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Comment Which will lead to monitoring the press... (Score 2) 563

by AhNewBis (#51129213) Attached to: Go To Jail For Visiting a Web Site? Top Law Prof Talks Up the Idea

Now there will be a managed list of reporters. I'm sure any ISIS related hits will still trigger SOMETHING, which will surely lead to [more] surveillance of the press, even if it doesn't lead to a 'three strikes' letter. What other websites did they visit? Who did they contact? What else are they searching for? Who in the government is leaking information to that reporter? What are their other sources? Are they talking to a known leak? Can we plant a leak for them to speak to? If they're willing to publish that information can we imprison them for leaking 'secrets' to eliminate the chances of reporters talking to whistleblowers?

No sir, I don't like it.
Government

Innocent Until Predicted Guilty 430

Posted by kdawson from the no-telepaths-yet dept.
theodp writes "Gizmodo has an angry piece on IBM helping Florida to predict how delinquent your child's going to be. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice has decided to start using IBM predictive analytics software to help them determine which of the 85,000 kids who enter their system each year poses the biggest future threat. From IBM's sales pitch: 'Predictive analytics gives government organizations worldwide a highly-sophisticated and intelligent source to create safer communities by identifying, predicting, responding to and preventing criminal activities. It gives the criminal justice system the ability to draw upon the wealth of data available to detect patterns, make reliable projections and then take the appropriate action in real time to combat crime and protect citizens.'"

Comment Re:Oh, the naivete. (Score 1, Insightful) 590

by AhNewBis (#31002744) Attached to: The Lancet Recants Study Linking Autism To Vaccine

Now the Vaccine Industry has scared or bribed the other doctors into recanting the evidence and they are going to destroy this Doctor's ability to practice medicine as a warning to anyone else that dares to come forward with the truth.

There isn't a rolleye big enough to express how likely it would be for this to end the discussion.
Input Devices

Does Your PC Really Need a SysRq Button Anymore? 806

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-don't-even-use-vowels dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Ever wondered what the SysRq key on your keyboard does? Lenovo has decided it's so rarely used that it has started removing the key from some new Thinkpad Edge laptops. We already know that Lenovo are something of the fastidious scientists when it comes to keyboard design. Last time they fiddled with the age-old key layout, it was after painstaking research to count exactly how many times users press the Delete and Escape keys. Now it seems another relic of computer keyboards is starting to disappear."
Privacy

Submission + - T-Mobile UK employees sold customers' information (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Workers at T-Mobile UK have been selling customer data to brokers who work for the competition, according to T-Mobile and the U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office. "Many thousands" of customer account details were sold to several brokers for substantial amounts of money, the ICO said. In an announcement (PDF) from the ICO, the agency does not name the operator involved, but T-Mobile acknowledged that it alerted ICO about the data breach. The BBC reported that after the other mobile operators said they were not the subject of the investigation, T-Mobile confirmed its involvement."
Science

Submission + - SPAM: Will In-Vitro Meat Let You Taste Extinct Species?

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: This fascinating article describes eight ways in-vitro meat will change the world, including the ability to taste endangered animals and even extinct species like dinosaurs. "Future flesh" could also eliminate 51% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions (and 90% of choking victims), and "test tube steak" is also cheaper, healthier, and greener. (A quarter of the earth's land is currently used to grow meat, along with 8% of the world's water.) It could reduce animal-to-human diseases while eliminating artery-clogging saturated fats from our diets, replacing them with heart-healthy Omega-3 — while eliminating hormones and mercury (as well as e. coli and salmonella). And someone will finally claim PETA's $1 million prize for anyone who can market a competitive in-vitro meat by 2012.
Link to Original Source
The Internet

