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NASA

Simulation of Close Asteroid Fly-By 148

Posted by Soulskill from the close-enough-to-feel-the-vacuum-breeze dept.
c0mpliant writes "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released a simulation of the path of an asteroid, named Apophis, that will come very close to Earth in 2029 — the closest predicted approach since humans have monitored for such heavenly bodies. The asteroid caused a bit of a scare when astronomers first announced that it would enter Earth's neighborhood some time in the future. However, since that announcement in 2004, more recent calculations have put the odds of collision at 1 in 250,000."
Government

Submission + - Financial Fix cost is $206K per person-on-plane (mi2g.com)

Submitted by Richard0Thomas
Richard0Thomas writes: The cost to fix the financial systems problem is going to be $206k per person-on-planet based on the USD 1.405 Quadrillion world wide derivatives bubble Mi2g. This does not include fixing the inherent core flaws in the worlds monetary / financial systems. What most don't realize is that the monetary system is nothing more than an accounting system. Money is not printed except for convenience, money exists only as an accounting entry. We pay trillions for the use of the accounting system which any group here could set up and run charging only 100 million yearly and still make a hefty profit. The complex sounding financial jargon is simply to obfuscate what is actually going on. On http://coinage.me they have put it very simply for everyone to understand.
  • Derivatives = Bets
  • Credit Default Swaps = Insurance on bets
  • Hedge Funds = Borrowing of money to gamble with (unregulated and secret also used to manipulate markets)
  • Taxpayer Bailout = Taxpayers covering the gambling losses for gamblers?
  • Reality = Insurance (e.g. AIG) cannot cover failed bets which amount to: USD 206k per person-on-planet. The number it is based on has grown from USD 1.144 Quadrillion last year to USD 1.405 Quadrillion, ie, +22% worldwide. The GDP of the entire world is only USD 50 trillion.

A few accounting entries is all it takes to fix this problem, literally erasing the bogus value much to the dismay of a few but not the many. An entirely new system is required to eliminate the core flaws and a global currency will not work properly for the common economic system participant because of the disparity between the economies of various countries. What has been suggested is localized regional value exchange systems that would interface with other regional systems in a totally transparent and "natural" market manner.

I will leave you with this thought, if you went to a bank and asked to borrow money to go to the casino what do you think they would tell you? The banks did not need to ask anyone. They should have asked the US citizens because they are the ones backing the banks with a portion of their future labor potential. Sure the odds would usually be better than a casino, but in review of some of the financial instruments the actual odds were worse than the casino.
Security

Submission + - Wrongly detained man dies of spinal cancer

Submitted by
Forestry
Forestry writes: "BoingBoing.net sums up the article which appeared in NY Times:
A Hong Kong computer programmer who had legally resided in the US for 15 years (since he was 17) and fathered two American children went for his final green card interview and was locked up, detained until he died of cancer that the DHS refused to treat him for. He had overstayed a visa (the DHS sent a key notice to the wrong address), and this prompted the DHS to lock him away and demand that he waive all right to immigration appeal and be immediately deported. In detention, his complaints of excruciating back pain were treated as fakery, and he was dragged around in shackles after he lost the ability to walk..."
Privacy

Submission + - Government Wants All Your Credit Card Transactions

Submitted by Littlewink
Littlewink writes: Hidden in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a a sweeping provision that would affect the privacy of all Americans who use credit/debit cards and the operations of most American businesses. The provision requires the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information most electronic transactions to the federal government. This includes Internet transactions with eBay. Amazon, and Google.
The Internet

Submission + - Ethics of web-scraping? 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I'm starting up a website, and it needs a big database. I'm working on my own on this project, and I don't really have a good way to fill the database. There is an existing website that serves a different purpose, and it is has a huge database of info. It is really a wealth of information. Is it ok to download all of their data, and then process that into data for my database? I know this data took them a long time to gather. The data is a list of products by other companies, so they don't own a copyright on the actual data. I emailed the site owners if I could be copied a portion of the database, but they wouldn't go for it. It isn't mentioned in their TOS, and the "robots.txt" file just mentions not posting to their forum. Legally I think it is allowed, but what about ethically?
Republicans

Submission + - McCain says he doesn't know how to use a computer!

Submitted by sunny_kr
sunny_kr writes: Here is a story in The Daily Voice: McCain admits he doesn't know how to use a computer Link: http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/06/mccain-admits-he-doesnt-know-h-000740.php John McCain says he doesn't know how to use a computer. In a video interview with Yahoo's Political team and Politico.com, McCain admitted he is computer illiterate. When asked if he preferred a Mac or a PC, McCain said "neither." "I am a illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all the assistance I can get," McCain said. In a computer-dominated world, McCain's professed computer ignorance may raise questions again about his .... Watch it YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= — mMyoDZGYk In the blogs: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/mccain-admits-he-doesnt-k_n_106478.html
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA 'threw in towel', then threw 'sucker punch' (blogspot.com) 2

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA threw in the towel, all right, but was only doing it in preparation for throwing a 'sucker punch'. After dropping its 'making available' case, Warner v. Cassin, before Judge Robinson could decide whether to dismiss or not, it was only trying to do an 'end run' (if I may mix my sports metaphors) around the judge's deciding the motion and freezing discovery. It immediately, and secretly, filed a new case against the family, calling this one 'Warner v. Does 1-4'. In their papers the lawyers 'forgot to mention' that the new case was 'related'. As a result, Does 1-4 was assigned to another judge, who knew nothing about the old case. The RIAA lawyers also may have forgotten that they couldn't bring any more cases over this same claim, since they'd already dismissed it twice before. Not to worry, NYCL wrote letters to both judges, reminding them of what the RIAA lawyers had forgotten."
Editorial

Submission + - Infringing copyright isn't stealing (canada.com)

Submitted by
SpaceAdmiral
SpaceAdmiral writes: "Just because the movie studios tell us that infringing copyright is stealing doesn't make it so. According to this informative article by Rory McGreal: "Factually and historically in the British Common Law countries like Canada and the United States, copyright was instituted to promote learning. The first copyright law, the Statute of Queen Anne, 1710, was entitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning." U.S. copyright law is based on this act "to promote the progress of science and useful arts." In fact, these first copyright laws were introduced to limit, and not to protect, the rights of the content owners. The copyright was initiated specifically to promote learning by removing the perpetual rights of the printers, transferring the rights to the authors and imposing a reasonable time limit on their privilege.""
Cellphones

Submission + - Cell Phones Pop Popcorn Kernels (seriouseats.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: No microwaves or ovens nearby? Videos coming out of France and Japan show a feature most cell phone manufacturers are not likely to promote: when they ring, cell phones pop popcorn kernels. And we put these things next to our heads?
Software

Submission + - Who thinks Firehose software is working right? 6

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "I find the Firehose software to be infuriating. It seems to have no 'stickiness' but constantly reverts to other views and searches than what I was looking at. I'm about ready to give up on it unless they tell me they recognize it's dumb and are doing something to make it work right. Am I the only one who feels this way?"
Linux Business

Submission + - Amanda 2.6 is released! (zmanda.com)

Submitted by
amanda-backup
amanda-backup writes: "Amanda 2.6.0 is out of the door: http://www.zmanda.com/amanda-26-released.html Amanda 2.6.0 represents a huge step forward in Amanda's evolution — improving ease of installation and configuration, security, and scalability. Furthermore, this release makes Amanda a platform to develop advanced backup and archiving applications and makes it easier for developers to contribute significant functionality."

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