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Japan

Submission + - One Step Toward a Babel Fish: Real-Time Voice Translation for Phones (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Douglas Adams's fictional Babel fish, which lived in the brain and could translate any language in the universe, was so incredibly useful that it simultaneously proved and disproved the existence of God. This real-time translation app for mobile phones, offered by the Japanese telecom company NTT DoCoMo, isn't going to freak out theologians any time soon. The company admits it has lots of work to do to improve translation accuracy, and it can currently only translate between Japanese and three languages: English, Korean, and Mandarin. But by allowing phone calls to pierce the language barrier, we just might have taken a step toward the universe that Adams envisioned: one where open communication between people of different cultures leads to an onslaught of terrible bloody warfare.
Security

Submission + - House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on TSA's 'Scanner Shuffle' (house.gov)

Submitted by OverTheGeicoE
OverTheGeicoE writes: The Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security held a hearing on TSA's recent decision to move X-ray body scanners from major airports to smaller ones, which the subcommitte refers to as a 'Scanner Shuffle.' John Sanders, TSA's assistant administrator for security capabilities, testified that 91 scanners recently removed from major airports were now in storage due to 'privacy concerns.' Although TSA originally planned to relocate the scanners to smaller airports, those plans have been shelved because smaller airports don't have room for them. The subcommittee is also investigating allegations that the machines' manufacturer, Rapiscan, 'may have falsified tests of software intended to stop the machines from recording graphic images of travelers' (VIDEO). Coincidentally, shares of Rapiscan's parent company, OSI Systems Inc., dropped in value almost 25% today, its biggest intraday decline in about 12 years. If wrongdoing is proven, Rapiscan could face fines, prison terms and a ban on government contracting, according to a former head of federal procurement.
Science

Submission + - Artificial Muscles Pack a Mean Punch (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Here's a twist: Scientists have designed a flexible, yarnlike artificial muscle that can also pack a punch. It can contract in 25 milliseconds—a fraction of the time it takes to blink an eye—and can generate power 85 times as great as a similarly sized human muscle. The new muscles are made of carbon nanotubes filled with paraffin wax that can twist or stretch in response to heat or electricity. When the temperature rises, the wax melts and forces the nanotubes to contract. Such artificial muscles, the researchers say, could power smart materials, sensors, robots, and even devices inside the human body.

Submission + - Using technology for charity

Submitted by renem
renem writes: Lately i have been thinking of doing some charity but instead of donations or any of that usual things i am planning on doing something like a website that could help them. I have access (and budget) to buy equipment / hosting, i am a web developer, any ideas on how to help?
thanks
Google

Submission + - Google Develops Context-Aware Voice Search For TV (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Google TV, despite bold predictions from the company's execs, has singularly failed to take over the TV world. Nevertheless, the company is still plugging away, and one development that might have far-reaching impliciations is its new context-aware voice search. "Context aware" is the key to revolutionizing the TV-watching experience: you can say the name of a TV show, the name of a channel, the description of a show, or the description of a kind of video you'd like to find on YouTube, and the TV will show it to you."

Submission + - Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released (dailymail.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
bricko
bricko writes: "here is the chart to prove it

        The figures reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012 there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures
        This means that the ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996

The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week.

The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.

This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years."
Science

Submission + - Gold nanoparticles dye hair gold

Submitted by LilaG
LilaG writes: Forget gold-plated teeth. Gold-nanoparticled hair may just be the next cool thing. Researchers in Paris have discovered that they can produce gold nanoparticles within strands of hair that will dye white hair gold. Added bonus: the hair glows red when blue light shines on it.

Alas, don't expect to see gold nanoparticle dye coming to your hair salon anytime soon. The process takes days of treatment to produce the full effect. Another downside: the process uses a very strong base, with pH 12.5, making it far more caustic than a perm.
The Internet

Submission + - co.cc goes the way of the Dodo

Submitted by Nexus Unplugged
Nexus Unplugged writes: Free domain provider co.cc seems to have quietly and mysteriously disappeared. No official explanation has yet been provided, but a cached copy suggest that they stopped accepting new registrations some time ago. Speculation, however, seems to come to a single conclusion. From the article:

Due to its free nature (and it’s $10 for as many as you want), Co.CC was abused and used for scams and spamming and was even de-listed by Google at one point although they did re-enable it. Getting back to the article on hand a few days ago Co.CC seems to have removed its DNS records which ultimately has stops its own site from working and every sub domain it provided.

It's worth noting that free domains are still easily obtainable from places like DotTK.

Media

Submission + - Cybersecurity Bill Dies; Presidential Directive Lives; Press Overreacts (cio.com)

Submitted by
Curseyoukhan
Curseyoukhan writes: "The fact that the Senate bill would die had not gone unnoticed by the media, which immediately began inundating readers with calm and carefully considered reporting on the topic, like "Political Gridlock Leaves U.S. Facing Cyber Pearl Harbor." It begins with all the subtlety of a Roland "Day After Tomorrow" Emmerich movie:
"There’s almost universal agreement that the U.S. faces a catastrophic threat from cyber attacks by terrorists, hackers and spies."
This sentence makes perfect sense as long as you don’t stop to think about it. The phrase “almost universal agreement” is of course rhetorically and factually absurd. This is the United States. We can’t even almost universally agree that it’s okay to teach science in schools."

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