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Submission + - Who/what should a hero fight?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Due to a weird radioactive accident in my lab a few months ago, I have acquired some superpowers that people usually only dream of. I always thought that what I saw in comics were just fiction, but now I know better. Being a nerd and a nice guy, I followed the lesson from the heroes in comics, and started to fight crime in my region. Everything is going nicely, but the more I fight crime, more it seems that the world is getting worse and worse. Poor people are poorer, people keep dying of hunger and people keep on killing each other. So, I decided to ask Slashdot: since I have power enough to change the world and fight injustices, what should I do to make this world better? Also, heroes cannot work alone, since the world is so big and there is a lot to fight, so who should I unite with? I think you can understand why I'm not signing this summary.
Music

Submission + - Major Record Labels Withdraw from RIAA

Submitted by
s3pHiRoTh
s3pHiRoTh writes: "Music industry executives announced this morning that they were withdrawing support for the trade group the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and launching a new representative body called Respect the Artist, Respect the Audience (RARA)."
Networking

Submission + - Google Introduces TiSP (beta)

Submitted by ceresur
ceresur writes: Google has launched a free consumer broadband wifi internet service. From the PR:

"Google Inc. today announced the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)(TM), a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system."

There is a page describing how to install TiSP and an FAQ.
Space

Submission + - Holy cow! Alien abductions on the rise

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: It's a growing problem. Countless bovines have disappeared from dairy farms everywhere. And the numbers of missing cows are on the rise. See for yourself (Flash required).
Slashdot.org

Submission + - What should I ask Slashdot?

Submitted by
TodMinuit
TodMinuit writes: "Dearest Slashdot: Recently, I've wanted to ask Slashdot something. Unable to come up with a question myself, I thought who better to ask what I should ask Slashdot than Slashdot itself? Surely the very people answering the question are quite capable of coming up with one. So, Slashdot, what should I ask Slashdot?"
Biotech

Submission + - Grow-your-own Viagra craze hits garden centers...

Submitted by colfer
colfer writes: From today's Independent

The plant is winter-flowering heather, and botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, many of them heather experts who have recognised the source of its active ingredient, now expect it to be the next must-have plant in British gardens. Demand is already high. Nurseries and garden centres in some areas are having trouble finding sufficient supplies as word spreads of the plant's unexpected properties.
...
But not everyone is happy about this new discovery. One woman shopping at a Wyvales in Dorking yesterday said: "It's amazing. My husband has never shown any interest in gardening before, but now he's out there night and day fussing over his heathers. Frankly, I preferred it when he left the garden to me and wasn't so frisky."
United States

Submission + - Continental Captain Saves Plane From Coughing Girl

Submitted by
MuValas
MuValas writes: "Thanks to quick thinking, a Captain of a Continental flight saved his passengers by kicking a 16-year old girl off the plane. Her offense? Having a coughing fit. I believe the captain suspected the coughing to be some sort of lung-based nuke-uler weapon, or perhaps he just got dumped too many times by 16-year old girls and saw an opportunity for revenge."
Google

Submission + - Google blocks academic

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It appears that Google takes a very dim view of people "screen scraping" their content (slightly ironic, given that this is how Google gets the content in the first place). An academic, Associate Professor Michael Schwartzbach at the University of Aarhus, Denmark has been offering a service to other academics to enable them to find their h-index (a measure of how often their articles are referenced by others) from Google Scholar. Because this involves screen scraping Google Scholar, Google has blocked his website from accessing their servers. Google has apparently not replied to his requests to allow him to do this for academic and research purposes.
Education

Submission + - Turnitin Sued by Students for Copyright Violations

Submitted by Apocalypse111
Apocalypse111 writes: A pair of high-school students are suing the California based anti-cheating service Turnitin (or rather, Turnitin's parent company, iParadigms LLC), claiming copyright violations. According to the lawsuit, each of the students obtained a copyright registration for papers they submitted to Turnitin. The lawsuit seeks $150,000 for each of six papers written by the students. At least one paper was submitted to Turnitin with instructions that it not be archived, but it was archived regardless, the lawsuit claims. "You can't take a person's work and run it through a computer and make an honest person out of them," said Kevin Wade, father of one of the plaintiffs. "My son's major objection is that he does not cheat, and this assumes he does."
Music

RIAA Going After a 10-Year-Old Girl 510

Posted by kdawson from the winning-friends dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The latest target of the RIAA's ire is a 10-year-old girl in Oregon, who was 7 when the alleged infringement occurred, and whose disabled mother lives on Social Security. In Atlantic v. Andersen, an Oregon case that was widely reported in 2005 when the defendant counterclaimed against the RIAA under Oregon's RICO statute and other laws, the defendant's mother sought to limit the RIAA's deposition of the child to telephone or video-conference. The RIAA has refused, insisting on being able to grill the little girl in person. Here are court documents (PDF)."
Space

Submission + - 'Dead' Rocket Explodes In Orbit

Submitted by
Jacob
Jacob writes: "A rocket which malfunctioned during launch a year ago recently exploded in orbit over Australia, and a number of amateur astronomers, including Rob McNaught (discoverer of Comet McNaught) were able to photograph the explosion and the resulting debris. NASA are now tracking over 1000 fragments, meaning that this has produced more space junk than China's recent ASAT test, it's possible that the fire and explosion were triggered by an encounter with space junk in orbit, and it's also possible the new junk cloud could impact other satellites in the future."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Toy Industry Association plots to poison babies.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The citation below gives an overview of current status of data on phthalates.
It clearly indicates that there is an emerging body of evidence that documents the hazards of phthalates for pregnant women and unborn children in low doses.

What we called your attention to yesterday was the use of the TIA (Toy Industry Association) by a few toy companies to try to prevent the control of these chemicals in our children's toys. We ask that you cover this story on your site and make the names of the organizers at the TIA public and subject to the scrutiny and feedback of rightfully concerned parents. The child you protect may be your own.

http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NEWSCIENCE/oncompou nds/phthalates/phthalates.htm
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NEWSCIENCE/oncompou nds/phthalates/phthalates.htm

Inspite of the data, TIA persists in trying to keep phthalates in Toys.
Here is the latest message they sent to their membership.

        Subject: TIA LEGISLATIVE ALERT!

        February 20, 2007

        Dear Member,

        The TOY INDUSTRY needs your help! As you may know, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently passed an ordinance banning toys and child care products containing certain phthalate plasticizers. Now we expect some California state legislators to attempt to take the ban on phthalate plasticizers statewide. Imagine the very thing that makes so many toys soft and safe for our children will be banned throughout the state of California.

                It is easy to see the impact such a ban would have on the safety and economy of the toy industry.

        In response we are organizing the leaders in our industry to spread the word that phthalate plasticizers are scientifically safe and reduce potential injuries to children.

        What do we need from you? We need you to join our effort to defeat this legislation. In the coming weeks and months we will ask you to contact your local legislator through phone calls, writing letters and in some cases meeting face to face. To bolster our efforts we will need industry representatives to join our media campaign by writing letters to the editor and conducting interviews with local and statewide media outlets countering the misinformation being disseminated by those advocating the legislation.

                  Will you give a little of your time to help us defend our industry? As mentioned, there are a number of ways to get involved. If you are willing to help please contact either Rob Herriott at 646-520-4843 or email rherriott@toy-tia.org or Joan Lawrence at 646-520-4844 or email joan@toy-tia.org.

        To defeat this measure we will need to mobilize a diverse cross-section of our industry, please don't hesitate to lend your support. Our campaign begins March 15th.

        We look forward to hearing from you soon.

        Sincerely,

        Joan Lawrence Rob Herriott

         

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