Cisco, Motorola, and Other Companies Take Aim At Net Neutrality Rules 239

Posted by timothy from the perhaps-things-are-more-complicated-than-they-appear dept.
angry tapir writes "FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced last month that he would seek to develop formal rules prohibiting Internet service providers from selectively blocking or slowing Web content and applications. However, 44 companies — including Cisco Systems, Alcatel-Lucent, Corning, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia — have sent a letter to the FCC saying new regulations could hinder the development of the Internet. A group of 18 Republican US senators have also sent a letter to Genachowski raising concerns about net neutrality regulations."
Government

FCC Chairman Warns of Wireless Spectrum Gap 300

Posted by timothy from the congress-from-whom-all-blessings-flow dept.
locallyunscene writes "'We are fast entering a world where mass-market mobile devices consume thousands of megabytes each month,' FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski warned at CTIA Wireless yesterday. 'So we must ask: what happens when every mobile user has an iPhone, a Palm Pre, a BlackBerry Tour, or whatever the next device is? What happens when we quadruple the number of subscribers with mobile broadband on their laptops or netbooks?'"
Movies

Jack Kirby Heirs Reclaim Marvel/Disney Rights 380

Posted by kdawson from the more-movies-for-grownups dept.
lbalbalba writes "Heirs to comic book legend Jack Kirby sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel Entertainment, prospective Marvel buyer Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and others studios that that hold licensed media rights to Marvel characters. Some rights could revert to the heirs as soon as 2014, for characters that are among the hottest in Hollywood: The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Avengers, and others. Among other things the heirs' demand could cause problems for Disney's as yet unconsummated purchase of Marvel."
Social Networks

No Social Media In These College Stadiums 265

Posted by kdawson from the ninety-thousand-reporters dept.
RawJoe writes "Today, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is expected to release a final version of its new media policy that, at the moment, can best be described as a ban on all social media usage at SEC games. Earlier this month, the conference informed its schools of the new policy, which says that ticketed fans can't 'produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event.' Translated, that means no Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TwitPic, or any other service that could in any way compete with authorized media coverage of the event. In the case of the SEC, authorized media coverage rights belong to CBS, who has a $3B deal with the conference over the next 15 years, according to The St Petersburg Times." Good luck with that. To quote Clay Shirky, "The idea that people can't capture their own lived experience is a losing proposition."
Space

Submission + - Perseid Meteor Shower tonight

Submitted by AhNewBis
AhNewBis writes: The height of the Perseid Meteor shower has begun tonight (August 11, 2009) and will continue throughout the night until sunup. Grab a towel and a compass, lay down and look to the Northeastern sky, and enjoy the show!
Games

Finding New and Unintended Ways of Playing Games 346

Posted by Soulskill from the trickjumping-and-speedruns-and-bears-oh-my dept.
Ronald Diemicke writes "World of Warcraft players sometimes hang out in front of Ironforge and dance. Fallout 3 players seek out new and elaborate ways of destroying their avatar. Brawlers in Smash Brothers have an itchy pause finger, ready to catch any humiliatingly hilarious screengrabs. The thugs running rampant in Grand Theft Auto are putting Evil Knievel to shame by using a full assortment of vehicles to pull off some incredible stunt work. Personally, I like to collect and move things. My favorite is making piles of bodies in any game that lets me move them around. Ever catch yourself doing something in-game that isn't exactly part of the game, or just something really dumb?"
Science

Ten Things We Still Don't Understand About Humans 397

Posted by Soulskill from the why-do-they-like-will-ferrell-movies dept.
ParticleGirl writes "New Scientist has an article examining 10 human features (bugs?) that we still don't understand, like blushing, laughing, and nose-picking. There are some interesting, speculative evolutionary explanations listed for each. '[Psychologist Robert R. Provine] thinks laughing began in our pre-human ancestors as a physiological response to tickling. Modern apes maintain the ancestral 'pant-pant' laugh when they are tickled during play, and this evolved into the human 'ha-ha.' Then, he argues, as our brains got bigger, laughter acquired a powerful social function — to bond people. Indeed, Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford has found that laughing increases levels of endorphins, our body's natural opiates, which he believes helps to strengthen social relationships.'"

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