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Submission + - First Artificial Burger Gets Tepid Reviews, Billionaire Financier Unmasked (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: "Close to meat. Not that juicy." That was Austrian food trend researcher Hanni Rützler's verdict on the world's first lab-grown beef patty, presented in London today at a tightly orchestrated and widely covered media event. Rützler was one of two people invited to taste the burger assembled from thousands of tiny strips of beef grown by Dutch researcher Mark Post at his lab at Maastricht University in the Netherlands; the other guinea pig was Chicago, Illinois-based author Josh Schonwald. Perhaps the most concrete news to come out of the event was the unmasking of the mysterious billionaire who financed the project to the tune of $375,000. He is Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has an interest in environmental issues and who praised Post in a video message for thinking big. "There are basically three things that can happen going forward. One is that we all become vegetarian," Brin said. "The second is we ignore the issue and that leads to continued environmental harm, and the third option is we do something new."

Submission + - ICANN approves first set of new gTLD, .Amazon rejection looms (parityportal.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has approved the first set of global Top Level Domains (gTLDs) and surprisingly all four are non-English words including . (“Web” in Arabic); . (“Game” in Chinese); . (“Online” in Russian); and . (“Web site” in Russian). Approval of four non-English words can be considered as a milestone and this approval marks "the first time that people will be able to access and type in a website address for generic Top-Level Domains in their native language."

Submission + - Bruce Schneier: IT for Oppression (schneier.com) 2

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: Whether it's Syria using Facebook to help identify and arrest dissidents or China using its "Great Firewall" to limit access to international news throughout the country, repressive regimes all over the world are using the Internet to more efficiently implement surveillance, censorship, propaganda, and control. They're getting really good at it, and the IT industry is helping. We're helping by creating business applications — categories of applications, really — that are being repurposed by oppressive governments for their own use.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - The 3D Un-Printer (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 3D printing is on its way toward becoming ubiquitous. Of course, if you have a printer and want to print something, you need raw materials — the plastic filament that's fed into the machine. It's also likely that while you're learning the ropes, you'll print a bunch of terrible attempts at objects, and end up having to throw them out. Now, Wired is reporting on a device aiming to solve both of those problems. Tyler McNaney's 'Filabot' will break down failed projects as well as many other items from traditional manufacturers, turning it into a filament you can then feed through a 3D printer. 'So far the plastics that work are HDPE, LDPE, ABS, NYLON. More to come on the different types that work.' McNaney sees it as a 'closed-loop recycling system on your desk.' The Filabot's Kickstarter campaign succeeded easily in 2012, and now he and his team are getting ready to launch.
Space

Submission + - The space sim isn't dead after all! (robertsspaceindustries.com)

Submitted by cwebster
cwebster writes: Chris Roberts' (creator of the wing commander series) new foray into PC games is officially a "go". The new game, Star Citizen, is slated to be what anyone who has played wing commander or privateer dreams it could be. Best of all, Chris cut out the publishers (EA owns the rights to WC) and is self funding this project. There are 20 days left in the funding campaign to meet the ambitious stretch goals. Contribute at kickstarter or the main site for the game.
The Military

Submission + - Targeting the President's DNA 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Atlantic reports that experts in genetics and microbiology are convinced we may be only a few years away from the development of advanced, genetic bio-weapons able to target a single human being based on their DNA. The authors paint a scenario of the development of a virus that causes only mild flu in the general population but when the virus crosses paths with cells containing a very specific DNA sequence, the sequence would act as a molecular key to unlock secondary functions that would trigger a fast-acting neuro-destructive disease that produces memory loss and, eventually, death. The requisite equipment including gene sequencers, micro-array scanners, and mass spectrometers now cost over $1 million but on eBay, it can be had for as little as $10,000. According to Ronald Kessler, the author of the 2009 book In the President’s Secret Service, Navy stewards gather bedsheets, drinking glasses, and other objects the president has touched—they are later sanitized or destroyed—in an effort to keep would-be malefactors from obtaining his genetic material. However no amount of Secret Service vigilance can ever fully secure the president’s DNA, because an entire genetic blueprint can now be produced from the information within just a single cell. How to protect the President? The authors propose open-sourcing the president’s genetic information to a select group of security-cleared researchers who could follow in the footsteps of the computer sciences, where “red-team exercises,” are extremely common practices so a similar testing environment could be developed for biological war games. "Advances in biotechnology are radically changing the scientific landscape. We are entering a world where imagination is the only brake on biology," write the authors. "In light of this coming synbio revolution, a wider-ranging relationship between scientists and security organizations—one defined by open exchange, continual collaboration, and crowd-sourced defenses—may prove the only way to protect the president.""
Android

Submission + - Google cancels Monday's Nexus 4, Nexus 10 unveiling (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: Looking forward to checking out the new Nexus 4 smartphone and high-resolution Nexus 10 tablet? So are we, but unfortunately we’ll all have to wait a little longer as Google just announced that it is canceling Monday’s press conference due to the imminent arrival of Hurricane Sandy. The event has not yet been rescheduled...

Comment Re:Really expensive (Score 1) 85

by Phaedra (#39462735) Attached to: 'Space Freighter' On Its Way to Resupply International Space Station
From the video,

00:10 $600M for the launch
00:32 11yrs and $1.9B to develop
00:41 6 tons of cargo
01:13 6 month duration and then burns up on reentry

I dunno, 11yrs and $2.5B to resupply and reboost the ISS for 6 months might qualify as 'hugely' expensive. I am disappointed that lifting 6 tons of cargo into LEO with an unmanned, single use vehicle is as expensive as the entire Mars Science Laboratory project.

Comment Mobile Browser Gmail Blows... (Score 1) 122

by Phaedra (#38019018) Attached to: Google Pulls the Plug On BlackBerry Gmail App
I'll be the first to admit that the Gmail app isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but IMHO it is a much better experience than the terribly mischaracterized 'great Gmail experience in the mobile browser' on my 9700. The Gmail app is one click to see all of my incoming mail and to easily search and retrieve current or archived mail is another click with the refresh times an order of magnitude better than going through the browser or using the RIM mail app for Gmail. The Gmail app at least had a slight 'feel' of regular Gmail whereas the RIM catch-all mail & message emporium works like a twitter feed, with none of the handy Gmail specific tie-ins that make using the Gmail app a relative pleasure. I'm sorry to see that it's being dropped rather than improved.

Submission + - [Pics] ECS Shows Universal Padfone-like Tablet (itproportal.com)

Submitted by siliconbits
siliconbits writes: Just 24 hours after Asus launched its padfone, ECS is toying with an idea that resembles the Asus PadFone, in a nutshell, a tablet that becomes a docking station for your smartphone just by slotting it at the back. We spoke earlier today to Jaryson Wu, project manager at ICE Computer, ECS' partner for the project and he presented us with a mock, non-working prototype.

Submission + - /. QOTD Doesn't Update for Days!! (slashdot.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Quote Of The Day (QOTD), commonly found at the page bottom of the nerd-popular site, 'slashdto.org' has not updated for days!! Alien abduction of the site admins? Terrorist takeover? Government takeover? Is there a difference? (or is this just an 'IE-only' kind of thing?)

Struggling geeks everywhere turn their lonely eyes towards the interwebz and wait. And wonder: Will those tiny glimpses of joy ever return?

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