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Power

Submission + - Has DIGG seen the SLASHDOT light

Submitted by ScrewTivo
ScrewTivo writes: Power ... or ABUSE of power. Here is proof that DIGG is stuffing the ballot box. Slashdot has an authoritarian method of promoting stories. As a long time member I know that and accept that. Howerver DIGG was to be a social voting network. Well it turns out some have more powerful votes than others. Is this a major misrepresentation of DIGG? I am not sure how long this proof will be visible but here it is:
This article has 32 DIGGS . Go to News -> World & Business -> Political News sort by "most popular" You can go down to the stories with only 4 votes and still not find this article!

It hurts to see Slashdot trying to be like DIGG when really Slashdot should just be a great Slashdot.
The Courts

Submission + - Julie Amero wrongly convicted? The spyware defense

Submitted by Anonymous Howard
Anonymous Howard writes: Substitute teacher Julie Amero faces up to 40 years in prison for exposing kids to porn using a classroom computer, but the facts strongly suggest that she was wrongfully convicted. Many issues remain, from the need for an independent computer forensics investigation and the presence of spyware and adware on the Windows 98 machine, to bad or incomplete legal work on both sides of this criminal case. It appears that spyware caused Julie Amero's conviction. She will be sentenced on March 2, 2007. This is a new development from the previously story on Slashdot.
Power

Submission + - Convert Trash Into Energy With No Pollution

Submitted by happylucky
happylucky writes: Remember when Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) dumped some garbage into his engine for fuel in Back to the Future II? Startech Environmental Corporation has come up with a similar process that can take both hazardous and non-hazardous waste and convert it into energy, glass and hydrogen.

They use a plasma process that doesnt burn the garbage but breaks the molecules down into their individual elements (atoms). It is a safe process that involves a closed-loop system so no pollutants are released into the environment. All of it is converted into a safe material.

The company says that it will convert all hazardous waste, except nuclear waste, into an obsidian-like glass and hydrogen. The technology could potentially solve two problems at one time. It could help us solve our energy problem and our landfill problem.
Space

Submission + - cosmic rays not CO2 warming up the planet

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: What has been argued for years by various scientists and "Global Warming Deniers" is that there was a strong correlation between sunspot activity and global temperature in spite of the irradiance from the sun not increasing.

We now have a potential explanation

Researchers have managed to replicate the effect of cosmic rays on the aerosols in the atmosphere that help to create clouds. Henrik Svensmark, a weather scientist in Denmark, said the experiments suggested that man's influence on global warming might be rather less than was supposed by the bulk of scientific opinion.

Cosmic rays — radiation, or particles of energy, from stars, which bombard the Earth — can create electrically charged ions in the atmosphere that act as a magnet for water vapour, causing clouds to form.

Dr Svensmark suggests that the Sun, at a historically high level of activity, is deflecting many of the cosmic rays away from Earth and thus reducing the cloud cover.

Some how this will be the oil companies fault I'm sure
Security

Submission + - What is safest way to bank and stock trade online?

Submitted by
ScrewTivo
ScrewTivo writes: "For a long time I believed a LiveCD was the safest way to do online transactions. I am beginning to worry that spyware might be subverted into the code of LiveCD's just because so many people rely on them for secure transactions. Has improvements in WinXP, Vista, OSX, BSD, Linux, Solaris made the need for a LiveCD fade? If today you had to pick just one method, which would it be? TIA"
Microsoft

Submission + - Virtual Windows to Run Unmodified on Linux

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Novell and Intel Corporation today announced the availability of paravirtualized network and block device drivers that will allow Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003/XP to run unmodified in Xen virtual environments on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell, operating on Intel-based server platforms featuring Intel Virtualization Technology.
Biotech

Submission + - Scientists Find Cure For Cancer, No One Notices

Submitted by
Tastycat
Tastycat writes: "Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada found a cheap and easy to produce drug that kills almost all cancers. The drug is dichloroacetate, and since it is already used to treat metabolic disorders, we know it should be no problem to use it for other purposes.

The drug also has no patent, which means it could be produced for bargain basement prices in comparison to what drug companies research and develop.

Scientists tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body where it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but left healthy cells alone. Rats plump with tumors shrank when they were fed water supplemented with DCA.

Cancer cells don't use the little power stations found in most human cells — the mitochondria. Instead, they use glycolysis, which is less effective and more wasteful. Doctors have long believed the reason for this is because the mitochondria were damaged somehow. But, it turns out the mitochondria were just dormant, and DCA starts them back up again.

The side effect of this is it also reactivates a process called apoptosis. You see, mitochondria contain an all-too-important self-destruct button that can't be pressed in cancer cells. Without it, tumors grow larger as cells refuse to be extinguished. Fully functioning mitochondria, thanks to DCA, can once again die. With glycolysis turned off, the body produces less lactic acid, so the bad tissue around cancer cells doesn't break down and seed new tumors.

Here's the big catch. Pharmaceutical companies probably won't invest in research into DCA because they won't profit from it. It's easy to make, unpatented and could be added to drinking water. Imagine, Gatorade with cancer control.

So, the groundwork will have to be done at universities and independently funded laboratories. But, how are they supposed to drum up support if the media aren't even talking about it?

All I can do is write this and hope Google News picks it up. In the meantime, tell everyone you know and do your own research."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - NZ copyright bill submissions close on Friday!

Submitted by
Clarke
Clarke writes: "Thanks to the lobbying efforts of the RIANZ (our local RIAA clone) New Zealand is about to get a DMCA-style copyright law. This will emasculate Fair Use and turns DRM removal into a criminal act — so removing the infamous Sony rootkit from your PC will get you a criminal record, 5 years in jail and a $150,000 fine.

For the first time, the parliamentary committee considering the bill is allowing online submissions from anyone in the world: http://www.clerk.parliament.govt.nz.clients.interg en.net.nz/OnlineSubmission/Submission.aspx?id={A23 4B182-C669-4F08-BFD6-4C4BF4F495E1}

Can you please please please let people know it's not too late to kill or amend this stupid piece of legislation by making a submission. The full text of the bill can be found here: http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/gpprint/docs/bil ls/20061021.txt"

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