Slashdot

Ponca City, We Love You writes "Researchers at Monash University, in Australia, have found a process to coat natural fibers such as wool, silk, and hemp that will automatically remove food, grime, and even red-wine stains by coating their fibers with titanium dioxide nanocrystals, which break down food and dirt in sunlight. Titanium dioxide is a strong photocatalyst and in the presence of ultraviolet light and water vapor, it forms hydroxyl radicals, which oxidize, or decompose, organic matter. "These nanocrystals cannot decompose wool and are harmless to skin," says organic chemist and nanomaterials researcher Walid Daoud. Titanium dioxide can also destroy pathogens such as bacteria in the presence of sunlight by breaking down the cell walls of the microorganisms making self-cleaning fabrics especially useful in hospitals and other medical settings."

theodp writes "ComputerWorld has an interview with Bob Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule, which was inspired by a department Sutton used to work in at Stanford where invoking the rule helped promote a better workplace. In addition to naming some high-profile a — holes, Sutton discusses the huge TCA (Total Cost of A — holes) in today's corporations, which prompted SuccessFactors to adopt a 'No Jerks' founding principle."

xymog writes "I'm increasingly seeing people with printers that stop working and provide a "toner out" message, even though the end user swears they are using a new cartridge. Though they are not using Lexmark printers, I am pretty sure they are using a printer and cartridge combination that uses so-called toner level chips. These are discussed in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexmark_Int'l_v._Stat ic_Control_Components. The chips allow manufacturers to lock users into using their cartridges, rather than using OEM or toner refill programs. Good for the manufacturer, bad for consumers and consumer choice. In my bumbling way I've tried locating more information, or even a list, of personal or small workgroup printers that use these manufacturer lock-in techniques, but wasn't able to find such a list. Any Slashdot readers have anecdotal suggestions or even a pretty-darn-sure list I could refer to?"

djpretzel writes "I run OverClocked ReMix, one of many game-related sites that maintains its own database of games/systems/publishers, etc. in order to facilitate searching (in this case for music) by these fields. While designing the database has been fun, it's always felt like reinventing the wheel a bit, since larger sites such as MobyGames have much more complete information and a larger infrastructure in place to ensure accuracy and consistent contributions. I've been trying to convince the administrators there to make portions of their database available under a Creative Commons license, to no avail. My argument was that they could maintain their business model by keeping much of the information private, but at least opening up game titles and corresponding primary keys for usage elsewhere on the Internet. My "grand idea" is that far more game sites could integrate with one another if there were some shared key that no one "owned" outright, but that one party maintained. How can maintainers of large databases be persuaded to open up parts of their IP to CC? Will there ever be truly open databases for games and movies that compare to what MusicBrainz is doing for music?"

An anonymous reader writes "Wonder how this affects politicians? The research by UK pollsters 72 Point found that "techno-treachery" was widespread with nearly 75 percent of people saying gadgets like Blackberrys made it easier to fib. Just over half of respondents said using gadgets made them feel less guilty when telling a lie than doing it face to face, the study on behalf of financial services group Friends Provident found. The workplace was a favorite location for fibbing with 67 percent of the 1,487 respondents admitting they had lied at work. The top lie was pretending to be ill (43 percent) followed by saying work had been completed when it hadn't (23 percent). Worryingly for bosses 18 percent said they lied to hide a big mistake. But, employers were not the only ones on the receiving end of disingenuous statements. Just over 40 percent said they had lied to their family or partner. Key topics to lie about were; buying new clothes or the cost of them (37 percent), how good someone looked in something (35 percent) how much they had eaten (35 percent) and drunk (31 percent) and how much they weighed (32 percent). The survey found that while people were dishonest, most told lies with the best intentions and to spare others' feelings."

mikesd81 writes "The AP has an article about a possible attack against the New York Stock Exchange via the internet by a radical muslim group. The notice was issued to the U.S. cybersecurity industry after officials saw a posting on a 'Jihadist Web site' calling for an attack on U.S. Internet-based stock market and banking sites in December, said Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke. Knocke has said: 'There is no information corroborating the threat and that the alert was issued as a routine matter and out of an abundance of caution.' There is no immediate threat to our homeland at this time. The attacks were to be conducted in December, 'until the infidel new year,' the site said, according to a U.S. government translation. It called for attackers to use viruses that can penetrate Internet sites and destroy data stored there. Spokespeople for the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq declined to comment on the cyber-terror threat."

Tom writes "Everyday objects can produce interesting effects when you stick them in a standard microwave. Grapes spark, matches create superheated plasma fireballs, mini lightning-bolts arc between sheets of aluminum foil, and soap both splits open and puffs up, creating a somewhat vulgar spurt of bubbly excrement that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. However, as cool as microwave experimentation can be, balls of plasma and the like are bad for both your eyes and your microwave, so it's probably best not to try these things at home. update This site apparently is behind a really nasty popup that I missed (yay Firefox) the first time through. You've been warned... here it is but given the overall rottenness of the pop-up, I guess I wouldn't bother. Some folks know no shame. My apologies to the readers.