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Comment Does Carl Malamud need money for an appeal? (Score 1) 209

I see only a brief mention of the fact he is appealing in the Ars Technica article. But I'd like to know how I could send him a few bucks.

District court decisions like this are often overturned when they reach the appeals level, with judges who aren't quite so mired in local interests. /P

Submission + - Trump's Next Immigration Move to Hit Tech Workers (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by AdamnSelene
AdamnSelene writes: A report in Bloomberg describes a draft executive order that will hit the tech industry hard and potentially change the way those companies recruit workers from abroad. The H-1B, L-1, E-2, and B1 work visa programs would be targeted by requiring companies to prioritize higher-paid immigrant workers over lower-paid workers. In addition, the order will impose statistical reporting requirements on tech companies who sponsor workers under these programs. The order is expected to impact STEM workers from India the most.

Submission + - Eradicating the First Disease Since Smallpox (economist.com)

Submitted by AdamnSelene
AdamnSelene writes: It looks like something out of a Gothic movie: a metre-long monster that emerges slowly through blistered human skin, its victim writhing in agony. No one is spared. It can creep out from between the toes of a child or from the belly of a pregnant woman.

In the mid-1980s Dracunculus medinensis, the Guinea worm, as this horror is called, afflicted 3.5m people a year in 20 countries in Africa and Asia. But last year that number was down to just 22, all of them in Chad, Ethiopia, Mali and South Sudan. Dracunculiasis is thus poised to become the second human disease to be eradicated, after smallpox.

This blessed state of affairs is thanks to a 30-year campaign led by the Carter Centre, a charity set up by former US president Jimmy Carter.

Submission + - The Origin of Cherries (foodsnark.com)

Submitted by avavictoriaa
avavictoriaa writes: The cherry grew originally in the temperate climates of Europe and Asia. It’s likely that prehistoric peoples ate wild cherries plentifully, well before humans learned how to farm and settle down. There is even evidence that Neolithic peoples stored and fermented their cherry juice, creating wine before people knew how to extract it from grapes. The cherry reached Italy from the Black Sea, where the Romans embraced it heartily. They took it with them to Britain when they conquered the area, grouping them with plums and grapes at the tables of rich imperials.

Submission + - Motorola may possibly introduce new mobile phone this May (blog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After the success of Moto G Motorola will be hosting a release event in London this May to introduce a brand new merchandise, and the internet has gone straight into a overdrive estimating that the gadget will be the firm’s newest cell phone the Moto E.

Submission + - California regulator seeks to shut down 'learn to code' bootcamps

Submitted by hermitdev
hermitdev writes: A recent blog post by Data Science Central indicates that free online educational services may face an uphill battle in California:

In mid-January, the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) sent cease and desist letters to Hackbright Academy, Hack Reactor, App Academy, Zipfian Academy, and others. General Assembly confirmed that it began working on this issue several months ago in order to achieve compliance with BPPE.

BPPE, a unit in the California Department of Consumer Affairs, is arguing that the bootcamps fall under its jurisdiction and are subject to regulation. BPPE is charged with licensing and regulating postsecondary education in California, including academic as well as vocational training programs. It was created in 2010 by the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, a bill aimed at providing greater oversight of the more than 1,500 postsecondary schools operating in the state.

These bootcamps have not yet been approved by the BPPE and are therefore being classified as unlicensed postsecondary educational institutions that must seek compliance or be forcibly shut down.

Submission + - Republicans Using Fake Websites to Trick Democratic Donors 3

Submitted by AdamnSelene
AdamnSelene writes: Forbes reports on a National Republican Congressional Committee sanctioned campaign worthy of the NSA: Fake Candidate Websites that use identical or similar pictures and color schemes to solicit donations to defeat the Democratic candidate. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the NRCC initially refused to refund the contribution from a Tampa Bay doctor who caught onto the scam, and he had to contact his credit card company to challenge the charges. The National Journal reports that the NRCC-sponsored effort may run afoul of Federal Election Commission regulations, though it expects that the bipartisan FEC will be toothless when it comes to enforcement. However, I have to wonder whether this is finally a good enough reason to use the DMCA and file take-down notices against the faux websites. Perhaps the candidates could solve this themselves, and get a judgement for copyright infringement so absurdly large that it puts the NRCC out of business?

