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Submission + - The sexual habits of the British (channel4.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's off topic, but this might be a bit of fun for the quiet days of August. It's a data visualisation showing what the British get up to between the sheets: http://sexperienceuk.channel4.com/the-sexperience-1000

It is unique (or at the very least unusual) in that as well as showing aggregate data, you can click on each person to find out more about each individual who makes up the totals. So, for instance, you can see that of the 167 people who have had sex in their parents bed (http://bit.ly/plzK2p), 10 now drive a BMW (http://bit.ly/pBS0HZ)
Privacy

Submission + - Facebook Tweaks Site To Clarify Who Can See What (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Facebook is making a series of design changes to the site to make it clearer to users who can see the content that they post, an issue Google has been criticizing Facebook about since it launched its own social network, Google+, in June. 'You have told us that 'who can see this?' could be clearer across Facebook, so we have made changes to make this more visual and straightforward," Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday. The main change is that Facebook will now display the intended audience for a photo, a text post, a tag or any other piece of content right next to it, or 'inline.' Until now, those controls have been on a separate Settings section of the profile. 'Your profile should feel like your home on the web — you should never feel like stuff appears there that you don't want, and you should never wonder who sees what's there.' Another change Facebook is introducing is allowing users to modify the audience of a post after it's published, which they couldn't do before."
Businesses

Submission + - US health administrative costs 4x that of Canada (scienceblogs.com) 3

Submitted by microbox
microbox writes: Free-market healthcare is a hot political topic, with both Republicans and Democrats heavily invested in their positions. Republicans often claim that US healthcare is the best in the world thanks to Adam Smiths' invisible hand. The US system certainly has advantages; however, no other country spends anywhere near as much on healthcare, and US physicians and administrative staff spend 4x as many hours per week dealing with payers and insurance companies as their colleagues in Canada. Is it possible that laissez-faire health-care is an inefficient solution, or are high administrative costs nothing to be concerned about, and reflect a more efficient and higher quality healthcare system?

Comment A supranational assessment code (Score 1) 742

by GeneralSunTzu (#35318002) Attached to: Does Syfy Really Love Sci-Fi?

Rather that push my favourite show/novel/TV series, I take the liberty of proposing an assessment code which is not only for Americans.
1. Thou shalt not compare books with movies, ever;
2. Thou shalt not compare movies with video games, ever;
3. Thou shalt not vilify fantasy/hard SF/vintage SF/alternate history, etc.;
4. Thou shalt not believe that the inordinate passion for vampires/demons/supernatural horrors extends to countries which are far less religious than the USA;
5. Thou shalt not acritically judge any prequel, as so far, in most areas, from Star Wars to Star Trek to Caprica, they were chemically pure drivel.
And, to prove that human beings are illogical, here I go now providing contradictory advice.
Read books like "Twister", written by a real research physicist, if you want to read very entertaining hard SF, not Greg Bear, not Isaac Asimov.
You will instantly see the difference from folks like Asimov (a biochemist) who had (forgive me...) a manifestly insufficient grasp of physics.
Even I, research physicist, was always underwhelmed by his forays in areas he knew precious little about (a PhD in biochemistry does not make you an authority on particle physics or quantum mechanics or a number of other things).
He even proceeded to top up his display of ignorance by publishing divulgative stuff on any possible subject.
That he is still considered a saint by a sizable community makes me wonder...
And to finish in beauty: casting a Scotsman who was famous for roles as e.g. the lead male actor in The Full Monty was not just catastrophic, but plain dumb. This contributed greatly to transform a would-be SF series as Stargate Universe into a boring reality-like show, eventually killing (deservedly) the show. Just like dreadful Caprica.
Should I be so dumb to want to watch a reality, then I will go for the real thing, not for an SF travesty...
United States

