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Submission + - Blueseed startup ship of dreams has hundreds knocking at its door (blueseed.co)

Submitted by
dandv
dandv writes: "From VentureBeat, http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/06/blueseed-startup-ship/, The Register, Huffington Post, Globe and Mail and others today:

Blueseed is a Silicon Valley company that plans on launching a cruise ship 30 minutes from the coast of California, housing startup entrepreneurs from around the world. These startuppers won't need to bother with US visas, because the ship will be in international waters. They'll have to pay tax to whatever country they're incorporated in, though. So far, 146 startups said they'd like to come to the ship — http://bit.ly/BlueseedStartupSurvey1"
Security

Submission + - Interview with the man behind Comantra, the "cold call virus scammers" (troyhunt.com)

Submitted by
troyhunt
troyhunt writes: "If you live in a western country and have a landline telephone with a listed phone number, chances are you’ve been “cold called” by someone on the other side of the world with an introduction that goes something like this:

"Hello, I am from the Microsoft technical support division and I am calling you because we have detected some problems with your computer. This is very important – I need you to go and turn your computer on right away..."

It doesn’t matter if you have a computer, in fact it doesn’t matter if you’ve never even touched a computer because these calls are totally random. It's a scam intended to prey on the fear of unsuspecting people who can be convinced there are genuine problems with their PC. I decided to contact the man behind the company which most frequently features in these scam calls and surprisingly, he agreed to answer some questions about his business."
Space

Submission + - Hubble To Use the Moon To View Transit of Venus (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "On June 5 or 6 this year — the exact time and date depends on where you are in the world — Venus will be visible as a small black circle crossing the disk of the sun. Usually, the Hubble Space Telescope would have no business observing this event — the sun is too close for its optics. But plans are afoot for Hubble to observe the reflected sunlight bouncing off the lunar surface during the transit. As the sunlight will pass through the Venusian atmosphere, the transit will provide invaluable spectroscopic data about Venus' atmospheric composition. This, in turn, will help astronomers in characterizing the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars."
Education

Submission + - Universities Hold Transcripts Hostage Over Loans

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Dave Lindorff writes in the LA Times that a growing numbers of students are discovering their old school is actively blocking them from getting a job or going on to a higher degree as they refuse to issue an official transcript to send to potential employers or graduate admissions office if students are in default on student loans, or in many cases, even if they just fall one or two months behind. It's no accident that colleges are using the withholding of official transcripts to punish students behind in their loan payments. It turns out the federal government "encourages" them to use the draconian tactic, saying that the policy "has resulted in numerous loan repayments." It is a strange position for colleges to take, writes Lindorff, since the schools themselves are not owed any money as student loan funds come from private banks or the federal government and in the case of so-called Stafford loans, schools are not on the hook in any way; they are simply acting as collection agencies, and in fact may get paid for their efforts at collection. “It’s worse than indentured servitude,” says NYU Professor Andrew Ross, who helped organize the Occupy Student Debt movement last fall. “With indentured servitude, you had to pay in order to work, but then at least you got to work. When universities withhold these transcripts, students who have been indentured by loans are being denied even the ability to work or to finish their education so they can repay their indenture.”"

Submission + - College football should be banned, says "Friday Night Lights" author (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Just as football reacts to the shocking suicide of Junior Seau while facing mounting evidence of the risk of brain damage to participants, along comes a renewed assault on the financial extravagance of college football. Buzz Bissinger writes that college football should be banned, citing NCAA statistics that 43 percent of the 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision (i.e. those competing for the National Championship) lost money on football. Bissinger argues that football is irrelevant to what should be the primary mission of universities (academics), consuming scarce resources while contributing more than its share of scandals. While not exactly a new sentiment, the speaker may attract notice: Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights", a documentary based on a year with a high school football team in rural Texas, has been a big success as a book, Hollywood film, and TV series.
Space

Submission + - Astronomers find most distant protocluster of galaxies

Submitted by
The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: "Using the monster 8.2 meter Subaru telescope, astronomers have identified the most distant cluster of galaxies ever found: a collection of galaxies at a staggering distance of 12.7 billion light years. This is the most distant cluster ever seen that has been confirmed spectroscopically (PDF). Technically, it's a protocluster, since it's so young — seen only a billion years after the Big Bang itself — the cluster must still be in the process of formation."

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