Comment Prime Directive (Score 1) 162
Another example of life imitating art and science-fiction :-)
Submission + - Male Science Students Least Sexually Active
Thib writes: A study at the University of Sydney published in the Journal Sexual Health and featured not without humor by PhysOrg confirms it: "Female arts students at university are the most sexually active while male science students are the most likely to be virgins", a conclusion which I'm sure will come as no surprise to Slashdotters worldwide. The study was actually about chlamydia awareness among university students aged 18 to 25.
Submission + - Taser Distributor Sues Political Figures (lemonde.fr)
Thib writes: SMP Technologies, the distributor of Taser stun guns in France, has threatened to sue the mayor of the country's fourth-largest city for slander after she spoke disapprovingly of the devices in a recent interview (article, Google translation). When asked on national television on Sunday if she would equip police in her town with Taser guns now that they are approved for use by French law enforcement, Lille Mayor Martine Aubry said 'No, certainly not. For several reasons. First of all it's dangerous, already 290 deaths in North America.' SMP Technologies head honcho Antoine Di Zazzo forwarded a 48-hour ultimatum to Aubry demanding that she provide the list of names of the alleged victims or face a slander lawsuit. This threat comes on the heels of several other ongoing lawsuits by the Taser distributor. On September 15, a Paris court heard arguments against Raid-H, a French human rights watchdog critical of the stun guns. The ruling will come on October 20, the day that a lawsuit similar to that against Aubry will proceed to court against Olivier Besancenot, the spokesman of a French political party, after he said that Taser guns had caused deaths in the US (article, Google translation).
Comment Bad summary: 2007 vs. 2008 (Score 1) 102
There is an obvious time wrap in the summary.
Submission + - Congress Holds Hearing in Second Life (mercurynews.com)
Thib writes: The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing on virtual worlds simultaneously in Washington, DC and in Second Life. From the article:
I already thought Washington, DC was a virtual world anyway.As usual, TV monitors carried the session, but one screen showed the Second Life version streaming in real time, complete with avatars providing some text-chat play by play, such as: 'There's another softball question.' Whimsical musing and theories about the evolution of the Internet and online communication dominated the conversation. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., proudly showed off the avatar created by his staff, rendered to make him look like a character from 'The Simpsons.' Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said he had 'checked out' Chairman Ed Markey's avatar. 'I must say you are younger and in much better shape in your second life than you are in your first,' Stearns chided.
Journal Journal: Oracle's Second Bid for BEA Succeeds
On the heels of news that Sun has acquired MySQL, it seems that Oracle has succeeded in its efforts to slurp up middleware maker BEA for US$8.5 billion, or $19.375 per share. What this means for rival IBM and its WebSphere product is unclear, as is the impact that this merger will have on the future of enterprise computing. Oracle has been on a march in recent years to acquire more a
Nanowires Boost Laptop Battery Life to 20 Hours 238
brianmed writes to tell us that Stanford researchers have created a new use for silicon nanowires that promise to reinvent lithium-ion batteries. "The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers. [...] The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate four times their normal size as they soak up lithium. But, unlike other silicon shapes, they do not fracture."
Powerful Supernova May Be Related To Death Spasms of First Stars 136
necro81 writes "The New York Times is reporting on a discovery from a team of UC Berkley researchers, who may have discovered the brightest stellar explosion ever observed. Observations of the cataclysmic explosion of a 100- to 200-solar-mass star began last September, based on data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The researchers believe that the explosion is similar to the death spasms of the first stars in the universe. The super-massive star's collapse is believed to have been so energetic as to create unstable electron-positron pairs that tore the star apart before it could collapse into a black hole — seeding the universe with heavier elements."
Submission + - Teens Protecting Their Online Profiles
Thib writes: A study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals that the majority of teens pay attention to what they are exposing about themselves in their online profiles on social networking communities like Facebook. For instance, while many routinely use their first name or include a picture, 'fewer than a third of teens with profiles use their last names, and a similar number include their e-mail addresses. Only 2 percent list their cell phone numbers.' The study comes among growing think-of-the-children brouhaha in state legislatures about the dangers of online predators. From the article: 'According to Pew, 45 percent of online teens do not have profiles at all, a figure that contradicts widespread perceptions that the nation's youths are continually on MySpace.'
Submission + - Slashdot RSS Feed Exposes Premium Content
Dan Grossman writes: "The RSS feed for Slashdot exposes articles that are not yet on the main page of the site. Clicking the "Read more of this story" link brings non-subscribers to a page indicating they can't access that content."
Preparing for the Worst in IT 172
mplex writes "How vulnerable is the internet to terrorist attack? Is it robust enough to handle an outage on a massive scale? Should the commercial infrastructure that powers the internet be kept secret? These are the sorts of questions raised by Mark Gibbs in his latest column in Network World. 'There is an alternate route available for nearly all services through Las Vegas or Northern California serving all facilities-based carriers in Los Angeles -- all interconnected at numerous L.A. and L.A.-area fiber-optic terminals supporting both metro and long-distance cable.' Given that the internet thrives on open networks, it's hard to imagine keeping them a secret. At best, we must be prepared to deal with the worst."
E-Voting Reform Bill Gaining Adherants 161
JeremyDuffy sends us to Ars Technica for a look at an e-voting bill making its way through Congress that is gaining the support of the likes of Ed Felten and the EFF. Quoting: "HR 811 features several requirements that will warm the hearts of geek activists. It bans the use of computerized voting machines that lack a voter-verified paper trail. It mandates that the paper records be the authoritative source in any recounts, and requires prominent notices reminding voters to double-check the paper record before leaving the polling place. It mandates automatic audits of at least three percent of all votes cast to detect discrepancies between the paper and electronic records. It bans voting machines that contain wireless networking hardware and prohibits connecting voting machines to the Internet. Finally, it requires that the source code for e-voting machines be made publicly available."
Journal Journal: OpenBSD's second remote hole in the default installation
The OpenBSD project has just issued an advisory (and updated its website to reflect the change) that it now has its second remote root vulnerability in more than ten years. The exploit itself is performed with a specially crafted IPv6 ICMP packet, and is caused by a bug in the mbuf chains in the operating system kernel. The OpenBSD team have released a patch. The bug affects all versions of OpenBSD. Since
A New Lease On Internal Combustion 431
Somnus suggests we check out the latest issue of MIT's Technology Review, where researchers describe how they can dramatically boost engine output and efficiency by preventing pre-ignition, or "knock." How they do it: "Both turbocharging and direct injection are preexisting technologies, and neither looks particularly impressive... by combining them, and augmenting them with a novel way to use a small amount of ethanol, Cohn and his colleagues have created a design that they believe could triple the power of a test engine."
Halliburton Moving HQ To Dubai 555
theodp writes "Much-maligned defense contractor Halliburton is moving its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai's friendly tax laws will add to Halliburton's bottom line. Last year the company earned $2.3B in profits. Sen. Patrick Leahy called the company's move 'corporate greed at its worst.' Halliburton, once headed by VP Dick Cheney, has been awarded contracts valued at an estimated $25.7B for its work in Iraq."