Submission + - GOP Bill to Outlaw EPA 'Secret Science' that is Not Transparent, Reproducible

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Fox News reports that Republican lawmakers in the House are pushing legislation that would prohibit the EPA from proposing new regulations based on science that is not transparent or not reproducible. The bill introduced by Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., would bar the agency from proposing or finalizing rules without first disclosing all "scientific and technical information" relied on to support its proposed action. "Public policy should come from public data, not based on the whims of far-left environmental groups,” says Schweikert. “For far too long, the EPA has approved regulations that have placed a crippling financial burden on economic growth in this country with no public evidence to justify their actions.” The bill, dubbed the Secret Science Reform Act of 2014 (HR 4012), would prohibit the EPA’s administrator from proposing or finalizing any rules unless he or she also discloses “all scientific and technical information” relied on by the agency in the regulations' development including all data, materials and computer models. According to Schweikert's press release a 2013 poll from the Institute of Energy Research found that 90 percent of Americans agree that studies and data used to make federal government decisions should be made public. "Provisions in the bill are consistent with the White House’s scientific integrity policy, the President’s Executive Order 13563, data access provisions of major scientific journals, the Bipartisan Policy Center and the recommendations of the Obama administration’s top science advisors."

Submission + - Snowden kills "metadata" argument during live hosted by The Guardian

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a live chat hosted by the The Guardian, Edward Snowden has clarified that the NSA does not simply have access to metadata, as has been the media rhetoric, and that large volumes of data relating to US citizens is frequently ingested.

Answering one question, he wrote:

If I target for example an email address, for example under FAA 702, and that email address sent something to you, Joe America, the analyst gets it. All of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything. And it gets saved for a very long time — and can be extended further with waivers rather than warrants.

Answering another:

US Persons do enjoy limited policy protections (and again, it's important to understand that policy protection is no protection — policy is a one-way ratchet that only loosens) and one very weak technical protection — a near-the-front-end filter at our ingestion points. The filter is constantly out of date, is set at what is euphemistically referred to as the "widest allowable aperture," and can be stripped out at any time. Even with the filter, US comms get ingested, and even more so as soon as they leave the border.

Submission + - TSA agent tells 15 year-old girl: "Cover Up!"

Submitted by AdamnSelene
AdamnSelene writes: The daughter of Mark Frauenfelder, a founder of the website Boing Boing, was 'shamed' and 'humiliated' by a LAX Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officer who told her to 'cover up'. Frauenfelder detailed the story of his daughter’s experience with the TSA yesterday evening. The TSA is investigating the incident.

There is additional commentary on women's rights activist Maureen Herman's blog.

And we thought the TSA agents and scanning machines were there to grope and ogle fliers...
Google

Submission + - Google never deleted street view data (businessweek.com)

Submitted by AdamnSelene
AdamnSelene writes: After being caught spying on people across Europe and Australia with its Wi-Fi-slurping Street View cars, Google had told angry regulators that it would delete the ill-gotten data. Google broke its promise.
Bitcoin

Submission + - FBI document about Bitcoin leaked (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The report titled “Bitcoin Virtual Currency: Unique Features Present Distinct Challenges for Deterring Illicit Activity,” (.pdf) was published April 24 and is marked For Official Use Only (not actually classified), but was leaked to the internet on Wednesday.

In the document, the FBI notes that because Bitcoin combines cryptography and a peer-to-peer architecture to avoid a central authority, contrary to how digital currencies such as eGold and WebMoney operated, law enforcement agencies have more difficulty identifying suspicious users and obtaining transaction records.

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What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. -- Bertrand Russell, "Skeptical Essays", 1928

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