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Editorial

Submission + - FDA Warning on E-cigarettes is dishonest 1

Submitted by Pessimist+Cynic
Pessimist+Cynic writes: ...according to Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health. The FDA had first issued a warning saying that e-cigarettes are just as evil as their (what they're now being called) analog counterparts, the tobacco cigarettes. People that have already quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes could not believe how the FDA came to the conclusion that propylene glycol + nicotine could be as harmful as the 4700 chemical compounds that can be found in cigarettes. Well, apparently neither can Dr. Whelan believe that, given the editorial she wrote for the Washington Times. Is the FDA afraid they won't be able to tax vaporizing devices as heavily as tobacco cigarettes?
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Touchable Holography (codingfuture.com)

Submitted by
future.nerd
future.nerd writes: "What if we can touch and feel virtual 3D objects? Indeed, a new paradigm will be formed then. A paradigm that will catapult us to the next level of human computer interaction. Get ready for that paradigm because touchable holograms are here. A research team from University of Tokyo is demonstrating a touchable holograph in siggraph2009."
Privacy

Submission + - Ubuntu's new Firefox is watching you (launchpad.net) 3

Submitted by sukotto
sukotto writes: Ubuntu recently released an unannounced and experimental "multisearch" extension to Firefox alpha3... apparently to improve the default behavior of new tabs and of search. In a response to one of the initial bug reports the maintainers mentioned that the extension's other purpose was for "collecting the usage data" and "Generating revenue" [citation] . Since this extension installs by itself and offers no warning about potential privacy violations, quite a few people (myself included) feel pretty unhappy.

There is no way to opt-out other than manually disabling the extension via Tools >> Add-ons.
Networking

Submission + - Comcast the latest ISP to try DNS hijacking (comcast.net)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "In the latest blow to "DNS neutrality", Comcast is starting to redirect users to an ad-laden holding page when they try to connect to nonexistent domains.

I have just received an email from them to that effect, tried it, and lo and behold, indeed there is the ugly DNS hijack page.

The good news is that the opt-out is a more sensible registration based on cable modem MAC, rather than the deplorable "cookie method" we just saw from Bell in a recent slashdot story (http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/pzlZQFaBZBw/Bell-Starts-Hijacking-NX-Domain-Queries).

All you comcast customers and friends of comcast customers who want to get out of this, go to https://dns-opt-out.comcast.net/ to opt out.

Is there anything that can be done to stop (and reverse) this DNS breakage trend that the ISPs seem to be latching onto lately? Maybe the latest net neutrality bill (recently discussed on slashdot: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OuTwCeuF0MU/Network-Neutrality-Back-In-Congress-For-3rd-Time) will help?"
The Military

Submission + - US Marine Corps bans Web 2.0 (wired.com) 1

Submitted by
DesScorp
DesScorp writes: "The Marines have banned social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook from all USMC networks, effectively immediately. "These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries," reads a Marine Corps order, issued Monday. "The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel... at an elevated risk of compromise." Wired's Danger Room blog notes that the ban is effective for one year, and that social networking advocates within the Pentagon argue that Web 2.0 sites provide a valuable means of communication and support for the military."
The Internet

Submission + - Researchers Say Wikipedia May Be in Slow Decline

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "New research shows that Wikipedia's ascendancy to the top of a large pool of online reference sites has come to an end as growth has leveled and the nature of the community has made it less welcoming to new contributors. "It's easy to say that Wikipedia will always be here," says Dr. Ed Chi, a senior scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center. "This research shows that is not a given." While the site is still wildly popular for those trying to figure out who played in Super Bowl XXII, the name of Pink Floyd's original frontman, or how a convection oven works, the explosive growth that characterized its early years leveled in 2006 at around 60,000 new articles per month, declining by nearly a third since then. But the trends within the community itself are far more troublesome. The year after the amount of new content flattened, the number of edits per month plateaued as well at around 5.5 million. Meanwhile, the number of users making edits leveled off at around 750,000 monthly. Data also suggests the Wikipedia community is becoming resistant to new content and new editors with passive editors who make just a single change per month seeing around a quarter of their changes erased or modified by other, more active editors. "This is evidence of growing resistance from the Wikipedia community to new content," says Chi. The resulting exclusion of more varied contributions shifts the balance of power on Wikipedia to those fewer active editors, and in turn could make Wikipedia more like a fraternity than a community-driven social encyclopedia. Wikipedia's growth "is consistent with a growth processes that hits a constraint — for instance, due to resource limitations in systems," writes Chi. "Rather than exponential growth, such systems display logistic growth.""
Earth

