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United States

Submission + - DOJ Seeks Mandatory Data Retention for ISP's 3

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Computerworld reports that in testimony before Congress the US Department of Justice renewed its call for legislation mandating Internet Service Providers (ISP) retain customer usage data for up to two years because law enforcement authorities are coming up empty-handed in their efforts to go after online predators and other criminals because of the unavailability of data relating to their online activities. "There is no doubt among public safety officials that the gaps between providers' retention policies and law enforcement agencies' needs, can be extremely harmful to the agencies' investigations" says Jason Weinstein, deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department adding that data retention is crucial to fighting Internet crimes, especially online child pornography (PDF). Weinstein admits that a data retention policy raises valid privacy concerns however, such concerns need to be addressed and balanced against the need for law enforcement to have access to the data. "Denying law enforcement that evidence prevents law enforcement from identifying those who victimize others online," concludes Weinstein."
Moon

Submission + - Does the Moon Have Military Value? (yahoo.com) 3

Submitted by MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: Despite the fact that under President Barack Obama's space policy, Americans will not be going back to the moon any time soon, discussions are occurring about what if any military value the Earth nearest neighbor has.

Opinions, as can be expected, vary on the subject
Security

Submission + - Amazon Bulk-Email Service Could Lure Spammers (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Amazon Simple Email Service and Amazon Web Services look to be a potent combination for businesses and developers, no matter which side of the law they're on, InfoWorld reports. The newly announced bulk email service, which will enable Amazon customers to send 100 emails for a penny, could prove enticing to those seeking a cheap way to bombard inboxes with spam, malware, and phishing lures. Amazon claims its in-house content filtering technology should assuage anyone thinking SES will be used by scammers. 'Those assurances aren't entirely heartening, though, unless Amazon is way ahead of the curve with content-filtering technology. Email services and software vendors have tried for years to keep spam and other unwanted messages from showing up in users' viewing pane, but the crud keeps slipping through.'"
Politics

Submission + - Egypt protests against President Hosni Mubarak (aljazeera.net) 1

Submitted by pinkushun
pinkushun writes: On January 25, a national holiday to commemorate the police forces, Egyptians gathered to protest against grinding poverty, government oppression and police brutality. Using Twitter and Facebook, the people instigated a series of fast-moving, rapidly shifting demos across half a dozen or more Egyptian cities. The police could not keep up – and predictably, resorted to violence. Sadly this has led to three known deaths thus far.
Movies

Submission + - No more Matrix sequels after all (wired.com)

Submitted by AdmiralXyz
AdmiralXyz writes: The rumor that Keanu Reeves was in talks with the Wachowski brothers to produce Matrix movies 4 and 5, in 3-D, is apparently just that. Representatives from Warner Bros. spoke to Wired and called the rumors "bunk", pointing out that the school Reeves was supposedly accepting an award from when he made the announcement doesn't actually exist. His publicists made similar statements. Perhaps the film deities have shown us mercy just this once.
Censorship

Submission + - US pushes Internet kill switch again (cbsnews.com) 2

Submitted by FutureDomain
FutureDomain writes: Stymied last time, US lawmakers are again pushing a bill that would give the President the ability to shut down "critical" portions of the Internet. Unlike last time however, the new bill would prohibit judicial review of the law, which would also prevent challenges to any abuses of it.
Robotics

Submission + - Researchers Build Super Robust Robot Hand (ieee.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: IEEE Spectrum reports (http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/dlr-super-robust-robot-hand) that researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have built an anthropomorphic robot hand "that can endure collisions with hard objects and even strikes from a hammer without breaking into pieces." The key innovation is that the hand uses antagonistic actuation and spring mechanisms to vary its stiffness, allowing it to absorb shocks and also move its fingers more rapidly than in traditional robot hand designs. To test the device's robustness, the researchers have hit it with a hammer, metal bar, and baseball bat.
Government

Submission + - State Of The Union Address Goes Web 2.0 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: The White House will be tapping Web 2.0 technology to reach out to Americans during and after the president's State of the Union address tonight. While President Barack Obama makes his annual address starting at 9 p.m. ET, the official White House Web site will have a live stream of the speech, along with charts and statistics to provide context and emphasize key points. 'We're putting the finishing touches on a new feature for WhiteHouse.gov that will offer an enhanced viewer experience for President Obama's State of the Union address," wrote Macon Phillips, the White House director of new media, in a blog post. Immediately after the State of the Union address, the White House will host an Open for Questions event on Twitter. Several senior administration officials will be fielding questions submitted on the White House Facebook page , the White House Webform, or via Twitter using the @sotu hashtag and responding to @whitehouse. And on Wednesday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will take citizens' questions via Twitter before his post-State of the Union briefing. Anyone interested can follow @PressSec on Twitter to find out when Gibbs will take questions and post video responses. To submit a question for him, respond to @PressSec using the hashtag #1Q. At 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, Obama will take questions live on YouTube.
Graphics

Submission + - Nvidia unveils new mid-range GeForce graphics card (techreport.com)

Submitted by crookedvulture
crookedvulture writes: Nvidia has uncorked another mid-range graphics card, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti. Every tech site on the web seems to have coverage of this new $250 offering, and The Tech Report's review will tell you all you need to know about the various flavors available, including how their performance compares to cards from 2-3 years ago. Interestingly, the review concludes that pretty much any modern mid-range graphics card offers smooth frame rates while playing the latest games at the common desktop resolution of 1920x1080. You may want to pay closer attention to power consumption and noise levels when selecting a new card.

