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Submission + - Say Goodbye To Window Blinds (medicaldaily.com)

Submitted by N'science
N'science writes: Engineers from California and Spain have created a new type of smart glass that selectively blocks light and heat under the control of an electrical switch. The discovery could help homeowners conserve energy and save money on their utility bills.

Comment Tell that to the FCC (Score 1) 216

by Jarmihi (#44331951) Attached to: Yahoo Censors Tumblr Porn
Porn is, by definition, obscene. Also, as a radio DJ who must be familiar with such things, the FCC says that things that are sexually explicit and have no "literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" are obscene (just like the earlier commenter posted).

I understand that the government isn't always right, and that the FCC theoretically only has jurisdiction over the United States, but the fact that a vague-but-menacing government agency also says that porn is obscene only helps to defend my (our?) point.

Submission + - Twitter's OAuth2 is vulnerable (coderwall.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Twitter's OAuth2 private keys get embedded inside of TweetDeck and can easily be extracted. Twitter hasn't responded for months about the issue.

Submission + - Nine Traits Of The Veteran Network Admin

Submitted by snydeq
snydeq writes: Born or made, network admins share certain defining characteristics. Deep End's Paul Venezia offers nine: 'I hope that this insight into the extremely logical, yet consistently dangerous world of the network admin has shed some light on how we work and how we think. I don't expect it to curtail the repeated claims of the network being down, but maybe it's a start. In fact, if you're reading this and you are not a network admin, perhaps you should find the closest one and buy him or her a cup of coffee. They could probably use it.'

Submission + - Anonymous Hacked FEMA, Leaked Hundreds of E-Mail Addresses (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: The dump contains a table of user IDs and MD5 hashes of corresponding passwords, presumably for DHS's Integrated Security and Access Control System. Also included is a small set of what appears to be descriptions of training exercises (sample title: "Monitoring Weather Conditions and Taking Necessary Precautions") that date from 2004-2007.

"Anonymous has purposefully redacted logins, passwords, SSNs and other details that might genuinely endanger the United States from this document, our intent is not to harm, merely to issue a firm warning," the document's intro states.

Submission + - Scientists silence extra chromosome in Down syndrome cells (scienceblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have silenced the extra copy of a chromosome that causes Down syndrome in laboratory stem cells, offering the first evidence that it may be possible to correct the genes responsible for the disorder. The discovery provides the first evidence that the underlying genetic defect responsible for Down syndrome can be suppressed in cells in culture.

Submission + - ACLU Study says Police Cameras create Database of our movements (startribune.com)

Submitted by puddingebola
puddingebola writes: The ACLU has published a study saying the widespread use of police and traffic cameras has made it possible to track individual's movements, even across multiple jurisdictions. From the article, "While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a judge's approval is needed to use GPS to track a car, networks of plate scanners allow police effectively to track a driver's location, sometimes several times every day, with few legal restrictions. The ACLU says the scanners are assembling a "single, high-resolution image of our lives." "There's just a fundamental question of whether we're going to live in a society where these dragnet surveillance systems become routine," said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the organization. The group is proposing that police departments immediately delete any records of cars not linked to any crime."

Submission + - A closer look inside a Facebook Scam (hacksurfer.com)

Submitted by ethancrosse
ethancrosse writes: This article provides an insiders look at an all too familiar Facebook scam. Written by the Cyberoam Threat Research Labs for Hacksurfer.com this article shows step-by-step details on how this scam works and some ways to avoid being the next victim. With our ever present addiction to watching funny videos on Facebook and other social media sites, its good to know what to avoid and how to stay safe when online.

Submission + - Colliding, exploding stars may have created all the gold on Earth (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Two dead stars smashing into each other and releasing massive amounts of energy may have created all of the heavy elements such as gold found on Earth. That's the main conclusion of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) researchers who estimated such a collision and subsequent blast of energy known as a gamma-ray burst produced and ejected as much as 10 moon masses worth of heavy elements — including gold.

Submission + - Amazon 1Button Browser Add-On Leaks Private Info in Plain Text

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Amazon 1Button, a browser add-on that provides users with easy access to the Amazon online marketplace, is leaking private information like a sieve, according to a security researcher.

Krzysztof Kotowicz, a researcher specializing in Web security, said the app reports every URL to visit to Amazon—even encrypted HTTPS sessions—attaches script to any website you visit, and reports your Web activities to Alexa.

The Google Chrome extension is particularly worrisome, Kotowicz said, because it requires the user to approve the app’s ability to access data on all websites, read and modify bookmarks, detect physical location, access browsing activity, manage apps, extensions and themes, and access data that is copied and pasted. There are nearly two million users of this app, he said.

Submission + - Spacewalk Aborted When Water Fills Astronaut's Helmet (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: A planned six-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station came to a dramatic and abrupt end on Tuesday when water started building up inside the helmet of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy were less than an hour into their spacewalk, their second in a week, when Parmitano reported that his head felt wet. “My head is really wet and I have a feeling it’s increasing,” Parmitano reported to ground control teams at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Parmitano returned safely to the space station interior, but the cause of the leak was not immediately known.

Submission + - US Navy to Teach Weapon Control Systems with Lego Mindstorms (nextgov.com)

Submitted by TaysterBoy
TaysterBoy writes: The US Navy is plotting perfect Mindstorms. The Lego product, aimed at middle school students, has been adopted by several course instructors of higher learning. The latest news has the US Naval Academy providing midshipmen with Mindstorms kits to teach automated weapons control systems,

Submission + - Scientists seek biomakers for violence (post-gazette.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Newtown couple, both scientists, who lost their daughter in the school shooting, are wondering whether there were clues in the shooter's physiological makeup — his DNA, his blood, his brain chemistry. They are now involved in a search for biomarkers, similar to those that may indicate disease, for violence. They are raising money to help fund this research, but the effort is running into obstacles, in part, over ethical concerns. "I'm not opposed to research on violence and biomarkers, but I'm concerned about making too big of a leap between biomarkers and violence," said Troy Duster, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley. There is concern that science may find biomarkers long before society can deal with its implications.

Submission + - OS X Malware Demands $300 FBI Fine For Viewing, Distributing Porn

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new piece of malware is targeting OS X to extort money from victims by accusing them of illegally accessing pornography. Ransomware typically uses claims of breaking the law and names law enforcement (such as the CIA or FBI) to scare victims, but it is usually aimed at Windows users, not Mac users. The security firm Malwarebytes first spotted this latest threat, noting that criminals have ported the ransomware scheme to OS X and are even exploiting a Safari-specific feature. The ransomware page in question gets pushed onto unsuspecting users browsing high-trafficked sites as well as when searching for popular keywords.

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