the simurgh - Slashdot User

Submission + - lawmakers demanding obama fire clapper for lying (msnbc.com)

Submitted by the simurgh on Monday January 27, 2014 @09:47PM

the simurgh writes: Lawmakers is urging President Obama to fire his intelligence chief for allegedly misleading Congress about the scope of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

the letter, is signed by six House lawmakers. They include Republicans Darrell Issa of California, Paul Broun and Doug Collins of Georgia, Walter Jones of North Carolina, Ted Poe of Texas and Democrat Alan Grayson of Florida.

Lying to Congress is illegal. but, Ironically, Clapper himself could rely on the defense that he was misleading the public, rather than Congress. earlier this month the director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, wrote that the Senate intelligence committee couldn’t have been misled by Clapper, because they already knew the truth.

Submission + - Chinese General personally reveals complicity in 9-11 attack (globaltimes.cn)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27, 2014 @09:30PM

An anonymous reader writes: "It was not a coincidence that the 9/11 attacks took place right after
then President George W. Bush declared the US rivalry with China."

" The switching of strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region is
inevitably introducing gaps in the attention paid to international
terrorism, which is the real threat. We simply want to point out the
loopholes of the US diplomatic strategy out of goodwill to help it avoid
another 9/11."

— Major General Luo Yuan, deputy secretary general with the PLA Academy
of Military Sciences

source:
http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS...

(taken from https://kickass.to/blog/blacka... )

Submission + - Space Robots Episode 24: Canadian Seduction (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Ben Hall on Monday January 27, 2014 @08:33PM

Ben Hall writes: The guys talk Irish royalty, a case of mistaken identity for Morgan Freeman, a Canadian attempt to commune with aliens, a suitcase goblin, and an Oklahoman octopus.

Submission + - Flatulent cows start fire at German dairy farm (msn.com)

Submitted by cyberspittle on Monday January 27, 2014 @08:31PM

cyberspittle writes: Methane gas from 90 flatulent cows exploded in a German farm shed on Monday, damaging the roof and injuring one of the animals, police said.

Submission + - How Role-Playing Games Arrived in Japan with Black Onyx (medium.com)

Submitted by eggboard on Monday January 27, 2014 @07:27PM

eggboard writes: Henk Rogers was a Dutchman who arrived in Japan in the 1980s following a girlfriend (later, his wife). An inveterate D&D player, he became enthralled with the NEC-8801, and nearly killed himself trying to create a D&D-like world that he released as The Black Onyx. No one initially knew what to make of it, and the game sold slowly at first. Through savvy pricing, packaging, and press attention, sales grew, and the game jumpstarted RPGs in Japan. Rogers got left behind, though, as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy hit a local nerve better than his efforts. "I also realized that I didn’t quite understand the Japanese aesthetic and way. These games were quite different to mine, and just struck a more effective cultural chord.” Rogers went on to license Tetris to Nintendo, though, so he did just fine.

Submission + - New Zealand Schools find less structure improve childrens' behavior

Submitted by geminidomino on Monday January 27, 2014 @05:02PM

geminidomino writes: A research project involving eight schools in Dunedin and Auckland report that loosening rules on the playground may lead to fewer incidents of bullying, vandalism, and injury. One principal opines ""The kids were motivated, busy and engaged. In my experience, the time children get into trouble is when they are not busy, motivated and engaged. It's during that time they bully other kids, graffiti or wreck things around the school."

As one might expect, the article states that there was a lot of resistance to the project, and I'm kind of surprised they got as many administrators to sign on as they did. The story may be premature, as the article states that "the results of the study will be collated this year," but it may be interesting to see how the numbers shake out.

Submission + - Congressmen Call For Clapper's Head (washingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by Antipater on Monday January 27, 2014 @02:20PM

Antipater writes: Six members of Congress, led by Darrell Issa, have released an open letter to the White House that urges the President to go further in his intended reforms of the NSA. The letter, found here, calls out issues like the NSA's weakening of encryption standards and national security letter abuse. It also calls for the immediate firing of James Clapper, stating that "[his] continued role as Director of National Intelligence is incompatible with the goal of restoring trust in our security programs and ensuring the highest level of transparency."

Comment kentucky needs help (Score 1, Informative) 426

by the simurgh on Saturday January 25, 2014 @06:55PM (#46069019) Attached to: Kentucky: Programming Language = Foreign Language

you can live in Kentucky like a god with 300,000 dollars. secondly as a resident and graduate of Kentucky schools i can tell you Kentucky educational requirements are a joke and funding is non existent or wasted. they think it's OK to have your kids in a 50 million dollar building be using textbooks from the 50's. they cut educational funding constantly while the congressmen keep raising their salaries and running off new companies with jobs we desperately need at the request of established players.

