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NASA

Submission + - Study find Oceans Significantly Warming

Submitted by shmG
shmG writes: The upper layer of Earth's ocean has warmed since 1993, indicating a strong climate change signal, according to a new study. The study, co-authored by an international team of scientists, said that the energy stored is enough to power nearly 500 100-watt light bulbs for each of the roughly 6.7 billion people on the planet.

"The ocean is the biggest reservoir for heat in the climate system," said Willis. "So as the planet warms, we're finding that 80 to 90 percent of the increased heat ends up in the ocean."

Submission + - Updated from previous submissionBenchmark Software

Submitted by tdisalvo
tdisalvo writes: I am wondering what is the best type of benchmark software out there. We are doing a Windows 7 roll-out and I will have to compare major PC vendors and I am looking for vendor neutral tests that will give me the data I need to present an educated opinion to my CIO. Clear pretty charts are nice since it is for C level execs and we need to make it understandable for nontechnical as well as technical people. More specifically I am looking for something that will clearly show how the same processor performs better or worse with a particular build, motherboard, RAM Power Supply, ect. My plan is to try and get very similar machines from major vendors and see which ones build has the highest independent bench marks. Something that would be able to roll up test on multiple computers and report on the differences in score would be idea. Also free is better :-)

Submission + - Artificial life created as a synthetic organism (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by vigmeister
vigmeister writes:

Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell. The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell. The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA. The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms. The researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases.

The 'synthetic' aspect and the rest of the article makes it seems like they can control the properties of the cell. Since the dangers mentioned in the article are easy to enumerate, I wonder what the scientific community can do to escape paranoid legislation. In addition to the ethical dilemma associated with this development, the philosophical ramifications are just as significant. Also, which existing religious frameworks accommodate something approaching 'creation of life'? Or is this to religion what synthesis of urea did for chemistry? P.S. Is it just a coincidence that this came about as soon as Jack took the job? *cough*God complex*cough*

Submission + - Einstein was wrong: Brownian speed can be measured (cosmosmagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Over a century ago, Albert Einstein predicted that the random motion of tiny particles depended only on temperature, and not their size or mass. He also doubted that scientists would ever be able to prove this experimentally.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Benchmark Testing

Submitted by tdisalvo
tdisalvo writes: I am wondering what is the best type of benchmark software out there. We are doing a Windows 7 rollout and I will have to compare major PC vendors and I am looking for vendor neutral tests that will give me the data I need to present an educated opinion to my CIO. Clear pretty charts are nice since it is for C level execs and we need to make it understandable for nontechnical as well as technical people. Also free is better :-)
Security

Submission + - Q&A with Metasploit's HD Moore (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Threatpost has a new Q&A with HD Moore, the guy behind the Metasploit Project. He talks about the new commercial version of the pen-testing framework, as well as his plans for keeping the open source version going. Moore is a hero in the open source community for his work on Metasploit, and the way he's handle the transition to corporate work. He also reveals exactly what HD stands for.
Earth

Officials Sue Couple Who Removed Their Lawn 819

Posted by kdawson from the revenge-of-the-lawn dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that Orange County officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for replacing the grass on their lawn with wood chips and drought-tolerant plants, reducing their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their front yard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water — and hundreds of dollars — each year. 'We've got a newborn, so we want to start worrying about her future,' said Quan Ha, an information technology manager for Kelley Blue Book. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require that 40% of residential yards to be landscaped predominantly with live plants. Last summer, the couple tried to appease the city by building a fence around the yard and planting drought-tolerant greenery — lavender, rosemary, horsetail, and pittosporum, among others. But according to the city, their landscaping still did not comply with city standards. At the end of January, the Has received a letter saying they had been charged with a misdemeanor violation and must appear in court. The couple could face a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for their grass-free, eco-friendly landscaping scheme. 'It's just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,' says Quan Ha."
NASA

Astronauts Having Trouble With Tranquility Module 300

Posted by timothy from the now-release-your-anger dept.
Coldeagle writes "Astronauts ran into trouble while trying to connect up the new Tranquility module onto the ISS. A critical insulating cover didn't fit quite right: 'The fabric, multilayered cover is supposed to go between Tranquility and its observation deck, but the metal bars are not locking down properly because of interference from a hand rail or some other structure at the hatch.' One has to wonder if this is another imperial/metric snafu."
Math

Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes 538

Posted by samzenpus from the less-math-more-social-science dept.
artemis67 writes "A man studying in London has taken a mathematical equation that predicts the possibility of alien life in the universe to explain why he can't find a girlfriend. Peter Backus, a native of Seattle and PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, near London, in his paper, 'Why I don't have a girlfriend: An application of the Drake Equation to love in the UK,' used math to estimate the number of potential girlfriends in the UK. In describing the paper on the university Web site he wrote 'the results are not encouraging. The probability of finding love in the UK is only about 100 times better than the probability of finding intelligent life in our galaxy.'"
Image

Air Canada Ordered To Provide Nut-Free Zone Screenshot-sm 643

Posted by samzenpus from the no-nuts dept.
JamJam writes "Air Canada has been told to create a special 'buffer zone' on flights for people who are allergic to nuts. The Canadian Transportation Agency has ruled that passengers who have nut allergies should be considered disabled and accommodated by the airline. Air Canada has a month to come up with an appropriate section of seats where passengers with nut allergies would be seated. The ruling involved a complaint from Sophia Huyer, who has a severe nut allergy and travels frequently. Ms. Huyer once spent 40 minutes in the washroom during a flight while snacks were being served."
The Courts

Hacker McKinnon To Be Extradited To US 571

Posted by timothy from the also-a-headache-sufferer dept.
Vainglorious Coward writes "When UK hacker and Asperger's sufferer Gray McKinnon lost the judicial review of his case it seemed likely that he would be extradited to the US to face charges of hacking almost a hundred systems causing $700,000 worth of damage. Today the UK home secretary rejected his last-ditch attempt to avoid extradition adding that 'his extradition to the United States must proceed forthwith.' McKinnon's relatives are expressing concerns for his health, with his lawyer going so far as to claim that extradition would make the 43-year-old's death 'virtually certain.'"
Security

Hackers Broke Into Brazil Power Grid Operator's Website Last Thursday 85

Posted by kdawson from the wolf-no-really-this-time-i-mean-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A week ago, 60 Minutes had a story (we picked it up too) claiming that hackers had caused power outages in Brazil. While this assertion is now believed to be in error, hackers were inspired by the story actually to do what was claimed. Last Thursday, they broke into ONS, the operator of the grid (Google translation; Portuguese original). DarkReading has specific details on the SQL injection vulnerabilities the hackers probably used."

Vista Post-SP2 Is the Safest OS On the Planet 1010

Posted by CmdrTaco from the color-me-skeptical dept.
pkluss noted Kevin Turner, COO of Microsoft making the proclamation that "Vista today, post-Service Pack 2, which is now in the marketplace, is the safest, most reliable OS we've ever built. It's also the most secure OS on the planet, including Linux and open source and Apple Leopard. It's the safest and most secure OS on the planet today."

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