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Submission + - Researcher Develops a Less Objectionable Scanner (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The TSA has been embroiled in controversy since installation of scanners began last month but now the Washington Post reports that one of the researchers who helped develop the software for the scanners says there is a simple fix that would make scanning less objectionable. The fix would distort the images captured on full-body scanners so they look like reflections in a fun-house mirror, but any potentially dangerous objects would be clearly revealed, says Willard "Bill" Wattenburg, a former nuclear weapons designer at the Livermore lab. "Why not just distort the image into something grotesque so that there isn't anything titillating or exciting about it?" says Wattenburg adding that the modification is so simple that "a 6-year-old could do the same thing with Photoshop." TSA scanners could be altered so that they "would record an image that you would recognize; it would be totally uninteresting," but any potentially dangerous objects would be just as evident as they are now. "It's probably a few weeks' modification of the program," Wattenburg adds. "It's like changing the video card in your computer. They just strip out all the coding and put the very simple algorithm in. You could teach a kid how to do it.""
Censorship

Submission + - Oregon Senator Stops Internet Censorship Bill (osdir.com)

Submitted by comforteagle
comforteagle writes: Senator Wyden of Oregon has objected to a bill in committee that if passed would have given the government the ability to censor the Internet. His objection effectively stop its current passing forcing it to be introduced again if the bill is continue. Which it may not.Oregonians please send pats on the back to this man.

Submission + - New START Treaty on Life Support (wordpress.com)

Submitted by Martin Hellman
Martin Hellman writes: Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has wounded the New START Treaty so badly that it is on life support and needs help to stay alive. While making only a modest reduction in both the US and Russian arsenals from 2,200 to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads, rejection of this treaty would set back — and could well halt — efforts to reduce the world's bloated nuclear arsenals. Because ratification requires 2/3 approval in the Senate, a radical fringe can hold the treaty hostage even though it has strong support from foreign policy and military experts in both parties. A 2.5 minute YouTube video clearly shows Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) to be riled at this effort to put partisan politics above national security.
Google

Submission + - Hard-Coded Bias In Google Search Results? (benedelman.org)

Submitted by bonch
bonch writes: Technology consultant Benjamin Edelman has developed a methodology for determining the existence of a hard-coded bias in Google's search engine which places Google's services at the top of the results page. Searching for a stock ticker places Google Finance at the top along with a price chart, but adding a comma to the end of the query removes the Google link completely. Other variations, such as 'a sore throat' instead of 'sore throat,' removes Google Health from its top position. Queries in other categories provide links to not only Google services but also their preferred partners. Though Google claims it does not bias its results, Edelman cites a 2007 admission from Google's Marissa Mayers that they placed Google Finance at the top of the results page, calling it 'only fair' because they made the search engine. Edelman notes that Google cites its use of unbiased algorithms to dismiss antitrust scrutiny, and he recalls the DOJ's intervention in airlines providing favorable results for its own flights in customer reservation systems they owned.

Submission + - MPAA Dismisses Free Speech Concerns

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The EFF has gone into detail why it opposes "The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act", or COICA. It has the potential to give the Department of Justice the power to shut down any domestic, or block and foreign website it so chooses, setting the state for Internet censorship in the United States. Addressing the free speech concerns, MPAA chief Bob Pisano dismissed the First Amendment issues, saying "...the First Amendment was not intended as a shield for those who steal, irrespective of the means."
Biotech

Submission + - Undescribed Cloning Lizard Found on Vietnam Menu (nationalgeographic.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: A lizard long served on the menu in the Mekong Delta has recently caught the attention of scientists when it was noted that all animals in the species appeared identical as well as female. The species appears to be a hybrid of two other species (like a mule or liger). But the curious thing is that this hybrid isn't sterile — it reproduces asexually. The species, known for sometime in Vietnam, has now officially been named Leiolepis ngovantrii.

Submission + - Central Dogma of Genetics maybe not so Central (sciencenews.org)

Submitted by Amorymeltzer
Amorymeltzer writes: RNA molecules aren’t always faithful reproductions of the genetic instructions contained within DNA, a new study shows. The finding seems to violate a tenet of genetics so fundamental that scientists call it the central dogma: DNA letters encode information, and RNA is made in DNA’s likeness. The RNA then serves as a template to build proteins.

But a study of RNA in white blood cells from 27 different people shows that, on average, each person has nearly 4,000 genes in which the RNA copies contain misspellings not found in DNA.

