×
Earth

Submission + - Rapid Arctic Melt Declared Planetary Emergency (rollingstone.com) 2

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: Drawing on new data released Wednesday by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) that the Arctic ice pack has melted to an all time low (video), NASA climate scientist James Hansen has declared the current reality a "planetary emergency". As pointed out by Prof. David Barber from the University of Manitoba, 'The thaw this year broke all the records that we had previous to this and it didn’t just break them, it smashed them.' So, not sure why your mainstream press isn't covering this story? 'It's hard for the public to realize,' Hansen said, 'because they stick their head out the window and don't see much going on.' Thankfully some people are noticing, as Bill McKibben’s recent Rolling Stone article, Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math has gone viral.

Submission + - Kickstarter Introduces New Hardware and Product Design Project Guidelines (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by
OakDragon
OakDragon writes: "Kickstarter has introduced some more stringent guidelines and requirements specifically for the Hardware and Product Design categories. These new requirements are laid out in a blog post called "Kickstarter Is Not a Store." Simulations will now be prohibited. Video cannot show a proposed product, action, etc. — only a real product and what it does at the time. Product renderings and other simulated illustrations also will not be sufficient — the project creator will have to have photographs of a real prototype."
NASA

Submission + - Asteroid Vesta Covered in Hydrogen (space.com)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "The protoplanet Vesta, a large space rock in the solar system's asteroid belt, is covered with a surprising amount of hydrogen, and bits of Vesta may have rained down on Earth in the form of meteorites, NASA's Dawn probe has revealed.

Dawn spent more than a year orbiting Vesta, a behemoth 330-mile-wide asteroid that circles the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Earlier this month, on Sept. 5, Dawn took its leave of Vesta to begin trekking to the even-larger space rock Ceres, which is categorized as a dwarf planet.

Meanwhile, though, scientists are still poring over the treasure trove of data on Vesta gathered by the probe, and two new studies are reported on Sept. 20 in the journal Science. In one, researchers report the findings of Dawn's Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRAND), which mapped the elemental composition of Vesta's surface."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Ig Nobels feature exploding colonoscopies, left leaning views of Eiffel Tower (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony http://www.improbable.com/ig/ has honored a wide array of strange research and advancement over the years, from exploding pants to woodpecker headaches to aggressive parking enforcement, and Thursday night’s ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., was no exception. Particular highlights included a Russian company that turns ammunition into trace amounts of diamond, Japanese engineers who developed a speech jamming device, and research into such critical topics as why coffee is so hard to carry without slopping and what makes a ponytail move the way it does.

Submission + - Walmart abandons Amazon's Kindle lineup (reuters.com)

Submitted by kiriath
kiriath writes: Walmart has followed Target in ceasing to sell the Amazon Kindle product line. Not terribly surprising as Amazon and Walmart are major competitors.

From the article: "We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and eReaders beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments," Wal-Mart said in a memo sent to store managers on Wednesday. "This includes all Amazon Kindle models current and recently announced."

It would seem that Walmart and other brick and mortar retailers are starting to feel the pains of the ubiquitous online retailer era.
Government

Submission + - U.S. House STEM visa bill fails (computerworld.com) 2

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: A Republican-led effort to issue up to 55,000 STEM visas a year to students who earn advanced degrees at U.S. universities was defeated Thursday in a House vote. It needed a two-thirds vote, or about 290 ayes, for approval. Its supporters came up short, 257 to 158. Both parties support green cards for science, technology, engineering and math advanced degree grads, but can't agree on legislation. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has introduced his own STEM bill, urged House leaders to seek new negotiations: "A bipartisan compromise can easily be ready for the lame duck session. There is too broad a consensus in favor of this policy to settle for gridlock."
Science

Submission + - Three Mile Island Shuts Down After Pump Failure (cnn.com)

