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Submission + - ACLU sues re "targeted killing" by drones (myfoxdc.com) 2

Submitted by MacAndrew
MacAndrew writes: The ACLU has sued the United States Government to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for "the release of records relating to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles—commonly known as “drones”—for the purpose of targeting and killing individuals since September 11, 2001." (Complaint: http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-v-doj-et-al-complaint .) The information sought includes the legal basis for use of the drones, how the program is managed, and the number of civilian deaths in areas of operation such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. The ACLU further claims that "Recent reports, including public statements from the director of national intelligence, indicate that U.S. citizens have been placed on the list of targets who can be hunted and killed with drones."

Aside from one's view of the wisdom, effectiveness, and morality of these military operations, the inclusion of U.S. citizens suggests that summary remote-control executions are becoming routine. Especially given the difficulty in locating and targeting individuals from aircraft, risks of human and machine error are obvious, and these likely increase as the robots become increasingly autonomous (please no Skynet jokes). This must give pause to anyone who's ever spent time coding or debugging or even driving certain willful late model automobiles, and the US government evidently doesn't want to discuss it.

Submission + - material can pump water with no added energy (rochester.edu) 1

Submitted by EdIII
EdIII writes:

Researchers at the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics have discovered a way to make liquid flow vertically upward along a silicon surface, overcoming the pull of gravity, without pumps or other mechanical devices.

This seems to be a trend where new materials are being designed with properties derived only from their physical construction, and not chemical components. Just recently there was a material modeled after spider hairs that is nearly 100% waterproof. The examples of this material are geared towards computing and thermal cooling, but.. if this material effectively pumps water without any energy requirements (pumps) and can do so against gravity I wonder if it could be used for different purposes. Pumping water obviously, but what about hydro power generation? Possible uses for this material seem to far exceed just computing.
IT

Submission + - 'Operation Aurora' Changing The Role Of The CISO (darkreading.com)

Submitted by ancientribe
ancientribe writes: The targeted cyberattacks out of China against Google, Adobe, Intel and other U.S. firms is forcing chief information security officers (CISOs) to reach out to their counterparts in other organizations and share internal, sensitive attack information. Adobe's CSO, who serves as president of the Bay Area CSO Council, says CSOs today are engaging with their peers for incident response support. The Council, which aside from Adobe also includes CSOs from eBay, PayPal, Symantec, and Intel, serves as a forum for companies to confidentially share and compare attack data.
The Internet

Submission + - EFA brands Conroy's attacks "cowardly" (arnnet.com.au)

Submitted by Acidspew
Acidspew writes: According to ARN: The Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) chairman has branded Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, "cowardly" for his attacks on the Internet rights advocacy group.

Senator Conroy has lashed out at the EFA two days in a row during a Senate hearing, claiming the group is waging a campaign of misinformation on the proposed mandatory ISP-level filter.

He singled out EFA's chairman, Nicolas Suzor, and vice-chairman, Colin Jacobs, and accused them of feeding Reporters Without Borders false information which landed Australia on the international organisation"Internet Enemies" watch list.

Suzor dismissed the claims and said it was "cowardly" of Senator Conroy to attack the EFA under parlimentary privilege when he won't even respond to the group's request for a meeting.
Science

Submission + - Complex life found under 600 feet of Antarctic ice (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Chroniton
Chroniton writes: NASA ice scientists have found a shrimp-like creature and a possible jellyfish "frolicking" beneath 600 feet of solid Antarctic ice, where only microbes were expected to live. The odds of finding two complex lifeforms after drilling an only 8-inch-wide hole suggests there may be much more. And if such life is possible beneath Earth's oceans, why not elsewhere like Europa?

Submission + - Deciding to use Project Management Software

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I work as a jack of all trades IT person at a smallish manufacturing company. One of the main challenges the company is facing right now is determining how long it will take to ship a product. The Manufacturing Manager came to me and asked about Project Management Software and I pointed him towards OpenProj. A few days later he asked me to get quotes on Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server. Having had experience at a larger IT department that used MS Project to plan an infrastructure upgrade and not being very impressed with the results, I was going to tell him that it was a bad idea. I stopped myself short and realized I need to educate myself a little further. The basic idea is that we would like to follow projects from requisition of materials, to engineering, to various stages of manufacturing and be able to tell how long the project would take based on availability of resources (employees, machines) and the time needed to complete each step. Does anyone have any recommendations on books/web sites that may help me in determining if an OpenProj/MS Project type solution would be right for our situation? Any ideas on really solid packages that are similar (or even something completely different that might be better)? Anyone have any particularily good or bad experiences using implementing Project software? I really don't have a clue where to begin.
Transportation

