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China

Submission + - Dangerous business: Libya, China, Russia sell wares at military tech show (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: Military supply companies from Russia, China, UAE, Indonesia, Korea, and Libya showed off tanks, missiles and other weapons in Paris at the Eurosatory 2012 show, the largest international military technology show focused on land warfare. At the event, 53 countries were represented by more than 1,400 exhibitors for the 55,000 visitors, the United States leading with 158 companies. But a surprising trend was evident: This year, the number of companies from non-Western countries that showed off new weaponry boomed — especially Russia and China. "Western armed forces generally, and land forces in particular, are facing significant cuts in capability," said one expert. These smaller countries with weaker economies are seeing dollar signs, in other words — and who cares the denomination.
Security

Submission + - Syrian Dissidents Hit By Another Wave of Targeted State-Sponsored Attacks (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: One of the attackers who has been targeting Syrian anti-government activists with malware and surveillance tools has returned and upped the ante with the use of the BlackShades RAT, a remote-access tool that gives him the ability to spy on victims machines through keylogging and screenshots.

The original attacks against Syrian activists, who are working against the government's months-long violent crackdown, were using another RAT known as Xtreme RAT, with similar capabilities. That malware was being spread through a couple of different targeted attacks, including one in which activists were directed to YouTube videos and their account credentials were then stolen when they logged in to leave comments.

That attack continued with the installation of the RAT, giving the attacker surreptitious access to the victims' machines, enabling him to monitor their activities online. Now, researchers say that at least one attacker who is known to be involved in these targeted attacks also is using the BlackShades RAT in a new set of attacks.
Google

Submission + - Private Calendar Sync?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Like many geeks, I like to schedule my life on my phone. However, I want to sync it to my Linux calendar (korganizer or the like). The only problem is that there doesn't seem to be a streamline way to do it without going through a third party. I want my phone calendar private and my desktop calendar private and an I want an easy way to sync between them (either USB or Bluetooth). Any suggestions? I have an Android phone, but I prefer to limit the number of connections to Google.

Submission + - The Physics of the Knuckleball 1

Submitted by snoop.daub
snoop.daub writes: R.A. Dickey, pitcher for the New York Mets, has been in the news this week after two dominant pitching performances in a row, holding opponents to one hit in each of the games for the first time since Dave Stieb did it in 1988. He has taken over as the league's only knuckleball pitcher after Tim Wakefield retired last season. But just what is it about the knuckleball that makes it hard to hit? Conventional wisdom has it that the lack of spin on the knuckleball causes it to move in completely unpredictable ways, even changing directions in mid-flight. In the last few years, there has been a lot of good science done to understand baseball pitch trajectories, and a few months ago Prof. Alan M. Nathan showed that knuckleballs aren't really so different from other pitches. It turns out that the same 9-parameter equation that can be used to describe other pitch trajectories applies just as well to the knuckleball. The difference appears to be that, like in a chaotic system, knuckleballs depend sensitively on the initial conditions, so that small changes can cause randomly different forces at the start of the pitch which determine the resultant trajectory. Much of this and similar work depends on the Pitchf/x tool, which has recorded the complete trajectory, spin angle and spin rate of every MLB pitch since 2007! Baseball really does have the best sports stats geeks.
Canada

Submission + - Canadian Government Backs Down on Airport Recording (calgaryherald.com)

Submitted by
ryanakca
ryanakca writes: "Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toes ordered a halt to the installation eavesdropping equipment at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport until a privacy review could be completed. Although 'similar audio-video equipment has been operating at other Canadian airports and ports of entry for "many years"', the Canadian Border Safety Agency failed to complete the Privacy Commissioner's required "privacy impact assessment" before the Ottawa airport installation."
Government

Submission + - US wants inventive ways to get R&D out of college labs and onto the streets (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The federal government funded some $135 billion in research and development (R&D) for all manner of science and technology and is now looking for a way to get a faster return on such investments.
Or at least that was the focus of a congressional Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation hearing this week looking for ways to improve collaboration between commercial concerns and nonprofit organizations, including universities, in addition to promoting the utilization of inventions arising from federally supported research and development."
Science