Submitted by
SchrodingerZ
SchrodingerZ writes: "The nuclear power station on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania shut down abruptly this afternoon. Its shutdown was caused when one of four coolant pumps for a reactor failed to work. 'The Unit 1 reactor shut off automatically about 2:20 p.m., the plant's owner, Exelon Corporation, reported. There is no danger to the public, but the release of steam in the process created "a loud noise heard by nearby residents," the company said.' If radiation was released into the environment, it is so low that it thus far has not been detected. The plant is a 825-megawatt pressurized water reactor, supplying power to around 800,000 homes, thought there has been no loss of electrical service. Three Mile Island was the site of a partial nuclear meltdown in 1979. The Unit 2 reactor has not been reactivated since."
Programming

Submission + - Why Non-Coders Shouldn't Write Code (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Software firm FreeCause made a bit of a splash with a policy that requires all its employees — including marketers, finance, etc. — to write JavaScript code. And not just "code to learn basics of what JavaScript can do," but "write code that will be used in production." Phil Johnson, a tech writer and editor who himself once coded for a living, thinks this is nuts, a recipie for miserable workers and substandard code. What do you think?"
Security

Submission + - Android NFC Hack Lets You Ride Free (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "At the EUSecWest security conference in Amsterdam, researchers showed how their 'UltraReset' Android app can read the data from a subway fare card, store that information, and reset the card to its original fare balance. The researchers said that the application takes advantage of a flaw found in particular NFC-based fare cards that are used in New Jersey and San Francisco, although systems in other cities, including Boston, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Chicago and Philadelphia, could also be vulnerable."
Security

Submission + - 6 Million Virgin Mobile users vulnerable to Hackers (thehackernews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "If you are one of the six million Virgin subscribers, you are at the whim of anyone who doesn’t like you." Hacker describe that how the username and password system used by Virgin Mobile to let users access their account information, is inherently weak and open to abuse. Read more at The Hacker News by Mohit Kumar — http://thehackernews.com/2012/09/6-million-virgin-mobile-users.html
Security

Submission + - The Man who Hacked the Bank of France (nouvelobs.com)

Submitted by
David Off
David Off writes: "In 2008 a Skype user looking for cheap rate gateway numbers found himself connected to the Bank of France where he was asked for a password. He typed 1 2 3 4 5 6 and found himself connected to their computer system. The intrusion was rapidly detected but led to the system being frozen for 48 hours as a security measure. Two years of extensive international police inquiries eventually traced the 37 year old unemployed Breton despite the fact he'd used his real address when he registered with Skype. The man was found not guilty in court today of maliciously breaking into the bank."
Software

Submission + - Anti-Virus Company Sophos Update Fiasco (sophos.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday afternoon anti-virus company Sophos Inc. released a normal anti-virus definition update that managed to detect parts of there own software as malicious code and disable / deleted sections of there Endpoint security suite including it's ability to auto-update and thus repair itself. For many hours on the 19th Sophos technical call centers were so busy customers were unable to even get thru to wait on hold for assistance. Today thousands of enterprise customers remain crippled and unable to update there security software.
Space

Submission + - SpaceShip Two, XCOR Lynx Prepare for Powered Flights

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two is in the final stages of preparation for powered flight.

The suborbital spacecraft, built by Scaled Composites, has successfully completed airspeed, angle-of-attack, center-of-gravity, and structural tests during unpowered glide flights. It is now on track for powered glide flights by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, in the hangar next door, XCOR Aerospace continues to work on the Lynx spacecraft, expected to begin powered flight tests early next year. Some exclusive photos provide a sneak peak at things to come."
Hardware

Submission + - Raspberry Pi For The Rest Of Us (i-programmer.info) 2

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: The Raspberry Pi might be a cheap and reasonably powerful but it has a tough learning curve due to the Linux OS it uses. Adafruit, better known for their hardware, are working on a WebIDE which you can use to program the Pi without having to set things up. You write the code in a browser and run it on the Pi using a web server hosted by the Pi. It sounds crazy but if it can make the Pi more approachable then perhaps it could turn out to be an educational powerhouse.

Slashdot Top Deals