Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Doesn't matter (Score 1) 156

by cb_is_cool (#38413394) Attached to: Kazakhstan Disables the Internet , Telecomix Restores
The story came from the Washington Post so all manner of journalists know of it, and internally, word of mouth is almost as quick and just as effective as tweeting, facebooking, etc. When will governments realize that even their best efforts to control information are akin to holding back an ocean with a leaky sieve?
United States

Submission + - China 'to overtake US on science' in two years (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by cb_is_cool
cb_is_cool writes: From the beeb:

"China is on course to overtake the US in scientific output possibly as soon as 2013 — far earlier than expected.

That is the conclusion of a major new study by the Royal Society, the UK's national science academy. "
Government

Submission + - UN Supports WikiLeaks' Right To Publish (eweekeurope.co.uk) 6

Submitted by geek4
geek4 writes: A UN statement argues the human right to publish in the public interest, but restraint should be exercised
Following a bad few weeks for WikiLeaks, Santa seems to have arrived early to deliver a surprise gift in the form of backing from the United Nations.

In a joint statement by two UN officials, member states have been reminded of their duty to observe citizen rights to access information held by national authorities.

The rebuke from Frank LaRue, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and Catalina Botero Marino, the inter-American commission on human rights special rapporteur for freedom of expression, will upset the right wing faction in the US government and provide support for WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange as court proceedings are ranged against him.
Biotech

Submission + - Ancient Nubians Drank Antibiotic Laced Beer (blogspot.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: A new analysis of millennia old mummy bones shows high concentrations of tetracycline which indicates empirical knowledge and use of antibiotics — most likely consumed in beer. The researchers traced the source of the antibiotics to the soil bacteria streptomyces present in the grain used to ferment the beer. Astonishingly enough, 'Even the tibia and skull belonging to a 4-year-old were full of tetracycline, suggesting that they were giving high doses to the child to try and cure him of illness.' The extent of saturation in the bones leads the scientists to assert that the population regularly consumed tetracycline antibiotics knowing that it would cure certain sicknesses.
Medicine

Possible Treatment For Ebola 157

Posted by samzenpus from the there's-a-pill-for-that dept.
RedEaredSlider writes "Researchers at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have found a class of drugs that could provide treatment for Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever. The new drugs are called 'antisense' compounds, and they allow the immune system to attack the viruses before they can do enough damage to kill the patient. Travis Warren, research scientist at USAMRIID, said while the work is still preliminary -— the drugs have been tested only on primates — the results are so far promising. In the case of Ebola, five of eight monkeys infected with the virus lived, and with Marburg, all survived. The drugs were developed as part of a program to deal with possible bioterrorist threats, in partnership with AVI Biopharma."
It's funny. Laugh.

Newsweek Easter Egg Reports Zombie Invasion 93

Posted by kdawson from the it-takes-braaains dept.
danielkennedy74 writes "Newsweek.com becomes the latest in a long list of sites that will reveal an Easter egg if you enter the Konami code correctly (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, enter). This is a cheat code that appeared in many of Konami's video games, starting around 1986 — my favorite places to use it were Contra and Life Force, 30 lives FTW. The Easter egg was probably included by a developer unbeknownst to the Newsweek powers that be. It's reminiscent of an incident that happened at ESPN last year, involving unicorns."
Canada

Cheap Cancer Drug Finally Tested In Humans 363

Posted by timothy from the good-enough-for-the-likes-of-you dept.
John Bayko writes "Mentioned on Slashdot a couple of years ago, the drug dichloroacetate (DCA) has finally finished its first clinical trial against brain tumors in humans. Drug companies weren't willing to test a drug they could not patent, so money was raised in the community through donations, auctions, and finally government support, but the study was still limited to five patients. It showed extremely positive results in four of them. This episode raises the question of what happens to all the money donated to Canadian and other cancer societies, and especially the billions spent buying merchandise with little pink ribbons on it, if not to actual cancer research like this."
Biotech

Submission + - Cancer Breathalyzer

Submitted by Tiger4
Tiger4 writes: Cancer researchers in the UK have come up with a way to sniff for lung cancer on the breath.

"From the results, the researchers identified 42 "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs) present in the breath of 83% of cancer patients but fewer than 83% of healthy volunteers.

Four of the most reliable were used to develop a nine-sensor array made from tiny gold particles coated with reactive chemicals sensitive to the compounds.

Other sources have picked up the story as well. Obviously, this would be a big breakthrough for rapid screening, and early detection significantly improves outcomes.

The Internet

Submission + - Internet's First Registered Domain Name Sold (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Believe it or not, it wasn't iternet.com or dot.com that was purchased when the Internet was "born." Instead, it was the somewhat off-the-wall name of symbolics.com. The Symbolics company was the first to use an internet domain name to guide Internet viewers to its line of Lisp machines, which were single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp programming language. XF.com Investments, which is a Missouri-based Internet investments firm, has managed to secure the domain name from its original owner for an undisclosed sum and XF's CEO was quick to proclaim his excitement over the acquisition. It's hard to say why this domain name was the first purchased back on March 15, 1985, but for obvious reasons it holds a special place in history. There has been one original owner for nearly 25 years. Over that time, we've seen the Internet grow to the tune of 180,000,000+ registered domains, and thousands more are being added each and every day."
Power

Submission + - Electric Company Wants Monthly Fee For Solar Users

Submitted by 7-Vodka
7-Vodka writes: Xcel Energy customers who have their own solar panels are worried about a new fee being proposed by the company. The monthly fee to pay for transmission and distribution of energy would be charged to customers who have solar panels irrespective of their energy use for the month.

An Xcel Energy spokesman said that the fee is to ensure that regular customers don't subsidize the "connectivity fees" for the solar panel customers who don't pay their fees when they use no electricity. Unfortunately, when pressed the spokesman admitted that nobody actually pays a "connectivity fee" yet however they wanted to prevent the mooching from occurring in the future (presumably when they hit everyone with such a fee) and also called the absence of a connectivity fee for solar customers a "double subsidy" because many solar customers receive rebates to install the panels.

Slashdot Top Deals

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred. -- Superchicken

Close