Submission + - The ghost towns of China (dailymail.co.uk) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: These satellite images show sprawling cities built in remote parts of China that have been left completely abandoned, sometimes years after their construction.

Elaborate public buildings and open spaces are completely unused, with the exception of a few government vehicles near communist authority offices.

Some estimates put the number of empty homes at as many as 64 million, with up to 20 new cities being built every year in the country's vast swathes of free land.

The photographs have emerged as a Chinese government think tank warns that the country's real estate bubble is getting worse, with property prices in major cities overvalued by as much as 70 per cent.
Space

Submission + - Mission to Uranus Shortlisted By ESA (discovery.com) 1

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "We've sent missions to Jupiter and Saturn, but what of the outermost "ice giants" Uranus and Neptune? The only time these two mysterious planets have been visited was a brief Voyager 2 flyby over two decades ago. Now, an international team of 168 scientists are hoping to revisit the bizarre Uranus with an orbiter called "Uranus Pathfinder". Such a mission wouldn't only unravel the mysteries behind the odd Uranian tilt and out-of-kilter magnetic field, it may also shed light on how our solar system evolved and how planetary bodies form around other stars. "Uranus sits in quite a different position in the solar system, it's far from the sun, it doesn't appear to give off much heat, it orbits the sun on its side, it appears to have a very different magnetic field, and its ring system is unique," Chris Arridge, postdoctoral research fellow of University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) and project lead, told Discovery News. "Uranus is a gold mine to help us understand the planets.""
Security

Submission + - What To Do When You've Been Hacked And/Or Sued (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: Most IT folks have a sense of what to do when their production servers are hacked — though this checklist can certainly help if you forget in the midst of the panic. But the storm of trouble in that case can be tiny compared to what you get when your attacker isn't a hacker but a lawyer. A lawsuit will require legal and IT departments to work together in a process that will make restoring corrupted databases look easy.
Advertising

Submission + - Your Face Will Soon Be In Facebook Ads (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: If you're planning on checking into Starbucks using Facebook Places, your friends may soon see your profile picture in a Facebook ad for Starbucks — and, it goes without saying, you won't be paid a dime. You can't opt out, unless, as Dan Tynan puts it, "studiously avoid clicking “Like” or checking into any place that has a six- or seven-figure ad budget." The ad will also include whatever text you use in your checkin, so Tynan suggests some judicious pranksterism ("Just checked into the Starbucks around the corner and this doppio mocha latte tastes like goat urine").
Idle

Submission + - Dubai’s World of Islands is Sinking Into the (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Dubai's dubious building boom has spawned a new architecture of unparalleled excess — one needn't look further than the desert region's ski slope, refrigerated beach and proposed ice cube lodge to find proof. However as of late the emirate's blustery building pace has lost its muster, and the latest megaproject to go south is The World, an archipelago of manmade islands modeled after the seven continents that seems to have sprung a leak. According to a new report issued by a property tribunal, the crumbling series of ill-fated isles is sinking like Atlantis into the sea.
Science

Submission + - DNA evidence is fallible (newscientist.com)

Submitted by doperative
doperative writes: YOU are the juror: would you trust DNA evidence? Most people regard it as near infallible- it produces the right result or no result, exonerating the innocent and securing convictions where other evidence fails.

But DNA is not as objective as you might think. In the first of a two-part investigation, New Scientist reveals that much of the DNA analysis now conducted in crime labs can suffer from worrying subjectivity and bias.
Open Source

Submission + - Fedora Infrastructure Compromised (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: The infrastructure of the Fedora Project was compromised over the weekend and an account belonging to a Fedora contributor was taken over by an attacker. However, Fedora officials said they don't believe that the attacker was able to push any changes to the Fedora package system or make any actual changes to the infrastructure.

The attack appears to have targeted one specific user account, which had some high-value privileges. The attacker was able to compromise the account externally, and then had the ability to connect remotely to some Fedora systems. The attacker also changed the account's SSH key, Fedora officials said.
News

Submission + - Tens thousand protest in Cairo, Twitter blocked (ahram.org.eg)

Submitted by Haffner
Haffner writes: Protests in Cairo, Egypt have now reached the tens of thousands. Police have deployed water cannons and tear gas. I am writing this live from Cairo, where I witnessed a throng of 1000-3000 march towards Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. I also witnessed 300-500 protesting on one of the bridges heading downtown. Most importantly, twitter has been blocked by many national carriers. Other updating links include http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/blog/2011/jan/25/middleeast-tunisia and https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/world/middleeast/26egypt.html?_r=2&src=twrhp
Movies

Submission + - Inception, The Social Network, TS3 get Oscar Noms

Submitted by
CmdrTaco
CmdrTaco writes: "Among the Best Picture nominations this year was Inception and The Social Network, Toy Story 3, and Inception. In addition to TS3, the Animation category has How to Train Your Dragon and
The Illusionist. Also getting a nod in documentary was Exit through the Gift Shop which is worth your time if you are into that sort of thing. You'll have to wait a month to find out who the winners are... and to find out what the stars will wear on the red carpet. Or to play the oscar speech drinking game."

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