Submission + - Mother's milk trains baby to fight bacteria (bytesizebio.net)

Submitted by Shipud
Shipud writes: It is pretty much common knowledge that mother’s milk is the healthiest food for infants, and that it bestows health benefits upon the baby that formula feeding cannot match. But a recent study of the baby gut metagenome has revealed an unknown benefit: mom's milk enriches a small population of disease causing bacteria in the infant's gut. Just enough to train the infant's immune system, but not enough to cause actual disease. The interesting thing is that the same pathways that enrich the baby's immune system, also help in the development of the gut tissue. An all-around win situation as explained by one of the coauthors.
Open Source

Submission + - FLOSS For End Users May Be Facing Extinction (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "If you buy into the idea that tablets (and ultrabooks, and smartphones) in the enterprise are nothing more than glorified thin clients, then Microsoft's Surface presentation seemed more flashback than future. And if you're a fan of free software, the announcement might also have struck fear in your heart. While Microsoft has never locked out apps based on license, it's not impossible that they might chose a more locked-down Apple-esque approach for Surface, writes blogger Brian Proffitt. 'And that could put free software for end users very much at risk.'"
Books

Submission + - Best Science Fiction/Fantasy for 8 Year Olds 7

Submitted by Jason Levine
Jason Levine writes: My son is 8 years old. I'd love to get him interested in Science Fiction, but most of the books I can think of seem to be targeted to older kids/adults.

Thinking that the length of some novels might be off-putting to him, I read him some of the short stories in Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot". He liked these but I could tell he was having a hard time keeping up. I think the wording of the stories was too advanced and there was too much talking and not enough action. Personally, I love Asimov, but I think much of it just went over his head.

Which science fiction and/or fantasy books would you recommend for an 8 year old? (Either stories he could read himself or that we could read together over the course of a few weeks.)
Space

Submission + - Final Frontier Design Creating Budget Space Suit for Private Space Industry (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Although the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was unmanned during its recent first flight to the International Space Station, the success of that mission nonetheless marked a huge step toward future crewed commercial space flights. SpaceX, of course, isn’t the only player in this newly-forming industry – companies such as Virgin Galactic, Boeing, and Blue Origin are also hoping to take paying customers on rocket rides. However, while a lot of attention has been paid to the spacecraft themselves, one has to wonder what those private-sector astronauts will be wearing. Expensive NASA space suits, perhaps? Not if Ted Southern and Nikolay Moiseev have anything to say about it.

Submission + - Physics Community Afire With Rumors of Higgs Boson Discovery | Wired Science | W (wired.com) 5

Submitted by sirlark
sirlark writes: The latest rumors circulating around the physics blogosphere suggest that scientists with the Large Hadron Collider will announce the discovery of the Higgs boson within weeks. “The bottom line though is now clear: There’s something there which looks like a Higgs is supposed to look,” wrote mathematician Peter Woit on his blog, Not Even Wrong.
Science

Submission + - Fossil turtles caught in flagrante delicto (nature.com)

Submitted by scibri
scibri writes: Several pairs of 47-million-year-old fossil turtles found in Germany provide the first direct evidence for prehistoric vertebrate sex (the first indirect evidence being, presumably, that turtles exist).

Besides science writers a chance to have a bit of fun with the intro to their stories, the researchers also say the fossils can tell us about about the ecology of the ancient German lake where the turtles lived (Abstract).

