vonmeth - Slashdot User

Submission + - Increase in Carbon Dioxide Emissions Accelerating

Submitted by

brian0918

on Friday December 01, 2006 @10:42AM

brian0918 writes: "The Discovery Channel reports that despite recent efforts to reduce global CO2 emissions, the rate of increase in emissions has more than doubled since the 1990s. From the article: 'The new data shows there were 7.9 billion tons of carbon emitted in 2005, and that the 1 percent per year carbon dioxide concentration increase rate of the 1990s has already jumped to 2.5 percent per year.' This news comes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether or not the EPA should regulate carbon dioxide emissions."

Submission + - Customs can search your computer without cause

Submitted by macheath on Friday December 01, 2006 @10:25AM

macheath writes: Due to a sentence by the Ninth Circuit on a child pornography case, US Customs and Border Patrol agents can now search and seize your computer, data carriers and other electronic without cause.
This is stirring up quite a bit of unrest in the business community, as it is now impossible to safeguard confidentiality of data files on laptops, leading to fears on economic spying. The company that I work for has released a document detailing measures to take when travelling to and from the US. Personally, I would tend to avoid or limit travelling to the and/or doing business in the US.
Check out this Associated Content article for more information.

Submission + - Mad Genius' Idea Results in Incredible Translator

Submitted by

silentounce

on Friday December 01, 2006 @10:23AM

silentounce writes: "Meaningful Machines has developed a computer based translation system with the highest BLEU(BiLingual Evaluation Understudy) score yet recorded for a machine. Jaime Carbonell, MM's chief science officer and a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor, has spearheaded the development of the system built on the idea of an Israeli inventor named Eli Abir. Unlike most other computer translation systems, the MM system does not rely on parallel text. Wired.com offers an interesting article about the system's development.

From the article:
'Abir, according to Klein, had a new machine-translation idea they wanted Carbonell to evaluate. Klein had been one of the first people to take the garrulous Abir seriously when he began hitting up investors for a previous invention in 2000, often in jeans and a T-shirt, claiming credentials as "the worst student in the history of the Israeli school system." Abir, who is bilingual in Hebrew and English, also said he could solve several of the world's thorniest computer science problems, based in part on knowledge gained from three days of playing SimCity.'"

Submission + - New video game report card surprisingly good

Submitted by Unrated on Thursday November 30, 2006 @10:33PM

Unrated writes: The National Institute on Media and the Family has issued its 11th annual report card on the video game industry. The NIMF is much more positive towards the gaming industry than it has been in the past, even handing out a couple of A's (for console makers and large retail chains). Perhaps best of all, they are emphasizing that the ultimate responsibility lies with parents, giving parental involvement an incomplete. 'Game ratings, parental control systems, and vigilant retailers are very important links in the chain. But at the end of the day, it comes down to what the parents choose to let their children do. Or as the NIMF says in its report, "Simply put, parents need to step up to the plate."'

Submission + - SPAM: Found -- the apple gene for red

Submitted by

FiReaNGeL

on Thursday November 30, 2006 @09:24PM

FiReaNGeL writes: "Researchers have located the gene that controls the red colour of apples — a discovery that may lead to bright new apple varieties. "The red colour in apple skin is the result of anthocyanins, the natural plant compounds responsible for blue and red colours in many flowers and fruits" says the leader of the CSIRO. By identifying master genes that were activated by light, they were able to pinpoint the gene that controls the formation of anthocyanins in apples. "As well as giving apples their rosy red hue, anthocyanins are also antioxidants with healthy attributes, giving us plenty of reasons to study how the biochemical pathway leading to apple colour is regulated", researchers said."

Submission + - Ebay refuses payment links to Google checkout

Submitted by

luthierbytrade

on Thursday November 30, 2006 @05:59PM

luthierbytrade writes: "Today while trying to add a listing to Ebay, I thought I would give buyers the option to pay via Google Checkout. After including a link to my Google Base item where they could pay via Checkout, I was greeted with a refusal message."

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