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Submission + - Plants communicate using fungi (bytesizebio.net)

Submitted by Shipud
Shipud writes: In response to aphid attacks, some plants produce chemicals that repel the aphids and attract wasps, the aphids' natural enemies. Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have shown that plants attacked by aphids can communicate that information to neighboring plants via existing networks of fungi in the soil. Thus fungal symbiosis with plants is shown to be taken one step further: not only do they provide nutrients to plants, they also function as communication hardware.

Submission + - What if Snowden Gets Hit by a Bus? 1

Submitted by Error27
Error27 writes: Edward Snowden has four laptops full of secret data. There is an implied threat that if he gets hit by a bus, the data will be released. Let's assume the laptops hold very sensitive data including SSL private keys and password files. What are the implications from an IT perspective?

Submission + - The service of Snowden and the apparent change of political landscape (nytimes.com)

Submitted by gale the simple
gale the simple writes: NY Times is not exactly known for being amiably disposed towards Snowden and his recent disclosure of NSA programs. It is, therefore, somewhat surprising that a subject of a debate about rolling back some of the massive surveillance state is actually shown there.
Maybe Noam Chomsky was right. There are good journalists out there. It is just not often that they have a window of opportunity in which to post.

Submission + - Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash (wired.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the House voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.

Comment Re:It's A Start (Score 1) 362

by tocs (#44381923) Attached to: NSA Still Funded To Spy On US Phone Records
The fight in congress is over. If a few votes are needed to pass some bill some one in the executive branch talks to some one in the NSA that talks to a buddy at Booz Allen. The buddy at Booz Allen takes a few minutes to look at the list that he has compiled for this very purposes picks out a few names (5 or 6 of the 435 represenatives that can be bought, sold, or blackmailed) and give them to the guy at the NSA (adding you "owe me a beer for this").

The guy at Booz Allen looks forward to the beer (maybe he will buy a round, he has a good paying job) and gets back to work feeding information to others at Booz Allen and the rest of the Carlyle Group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton#Political_contributions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton#Business
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton#Government

Submission + - Hackaday.com is for sale... (hackaday.com)

Submitted by tocs
tocs writes: sort of. They are trying to raise some money ($540,000) on Indiegogo.

From the Hackaday post:
"The owner of Hackaday, [Jason Calacanis], wants to sell this site.

When we posted this announcement, the comments section blew up and a whole bunch of people suggested doing a Kickstarter or crowdfunding campaign. This is it. We, the editors and contributors of Hackaday, want to buy Hackaday to keep giving you all these awesome hacks without the threat of some undue outside influence should someone else buy it.

We’re going to keep this stickied at the top of the front page for the duration of our Indiegogo campaign, so check out what else we have to say below."

There is a fair bit of discusion in the Hackaday comment section about what is going on and if it is worth the price. I think I will pitch in a few dollars. It is a pretty good site.

Submission + - 70,000+ Have Played Brain-Mapping 'EyeWire' Game (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: EyeWire is a game developed by MIT researchers in which users map the connectome, which is the massively complex connections between the billions of neurons in the brain. Since its launch last year, EyeWire has already had over 70,000 citizen scientists play the game. Users are not only contributing directly while they play the game, but they're also advancing brain science by helping researchers improve AI algorithms so that someday computers can study the connectome accurately and independently.

Submission + - Can You Trust A Crowdsourced Courier (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by judgecorp
judgecorp writes: EasyBring is a crowdsourced delivery service. If you have package to deliver, you register it with the service, and someone that is making that journey already will pick it up and deliver it for you. There are obvious worries, like how do you know your stuff won't get stolen? And what stops someone using the service to deliver drugs... or a bomb? But it's going well in Norway, and the company hopes to expand

Submission + - The Strong Goldbach Conjecture Proved ? (arxiv.org)

Submitted by morto
morto writes: "The Strong Goldbach conjecture dates back to 1742. It states that every even integer greater than four can be written as the sum of two prime numbers. Since then, no one has been able to prove the conjecture. ...Additionally, the conjecture has been verified to be true for all even integers up to 4.10^18. In this paper, we prove that the conjecture is true for all even integers greater than 362."

It seems then it is finally proved, right ?

Submission + - This American Life takes on Patent Trolls

Submitted by tylikcat
tylikcat writes: This American Life aired a show Friday following up on an earlier segment about patent trolls. In the original segment many of the producers' questions could not be answered. Now they can, and the story that comes out is quite different than the one originally presented by Intellectual Ventures. Fascinating listening by any measure, and it's particularly nice to see these issues discussed in a venue aimed at a broader audience.

Submission + - Potentially Very-Useful "Polymer Opals" Change Color When Stretched (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Some of the most vividly colored materials in nature, including things like butterfly wings, don’t obtain their color from pigment. Instead, their internal structure reflects light at a given wavelength, producing a specific color. Opals are another example of something that utilizes this effect. In collaboration with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability, scientists from the University of Cambridge have now copied the colorful nanostructure of the opal. The result is a flexible, colorful material that won’t fade over time, that changes color when stretched, and that could have many applications.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How To Begin Simple Robotics As a Hobby?

Submitted by nedko.m
nedko.m writes: I would describe myself as more of a "software guy" rather than somebody who likes to play with hardware much, but I've wanted to start doing basic robotics projects as a hobby for quite a while now. However, I was never sure where to start from and what the very first steps should be in order to get more familiar with the hardware aspects of robotics. For instance, I would like to start off with a simple soccer robot. Any suggestions on what low-budget parts should I obtain, which would provide me, subsequently, extensibility to a bit more elaborate projects?

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