iemand die praat en nog minder wanneer er achtergrondruis is.
Het team van Concordia University wilde weten of knipperen een soort strategische pauzeknop is. Plannen we ongemerkt onze knippers zodat we geen informatie missen? Zo ja, dan zou dat iets onthullen over hoe ons brein prioriteiten stelt onder cognitieve druk.
In twee experimenten met in totaal 49 deelnemers lieten onderzoekers mensen zinnen voorlezen, terwijl ze registreerden hoe vaak ze knipperden. Soms was het stil, soms was er een storende ruis. Soms stond er fel licht op de deelnemers, soms minder fel.
De uitkomst was opvallend eenvoudig: zodra de zinnen begonnen, daalde het knippertempo bij iedereen. Licht maakte geen verschil, maar geluid wel. Hoe meer achtergrondgeluid, hoe harder het brein moest werken om woorden te ontcijferen en hoe minder vaak er werd geknipperd.
Volgens de onderzoekers wijst dit erop dat we knipperen onderdrukken wanneer informatie belangrijk of moeilijk te verwerken is. Niet omdat onze ogen dat willen, maar omdat ons brein prioriteit geeft aan het binnenhalen van auditieve en visuele input. Een knipper kan immers een mini-onderbreking betekenen: een fractie van een seconde waarin we iets missen.
“We knipperen niet zomaar willekeurig”, zegt onderzoeker Pénélope Coupal. “We knipperen systematisch minder wanneer relevante informatie wordt aangeboden.”
Meer focus
Het idee sluit aan bij wat eerdere studies suggereren: knippers zijn kleine mentale pauzes, momenten waarop het brein informatie verwerkt of emoties bijstelt. Minder knipperen betekent meer focus.
Toch blijft de precieze relatie tussen denken en knipperen een mysterie. Mogelijk gebruikt het brein dezelfde regulatiemechanismen voor luisteren als voor kijken: het minimaliseert onderbrekingen wanneer aandacht nodig is. De onderzoekers vermoeden dat knipperpatronen uiteindelijk kunnen helpen om cognitieve belasting te meten. Denk aan signalen van overprikkeling, luisterproblemen of beginnende cognitieve achteruitgang.
Maar zover is het nog niet. “We moeten precies in kaart brengen hoeveel visuele en auditieve informatie er tijdens een knipper verloren gaat”, zegt onderzoeker Mickael Deroche. “Dat is de logische volgende stap.”
Bron: Science Alert
WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR/AFP) - De Verenigde Staten hebben Colombia's grootste drugskartel Clan del Golfo bestempeld als terroristische organisatie. In een verklaring noemt buitenlandminister Marco Rubio de groepering een "gewelddadige en machtige criminele organisatie" die voornamelijk leeft van cocaïnehandel en verantwoordelijk is voor terroristische aanslagen in Colombia.
"De Verenigde Staten zullen alle beschikbare middelen blijven inzetten om ons land te beschermen, en gewelddadige campagnes van internationale kartels en transnationale criminele organisaties te stoppen", aldus Rubio.
Het besluit vindt plaats net nu er gesprekken plaatsvinden tussen de Colombiaanse president Gustavo Petro en de Clan del Golfo. Petro hoopt op deze manier vrede in het land te brengen, na zes decennia van gewapend conflict. Volgens onderhandelaars zouden de kopstukken van het kartel bij een mogelijke overeenkomst zeker gevangenisstraf krijgen.
Last month the Flickr Foundation announced the beta release of Data Lifeboat – an archiving tool for any Flickr member to preserve Flickr photos. The archives contain photos, of course, and also all their ‘social metadata’ like tags, comments and curation. Data Lifeboat is simplest when you make an archive of your own Photostream, but it can also be used as a tool for archiving other people’s pictures, and helps you get consent to do that.
A Note to the Future
Data Lifeboat lets you grab sets of photos and write a descriptive README that lives inside the archive for future viewers to quickly understand why you’ve made this particular archive. The archive you end up with is more than just a ‘bucket of files’ since future viewers can quickly see what’s included and why. In addition, the HTML format of the resulting archive allows viewers to easily navigate the images and baked-in metadata using any web browser.
Archiving a selection of Flickr photos can raise a lot of questions. What is being saved? How many photos should be included? Who is it being saved for? Even the word “archive” might seem daunting to a hobby photographer. At the Flickr Foundation, we believe everyone can and should participate in archiving, because the more people who participate in archiving means a richer and more diverse history is being archived.
What kind of things can be archived?
With Data Lifeboat, you can create an archive to document a specific time and place, share memories of an event, or curate a collection of perspectives from around the globe. Simply put, conscious archiving with Data Lifeboat can allow you to create and share your own slice of history with future viewers from this vast collection.
