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Submission + - Celebrating 50 Years of Saving Lives with MedicAlert (medicalert.org.uk)

Submitted by MedicAlert UK
MedicAlert UK writes: This year MedicAlert proudly celebrate our 50th anniversary in the UK and Ireland. For 50 years we have been helping to save lives by highlighting our members’ hidden medical conditions and allergies with our functional and stylish medical I.D. jewellery. The charity was founded in 1953 in Turlock, California in 1953 when a 14 year old girl went into near fatal anaphylactic shock when she was given a skin test for a dose of tetanus antitoxin. MedicAlert has grown, reaching Canada, Malaysia, Australia and the UK amongst other countries. The UK head quarters alone has provided support for over 300,000 members in over 50 countries.

Submission + - World's largest amphibious aircraft goes into production

Submitted by stephendavion
stephendavion writes: Chinese aircraft manufacturer China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (CAIGA) has started trial production of its TA600 amphibious aircraft, claimed to be the world's largest of its kind. With an expected maiden flight late next year, the Chinese plane would replace Japan's ShinMaywa US-2 short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft as the largest of its kind globally.

Submission + - The world of fan fiction (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by whoever57
whoever57 writes: The UK's Daily Telegraph has an interesting and somewhat balanced view of the world of fan fiction, providing an historical perspective, the different types of audiences and how different authors and publishers react to fan fiction. Of particular note, is how the author of Fifty Shades of Grey (originally a fan fiction based on the Twilight series) reacts to parties themed around the novel (not well). The article notes how some publishers and authors welcome fan fiction because it enables the original author to make more money.

Submission + - Website Moderators Forced To Censor 95% Of Gaza Comments Made By French Users (ynetnews.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: YNet News reports, "Corchia says that as an online moderator, generally 25% to 40% of comments are banned. Moderators are assigned with the task of filtering comments in accordance with France's legal system, including those that are racist, anti-Semitic or discriminatory. Regarding the war between the Israelis and Hamas, however, Corchia notes that some 95% of online comments made by French users are removed. "There are three times as many comments than normal, all linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," added Jeremie Mani, head of another moderation company Netino. "We see racist or anti-Semitic messages, very violent, that also take aim at politicians and the media, sometimes by giving journalists’ contact details," he added. "This sickening content is peculiar to this conflict. The war in Syria does not trigger these kinds of comments." His last comment is particularly significant; as reports come in that 270 Syrians were killed in a massacre at the hands of ISIS, there is little heard around the rest of the world." — The Connexion reports, "Authorities in Paris had earlier banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations, after previous protests earlier in the week descended into violence, and two Paris synagogues had been targeted." — Open anti-Semitism has been on display in riots in France and other European countries, including calls to, "Gas the Jews."

Submission + - The Amazon Fire Is the Dirtiest Smartphone

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: The biggest thing that sets the Amazon Fire Phone apart from its Android and Apple competitors probably isn't the clean interface or the unlimited photo storage—it's the dirty power behind it. When Fire users upload their photos and data to Amazon's cloud, they'll be creating a lot more pollution than iPhone owners, Greenpeace says.
Apple has made a commitment to running its iCloud on 100 percent clean energy. Amazon, meanwhile, operates the dirtiest servers of any major tech giant that operates its own servers—only 15 percent of its energy comes from clean sources, which is about the default national average.

Submission + - Thousands of Workers Strike to Reinstate Fired Grocery CEO

Submitted by AthanasiusKircher
AthanasiusKircher writes: Have you heard of Market Basket, a regional grocery chain which brings in $4 billion per year? If you're not from New England, you may not know about this quirky century-old family business, which didn't even have a website until two days ago. But that's only the beginning of its strange saga. In a story that labor experts are calling 'unique' and 'unprecedented', shelves in grocery stores across New England have been left empty while thousands of Market Basket workers have rallied for days to reinstate former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, who was fired last month (along with a number of his management allies) as part of a long-standing family squabble. At a protest this morning, 6,000 protesters gathered at the Tewkbury, Massachusetts location where the supermarket chain is based, similar to rallies that have been staged at various locations over the past week. Unlike most labor protests, the workers have no demands for better working conditions or better pay--they simply want their old boss back. Reaction from consumers has been swift and decisive as well: a petition was submitted to the board this morning with over 100,000 signatures from customers calling for the reinstatement of the CEO, and over 100 local lawmakers have expressed support for the workers' cause, including the governor of New Hampshire and candidates for U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races in the region.

In an age where workers are often pitted against management, what could explain this incredible support for a CEO and member of the 0.1%? Columnist Adrian Walker from the Boston Globe described his interview last year with 'Artie T.': 'We toured the Chelsea store together... the connection between the magnate and his employees was frankly shocking. Demoulas knew almost everyone’s name. He knew the name of the guy cutting meat whose wife had just completed chemotherapy and asked about her with obvious concern. Customers came up to him and hugged him, cheered him on. The interactions were too numerous and spontaneous to be staged.' Workers at Market Basket are loyal to their employer and often stay for 20, 30, or more than 40 years. Even lowly store clerks receive significant quarterly bonuses, and experienced loyal workers are rewarded and promoted. Despite running a $4 billion per year business, 'Artie T.' over the years has shown up at countless family events for employees, even visiting sick family members of employees when they are in the hospital. But his generosity hurt the bottom line, according to other board members, who have sought for years to increase profits by raising prices and reducing employee benefits to be in line with norms at other grocery chains. (Market Basket has commonly led grocery store lists for value in regional price surveys.) As one possible resolution to the crisis, the former CEO yesterday offered to buy the entire grocery chain from other board members; this morning, the board stated they were considering the offer.

