Banking Trojan steals money from under your nose->
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Anonymous Coward
Chicago lost Olympics due to US passport control?
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An anonymous reader writes "Chicago lost its bid for the 2016 Olympics (which went to Rio de Janiero instead), and it's looking very likely that US border procedures were one of the main factors which knocked Chicago out of the race:
"Among the toughest questions posed to the Chicago bid team this week in Copenhagen was one that raised the issue of what kind of welcome foreigners would get from airport officials when they arrived in this country to attend the Games. Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, in the question-and-answer session following Chicagoâ(TM)s official presentation, pointed out that entering the United States can be "a rather harrowing experience."
... The exchange underscores what tourism officials here have been saying for years about the sometimes rigorous entry process for foreigners, which they see as a deterrent to tourism.
Canadian Minister Lies On Net Surveillance Claims
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian government has introduced
Internet surveillance legislation that requires ISPs to disclose
customer information without a warrant. Peter Van Loan, the
Minister in charge, claims that a Vancouver kidnapping earlier this
year shows the need for these powers. I did some digging
and shows this to be a lie — the Vancouver police acknowledge that the
case did not involve an ISP request and the suspect is now in custody."
Habitable Planet Discovery Expected "Anytime Now"-> 2
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bughunter
bughunter writes "Planet hunters from NASA, Harvard University and the University of Colorado are collaborating on an effort to find Earthlike planets orbiting other stars. David Latham, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is quoted at saying, "It could happen almost any time now. We now have the technological capability to identify Earth-like planets around the smallest stars." Using the COROT and HARPS observatories, they expect to soon find our first candidates for extrasolar colonization. Now all we need is a Bussard Ramjet and a few volunteers."
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Link to Original Source
Jack Thompson sues Facebook for $40M-> 2
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angry tapir
angry tapir writes "Jack Thompson has sued Facebook for US$40 million, saying that the social networking site harmed him by not removing angry postings made by Facebook gamers. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Thompson is best know for bringing suit against Grand Theft Auto's Take Two Interactive, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Wal-Mart, arguing that the game caused violent behavior."
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Link to Original Source
Carl Sagan sings->
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gijoel
gijoel writes "Someone's been playing with autotune and taken clips from Carl Sagan's Cosmos series to make this fantastic song. Look out for Steven Hawking cameo."
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Link to Original Source
Comment: Define Narrow (Score 1) 630
So what is the effective arc of this weapon, exactly? It's hard to tell from just videos of course, but it seemed to me that there was no "narrow" to be had based on the reactions of the "crowd". Never minding horizontal arc, how about the vertical? I saw some second story apartments in the video; here's to hoping no one's cat or dog got brain fried because of this.
Journal: So sue me...wait, no, it's only an expression.....crap
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Nemus
Good morning world. Welcome to Saturday; a deity mandated day of rest. Oh, look, there's a call from my parents, saying we need to talk about something. Oh joy, it's another lawsuit.
UK musicians back 'three-strikes' rule for illegal->
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The Guardian has a piece on a couple of UK-based music industry lobby groups (the Featured Artists' Coalition and UK Music) showing their support for the government's proposed 'technical measures' to tackle illegal file sharing. It's all pretty standard fare, but the final quotation is precious:
"BT is clinging on to an old business model which is supported by illegal downloading. That's not only unfair to artists and creators, but penalises BT's many customers who use the internet legally," [Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the BPI] said."
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"BT is clinging on to an old business model which is supported by illegal downloading. That's not only unfair to artists and creators, but penalises BT's many customers who use the internet legally," [Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the BPI] said."
Link to Original Source
AT&T calls Google a hypocrite on Net neutralit-> 1
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NotBornYesterday
NotBornYesterday writes "AT&T is accusing Google of being a hypocrite when it comes to Net neutrality because it blocks certain phone calls on its Google Voice service. "By openly flaunting the call-blocking prohibition that applies to its competitors, Google is acting in a manner inconsistent with the spirit, if not the letter, of the FCC's fourth principle contained in its Internet Policy Statement," Robert Quinn, AT&T's senior vice president focusing on federal regulation, said in a statement.
Google blocks certain calls to avoid high costs due to a practice known as traffic pumping. Rural carriers can charge connection fees that are about 100 times higher than the rates that large local phone companies can charge. In traffic pumping, they share this revenue with adult chat services, conference-calling centers, party lines, and others that are able to attract lots of incoming phone calls to their networks.
Google responded by saying that the rules AT&T refers to don't apply to Google Voice for several reasons. Google Voice is a software application that offers a service on top of the existing telco infrastructure, it is a free service, and it is not intended to be a replacement for traditional telephone service. In fact, the service requires that users have a landline phone or a wireless phone."
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Google blocks certain calls to avoid high costs due to a practice known as traffic pumping. Rural carriers can charge connection fees that are about 100 times higher than the rates that large local phone companies can charge. In traffic pumping, they share this revenue with adult chat services, conference-calling centers, party lines, and others that are able to attract lots of incoming phone calls to their networks.
Google responded by saying that the rules AT&T refers to don't apply to Google Voice for several reasons. Google Voice is a software application that offers a service on top of the existing telco infrastructure, it is a free service, and it is not intended to be a replacement for traditional telephone service. In fact, the service requires that users have a landline phone or a wireless phone."
Link to Original Source