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Submission + - Creators Are Concerned About Patreon's Service Fee Change (vice.com)

Submitted by samleecole
samleecole writes: Patreon announced that starting on December 18, the crowdfunding site’s processing fee scheme would change. Creators are worried that the new rules, which shift the fees from creators to patrons, will result in fewer people supporting their work.

It will now cost patrons around $1.38 to give a creator $1 per month, instead of $1, which some creators believe could lead serial backers—those who support a lot of projects but at a very low monthly fee—to pull support.

Submission + - Luxembourg offers France money to close nuclear plant (en.rfi.fr)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Luxembourg offered on Monday to chip in financing to close an ageing French nuclear power plant near its border, saying the tiny nation could be obliterated if the station malfunctioned.

During a press conference with his French counterpart Manuel Valls, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said a problem at the Cattenom plant could "wipe the duchy off the map".

"The Cattenom site scares us, there's no point in hiding it," he said of the plant that has been in operation since the mid-1980s. "Our greatest wish is that Cattenom close."

Luxembourg "would be prepared to make a financial commitment to a project, which would have to be cross-border... at Cattenom that is not nuclear in nature."

Submission + - Matching black hole spin questions models of the early universe (dailymaverick.co.za)

Submitted by silentcoder
silentcoder writes: Astronomers from two universities in Cape Town, South Africa, today announced a discovery made by the SKA/MeerKat radio-telescope. A cluster of super-massive black-holes spewing out radio-jets. What was astounding is that all the black holes were spewing out their radio jets in the same direction. This means they must all be spinning along exactly the same plane despite being many megaparsecs apart. The only explanation is that the spin came from a shared origin, present in the early universe. This fundamentally alters existing models of the early universe as it introduces a previously unknown variable that current simulations do not include. Lead author Professor Andrew Russ Taylor said of the discovery: "This is a very exciting time to be an astronomer".

Submission + - Compressorhead crowdfund the building of their lead vocalist

Submitted by Consistent1
Consistent1 writes: Compressorhead, the first independent Robot Rock Band out there, are crowdfunding the building of their lead vocalist, and the recording of the first ever robot-induced (complete) original album.
As part of the project, a “Mindlink Web App”, with its own API, will connect the band's supporters with the robots, allowing them to track the robots' activity, while (partly) translating the “machine communication" into human speech.

Submission + - How to spy on whatsapp account (pctphone.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Easy tips and technique to spy on whatsapp account, messages, media shared. Best working software to spy on whatsapp account without access to any password. Now save your kids and love one from any cyber bullies.

Comment Re:Outdoor (Score 1) 466

by xophos (#50255427) Attached to: Giving Up Alternating Current

At current prices multiplied by up to 1.5, the world uranium supply will last about 90 years at current consumption rate.
If you increase consumption by replacing oil and coal plants with uranium, it will be gone in a very much shorter time.
Also using fission for energy production is at the moment barely profitable when you leave most environmental concerns out of the cost structure.
Without subsidising no new nuclear plant could compete with a wind water solar mix (even with the trouble of temporarily storing energy for peak uses).
With higher priced Uranium i have no idea, why anyone would want to build one.
Oh and if you think of nuclear reprocessing, that's even more expensive.

Submission + - Privacy Advocates Walk Out in Protest Over U.S. Facial Recognition Code of Condu (firstlook.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Nine privacy advocates involved in the Commerce Department process for developing a voluntary code of conduct for the use of facial recognition technology withdrew in protest over technology industry lobbyists' overwhelming influence on the process

“At a base minimum, people should be able to walk down a public street without fear that companies they’ve never heard of are tracking their every movement — and identifying them by name — using facial recognition technology,” the privacy advocates wrote in a joint statement. “Unfortunately, we have been unable to obtain agreement even with that basic, specific premise”
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7cd...

The Commerce Department, through its National Telecommunications and Information Administration, brought together “representatives from technology companies, trade groups, consumer groups, academic institutions and other organizations” early last year “to kick off an effort to craft privacy safeguards for the commercial use of facial recognition technology”

The goal was “to develop a voluntary, enforceable code of conduct that specifies how the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights applies to facial recognition technology in the commercial context”

But after a dozen meetings, the most recent of which was last week, all nine privacy advocates who have participated in the entire process concluded that they were thoroughly outgunned

“This should be a wake-up call to Americans: Industry lobbyists are choking off Washington’s ability to protect consumer privacy,” Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, said in a statement

“People simply do not expect companies they’ve never heard of to secretly track them using this powerful technology. Despite all of this, industry associations have pushed for a world where companies can use facial recognition on you whenever they want — no matter what you say. This position is well outside the mainstream”

Submission + - Billboard advertising banned products in Russia hides if it recognizes cops

Submitted by m.alessandrini
m.alessandrini writes: In response to a ban of food imported from the European Union, an Italian grocery in Russia hired an ad agency to create a billboard with a camera and facial recognition software, that's able to change to a different ad when it recognizes the uniform of Russian cops. Link: http://gizmodo.com/this-ad-for...

Submission + - Let's help make Krita "faster than Photoshop" (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by xophos
xophos writes: The Krita foundation, makers of the open source paint program Krita has started a Kickstarter campaign to make it even more awesome. Main goals for this years campaign are drawing speed on high resolution canvasses with large brushes, and the long planned animation feature.

Submission + - Two Programmers Expose Dysfunction and Abuse in the Seattle Police Department (thestranger.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Programmers Eric Rachner and Phil Mocek are now the closest thing Seattle has to a civilian police-oversight board. Through shrewd use of Washington's Public Records Act, the two have acquired hundreds of reports, videos, and 911 calls related to the Seattle Police Department's internal investigations of officer misconduct. Among some of Rachner and Mocek's findings: a total of 1,028 SPD employees (including civilian employees) were investigated between 2010 and 2013. (The current number of total SPD staff is 1,820.) Of the 11 most-investigated employees—one was investigated 18 times during the three-year period—every single one of them is still on the force, according to SPD. In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed. Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained. This is partly why the Seattle PD is under a federal consent decree for retraining and oversight. You can check out some of the typically excellent Twitter coverage by Mocek from his #MayDaySea coverage.

Submission + - Perfect Binding Machine (storify.com)

Submitted by faldocutter
faldocutter writes: The Perfect Binding Machine offered by the Faldo Company, that’s comes various types of binding machine models. This machine is Ideal for those who occupied full range of binding service. The machine lives up to expectations by setting the spread and spine pre applied with paste. The paper is put into the spine and is held against the spine to guarantee that the paste touches the paper.

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