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UK government petition on thorium

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "while previously reported on

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/01/02/1330245/Thorium-the-Next-Nuclear-Fuel

There is now a UK government petition on this topic, you are urged to partake of your digital democratic rights!

There is a little known secret in the nuclear industry, the./re is a way to provide very cheap AND very safe nuclear power...
The catch is its almost impossible to create materials for a bomb, and there is little or no reprocessing tie in believe it or not you could put a whole reactor in something the size of a cargo container... which makes the whole Iraq argument go away overnight
Thorium is very abundant compared with other nuclear fuels and needs far less processing making it much cheaper as most of it is "burn" in the reaction, the waste is less in volume with the most dangerous component being tiny and only needs storage for 300 years...
If you're not up to speed on the amazing properties and use for thorium see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LeM-Dyuk6g for a quick run down

without exaggeration if we give thorium a chance it could save us from global warming

If you're a UK resident don't forget to sign up to the petition! http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Thorium/"
Quickies

Saving the Halloween pumpkin 6

Submitted by Boawk
Boawk writes "Every halloween I put a jack-o-lantern on the porch, typically serving as the head of a pair of stuffed coveralls. And every morning after, I find my pumpkin smashed to pieces on my walk. This year rather than pumpkin guts, I'd like to find evidence that the culprits have wet themselves. What are your ideas for rigging up something in the Halloween spirit which would give these neighborhood kids a good scare when they try to remove the pumpkin?"
Education

'Controversial' Obama Back-to-School Speech Posted

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes "Thanks to C-SPAN and live-streaming, it's never been easier for a U.S. President to get a positive message out to schoolkids as they return to school. Except when parents hold their children out of school so they don't have to hear it. The prepared remarks of President Obama's controversial back-to-school message have been posted online. Oooh, scary stuff, kids, as Count Floyd might say!"
Privacy

What Does DHS Know About You?->

Submitted by
Sherri Davidoff
Sherri Davidoff writes "Here's a real copy of an American citizen's DHS Travel Record retrieved from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's Automated Targeting System (ATS). This was obtained through a FOIA/Privacy Act request... The document reveals that the DHS is storing the reader's:
  • Credit card number and expiration
  • IP address used to make web travel reservations
  • Hotel information and itinerary
  • Full airline itinerary, including flight numbers and seat numbers
  • Phone numbers, incl. business, home & cell
  • Every frequent flyer and hotel number associated with the subject, even ones not used for the specific reservation
"
Link to Original Source
Enlightenment

Coffee and alcohol lower dementia. Or vice-versa?->

Submitted by
retroworks
retroworks writes "In January, Amenacier shared news of studies from the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki which indicated that drinking coffee lowered the risk of alzheimers. Now, The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry says that drinking alcohol is related to a lower incidence of dementia. We are still waiting for a third study, that people with dementia forgot to drink coffee and alcohol."
Link to Original Source
Security

Alarming Increase in ATM Crime->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "With the annual cost of ATM crime in Europe approaching half a billion Euros, the European Network and Information Security Agency, is urging consumers to be more aware of the risks and take precautions to avoid personal loss. The rapid growth in the number of ATMs, combined with more sophisticated attacks and fraud has resulted in an alarming 149% rise in ATM attacks in 2008. The number of ATMs in Europe increased 6% last year to almost 400,000, with many now found in remote site locations such as convenience stores, airports and petrol stations. Seventy-two percent of European ATMs are located in just five countries: UK, Spain, Germany, France and Italy."
Link to Original Source
Microsoft

Lawsuit Claims WGA is Spyware.->

Submitted by
twitter
twitter writes "Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), Microsoft's euphemistically named digital restrictions scheme, is the target of another spyware and false advertising lawsuit.

Microsoft this week was sued in a Washington district court for allegedly violating privacy laws through Windows XP's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) copy protection scheme. Similar to cases filed in 2006, the new class action case accuses Microsoft of falsely representing what information WGA would send to verify the authenticity of Windows and that it would send back information [daily ip address and other details that could be used to trace information back to a home or user].

The complaint further argued that Microsoft portrayed WGA as a necessary security update rather than acknowledge its copy protection nature in the update. WGA's implementation also prevented users from purging the protection from their PCs without completely reformatting a computer's system drive.

There were at least two other lawsuits launched in 2006 over WGA. According to the Wikipedia article, none of them have been resolved. The system is built into Vista and Windows 7. It is something that should be avoided by people who value their privacy and any business that has to follow laws such as HIPPA."
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Biotech

The craigslist for antibiotic resistance->

Submitted by SilverToe
SilverToe writes "Resistance to antibiotics is a huge clinical problem. In the US, more people die of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections than of AIDS. We know that antibiotic resistance is carried on mobile genetic elements between bacterial species in lateral gene transfer events. In fact, most of the MRSA's resistance genes are traceable to other species. It is as if MRSA made some great choices when purchasing antibiotic resistance in the bacterial community market, and now it is one tough bug that is heavily armored and very hard to mess with. A a recent article in Science from George Church's group in Harvard Medical School shows us just how common and diverse those genes are. Sommer, Dantas and Church have discovered the craigslist for antibiotic resistance used by bacteria living in the human body. The basic genomic material needed for antibiotic resistance is readily available at your local gut bacterial community. Resistance genes are everywhere, and they are much more plentiful and diverse than we imagined. Antibiotic resistance has a solid pool form which to draw new genes. The arms race between drug developers and bacteria just got this much tougher."
Link to Original Source
Media (Apple)

Hey, Linux Fanboys: Stop Giving Apple a Free Ride-> 3

Submitted by
Death Metal
Death Metal writes "Yet in important ways, Apple is more closed than Microsoft. Apple controls not just software, like Microsoft does, but its hardware as well. Try to sell a non-Apple computer with Apple's OS on it, and you'll get hauled into court by Apple lawyers. Apple has also taken legal action against bloggers who report on upcoming hardware and software releases. There's a long list of ways in which Apple is far more closed than Microsoft.

Yet the Free Software Foundation, and many other open source proponents, conveniently ignore these facts, and regularly attack Microsoft, while giving Apple a free ride. Apple, after all, has the "coolness" factor in its favor, and it's fashionable and easy to attack Microsoft."
Link to Original Source

Have a taco. -- P.S. Beagle