Submission + - 3D Images Reconstructed of 300M Year Old Spiders

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Scientists at Imperial College London have created detailed 3D computer models of two fossilized specimens of ancient creatures called Cryptomartus hindi and Eophrynus prestvicii, closely related to modern-day spiders. The researchers created their images by using a CT scanning device, which enabled them to take 3,000 x-rays of each fossil then compile them into precise 3D models, using custom-designed software. Both spiders roamed the Earth before the dinnosaurs during the Carboniferous period, 359 — 299 million years ago when life was emerging from the oceans to live on land. C. hindi's front pair of legs were angled toward the front, suggesting they were used to grapple with prey, an "ambush predator" like the modern-day crab spider, lying in wait for prey to come close. Another finding from the models is that E. prestivicii had hard spikes along its back, probably as a defensive measure making it less palatable to the amphibians that would have hunted it. "Our models almost bring these ancient creatures back to life and it's really exciting to be able to look at them in such detail," says researcher Russel Garwood adding that the technique could be used to return to fossils that have previously been analyzed by conventional means. "Our study helps build a picture of what was happening during this period early in the history of life on land.""
Privacy

Submission + - Personal data on 131k Army Guard troops lost. (dvidshub.net)

Submitted by
gandhi_2
gandhi_2 writes: "

Approximately 131,000 current and former Army National Guard members could be affected by a recent data loss, which occurred when a personal laptop owned by an Army Guard contractor was stolen.

The stolen laptop contained personal information on Soldiers enrolled in the Army National Guard Bonus and Incentives Program. The type of data includes names, Social Security Numbers, incentive payment amounts and payment dates.

Those 131k troops could probably tell you: unless deadly force was used to "steal" it, it wasn't stolen. Someone just left it unsecured."
Sony

Submission + - 24-hrs later, Sony removes ad from WipEout HD (kotaku.com)

Submitted by
Ifandbut
Ifandbut writes: "From Kotaku:

The people have spoken. Spoken angrily. And Sony have listened, removing the worst of the in-game advertising from WipeOut HD only 24 hours after it was first officially announced.
"The ad has been removed from WipEout HD", a Sony rep told Eurogamer, "and we are investigating the situation to ensure that any in-game advertising does not affect gameplay".
Note this doesn't mean all advertising in the game has been removed; only the ad that was causing the annoying, increased load times.

It appears to be only one ad. The State Farm ad which appeared to increase the loading times by as much as 10 seconds as seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX4f9zts6JM"
Earth

Submission + - Expedition to Explore Texas Size Plastic 'Island' 1

Submitted by
Peace Corps Online
Peace Corps Online writes: "BBC reports that an expedition called Project Kaisei leaves this month bound for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a huge "island" of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean estimated to be twice the size of Texas to study the impact of the waste on marine life. "Every piece of trash that is left on a beach or ends up in our rivers or estuaries and washes out to the sea is an addition to the problem, so we need people to be the solution," says Ryan Yerkey, the project's chief of operations. The garbage patch occupies a large and relatively stationary region of the North Pacific Ocean bound by the North Pacific Gyre, a remote area commonly referred to as the horse latitudes. The rotational pattern created by the North Pacific Gyre draws in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean, including the coastal waters off North America and Japan. As material is captured in the currents, wind-driven surface currents gradually move floating debris toward the center, trapping it in the region. "You are talking about quite a bit of marine debris but it's not a solid mass," adds Yerkley. "Twenty years from now we can't be harvesting the ocean for trash. We need to get it out but we need to also have people make those changes in their lives to stop the problem from growing and hopefully reverse the course.""
Privacy

Submission + - Pirate Bay's IPREDator not a place to hide (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by schliz
schliz writes: The Pirate Bay's new IPREDator anonymity service could be insufficiently secure for several use cases — for example, political activism in countries like Iran. The service uses PPTP, which has several known vulnerabilities, and according to IPREDator co-founder Peter Sunde, "can probably be broken by someone that can eavesdrop on the traffic".

The service was announced as a political statement in April and entered beta testing last week.
Privacy

Submission + - Unions may lobby UK Govt. to make ISPs to reg. P2P (tuc.org.uk)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The UK Trades Union Congress (TUC) will vote in September on a motion requesting that the UK Government force ISPs to take legal action (PDF) to prevent their customers from engaging in what they call illegal distribution of content over their networks.

From the motion P70 of the preliminary agenda proposed by the Broadcasting, Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU):

"Congress believes: 1. internet service providers should now be required to take stronger action against the illegal distribution of content over their networks 2. internet service providers should therefore be required to send warning notices to offenders and to take additional graduated measures to prevent illegal downloading by individuals who ignore multiple warnings 3. such measures should be introduced by means of enabling legislation.

Congress believes this is an issue of preserving workers' jobs and that internet service providers should not be allowed to pursue their ruthless commercial interests under the cover of false and misleading justifications based on freedom of information. Congress therefore calls on the General Council to campaign for the Government to take early and effective action to introduce and implement such measures."

All TUC affiliated unions will be voting on this matter at the TUC's conference starting the 12th of September. If you are a member of a trade union, you can ask your National Executives and General Secretaries not to support the motion.

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