Submission + - Nintendo defeats and assumes control of "troll's" patent portfolio after victory (gamespot.com)

Submitted by the simurgh on Friday January 10, 2014 @01:21PM

the simurgh writes: Nintendo has acquired the entire patent portfolio of now-defunct IA Labs following its victory in court, the Japanese gaming giant has announced. Nintendo obtained the patents during a sheriff's sale in Montgomery County, Maryland on Tuesday.

IA Labs originally sued Nintendo for patent infringement in 2010, claiming the Mario maker's Wii controller and Wii Fit technology infringed on two separate IA Labs patents. Nintendo successfully defended itself as part of a court battle in 2012, also winning various fees related to the case.

IA Labs appealed the ruling, but an appellate court sided with Nintendo in June 2013. At this point, IA Labs was ordered to pay Nintendo additional fees, and when the company failed to do so, a sheriff's sale was commenced.

Comment WINDOWS 7 (Score 1) 408

by the simurgh on Sunday December 15, 2013 @02:25PM (#45696589) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Would You Secure Your Parents' PC?

it looks like vista. it runs better than vista. it's more secure than vista. and if your computer is able to run vista you should be a able to run windows 7. back up her data. tell her that you have to reinstall the operating system. install windows 7 instead. my mother hasn't noticed that i replaced her vista over a year ago despite the load up screen showing it's windows 7. the only thing she has noticed? her computer works better.

Comment Re:How is this news? (Score 1) 617

by the simurgh on Saturday September 14, 2013 @04:51PM (#44851423) Attached to: How Amateurs Destroyed the Professional Music Business

would rather be executed than eat mcdonalds, now a hardee's spicy chicken sandwich is another story. refuse good enough and demand better

Submission + - Area 51 officially acknowledged, CIA admits it's behind infamous base (cnn.com)

Submitted by the simurgh on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:17AM

the simurgh writes: Area 51 has long been a topic for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts, but recently released CIA documents officially acknowledge the site and suggest that the area served a far less remarkable purpose than many had supposed.
Area 51, about 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is synonymous with government secrecy, and many have theorized that it holds the answer to one of the greatest questions plaguing mankind: Are we really alone in the universe?
But the documents make no mention of alien autopsy rooms or spaceship parking lots.

The map and other documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archives, in 2005. oddly enough the map that was released in the CIA documents mirrors the one that appears after a simple Google Maps search for "Area 51."

Submission + - Judge upholds verdict in ex-cheerleader libel case (whas11.com)

Submitted by the simurgh on Monday August 12, 2013 @09:38PM

the simurgh writes: A federal judge on Monday upheld a nearly half a million dollar verdict against the website thedirty.com, saying the operator of the site "played a significant role" in developing the content that libeled a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader.

U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman concluded that under the federal Communications Decency Act, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based gossip website and its founder, Hooman Karamian, are not exempt from responsibility for what is posted. Passed in 1995 by Congress, the law was designed in part to provide immunity to website publishers from liability for content that comes from third parties.

In the 12-page ruling, the judge concluded that Karamian, went beyond simply allowing others to post and encouraged the comments."That is, a website owner who intentionally encourages illegal or actionable third-party postings to which he adds his own comments ratifying or adopting the posts become a 'creator' or 'developer' of that content and is not entitled to immunity," he wrote.

Submission + - Jailed Facebook teen finally getting a hearing (cnn.com)

Submitted by the simurgh on Thursday July 04, 2013 @11:23PM

the simurgh writes: A Texas teen who's been jailed more than four months for a Facebook comment he jokingly made during a video-game argument is finally getting a day in court that could let him go home. Justin Carter, who was 18 when he was arrested, will appear in Comal County (Texas) District Court on Tuesday, July 16, for a bond hearing, according to his lawyer. his lawyer will argue to have Carter's $500,000 bond, which his family cannot afford to cover, reduced.

his lawyer, who is working the case for free, met with Carter for the first time on Tuesday. He said Carter is not doing well, and his family says he has been placed on suicide watch. "Justin is in bad shape and has suffered quite a bit of abuse while in jail, We will likely bring out these issues at the bond hearing."

Comment Re:WARNING!!! GOATSE!!! (Score 2) 330

by the simurgh on Tuesday June 25, 2013 @07:05PM (#44106859) Attached to: Nook Failure, Lack of Foot Traffic Could Spell Doom For Barnes & Noble

all i get is an eagle shredding a book with a vulgar phrase. and the reason now one buys books is why should we pay 20 to thirty bucks for a physical copy when they charge way less than that for digital or for the same physical copy on amazon. my problem with barnes and nobel is if i have to buy a book for 45 from barnes and nobel and 27 on amazon since i already have to pay taxes on amazon purchases why not buy from amazon. you want people to buy your books instore? then price match amazon.

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