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+ - Voter Audit? Or Invasion of Privacy->

Submitted by scosco62
scosco62 writes "I received a letter today, which was a supposed audit of my voting history in 2004 and 2008. It also included the name and address of my immediate neighbors, along with their alleged voting record.

The American's for Limited Government was the organization that sent it out, is — according to WikiPedia anyway — a conservative action group.

I tend to be conservative, and the appeal for limited government is personally appealing — however, one the reasons I want a limited government is for the simple fact that I want to be left alone — and doing audit's on my voting record is not consistent with that. Just because it's public record, doesn't mean that it should be aggregated and sent to my neighbors.

Did anyone else receive on of these?"
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Power

+ - Comparrison of over 50 sets of darts->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "My website helps find the best darts for you, if you are just starting out or been playing darts for quite sometime, there should be something here for you all. I have created my own check out board to help you improve your darts and the basic rules of darts. There are also some darts games explained to help you improve your darts skills"
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The Military

+ - Millions of Pounds of Bombs Lurk Off US Coasts 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports that over 200 million pounds of unexploded bombs dumped in the Gulf of Mexico by the US government after World War Two pose a significant risk to offshore drilling. The US designated disposal areas for unexploded ordnance, known as UXO, off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as in the Gulf of Mexico but nearly 70 years after the areas were created, no one knows exactly how much was dumped, or where the weapons are, or whether they present a danger to humans or marine life. "These bombs are a threat today and no one knows how to deal with the situation," says William Bryant, a Texas A&M University professor of oceanography. "If chemical agents are leaking from some of them, that's a real problem. If many of them are still capable of exploding, that's another big problem." As technological advances allow oil companies to push deeper into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, these forgotten hazards pose a threat as the industry picks up the pace of offshore drilling. Last year, BP shut its key Forties crude pipeline in the North Sea for five days while it removed a 13-foot unexploded German mine found resting next to the pipeline that transports up to 40 percent of the UK's oil production and in 2001, BP and Shell found the wreckage of the U-166, a German World War II submarine, 45 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River during an underwater survey for a pipeline needed to transport natural gas to shore. Bryant says he has come across 500-pound bombs about 60 miles off the Texas coast and other ordnance 100 miles offshore, outside designated zones and at least one Gulf pipeline was laid across a chemical weapon dump site south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. "We would like to do a survey to be able to say if (this material) is harmful or not," says Bryant. "The condition of these barrels is deteriorating, so does it affect anything or not? We ought to know.""

+ - Advanced Persistent Threat Mitigation

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "We recently noticed a disturbing trend in our office. At least five credit cards owned by employees have been fraudulently used in the past 4 days. This represents approximately 25% of our total users. Ignoring this could be deadly to our small business and so could handling it in any way less than what is necessary to eradicate the threat completely. My solution involves rebuilding every client computer and server as well, all while remaining disconnected from the Internet and keeping those computers sequestered from each other as well. Does anyone have any less drastic solutions? Furthermore, does anyone have any tips on detecting the source of the threat or even detecting what the threat was in the first place? This threat has evaded SAV for quite a while, it seems."

Comment: Many Many options (Score 4, Informative) 1244

by scosco62 (#39269259) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Good, Forgotten Fantasy & Science Fiction Novels?
Black Easter by James Blish
A Canticle for Liebowitz by Miller
Non Robot/Foundation Asimov
Dueling Machine Ben Bova
Any of the earlier Pern books
Friday by Heinlein - still one of my favorites
Morgaine books by Cherryh
John Campbell

The collections put together in the 60's and 50's are outstanding - and you can usually pick them up for a quarter at a book store.
Government

+ - Plundering the American Dream->

Submitted by scosco62
scosco62 writes "Recently, a survey was conducted at Valencia College, where 200 students were asked to write an essay on the American Dream. as well as their perspective on the role of government in their lives.

Here's a sample response:

“As human beings, we can’t really control our own actions, so we need the government to control those who don’t care about others.”

