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Biotech

Submission + - Scientists create embryonic stem cells from skin (npr.org)

Submitted by Nerdposeur
Nerdposeur writes: Scientists from Kyoto University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have independently a method for giving adult human skin cells the characteristics of embryonic stem cells. According to the New Scientist story,

Both teams used viruses to insert four genes comprising the transcription factors into skin cells, and demonstrated that brain, heart and other tissues could be created from cells created this way.
From the NPR story:

If the work holds true to its promise, it would largely bypass ethical issues that have dogged research on human embryonic stem cells. It could also allow scientists to tailor the cells to specific individuals, eliminating the possibility of rejection.
Could this put some of the ethical questions around stem cell research to rest?
Music

Submission + - Thomas guilty of infringement

Submitted by
hymie!
hymie! writes: "http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/riaa_trial/index.html Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, was found liable Thursday for copyright infringement in the nation's first file-sharing case to go before a jury. Twelve jurors here said the Minnesota woman must pay $9,250 for each of 24 shared songs that were the subject of the lawsuit, amounting to $222,000 in penalties."
Music

Submission + - RIAA gets first victory in court

Submitted by Azar
Azar writes: After testimony wrapped up earlier today a verdict was handed down. Jammie Thomas, 30, from Minnesota had damages of $220,000 levied against her today. In the first such lawsuit to go to trial, the record companies accused Jammie Thomas of downloading the songs without permission and offering them online through a Kazaa file-sharing account. The jury ordered Thomas to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. They had alleged she shared 1,702 songs in all. During the three-day trial, the record companies presented evidence they said showed the copyrighted songs were offered by a Kazaa user under the name "tereastarr." Their witnesses, including officials from an Internet provider and a security firm, testified that the Internet address used by "tereastarr" belonged to Thomas.
Security

Submission + - EFF vs. AT&T: Wiretapping Lawsuit (eff.org)

Submitted by Sammy Sausage Head
Sammy Sausage Head writes: AT&T Must Face Justice for Illegal Spying

NSA Surveillance Comes Under Fire Today in Appeals Court Battle

San Francisco — In a packed San Francisco courtroom today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow AT&T customers to continue to fight against illegal spying on their telephone and Internet communications.

EFF is representing the plaintiffs in Hepting v. AT&T, a class-action lawsuit brought by AT&T customers accusing the giant telco of violating their rights by illegally assisting the National Security Agency in domestic surveillance. The U.S. government is fighting to get the class-action lawsuit thrown out of court, contending that the litigation jeopardizes state secrets.
Space

Submission + - Gamma Ray Anomaly Could Test String Theory (sciam.com)

Submitted by exploder
exploder writes: String theory is notorious for its lack of testable predictions. But if the MAGIC gamma-ray telescope team's interpretation is correct, then a delay in the arrival of higher-energy gamma rays could point to a breakdown of relativity theory. A type of "quantum lensing effect" is postulated to cause the delay, which is approximateley four minutes over a half-billion year journey.
Books

Submission + - Comics artist Mike Wieringo deceased

Submitted by lbalbalba
lbalbalba writes: Mike Wieringo, a well known comic books artist who's career includes work for renowned publishers such as Marvel and DC Comics, providing the drawings for well-known comic book characters such as Spider-Man, Superman, and the Fantastic Four, suffered a fatal heart attack on Sunday August 12th, passing away at the age of 44 [1963-2007].
Privacy

Submission + - Bush Orders No Cruel Treatment of Terror Suspects (foxnews.com)

Submitted by ArcherB
ArcherB writes: President Bush signed an executive order Friday prohibiting cruel and inhuman treatment, including humiliation or denigration of religious beliefs, in the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects.

Read the whole executive order HERE.

