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Science

Submission + - Apple engineer builds Antikythera out of Legos (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by rrohbeck
rrohbeck writes: SciAm brings us a truly nerdy story: 'Videographer John Pavlus spent much of 2010 writing and shooting a video about an Apple engineer, Andy Carol, who designed and built a fully functional eclipse-predicting machine, a replica of an ancient Greek device, out of 1,500 Lego Technic parts and 110 gears.'
Oracle

Submission + - Oracle seeks $212 million in interest from SAP (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Oracle wants SAP to pay it US$212 million in interest on top of the $1.3 billion awarded to it last month by a jury in the companies' TomorrowNow lawsuit, court papers show. Including the $120 million that SAP paid Oracle for its attorney fees, the additional money would bring SAP's total penalties in the case to $1.63 billion."

Submission + - Gawker Media's Commenter Database and CMS Hacked (mediaite.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Passwords and personal data for 1.3 million Gawker Media readers — this includes readers of sites like Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Kotaku, and io9 — has been released as a BitTorrent by a group of hackers called Gnosis, who also managed to gain access to both the Gawker CMS and Gizmodo's Twitter account.

Gawker confirms and urges readers to change their passwords: "Our user databases do indeed appear to have been compromised. The passwords were encrypted. But simple ones may be vulnerable to a brute-force attack. You should change the password on Gawker (GED/commenting system) and on any other sites on which you’ve used the same passwords. Out of an abundance of caution, you should also change your company email password and any passwords that may have appeared in your email messages.
We’re deeply embarrassed by this breach. We should not be in the position of relying on the goodwill of the hackers who identified the weakness in our systems."

Submission + - 'Grow your own transplant' May be Possible for Men

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Men with type 1 diabetes may be able to grow their own insulin-producing cells from their testicular tissue, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers who presented their findings today at the American Society of Cell Biology 50th annual meeting in Philadelphia. Their laboratory and animal study is a proof of principle that human spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) extracted from testicular tissue can morph into insulin-secreting beta islet cells normally found in the pancreas. And the researchers say they accomplished this feat without use of any of the extra genes now employed in most labs to turn adult stem cells into a tissue of choice.

Submission + - Righthaven Sues for Control of Drudge Report 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that in its latest case, Righthaven is seeking relief from copyright infringement by the Drudge Report website and by the Drudge Archives website and asking for a preliminary and permanent injunction against infringement on a photo copyright, control of the Drudge Report website and statutory damages up to $150,000. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Righthaven complains about the use of Denver Post photograph of a Transportation Security Administration agent patting down an airline passenger. Drudge displayed an unauthorized reproduction of the photo on the Drudge Report website on Nov. 18, according to the civil complaint. Shawn Mangano, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on Righthaven's behalf, says it is the first time Righthaven has sued over use of a copyrighted illustration. Righthaven also takes issue with the fact that the Drudge Report has no DMCA takedown regime to respond to those who allege violations of copyright. "I assume it's going to be very seriously litigated," says Mangano, noting that Drudge has substantial financial resources."
Medicine

Submission + - Energy breakthrough: dual solar/thermal conversion (blorge.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Fujitsu has built a device that can simultaneously harvest energy from either light or heat. They've reduced production costs by using the same cheap organic substrate for both conversion processes, while also doubling the potential amount of energy that can be collected. "Previously, dual harvesting of energy could only be done by combining two different devices," this article notes — and the device's solar converter can even draw energy from indoor lighting as well as direct sunlight. Fujitsu predicts the device will be especially useful for powering medical sensors, since the flexible substrate can be included in monitors which conform to the shape of the human body.
Idle

Submission + - New Clothing Line Reminds TSA of the 4th Amendment (aolnews.com)

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "AOL News reports that there's a line of underclothes that offer a friendly reminder of the Fourth Amendment called 4th Amendment Wear. Metallic ink printed on shirts spells out the privacy rights stated in the amendment and is designed to appear in TSA scanners. The 4th Amendment Wear line also includes non-metallic options, including underpants for both adults and children. Should a passenger be stripped down, instead of the full amendment, they'll receive a more direct message: "Read the 4th Amendment Perverts." "If you're getting that close to kids' underwear, you have license to say something a little tongue-in-cheek," says creator Tim Geoghegan."

