Submission + - Did Yahoo mail flunk DST?
twenty6and9 writes: Is it just me? Or is yahoo mail incapacitated? Possibly by the DST change?
Submission + - Global Warming- A swindle?
An anonymous reader writes: A few days ago the BBC aired a show in the UK under the title "The Global Warming Swindle" (which soon after became available for download from sites like the Pirate Bay). In a nutshell, a panel of people with apparently solid credentials in the discipline of climatology claim the following:
1) Gore gets it back to front in "An Inconvenient Truth": Although there seems to be a correlation between increased atmospheric temperature and CO_2 levels, the increase in CO_2 concentration is caused by the temperature increase — not
the other way around.
2) Humanity's contribution to CO_2 levels in the atmosphere is negligible when compared with natural phenomena such as volcano activity and the oceans — by far the major contributor.
3) There is a clear correlation (as far as historic data is available — some
400 years worth of it) between solar activity and atmospheric temperature increase.
4) The abundance of clouds (which is indirectly determined by solar activity) has a direct influence on atmospheric temperature — above and beyond what realistic CO_2 levels can do.
5) Some scientists (it's not clear how many) who contributed to the recent United Nations' IPCC report explicitly asked that body to withdraw their names from the report, on the grounds of their disagreement with its contents. Apparently the IPCC would not comply without further pressure or even threats of legal action.
6) By imposing stringent restrictions on exploitation of some natural sources of currently cheap energy (oil, coal) and pushing them towards using currently expensive and inefficient ones (solar, wind) instead, western countries are putting a break to the economic development of Third World nations.
7) There is a vested interest in the media to magnify the nature of climate-related problems (this one is very easy to believe, for the media have a tendency to exaggerate everything) and also in climate research circles — the jobs of thousands of people depend on the current global warming scare (apparently the resources allocation for this kind of research has ballooned from some $170M a year in the US in the early 90s to some $2B now).
In the face of it, the show is a pretty thorough debunking of the global warming claims that one can witness on the media daily. It would be interesting to
see how members of the global warming camp refute this, other than dismissing it as the makings of scientists prostituted to corporate interests (which might, or might not, be true, regardless of the quality of the data) or resorting to personal attacks and summary dismissal, without attempting to contest the evidence
on a rational basis, like Greenpeace and other groups have done with Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist". Feedback from contributors to this forum is very welcome.
Submission + - What's new in study of human evolution?
je ne sais quoi writes: MSNBC/Newsweek has an informative article summarizing a lot of the recent advancements in tracing the evolution of modern humans. From the article:
The article emphasizes that evolution is not necessarily linear, in that a given trait might show up multiple times before being used by a successful species. We've come a long way from the old story of humanoid evolution that goes in a more or less linear chain from Australopithicus to Homo Sapiens.Unlike the earlier wave of Homo erectus into Asia a million years ago, the first modern humans, the ancestors of everyone today, departed Africa about 66,000 years ago... These pilgrims were strikingly few. From the amount of variation in Y chromosomes today, population geneticists infer how many individuals were in this "founder" population. The best estimate: 2,000 men. Assuming an equal number of women, only 4,000 brave souls ventured forth from Africa. We are their descendants.
Submission + - Why Dell won't offer Linux on its PCs.
derrida writes: "Jack Schofield explains in his article why Dell won't offer Linux on its PCs. Quoting from there:
"The most obvious is deciding which version of Linux to offer. There are more than 100 distros, and everybody seems to want a different one — or the same one with a different desktop, or whatever. It costs Dell a small fortune to offer an operating system (it involves thousands of driver compatibility, peripheral testing, certification, staff training, administration, advertising and support issues) so the lack of a standard is a real killer. The less obvious problem is the very high cost of Linux support, especially when selling cheap PCs to naïve users who don't RTFM (read the friendly manual) and wouldn't understand a Linux manual if they tried. And there's so much of it! Saying "Linux is just a kernel, so that's all we support" isn't going to work, but where in the great sprawling heap of GNU/Linux code do you draw the line?""
Submission + - NZ objects to Microsoft Open XML standard
kumachan writes: According to a Standards New Zealand spokesperson, the objection is that "the ISO [The International Organisation for Standardisation] has already developed a standard for XML open format [that is, Open Document] and the committee does not believe that there is a need for another standard, and that Microsoft's [standard] is in conflict with the existing one."
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/82AF97DEB BAFD057CC2572990006C14C
Submission + - Wireless Antenna Net
david40waugh writes: "Wireless Antenna Net
About wireless, wireless services, wireless network, wireless technology etc."
Submission + - Daniel Radcliffe/Harry Potter Totally Nude - Equus
Trnscndr writes: There are many sites carrying censored versions of the publicity stills of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as he enters the world of serious theater, starring in the dramatic masterpiece, Equus, as a psychosexually disturbed teen with an interesting thing for horses. He reportedly didn't hesitate to disrobe for the publicity stills, and I mean totally NAKED, NUDE, in the Buff! Here you find him uncut/uncensored (oops).
Bookmark I Admire Honesty in Corporate Communication - The AU PS3 price is "Obscene" (lukewelling.com)
Journal Journal: S&M site and stolen identity used in Rape Revenge Plot
A S&M site has been abused in a plot with serious identity implications.
"The defendant set the victim up to be abducted and raped by a complete stranger," prosecutor Ricki Goldstein said in Norwalk, Conn., Superior Court.
Journal Journal: 12 year old faces criminal charges for pictures of herself. 2
The criminal justice system is reaching for a new low, this time threatening a 12 year old for taking pictures of herself. There is a victim in this case, unlike the recent cases, where a 15 year old girl and a 17 year old couple were threatened with hard time for their own protection.
Submission + - New Star Trek to be "Absurdly Bad"
w1z4rd writes: "What some would consider a backwards slide in the Star Trek series Abrams and Paramount have decided on the all new series to debut in Christmas 2008. Its about Spock and Kirk as teenagers."
Submission + - Guess he should have used PGP
gkearney writes: "A man is suing Microsoft because the FBI was able to read his "secure" hard drive. He was arrested for selling an air rifle with silencer (Why an air rifle would need a silencer is another story.) when the ATF seized his porn ladened computer which he had secured with various software. When the FBI computer lab was able to read his drive he file d suit. Interesting that HP and Circuit City settled with him. Now about those silencer equipped air rifles...
http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle .jhtml?articleID=197700861&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb"
http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticl
Submission + - New BBC documentary claims global warming is lies.
myside writes: 'The Great Global Warming Swindle', a documentary set to air on BBC on Thursday, claims that man-made global warming is a scam. http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=CZ434669U &news_headline=global_warming_is_lies_claims_docum entary
Submission + - Microsoft Wanted To Drop Mac Office To Hurt Apple
Overly Critical Guy writes: More documents in the Iowa antitrust case have come out. This time, it's revealed that Microsoft considers Mac users its "guinea pigs" for new Office features, and they once considered dropping Mac Office entirely, "as doing so will do a great deal of harm to Apple immediately." This case has become a treasure trove of internal memos describing Microsoft's internal business practices of the last ten years.
Submission + - FAA, DOT Ban Vista Upgrades
An anonymous reader writes: Two goverment agencies is putting a hold on upgrades to Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, Internet Explorer 7, and Office 2007." DOT and the FAA have similar bans in effect. DOT is exploring other options, including Novell's SUSE Linux and, for a subset of users, Apple's Macintosh hardware and software.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jh tml?articleID=197700911
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.j