Huge Martian Dust Storm Threatens Rovers 164

Posted by Zonk from the sit-tight-little-robots dept.
Riding with Robots writes "NASA reports that a severe ongoing dust storm on the Red Planet has blocked 99 percent of the direct sunlight that powers the Opportunity rover. If these conditions persist for too long, it could finally bring an end to the marathon mission of this robot geologist, and perhaps of its partner Spirit as well. 'Before the dust storms began blocking sunlight last month, Opportunity's solar panels had been producing about 700 watt hours of electricity per day, enough to light a 100-watt bulb for seven hours. When dust in the air reduced the panels' daily output to less than 400 watt hours, the rover team suspended driving and most observations, including use of the robotic arm, cameras and spectrometers to study the site where Opportunity is located ... A possible outcome of this storm is that one or both rovers could be damaged permanently or even disabled. Engineers will assess the capability of each rover after the storm clears.'"
Supercomputing

Submission + - BlueGene/L ranked 1st in top500 for the 4th time

Submitted by paleshadows
paleshadows writes: The top500 list ranks the top 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world. It is published semiannually since 1993. The new list indicates that, for the fourth straight time, IBM's BlueGene/L of LLNL claimed the No. 1 spot at ~281 TerFlops per second. But while the No. 1 is still unchallenged, the list shows a lot of shuffling and the largest turnover among list entries in the history of the top500 project. This graph enumerates the number of systems each vendor has within the list, indicating that IBM is the dominant player, but that HP rapidly closes the gap. Of the top 10, the first 8 are situated in the U.S., while No. 9 and 10 are populated by Spain and Germany, respectively. Japan's first entry is at No. 14 with the EarthSimulator, which ranked first until 2004 when it was knocked off the top by the first blue BlueGene/L system.
Education

Submission + - 55% of the graduate students never get degrees (newsvine.com)

Submitted by
voa1941
voa1941 writes: "According to a study by the National Science Foundation (nsf.gov) only 45 percent of the students entering doctoral programs successfully finish and receive their degrees. Many of those students fund their graduate journey with enormous student loans — in some cases, well in excess of $100,000. This is a huge amount, especially for those who get nothing in return. Once dropped out, students have to start paying back the loans for their aborted education. Read more here..."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - AT&T now supports open access for 700Mhz band (rcrnews.com)

Submitted by RalphBNumbers
RalphBNumbers writes: AT&T has reversed it's previous stance, and broken ranks with the other major cellular providers, by endorsing FCC chairman Kevin Martin's plan to require open access to 22Mhz of the 60Mhz to be auctioned by the FCC in the 700Mhz band. This statement prompted Verizon to reiterate their opposition to any open access requirements, and Google to state their wish that the entire 60Mhz be auctioned with open access requirements.
Open access rules would require the auction winner to allow any compatible device to connect to their networks on the effected spectrum.
Data Storage

Submission + - With record retention, it's better to be wrong (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "Jerome Wendt, a former storage administrator, writes that even if companies misinterpret existing laws and create the wrong data retention policy that destroys requested data, they won't be held liable by regulators the first time an infraction occurs so long as they change their policies going forward. So 'it's better to be consistently wrong that consistently inconsistent.'"
Google

Submission + - Gigapixel Navigation in Google Maps (prague360.com)

Submitted by
jeffreyMartin
jeffreyMartin writes: "Google Code has featured us on code.google.com (permalink here- http://google-code-featured.blogspot.com/2007/07/p rague-360.html )

They seem to be very excited about the "Gigapixel Map" that I made with the help of my brother David http://vision.bc.edu/~dmartin/

This Gigapixel Map is, well, just that — instead of a street map which you can move around and zoom, it is a super-high-resolution photo (made from a few hundred photos stitched together). (Taken from the exact same place, it will be seasonal. Currently we have winter and spring.) We then used the map marker system that we are using on the "normal" maps to make this image a pretty nifty way to look at the city. When you click on any of the locations, it opens a fully spherical QTVR panorama. Seemed to me like the most sensible thing to do with these humungous images I made....

We'll be adding more soon, as well as for a couple other cities. Watch out for the summer version in Prague!"

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