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Submission + - Bank of America Website under Cyber Attack from Islamic Hackers (thehackernews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Bank of America's website experienced periodic outages Tuesday due to cyber attacks launched in retaliation for "Innocence of Muslims," the amateurish film whose mocking portrait of the Prophet Muhammad has incited deadly riots throughout the Middle East. "Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam" said it would attack the Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange as a "first step" in a campaign against properties of "American-Zionist Capitalists."

Read more from Mohit Kumar @ The Hacker News : http://thehackernews.com/2012/09/bank-of-america-website-under-cyber.html
Google

Submission + - What Google really wants from its broadband strategy. (zcorum.com)

Submitted by
Thorizdin
Thorizdin writes: "Google is spending significant sums of money to build a FTTH network in Kansas City with the stated goal of increasing broadband capacity, speed, and penetration. Exactly how a "model" network will do this is a matter of debate and this is one possible explanation."
Android

Submission + - Android could save Nokia, but not its boss (pcpro.co.uk) 3

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "Nokia chief executive has only a few months left to prove he can turn around the ailing smartphone maker, according to analysts. Investors and analysts say the chief executive has until early 2013 to prove he made the right choice by partnering with Microsoft Windows or his future at the loss-making company will be called into question. Indeed, many believe the company's best hope of survival is to jump to Android — a u-turn that would almost certainly finish the Nokia career of former Microsoft man Elop.

Experts say said Nokia should focus on rolling out smartphones running on Google's Android software for millions of consumers in emerging markets who often still prefer Nokia's brand. That would, however, mean the end of Elop. "He's totally a Microsoft guy, so it is natural that he would have to step down then," said Juha Varis, who holds Nokia shares as part of the Danske Invest Finnish Equity Fund."

Submission + - Roundup tolerant GM maize linked to tumor development (heraldonline.com)

Submitted by spirito
spirito writes: The first animal feeding trial studying the lifetime effects of exposure to Roundup tolerant GM maize, and Roundup, the world's best-selling weedkiller, shows that levels currently considered safe can cause tumors and multiple organ damage and lead to premature death in laboratory rats, according to research published online today by the scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology.
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Submission + - TSA Spending $245 Million on "Second Generation" Nude-O-Scope Body Scanners (gsnmagazine.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Continuing its standard practice of wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars (http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/05/09/2014206/congress-the-tsa-is-wasting-hundreds-of-millions-in-taxpayer-dollars), the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has awarded an indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, worth up to $245 Million, (http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/27302?c=airport_aviation_security) to American Science and Engineering Inc. (http://www.as-e.com/) to deliver an unspecified number of “second generation” Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) screening systems for use at U.S. airports.

As previously reported on slashdot (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/06/20/2243228/the-ineffectiveness-of-tsa-body-scanners---now-with-surveillance-camera-footage), Jonathan Corbett proved that TSA's current nude-o-scopes are incapable of actually detecting hidden objects.
Earth

Submission + - expert predicts final collapse of sea ice within four years (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "One of the world's leading ice experts, Professor Peter Wadhams, has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years.

In what he calls a "global disaster" now unfolding in northern latitudes as the sea area that freezes and melts each year shrinks to its lowest extent ever recorded, Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for "urgent" consideration of new ideas to reduce global temperatures.

Wadhams has spent many years collecting ice thickness data from submarines passing below the arctic ocean. He predicted the imminent break-up of sea ice in summer months in 2007, when the previous lowest extent of 4.17 million square kilometres was set. This year, it has unexpectedly plunged a further 500,000 sq km to less than 3.5m sq km. "I have been predicting [the collapse of sea ice in summer months] for many years. The main cause is simply global warming: as the climate has warmed there has been less ice growth during the winter and more ice melt during the summer."
Censorship

Submission + - French weekly fuels Mohammad row with nude cartoons (reuters.com) 1

Submitted by PolygamousRanchKid
PolygamousRanchKid writes: A French magazine ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad on Wednesday by portraying him naked in cartoons, threatening to fuel the anger of Muslims around the world who are already incensed by a film depicting him as a womanizing buffoon. The French government, which had urged the magazine not to print the images, said it was temporarily shutting down premises including embassies and schools in 20 countries on Friday, when protests sometimes break out after Muslim prayers.

"We have the impression that it's officially allowed for Charlie Hebdo to attack the Catholic far-right but we cannot poke fun at fundamental Islamists," Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, who drew the front-page cartoon, said. "It shows the climate — everyone is driven by fear, and that is exactly what this small handful of extremists who do not represent anyone want — to make everyone afraid, to shut us all in a cave," he told Reuters.
Medicine

Submission + - Is the Can Worse Than the Soda? (smithsonianmag.com)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "Since the 1960s, manufacturers have widely used the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) in plastics and food packaging. Only recently, though, have scientists begun thoroughly looking into how the compound might affect human health—and what they’ve found has been a cause for concern.

Starting in 2006, a series of studies, mostly in mice, indicated that the chemical might act as an endocrine disruptor (by mimicking the hormone estrogen), cause problems during development and potentially affect the reproductive system, reducing fertility. After a 2010 Food and Drug Administration report warned that the compound could pose an especially hazardous risk for fetuses, infants and young children, BPA-free water bottles and food containers started flying off the shelves. In July, the FDA banned the use of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, but the chemical is still present in aluminum cans, containers of baby formula and other packaging materials.

