AliasMarlowe - Slashdot User

Submission + - Alcohol most damaging drug, according to UK expert (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Monday November 01, 2010 @03:42AM

AliasMarlowe writes: Prof. Nutt, who was formerly scientific advisor to the UK government on drug policy, has published an article in the Lancet comparing the damaging effects of various drugs on (i) the individual, and (ii) others in society. Top of the damage list is alcohol, followed by heroin and crack. Cocaine and tobacco came at about one third the score of alcohol, while ecstasy and LSD are estimated to be among the least damaging. No word in the BBC article on cannabis, perhaps to avoid influencing the Proposition 19 vote in California.

Just as a reminder, Prof. Nutt was sacked from his advisory position by the previous (Labour) government, apparently because he relied on actual evidence for making his recommendations instead of echoing what the politicians wanted to hear.

Submission + - Bad news! Porn film-making suspended. (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Wednesday October 13, 2010 @02:02PM

AliasMarlowe writes: Two of America's biggest porn movie studios have suspended all movie making. It's because a male star (un-named) has tested positive for HIV, and now they have the unenviable job of notifying his many recent co-stars. There may be some job openings in these studios, since HIV-infected performers are not at all welcome. The studios are Vivid Entertainment and Wicked Pictures. But nobody will be surprised if they try to blame the financial hit on piracy of some sort.

Submission + - 3-strikes law cancelled in Ireland (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Tuesday October 12, 2010 @07:39AM

AliasMarlowe writes: The High Court in Ireland has essentially gutted the "Three Strikes" style laws passed in that country. To the dismay of media companies, the Court ruled in a case pitting an ISP (UPC, which initiated the action) against the media companies that a law cutting off file sharers was contrary to EU legislation, and could not be enforced. Other ISPs in Ireland may review their 3-strikes policies, although the biggest, Eircom, says it has not actually cut anyone off.

Submission + - Journal: Marching with al Qaeda? (slashdot.org)

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Saturday January 16, 2010 @04:27PM

AliasMarlowe writes: Looking at the "shoe bomber" and the "underpants bomber", it is hard to escape the conclusion that they intended to fail at blowing up airliners. They intended instead to push Western society further from its own ideals and towards repression and reduction of rights and liberties. In this, they succeeded, and advanced the cause of their sponsors. My journal suggests what some of their next steps might be to lead the U.S. and others further down that slippery slope, and why the reflexive responses of "security" will do exactly what the terrorists want and further advance the cause of the terrorists and their sponsors.

Submission + - Recession hits porn industry (economist.com) 2

Submitted by

AliasMarlowe

on Saturday September 19, 2009 @01:32PM

AliasMarlowe writes: "The unthinkable has actually happened. The porn industry, which was been untouched by several previous recessions, has been severely hit by the current recession. The Economist, ever watchful of important trends, includes the porn industry among the sectors its reporters monitor and analyze. They consider the 50-80% cuts in porn production to be a critical difference between the present recession and other, lesser recessions, with work for "actors" being greatly reduced, pay per performance being cut back. The industry spokespersons, of course, also blame the internet for supplying cheap plentiful porn which had already caused hardship; the economic slowdown was merely an additional hit. "The industry will shrink and stay shrunken" said one performer. Hard times or flaccid times?"

Submission + - Habitual multitaskers do it badly (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @01:34AM

AliasMarlowe writes: Those who multitask regularly, and consider themselves good at it were compared with those who generally single-task and consider themselves poor multitaskers. The comparison involved multitasking with a number of attention or context related tests. For the study, multitasking was defined as consuming multiple media sources at once — gaming, TV, IM, email, etc. Interestingly, the habitual multitaskers were much worse at multitasking than the single taskers in these relatively straightforward tests. In self-assessment the multitaskers considered themselves good at it and the single taskers considered themselves bad at it. An extreme case of the Dunning-Kruger effect, perhaps, with consequences for business and society.

Submission + - Too many humans on Earth (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Wednesday April 01, 2009 @03:33AM

AliasMarlowe writes: Dr. Nina Federoff (a science advisor to the US government) asserts that the human population is at or past the Earth's limit for sustaining us, according to a report in the BBC.

Pressed on whether she thought the world population was simply too high, Dr Fedoroff replied: "There are probably already too many people on the planet."
In her opinion, to feed the current population adequately will require a departure from traditional agriculture, including increased use of GM crops and novel approaches to cultivation.
"We wouldn't think of going to our doctor and saying 'Treat me the way doctors treated people in the 19th Century', and yet that's what we're demanding in food production."

