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US Justice Dept Defends Right To Record Police 306

Posted by samzenpus
from the watching-the-watchers dept.
Fluffeh writes "In recent times, it seems many Police Departments believe that recording them doing their work is an act of war with police officers, destroying the tapes, phones or cameras while arresting the folks doing it. But in a surprising twist, the U.S. Justice Department has sent letter (PDF) to attorneys for the Baltimore Police Department — who have been quite heavy handed in enforcing their 'Don't record me bro!' mantra. The letter contains an awful lot of lawyer babble and lists many court cases and the like, although some sections are surprisingly clear: 'Policies should prohibit officers from destroying recording devices or cameras and deleting recordings or photographs under any circumstances. In addition to violating the First Amendment, police officers violate the core requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process clause when they irrevocably deprived individuals of their recordings without first providing notice and an opportunity to object.' There is a lot more and it certainly seems like a firm foothold in the right direction."
Science

Nanoparticles Heated By Radio Waves Switch On Genes In Mice 42

Posted by Soulskill
from the flipping-a-switch dept.
ananyo writes "Researchers have used radio waves to remotely activate engineered insulin-producing genes in mice. In the long term, the work could lead to medical procedures in which patients' genes are triggered on demand. The researchers coated iron oxide nanoparticles with antibodies that bind to a modified version of a temperature-sensitive ion channel. They injected these particles into tumors grown under the skins of mice, then heated the nanoparticles with low-frequency radio waves. The nanoparticles heated the ion channel, activating it and allowing calcium to flow into cells. The influx of calcium switched on an engineered calcium-sensitive gene that produces insulin (abstract)."
Windows

Is Onlive Pirating Windows and Will It Cost Them? 225

Posted by samzenpus
from the it's-better-to-beg-for-forgiveness-than-to-ask-for-permission dept.
An anonymous reader writes "When Onlive, the network gaming company, started offering not just Microsoft Windows but Microsoft Office for free on the iPad, and now on Android, it certainly seemed too good to be true. Speculation abounded on what type of license they could be using to accomplish this magical feat. From sifting through Microsoft's licenses and speaking with sources very familiar with them, the ugly truth may be that they can't."
ISS

Microgravity Coffee Cup 88

Posted by timothy
from the shattering-all-my-conceptions dept.
BuzzSkyline writes "Despite the fact that astronauts have been eating and drinking out of tubes for decades, it's actually possible to drink from an open-top cup in space. Astronaut Don Pettit recently downlinked a video that shows him slurping coffee from a cup he kludged out of plastic sheet. It appears to work pretty much like a cup on Earth, even in freefall aboard the International Space Station, thanks to capillary action."
Android

Fraunhofer IIS Demos Full-HD Voice Over LTE On Android 99

Posted by timothy
from the smell-o-vision-lite dept.
MojoKid writes "Fraunhofer IIS has chosen Mobile World Congress as the place to present the world's first Full-HD Voice mobile phone calls over an LTE network. Verizon Wireless has toyed with VoLTE (Voice over LTE) before, but this particular method enables mobile phone calls to sound as clear as talking to another person in the same room. Full-HD Voice is already established in several VoIP, video telephony and conferencing systems. However, this will mark the first time Fraunhofer's Full-HD Voice codec AAC-ELD has been integrated into a mobile communications system. Currently, the majority of phone calls are limited to the 3.5 kHz range, whereas humans are able to perceive audio signals up to 20 kHz. The Full-HD Voice codec AAC-ELD gives access to the full audible audio spectrum."
Crime

Children Used To Steal Parents' Data 126

Posted by samzenpus
from the virtual-fagin dept.
Barence writes "PC Pro's Davey Winder has revealed how pre-school children are being targeted by data thieves. Security vendors have uncovered a bunch of Flash-based games, colorful and attractive to young kids, which came complete with a remote access trojan. The trojan is usually installed behind a button to download more free games, but BitDefender even found one painting application where the very act of swiping the paintbrush over an online pet to change the color of the virtual animal was enough to trigger redirection to an infected site."
Advertising

Company to Send DBA into Space 98

Posted by samzenpus
from the where-no-admin-has-gone-before dept.
cramco writes "Moments ago, a U.K. software company announced at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle that it would send a lucky contestant to space. The sponsors, Red Gate, is holding a five-week DBA contest with the winner getting a trip to space. Why? And why put them through five weeks of quizzes and technical challenges presented within B-movie-looking videos involving rubber Martians, small dogs, alien body parts and one of their own acting very strangely? Well, as any developer knows, DBA stands for Don't Bother Asking."

Comment: Re:Escape routes? (Score 1) 417

by RSCruiser (#36578804) Attached to: Flood Berm Collapses At Nebraska Nuclear Plant

I 29 is closed between Council Bluffs and I-680. I-29 south of 80 is open until you reach Nebraska City and are detoured east/west because of another levee breach west of Hamburg. I-29 north of I-680 is open. I-80 east and west is open. There are numerous state and local highways in and out of the metro area.

The section of I-29 that is closed is only causing a minor detour if you're heading north or coming into Omaha from the north.

Though, given what people seem to think is happening here, I may need some kind of radiation proof raft instead...

Comment: Re:Nothing to worry about, move along (Score 3, Insightful) 417

by RSCruiser (#36578716) Attached to: Flood Berm Collapses At Nebraska Nuclear Plant

I'm also from the area. The spin on these stories that the sky is falling are both funny and annoying.

Even if there was some kind of catastrophic failure at FCS that required immediate response, the surrounding infrastructure is still more than able to deal with it. Omaha is still standing and chugging along just fine. The rest of the country isn't exactly paralyzed by a Japan style disaster.

People need to be more concerned about the levees around Omaha and Council Bluffs and the areas already effected by significant breaches. A few feet of water at the station is nothing compared to what is happening elsewhere in the area.

But Officer, I stopped for the last one, and it was green!