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United States

Submission + - Navy to use dolphins for antiterrorism

Submitted by FR007
FR007 writes: Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle. The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states. Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego. Site.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Larval Stage 1

Journal by Zarf
They used to say you were a geek in "larval stage" if you pulled more than one all nighter in a row. It was a sign that you were gestating some major hackage. I've noted that "larval stage" symptoms have recurred at different times in my life. Each time I learn a new programming language I kind of geek-out for a while, up late, up early, forget to eat, forget about a lot of things while I hyper focus on learning the new technology in front of me. I'm coming out of the longest "larval stage" I've
Censorship

Submission + - YouTube bans Nick Gisburne again

Submitted by
Da_Weasel
Da_Weasel writes: "Following up on Two Ways Not To Handle Free Speech it appears that YouTube has yet again censored Nick Gisburne. After creating a new account and posting the video again, over 50 other YouTube users downloaded a copy from his website and uploaded it to their account.

A very large group of active and outspoken atheist on YouTube are concerned that their videos are now at risk of being flagged to death by the religious fundamentalist.

Has this set a new precedences for freedom of speech on YouTube when it comes to religion? What other books might it be a violation of YouTube's TOS to quote from?"
The Internet

Submission + - Net neutrality in Canada now in serious risk.

Submitted by
Oshawapilot
Oshawapilot writes: "A editorial piece in todays Toronto Star newspaper points towards some disturbing movements on the Net Neutrality front in Canada.

With a Minister Of Industry making such troubling statements as "[Maxime] Bernier believes that consumers are best served by giving the dominant telecom companies maximum regulatory freedom" along with several questionable decisions on the Internet front, one must wonder if this government minister either fails to grasp what he is dealing with, or is in the pockets of big-telecom in Canada.

With 84% of the internet connections in Canada being controlled by only a few companies, this should concern Canadians, and be a wakeup call to all those who concern themselves with Net Neutrality.

With some ISP's in Canada already subjecting their customers to content or application discrimination, is a full blown attack on Net Neutrality that far away on this side of the border?

Does the government care? Or even understand?"
Education

Submission + - Getting in to a Top Tier College

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I'm currently a senior at a top rated public school and I look forward to majoring in electrical engineering. I've already been accepted into Carnegie Mellon University, so I don't need to worry about any "safety" schools. However, I still have my sights set on getting into a school such as MIT or Caltech. My grades are high (95.6 on a 100 scale) and I have several leadership positions in clubs. But I'm pretty sure that's not enough. So I ask Slashdot: What else can I do to improve my chances of being accepted there? I've already been deferred from early action at both institutions and I'm afraid it's too late to do much at this point. However, I'm sure there are other Slashdot users wondering just what it takes to go in a top college today.
Toys

Submission + - Hate Dishes? Automatic Dishmaker

Submitted by
aibrahim
aibrahim writes: "Hate dishes? the DishMaker is a prototype for a new kind of appliance that can replace dishes altogether by making cups, bowls and plates on demand and recycling them when you're done. The DishMaker takes advantage of a little-known shape-memory property of acrylic. Video at YouTube."
Supercomputing

Submission + - Intel Squeezes 1.8 TFlops: EDIT REQUIRED

Submitted by
jagzjagz (Jagdeep Poonian)
jagzjagz (Jagdeep Poonian) writes: "Hi Hemos: Thanks for posting my story (http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/02/11/intel_80_core/) . For some reason, my e-mail address was used in the article (jagzjagz@hotmail.com) even though I set it to 'Do not display e-mail address'. I do not wish my e-mail address to be listed. Please change it to show my full name instead. Thanks!! Jagdeep Poonian"
Music

Submission + - Study finds P2P has no effect on legal music sales

Submitted by
MBrichacek
MBrichacek writes: "A new study in the has found that illegal music downloads have had no noticeable effects on the sale of music, contrary to the claims of the recording industry. Analyzing data from the final four months of 2002, the researchers estimated that P2P affected no more than 0.7% of sales in that timeframe. The study reports that 803 million CDs were sold in 2002, which was a decrease of about 80 million from the previous year. The RIAA has blamed the majority of the decrease on piracy, and has maintained that argument in recent years as music sales have faltered. Yet according to the study, the impact from file sharing could not have been more than 6 million albums total in 2002, leaving 74 million unsold CDs without an excuse for sitting on shelves."
Privacy

Submission + - VeriSign implants 222 people with RFID chips

Submitted by
cnet-declan
cnet-declan writes: "Anyone remember VeriChip, a company that came up with the idea of implanting chips in humans for tracking them? They've been behind ideas like RFID tagging immigrant and guest workers at the border, and they've persuaded a former Bush Health Secretary to get himself chipped. In this CNET News.com article, we offer an update on how successful the idea has been. It turns out that, according to IPO documents, 222 people have been implanted, with sales revenue of $100,000."
The Internet

Submission + - Flu pandemic could lead to Internet usage limits

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "If a pandemic were to occur, many companies and organizations would ask their staffs to work from home. The impact of millions of additional people using the Internet from home might require individuals and companies to voluntarily restrain themselves from surfing to high-bandwidth sites, such as YouTube. If people don't comply, the government may step in and limit 'Net usage. The scenario is not far-fetched: Last year at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, a group of telecom and government officials conducted a pandemic exercise based on a hypothetical breakout of bird flu in central Europe. The results weren't pretty:

"We assumed total absentees of 30% to 60% trying to work from home, which would have overwhelmed the Internet," said participant Bill Thoet, vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton. "We did not assume that the backbone would be gone, but that the edge of the network, where everyone was trying to access their office from home, would be overwhelmed. The absence of maintenance was also a factor. The person who brought up the problem was himself a CEO of an Internet service provider. "The conclusion [of imminent collapse] was not absolute, and the situation was not digitally simulated, but the idea of everyone working from home appears untenable," Thoet said.
"
Education

Submission + - Building a silicon brain

Submitted by
prostoalex
prostoalex writes: "MIT Technology Review reports on Stanford scientists replicating the processes inside the human brain with silicon: "Kwabena Boahen, a neuroengineer at Stanford University, is planning the most ambitious neuromorphic project to date: creating a silicon model of the cortex. The first-generation design will be composed of a circuit board with 16 chips, each containing a 256-by-256 array of silicon neurons. Groups of neurons can be set to have different electrical properties, mimicking different types of cells in the cortex. Engineers can also program specific connections between the cells to model the architecture in different parts of the cortex.""
The Courts

Submission + - Julie Amero wrongly convicted? The spyware defense

Submitted by Anonymous Howard
Anonymous Howard writes: Substitute teacher Julie Amero faces up to 40 years in prison for exposing kids to porn using a classroom computer, but the facts strongly suggest that she was wrongfully convicted. Many issues remain, from the need for an independent computer forensics investigation and the presence of spyware and adware on the Windows 98 machine, to bad or incomplete legal work on both sides of this criminal case. It appears that spyware caused Julie Amero's conviction. She will be sentenced on March 2, 2007. This is a new development from the previously story on Slashdot.
Republicans

Submission + - Congress Wants ISPs to Log Your Online Life

Submitted by
walmartshopper67
walmartshopper67 writes: "Crooks and Liars is reporting that Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) has introduced a bill that would require ISPs to "record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely". The bill would impose heavy fines and jail time on ISPs that do not save the required information. Not that this will pass, but come on, how can anyone think this is a good idea?"

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