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Censorship

WikiLeaks Continues To Fund Itself Via Flattr 194

Posted by CmdrTaco from the money-finds-a-way dept.
novenator writes "Since the corporations MasterCard, PayPal, and Visa have been trying to shut down the cash flow to the Wikileaks project, those who wish to donate have been having trouble finding a way to help out. The social media/micropayment site Flattr (run from Sweden) continues to leave the channels open."
Image

Thief Posts His Photo To Facebook Victim's Account 222

Posted by samzenpus from the criminal-status-update dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher discovered his house had been burgled; money, a winter coat, an iPod and his son's laptop were stolen. Imagine his surprise when Facebook friends of his 15-year-old son reported that a photo of the apparent thief, wearing Fisher's coat and holding a wad of notes, had been uploaded to his son's Facebook account. How addicted do you have to be to a social network to post a status update and upload your photo *while* you're burgling someone's house?"
The Courts

Judge Ends Massive Porn Lawsuit 181

Posted by Soulskill from the an-end-to-silliness dept.
eldavojohn writes "A recent offensive of porn producers using copyright law against many anonymous P2P users has been terminated by a West Virginian judge. Initially, Ken Ford of Adult Copyright Company planned out nine lawsuits against some 22,000 file sharers, starting with 7,000-person and 9,000-person suits in the first wave. Unimpressed, the judge reduced everything down to one lawsuit against one file sharer, telling the Adult Copyright Company that they are to prosecute each individual separately, as the accused neither participated in the same transaction nor collaborated in these offenses. So, if you're looking to hit 22,000 people with such a lawsuit, the $350 court filing fee will require an investment of $7.7 million ($1.8 million for the individuals listed so far). Ars points out the hilarious fact that 'Ford has sued enough people that lawyers are taking out ads on his company name,' providing an image of an advertisement for such a search. This is separate from a similar showdown in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois."
Security

Antivirus Firms Short-Changing Customers 205

Posted by Soulskill from the nickles-and-dimes dept.
Barence writes "Two leading security firms have been accused of ripping off customers by cutting short their antivirus subscriptions. AVG and Symantec are offering their own customers discounts on subscriptions via email or pop-ups, but the new subscriptions start immediately, 'short-changing' users who had months left on their existing deal. Both Symantec and AVG owned up to the practice, and said they had no plans to change their ways, instead advising their customers to upgrade as close as possible to the end of the subscription. However, the pair actively send out emails and pop-up messages that encourage customers to upgrade immediately."
Space

How Water Forms in Interstellar Space at 10K 270

Posted by CmdrTaco from the just-drink-a-lot-of-beer dept.
KentuckyFC writes "Water is the most abundant solid material in space. But although astronomers see it on planets, moons, in comets and in interstellar clouds, nobody has been able to show how it forms. In theory, it should form easily when oxygen and atomic hydrogen meet. The problem is that there is not enough of it floating around as gas in interstellar dust clouds. So instead, the thinking is that water must form when atomic hydrogen interacts with frozen solid oxygen on the surface of dust grains in these clouds. Now Japanese astronomers have demonstrated this process for the first time in the lab in conditions that simulate interstellar space. That's cool because all the water in the solar system, including almost every drop you drink on Earth today, must have formed in exactly this way more than 5 billion years ago in a pre-solar dustcloud (abstract)."

Speed Racer's Visual FX Uncovered 274

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hey-shannon-this-better-not-suck dept.
Marco Trezzini writes "View exclusive interactive samples of the digital building blocks behind the Speed Racer movie in VRMag's in-depth interviews with award-winning Matrix visual FX guru John Gaeta, Dennis Martin, Lubo Hristov, and Jake Morrison. Including Virtual Reality panoramas of the movie locations, turn tables of the mach 5 and 6, and many making of videos unveiling the secrets of the visual effects. Link to 'Speed Racer uncovered' and to John Gaeta's interview." The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, my jaw hit the floor. Nobody makes live action "Cartoons" that look like this. I guess that makes me believe there is no way the movie can be good.
Spam

100 Email Bouncebacks - Welcome to Backscattering 316

Posted by timothy from the annoying-as-heck-if-heck-is-like-hell dept.
distefano links to a story on Computerworld, excerpting: "E-mail users are receiving an increasing number of bounceback spam, known as backscatter, and security experts say this kind of spam is growing. The bounceback e-mail messages come in at a trickle, maybe one or two every hour. The subject lines are disquieting: 'Cyails, Vygara nad Levytar,' 'UNSOLICITED BULK EMAIL, apparently from you.' You eye your computer screen; you're nervous. What's going on ? Have you been hacked? Are you some kind of zombie botnet spammer? Nope, you're just getting a little backscatter — bounceback messages from legitimate e-mail servers that have been fooled by the spammers."
Microsoft

The Continuing War Against Microsoft's "Facts" Campaign 316

Posted by timothy from the sometimes-they-come-back dept.
davidmwilliams writes "I've been rallying against Microsoft's so-called 'Get the Facts' site for the last fortnight in my blog. Rather than give any legitimate comparison facing off Windows Server vs similarly spec'd Linux options, the Microsoft spin doctors opt for bunkum and hogwash with sensational headlines that don't have any substance underneath. Here's the state of play, including an update on my request to Microsoft PR to do something about the blatant lack of integrity displayed. I also go over the latest case study put up by Microsoft: they promise to show why people are choosing Windows Server 2008 over Linux using the City of Uppsala as an example."
Biotech

Submission + - Chernobyl Mushrooms Feeding on Radiation

Submitted by cowtamer
cowtamer writes: According to a National Geographic Article certain fungi can use ionizing radiation to perform "radiosynthesis" using the pigment melanin (the same one in our skin that protects us from UV radiation). It is speculated that this might be useful on long space voyages where energy from the Sun is not readily available.
The Media

Journal Journal: The Electranet to fight our "Planetary Emergency". 3

Journal by Draculeu

Al Gore finally did it? Al Gore describes Electranet as a system where individual owners (home or business) generating electricity can sell their excess electricity into the power grid without artificial caps and with regulated rates. Like Arpanet or Darpanet that freed the creative powers of man... Electranet to free Humanity from possible doom.
Science

Morality — Biological or Philosophical? 550

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the monkey-see-monkey-do dept.
loid_void writes to mention The New York Times is reporting that Biologists are making a bid on the subject of morality. "Last year Marc Hauser, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, proposed in his book 'Moral Minds' that the brain has a genetically shaped mechanism for acquiring moral rules, a universal moral grammar similar to the neural machinery for learning language. In another recent book, 'Primates and Philosophers,' the primatologist Frans de Waal defends against philosopher critics his view that the roots of morality can be seen in the social behavior of monkeys and apes."
Music

Submission + - What musical instrument to learn?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I've recently watched too much Star Trek and got a kick in my ass from the "improved yourself"-theme. I've always wanted to learn a musical instrument but I never really what to learn. Anyone got a tip? It shouldn't be to large/expensive and suitable for learning it on your own. Some kind of flute perhaps?
United States

Submission + - The Top 25 inventions of 2007

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Ever wonder where the next great idea will com from? Well, seems likely it could come from this group: The History Channel and Invent Now, a subsidiary of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, today named the Top 25 Inventions of 2007. These top 25 creators come from 17 states across the U.S. and their inventions cover a myriad categories, ranging from medical advancements such as a modular, information technology platform for motorized wheelchairs called the Gryphon Shield to environmental breakthroughs such as a green home powered by solar and geothermal energy. Other inventions include a shield designed to protect windows during hurricanes to a method that forces diesel engines to take in and re-use their own exhaust, reducing pollution. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1274 1"

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