Submission + - Experian breach exposed 200 million Americans' personal data over a year ago

Submitted by BUL2294
BUL2294 writes: CNN Money is reporting that, prior to the Target breach that exposed information on 110 million customers, and prior to Experian gaining Target's "identity theft protection" business from that breach, Experian was involved a serious breach, to which nobody admits the scope of. Their subsidiary, Court Ventures, unwittingly sold access to a database to a Vietnamese fraudster named Hieu Minh Ngo. This database contained information on some 200 million Americans, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birthdays, work history, driver's license numbers, email addresses, and banking information. "Criminals tapped that database 3.1 million times, investigators said. Surprised you haven't heard this? It's because Experian is staying quiet about it. It's been more than a year since Experian was notified of the leak. Yet the company still won't say how many Americans were affected. CNNMoney asked Experian to detail the scope of the breach. The company refused. "As we've said consistently, it is an unfortunate and isolated issue," Experian spokesman Gerry Tschopp said."

Submission + - Fly-Inspired Tech Could Find Use in Better Hearing Aids (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: When it comes to animals with good hearing, flies might not be the first one you'd think of. The Ormia ochracea fly, however, has a unique hearing mechanism that allows it to precisely determine the location of a cricket based on its chirps ... it then deposits its larvae on the cricket, which ultimately consume the poor insect. Scientists at the University of Texas Austin have now duplicated that mechanism, with hopes that it could find use in applications such as next-generation hearing aids.

Submission + - Long-range electric car world speed record broken by Australian students (unsw.edu.au) 1

Submitted by is_this_gdog
is_this_gdog writes: Sunswift solar car team from UNSW Australia has broken* an international world speed record for the fastest long-range electric vehicle, averaging a speed of 107km/h (66mph) over 500km (310miles) from a single charge with their car, eVe. Solar panels were not used for this record (with solar, the car has a range of over 500 miles), the challenge was endurance speed with battery only. There are faster electric cars, and one or two with longer range if you go slow enough — Sunswift eVe is the first to officially do 500kms at highway speeds.

Pics: https://www.facebook.com/media...
CNET Feature + video: http://www.cnet.com/au/news/au...

(*pending official FIA approval!)

Submission + - Comet to make close call with Mars (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: In mid-October, a comet sweeping through our inner solar system for the first time will pass near Mars—so close, in fact, that if it were buzzing Earth at the same distance it would fly by well inside our moon’s orbit. And while material spewing from the icy visitor probably won’t trigger the colossal meteor showers on the Red Planet that some scientists predicted, dust and water vapor may still slam into Mars, briefly heating up its atmosphere and threatening orbiting spacecraft. However it affects the planet, the comet should give scientists their closest view yet of a near-pristine visitor from the outer edges of our solar system.

Submission + - Is our Universe left-handed?

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: We generally think of the laws of physics as symmetric: there's no preferred location or direction in the Universe that's more physically valid than any other. And yet, there are some fundamental asymmetries: matter dominates over antimatter, muons decay in one direction and not the other 99.9% of the time, and left-handed spiral galaxies are more common than right-handed one. What, didn't know that last one? Turns out that's a real effect, and it's been noticed in more than one study. But is the fault in the stars, or is it ours?

Submission + - Will Your Next Car Be Covered In Morphing Dimples?

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Golfing and cars, not much in common there. But that's about to change thanks to a new technology from a research lab at MIT called Smorphs. The idea is simple: put a set of dynamic dimples on the exterior of a car to improve its surface aerodynamics and make it slipperier, and therefore faster. Pedro Reis is the mechanical engineering and research spearheading this project. A while ago Mythbusters proved the validity of the dimpled car form in a much more low-tech way. The concept uses a hollow core surrounded by a thick, deformable layer, and a smoother outer skin. When vacuum is applied, the outer layers suck in to form the dimples. The technology is only in its very earliest stages, but we could see this applied to future vehicles in an effort to make them faster and more fuel efficient.

Submission + - 3D archaeology - now low-cost, high-volume and crowd-sourced (software.ac.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Archaeologists have long had a taste for computer-based methods, not least because of their need to organise large datasets of sites and finds, search for statistical patterns and map out the results geographically. Digital technologies have been important in fieldwork for at least two decades and increasingly important for sharing archaeology with a wider public online. However, the last decade of advances in computer vision now means that the future of archaeological recording – from whole landscapes of past human activity to archaeological sites to museum objects – is increasingly digital, 3D and citizen-led..."

Submission + - Tech degree doesn't mean a tech career

Submitted by cweditor
cweditor writes: Only 26% of Americans with a four-year science, technology, engineering or math degree are working in tech jobs. So how is it that there's supposed to be a shortage of STEM workers in the U.S.? — Computerworld story

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