Submission + - Sculptor gives a 'hint' for Kryptos (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
omega_cubed
omega_cubed writes: "The New York Times reports that Jim Sanborn, the sculptor who created the wavy metal pane called Kryptos that sits in front of the CIA in Langley, VA, has gotten tired of waiting for code-breakers to decode the last of the four messages.

“I assumed the code would be cracked in a fairly short time,” [Sanborn] said, adding that the intrusions on his life from people who think they have solved his fourth puzzle are more than he expected. So now, after 20 years, Mr. Sanborn is nudging the process along. He has provided The New York Times with the answers to six letters in the sculpture’s final passage. The characters that are the 64th through 69th in the final series on the sculpture read NYPVTT. When deciphered, they read BERLIN.

"

Submission + - 12-year old nails Microsoft certification (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Roberto123
Roberto123 writes: A U.K. Microsoft training program says a 12-year-old just obtained PowerPoint certification. But the world's youngest certified title goes to a child from Macedonia who obtained his programmer certification at age nine.

Submission + - New Path Found for Colon Cancer Drug Discovery

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An old pinworm medicine is a new lead in the search for compounds that block a signaling pathway implicated in colon cancer. The findings, reported by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers in the November issue of Nature Chemical Biology, suggest a fresh approach for developing therapeutics that target the pathway. More than 90 percent of sporadic (non-inherited) colon cancers — the second deadliest type of cancer in the developed world — are caused by mutations that result in inappropriate activation of the Wnt (pronounced “wint”) signaling pathway. Blocking this pathway has been a desirable therapeutic target, but its complexity has made it difficult to determine which molecular participants to inhibit.

Submission + - Does the TSA Ever Catch Terrorists? (slate.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Slate.com does an analysis on whether or not the TSA *ever* catches terrorists. Their conclusion: If they do, for some reason they won't admit it.
Google

Submission + - Web Exploit Spams Your Google Email Address (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by bonch
bonch writes: A person named Vahe has created a website that, once visited, automatically emails any Google account you're logged into, complete with headers signed by Google. The exploit even works in Chrome's incognito mode. The details of the implementation are unknown, and the site is currently down, but Google says they're investigating the issue. TechCrunch notes that the site was on Google's blogging platform and may be exploiting a Google API. Vahe, who is Armenian, claims Google hasn't returned his emails and writes, 'Big companies act like they all really protect our privacy and such, but they see that people don't care and don't do anything really.'

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Thinky gifts for young kids? 3

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Societal norms and my sibling's procreative endeavors have put me in the position of having to buy gifts twice a year for young children. What makes them happy are unremarkable bits of plastic. They already have innumerable unremarkable bits of plastic (from their parents and grandparents). My preference would be to get them gifts that challenge them to think creatively (or at least to think), which they'll be able to pick up and enjoy even after they outgrow their train/truck/homemaking fetishes. Beyond the Rubick's Cube, what thinky toys from your childhood are still in production? What new thinky toys have you discovered that work for the 5 — 10 age range?

Submission + - Guy Fined For Posting Links To Official Broadcast (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by hcs_$reboot
hcs_$reboot writes: Over in Sweden, it appears that a guy has been fined for linking to an online broadcast of a hockey game. We've heard stories of people getting in trouble merely for linking to unauthorized content, but this story is even more ridiculous. The guy wasn't linking to unauthorized content. He was linking to an online video feed from the official broadcaster, Canal Plus.
The issue was that Canal Plus was apparently technically incompetent in how they set up the feeds, and never intended to make the feeds public.

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