Dr. Federoff is an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Submission + - Intel and ASUS ask what kind of PC you'd like (wepc.com)

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Monday November 03, 2008 @06:16AM

AliasMarlowe writes: Intel and ASUS have started a web site to collect users' ideas on what kind of PC to develop http://www.wepc.com/ Although the usual requests such as faster boot or longer battery life can be entered, the Dream page on the site http://www.wepc.com/dream is intended to go beyond mere tweaking of the standard netbook, laptop, desktop, and server configurations.
So far, dream ideas proposed include the "ghetto blaster PC" equipped with powerful speakers, and the "happy PC" to wake you up in the morning http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7704709.stm. Another submitter wants a PC to recognize that he is the user, but from analysis of typing style rather than login/password or a dodgy fingerprint scanner.
Obviously very few ideas will make it, either through technical infeasibility or perceived market size.

Submission + - On the spot drug test needed to enter bars (bbc.co.uk) 3

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Sunday November 02, 2008 @05:25AM

AliasMarlowe writes: Scottish police in Aberdeen have started a campaign to find drug users and dealers. Anyne wishing to enter a bar in Aberdeen will have to submit to a hand swab for immediate analysis. The analyzer can apparently detect cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, and heroin, even in trace amounts. If drugs are detected, the person will be searched and possibly arrested. This process is "voluntary", but anyone who refuses to allow a swab to be taken and analyzed will not be allowed into the pub. It is not known if refusal will lead to other consequences, but it may be viewed with suspicion. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/7702856.stm

The unintended consequence will probably be to push a significant amount of alcohol use into unmonitored locations, such as private clubs, or completely out of view just like use of other drugs. Bars will likely see a drop in revenues, since it will not be safe to visit one for weeks after consuming certain drugs.

Submission + - Old materials resurface for "prebiotic soup (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Friday October 17, 2008 @03:48AM

AliasMarlowe writes: Stanley Miller performed the famous experiments in the 1950s showing that amino acids and other building blocks for biomolecules could be produced by passing lightning through a mix of simple hydrocarbons, water vapour, and ammonia (thought at the time to approximate the Earth's early atmosphere). Other experiments approximated the environment around volcanic eruptions, but those results were not published. Following his death last year, a colleague discovered the materials from those experiments, in labelled vials http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7675193.stm

Analysis of the contents of the vials indicates that the conditions around volcanic eruptions (still thought to be representative of such events in the early Earth) resulted in a higher yield of amino acids than the simple lightning experiments, and resulted in a greater variety of amino acids.

Yet again, corroborative evidence for the production of prebiotic materials in the very early Earth, on which more complex chemical processes could be built.

Submission + - Yet another rootkit for Windows via IE

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Saturday January 12, 2008 @08:19AM

AliasMarlowe writes: Yet another rootkit is being installed on Windows PCs via an Internet Explorer exploit which modifies the MBR to load malicious code on startup. Apparently originating in Russia, it is spreading mostly in Europe. The rootkit can download malware such as keyloggers, and can reinstall the malware if it is deleted by anti-virus programs. Typically, the purpose is to intercept login details for online banking (900 financial institutions), and send the harvested information to its originators.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7183008.stm Windows Vista, XP, 2000, and 2003 may all be vulnerable.

Submission + - Kentucky getting loony museum of non-evolution

Submitted by AliasMarlowe on Sunday April 15, 2007 @03:09AM

AliasMarlowe writes: The BBC reports that a creationist organization (Answers in Genesis) is building an alleged museum in Petersberg Kentucky, not far from Cincinnati Ohio. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own _correspondent/6549595.stm

The museum will be replete with animatronic dinosaurs and suchlike, with tyrannosaurs shown peacefully cohabiting with human children in a sort of Garden-of-Eden paradise. Geology, paleontology, and other branches of accepted science are not considered relevant to the "bible-based" twisted storyline. Of course, it's all presented as fact supported by the usual wierd hypotheses of creationists.

The BBC report has overtones of incredulity that such an inane insane fantasy world could really be promoted as fact. Even one of the museum park guides tactfully said he preferred to stick to accepted science. The BBC reporter was accompanied by Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, who castigated the creationist's misuse of facts intertwined with mythology.

Now that Kansas has started cleaning up its school board, is Kentucky stepping forward as the next base for the loony fringe?

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