32833031
submission
halfEvilTech writes:
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s own words have now become a victim of Iran’s massive online censorship infrastructure.
Khamenei, according to a translation by RFE, replied: "In general, the use of antifiltering software is subject to the laws and regulations of the Islamic republic, and it is not permissible to violate the law."
However, his own use of the word “antifiltering” apparently triggered Iran’s own filtering system, making Khamenei’s words inaccessible to most Iranians.
32830601
submission
wiredmikey writes:
Security researchers are warning Microsoft customers to keep their eyes on the critical bulletins in this month’s Patch Tuesday update. All totaled, Microsoft issued patches to address 23 security bugs across its product line.
However, the company is recommending administrators turn their attention to two of the seven bulletins first — MS12-034 and MS12-029. MS12-034 includes 10 fixes across several product lines that were bundled together as part of an update meant to put the finishing touches on a vulnerability exploited by the infamous Duqu malware. Believed to be related to Stuxnet, Duqu was spotted in September exploiting a vulnerability affecting Microsoft Word. Though the company previously patched the bug with MS11-087, other Microsoft products were discovered to contain the same vulnerability as well.
32830397
submission
derekmead writes:
We oh-so-resourceful humans have been performing brain surgery — successfully, mind you — for up to 10,000 years. In fact, the act of cutting open the skull is likely the oldest surgical procedure humans have ever performed.
A paper by Dr. Giorgio Sperati in Italian medical journal ACTA Otorhinolaryngologica Italica which tracks craniotomies throughout history. According to Sperati, evidence suggests that craniotomies — surgeries involving removing a section of the skull in order to access the brain — were first being performed in the Neolithic Age, which lasted from 8000-5000 BC. It wasn’t until the late 1700s that anthropologists M. Prunières and Paul Broca suggested that the marks were the result of surgery, although they originally argued that such surgery was inspired by mystic, rather than medical, causes.
Sperati notes that nearly half of patients survived craniotomies — and with evidence of regrown bone around the incisions on some skulls, some of those patients must have lived for years. That’s a stunning fact considering neolithic surgeons didn’t have operating rooms, antibiotics, anything resembling sterile conditions — or even metal tools.
32830283
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Tiny and efficient, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are supposed to be the bright future of illumination. But they perform best at only low power, enough for a flashlight or the screen of your cellphone. If you increase the current enough for them to light a room like an old-fashioned incandescent bulb, their vaunted efficiency nosedives. It's called LED droop, and it's a real drag on the industry. Now, researchers have found a way to grow more efficient LEDs that get more kick from the same amount of current—especially in the hard-to-manufacture green and blue parts of the spectrum.
32826467
submission
concertina226 writes:
Yahoo has announced that board member Patti Hart, who led the committee that hired CEO Scott Thompson, will be stepping down. Hart has been under fire for overseeing the hiring of Thompson, whose resume wasn't fully vetted.
I know some of you on Slashdot think that Scott Thompson didn't do anything wrong by claiming he had a computer science degree on his CV when he doesn't, but don't you think it's kind of weird that the guy who lied gets to keep his job as CEO, yet this director is being made a scapegoat? It just sends out the message that it's cool to pretend to have qualifications that you don't have.
32825647
submission
Scarred Intellect writes:
A new proposal by US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will alter the mission of Power Maketing Administrations (such as Bonneville Power Administration, which administrates electricity between multiple dams, wind farms, and natural gas plants throughout the Northwest) and threaten electricity costs.
Sec. Chu served notice that PMAs would serve as laboratories to test various energy initiatives. These energy initiatives will increase the cost and could adversely affect the reliability of power provided by the PMAs.
Electric cooperative members, will pay the additional cost of these energy initiatives while consumers elsewhere would receive any benefits.
I seem to recall hearing about news of this sort of research from several DOE laboratories. It's almost like we already have a National Renewable Energy Laboratory and programs at various other locations.
32824483
submission
eldavojohn writes:
American news outlets like The New York Times seem to thrive on chemophobia — consumer fear of the ambiguous concept of 'chemicals.' As a result, Pulitzer-prize winning science writer Deborah Blum has decided to call out New York Times journalist Nicholas Kirstof for his secondary crusade (she notes he is an admirable journalist in other realms) against chemicals. She's quick to point out the absurdity of fearing chemicals like Hydrogen which could be a puzzler considering its integral role played in live-giving water as well as life-destroying hydrogen cyanide. Another example is O2 versus O3. Blum calls upon journalists to be more specific, to avoid the use of vague terms like 'toxin' let alone 'chemical' and instead inform the public with lengthy chemical names like perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) instead of omitting the actual culprit altogether. Kristof has, of course, resorted to calling makers of these specific compounds "Big Chem" and Blum chastises his poorly researched reporting along with chemophobic lingo. Chemists of Slashdot, have you found reporting on "chemicals" to be as poor as Blum alleges or is this no more erroneous than any scare tactic used to move newspapers and garner eyeballs?
32824055
submission
hapworth writes:
ICANN's top-level domain initiative, 10 years in the making, may never see the light of day, as ICANN is now giving refunds to new applicants for gTLDs. As ICANN insider Beau Brendler reports, the organization has collected over $350 million from those seeking top-level domains, but the glitch that has taken the application system down could very well kill this initiative for good. At this point, it's unclear how much money ICANN stands to lose in the process of refunding applicants.
32823961
submission
zacharye writes:
Now that T-Mobile and AT&T don’t have to pretend to like each other anymore, the nation’s No.4 carrier can go back to attacking AT&T and its top-selling smartphone, Apple’s iPhone 4S. T-Mobile debuted a new TV commercial this week that once again takes aim at AT&T’s slow network and Apple’s popular iPhone...
32823569
submission
Velcroman1 writes:
The Internet can save everything, even education. At least that's what tech companies would have parents and government officials believe. Too bad it's not true. Just this past week Harvard and MIT announced a joint $60 million project called edX to offer free courses online. (You won't get academic credit, but students can earn completion certificates and a grade.) The poster child for much of the online education movement is the Kahn Academy, which has roughly 3,200 educational videos available for free. But one has to wonder whether any of these online cheerleaders has ever watched a complete "class" on the site, because if they had they would immediately see the multitude of problems with this approach.
32822633
submission
jones_supa writes:
Barton George, director of marketing for Dell's Web vertical reveals information about "Project Sputnik", a laptop tailored for developer needs in web companies. 'We want to find ways to make the developer experience as powerful and simple as possible. And what better way to do that than beginning with a laptop that is both highly mobile and extremely stylish, running the 12.04 LTS release of Ubuntu Linux', George ponders and, gives a quick list of packages that the default installation could include. The machine will base on the XPS13, assessing a couple of its main hardware deficiencies along the way.
32822213
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Researchers have found that the remains of a tiny elephant found on the island of Crete actually belong to a mini mamoth, about 1 meter tall at the shoulder. The finding could push the animal's evolution back almost 3 million years. It also means that the creature-dubbed Mammuthus creticus-is the world's smallest mammoth species.