City Councilman Arrested for Anonymous Flier.[->] on Monday June 15, @09:34PM arbitraryaardvark Comments: 0

Submitted by arbitraryaardvark on Monday June 15, @09:34PM
arbitraryaardvark writes "Clarksville West Virgina City Councilman Martin Shaffer was arrested June 2 for suspicion of conspiring to distribute an anonymous newsletter. In "prosecuting anonymous speech, that's what's criminal" Reid Cox, Center for Competitive Politics, explains that the arrest was probably illegal and unconstitutional. What's this got to do with computers, the internet, or slashdot? Anonymous speech by anonymous cowards is one of things that makes slashdot and the internet as we know it possible. More background on the story at some blog."

Scientists at Northeastern U in Boston have found a cheaper way to make rare earth magnets, which could lead to better motors and generators and have applications from cars to guitars, reports EEtimes.com.
Samarium cobalt magnets, wiki, have been around a generation but were expensive as well as brittle.
Electronics Weekly explains the new process. PhysOrg broke the story last month, for those of you who don't read Applied Physics Letters.

"Spam King" Robert Soloway has plead [pled?] guilty to violating the CanSpam Act, and some tax evasion, and faces 2 to 20 years jail time, reports SeattlePI.com. It's only the second conviction under the statute. Soloway ignored huge civil judgments against him and kept spamming, using spambots and forged headers. Soloway, wiki, has Tourette's and issues with authority figure types. Sentencing Law and Policy Blog is running a contest to suggest an appropriate sentence, notes Instapundit. 20 years, 90 million emails, I leave it to slashdot to do the math.

Yahoo's Ecogeek blog is reporting that Mercedes will phase out petroleum-powered cars by 2015. Vehicles will be powered by electricity, biodiesel, or hybrid flying monkeys. Story is unconfirmed but well sourced. Mirror of TFA.
Mercedes to cut petroleum out of lineup by 2015
In less than 7 years, Mercedes-Benz plans to ditch petroleum-powered vehicles from its lineup. Focusing on electric, fuel cell, and biofuels, the company is revving up research in alternative fuel sources and efficiency.

Physorg reports that NASA will launch a solar sail around the end of July. C-net It'll be the first of its kind; a previous attempt blew up. It's a small proof-of-concept gizmo, not a full-on spaceyacht.
Solar sails operate on photon pressure from sunlight. They are well known to science fiction readers, otherwise not so much.
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yay, it got in, and with only very minor editing.

arbitraryaardvark writes "Physorg reports that NASA will launch a solar sail around the end of July. It'll be the first of its kind; a previous attempt blew up. It's a small proof-of-concept gizmo, not a full-on spaceyacht. Solar sails operate on photon pressure from sunlight. They are well known to science fiction readers, otherwise not so much." C-net has coverage, too.

Mega-spammer Jeremy Jaynes was convicted in Virginia of spamming in '05, sentenced to 9 years, and lost his appeal, 4-3, at the Virgina Supreme Court. But the court has just ordered a new hearing on whether the anti-spam statute is unconstitutional under the First Amendment, reports How Appealing.
We previously covered the appeal and the conviction.

I got another story posted.
link
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A Step Towards Proving the Riemann Hypothesis
Posted by kdawson on Thursday March 20, @02:50PM
from the prime-time dept.
Math Science
arbitraryaardvark writes "A new mathematical object has been discovered by Bristol University student Ce Bian. The Riemann hypothesis, unproven since 1859, has to do with the distribution of primes and something called L-functions. Bian has demonstrated the first known third-degree transcendental L-function. This apparently opens up a new way to go about looking for proofs of the Riemann hypothesis. There is an unclaimed $1 million prize for a valid proof. We've discussed a couple of earlier attempts to claim the prize."

The Seattle Times reports that spammer Robert Soloway has pled guilty to mail fraud and tax avoision, in exchange for the state dropping multiple iffy counts of identify theft. Wikipedia. Slashdot previously covered his arrest and mention in the New Yorker. The wire fraud felony count is based on selling $500 packages to wannabe spammers.

(I think my story on the mercury messenger was accepted, although it's not showing yet.)

NASA's Messenger probe flew by Mercury 125 miles away and took pictures, updating 30 year old pioneer 10 photos. Messenger will orbit Mercury in 2011. The ion drive European/Japanese ship doesn't launch till 2013. Wired Bad Astronomer.

Popular Mechanics writes that Lonnie Johnson, a former NASA scientist who got rich from inventing the supersoaker squirt gun, has invented a new kind of device for turning heat into electricity, at up to 60% efficiency. The device involves passing hydrogen through membranes, taking advantage of pressure differentials between the hot and cold ends. A solar collector could provide the heat source. For some background here's a 2001 New York Times story on the guy.

AP's Malcolm Ritter reports that young chimpanzees were better at remembering a series of numbers flashed on a screen, than the Japanese college students used as a control group. Scientists plan to repeat the experiment using 5th graders against the great apes.

Beowulf opens nationally today. Official site. Featuring special effects including performance capture and digital 3D, the olde English public domain classic comes to life with cast including Angelina Jolie(nekked), Anthony Hopkins, Crispin Glover, Ray Winstone, John Malkovich and Randy Shelly. Crew includes Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Robert Zemeckis (Polar Express), Roger Avery (Pulp Fiction.) Tie-ins include a videogame. Coverage includes Wired, the New York Times, Reuters and Imdb.

XKCD is already featured on the slashdot front page, but some readers may have missed this week's exciting daily updates, which involve a discussion of section 408 of the DMCA and some hot mother/daughter action.

How Appealing reports that a court has struck down age verification requirements for porn sites, as a First Amendment violation.
While the average slashdot user has never been to such a site, porn has been a driving force in the economics and technology of the net.
The age verification requirements of U.S.C. Title 18, Section 2257 were yet another attempt to regulate to death what the government can't outright prohibit. The requirements intruded on the privacy and safety of the performers,and created headaches for sites like flickr, photobucket,and formerly yahoo which host images. It is has long been thought that the requirements wouldn't hold up in court, but this is the first actual ruling.

Walmart to enter broadband market, reports Business Week, in partnership with Hughes satellite. PCWorld blog. This could put price pressure on cable companies, and help bring broadband to the 10% of the county that is off-grid.