Now comes another piece of data on a potential risk from BPA but in an area of health in which it has largely been overlooked: obesity. A study by researchers from New York University, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at a sample of nearly 3,000 children and teens across the country and found a “significant” link between the amount of BPA in their urine and the prevalence of obesity."
The Military

Submission + - Suicide Drones (rt.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: A miniature drone that weight just 5 pounds (or about 2.3KG) may become the next in thing for the US Army.

Officially known as " the Lethal Miniature Aerial Munition System", or LMAMS, the miniature drone can be armed with high explosives, and can be flown to slam into a target 6 miles (or 9.6KM) away.

It is much cheaper than smart bombs, and it is much easier to be handled and store, and can kill with much precision.

More information can be found at http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/suicidal-drone-6-miles-away/
Iphone

Submission + - Innovation is a dead horse at Apple (patexia.com)

Submitted by ericjones12398
ericjones12398 writes: The iPhone 5 debuted this week, causing underwhelmed responses to the latest toy from Cupertino. As the first big iPhone release since the death of Steve Jobs, Apple was under a lot of pressure to wow their audience and the general public. The result? An iPhone 4S with a slightly larger screen, mostly, but also a little more juice under the hood, lighter weight and a longer battery life. The Internet quickly took to calling the device "the iPhone 4SS."
Businesses

Submission + - How Big Pharma Hooked America on Legal Heroin (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "The active ingredient in OxyContin, oxycodone, isn’t a new compound. It was originally synthesized in Germany in 1916. The patent on the medication had expired well before Purdue Pharma, a Stamford, Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company and the industry leader in pain medication, released it under the brand name in 1996. The genius of Purdue’s continued foray into pain-management medication – they had already produced versions of hydromorphone, oxycodone, fentanyl, codeine, and hydrocodone – was twofold. They not only created a drug from an already readily available compound, but they were able to essentially re-patent the active ingredient by introducing a time-release element. Prior to the 1990s, strong opioid medications were not routinely given for miscellaneous or chronic, moderately painful conditions; the strongest classes of drugs were often reserved for the dying. But Purdue parlayed their time-release system not only into the patent for OxyContin. They also went on a PR blitz, claiming their drug was unique because of the time-release element and implied that it was so difficult to abuse that the risk of addiction was “under 1%.”"
Science

Submission + - Monkeys Made Smarter With Prosthetic Device (medicaldaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have successfully restored and, in some cases, enhanced decision-making ability in brain-damaged monkeys on cocaine by connecting a prosthetic device to their brains. This breakthrough may one day help restore cognitive ability in people who have cognitive deficiencies due to brain disease or injury.
Games

Submission + - First part of Black Mesa released (blackmesasource.com)

Submitted by ProbablyJoe
ProbablyJoe writes: The long awaited Source engine remake of the Valve's original Half Life has finally been released. The initial release only includes the story up until Xen, but the developers say they'll be adding the rest of the story, along with an online multiplayer Deathmatch mode, soon. The game is available to download for free, and only requires players to install the Source SDK (included with all Source games, or a free download.

The highly anticipated release has also caused a huge amount of traffic for any servers hosting the files, with GameFront, GameUpdates, and Black Mesa's own CDN brought down within minutes of the release. The project has also been approved by Steam's Greenlight program, and will hopefully be available through Steam soon, though no timeframe has been given.
AMD

Submission + - Intel's Haswell is an unprecedented threat to Nvidia, AMD (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "Fully unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum over the last few days, Intel’s next-generation architecture, codenamed Haswell, isn’t just another “tock” in Intel’s tick/tock cadence; it’s a serious threat to both AMD and Nvidia. For the first time, Intel is poised to challenge both companies in the mainstream graphics market while simultaneously eroding Nvidia’s edge in the GPGPU business. For a start, the Haswell CPU core will be 10-15% faster than Ivy Bridge, but thanks to the addition of AVX2, Haswell's floating point performance will be monstrous: a quad-core part should be capable of 256 (double-precision) gigaflops, which should be enough to outpace Nvidia's GTX 680. On the GPU side of things, Haswell will massively increase the number of processing cores, offering "up to 2x" the performance of Ivy Bridge's HD 4000. Even a conservative take on that promise spells trouble for AMD and Nvidia. According to benchmarks, Trinity’s GPU is an average of 18% faster than Llano’s across a range of 15 popular titles. Compared to Sandy Bridge, Trinity was almost 80% faster. Against Ivy Bridge, it’s just 20% faster. Given what we know of Haswell’s GPU shader counts and performance targets, it shouldn’t be hard for Intel to deliver a 30-50% performance boost in real-world games. If it does, Trinity goes from the fastest integrated GPU on the market to an also-ran, and AMD loses the superior graphics hole card it’s been playing since it launched the AMD 780G chipset four years ago. It isn't looking good for either AMD or Nvidia."
Medicine

Submission + - MIT Brings Us One Step Closer to Transdermal Drugs (exabites.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at MIT have discovered a new trick when it comes to delivering vital medicine through the skin—a development they say might revolutionize everything from how vaccinations are delivered to the way insulin is migrated to diabetes patients

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