Here are some Data Lifeboat examples from activity so far…
Solar Eclipse
Created by Flickr.com
For the April 8th 2024 Solar Eclipse, NASA partnered with Flickr to gather photos from Flickr members who saw the eclipse. Given that there are tens of billions of photos on Flickr now, there are thousands, if not millions, of shared historical moments like this captured from a variety of perspectives. Plus, space!
View the full Solar Eclipse archive
Uppsala at Home – A Neighbourhood Archive
Created by Flickr member Ulf Bodin
If you look at the photographs William Henry Fox Talbot was taking in the 1840s, he’s recording daily life, and today, those captured moments have become incredible treasures. As the creator of Uppsala at Home, Ulf Bodin, describes it, his Uppsala archive is “a tribute to what I appreciate the most: modest, local photography.” This archive is a collection of 1,000 geotagged images taken within walking distance of Bodin’s hometown.
View the full Upsala at Home archive
Brighton Swimming Club
Created by Flickr member @lomokev Kevin Meredith
This archive of the daily swims by the members of the Brighton Swimming Club—the oldest swimming club with continuous membership in the world—is a testament to the power of documenting a community from within. Flickr contains myriad communities that have recorded themselves over the years. Imagine how many of humanity’s clubs or venues have been recorded there!
View the full Brighton Swimming Club archive
See more Data Lifeboat archives?
We’ve collected a larger selection of Data Lifeboat archives in our showcase. These were created by Flickr photographers, Flickr Commons members, as well as the Flickr Foundation team.
Please note: The Flickr Foundation asked permission to share these archives in our showcase. Normally, archives made with Data Lifeboat are for the creator’s use only. Please take a moment to review the Data Lifeboat Terms of Use for more information on how it all works.
In dit artikel houden we je op de hoogte van het belangrijkste en meest opvallende 112-nieuws uit onze regio van dinsdag 16 december 2025.
In dit artikel houden we je op de hoogte van het belangrijkste en meest opvallende 112-nieuws uit onze regio van dinsdag 16 december 2025.
Twee personenauto's zijn dinsdagmiddag op de Groene Kruisweg in Rhoon op elkaar gebotst. Eén van de auto's kwam hierbij op z'n zijkant terecht. De bestuurder is bevrijd door de brandweer en naar het ziekenhuis vervoerd.
The group of men, who were all members of a Marxist discussion club, were arrested in the Bashkortostan capital of Ufa in March 2022.
Mozilla has named Anthony Enzor-DeMeo as its new chief executive, promoting the executive who has spent the past year leading the Firefox browser team and who now plans to make AI central to the company's future.
Enzor-DeMeo announced on Tuesday that an "AI Mode" is coming to Firefox next year. The feature will let users choose from multiple AI models rather than being locked into a single provider. Some options will be open-source models, others will be private "Mozilla-hosted cloud options," and the company also plans to integrate models from major AI companies. Mozilla itself will not train its own large language model.
"We're not incentivized to push one model or the other," Enzor-DeMeo told The Verge. Firefox currently has about 200 million monthly users, a fraction of Chrome's roughly 4 billion, though Enzor-DeMeo insists mobile usage is growing at a decent clip.
He takes over from interim CEO Laura Chambers, who led the company through a major antitrust case and what Mozilla describes as "double-digit mobile growth" in Firefox. Chambers is returning to the Mozilla board of directors. The new CEO has outlined three priorities: ensuring all products give users control over AI features including the ability to turn them off, building a business model around transparent monetization, and expanding Firefox into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Mozilla VPN integration is planned for the browser next year.
Enzor-DeMeo announced on Tuesday that an "AI Mode" is coming to Firefox next year. The feature will let users choose from multiple AI models rather than being locked into a single provider. Some options will be open-source models, others will be private "Mozilla-hosted cloud options," and the company also plans to integrate models from major AI companies. Mozilla itself will not train its own large language model.
"We're not incentivized to push one model or the other," Enzor-DeMeo told The Verge. Firefox currently has about 200 million monthly users, a fraction of Chrome's roughly 4 billion, though Enzor-DeMeo insists mobile usage is growing at a decent clip.
He takes over from interim CEO Laura Chambers, who led the company through a major antitrust case and what Mozilla describes as "double-digit mobile growth" in Firefox. Chambers is returning to the Mozilla board of directors. The new CEO has outlined three priorities: ensuring all products give users control over AI features including the ability to turn them off, building a business model around transparent monetization, and expanding Firefox into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Mozilla VPN integration is planned for the browser next year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.