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Government

Submission + - Congress throws science a big bone (sciencemag.org) 2

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Hoping to reverse years of Bush cuts to science, Congress this week has pledged hundreds of millions to key agencies such as NIH, NSF, and NASA. The boost could help save FermiLab, an anti-matter NASA experiment, and a host of other projects.
Puzzle Games (Games)

Submission + - Gamers to Help Design HIV Vaccines

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "For years, biochemists have reengineered naturally occurring proteins by growing them in viruses and single-celled organisms in a process called directed evolution. Now David Baker, a leading protein scientist at the University of Washington, has demonstrated the first algorithm for building novel, functioning enzymes from scratch and wants to enlists gamers to improve three-dimensional protein structures, using graphical representations of real protein chemistry. Baker's game, called Foldit which is avaiable for download, uses humans, who are better at seeing the big picture than computers are, to improve computer-designed proteins. The first several levels of Foldit are designed to teach players what good proteins look like and how to manipulate them using the tools of the game. After improving the designs of a few test proteins, players can advance into competitive play, working in teams or alone. By making the game available to anyone over the Web, the researchers expect to find people they call protein savants — people who are very good at solving protein structures and who will spend several hours a week playing the game."
The Military

Pentagon Manipulating TV Analysts 361

Posted by kdawson from the media-trojan-horse dept.
gollum123 notes an extensive article from the NYTimes on the evidence that the military, since the time of the buildup to the Iraq war, has been manipulating the military analysts that are ubiquitous on TV and radio news programs, in a protracted campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's war efforts. "Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity of military analysts on the major networks, is a Pentagon information apparatus... The effort... has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air. Several dozen of the military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members, or consultants. Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks. ...[M]embers of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access."
Power

Submission + - Using Microturbines for Powering Data Centers (outervillage.com) 2

Submitted by
OuterVillage
OuterVillage writes: "With utility pricing going through the roof it looks like more and more facilities are looking for energy alternatives to power and cool their data centers. One such technology that seems to be gaining some traction is the use of microturbines.

"Microturbines offer ultra low emissions and can run on pretty much any fuel type. They could operate on natural gas (or even biogas), solar energy, or a combination of many types of cost effective and clean fuels. A bank of microturbines could produce electricity on site that is cleaner and more stable than anything coming over the grid. As an added benefit, any excess power could be sold back to public utilities that would benefit surrounding communities.

Different than conventional generators that combine a reciprocating engine like those used in trucks with a separate power generator, microturbines are a newer technology that combine scaled down jet engine technology with an integrated generator. Capstone Microturbines, the leading microturbine vendor, has created an engine that has just one moving part, uses no liquid lubricants or coolants, and has no gearbox or other mechanical subsystems. This dramatically increases reliability and reduces maintenance costs associated with using turbine technology. It can operate at full load 24 hours a day for a year before reaching the first recommended maintenance: an air and fuel filter change. ""
Transportation

Tesla's High-Tech Lawsuits in Silicon Valley War 79

Posted by timothy from the lawsuits-are-positively-negative dept.
An anonymous reader writes "After pressing charges against its chief competitor in the race for the world's first production electric sports car that we broke down here recently, Tesla Motors seems to be shifting from the high-tech company re-writing Detroit's script to another Silicon Valley startup trying to sniff out the competition. So says Engadget's legal analyst in an in-depth column breaking down the legal ramifications. From the article: "This could upset the whole race for major production of an electric car in the U.S., which may be the main result of this whole drama. If anything, that's a win for Tesla. Let's just hope the company that set out to upend the automotive industry achieves its competitive goals in the lab and in the marketplace — and keeps its future fights out of the courtroom.""
Government

Bill Gates's Wish Is Homeland Security's Command 374

Posted by kdawson from the one-way-or-another dept.
theodp writes "PC World reports that DHS has extended the time foreign graduates of US colleges can stay in the country and work to almost two-and-a-half years, an 'emergency' change that drew kudos from Microsoft and other H-1B visa stakeholders. Looks like when Bill Gates says 'Jump,' the government asks 'How high?' Bill Gates's Congressional Testimony, March 12, 2008: 'Extending OPT from 12 to 29 months would help to alleviate the crisis employers are facing due to the current H-1B visa shortage. This only requires action by the Executive Branch, and Congress and this Committee should strongly urge the Department of Homeland Security to take such action immediately.' DHS Press Release, April 4, 2008: 'The US Department of Homeland Security released today an interim final rule extending the period of Optional Practical Training (OPT) from 12 to 29 months for qualified F-1 non-immigrant students.'"
Medicine

