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Comment Re:forensic 'science' (Score 1) 135

There is also the fact that Kosminski's personality profile fits that of a serial killer, he had a deep hatred of women, and he was a butcher (and had a knife that matched the cuts). Being a Polish Jew, Kosminski was a likely match for the person who left the 'Jewes' graffiti. This being the case, and with the already prevalent anger against Jews and immigrants in the wake of the murder and the news of the graffiti, it seems likely that the police actually knew they had their man, but did not want to prosecute him publicly for fear of starting an anti-Jewish progrom in London. So they locked him away and made certain that he could never get out.

Shortly after the anniversary of the murders, there was a television special where several experts were asked to weigh in on who the killer was. The most qualified person on the panel, a woman who worked on investigations of serial murderers, said that Kosminski was the obvious suspect, but the audience went with the Queen's Doctor theory because of a TV special that offered that theory--despite the fact that at the time of the murders, said Doctor had already suffered a stroke, and had lost the use of one of his hands. Conspiracy theories always favor the most powerful agencies for events of broad prominence; this is why large government conspiracies are always favored over individual (Lee Harvey Oswald) or small group (Al Quaeda) actors.

Comment Re:Still having misery with Firefox. (Score 2) 220

They are fixing your issues, if only incidentally. A number of the latest security fixes have been related to bad code continuing to use objects that were freed, which causes crashes in the best case and enables remote code execution in the worst. As they continue to find and fix these bugs, crash probability is bound to decrease on average

Comment Re:customer-centric (Score 1) 419

A ruling like this shouldn't kill anything. Large multinational companies already structure themelves so that their head is in one place and their wallet is in another for tax purposes. I'm sure they can spin off separate foreign entities to manage data abroad and evade U.S. authority that way. There are probably plans in place for such an eventuality.

Comment Re:can it get me home from the bar? (Score 1) 289

Well, a blind guy like me could have his own car for one thing, enjoying the scheduling flexibility and other advantages of car ownership that sighted people take for granted.

Another advantage is current drivers can reclaim the time wasted sitting behind the wheel in traffic and use it for other tasks, something only a rich guy with a driver can do now.

Submission + - Back to school advice for STEM students

StartsWithABang writes: Labor Day is this coming Monday, and that means the new school year is about to start. Whether you are or whether you know a young person, say in middle-or-high school, you’re likely very close to someone facing a lot of uncertainty about not only their future, but about their present. Who can be expected to know exactly what they want to do and exactly how to get the most out of it when they’re only a teenager? Yet that’s what we expect most students to do. For students that are interested in STEM — science, technology, education and mathematics — the pressure is even greater. So what advice should you give them? Here’s a great start, from someone who’s been there and who’s helped a generation of kids go through it!

Submission + - Long weekend silliness: which was the worst Sci-Fi sequel? (poll-maker.com)

sandbagger writes: The long weekend is coming and many of us will be relaxing with a good film. Or a bad one. Many geeks have strong and passionate opinions about what is the best Sci Fi but what was the worst? Specifically, what was the worst sequel? The Phantom Menace? Star Trek V? Vote and let the world know what you think?

Submission + - How Big Telecom Smothers Municipal Broadband

Rick Zeman writes: The Center for Public Integrity has a comprehensive article showing how Big Telecom (aka, AT&T, Comcast, Charter, Time Warner) use lobbyists, paid-for politicians, and lawsuits (both actual and the threat thereof) in their efforts to kill municipal broadband. From the article: "The companies have also used traditional campaign tactics such as newspaper ads, push polls, direct mail and door-to-door canvassing to block municipal networks. And they’ve tried to undermine the appetite for municipal broadband by paying for research from think tanks and front groups to portray the networks as unreliable and costly. " Unfortunately, those think tanks and front groups are also paid for by the companies.

Submission + - Microsoft Ships Replacement Patch With Two Known Bugs 1

snydeq writes: Microsoft has re-released its botched MS14-045/KB 2982791 'Blue Screen 0x50' patch, only to introduce more problems, InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard reports. 'Even by Microsoft standards, this month's botched Black Tuesday Windows 7/8/8.1 MS14-045 patch hit a new low. The original patch (KB 2982791) is now officially "expired" and a completely different patch (KB 2993651) offered in its stead; there are barely documented revelations of new problems with old patches; patches that have disappeared; a "strong" recommendation to manually uninstall a patch that went out via Automatic Update for several days; and an infuriating official explanation that raises serious doubts about Microsoft's ability to support Windows 9's expected rapid update pace.'

Submission + - IBM opens up its Watson supercomputer to researchers

An anonymous reader writes: IBM has announced the "Watson Discovery Advisor" a cloud-based tool that will let researchers comb through massive troves of data, looking for insights and connections. The company says it's a major expansion in capabilities for the Watson Group, which IBM seeded with a $1 billion investment. "Scientific discovery takes us to a different level as a learning system," said Steve Gold, vice president of the Watson Group. "Watson can provide insights into the information independent of the question. The ability to connect the dots opens up a new world of possibilities."

Submission + - The downside of police having cameras 3

Presto Vivace writes: Why do we object to people wearing Google Glass but call for police to be equiped with cameras? True wearing a camera would make it more difficult for officers to lie (unless the camera accidentaly breaks). But just as Google Glass picks up everything — so would a police offier's camera. Do we want that?

Submission + - Magnetic stimulation boosts memory in people (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: Our memories are annoyingly glitchy. Names, dates, birthdays, and the locations of car keys fall through the cracks, losses that accelerate at an alarming pace with age and in neurodegenerative diseases. Now, by applying electromagnetic pulses through the skull to carefully targeted brain regions, researchers have found a way to boost memory performance in healthy people. The new study sheds light on the neural networks that support memories and may lead to therapies for people with memory deficits, researchers say.

Submission + - Software error caused Soyuz/Galileo failure 3

schwit1 writes: A report today in Russia says that the investigation into the Soyuz launch failure last week that while the Russian Fregat upper stage fired correctly in attempting to place the two Galileo GPS satellites into orbit, its software was programmed for the wrong orbit.

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