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Education

Submission + - Prank led school to punish 2 students with shocks

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: Two special education students at the controversial Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton were wrongfully delivered dozens of punishing electrical shocks in August based on a prank phone call from a former student posing as a supervisor, a state investigative report has found.

The Judge Rotenberg center, which serves about 250 adults and children from across the country, has been under fire for more than two decades for its unorthodox behavior-modification treatments, including electric shock treatments.
Government

Submission + - Guantanamo deleted detainee IDs from Wikipedia (ljsf.org) 1

Submitted by James Hardine
James Hardine writes: The New York Times and The Inquirer are reporting that Wikileaks, the transparency group that published two manuals leaked from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba earlier this month has now caught US armed forces personnel there conducting propaganda attacks over the Internet. The activities uncovered by Wikileaks include deleting Guantanamo detainees' ID numbers from Wikipedia, posting of self-praising comments on news websites in response to negative articles, promoting pro-Guantanamo stories on the Internet news focus website Digg, and even altering Wikipedia's entry on Cuban President Fidel Castro to describe him as "an admitted transexual". Guantanamo spokesman Lt. Col. Bush blasted Wikileaks for identifying one "mass communications officer" by name, who has since received death threats for "simply doing his job — posting positive comments on the Internet about Gitmo". In response Wikileaks has posted independent confirmation of their analysis by security expert Bruce Schneier.
Programming

Submission + - Is wasting time or goofing off "productive?

Submitted by mlwmohawk
mlwmohawk writes: Now be honest, how many hours a "work day" do you spend surfing the net, talking with others, fiddling with computer settings, or just plain spacing out? Its a lot isn't it!

Now, do you think it is a necessary function of programming i.e. just a cost of business or is it just what it seems, goofing off?
The Internet

Submission + - Monster.com Attack, User Data Stolen (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
Placid
Placid writes: "The BBC has an article detailing a successful attack on the US recruitment site, Monster.com. According to the article, "A computer program was used to access the employers' section of the website using stolen log-in credentials" and that the stolen details were "uploaded to a remote web server". Apparently, this remote server "held over 1.6 million entries with personal information belonging to several hundred thousands of candidates, mainly based in the US, who had posted their resumes to the Monster.com website". The article also links the break-in to a phishing e-mail sent out recently where personal details were used to entice users to download a "Monster Job Seeker Tool".

What does this mean for spam? Will we now be inundated with job requests for pharmaceutical companies and African investment opportunities?...Oh, wait..."
Announcements

Submission + - Zinc lozenges an ineffective treatment for colds 1

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: A new study (a meta-study?) shows that most of the past studies about the effectiveness of treating colds with zinc are severely flawed. The article finds that despite 20 years of research, the benefits of zinc lozenges as a therapy for the common cold have not been proven. A new study, published in the Sept. 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, currently available online, reviews the 14 placebo-controlled studies from the past two decades and finds significant fault with 10 of the studies. Of the four remaining studies, three reported no therapeutic effect from zinc lozenge or nasal spray, and one study reported positive results from zinc nasal gel.
Privacy

Submission + - Unencrypted passwords at "secure" sites 1

Submitted by linear a
linear a writes: I've noticed that quite a few web sites do *not* encrypt user passwords. I've gotten into the habit of hitting the "email me my password" from them to see what happens. So far I've found maybe 6 that must store passwords in clear since they were able to return the original password back to me. Clearly this is Bad Security Practice. Also, I've had notably bad progress when I ask them to fix this practice. Some of these are sites one would clearly expect to have better security (e.g., a software vendor and an online bank). Do you have thoughts on how to better encourage better password practice at these places? Also, is this is really as common as it seems to be for me?
Security

Submission + - CIA Declassifies the "Family Jewels"

