Slashdot

rbgrn writes "Hydrogen is the darling of the media, car manufacturers and oil companies alike. The general public seems fairly convinced that hydrogen vehicles are going to be the way of the future and a simple replacement for oil. Most people are not aware that despite the abundance of hydrogen around us, there is no efficient way to "harvest" any of it. It must be created via processes which currently result in a net energy loss. This article attempts to clear up some misconceptions about using hydrogen power as a replacement for oil and has some fairly startling research to boot."
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/blogs/2008/03/green-cars-part-3-hydrogen.html

An anonymous reader writes "A document recently uploaded to Wikileaks presents the interested reader with what is called The US Military Satellite Pointing Guide, a sophisticated interactive PDF file holding detailed description for various different Satellite networks. The guide, to be used by the US Department of Defense for UHF, Milsat, INMARSAT and DSCS SHF constellations, focuses on providing azimuth & elevation (AZ-EL) details to calculate the correct pointing of an antenna "from any earth location" to establish communication with the satellite.
The macros used in the document unfortunatelly only work with an Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher."
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Military_Satellite_Pointing_Guide

Among the approximately 23,000 genes in human DNA, scientists estimate that there may be as few as 50 to 100 that have no counterparts in other species. Little is known about the distinctive contributions these genes likely make to our species. Now scientists have produced the first detailed analysis of the cellular functions of a gene found only in humans and primate relatives known as hominoids.

http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/255594714/080321114414.htm

coondoggie writes "Cars and industry in general are obviously the prime contributors to greenhouse gas emissions but farm animal flatulence is right up there. Up to 60% of global methane pollution is placed at their hooves, say researchers looking to curb the problem at the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland. Institute researchers a cure needs to be found because the average cow contributes as much to global warming as a family car that travels 12,000 miles and that methane is 24 times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide. Methane is said to contribute as much as 18% towards the global warming. Rowett Research Institute scientists are experimenting with adding fumaric acid to animal feed to reduce ruminant wind. Fumaric acid is a chemical that traps hydrogen produced by their digestive systems and stops it being turned into methane. Results of trials in lambs have far exceeded expectations, cutting the volume of methane by up to 70%. But cows have proved more stubborn. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26209"
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26209

Illah Nourbakhsh writes "We have been beta-testing the Gigapan hardware (billion-pixel digital camera robot), and Randy Sargent in our group had the great idea of challenging the Beta testers to make easter egg hunts- so there are seven such Gigapan panoramas at www.gigapan.org/easter — with hidden surprises revealed only if you zoom in enough. One of them even has a hidden message and a real-world prize (I have no clue what it is)."
http://www.gigapan.org/easter

esocid writes "Computational physicist Neil Turok Neil Turok, at Cambridge University, is challenging the model that explains that the universe started with the Big Bang, an explosive event at the literal beginning of time. He purports that the Big Bang represents just one stage in an infinitely repeated cycle of universal expansion and contraction. Turok, in a book with physicist Paul Steinhardt titled Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang theorizes that neither time nor the universe has a beginning or end.
In an interview at Wired Turok uses string theory to back up his claim that "the seventh extra dimension of space is the gap between two parallel objects called branes" and states that "these two branes clash and then, having filled with radiation, separate and expand to form galaxies and stars. Then the dark energy takes over again. It's the energy of attraction between the two branes: It pulls them back together. You have bang followed by bang followed by bang. You have no beginning of time. It's always been there." His revolutionary claims seem to be getting support from colleagues, as well as raising controversy within, and without the scientific community"
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/02/qa_turok?currentPage=1

John Jeffries writes "This funny but true story, set in Germany in the early 1980's, shows what can happen in even the best planned operations."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/602749/countersurveillance_in_a_snowstorm.html

wiredog writes "From Brian Krebs at The Washington Post:

U.S. financial institutions reported a sizable increase last year in the number of computer intrusions that led to online bank account takeovers and stolen funds
...
I've chosen not to post a copy of the FDIC report here because it includes some general but potentially sensitive information related to ongoing law enforcement investigations into several recent and costly cyber fraud incidents.

"

Tony writes "This is a remarkable listing of Open Source Mac programs. Many seem to be ports from Linux. Many categories. I'm surprised I had not stumbled across it before."
http://web.mac.com/simon_elliott/simon_elliott%40mac.com/Software.html

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Last year the Slashdot community "went medieval" on the testimony of the RIAA's "expert witness", Dr. Doug Jacobson, in UMG v. Lindor. Our friends at Groklaw did likewise. Now you can compare notes with a formally retained expert witness, Prof. Johan Pouwelse of Delft University — one of the world's foremost experts on the science of P2P file sharing and the very same Prof. Pouwelse who stopped the RIAA's Netherlands clone in its tracks back in 2005 — who has weighed in with his expert witness report characterizing Dr. Jacobson's work as "borderline incompetence". p2pnet calls the report a devastating blow to the RIAA's expert. (And in the shameless-plug department, if you enjoyed reading Prof. Pouwelse's report, and want to continue helping to get the truth out to judges and juries about the technology and science of the internet, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to the Expert Witness Defense Fund maintained by the Free Software Foundation, which provides funding for expert witnesses and other technical consultants who are assisting defendants in the RIAA cases)."
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008/02/motion-for-leave-to-bring-third-party.html

eldavojohn writes "Remember the astronaut who claimed space had an 'odor'? Well, recent research is showing that an unusual inorganic ring molecule made of arsenic and tellurium is both magnetic and aromatic. From the article, "The findings suggest that traditionally nonmagnetic elements can become magnetic. For physicists, this work extends the understanding of aromaticity and shows that it may occur in unexpected materials.""
http://www.physorg.com/news122736934.html

In comments accompanying an online petition, workers are airing disappointment, anger and bitterness with I.B.M. over a salary cut affecting 6% of the company’s U.S. workforce.
http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573EF0056DA61.html?ex=1360731600&en=8e39d0eb189ae7e6&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

netbuzz writes "Ten days have passed since the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that patent "reform" legislation before the Senate would effectively scuttle the organization's successful Patent Busting Project, as well as any similar watchdog efforts. Since then neither the EFF nor the press has gotten any explanation from the Senate Judiciary Committee as to why this would be allowed to happen as part of so-called patent reform. Some "crowdsourcing" might get answers from key senators, if enough people who are fed up with frivolous patents are willing to help.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25049"

ubermiester writes "NYTimes.com reports that the US is planning to shoot down the doomed satellite, thought by some to be the radar satillite US193, with a modified missile launched from a Navy Destroyer. 'Shooting down a satellite is particularly sensitive because of the controversy surrounding China's anti-satellite test last year, when Beijing shot down one of its defunct weather satellites, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and other countries.'"
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-DeadSatellite.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A California judge has dismissed an RIAA "John Doe" case as to 4 out of 5 of the "John Doe" defendants, and as to 6 of the record company plaintiffs. While other judges have pointed out the RIAA's impropriety in joining unrelated defendants, and one even suggested recently that the RIAA's lawyers should be sanctioned for it, this is the first instance of which we are aware in which the judge also seized upon the impropriety of joining the plaintiff record companies. Judge S. James Otero, sitting in the federal court in Los Angeles, is the same judge who, in an earlier decision in another RIAA case, expressed concern that "in these [RIAA] lawsuits, potentially meritorious legal and factual defenses are not being litigated, and instead, the federal judiciary is being used as a hammer by a small group of plaintiffs to pound settlements out of unrepresented defendants.""
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008/02/california-judge-dismisses-riaa-case.html