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Science

Submission + - Petition for Alan Turing on £10 note breaks 20,000 signatures (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
concealment
concealment writes: "A petition to get British wartime crypto-boffin Alan Turing on the next ten-pound note has broken 20,000 signatures on the government's e-petition site.

At least 23,157 people have signed the pledge that praises his contribution to computer science, the nation and the world, and calls for Turing to replace Charles Darwin when the notes come up for a redesign.

After the petition passed the 10,000 mark the Treasury confirmed that Turing is on the list of people suggested by the public and is under consideration for inclusion on banknotes."
Government

Submission + - Showdown Set on Bid to Give UN Control of Internet (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: When delegates gather in Dubai in December for an obscure UN agency meeting, the mother of all cyber diplomatic battles is expected, with an intense debate over proposals to rewrite global telecom rules to effectively give the United Nations control over the Internet.

Russia, China and other countries back a move to place the Internet under the authority of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a UN agency that sets technical standards for global phone calls.
While US officials have said placing the Internet under UN control would undermine the freewheeling nature of cyberspace, some have said there is a perception that the US owns and manages the Internet.

The head of the ITU, Hamadoun Toure, claims his agency has "the depth of experience that comes from being the world's longest established intergovernmental organization." But Harold Feld of the US-based non-government group Public Knowledge said any new rules could have devastating consequences. Some are concerned over a proposal by European telecom operators seeking to shift the cost of communication from the receiving party to the sender. This could mean huge costs for US Internet giants like Facebook and Google.

"There is no Internet central office. Its openness and decentralization are its strengths," Terry Kramer, the special US envoy for the talks, said, reminding that Washington is opposing proposals by Russia, China and others to expand the ITU's authority to regulate the Internet.

Paul Rohmeyer, who follows cybersecurity at the Stevens Institute of Technology, pointed to a "sense of anxiety" about the meeting in part because of a lack of transparency. He said it was unclear why the ITU is being considered for a role in the Internet.

Comment Re:smudgy fingers (Score 3, Informative) 39

by k28 (#41765709) Attached to: Magellan Telescope First Mega-Mirror Polished and Ready
I'm sure one of the first things that you think of when using big pieces of glass is the fact that they'll get dirty. A little bit of googling tells us that the mirrors will be regularly CO2 -cleaned, (basically blasting all dirt off the surface of the mirror) - see section 10.11: http://www.gmto.org/science-conceptu.html . Each mirror will also get recoated every 2 years, to prevent scratches and blemishes.

Comment Broken PDF link? (Score 1) 117

by k28 (#41691481) Attached to: "New Statesman" Pirates Its Own Magazine
Can't seem to access the PDF link to read more into it. Interesting that the (sometimes) hours of effort involved in derailing a message thread or debate only pays 50 cents - one might argue that you'd be looking at 50-100 threads at once, but surely that's still not enough to justify the hours of work that must go into it each day?

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