Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission Summary: 0 pending, 40 declined, 9 accepted (49 total, 18.37% accepted)

×

Submission + - Transgender first NCAAB transgender player (cnn.com) 1

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes:

Kye Allums' participation on an NCAA women's team inherently necessitates a challenge to this custom of segregating people according to assumptions about sex difference.

Is it appropriate for a woman who identifies as a male to be playing on the womens team. What if the genders were reversed (Born male, feels female, on a men's team). What do people think?

Apple

Submission + - Apple patents way to monitor s/t-exting (cnn.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: Apple has patented technology that could be used by parents to prevent their kids from sending sexually explicit text messages — or "sexting."

The technology, which has not been commercialized, would let a phone's administrator block an iPhone from sending or receiving texts with certain words.

Messages containing blocked material either would not be received or would have the objectionable content redacted. Unlike other text blockers, Apple's version would also be able to filter content based on a child's grade level and claims to filter abbreviated words that maybe missed by other programs.

Parents of kids who are studying Spanish, for example, could be required to send a certain number of messages per month in that language, according to the document. If kids did not meet the foreign language quota, their texting privileges could be automatically revoked until they send more Spanish-language text messages.
Businesses

Submission + - Biodegradable bags out, old bags in (wsj.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: Frito-Lay, the snack giant owned by PepsiCo Inc., says it is pulling most of the biodegradable packaging it uses for its Sun Chips snacks, following an outcry from consumers who complained the new bags were too noisy.

Touted by Frito-Lay as 100% compostable, the packaging, made from biodegradable plant material, began hitting store shelves in January. Sales of the multigrain snack have since tumbled.
Government

Submission + - No Good Samaritan Law? Firefighters let house burn (msn.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee.

Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat.

"They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.

Submission + - EU pushing for Global Internet Treaty (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: he proposal was presented at the Internet Governance Forum in Lithuania last week, and outlined 12 “principles of internet governance”, including a commitment from countries to sustain the technological foundations that underpin the web’s infrastructure.

The draft law has been likened to the Space Treaty, signed in 1967, which stated that space exploration should be carried out for the benefit of all nations, and guaranteed “free access to all areas of celestial bodies”.

Submission + - Pants on the ground, pants on the ground'... (startribune.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: Gun found on suspect when officer pulled up his pants deemed legal:
That's when suspect Frank Irving Wiggins' baggy pants, already dangerously low at the knees, fell to the pavement.

Breci hoisted the jeans and found a .38-caliber pistol inside the front pocket. Wiggins was eventually convicted of possession of a firearm by an ineligible person and sentenced to five years in prison.

Submission + - Npw you can make any plane a stealth plane (geekosystem.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: Stealth planes are so expensive these days, what’s a spy to do? You can’t just fly into enemy territory because now the enemies all have those damn radar devices that will go beep boop whenever you get too close, ruining your intricately planned diamond heist. Well for the low low price of an undisclosed amount that’s sure to be less than the price of a plane, you can (mostly) escape all those radar woes with a shiny new coat of paint.

Submission + - Caffeine addicts get no additional perk (reuters.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: Bristol University researchers found that drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing and the stimulating effects of caffeine, meaning that it only brings them back to baseline levels of alertness, not above them.

"Although frequent consumers feel alerted by caffeine, especially by their morning tea, coffee, or other caffeine-containing drink, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal," wrote the scientists, led by Peter Rogers of Bristol's department of experimental psychology.

Submission + - Court says 'no' to NFL antitrust immunity (go.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: In a unanimous opinion issued Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the NFL's claim that it is a single business entity and is immune from the nation's antitrust laws. The ruling came in American Needle Inc. v. NFL, a case that resulted from the league's decision in 2000 to award an exclusive contract for hats and caps featuring NFL logos to Reebok International Ltd. The NFL's arguments and the court's decision raise legal questions about the basic structures of the sports industry

Submission + - AG Corbett Subpoenas Twitter to Name Bloggers (whtm.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: The state attorney general's office has issued a subpoena threatening officials of the social networking service Twitter with arrest unless they reveal the names of two bloggers who have been critical of Attorney General Tom Corbett and his public corruption investigation. ...
Vic Walczak of the American Civil Liberties Union told Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV that the court action "raises grave concerns about abuse of the grand jury process to retaliate against political critics and opponents." He said Americans "have a right to criticize government officials and to do so anonymously."
Science

Submission + - Synthetic Life! (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: He and his colleagues had previously made a synthetic bacterial genome, and transplanted the genome of one bacterium into another.

Now, the scientists have put both methods together, to create what they call a "synthetic cell", although only its genome is truly synthetic.
Google

Submission + - Google debating not doing bad vs innovation (ft.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: Facial recognition has the potential to be the next privacy flashpoint. Google already uses the technology in its Picasa photo sharing service. This lets users tag some of the people in their photos and then searches through other albums to suggest other pictures in which the same faces appear.

However, Google has held back on launching the technology more broadly. It was not included, for example, in the Google Goggles product, launched last year. This allows people to search for something on the internet by taking a picture of it on a mobile phone.

Submission + - Hoax or Meditation? (breitbart.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period.
Idle

Submission + - MTV and the mob (myway.com)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: A judge in New Jersey has agreed to hear a lawsuit that claims producers of MTV's hit reality show "Jersey Shore" engaged in a "criminal enterprise" by profiting from showing fights that cast members deliberately provoked.

Attorney Eugene LaVergne of Long Branch said Monday that he filed the suit in March.

It seeks unspecified monetary damages on behalf of three clients involved in drunken fights with cast member Ronnie Magro.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Joseph L. Foster denied a motion to dismiss the claim that the defendants' conduct violated New Jersey's racketeering statute.

An MTV spokeswoman has not returned after-hours messages left Monday seeking comment.

Submission + - Hearing Highlights Impasse Between Postdoc Union a (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by Dthief
Dthief writes: In November 2008 a group of postdocs affiliated with the United Auto Workers were certified as the official bargaining agent for postdocs at the system's 10 campuses. Although not the first such group—postdocs at the University of Connecticut Health Center formed a union in 2003 and negotiated a contract the following year—the UC union is by far the largest, with its pool of more than 6000 postdocs representing about 10% of all U.S. postdocs. Among other concessions, the union is seeking raises modeled on federal guidelines for each year of experience, plus an annual 4% increase across the pay scale. The university has offered a one-time, 1.5% across-the-board raise in 2010. Despite 56 all-day negotiating sessions, the union and the university have yet to agree on a contract.

Slashdot Top Deals

What this country needs is a good five dollar plasma weapon.

Close