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Science

Submission + - Deathstar! Europe Building Most Powerful Laser Ever Built (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes: "On the coattails of CERN’s success with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Europeans and the world at large have another grand science project to be excited about: the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project to build the most powerful laser ever constructed. These lasers will be intense enough to perform electron dynamics experiments at very short time scales or venture into relativistic optics, opening up an entirely new field of physics for study. Additionally, the lasers could be combined to generate a super laser that would shoot into space, similar to the combined laser effect of the Death Star in the Star Wars trilogy, though the goal is to study particles in space, not annihilate planets."
Censorship

Submission + - You Can't Say That on the Internet (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by
hessian
hessian writes: "A BASTION of openness and counterculture, Silicon Valley imagines itself as the un-Chick-fil-A. But its hyper-tolerant facade often masks deeply conservative, outdated norms that digital culture discreetly imposes on billions of technology users worldwide.

What is the vehicle for this new prudishness? Dour, one-dimensional algorithms, the mathematical constructs that automatically determine the limits of what is culturally acceptable."
Space

Submission + - NASA discovers most distant galaxy in known universe (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From cbc.ca: "NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes (not to be outdone by the Kepler Space Telescope) have discovered the most distant galaxy identified so far in the universe... the galaxy is 13.3 billion light years away and only a tiny fraction of the size of the Milky Way. Due to the time it takes light to travel through space, the images seen from Earth now show what the galaxy looked like when the universe was just 420 million years old, according to a press statement released from NASA. The newly discovered galaxy (is) named MACS0647-JD"
Entertainment

Submission + - Need E-Reader Recemmendations 1

Submitted by
Sooner Boomer
Sooner Boomer writes: "Black Friday is coming on strong. The one thing I'm looking for this year is an e-reader. Actually, it doesn't need to be a dedicated e-reader like a Kindle or Nook, it could be a tablet. The requirements are: it has to read as many formats as possible (.pdf, .lit, .mobi, .txt, .etc). It should play .mp3s (audio books). It should be as inexpensive as possible, yet actually available. I don't mind jail breaking or rooting a device if that will increase the available formats. It would be nice if it had a memory card slot, or would br able to access my home nerwork (smb server). I've got terrible eyes, so it would be nice if it was backlit, but not a requirement. Suggestions?"
Politics

Submission + - GOP Study Committee Director Disowns Brief Attacking Current IP Law (theamericanconservative.com)

Submitted by cervesaebraciator
cervesaebraciator writes: Yesterday an article was featured on Slashdot which expressed some hope, if just a fool's hope, that a recent Republican Study Committee Brief could be a sign of broader national discussion about the value of current copyright law. When one sees such progress, credit is deservedly given. Unfortunately, the others in Washington did not perhaps see this as worthy of praise. The committee's executive director, Paul Teller, sent a memo today disavowing the earlier pro-copyright reform brief. From the memo: "Yesterday you received a Policy Brief or [sic] copyright law that was published without adequate review within the RSC and failed to meet that standard. Copyright reform would have far-reaching impacts, so it is incredibly important that it be approached with all facts and viewpoints in hand." People who live in districts such as Ohio's 4th would do well to send letters of support to those who crafted the original brief. I cannot imagine party leadership will be happy with so radical a suggestion as granting copyright protection for the limited times needed to promote the progress of science and useful arts.

Submission + - How to make a DVD-rental store more relevant? 5

Submitted by smi.james.th
smi.james.th writes: Here on Slashdot, the concept that older models of business need to be updated to keep with the times is often mentioned. A friend of mine owns a DVD rental store, and he often listens to potential customers walk out, saying that they'd rather download the movie, and not because his prices are unreasonable. With the local telco on a project to boost internet speeds, my friend feels as though the end is near for his livelihood. So, Slashdotters, I put it to you: What can a DVD store owner do to make his store more relevant? What services would you pay for at a DVD store?
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Hacker vs counter-hacker, a legal debate (steptoecyberblog.com)

Submitted by Freddybear
Freddybear writes: If your computer has been cracked and subverted for use by a botnet or other remote-access attack, is it legal for you to hack back into the system from which the attack originated? Over the last couple of years three legal scholars and bloggers have debated the question on The Volokh Conspiracy weblog. The linked webpage collects that debate into a coherent document.

"The debaters are:

        Stewart Baker, a former official at the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson with a large cybersecurity practice. Stewart Baker makes the policy case for counterhacking and challenges the traditional view of what remedies are authorized by the language of the CFAA.

        Orin Kerr, Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor of Law at George Washington School of Law, a former computer crimes prosecutor, and one of the most respected computer crime scholars. Orin Kerr defends the traditional view of the Act against both Stewart Baker and Eugene Volokh.

