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Submission + - Hair: A Traveling Tape Recorder (pbs.org) 1

Submitted by kandelar
kandelar writes: PBS recently ran a story about how some scientists are using human hair to trace where a person has been. The combinations of different isotopes in water make for somewhat unique signatures from place to place. These isotopes get placed in growing hair strands which can then be traced back to identify where a person has been.

Submission + - Advice Wanted: Celebrity Stepping on the Little Guy 6

Submitted by
SkydiverFL
SkydiverFL writes: "The attorney of a well known celebrity just called and threatened me. Years ago I registered a domain with the celebrity's name for a fan page (basically FirstMiddleLast.com). Although the fan page pays homage to this celebrity, does not sell anything, does not profit, and has no commercial ties to anything (no links to any other sites at the moment), he wants to rip the domain from my hands if I do not surrender it. His client wants to profit from the domain and it appears that I just simply do not matter. Now, because I genuinely do like the celebrity I agreed to entertain an offer from him, but that just lead to ICANN threats. This just sickens me! Because he has money I don't matter. What would you do?"
Patents

Apple Patents Alternative To NFC 171

Posted by Soulskill from the bet-it'll-have-a-cooler-name dept.
another random user sends word that a set of newly-granted Apple patents published by the USPTO includes an alternative to the near field communication (NFC) technology that has begun to pop up in mobile devices. From the article: "Apple has received a Granted Patent relating to techniques for triggering a process within a portable electronic device that identifies itself for purposes of establishing communications with another device that is in proximity. At the moment, NFC is the technology that's getting all of the attention lately in respect to making it easier for two mobile devices to share information. While Apple is likewise doing research with NFC, they're also working with an alternate methodology for which they've now gained a patent for. In accordance with Apple's newly granted patent, a method for network device discovery monitors a compass output in a portable electronic device. As the portable device and an external device come closer to each other, a magnetic field signature is computed based on the monitored compass output. A determination is then made as to whether the computed signature could be associated with or implies that a previously defined type of electronic device (with which a network device discovery process can be conducted) is in close proximity. In other words, as the two devices come closer to each other, their respective magnetic characteristics cause the compass output to change in a way that implies that a network device discovery process should be initiated between the two devices."

Submission + - Antarctic Ice hits an all-time record high level

Submitted by dtjohnson
dtjohnson writes: "Two weeks after a new record was set in the Arctic Ocean for the least amount of sea ice coverage in the satellite record, the ice surrounding Antarctica reached its highest ever level. Sea ice extended over 19.44 million square kilometers (7.51 million square miles) in 2012, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The previous record of 19.39 million kilometers (7.49 million square miles) was set in 2006." Ice extent is reaching an all-time record high on the bottom of the planet just after ice reached an all-time record low on the top of the planet. What can it mean? Either there will soon be more ice at the top or less ice at the bottom or the planet will become seriously 'bottom heavy.' Now there is something to worry about...
Firefox

Submission + - Firefox 16 pulled due to Security Vulnerability

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla has removed Firefox 16 from it's installer page due to security vulnerabilities that, if exploited, could allow "a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited"...one of temporary work-around, until a fix is released, is to downgrade to 15.0.1

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