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Space

New Theory of Gravity Decouples Space & Time 575

Posted by kdawson from the paging-hal-clement dept.
eldavojohn writes "Petr Horava, a physicist at the University of California in Berkeley, has a new theory about gravity and spacetime. At high energies, it actually snips any ties between space and time, yet at low energies devolves to equivalence with the theory of General Relativity, which binds them together. The theory is gaining popularity with physicists because it fits some observations better than Einstein's or Newton's solutions. It better predicts the movement of the planets (in an idealized case) and has a potential to create the illusion of dark matter. Another physicist calculated that under Horava Gravity, our universe would experience not a Big Bang but a Big Bounce — and the new theory reproduces the ripples from such an event in a way that matches measurements of the cosmic microwave background."
Software

Adobe Releases C/C++ To Flash Compiler 216

Posted by samzenpus from the transmutations dept.
SnT2k writes "Adobe recently released the beta version of Alchemy which compiles C/C++ code into AS3 bytecode (which runs on AVM2) that can run on the Flash or Flex platform and boasts increased performance for computationally-intensive tasks (but still slower than native C/C++). It was demonstrated last year during the Chicago MAX 2007 to run Quake. A few months later it has been demonstrated to run a Python interpreter and Nintendo Emulator. One interesting tidbit is that the thing is built upon the open source LLVM Compiler Infrastructure."

Comment Re:finger prints arent that unique! (Score 1) 157

by ardent99 (#25736479) Attached to: Identifying People By Odor As Effective As Fingerprinting

Regarding your point #2, it is correct, and is consistent with the original article, not in disagreement. The problem is that the article summary is mischaracterizing the article.

The summary says: The study showed that a persons unique odor stayed the same even if they varied their diet with strong smelling foods such as garlic and spices.

The article says: Scientists revealed an individual's odour signature remains detectable even when their diet is changed to include strong smelling foods such as garlic and spices.

So the article doesn't say that a person's odor doesn't change even if they vary their diet. Anyone whose eaten garlic knows that to be plainly false. It says that a person's unique odor signature is detectable even if they eat strong smelling foods like garlic, i.e. the garlic does change their scent, but the body's unique contribution is still detectable under the garlic.
Government

Submission + - Archbishop says UK should incorporate Sharia law

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: The Archbishop of Canterbury says the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable". Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4's World at One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system. Dr Williams argues that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion. For example, Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court. He says Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7232661.stm
Security

Submission + - Is a zeroed hard drive really secure?

Submitted by imus
imus writes: A challenge to confirm whether or not a professional data recovery firm or any individual(s) or organization(s) can recover data from a hard drive that has been overwritten with zeros once. We used the 32 year-old Unix dd command using /dev/zero as input to overwrite the drive... What do you guys think, can the challenge be won?
Privacy

Submission + - Guest forces AT&Tinterviewer to address monito

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: BoingBoing Gadgets blogger Joel Johnson was invited to be a guest on AT&T's Hugh Thompson Show. But before Thompson could get him to talk about gadgets, Johnson diverted the interview to ask what Thompson thought about AT&T's proposed monitoring of all internet packets going over their network. Hugh got flustered, and the producers halted the interview, but Johnson's friend was able to capture the take on video so it couldn't be buried by AT&T. The video is viewable on BoingBoing Gadgets.
United States

Submission + - Constitution Visitors Expelled for Caps/T-Shirts (opednews.com)

Submitted by wonkavader
wonkavader writes: "On Jan 12, members of John Niremberg's impeachment march (which started over a month ago in Boston) were either denied entry to or expelled from the National Archives for wearing clothing printed with the articles of the Constitution concerning impeachment."

The National Archives bars or boots people with parts of the constitution printed on T-Shirts? Yikes. The excuse used was that the Archives security should prevent protests in the Archives, but clearly, the people were expelled because of who they were, not what they did (which was apparently nothing other than get in line to see the Constitution). Does a national resource have the right to expel anyone based on political leanings? (The audio referenced is a little shrill, but has some interesting details.)

Stories are here and here.
Privacy

Submission + - If Your Hard Drive Could Testify ...