        Eugene Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, founder of the Volokh Conspiracy, and a sophisticated technology lawyer, presents a challenge grounded in common law understandings of trespass and tort."
Nintendo

Submission + - Nintendo WiiU Released in The USA

Submitted by YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: Nintendo have today fired the first salvo in the Next Gen Console Wars with the release of their WiiU Console in the USA, a console which is massively more powerful than the Nintendo Wii and also the PS3/Xbox 360(so they claim). Yet again Nintendo have done a world first and released a gamepad which is also a Tablet and should provide us with games that stretch the boundaries even more. Wii Games are compatible with the console as is the WiiRemote.The WiiU comes in 2 SKUs a 32GB Deluxe package and an 8GB Basics pack. The Games line up is a strong one with games such as New Super Mario Bros U, Arkham City Armoured Edition, Assassins Creed 3, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Sonic AllStars Racing, Nintendo Land, Tank Tank Tank, ScribbleNauts Unlimited, Epic Mickey 2 The Power of Two, ESPN Sports Connection, DarkSiders 2, Rabbids Land, Mass Effect 3, Ninja Gaiden 3 Razors Edge, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Wipeout 3 and Just Dance 4 all available on Launch Day. Will this console be able to fight off Tablets such as the iPad and Kindle Fire HD?

Submission + - Little Change in Drought Over 60 Years (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by
bricko
bricko writes: "More realistic calculations, based on the underlying physical principles8 that take into account changes in available energy, humidity and wind speed, suggest that there has been little change in drought over the past 60 years.

What does this mean?

For one, it means that a widely accepted and oft-repeated consensus position expressed in the IPCC 2007 now appears to have been incorrect. This should not be unexpected as a consensus position is a snapshot of perspectives, and in science, perspectives can change based on new evidence and study. The IPCC SREX, published earlier this year had already stepped back from the conclusions of the IPCC AR4."
Google

Submission + - New Malware Variant Uses Google Docs As A Proxy To Phone Home

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Windows 8 may block most malware out of the box, but there is still malware out there that thwarts Microsoft’s latest and greatest. A new Trojan variant, detected as Backdoor.Makadocs and spread via RTF and Microsoft Word document marked as Trojan.Dropper, has been discovered that not only adds a clause to target Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, but also uses Google Docs as a proxy server to phone home to its Command & Control (C&C) server.

Submission + - Man arrested at Oakland airport for ornate watch (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by mbeckman
mbeckman writes: A man was arrested at Oakland airport for having an bomb-making materials. The materials? An ornate watch and extra insoles in his boots. Despite the bomb squad determining that there was no bomb, The Alameda county sheriffs department claimed that he was carrying "potentially dangerous materials and appeared to have made alterations to his boots, which were Unusually large and stuffed with layers of insoles." The man told Transportation Security Administration officers that he's an artist and the watch is art.
Education

Submission + - How Free Speech Died on Campus 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The WSJ catches up with FIRE's Greg Lukianoff and his crusade to expose how universities have become the most authoritarian institutions in America. In Unlearning Liberty, Lukianoff notes that baby-boom Americans who remember the student protests of the 1960s tend to assume that U.S. colleges are still some of the freest places on earth. But that idealized university no longer exists. Today, university bureaucrats suppress debate with anti-harassment policies that function as de facto speech codes. FIRE maintains a database of such policies on its website. What they share, lifelong Democrat Lukianoff says, is a view of 'harassment' so broad and so removed from its legal definition that 'literally every student on campus is already guilty.'
Earth

Submission + - Ken Burns Chronicles the Greatest Man-Made EcoDisaster in Human History

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The LA Times reports that as the East Coast licks its wounds from superstorm Sandy, beginning on Sunday on PBS, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in US history in "The Dust Bowl," a story that has modern-day relevance. The conditions for catastrophe, centered in the Oklahoma panhandle and neighboring parts of Texas, New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado, were laid down in the conversion of a flat, windy, dry land, "almost wholly unfit for cultivation" in one early estimate, into a sea of wheat. A number of wet years, plus the encouragement of the federal government, land speculators and bogus science, made all seem well for a while. But then the rain stopped, and the soil, already weakened by mechanical farming techniques — often for absentee "suitcase farmers" with no emotional attachment to the land — turned to dirt. "We lived in a brown world." says Dorothy Kleffman, of Guymon, Oklahoma, one of two dozen Dust Bowl survivors Burns has interviewed. The film has special relevance to present-day arguments about our effect on the natural world and the place of government in regulating these interactions. "People who are ignorant and people who think only in terms of the moment scoff at our efforts and say: 'Oh, let the next generation take care of itself—if people out in the dry parts of the country cannot live there let them move out and hand the land back to the Indians.'" said President Roosevelt in a 1938 speech in Amarillo, Texas. That the scoffing goes on, led by Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, makes this bit of history feel urgent."
Wikipedia

Submission + - How can Wikipedia's upcoming Visual Editor be better than other word processors? (mediawiki.org)

Submitted by azadnama
azadnama writes: Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia, is aware of the fact the MediaWiki formatting syntax is a major obstacle for people's participation in writing on the site. To address this problem, the Foundation is developing VisualEditor—a web-based WYSIWYG interface for editing articles. It's supposed to be similar to a word processor, like LibreOffice, Microsoft Word, Pages, Google Docs, and others. And this is the time to ask: What did your word processor get wrong and how can Wikipedia's VisualEditor get it right?
Data Storage

Submission + - Hard Disk capacity set to increase up to five times (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by Dupple
Dupple writes: A technique that enables the nanopatterned layers that store data in hard disk drives to assemble themselves has been improved to better suit mass production, and could enable disks that store five times as much data as the largest available today.

Using self-assembly instead of machines that print or etch out features has long been considered a potential solution to a looming barrier to expanding the capacity of hard-disk designs. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have now worked out a solution to a problem that made self-assembly incompatible with existing factories.

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