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US Congress May Not Have Stomach For Another SOPA 95

Posted by samzenpus from the lets-not-do-that-again dept.
alphadogg writes "As a new session of Congress convenes in early 2013, don't expect lawmakers to rush out a new version of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or the Protect IP Act (PIPA). While some groups representing copyright holders still want to see stronger online enforcement, U.S. lawmakers don't seem to have the collective will to reintroduce similar bills and potentially face another massive online protest. In January 2012, more than 10 million Web users signed petitions, 8 million attempted calls to Congress and 4 million sent email messages, and more than 100,000 websites went dark in protest as the Senate scheduled a vote on PIPA. Lawmakers supporting the two bills baled out in droves, Senate leaders cancelled the PIPA vote, and SOPA's sponsor in the House of Representatives withdrew his legislation. 'That was an avalanche they've never seen,' said Ed Black, head of the Computer and Communications Industry Association. 'They're going to tiptoe in this area very carefully.'"

Comment Re:excuses (Score 1) 470

by nanospook (#42372827) Attached to: Specific Gut Bacteria May Account For Much Obesity
environmental chemicals, food additives, air pollution, genetics.. the question to ask is what and why it's an epidemic. What is an epidemic? Is is obesity, lack of energy, lowered IQ, metabolic disorders? It's easy to say just exercise and control the portions but that is downstream and doesn't eliminate what is causing the situation to spiral out of control in the first place. Not just at the moment but a whole life time of wiping your ass with bleached toilet paper (for example) :)
Space

Possible Habitable Planet Just 12 Light Years Away 420

Posted by Soulskill from the dibs-on-the-oil dept.
sciencehabit writes "Astronomers have discovered what may be five planets orbiting Tau Ceti, the closest single star beyond our solar system whose temperature and luminosity nearly match the sun's. If the planets are there, one of them is about the right distance from the star to sport mild temperatures, oceans of liquid water, and even life (paper)."

Comment a laptop is a laptop.. *yawn* (Score 1) 675

Maybe it's not Windows 8 that is the issue. Maybe it's the technology. Mouse/keyboard/screen/windows.. nothing new.. When it comes to laptops... I'm bored. Nothing has changed in forever. I go to Best Buy and look around for something really new and interesting.. Oh look.. more laptops.. Touch screens? We were doing that on Macs back in the 90's with a cheap kit. I have Window's 8 on my 3 year old laptop and mostly I just hit escape to get back to Windows 7 look and feel, and do what I've been doing all along. But it's all boring.. really.. now my new Galaxy Note II phone, that's a little more interesting.. I can talk to it, touch it, shake it, you can smell the innovation in it!
Google

5 More Google Fiberhoods Coming To Kansas City 80

Posted by samzenpus from the more-the-merrier dept.
skade88 writes "If you live in KC, Google is doing their part to make sure you get your daily fiber. They are launching their gigabit home internet service in five new areas in KC. From the article: '"In 2013, we're going to hit the ground running, finishing installations in Dub's Dread, and then quickly moving on to five more fiberhoods," the company wrote, using its invented term for zones where Google Fiber will be deployed. "Based on pre-registration results, the next fiberhoods on the list are Piper Schools, Delaware Ridge, Painted Hills, Open Door, and Arrowhead. And we have some more good news for folks in some of these areas—we've extended a few fiberhood boundaries slightly, so that more people can get Google Fiber. You can see the new boundaries below and on our website, where you can check to see if your home is now eligible."'"
The Internet

Researchers Develop an Internet Truth Machine 87

Posted by timothy from the how-to-create-better-liars dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Will Oremus writes that when something momentous is unfolding—the Arab Spring, Hurricane Sandy, Friday's horrific elementary school shooting in Connecticut—Twitter is the world's fastest, most comprehensive, and least reliable source of breaking news and in ongoing events like natural disasters, the results of Twitter misinformation can be potentially deadly. During Sandy, for instance, some tweets helped emergency responders figure out where to direct resources. Others provoked needless panic, such as one claiming that the Coney Island hospital was on fire, and a few were downright dangerous, such as the one claiming that people should stop using 911 because the lines were jammed. Now a research team at Yahoo has analyzed tweets from Chile's 2010 earthquake and looked at the potential of machine-learning algorithms to automatically assess the credibility of information tweeted during a disaster. A machine-learning classifier developed by the researchers uses 16 features to assess the credibility of newsworthy tweets and identified the features that make information more credible: credible tweets tend to be longer and include URLs; credible tweeters have higher follower counts; credible tweets are negative rather than positive in tone; and credible tweets do not include question marks, exclamation marks, or first- or third-person pronouns. Researchers at India's Institute of Information Technology also found that credible tweets are less likely to contain swear words (PDF) and significantly more likely to contain frowny emoticons than smiley faces. The bottom line is that an algorithm has the potential to work much faster than a human, and as it improves, it could evolve into an invaluable 'first opinion' for flagging news items on Twitter that might not be true writes Oremus. 'Even that wouldn't fully prevent Twitter lies from spreading or misleading people. But it might at least make their purveyors a little less comfortable and a little less smug.'"
Government

World Governments Object To New gTLDs 135

Posted by timothy from the world-governments-acting-as-usual dept.
hypnosec writes "ICANN is receiving more and more requests for new generic top level domains, and governments around the world are busy registering their complaints and objections with the proposed names. To date, more than 200 objections have been raised against proposed gTLDs, with Australia leading the pack with over 120 objections. Some of the other countries which are at the forefront of registering their objections include France, Germany and India. US and UK are near the bottom of the list. ICANN's "early warnings" about national objections to gTLDs serves as formal objections but it doesn't mean that these domains will never be signed off. There is always room for discussions and mediation that would allow prospective registrants to keep on pursuing their claims. Australia has objected to names such as '.baby,' '.app,' and '.beauty' among other. It has also objected to names such as '.sucks' and '.wtf,' stating that these names have 'an overtly negative or critical connotation.'"

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