What Font Color Is Best For Eyes? 702

Posted by kdawson from the blue-definitely dept.
juraj writes "What font color and what background is best for the eyes, when you work for a long time? I have found various contradictory recommendations and I wonder if you know about any medical studies on this topic."
The Courts

Court Finds Spamming Not Protected By Constitution 416

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the squirming-pretty-hard dept.
eldavojohn writes "In a split (4-3) decision, a Virginia court has upheld the verdict against the spam king making it clear that spam is not protected by the U.S. Constitution's first amendment or even its interstate commerce clause. 'Prosecutors presented evidence of 53,000 illegal e-mails Jaynes sent over three days in July 2003. But authorities believe he was responsible for spewing 10 million e-mails a day in an enterprise that grossed up to $750,000 per month. Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the e-mails went through an AOL server in Loudoun County, where America Online is based. '"
Censorship

Japan Seeking to Govern Top News Web Sites 146

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hey-slashdot-jp-what-does-this-mean dept.
RemyBR writes "A Japanese government panel is proposing to govern "influential, widely read news-related sites as newspapers and broadcasting are now regulated." The panel, set up by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, said Internet service providers (ISPs) should be answerable for breaches of vaguer "minimum regulations" to guard against "illegal and harmful content." The conservative government, led by the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, is seeking to have the new laws passed by Parliament in 2010."
Censorship

Mayor of Florence Sues Wikipedia 196

Posted by CmdrTaco from the vote-quimby dept.
ZioBit writes "Florence Mayor Leonardo Domenici and one of the city assessors are suing (Google translation) Wikipedia on the basis of a (possible) defamation regarding the handling of public parkings assignation to a private company, "Florence Parking". The apparent problem is that both of their wives are members of the board of directors of "Florence Parking", and Wikipedia is reporting it."
Social Networks

Submission + - MySpace Friend Request Violates Protection Order (wcbstv.com) 3

Submitted by
longacre
longacre writes: "In what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in the U.S., a 16-year old girl faces a year behind bars after submitting a MySpace friend request to a woman and her two daughters who had an order of protection against the girl. Staten Island (NY) Criminal Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. ruled that even though MySpace users can ignore, deny or block friend requests, "that request was still a contact, and no contact was allowed" by the temporary order of protection."

Next Year's Laws, Now Out In Beta! 238

Posted by CmdrTaco from the something-to-read dept.
Frequent Slashdot Contributor Bennett Haselton writes with his latest which starts "If I were writing laws such that I wanted everybody to agree on how to interpret them, I would use the software development life cycle: First, have lawmakers (analogous to "developers") write drafts of the laws. Then a second group (the "test case writers") would try to come up with situations that would be interpreted ambiguously under the law. Then a third group, the "testers", would read the proposed law, read the test case situations, and try to determine how the law should be applied to those cases, without communicating with the law writers, the test case writers, or each other. If there's too much disagreement in the third group on how the law should be applied, then it's too vague to be a proper law. The only laws which made it through this process would be ones such that when they were finally passed, most citizens (the "users") could agree on how to interpret them, in cases sufficiently similar to the ones the test case writers could come up with."
The Media

Submission + - Hurricane Expert Calls Gore Theory "Ridiculous (smh.com.au) 5

Submitted by DrWho520
DrWho520 writes: ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".
Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.
Education

Submission + - School Administrators Gone Wild 3

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Parents of public school kids in Oak Lawn (IL) are all a-titter as traditions like the annual Halloween Parade and Santa's Visit face elimination after complaints that the activities are offensive, particularly to Muslim students. School officials agreed earlier in the month to change the lunch menu to exclude items containing pork to accommodate Muslim students, including a Jell-O ban. And in nearby Oak Park, school administrators are busy cracking down on hugging and high-fives."

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