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Submission + - Monsanto provides free access to agricultural biotechnology, but at what cost? (patexia.com)

johnd0983 writes: A new announcement last month from Monsanto Company could have tremendous impact in both agriculture and patent allocation for genetic modification of seeds for crop growth. In an unprecedented move, Monsanto will provide royalty-free research licenses to academic, public and non-profit institutions (including large-scale farmers) for its 1983 patent on Agrobacterium transformation process, recently released by the US.
Government

Submission + - Dutch Ministry Proposes Powers for Police to Hack Computers, Install Spyware (paritynews.com) 1

hypnosec writes: The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security has proposed some rather over the line measures and wants to extend such powers to the police that would allow them to break into computers and mobile phones in any part of the world. According to the proposal, dated October 15, the ministry has asked for powers that would allow police to not only break into computers but, would also allow them to install spyware, search for data in those computers and destroy data. As explained by the digital rights group ‘Bits of Freedom’, which obtained the copy of the proposal, if the Dutch police gets such powers the security of computer users would be lessened and that there will be a “perverse incentive to keep information security weak.”

Submission + - Google trading suspended, earnings 20% below expectations posted accidentally (bbc.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: Trading in Google shares has been suspended after the internet giant released its third-quarter results early by mistake. Google blames financial printing firm RR Donnelley for filing an early draft of the results, which had been expected after the closing bell.

Shares in Google were down 9% when trading in the stock was suspended. Shares had fallen as much as 10.5% at one stage.

In a statement, Google said: "Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorisation... We have ceased trading on Nasdaq while we work to finalise the document. Once it's finalised we will release our earnings, resume trading on Nasdaq and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PST."

Medicine

Submission + - Scientific Study: Brits are terrible at washing their Hands (bbc.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports the finding of a scientific study on the washing of hands in the UK. The result? 'Faecal bacteria are present on 26% of hands in the UK, 14% of banknotes and 10% of credit cards. 11% of hands are so 'grossly contaminated' they are carrying as many germs as a dirty toilet bowl. It's the same for 8% of cards and 6% of notes. Faecal matter can be found on one in six mobile phones. 99% of people interviewed at motorway service stations toilets claimed they had washed their hands after going to the toilet. Electronic recording devices revealed only 32% of men and 64% of women actually did wash their hands.

  99% of people interviewed at motorway service stations toilets claimed they had washed their hands after going to the toilet. Electronic recording devices revealed only 32% of men and 64% of women actually did.

Google

Submission + - Google threatens French media ban (bbc.co.uk)

another random user writes: Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from search results if France goes ahead with plans to make search engines to pay for content.

In a letter sent to several ministerial offices, Google said such a law "would threaten its very existence".

French newspaper publishers have been pushing for the law, saying it is unfair that Google receives advertising revenue from searches for news. French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti also favours the idea. She told a parliamentary commission it was "a tool that it seems important to me to develop".

Technology

Submission + - SD card survives real-life disaster test (stuff.co.nz)

An anonymous reader writes: A newly-wed couple lost their digital camera and SD card in the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011. The SD card survived flooding with silt and exposure to the weather for 20 months embedded in a gravel driveway. Amazingly, all 2.5 Gb of photos have recently been recovered. Sadly the digital camera did not fare so well. Even more interesting is that the SD card was from by a budget supplier, kudos to Adata!

Comment I run a D* pod (Score 0) 238

It's actually a lot of fun, and I've met some very interesting people. Diaspora already has most of the features described above, such as federation. I like how you can follow hashtags also, because it allows you to see comments from people you don't already know, and thus make new friends, something which I feel Facebook lacks. There are some strong devs still out there and waiting to jump in the game, I think D* will stay alive and eventually overtake Facebook.

Comment Bitcoin is more secure than ACH (Score 3, Funny) 213

Bitcoin uses encrypted wallets which are not linked to your name or address. It is the strongest computer in the world and it supports p2p DNS through namecoin. It is much more secure than online banking with ACH, and much harder to usurp than centralized BIND servers. Plus they won't print 1,000,000,000,000 of them this year.

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