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Medicine

Submission + - Stem Cells curing blindness

mcgrew writes: The AP (via Yahoo) is reporting that the Italians can now cure blindness caused by chemical burns using the patient's own stem cells. Previously, this kind of injury needed either a corneal transplant or stem cells from someone else, both of which are plagued by problems with tisue rejection.

Unfortunately, this only works for damaged corneas — so far.
Censorship

Submission + - Reporters Without Borders Undermine Web Censorship (rsf.org)

eldavojohn writes: Yesterday a new initiative titled "Anti-Censorship Shelter" was launched by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) that aims to provide shelter for bloggers and internet journalists in foreign countries where they risk persecution or censorship from their local governments. RSF stated "At a time when online filtering and surveillance is becoming more and more widespread, we are making an active commitment to an Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all by providing the victims of censorship with the means of protecting their online information. Never before have there been so many netizens in prison in countries such as China, Vietnam and Iran for expressing their views freely online. Anonymity is becoming more and more important for those who handle sensitive data." Working with Xerobank, RSF has a high speed devoted VPN network that users can connect to which sounds like an onion router. While they admitted this masked address service is not fool proof, it's definitely impressive to see RSF being proactive in seeking out individuals and offering them a digital shelter to protect themselves from being jailed like the estimated 120 imprisoned bloggers around the world.

Submission + - Shatner to boldly lead Canada as Governor (www.cbc.ca) 1

just fiddling around writes: Now that Michaëlle Jean is approaching the end of her customary 5 years post as Governor General of Canada, the rumor mill has started on who Prime Minister Steven Harper will propose to the Queen in her stead. According to the CBC, the short list includes Captain Kirk, actor William Shatner. It seems that acting can lead to the highest offices in places other than California.

Comment Re:Rediculous. (Score 1) 172

In fact, the RFP was for an upgrade from Office 2000 and Win XP to Vista and 2007. It can be argued that since a complete conversion of the Office docs is warranted OOo is an equivalent to Office 2007, and that is the opinion of the judge.

translated quote: "we are faced with a migration, a complete renewal of the IT environment [...]such an important change cannot be considered an upgrade"

Comment Re:Android permissions (Score 1) 195

The permissions on Android are OK, but for IP access are too vague. Since I pay per Kb, I'd like to have a per-domain permission or a per-access notification.

Moreover, all the programs I downloaded triggered "network access" warning on install so I would not be surprised if "whoopieCalc" did so. Security breach by desensitivation FTL.

Comment Stupid way to contract: by the hour (Score 1) 306

If you want something done by a contractor on a budget, get a fixed bid. That will give them incentives to move Heaven an Earth to keep the margins fat and timelines short.

Of course the contract should include a series of binding quality criteria, else "fat margins" will equate to non-performing "product".

I've been on both sides of the fence, and that's the best way for both contractor and contractee to have a fruitful relationship.

Comment Re:warming up in winter (Score 1) 454

Webasto sells this nifty gadget which is basically a miniature gas furnace which heats the coolant, starts the water pump to circulate it in the whole circuit and the cabin fan to "defrost". Much more efficient in fuel use, keeps your engine from idling wear, and bypasses the idle parking laws.
Avaliable for big cars and trucks, where space is avaliable under the hood.

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