Evidentally, the majority of the students wanted a tax on the wealthy, free education and healthcare, job and home — and looked to the government to provide that.

Now, granted, this is FoxNewsish, and a very small sample at a small schoolish like institution — but it is consistent with the broader worldview of 18-22 year olds?"
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Science

+ - Indian researchers develop synthetic dye molecules, useful in solar cells->

Submitted by tanujt
tanujt writes "Researchers at the Institute of Chemical Technology have developed 18 synthetic dye molecules, which are useful in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC). While silicon is very attractive as the solar cell candidate due to its prevalent high manufacturability, it has to be refined extremely well to function efficiently in solar conversion. The highest solar conversion efficiency achieved in silicon (as of 2008) is ~25%. DSC's can be quite highly efficient in their conversion (~90% for green light). Synthetic dyes in the Indian market are cheaper by 1000 Rs. ($20). According to the news source, 'While energy from silicon-based solar cells costs between $.30 and $.40 per watt (Rs 14.70 and Rs 19.60), electricity generated by the low cost DSC would cost $.01 or 49 paise per watt'. G Shankarling, Associate Professor at ICT, said, 'The beauty of DSC is that unlike silicon solar cells that need direct sunlight, these cells can accumulate energy, when indoors, that can light electric devices such as lamps or to power a fan in the house'. Synthetic dyes are considered an alternative candidate for solar cells. Due to their high conversion efficiency, relative ease and low cost of manufacture, they are an important aspect of research and implementation in developing nations like India. The industrial inertia of accepting newer technologies may be higher in developed nations, due to the highly streamlined semiconductor manufacturing/fabrication processes. Developing nations may have a higher chance of incorporating alternative technologies, as there isn't much inertia to combat."
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Google

+ - FTC attorney joins Microsoft-> 1

Submitted by inode_buddha
inode_buddha writes "This Wall Street Journal blurb notes that a senior attorney who led several antitrust investigations against Google has been hired by Microsoft. The article is behind a paywall but it does say that his new job will be the same at Microsoft, namely, he will continue fighting on Microsoft's behalf in front of the FTC.

I find it interesting how this was published in a very quiet way, buried behind a paywall right before a weekend."
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Space

+ - No, asteroid 2012 DA14 will not hit us next February->

Submitted by
The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes "News is starting to spread about a small 45-meter-wide asteroid called 2012 DA14 that will make a close pass to Earth on February 15, 2013. However, some of these articles are claiming it has "a good chance" of impacting the Earth. This is simply incorrect; the odds of an impact next year are essentially zero. Farther in the future the odds are unclear; another near pass may occur in 2020, but right now the uncertainties in the asteroid's orbit are too large to know much about that. More observations of DA14 are being made, and we should have better information about future encounters soon."
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Privacy

+ - Have we lost our Privacy to the Internet? ->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "An article in the Guardian, penned by Joss Wright and Tom Chatfield, discusses whether we — as in Internet users in general — are, or indeed are not, giving away way too much information about ourselves to large Corporations that profit handsomely from mining the info. The article talks about how contemporary internet companies — perhaps predictably — are run with a "privacy is dead" motto. It considers what implications having all your private data out on the internet — where it can be seen, searched, shared, retransmitted, perhaps archived forever without your consent — has for the "future of our society" (by which the authors presumably mean the society of the UK). The (rather long) article ends by mentioning that Gmail scans your email, that Facebook apps frequently send your private data right to the app developer, that iPhones are known to log your geographic location, and that some smartphone apps read your address book and messages, then dial home to transmit this info to the company that developed the app."
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Comment: If you don't like it, don't buy one (Score 1) 605

by scosco62 (#38980189) Attached to: TomTom Satnavs To Set Insurance Prices
I have two, and although they are less sophisticated than the model mentioned in the press release, I will dispose of them because of the lack of thought put into this. If you don't like it, let them know and specifically, let them know if the marketplace. That will be the only way that they will respond. Engaging in actuarial quibble will solve nothing.

Would it help if I got out and pushed? -- Princess Leia Organa

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