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Comment Victor Appleton II (Score 4, Interesting) 173

by mknewman (#56506241) Attached to: A Well-Known Expert On Student Loans Is Not Real
I used to read the Tom Swift, Jr. series of novels as a kid, and was crushed to find out that "Victor Appleton was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its successors, most famous for being associated with the Tom Swift series of books." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... This did not reduce my enjoyment of the books but did make it seem much more commercialized, as is this case, Drew Cloud may have provided some valuable information, but may have been slanted toward 'it's' ad clients.

Submission + - The Endangered Species Act is Endangered (earther.com)

Submitted by mknewman
mknewman writes: Susan Combs, a longtime Texas politician and cattle rancher who once referred to endangered species listings as “incoming Scud missiles,” has quietly been put in charge of our nation’s parks and wildlife, including enforcing the Endangered Species Act. Let’s learn more!

Combs was nominated months ago to become assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget at the Interior Department. But as the Washington Post reported last week, that nomination has been hamstrung by bipartisan opposition. Most recently, Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) vowed to continue holding it up her nomination until Zinke jettisons his wildly unpopular offshore drilling plan. Instead, Zinke has used his authority to declare her acting assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, a move first reported by Austin American-Statesman on March 28.

Submission + - Salon Magazine Mines Monero On Your Computer If You Use An Adblocker (bbc.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: The BBC reports: News organisations have tried many novel ways to make readers pay — but this idea is possibly the most audacious yet. If a reader chooses to block its advertising, US publication Salon will use that person's computer to mine for Monero, a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin. Creating new tokens of a cryptocurrency typically requires complex calculations that use up a lot of computing power. Salon told readers: "We intend to use a small percentage of your spare processing power to contribute to the advancement of technological discovery, evolution and innovation." The site is making use of CoinHive, a controversial mining tool that was recently used in an attack involving government websites in the UK, US and elsewhere. However, unlike that incident, where hackers took control of visitors' computers to mine cryptocurrency, Salon notifies users and requires them to agree before the tool begins mining.

Submission + - SPAM: Monkeys cloned for first time

Submitted by mknewman
mknewman writes: For the first time, researchers have used the cloning method that produced Dolly the sheep to create two healthy monkeys, bringing science an important step closer to being able to do the same with humans.

"The barrier of cloning primate species is now overcome," declared Muming Poo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai.

In principle, Poo said, the feat means humans can be cloned. But he said his team has no intention of doing that. Mainstream scientists generally oppose making human babies by cloning, and Poo said society would ban it for ethical reasons.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Steven Hawking posts The No Boundary Proposal to Youtube (youtube.com)

Submitted by mknewman
mknewman writes: In this film Stephen Hawking, James Hartle and Thomas Hertog explain their model of the early universe: The No Boundary Proposal. In the 1960’s and 70’s Hawking and Penrose showed that according to classical general relativity, given some minimal assumptions the origin of an expanding universe is a singularity: a point of infinite density and spacetime curvature. But this and other singularity theorems do not take into account the strange world of quantum mechanics. So in the 1980’s Hawking and collaborators started to build a model of the big bang that included quantum effects.The result is the No Boundary Proposal, a model that may be able to explain some of the deepest mysteries of the cosmos such as, is there a multiverse? how is there an arrow of time and what really happened a the big bang? This is the fifth in a series of films exploring competing models of the early universe.

Submission + - Discovery of 50km cave raises hopes for human colonisation of moon. (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Zorro
Zorro writes: The discovery, by Japan’s Seismological and Engineering Explorer (Selene) probe, comes as several countries vie to follow the US in sending manned missions to the moon.

The chasm, 50km (31 miles) long and 100 metres wide, appears to be structurally sound and its rocks may contain ice or water deposits that could be turned into fuel, according to data sent back by the orbiter, nicknamed Kaguya after the moon princess in a Japanese fairy tale.

Submission + - Japanese and US robots finally fight, ends in slightly underwhelming draw

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Suidobashi Heavy Industries and MEGABOTS agreed to test their piloted giant robots in combat a few years back, and the content is finally available on YouTube. It ended in a draw, with Japan decisively winning the first bout with a single punch and the US team winning the second thanks to a chainsaw weapon. There have been some complaints that the whole event felt scripted, but it's early days yet. ITMedia has a nice gallery of photos from the event.

Submission + - AT&T - Directv Privacy policy prohibits litigation (directv.com) 1

Submitted by mknewman
mknewman writes: A new "Privacy Policy" from Directv(AT&T) was released at 23;00 today 6/29/16, one hour before it took effect and prohibits individual suits and requires arbitration or FCC action or small claims only, in Section 9.

1) DIRECTV and you agree to arbitrate all disputes and claims between us. This agreement to arbitrate is intended to be broadly interpreted. It includes, but is not limited to: â claims arising out of or relating to any aspect of the relationship between us, whether based in contract, tort, statute, fraud, misrepresentation or any other legal theory; â claims that arose before this or any prior Agreement (including, but not limited to, claims relating to advertising); â claims that are currently the subject of purported class action litigation in which you are not a member of a certified class; and â claims that may arise after the termination of this Agreement. References to "DIRECTV," "you," and "us" include our respective subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, employees, predecessors in interest, successors, and assigns, as well as all authorized or unauthorized users or beneficiaries of services or Devices under this or prior Agreements between us. Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may bring an individualized action in small claims court. This arbitration agreement does not preclude you from bringing issues to the attention of federal, state, or local agencies, including, for example, the Federal Communications Commission. Such agencies can, if the law allows, seek relief against us on your behalf. You agree that, by entering into this Agreement, you and DIRECTV are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action. This Agreement evidences a transaction in interstate commerce, and thus the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this provision. This arbitration provision shall survive termination of this Agreement.

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