Like their living cousins, the fossil turtles probably stopped swimming when they started mating. The pairs then sank through the water column, but Messel Lake held a hidden danger. Below the surface waters, palaeontologists have hypothesized, was a layer poisoned by volcanic gases or rotting organic material. Since the skin of some turtles can act as a respiratory membrane, the turtles were killed as the poisons accumulated in their bodies.
AMD

Submission + - AMD To Open-Source Its Linux Execution & Compilation Stack (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to Phoronix, AMD will be open-sourcing its Linux execution and compiler stack as part of jump-starting the Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation. The HSA Foundation was started earlier this month at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit and AMD plans to open up its stack so that others can reutilize the code without causing HSA fragmentation. This will include LLVM code, the HSA run-time, an HSA kernel driver for Linux distributions, an HSA assembler, and other components.
Biotech

Submission + - Rudimentary liver grown in a dish (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Japanese scientists have coaxed stem cells into forming a 5-millimetre-long, three-dimensional tissue that the researchers labelled a liver bud — an early stage of liver development. The bud lacks bile ducts but has blood vessels and when transplanted into a mouse, was able to metabolize some drugs that human livers metabolize but mouse livers normally cannot. The work is “the first report demonstrating the creation of a human functional organ with vascular networks from pluripotent stem cells”, the team claims.
Linux

Submission + - NVIDIA Responds To Linus Torvalds

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: NVIDIA's PR department has issued a statement following the harsh comments by Linus Torvalds last week where he referred to the graphics company as the single worst company they have ever dealt with, called them out on not supporting Optimus, and other issues. Basically the company replied they're committed to Linux using their proprietary driver that is largely common across platforms and, this allows for same-day Linux support with full OpenGL implementation. They also promote how they're active in ARM Linux for Tegra and support a wide range of hardware under Linux. Despite having not made any commitment to better support Optimus under Linux nor providing technical assistance to the Nouveau community, NVIDIA assures that 'at the end of the day, providing a consistent GPU experience across multiple platforms for all of our customers continues to be one of our key goals.'
Google

Submission + - Google Detects 9500 Malicious Sites Per Day (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Five years after it was first introduced, Google's Safe Browsing program continues to provide a service to the 600 million Chrome, Firefox, and Safari users, as well as those searching for content through the company's eponymous search engine. According to Google Security Team member Niels Provos, the program detects about 9,500 new malicious websites and pops up several million warnings every day to Internet users. Once a site has been cleaned up, the warning is lifted. They provide malware warnings for about 300 thousand downloads per day through their download protection service for Chrome.
Government

Submission + - British MP Launches US-Only Twitter Rival (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "Frustrated at the off-topic chatter on Twitter, British MP Louise Mensch has launched a supposedly rival service. Despite the name, Menshn, this is apparently not a hoax, but a site aimed at "on-topic" conversation, initially around the US election. Mensch is a former "chick lit" author, and a Member of Parliament since 2010. She has taken part in questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch, and urged for control of social media."
Google

Submission + - Google Publishes an Informal Web Threat Report (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: While most of the major security vendors produce their own threat reports on an ongoing basis, Google hasn’t always shared the numbers behind what its Safe Browsing platform sees and blocks on an ongoing basis. On Tuesday, however, the search giant shared some interesting Web threat statistics, and while the information was not published as an official “threat report”, the company has provided some great insight into the growth of malicious activity across the Web.

Through built-in protection for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, Google said it protects approximately 600 million Internet users and issues several million warnings each day to those users. Google said it discovers about 9,500 new malicious websites every day – These sites could be either innocent sites that have been compromised by cybercriminals, or purpose-built sites designed for malware distribution or phishing. Approximately 12-14 million Google Search queries per day show warnings in order to caution users from going to sites that may be compromised, and provides malware warnings for about 300,000 downloads per day through its Chrome download protection service.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft wins congressional backing for Do Not Track default in IE10 (w3.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Thought Do Not Track was strictly a geeks' issue? Think again. After Microsoft was slapped down for enabling DNT by default in Internet Explorer 10, the co-chairs of the US's Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus have sent a strongly-worded letter to the W3C urging it to reconsider. As webdev360.com points out, it's an interesting (unprecedented?) example of Congress interacting with the standards body: "Whether members of the [working group] will take kindly to the Representatives' interference remains to be seen. Ed Markey's legislative director, Joseph Wender, has brought the letter to the attention of the group's mailing list, but, as of the time of writing, he hasn't received any replies."

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