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The Courts

Weev's Attorney Says FBI Is Intercepting His Client's Mail 109

Posted by timothy from the men-in-the-middle-attack dept.
Daniel_Stuckey (2647775) writes "The FBI is intercepting the prison correspondence of infamous Internet troll Andrew "weev" Auernheimer, including letters from his defense team, according to his attorney. 'He's sent me between 10 and 20 letters in the last month or two. I've received one,' Tor Ekeland, who had just returned from visiting Auernheimer at the federal corrections institute in Allenwood, PA., told the Daily Dot in a video interview.

Last March, Auernheimer was convicted of accessing a computer without authorization and sentenced to 41 months in prison. As a member of the computer security team Goatse Security, Auernheimer discovered a major security flaw in AT&T's network, which allowed him to download the email addresses of some 114,000 iPad users. Goatse Security reported the flaw to Gawker and provided journalists with the information, who then published it in redacted form."
Biotech

MIT Researcher Enlists Bacteria To Assemble Nanotech Materials 36

Posted by timothy from the would-change-ikea-directions-forever dept.
The Register reports on an approach to nanotech that combines biological computing with micro-mechanics, embodied in the work of MIT associate professor Timothy Lu. Lu's research has resulted in the creation of tiny structures assembled using modified E. coli. "Specifically," says the article, "the MIT researchers were able to put bacteria to work producing conducting biofilms, some of which were studded with quantum dots, and arranging gold nanowires. This paves the way for the development of mass manufactured cell-based material factories, and even 'living materials' that have some of the desirable properties of bones or trees, Lu confirmed." His most radical idea, says Lu, is furniture that shapes itself to cushion the user's most-stressed areas.
Medicine

Stanford Bioengineer Develops a 50-cent Paper Microscope 83

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the check-out-those-microbes dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Scope: A Stanford bioengineer has developed an ultra-low-cost print-and-fold microscope and is now showing others how to make one themselves. The 50-cent lightweight, paper 'Foldscope' — which 'can be assembled in minutes, [and] includes no mechanical moving parts' — was designed to aid disease diagnosis in developing regions." The paper describing the design is on arXiv, and a video demoing the microscope is attached below.

Comment Re:Religion and evolution (Score 1) 431

by paazin (#46420323) Attached to: Jewish School Removes Evolution Questions From Exams
Actually, fun fact: the Haredi, the sect described in the article, are a growing proportion of the population of Israel simply because of their large fertility rate -- and an increasingly important demographic politically (hence a reason why there has been an uptick of conservatism in Israel). So it can be argued that they are indeed winning evolutionarily.
Stats

All Else Being Equal: Disputing Claims of a Gender Pay Gap In Tech 427

Posted by timothy from the cash-on-the-table-or-not? dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Synthia Tan writes that when you investigate the actual data, controlling for non-gender factors (like number of hours worked) the gender pay gap seems to disappear. 'A longitudinal study of female engineers in the 1980s showed a wage penalty of essentially zero.' In some cases women make more than men: women who work between 30 and 39 hours a week make 111% of what their male counterparts make." The researchers were studying more recent data, too; what are things like on this front where you work?

Comment Re:I thought this had been settled long ago. (Score 1) 491

by paazin (#46349785) Attached to: Do We Really Have a Shortage of STEM Workers?

Except that it is not. There are currently about two million practicing engineers in the USA, and that number is growing by about 70,000 per year. So we are not "shedding" STEM jobs. The unemployment rate for computer professionals and engineers is about 3% compared to an overall rate of over 7%.

I apologize for interrupting this whine-fest with actual facts.

Actually for equivalently educated Americans (those who concluded accredited undergraduate degree programs) you're looking at around 4% unemployment versus a overall computer/math degree unemployment of 3.4% (as quoted in the original article).

It isn't that large of a gulf as it may appear with the general populace.

Comment Re:So? (Score 1) 359

by paazin (#46326365) Attached to: Ghostwriter Reveals the Secret Life of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

do we want to teach the next generation that government responsibility and transparency are virtues, and that acting in service to the truth is good? that whistleblowing is something to be admired? or do we want to show them that it's a good way to serve attention-seeking narcissists?

This. It saddens me how much vitriol is offered in return to people who suggest as much; sort of bewildering.

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