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Submission + - Plan C: The Cold War plan which would have brought the US under martial law (muckrock.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Starting on April 19, 1956, the federal government practiced and planned for a near-doomsday scenario known as Plan C. When activated, Plan C would have brought the United States under marshal law, rounded up over ten thousand individuals connected to "subversive" organizations, implemented a censorship board, and prepared the country for life after nuclear attack.

There was no Plan A or B.

Submission + - Freeware Amiga Game Brings Out The Lawyers (blogspot.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Released on new year's eve 2014, Smurf Rescue was yet another Amiga game produced using Backbone; a games creation system that seems to be gaining some degree of popularity at the moment.

Unfortunately, what started out as a bit of fun and a gift to the Amiga community quickly got nasty as Studio Peyo's solicitors sued the author, hipoonios, for creating an unlicensed videogame of their blue coloured creations.

According to the author, "Studio Peyo" (the owners of The Smurfs trademark) demands he also pays the "legal expenses caused up to date in this matter", which is claimed to be as high as 2000€.

Comment Re:We don't (Score 3, Interesting) 153

by Z00L00K (#48903107) Attached to: How Do We Know the Timeline of the Universe?

Which is a theological way to define what Douglas Adams described on why the universe is so elusive to explain.

Another aspect is also - how do we know that the Universe was created at Big Bang. What if it was an empty void that suffered a spontaneous mass appearance.

Or do we live on the inside of a giant black hole?

Submission + - Brain Remains Active Due to Childhood Education (educationsbd.com)

Submitted by sulmahmud1
sulmahmud1 writes: Childhood Education keep active the youth brain. But it is not our academic education run in our country. Rather, it is the education where the child learns generally and willingly. It is found in a research that the brain cell remains active in youth if the brain is used for acquiring knowledge in childhood. Recently, the experts’... read more

Submission + - Facebook Is Being Skimmed For Info By Bots

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I've started receiving spam emails using forged names from my Facebook friends. These spam emails have their names, but come from various foreign email addresses that they don't own. I do not have their email address and they do not have mine, so the only way this could happen is by bots skimming Facebook for names, emails, and friends lists. After trying for half an hour trying to find some way to contact Facebook and only being redirected to their help pages, I gave up. Apparently Facebook doesn't want to be contacted for a serious problem.

Submission + - Is Pascal an Underrated Programming Language? 6

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the recent Slashdot discussion on the D programming language, I was surprised to see criticisms of Pascal that were based on old information and outdated implementations. While I’m sure that, for example, Brian Kernighan’s criticisms of Pascal were valid in 1981, things have moved on since then. Current Object Pascal largely addresses Kernighan’s critique and also includes language features such as anonymous methods, reflection and attributes, class helpers, generics and more (see also Marco Cantu’s recent Object Pascal presentation). Cross-platform development is fairly straightforward with Pascal. Delphi targets Windows, OS X, iOS and Android. Free Pascal targets many operating systems and architectures and Lazarus provides a Delphi-like IDE for Free Pascal. So what do you think? Is Pascal underrated?

Submission + - iPhone seeks wi-fi connection when "off" 5

Submitted by rbarrphd
rbarrphd writes: Recently, my university email account became locked every few hours due to repeated incorrect network login attempts. The culprit was my iPhone 5 trying to connect to the school’s wi-fi with an old password---even though its wi-fi Setting was “Off.” Therefore, iPhones must surreptitiously and repeatedly attempt connection to nearby networks even when that function is supposedly disabled. Is this well-known? Does anyone have another explanation?

Submission + - Massive chip design savings to be realized (utwente.nl)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: IT researchers working at the University of Twente have developed a programming language making the massive costs associated with designing hardware more manageable. Chip manufacturers have been using the same chip design techniques for twenty years now. The current process calls for extensive testing after each design step — a massively expensive state of affairs. The newly developed, so-called functional programming language makes it possible to prove, in advance, that a design transformation is a hundred per cent error-free.

Submission + - OpenSSL 1.0.2 Released (marc.info)

Submitted by kthreadd
kthreadd writes: The OpenSSL project has released its second feature release of the OpenSSL 1.0 series, version 1.0.2 which is ABI compatible with the 1.0.0 and 1.0.1 series. Major new features in this release include Suite B support for TLS 1.2 and DTLS 1.2 and support for DTLS 1.2. selection. Other major changes include TLS automatic EC curve selection, an API to set TLS supported signature algorithms and curves, the SSL_CONF configuration API, support for TLS Brainpool, support for ALPN and support for CMS support for RSA-PSS, RSA-OAEP, ECDH and X9.42 DH.

Submission + - Finding ET – we're gonna need a bigger dish (newscientist.com) 1

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: The hunt for alien civilisations may need a rethink. A new paper argues that the signals we're listening for might not be the ones ET would choose.

Historically, SETI – the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – involves scanning the sky for radio signals that another civilization is deliberately sending. The simplest would be a constant blast in all directions, but in a narrow range of frequencies, similar to early radio broadcasts – like a constant hum that would tell a listener it is artificial. From light years away, we would not be able to get any other information – all we would be able to tell from Earth is that a signal was there and where it was coming from, not what it says.

Submission + - Americans Support Mandatory Labeling of Food That Contains DNA

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Jennifer Abel writes at the LA times that according to a recent survey over 80% of Americans says they support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA,” roughly the same number that support the mandatory labeling of GMO foods “produced with genetic engineering.” Ilya Somin, writing about the survey at the Washington Post, suggested that a mandatory label for foods containing DNA might sound like this: "WARNING: This product contains deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The Surgeon General has determined that DNA is linked to a variety of diseases in both animals and humans. In some configurations, it is a risk factor for cancer and heart disease. Pregnant women are at very high risk of passing on DNA to their children."

The report echoes a well-known joke/prank wherein people discuss the dangers of the chemical “dihydrogen monoxide" also known as hydrogen oxide and hydrogen hydroxide. Search online for information about dihydrogen monoxide, and you'll find a long list of scary-sounding and absolutely true warnings about it: the nuclear power industry uses enormous quantities of it every year. Dihydrogen monoxide is used in the production of many highly toxic pesticides, and chemical weapons banned by the Geneva Conventions. Dihydrogen monoxide is found in all tumors removed from cancer patients, and is guaranteed fatal to humans in large quantities and even small quantities can kill you, if it enters your respiratory system. In 2006, in Louisville, Kentucky, David Karem, executive director of the Waterfront Development Corporation, a public body that operates Waterfront Park, wished to deter bathers from using a large public fountain. "Counting on a lack of understanding about water's chemical makeup," he arranged for signs reading: "DANGER! – WATER CONTAINS HIGH LEVELS OF HYDROGEN – KEEP OUT" to be posted on the fountain at public expense

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