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Submission + - Prometheus' patent overturned in Supreme Court (patexia.com)

Submitted by pollardkevin15
pollardkevin15 writes: After two laps through the federal court system, Prometheus has at last received its final verdict from the US Supreme Court: this patent claiming administration of a therapeutic drug and observation of its metabolite levels is invalid for being based on laws of nature. This verdict is met with mixed responses; those companies holding similar patents fear a blow to innovation as companies are more hesitant to invest in unpatentable research, while health caregivers are relieved to be free to tailor treatments to patients’ individuals needs.
Facebook

House Kills Effort To Stop Workplace Requests For Facebook Passwords 275

Posted by timothy from the password-so-strong-you-yourself-don't-know-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "House Republicans today defeated an amendment introduced yesterday that would have banned employers demanding access to Facebook accounts. While the practice isn't widespread, it has caused a big brouhaha after reports surfaced that some organizations were requiring workers to hand over Facebook passwords as a condition of keeping their current job or getting hired for a new one."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - IETF attendees reengineer their hotel's Wi-Fi net (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: What happens when a bunch of IETF super nerds show up in Paris for a major conference and discover their hotel's Wi-Fi network has imploded? They give it an Extreme Wi-Fi Makeover. Members of the Internet Engineering Task Force, who gathered for the outfit’s 83rd meeting this week in France, discovered earlier this week as they arrived at the toney Hotel Concorde Lafayette that the Wi-Fi was flakey and became flakier still as scores more attendees arrived and tried to connect, and the wired net was having issues of its own. Working behind the scenes, a team of IETF attendees negotiated with the hotel and were granted access to the wireless network, and began rigging up all sorts of fixes, which even included taping a Nexus S phone to a ceiling and turning off the radios on numerous access points to reduce noise.
United States

Liberating the Laws You Must Pay To Read 223

Posted by Soulskill from the yes-apparently-this-needs-to-be-a-thing dept.
Writing for Boing Boing, Carl Malamud describes the campaign he's been waging to let U.S. citizens read the public safety standards that have become part of federal law — without needing to pay for the privilege. "These public safety standards govern and protect a wide range of activity, from how bicycle helmets are constructed to how to test for lead in water to the safety characteristics of hearing aids and protective footwear." Despite a U.S. Appeals Court ruling which said 'the law' should be in the public domain, many safety codes are still privately produced and then distributed for a fee, to recoup development costs. "Public.Resource.Org has a mission of making the law available to all citizens, and these technical standards are a big black hole in the legal universe. We've taken a gamble and spent $7,414.26 to buy 73 of these technical public safety standards that are incorporated into the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations." Malamud and his Public.Resource.Org foundation are trying — very cautiously — to make these laws more broadly available. "...even though we strongly believe that the documents are not entitled to copyright protection, and moreover that our limited print run is in any case definitely fair use, if a judge were to decide that what we did was breaking the law, 25 copies of 73 standards works out to $273,750,000 in potential liability. While whales may make bigger bets, we draw the line at $273 million."
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Job Interviewers Seek Applicant Facebook Passwords (annarbor.com)

Submitted by kodiaktau
kodiaktau writes: In a growing trend hiring managers are seeking to review social media connections of their job applicants. Interviewers may ask for your social media passwords to review private account information. ACLU experts continue to push back on this practice citing a violation of privacy. Other federal agencies such as the Department of Justice view these as violations of terms of service on the sites, but refuse to prosecute offending companies. In some instances hiring companies are asking job applicants to logon to their accounts so managers can review their social media accounts and in many cases are asking new hires to sign a non-disparaging agreement to ensure that new-hires do not say something offensive about their employers.
Government

Submission + - U.S. Congress Quietly Criminalizes Protesting (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by CanHasDIY
CanHasDIY writes: From Huffington Post:

H. R. 347, better known to those in the DC beltway as the 'Trespass Bill' — potentially makes peaceable protest anywhere in the U.S. a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. H. R. 347, and it's companion senate bill S. 1794, make protest of any type potentially a federal offense with anywhere from a year to 10 years in federal prison, providing it occurs in the presence of elites brandishing Secret Service protection, or during an officially defined 'National Special Security Event' (NSSE). NSSEs , ( an invention of Bill Clinton) are events which have been deemed worthy of Secret Service protection, which previously received no such treatment... Past NSSE events included the funerals of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, and the national security concern that was Superbowl XXXVI. Other NSSE protected events include the Academy Awards and the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions... HR 347 & S. 1794 insulates such events as the G-8, WTO and presidential conventions against tough questions and politically justified protests.
Books

Teacher Suspended For Reading Ender's Game To Students 1054

Posted by Soulskill from the it's-the-teachers,-they're-the-enemy dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Forbes reports that a middle school teacher in South Carolina has been placed on administrative leave for reading sci-fi classic Ender's Game to his students. According to blogger Tod Kelly, '[A parent] reported him to the school district complained that the book was pornographic; that same parent also asked the local police to file criminal charges against the teacher. As of today, the police have not yet decided whether or not to file charges (which is probably a good sign that they won't). The school district, however, appears to agree with the parent, is considering firing the teacher and will be eliminating the book from the school.'"
Security

Submission + - Iran blamed for major cyberattack on BBC (techworld.com)

Submitted by Qedward
Qedward writes: Iran is privately being blamed for a major cyberattack on the BBC earlier this month that blocked access to its popular Persian TV service and disrupted the Corporation’s IT using denial-of-service.

