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We've written a few times about the rush to patent various tax strategies. That, by itself, should be evidence enough of some of the problems with the patent system. However, rather than deal with those larger problems, it appears that our Congressional Representatives are trying to take the cheap way out: creating a special exemption that would exempt taxpayers and tax preparers from risking infringement should they use any of these "patented" tax strategies. While this bill may be well-intentioned, like the attempt to allow banks to ignore a questionable patent on check scanning, it's the wrong approach. Rather than dealing with the root causes of problems with the patent system, these bills look to paper over the manifestations of those problems. In the long run, such laws (if they become law) would only make the system worse. It's nice that Rep. Rick Boucher (who often is on the right side when it comes to intellectual property issues) recognizes that tax preparation patents are a problem -- but this isn't the way to solve them.

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http://techdirt.com/articles/20080623/0237391479.shtml

HolyLime writes "I work in a small to medium sized academic library in a career-oriented, technical school. I've just gone through our Computer Science section and just weeded a good number of the older books from the section. I would basically like some advice in selecting good quality computer/computer science books to help fill out the collection."

netbuzz writes "The New York Times this morning draws attention to one such case — Tim Russert's death — but Google blames its tardiness getting that story to its front page on a technical problem. Trouble with that explanation is that it happens regularly and it happens regularly because Google News depends solely on software — no editors — to populate its front page. This may not be the only problem keeping Google News from fulfilling its promise (the Times gets into others) but it's a significant one.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/29230"

ideonexus writes "A few media sites are making a big deal about the fact that photos of the uncontacted tribe in the Brazilian Rainforest are actually something of a publicity stunt by the photographer, who knew about the tribe's existence and sought photographs to increase awareness of indigenous peoples endangered by encroaching logging and agriculture. As a National Geographic article explains, the tribe was discovered in 1910, but very little is known about their culture, diets, and lifestyles. Other tribes in the area are equally difficult to study, such as a nomadic tribe that flees into hiding whenever a plane flies overhead, which the photographer surmises, "It seems that something very bad, related to an airplane, happened to them. ... I think maybe bombs were thrown at them, or they were shot at.""
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080619-uncontacted-tribe.html

KentuckyFC writes "Neutrinos are better than photons for communicating across the galaxy. That's the conclusion of a group of US astronomers who say that the galaxy is filled with photons that make communications channels noisy whereas neutrino comms would be relatively noise free. Photons are also easily scattered and the centre of the galaxy blocks them entirely. That means any civilisation advanced enough to have started to colonise the galaxy would have to rely on neutrino communications. And the astronomers reckon that the next generation of neutrino detectors should be sensitive enough to pick up ET's chatter."

WmHBlair writes "Data recovered from a 400MB Seagate hard drive carried on the Space Shuttle Columbia has been used to complete a physics experiment performed on the mission in space. The Johnson Space Center sent the recovered drive to Kroll Ontrack in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Considering the shape the drive was in (see picture in the linked article), it could indeed qualify for the 'most amazing disk data recovery ever.'" Update: 05/08 12:51 GMT by T : Reader lucas123 points out a piece at Computerworld with a series of photos of the recovered drive.

Early drafts of Darwin's theory of evolution are now online, along with private papers. I look forward to further information so we can see these ideas evolved.

SleptThroughClass writes "After further consideration, the USGS has decided there are 3 billion barrels of oil under North Dakota and Montana. Maybe if there was a need for this stuff, someone would go way out there and get it."

Recently I installed Flashblock for firefox, and boy has it made the web a much nicer, less blinky place. I have already been using adblock for ages, but this targets flash animations specifically. Instead of showing flash animations, it displays a box with a circle around a flash "F"; hovering over the box shows a play button, which can be clicked to view the flash animation (like if you actually wanted to see the animation, in the case of youtube videos). Between adblock and flashblock I pretty much never see ads anymore, and pages are much more readable without half the page blinking useless ads at me.

'Aggressive new campaign'

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) today filed suit (pdf) in California against eight people for "knowingly selling illegal copies" of Adobe software on eBay.

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/20/ebay_adobe_piracy_suits/

Will the heat from your car's exhaust pipe power your car's electronics? Researchers from Boston College and MIT claim a thermoelectric efficiency breakthrough.
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9899260-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

pickyouupatnine writes "This story on the CBC talks about A Vancouver human rights group is using software developed in Toronto to help break open China's locks on internet content about violence in Tibet. Read more here."
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2008/03/20/tibet-firewall.html

A new study appears to explain how humans, along with other higher primates, guinea pigs and fruit bats, get by with what some have called an "inborn metabolic error": an inability to produce vitamin C from glucose.

http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/255026998/080320120726.htm

diegocn writes "Lasha (Tibet) incident last week has set some wild fire going on in western media. But how much can we trust our media? Some Chinese students explains ridiculous (intentional?) mistakes made by some major western media in their reports."
http://sfbabdi.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!AE62A571E91F75C6!1028.entry

vigmeister writes "

Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder. "Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness." "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave." While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to "the vast right-wing conspiracy."

When did the the line between professional opinions and personal convictions get blurred so?"
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56494