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A couple of years ago, Michael T. Arnold landed at the Los Angeles International Airport after a 20-hour flight from the Philippines. He had his laptop with him, and a customs officer took a look at what was on his hard drive. Clicking on folders called "Kodak pictures" and "Kodak memories," the officer found child pornography. The search was not unusual: the government contends that it is perfectly free to inspect every laptop that enters the country, whether or not there is anything suspicious about the computer or its owner. Rummaging through a computer's hard drive, the government says, is no different than looking through a suitcase. One federal appeals court has agreed, and a second seems ready to follow suit. There is one lonely voice on the other side. In 2006, Judge Dean D. Pregerson of Federal District Court in Los Angeles suppressed the evidence against Mr. Arnold. "Electronic storage devices function as an extension of our own memory," Judge Pregerson wrote, in explaining why the government should not be allowed to inspect them without cause. "They are capable of storing our thoughts, ranging from the most whimsical to the most profound." Computer hard drives can include, Judge Pregerson continued, diaries, letters, medical information, financial records, trade secrets, attorney-client materials and — the clincher, of course — information about reporters' "confidential sources and story leads." But Judge Pregerson's decision seems to be headed for reversal. The three judges who heard the arguments in October in the appeal of his decision seemed persuaded that a computer is just a container and deserves no special protection from searches at the border. The same information in hard-copy form, their questions suggested, would doubtless be subject to search. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., took that position in a 2005 decision. It upheld the conviction of John W. Ickes Jr., who crossed the Canadian border with a computer containing child pornography. A customs agent's suspicions were raised, the court's decision said, "after discovering a video camera containing a tape of a tennis match which focused excessively on a young ball boy." It is true that the government should have great leeway in searching physical objects at the border. But the law requires a little more — a "reasonable suspicion" — when the search is especially invasive, as when the human body is involved. Searching a computer, said Jennifer M. Chacón, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, "is fairly intrusive." Like searches of the body, she said, such "an invasive search should require reasonable suspicion." An interesting supporting brief filed in the Arnold case by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives and the Electronic Frontier Foundation said there have to be some limits on the government's ability to acquire information. "Under the government's reasoning," the brief said, "border authorities could systematically collect all of the information contained on every laptop computer, BlackBerry and other electronic device carried across our national borders by every traveler, American or foreign." That is, the brief said, "simply electronic surveillance after the fact." The government went even further in the case of Sebastien Boucher, a Canadian who lives in New Hampshire. Mr. Boucher crossed the Canadian border by car about a year ago, and a customs agent noticed a laptop in the back seat. Asked whether he had child pornography on his laptop, Mr. Boucher said he was not sure. He said he downloaded a lot of pornography but deleted child pornography when he found it. Some of the files on Mr. Boucher's computer were encrypted using a program called Pretty Good Privacy, and Mr. Boucher helped the agent look at them, apparently by entering an encryption code. The agent said he saw lots of revolting pornography involving children. The government seized the laptop. But when it tried to open the encrypted files again, it could not. A grand jury instructed Mr. Boucher to provide the password. But a federal magistrate judge quashed that subpoena in November, saying that requiring Mr. Boucher to provide it would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Last week, the government appealed. The magistrate judge, Jerome J. Niedermeier of Federal District Court in Burlington, Vt., used an analogy from Supreme Court precedent. It is one thing to require a defendant to surrender a key to a safe and another to make him reveal its combination. The government can make you provide samples of your blood, handwriting and the sound of your voice. It can make you put on a shirt or stand in a lineup. But it cannot make you testify about facts or beliefs that may incriminate you, Judge Niedermeier said. "The core value of the Fifth Amendment is that you can't be made to speak in ways that indicate your guilt," Michael Froomkin, a law professor at the University of Miami, wrote about the Boucher case on his Discourse.net blog. But Orin S. Kerr, a law professor at the George Washington University, said Judge Niedermeier had probably gotten it wrong. "In a normal case," Professor Kerr said in an interview, "there would be a privilege." But given what Mr. Boucher had already done at the border, he said, making him provide the password again would probably not violate the Fifth Amendment. There are all sorts of lessons in these cases. One is that the border seems be a privacy-free zone. A second is that encryption programs work. A third is that you should keep your password to yourself. And the most important, as my wife keeps telling me, is that you should leave your laptop at home. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/us/07bar.html?ei=5090&en=d0caa6c9bacf76ed&ex=1357362000&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1199714806-NZ2agd4Kikkv8hShxGsvKg&pagewanted=print
Enlightenment

