Comment Fool me once.. (Score 5, Insightful) 616
Really, what are the promises of the US worth nowadays?
New Shrew Has Spine of Steel 93
sciencehabit writes "It's the size of large rat, but it can reportedly withstand the weight of an adult man standing on its back. Meet the hero shrew, a molelike creature that owes its near-mythological status to a remarkable spine, thickened by extensions of bone that interlock like fingers. The structure was thought to be unique among mammals — until now. An international team of researchers in the village of Baleko, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, made a surprising find: a slightly different shrew with a similarly 'heroic' backbone. Today in Biology Letters, they introduce Thor's hero shrew (S. thori), named for mammalogist Thorvald Holmes, but invoking the Norse god of strength. The researchers don't yet know how its strength compares to that of S. somereni. After exploring the shrews' swampy palm forests habitat, the researchers also have a new guess about why the spine evolved: They suggest that the creatures might wedge themselves between the trunk of a palm tree and the base of its leaves, then use the strength and flexion of their muscular spine to force open this crevice, revealing insect larvae—a food source that other animals can't access."
Comment Fallout rations (Score 2) 528
Ever since hearing that after a nuclear war the only two things left are cockroach and twinkies, I've been keeping 2 twinkies in my basement since the 80's. And they're still 100% good. So I guess it's pretty much true.
Comment I'd say yes (Score 1) 358
You WILL be Googled. So I'd recommend at least having _some_ online presence. At least LinkedIn, which for technical people is pretty much a CV of what you have been doing over the past few years.
Not having a Facebook and such is actually a plus in my eyes.
Reversible Male Contraception With Gold Nanorods 160
MTorrice writes "Men's options for birth control have significant downsides: Condoms are not as effective as hormonal methods for women, and vasectomies require surgery and are irreversible. Doctors and scientists have for decades searched for more effective and desirable male contraception techniques. Researchers in China now propose a nonsurgical, reversible, and low-cost method. They show that infrared laser light heats up gold nanorods injected into mice testes, leading to reduced fertility (abstract) in the animals."
China Criticizes US For Making Weapon Plans Steal-able, Alleges Attacks From US 209
Etherwalk writes "Huang Chengqing, China's top internet security official, alleged that cyberattacks on China from people in the U.S. are as serious as those from China on the U.S. 'We have mountains of data, if we wanted to accuse the U.S., but it's not helpful in solving the problem.' Huang, however, does not necessarily attribute them to the U.S. government just because they came from U.S. soil, and he thinks Washington should extend the same courtesy. 'They advocated cases that they never let us know about. Some cases can be addressed if they had talked to us, why not let us know? It is not a constructive train of thought to solve problems.' In response to the recent theft of U.S. military designs, he replied with an observation whose obviousness is worthy of Captain Hammer: 'Even following the general principle of secret-keeping, it should not have been linked to the Internet.'"
A few experts think China's more cooperative attitude has come about precisely because the U.S. government has gone public with hacking allegations.
White House: Use Metric If You Want, We Don't Care 1145
Earlier this year we discussed a petition on the White House's 'We The People' site asking the administration to adopt the metric system as the standard system of measurement in the U.S. Today, the administration issued a disappointing response. Simply put: they're not going to do anything about it. They frame their response as a matter of preserving a citizen's choice to adopt whatever measurement system he wants. Quoting Patrick D. Gallagher of the National Institute of Standards and Technology:
"... contrary to what many people may think, the U.S. uses the metric system now to define all basic units used in commerce and trade. At the same time, if the metric system and U.S. customary system are languages of measurement, then the United States is truly a bilingual nation. ... Ultimately, the use of metric in this country is a choice and we would encourage Americans to continue to make the best choice for themselves and for the purpose at hand and to continue to learn how to move seamlessly between both systems. In our voluntary system, it is the consumers who have the power to make this choice. So if you like, "speak" metric at home by setting your digital scales to kilograms and your thermometers to Celsius. Cook in metric with liters and grams and set your GPS to kilometers. ... So choose to live your life in metric if you want, and thank you for signing on."
Comment Re:Happens All the Time (Score 1) 182
Only writers are allowed to tell the story's without photos?
No, but there is a distinction.
If a news reporter writes down a story and starts adding things that didn't happen, greatly exaggerate the events or puts a subjective slant on something, then it stops being news and becomes an editorial.(See Fox 'News')
The same with journalistic pictures. You're allowed to take pictures at such a angle or with a specific technique that highlights the facts. But if you start taking pictures that misrepresents the facts or start photoshopping in post production, then it's no longer journalism but becomes expressive, i.e. art.
People who think of the World Press Photo expect journalism, not art.
Comment DMCA (Score 1) 239
This is good right? I mean with the DMCA even trivial protections are illegal to circumvent, so you remove the people who would be capable and interested in reverse engineering from the market. Then don't be surprised then when nobody can decrypt smart phones.
Comment Trust (Score 1, Informative) 159
Tell them to trust IT to make the right decision for them.
Just research the best option and present that. Don't give them a choice between the ideal solution and a runner up because it will just make them argue and possibly select the wrong product.
The only thing they should bring into the decision making process are the business requirements. You set the technical requirements and then find the package that covers them both.
Comment Oh yes (Score 5, Interesting) 162
As a Belgian ISP I would demand 90% of all profit Sabam makes them, since they enable them to sell digital goods..
Greed, plain and pure.. all copyright groups should be shot.
Belgian Media Group Demanding Copyright Levy for Internet Access 162
An anonymous reader writes with this tidbit from PC World about Sabam's latest demand for copyright levies: "Sabam, the Belgian association of authors, composers and publishers, has sued the country's three biggest ISPs, saying that they should be paying copyright levies for offering access to copyright protected materials online. Sabam wants the court to rule that Internet access providers Belgacom, Telenet and Voo should pay 3.4 percent of their turnover in copyright fees, because they profit from offering high speed Internet connections that give users easy access to copyright protected materials, the collecting organization said in a news release Tuesday."
Sabam has previously demanded money from truckers for listening to the radio, and wanted to charge libraries royalties for reading to children.
German Ministry of Education Throws Away PCs For 190,000 € Due To Infection 347
An anonymous reader writes "German IT magazine Heise reports (original in German) that the Ministry of Education in Schwerin had a Conficker virus infection on 170 machines, that was dealt with by simply throwing them on the trash. Other German authorities have now decided that 'the approach taken is not up to the principle of efficiency and economy' and that the 187,300 Euro invested in this radical form of virus removal were inappropriate. The ministry had earlier estimated the cost of cleaning their desktops and servers by more conventional means to 130,000 Euro."
How To Promote Stage Comedy In a Geeky Way? 123
shaitand writes "I recently went to a renaissance festival where a man (Arthur Greenleaf Holmes) performed some of the most obscene NSFW and hilarious comedy I've seen in a long while. The show was free and he had CDs and DVDs in his bag and accepted donations. I certainly gave one. But why is this guy doing niche fairs and not HBO specials? I contacted him and he said that he would love to break out and because of his costume he has trouble and the nature of his act he has trouble getting on to traditional stages. How would you promote such an act? On further conversation he said he is an avid supporter of free flow of information and strongly encourages pirating his work far and wide. Since he is primarily interested in making money with live performance and not media sales I thought if he took this to the next level and released a DVD under a creative commons license the exposure and interest generated might help him break into new forums with his act?"
Comment US only (Score 1) 328
Seeds will be shipped within the USA only!
Way to make it a global initiative..
