NASA Proposes Manned Asteroid Mission 219
eldavojohn writes "NASA has proposed a manned asteroid mission to a near earth object. They mention this being viewed as a "gap-filler" to keep the public's attention between a lunar exploration & manned mars mission. The article also cites these goals as in line with the Constellation Program. From the article, 'Furthermore, a human venture to a space rock may well accelerate precursor robotic surveys of asteroids, Schweickart observed. "Early unmanned visits to asteroids ... it's the same pattern as we did with the Moon and we're doing right now with Mars. It's all pretty logical," he told SPACE.com.'"
Aggressive Botnet Activities Behind Spam Increase 194
An anonymous reader writes, "A spam-sending Trojan dubbed 'SpamThru' is responsible for a vast amount of the recent botnet activity which has significantly increased spam levels to almost three out of every four emails. The developers of SpamThru employed numerous tactics to thwart detection and enhance outreach, such as releasing new strains of the Trojan at regular intervals in order to confuse traditional anti-virus signatures detection." According to MessageLabs (PDF), another contributor to the recent spam increase is a trojan dropper called "Warezov."
Submission + - Geeks chicks calander for a good cause!
An anonymous reader writes: Limeproject.org
Heather was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma right before Christmas in 2005. Though she has medical insurance, she does not have prescription coverage, which means her very expensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments were not covered. Add to that the fact that she is a potter and was not able to even touch clay during treatment and the bills are killing here even if her cancer is not.
A bunch of her friends (and mine) got together to figure out a way to help her out. So what did they do? They got naked so Heather wouldn't go broke! These are real woman, with real bodies, real naked in a fabulous 2007 calendar.
I already ordered mine. Have you?
This is more important than a meme so spread it everywhere!
Antarctic Microbes Could Live on Mars 117
eldavojohn writes "Recent research has shown that microbes found in an Antarctic lake could survive the coldest temperatures on Mars. From the article, 'And they found that these species of microorganisms "huddled" together in colder temperatures to form a chemically linked unit called a biofilm. The finding marks the first time this phenomenon has been detected in the Antarctic species of so-called extremophiles. The findings provide more evidence for the ideas that liquid found beneath Mars' surface could harbor microbial life and that life could exist elsewhere in the solar system and galaxy, which is generally incredibly cold.' Their genes are currently being sequenced to determine which give the organisms 'cold-shock' proteins and their resistance to cold."
Submission + - Google: "Do no evil" or "Screw the Com
An anonymous reader writes: Interesting chain of events in the "GooTube" deal — one that oozes with corporate scandal. Based on Mark Cuban's blog and the subsequent ZDNet article, it seems as though there might have been some illegal dealings just prior to the YouTube-Google deal. In short, Youtube handed the major labels approximately $50M so that the labels would turn a blind eye to the copyright infringements AND go after the competition to cement YouTube's position in the market. Universal started the ball rolling a week after the deal by going after Bolt and Grouper.
Submission + - Lego primed for Christmas production shortage
shadowspar writes: "Recent restructuring and production cuts have left Lego unable to fill orders for the upcoming holiday season. Affected products include Duplo bricks, Lego City sets, and (horror of horrors!) Star Wars and Lego Technik sets."
Submission + - The dawn of the second biotechnology revolution
BlueCup writes: "In a low-slung building amid farm fields, agriculture's second biotechnology revolution is dawning.
Rows of robotic devices are deciphering the DNA in slices of thousands of corn plants sent daily from as far away as Chile and Hawaii. Scientists here search the results for subtle genetic differences that explain why a particular plant is better than others at tolerating cold, repelling insects, surviving drought or making more seed. The result is that breeders who used to need a decade to develop marketable new seeds by traditional selective breeding can do it in half the time."
Rows of robotic devices are deciphering the DNA in slices of thousands of corn plants sent daily from as far away as Chile and Hawaii. Scientists here search the results for subtle genetic differences that explain why a particular plant is better than others at tolerating cold, repelling insects, surviving drought or making more seed. The result is that breeders who used to need a decade to develop marketable new seeds by traditional selective breeding can do it in half the time."
Submission + - Microsoft Office on FreeBSD? SoftMaker is close...
martin-k writes: "Like it or not, Microsoft Office is still the dominant office suite — of course, it's available only for Windows. FreeBSD and Linux users need to look elsewhere. A promising alternative could be SoftMaker Office 2006, a new office suite that is in beta right. SoftMaker, the suite's maker promises better filters for Word and Excel, but TextMaker also offers OpenDocument (ODF) import."