Submission + - The Bloodhound Will Stay on the Ground at 1000 mph

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "BBC reports that engineers designing the world's fastest car, the Bloodhound SSC, built to smash the world land speed record of 763 mph set by the Thrust SuperSonic Car in 1997, believe they have a solution to keep the vehicle flat on the ground at 1,000 mph after initial iterations of the car's aerodynamic shape produced dangerous amounts of lift at the vehicle's rear. "Up until this point, we've had some big issues," says John Piper, Bloodhound's technical director. "We've had lift as high as 12 tonnes, and when you consider the car is six-and-a-half tonnes at its heaviest — that amount of lift is enough to make the car fly." The design effort has been aided by project sponsor Intel who brought immense computing power to bear on the lift problem. Before Intel's intervention, the design team had worked through 11 different "architectures" in 18 months while the latest modelling work run on Intel's network investigated 55 configurations in eight weeks. By playing with the position and shape of key elements of the car's rear end, the design team found the best way to manage the shockwave passing around and under the vehicle as it goes supersonic. "At Mach 1.3, we've close to zero lift which is where we wanted to be," says Piper. In late 2011, the Bloodhound, powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, will mount an assault on the land speed record, driving across a dried up lakebed known as Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape of South Africa."
Medicine

Submission + - Robot Surgery, Thy Name is DaVinci (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: Robotic surgery is experiencing explosive growth in America’s operating rooms, and the unquestioned industry leader in this field is the DaVinci robot, made by Intuitive Surgical. How pervasive has this robot become? Put it this way, only 14% of prostate surgeries in the US last year took place not using the DaVinci. It has grown from 210 systems seven years ago to 1,395 today. Although typically used for smaller surgeries like prostate removal and hysterectomies, it was recently used for a kidney transplant, and more complicated procedures are expected in the future. The DaVinci is really just the first wave of robotic surgery as technology continues to push clumsy human hands out of the operating room.

Submission + - Video Games Shown to Hinder Learning in Young Boys (yahoo.com)

Submitted by dcollins
dcollins writes: Researchers at Denison University in Ohio show that giving PlayStations to young boys leads to slower progress in reading and writing skills:

"The study is the first controlled trial to look at the effects of playing video games on learning in young boys. That is to say, the findings aren't based on survey data of kids' game habits, but instead on a specific group of children that were randomly assigned to receive a PlayStation or not... Those with PlayStations also spent less time engaged in educational activities after school and showed less advancement in their reading and writing skills over time than the control group, according to tests taken by the kids. While the game-system owners didn't show significant behavioral problems, their teachers did report delays in learning academic skills, including writing and spelling."
Linux Business

Submission + - Zonbu Launches 'Green' Laptop (pcmag.com)

Submitted by dws90
dws90 writes: Zonbu, makers of the Zonbu Mini desktop PC, have announced the release of a Linux-based notebook computer to be manufactured by Everex (the same people that make the gPC). From TFA:

the Zonbu Notebook is designed to be environmentally friendly, with lower power usage and less hazardous material than normal laptops, and proper recycling techniques.
The laptop sells for $279 upfront, with a $14.95 monthly subscription fee, which provides software upgrades and online storage, amoung other things. It runs the same Gentoo-based OS as the desktop version.
Patents

Submission + - USPTO Increases Scope Of Amazon's 1-Click Patent

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: While the patent office had rejected earlier attempts by Amazon to get a continuation patent on its infamous "1-click" patent, it appears that an impatient USPTO examiner has approved the continuation, apparently because of the failure of BountyQuest to come up with prior art. This continuation adds claims like contacting the recipient of an order via e-mail or a phone call to obtain additional info. Time for the USPTO to be reformed.
Robotics

Submission + - DARPA Turning Moths into CyberSpies (zdnet.com)

Submitted by
saccade.com
saccade.com writes: "The Times reports on a project where the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is growing insects around computer chips to turn them into surveillance cyber-bugs:

DARPA is implanting computer chips in moths while still in the pupa stage. The moth grows around the the chip and its nervous system can be controlled by a remote control.

The project is called the Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (HI-MEMS) and it also includes outfitting other insects with miniscule sensors and a wireless transmitter which could send data from places inaccessible to humans.

Ultimately, the moth will be able to land in enemy camps in remote location unobserved, beaming video and other information back via what its developers refer to as a reliable tissue-machine interface."
This gives new meaning to the term 'computer bug'."

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