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Earth

Climate Unit Releases Virtually All Remaining Data 507

Posted by samzenpus from the here's-the-rest-of-it dept.
mutube writes "The BBC is reporting that the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, target of 'ClimateGate,' has released nearly all its remaining data on temperature measurements following a freedom of information bid. Most temperature data was already available, but critics of climate science want everything public. Following the latest release, raw data from virtually all of the world's 5,000-plus weather stations is freely available. Release of this dataset required The Met Office to secure approval from more than 1,500 weather stations around the world. The article notes that while Trinidad and Tobago refused permission, the Information Commissioner ruled that public interest in disclosure outweighed those considerations."
China

China Blocks Web Searches About Protests 134

Posted by Soulskill from the must-want-users-to-make-their-own dept.
itwbennett writes "China is blocking searches on Google and microblogs for Zengcheng, a city in the country's Guangdong province, where protests have erupted against local authorities. The move is part of an effort to suppress information on the rioting."
Security

The Beginning of the End For Hadopi? 44

Posted by Soulskill from the pulling-a-sony dept.
zrbyte writes "TorrentFreak reports on the latest developments in the french Hadopi saga. 'The private company entrusted to carry out file-sharing network monitoring for the French government has been hacked. Trident Media Guard, which is responsible for gathering data for so-called 3 strikes warnings was hacked and now has some of its data out in the wild, an event which has the potential to upset the operation of Hadopi.' TMG temporarily suspended the gathering of data on file-sharers while they investigated the breach, later claiming that the attack was on 'an unprotected test server with no confidential data.'"
Java

Red Hat Uncloaks 'Java Killer': the Ceylon Project 623

Posted by timothy from the as-sung-by-the-bad-brains dept.
talawahdotnet writes "Gavin King of Red Hat/Hibernate/Seam fame recently unveiled the top secret project that he has been working on over the past two years, a new language and SDK designed to replace Java in the enterprise. The project came out of hiding without much fanfare or publicity at QCon Beijing in a keynote titled 'The Ceylon Project — the next generation of Java language?'"
Technology

Fermi Lab May Have Discovered New Particle or Force 226

Posted by samzenpus from the probably-a-build-up-of-midichlorians dept.
schleprock63 writes "Physicists at Fermi Lab have found a 'suspicious bump' in their data that could indicate they've found a new elementary particle or even a new force of nature. The discovery could 'be the most significant discovery in physics in half a century.' Physicists have ruled out that the particle could be the standard model Higgs boson, but theorize that it could be some new and unexpected version of the Higgs. This discovery comes as the Tevatron is slated to go offline sometime in September."
Medicine

The Lancet Recants Study Linking Autism To Vaccine 590

Posted by kdawson from the reel-in-the-wingnuts dept.
JamJam writes "The Lancet, a major British medical journal, has retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease. British surgeon and medical researcher Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues originally released their study in 1998. Since then 10 of Wakefield's 13 co-authors have renounced the study's conclusions and The Lancet has said it should never have published the research. Wakefield now faces being stripped of his right to practice medicine in Britain. The vaccine-autism debate should now end."
Businesses

Banking Via Twitter? 193

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the what-not-to-do dept.
In the latest example of how just because you can do something doesn't mean you should, one credit union has decided to offer a new feature, dubbed "tweetMyMoney," that allows members to interact with their accounts via Twitter. Can't wait for the next version, "tweetSomeoneElsesMoney." "tweetMyMoney, available exclusively to Vantage members! With tweetMyMoney, you can monitor your account balance, deposits, withdrawals, holds and cleared checks with simple commands. And, you can even transfer funds within your account. It's all available on Twitter, 24/7!"
The Military

F-22 Raptor Cancelled 829

Posted by timothy from the waiter-there's-a-fly-in-my-fighter dept.
BayaWeaver writes "Slate reports that the F-22 Raptor has been cancelled by the Senate. At an estimated price tag of $339 million per aircraft, even the powerful military-industrial-congressional complex couldn't keep this Cold War program alive in these hard times. They look very cool though and have appeared in movies like Hulk and Transformers. But not to worry too much about the future of the military-industrial-congressional complex: the F-35 Lightning II begins production next year! As a side note, in 2007 a squadron of Raptors became deaf, dumb and blind when they flew over the International Date Line."