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The CIA has recently declassified some records relating to illegal spying, assassination attempts, and other goodies for afternoon reading. These are available from the CIA's FOIA portal
From the article:
Last week, CIA chief Michael Hayden announced the decision to declassify the records, saying the documents were "unflattering but part of CIA history".
The documents detail assassination plots, domestic spying, wiretapping, and kidnapping.
The incidents include:
* the confinement of a Soviet KGB defector, Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko, in the mid-1960s
* attempts to use a suspected Mafia mobster, Johnny Roselli, in a plot to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro
* the wiretapping and surveillance of journalists, including in 1972 columnist Jack Anderson who broke a string of scandals
User Journal

Journal Journal: Scientists announce stem cell line from new source

Journal by stemceller
Scientists have created a new stem cell line from a clinically unusable human egg in a development that could have major implications for research into illnesses such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, liver disease and diabetes. The breakthrough, by Roslin Cells Ltd, a spin out company established in 2006 by Roslin Institute, and scientists at The University of Manchester, demonstrates for the first time that eggs which are incapable of becoming viable embryos can be used as a source for stem cells.
Spam

Submission + - Spammers spamming using our addresses

Submitted by
Vesty
Vesty writes: "I recently enabled a catchall on our domain while our company transitioned to a new website. I didn't want emails going astray etc while things changed over... Recently I've noticed that on the catchall I get a LOT of 'delivery failure' and similar emails, that are all being returned to the same non active alias. After a bit of digging I discovered that about half a dozen different companies spam has been being sent using an alias at our domain as their from address. I've been slowly attempting to call each of the companies, most are extremely shady, occasionally I get a real person that supposedly knows nothing about it. It seems to me that each of these companies has farmed out there 'advertising' to the same third party that is using our address as their from address. I'm sure this has happened to other people, what can we do to stop it? With the amount of spam these fools send I'm worried that any email from our domain will automatically be treated as spam... Anyone have any suggestions? Are they breaking any laws?"
United States

Submission + - Bush Tells Agencies to Ignore Laws

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: President Bush has used signing statements to instruct federal agencies in the executive branch to disobey the law. The non-partisan Government Accountability Office has studied a small sample of recently passed laws for which Bush has issued signing statements, and found that under presidential advisement, 6 of 19 laws have been disobeyed, 10 were enforced as written, and 3 have not yet been found applicable. Bush believes that as president it is his prerogative to set aside laws.
Privacy

Submission + - Keylogger Hardware Embedded in New Dell Laptop (virus.org.ua)

Submitted by
kendbluze
kendbluze writes: "Here's an EE who was doing a simple repair to a nearly-new Dell 600m laptop when he noticed something a bit curious. Turns out he found a hardware keylogger sitting between the keyboard and ethernet controllers! See what Homeland Security didn't have to say about it."
Biotech

Submission + - Magnetic Brain Stimulator

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: Transcranial magnetic stimulation, a technique for treating clinical depression, uses a device placed on a patient's head that delivers a pulse to the gray matter. Psychiatrists at the American Psychiatric Association meeting here are unabashedly optimistic about its potential for treating tough cases. It's in the final stages of FDA review, and could come to market as soon as the end of the year.

TMS works by creating an electromagnetic pulse that doesn't disturb the skull or scalp, but can reach two to three centimeters into the brain to stimulate the prefrontal cortex and paralimbic blood flow, increasing the serotonin output and the dopamine and norepinephrine functions.
Google

Submission + - Wikipedia,Jabber founders do open-source search

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: The creator of Jabber, Jeremie Miller, is joining Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in building and open-source, community-driven search service called Search Wikia. They believe transparent algorithms and open-source code is a better alternative than proprietary engines. Now, with the addition of Miller, the are expanding the effort to include developing a standardized protocol for exchanging information between search engines, enabling distributed, collaborative search. They anticipate that such a service may have many of the same features, but also weaknesses, as Wikipedia such as the posting of inaccurate information and companies trying to influence what is posted. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/050107-searc h-wikia-hires-jabber-founder.html

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