Submission + - Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans 1

Submitted by
Pickens
Pickens writes: "CBS News reports that the Obama administration is currently drafting the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which will be released by the president in the next few months. "We are not talking about a national ID card," says Commerce Secretary Gary Locke whose department will be in charge of the program. "We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities." Although details have not been finalized, the "trusted identity" may take the form of a smart card or digital certificate that would prove that online users are who they say they are. These digital IDs would be offered to consumers by online vendors for financial transactions. White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt says that anonymity and pseudonymity will remain possible on the Internet. "I don't have to get a credential if I don't want to," says Schmidt. There's no chance that "a centralized database will emerge," and "we need the private sector to lead the implementation of this.""
Microsoft

Submission + - IE9 May Not Be Enough To Save IE (conceivablytech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The October market share numbers are in and Net Applications' numbers show a surprising drop in IE8 market share — the first time since browser was introduced. Strangely, IE9 has not gained much and IE7 as well as IE6 are losing as well. The only two browsers gaining are Chrome and Safari — and both browsers have hit new record market shares. The frenzy around IE9 may have subsided already and Microsoft is under tremendous pressure to roll out IE9 soon. StatCounter's numbers indicate that Firefox is close to be surpassing IE in Europe.
The Internet

Submission + - Facebook developers sold User IDs (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook has revealed that app developers for the platform have been selling user-identifying data to a data broker.

The anti-social time-wasting site confessed on its developer blog that it had discovered "some instances" a data broker was paying developers for user IDs.
Government

Submission + - Obama in a town hall meeting - What would you ask? (thehindu.com)

Submitted by rajeevrk
rajeevrk writes: In a few days time, President Barak Obama will be addressing a town hall style meeting at St. Xaviers College, in Mumbai India.. 300 students from diverse backgrounds will have a chance to post questions to him, on an open forum, and i do believe we may have some bouncers tossed at him. Speculation is already rife about the kinds of questions being prepared.

Now, if ever such a meeting was held with 300 Slashdotters, what would the questions be like? Let the grilling begin......
Government

Submission + - Can open source save democracy?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Political discussions frequently conclude that democracy is at best a symbol. It is widely understood that lawmakers and politicians generally serve special interests more than they serve the people. This is no secret: everyone knows about lobbyists, campaign contributions, kickbacks, pork, earmarks, and the classic "smoke filled room" where political deals are made in secret. All of these problems can be summed up in the simple phrase, "power corrupts," and empowered individuals are a necessary component of representation-style democracy. We have never had another means of instituting democracy as a broad and general system of governance because it has simply been impractical. But social internet tools change everything. There are now scores of projects building creative and diverse systems meant to apply the principles of open source to the procedures of lawmaking. Can we eventually create real democracy, instead of the cheap imitations we have had to date? Or will we forever be reliant on empowered leaders to guide and protect us?
Apple

Submission + - Apple Debates Open, Linux Gets Best of Both Worlds

Submitted by jennifercloer
jennifercloer writes: Let’s face it — Steve Jobs and Apple have shown that blending software and hardware together in an elegant way can produce amazing results. Apple calls this their “integrated approach” and uses that to criticize the “open approach.” Our response is to help the Linux community have the best of both worlds with tools that allow anyone to take “open software” and create a custom “integrated experience” quickly. And while I can’t predict what the next iPhone or breakthrough consumer device will be, I do know that if the community comes together and develops tools that make it easier to create that device using upstream open source components, then what we’re announcing today will have have been successful — and so will Linux.
Security

Submission + - BA boss slams US airport security (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The chairman of British Airways has said some "completely redundant" airport security checks should be scrapped and the UK should stop "kowtowing" to US security demands.

Practices such as forcing passengers to take off their shoes should be abandoned, Martin Broughton said.

And he questioned why laptop computers needed to be screened separately.

"We all know there's quite a number of elements in the security programme which are completely redundant and they should be sorted out."

Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA, said security at Heathrow and its other airports was "defined by the authorities" and consisted of "one requirement laid on top of another".

He added: "There's European requirements, there's UK requirements, and... US requirements laid on top of that.

"We could certainly do a better job for customers if we could rationalise all of that into a single, coherent process, and I'd love to have the chance to do that."

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