Published in ASHG www.ashg.org
Math

Submission + - Scientists overclock people's brains (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by arshadk
arshadk writes: "Applying a tiny electrical current to the brain could make you better at learning maths, according to Oxford University scientists."
"The effects were not short-lived, either. When the volunteers whose performance improved was re-tested six months later, the benefits appear to have persisted."
The Internet

Submission + - Broadband Rights & The Killer App of 1900 (publicola.net)

Submitted by newscloud
newscloud writes: Tech writer Glenn Fleishman compares the arguments against affordable, high speed, broadband Internet access in each home to arguments made against providing for common access to electricity in 1900 e.g. "...electric light is not a necessity for every member of the community. It Is not the business of any one to see that I use electricity, or gas, or oil in my house, or even that I use any form of artificial light at all." Says Fleishman, "Electricity should go to people who had money, not hooked up willy-nilly to everyone...Like electricity, the notion of whether broadband is an inherent right and necessity of every citizen is up for grabs in the US. Sweden and Finland have already answered the question: It’s a birthright" In the meantime, DIY: cut your cable bill.
Science

Submission + - Bacterial dilemma and game theory (sciencedaily.com) 4

Submitted by dumuzi
dumuzi writes: Scientists studying how bacteria under stress collectively weigh and initiate different survival strategies say they have gained new insights into how humans make strategic decisions that affect their health, wealth and the fate of others in society. The authors of the new study are theoretical physicists and chemists at the University of California, San Diego's Center for Theoretical Biological Physics.
In nature, bacteria live in large colonies whose numbers may reach up to 100 times the number of people on earth. Many bacteria respond to extreme stress — such as starvation, poisoning and irradiation — by creating spores". Alternately the bacteria may "choose" to enter a state called competence where they are able to absorb the nutrients from their newly deceased comrades.
"Each bacterium in the colony communicates via chemical messages and performs a sophisticated decision making process using a specialized network of genes and proteins. Modeling this complex interplay of genes and proteins by the bacteria enabled the scientists to assess the pros and cons of different choices in game theory."
"It pays for the individual cell to take the risk and escape into competence only if it notices that the majority of the cells decide to sporulate," explained Onuchic. "But if this is the case, it should not take this chance because most of the other cells might reach the same conclusion and escape from sporulation.
United States

Submission + - White House Plans Open Access for Research

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Currently, the National Institutes of Health require that research funded by its grants be made available to the public online at no charge within 12 months of publication. Now the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President is launching a “Public Access Policy Forum” to determine whether this policy should be extended to other science agencies and, if so, how it should be implemented. "The NIH model has a variety of features that can be evaluated, and there are other ways to offer the public enhanced access to peer-reviewed scholarly publications," OSTP says in the request for information. "The best models may [be] influenced by agency mission, the culture and rate of scientific development of the discipline, funding to develop archival capabilities, and research funding mechanisms." The OSTP will conduct an interactive, online discussion that will focus on three major questions: Should this policy be extended to other science agencies and, if so, how it should be implemented? In what format should the data be submitted in order to make it easy to search and retrieve information? What are the best mechanisms to ensure compliance? "It's very encouraging to see the Obama Administration focus on ensuring public access to the results of taxpayer-funded research as a key way to maximize our collective investment in science," says Heather Joseph, executive director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition"
Idle

Submission + - 20-ft Mecha Robot Exoskeleton with Flamethrowers (motherboard.tv)

Submitted by MMBK
MMBK writes: Mention Wasilla, Alaska, and presidential also-ran Sarah Palin leaps to mind like a caribou. But the southern Alaskan town’s more animated, engaging, and intelligent invention is easily a 20-foot-tall robotic mecha robot with flamethrowers for hands.
Robotics

Submission + - Italian amputee gets robot hand for a month (nzherald.co.nz)

Submitted by lul_wat
lul_wat writes: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10613258

An Italian who lost his left forearm in a car crash was successfully linked to a robotic hand, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial limb and control it with his thoughts, scientists said this week.

During a one-month experiment conducted last year, 26-year-old Pierpaolo Petruzziello felt like his lost arm had grown back again, although he was only controlling a robotic hand that was not even attached to his body.

Submission + - Senators call for transparency in copyright treaty (goodgearguide.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Two U.S. senators have asked President Barack Obama's administration to allow the public to review and comment on a controversial international copyright treaty being negotiated largely in secret. The public has a right to know what's being negotiated in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Senators Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and Bernard Sanders, a Vermont Independent, argue in the letter."

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