Comment Re:A sad day (Score 1) 294

by Autumnmist (#27939797) Attached to: Breast Cancer Gene Lawsuit Argues Patents Invalid

You missed the context of that quotation. Myriad's patent gives it the "exclusive right to perform diagnostic tests on the genes" because the patent covers, among other things, the "normal" sequence of the genes! The patent also covers the fact that mutations in the gene greatly increase the risk of developing cancer.

No one else can offer an alternative test because... well, how can you test someone for a disease-causing mutation without comparing their sequence to the "normal" sequence? (Hint: You can't!) How can you test someone for a disease-causing mutation in a gene when the fact that mutations in the gene cause disease is patented? You can't!

Comment Re:I don't understand it. (Score 2, Informative) 294

by Autumnmist (#27939703) Attached to: Breast Cancer Gene Lawsuit Argues Patents Invalid

Nope you are both wrong. This *IS* about the gene itself. The patent is extremely broad and covers such things as:

1) the "normal" sequence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes
2) the fact that various mutations in those genes are associated with breast cancer

Researchers/doctors are unable to offer alternative tests because offering a test requires being able to compare a patient's sequence with the (patented) "normal" sequence. But Myriad refuses to allow this, so even scientists doing basic research can't sequence their subject's BRCA1/2 genes!!!

Since Myriad Genetics even owns a patent on the "fact" that certain mutations are associated with disease, researchers/doctors aren't even allowed to interpret the results for their patients because doing so would utilized the patented fact that the patient's mutation is associated with breast cancer.

Read the article and/or complaint filed. This lawsuit has been a LONG time coming.

YEs it IS that ridiculous. The patent office was dumb/ignorant when they awarded the patents and it's about time this mistake was challenged.

Comment Re:Procedures (Score 1) 294

by Autumnmist (#27939629) Attached to: Breast Cancer Gene Lawsuit Argues Patents Invalid

You're wrong. If you read the article or the complaint or the ACLU writeup or any of the scientific commentary, you'd see that the patent is in fact on the actual SEQUENCE of the gene(s)! This makes it impossible for anyone to do something like, for example, develop an alternative test because it's impossible to offer an alternative test when the "normal" sequence is patented.

In this particular case, Myriad Genetics even owns a patent on the "fact" that certain mutations are associated with disease, such that researchers/doctors aren't even allowed to interpret the results for their patients because doing so would utilized the patented fact that the patient's mutation is associated with breast cancer.

That's why this lawsuit has been a long time coming. Good luck to ACLU/PUBPAT/etc.
Education

College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior 1079

Posted by CmdrTaco from the so-is-your-mom dept.
FutureDomain writes "The Boston College Campus Police have seized the electronics of a computer science student for allegedly sending an email outing another student. The probable cause? The search warrant application states that he is 'a computer science major' and he uses 'two different operating systems for hiding his illegal activity. One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.' The EFF is currently representing him."

Comment DevonThink on a Mac (Score 2, Insightful) 211

by Autumnmist (#27509385) Attached to: Building a Searchable Literature Archive With Keywords?

If your professor uses a Mac, consider Devonthink by DevonTechnologies.
http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/index.html

For searching, the software has an artificial intelligence system, keywords, meta data. It can store PDFs, word docs, emails, notes. It can be integrated with a scanner so you can scan and store documents in the database. It's got OCR built in...

I have DevonThink (personal edition, not Pro/Office) and I don't even use 1/10 of the power built into this system. You should check out some of the reviews online and videos of people using DevonThink.

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