Submission + - Colliding Particles Can Make Black Holes After All (sciencemag.org) 1
cremeglace writes: Particle physicists predict the world's new highest-energy atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, might create tiny black holes, which they say would be a fantastic discovery. Some doomsayers fear those black holes might gobble up Earth--physicist say that's impossible--and have petitioned the United Nations to stop the $5.5 billion LHC. Curiously, though, nobody had ever shown that the prevailing theory of gravity, Einstein's theory of general relativity, actually predicts that a black hole can be made this way. Now a computer model shows conclusively for the first time that a particle collision really can make a black hole. No need to stock up on canned beans for doomsday though--the black holes still require energies vastly exceeding what the LHC is capable of.
Submission + - Microsoft Knew of IE Zero Day Since September (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: Microsoft today admitted it knew of the Internet Explorer flaw used in the attacks against Google and Adobe since September last year. The vulnerability used in the attacks was privately reported to Microsoft last August by Meron Sellen, a white-hat hacker at BugSec, an Israeli security research company. Microsoft program manager Jerry Bryant said the company confirmed the severity of the flaw in September and planned to ship a fix in a cumulative IE update next month.
Submission + - IE is so secure we just had to build an OS out of (buntfu.com)
buntfu writes: "Microsofts new Gazelle concept is the greatest thing to hit Linux or the computer industry as a whole ever. According to Microsoft, Gazelle is a secure web browser constructed as a multi-principal OS. I never thought I would live to see the day that Microsoft announces its own suicide."
Scientists To Breed the Auroch From Extinction 277
ImNotARealPerson writes "Scientists in Italy are hoping to breed back from extinction the mighty auroch, a bovine species which has been extinct since 1627. The auroch weighed 2,200 pounds (1000kg) and its shoulders stood at 6'6". The beasts once roamed most of Asia and northern Africa. The animal was depicted in cave paintings and Julius Caesar described it as being a little less in size than an elephant. A member of the Consortium for Experimental Biotechnology suggests that 99% of the auroch's DNA can be recreated from genetic material found in surviving bone material. Wikipedia mentions that researchers in Poland are working on the same problem."
Submission + - Bacteria rewired to flash in sync (newscientist.com)
deusanima writes:
Glowing bacteria that flash on and off together are pointing the way towards implants made of engineered cells that would deliver precise doses of drugs or hormones at specific times of the day.
The bacteria have been engineered to fluoresce in synchronised bursts to produce waves of luminescence, but the researchers were not after a biological light show. The feat is proof in principle that the activity of cells can be artificially coordinated, so that they no longer work in isolation.
As well as a new way of delivering drugs, controlling synchrony between cells might also provide new insights into sleep, learning and brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, which are thought to occur when synchrony between neurons is abnormal.
Glowing bacteria that flash on and off together are pointing the way towards implants made of engineered cells that would deliver precise doses of drugs or hormones at specific times of the day.
The bacteria have been engineered to fluoresce in synchronised bursts to produce waves of luminescence, but the researchers were not after a biological light show. The feat is proof in principle that the activity of cells can be artificially coordinated, so that they no longer work in isolation.
As well as a new way of delivering drugs, controlling synchrony between cells might also provide new insights into sleep, learning and brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, which are thought to occur when synchrony between neurons is abnormal.
Submission + - Obama DOJ Sides With RIAA Again in Tenenbaum (blogspot.com)
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: Despite having had some time to get their act together, Obama's Department of Justice has filed yet another brief defending the RIAA's outlandish statutory damages theory — that someone who downloaded an mp3 with a 99-cent retail value, causing a maximum possible damages of 35 cents, is liable for from $750 to $150,000 for each such file downloaded, in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum. The 25- page brief (PDF) continues the DOJ's practice of (a) ignoring the case law which holds that the Supreme Court's due process jurisprudence is applicable to statutory damages, (b) ignoring the law review articles to like effect, (c) ignoring the actual holding of the 1919 case they rely upon, (d) ignoring the fact that the RIAA failed to prove 'distribution' as defined by the Copyright Act, and (e) ignoring the actual wording and reasoning of the Supreme Court in its leading Gore and Campbell decisions. Jon Newton of p2pnet.net attributes the Justice Department's 'oversights' to the 'eye-popping number of people [in its employ] who worked for,and/or are directly connected with,Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Musicââs RIAA'.
Comment Re:Has the music gotten better? (Score 1) 112
I agree. When I think of music for games, I don't think of epic, orchestral, blaring overtures. I think more of video games with those familiar 8 or 16-bit sounds.
Comment I know of two (Score 1) 2
Before I got CS3, I would use gimp, fireworks, and paint.net. Each is free, except fireworks might cost a small amount of money now that Macromedia is purchased by Adobe. They are not as good as Photoshop, but they were fine for me doing basic things.
Comment Has the music gotten better? (Score 3, Interesting) 112
Honestly, I'm not to surprised. The music in video games have increased in complexity and quality on an exponential scale. Now full orchestras are making music with real instruments versus the previous 8-bit simple tunes. But I still prefer the classic themes. Maybe I'm just overly nostalgic instead of knowing my music...
Comment Re:please stop using ie6 (Score 1) 406
Well, most people are using IE7 or 8. It's just that it is still Internet Explorer, which isn't the optimal browser, regardless of version.
Comment If only the US could... (Score 1) 406
That makes Germany and France. If only the US would do the same, as there are too many naïve people who don't even know there are other superior web browsers.
Comment The possibilities... (Score 1) 266
Imagine its other uses, such as in surgery! This is amazing!
Nano-Scale Robot Arm Moves Atoms With 100% Accuracy 266
destinyland writes "A New York professor has built a two-armed nanorobotic device with the ability to place specific atoms and molecules where scientists want them. The nano-scopic device is just 150 x 50 x 8 nanometers in size — over a million could fit inside a single red blood cell. But because of its size, it's able to build nanoscale structures and machines — including a nanoscale walking biped and even sequence-dependent molecular switch arrays!"