The multi-pronged March 2 attack took down much of the BBC’s email, overloaded its telephone switchboard with automatic phone calls, and blocked a satellite feed for the BBC Persian station. BBC servers were also on the end of a DDoS.

In an unprecedented tactic, the BBC has trailed a speech to be given this week to the Royal Television Society in which Director General Mark Thompson will mention the attacks in some detail while stopping short of formally naming Iran as the perpetrator.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - San Jose tries again with free downtown Wi-Fi (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: San Jose is casting a vote of confidence in municipal Wi-Fi from the heart of Silicon Valley, planning a new, free network just a few years after such networks were declared all but dead. The California city of about 1 million intends to offer high-speed Wi-Fi throughout its downtown, covering an area of 1.5 square miles in the middle of this year. But unlike earlier municipal Wi-Fi initiatives, such as a Google-sponsored network that would have covered San Francisco, the San Jose system will be able to pay for itself entirely by helping the government do its job. In the middle of the past decade, ambitious projects in several cities, including parts of San Jose, promised to blanket outdoor areas with Wi-Fi and provide built-in sources of revenue. Home broadband subscriptions, browser-based advertising or small-business use would help to pay for equipment and operations. But those complicated business models depended on assumptions that often proved unfounded.
Beer

Submission + - It comes in pints? (dailyecho.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
tiniebras
tiniebras writes: "Another day, another ridiculous litigation story. This time its an independent Southampton (UK) pub which has been operating under the name of "The Hobbit" for over 20 years which is in the sights of california based Saul Zaentz Company which now owns stage and merchandising rights to The Hobbit. Grass roots opposition is already mouting through everybodys favourite social media portal (https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheHobbitSouthampton)."

Submission + - Telecommuting == "Doing Business in a State"? (gigaom.com)

Submitted by medcalf
medcalf writes: Apparently a New Jersey tax court recently held that if a company has just one employee telecommuting from that state, the company is subject to corporate taxation in that state. This has to discourage the use of telecommuting, at least by smaller companies that don't already do business across a lot of states, if it stands. In particular, it could be devastating to the "app economy", where employees of a very small company may each be in a different state. (It seems to me that the ruling and the underlying law are a state usurpation of Federal interstate commerce powers, but that doesn't mean the Federal courts will feel the same way.)

Submission + - Redheads Feel Pain Differently Than the Rest of Us (sciencenordic.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: If you think redheads are inherently different, well, you'd be right; they're better than you. In fact, they have a higher pain threshold than most of us, and can handle spicier food, too.

It turns out that gingers are less sensitive to stinging pain in the skin, according to researchers who injected capsicum, the active ingredient in chilies, into the arms of patients. Professor Lars Arendt-Nielsen, one of the researchers, said:

        "Our tests showed that redheads are less sensitive to this particular type of pain. They react less to pressure close to the injected area, or to a pinprick. They seem to be a bit better protected, and that is a really interesting finding."

The finding also means redheads can handle spicier food, reports Science Nordic. It lends some scientific weight to previous suggestions that gingers have a different pain response to the rest of, which were even investigated by Myth Busters.

All of which points to the fact that there is a ginger gene that brings with it these subtle differences. Proof, if you needed it, that gingers aren't just different; they're better.
The Media

Rob Malda (CmdrTaco) Joins the Washington Post 232

Posted by Soulskill from the that-name-sounds-familiar dept.
kodiaktau writes "Slashdot founder and long time cat herder Rob Malda joins the Washington Post per an announcement today. According to the press release, he will be the Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large working for WaPo Labs." Rob has a more detailed description of the job on his blog: "Don Graham is trying to accomplish something that is a bit of a cliche these days: A startup inside an established corporation. A group that can exist at a nexus between newspapers, websites, cable networks, and TV stations and think about the big picture and the future without the normal burdens associated with a business operating at a large scale. ... They are actively iterating and experimenting in many directions, with strong support from the top of the organization. ... Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli assures me that I'll also be working with the newsroom where I can contribute words, ideas, and tools that will improve the experience of the journalists doing work that I personally believe transcends the bottom line."

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