Submission + - Blaming the victim

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: Why is it that when commenting on Slashdot stories there is consistently a set of people who say essentially "You're an idiot for not knowing x"? Usually it is computer-savvy people who say it about other people using computers (although others do it, too). They say "people should know never to click on that kind of link", or "that person is an idiot for falling for that scheme", or "people should know never to use *that* command in this situation. It's clearly written in the manual! What a schmuck!"

Suppose an architect said "You should have known never to walk down those stairs without ducking or you wouldn't have hit your head! It's so obvious! And changing it would cost a lot and affect the design upstairs." or "That person should never have walked into the big door on the front of the building, they should have read the sign on that small door that says it's the entrance! What a schmuck!"

Suppose an interior designer said to a disabled person who can't get through a door "So what if the desk prevents the door from opening fully? It makes the room look better, and all the people who I expect to be going through that door can fit easily!"

Suppose an auto company said "That person who hit the gas instead of the brake and killed themselves? It was their own fault. We clearly educate every customer that buys our cars that the brake is on the right and gas is on the left. It is more optimal that way, and if they didn't do it right, they just are too stupid to own one of our cars."

Isn't it more reasonable to think "Jeez, I didn't realize there was that failure mode" or "I knew that, but I guess there are other people who have different expectations", or "that design wasn't very good" or even, "boy I'm glad I was knowledgeable enough to avoid that trap, but it's too bad he wasn't"?

Is it a certain kind of arrogance, or lack of empathy that makes people blame the victim? Why is it so common on Slashdot, especially in relation to software and the internet?
Privacy

Submission + - Sears leaps into the spyware business (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Gandalf_the_Beardy
Gandalf_the_Beardy writes: The Register reports that Havard researcher Ben Edelman claims Sears Holding Corp — owners of Sears and Roebuck and of KMart has been tracking peoples online browsing after loading Sears provided software From the article "...Sears Holding Corporation, owner of Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart, makes the pitch in an email sent to people shortly after they provide their address at Sears.com. Clicking the "Join" button invokes a dialog that requests the person's name, address and household size before installing ComScore spyware that monitors every site visited on the computer..." The alleged spyware's tracking activity was disclosed — on page 10 of a 54 page document. Sears alleges they have done nothing wrong saying the retailer "..goes to great lengths to describe the tracking aspect" of the software. He also claims a progress bar during the installation of the software gives users an easy way to back out if they change their mind..."
Biotech

Submission + - Larger human brain led to larger penis (pressesc.com) 2

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "The human penis is comparatively larger than that of the other great apes because of our comparatively larger brains, gynecologist Edwin A. Bowman explains in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Through millions of years evolution the infant babies' skulls became larger in order to accommodate bigger brains, explained Dr. Bowman. This in turn led to a female pelvis become larger to allow women to give birth to children with larger brains, and this led to the female vagina also becoming less tight."
Power

Submission + - Toshiba Micro Nuclear Reactor for Apt Buildings

Submitted by ardent99
ardent99 writes: Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want more control over their energy needs.

The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy.

Toshiba expects to install the first reactor in Japan in 2008 and to begin marketing the new system in Europe and America in 2009.
Education

Submission + - A Master's Degree in Intelligent Design (chron.com)

Submitted by
ParanoidDrunkard
ParanoidDrunkard writes: "The Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research is seeking state approval to grant an online master's degree in science education to prepare teachers to "understand the universe within the integrating framework of Biblical creationism," according to the school's mission statement. Last week, an advisory council made up of university educators voted to recommend the program for approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, sparking an outcry among science advocates who have fended off attempts by religious groups to insert creationism into Texas classrooms. But students and faculty must profess faith in a literal translation of Biblical creation — that God created the world in six days and made humans and animals in their current life forms; that the Earth is only thousands of years old; and the fossil record is the result of a global flood described in the Bible, according to the Web site. Is this another attempt to validate intelligent design as a science?"

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