38396607
submission
silentbrad writes:
From Forbes: "The dark days of SOPA and PIPA are behind the US, at least temporarily as copyright tycoons reground and restrategize, attempting to come up with measures that don’t cause the entire internet to shut down in protest. But one country has already moved ahead with similar legislation. The government of the Philippines has passed the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which on the surface, as usual, sounds perfectly well-intentioned. But when you read the actual contents of what’s been deemed “cybercrime,” SOPA’s proposed censorship sounds downright lax by comparison. Yes, there’s the usual hacking, cracking, identity theft and spamming, which most of us can agree should be illegal. But there’s also cybersex, pornography, file-sharing (SOPA’s main target) and the most controversial provision, online libel.
38395953
submission
dsinc writes:
A new study suggests caffeinated coffee drinkers should limit their intake to reduce their chances of developing vision loss or blindness. According to a scientific paper in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, heavy caffeinated coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing exfoliation glaucoma, the leading cause of secondary glaucoma worldwide.
“Scandinavian populations have the highest frequencies of exfoliation syndrome and glaucoma,” said author, Jae Hee Kang, ScD, of Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. “Because Scandinavian populations also have the highest consumption of caffeinated coffee in the world, and our research group has previously found that greater caffeinated coffee intake was associated with increased risk of primary open-angle glaucoma, we conducted this study to evaluate whether the risk of exfoliation glaucoma or glaucoma suspect may be different by coffee consumption.”
38395401
submission
amkkhan writes:
Scientists aiming to create a car that can break 1,000 mph cleared a large hurdle yesterday when they successfully tested their rocket engine. The engine will power the supersonic car known as the Bloodhound SSC — meant to become the fastest car in the world.
The British team tested the engine in an aircraft shelter in Newquay Cornwall Airport, originally designed to protect fighter planes from bombs. Although the data hasn't fully been analyzed, the researchers said the engine reached 30,000 horsepower during the 10-second burn. Given enough time, they expect the engine to reach 80,000 horsepower and 27,500 pounds of thrust.
38394593
submission
assertation writes:
A few weeks ago an article was posted to Slashdot referring to a Stanford Study stating that organic produce, contrary to popular belief is not more nutritious. According to Mark Bitman of The New York times the Standford study was flawed. A spelling error skewed the results as well as the study ignoring several types of nutrients.
38394495
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
Hundreds of cyber security experts from across the EU are testing their readiness to combat cyber-attacks in a day-long simulation across Europe today. In Cyber Europe 2012, 400 experts from major financial institutions, telecoms companies, internet service providers and local and national governments across Europe are facing more than 1200 separate cyber incidents (including more than 30 000 emails) during a simulated DDoS campaign. The exercise is testing how they would respond and co-operate in the event of sustained attacks against the public websites and computer systems of major European banks. If real, such an attack would cause massive disruption for millions of citizens and businesses across Europe, and millions of euros of damage to the EU economy.
38393817
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
Amid reports of Microsoft creating its own smartphone and ever dwindling financial reserves, the once undisputed leader in smartphones who bet everything to Redmond, is now planning to sell its luxurious waterfront headquarters in Espoo, Finland.
38389487
submission
Penurious Penguin writes:
Millionaire Alexander Fishenko, owner of US-based Arc Electronics Inc, and seven others have been arrested in Houston Texas, with a total of 11 indicted in a conspiracy to smuggle advanced microelectronics from the US to Russia. The technology allegedly involves components of radar, weapons guidance, and detonators. Amongst the evidence are accounting records indicating notable similarity between the revenue of Arc Electronics and the Russian Federation's defense spending; intercepted phone calls and emails; and a letter to Arc Electronics from a Russian domestic intelligence lab complaining of defective microchips .
A Russian foreign ministry spokesman has denied there were any intelligence connections in the affair.
38388381
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
Hitachi in collaboration with Nippon Signal and the University of Yamanashi, have successfully prototyped a boarding gate with built-in explosives detection equipment as part of efforts to increase safety in public facilities such as airports. The prototype boarding gate efficiently collects minute particles which have affixed themselves to IC cards or portable devices used as boarding passes, and can detect within 1-2 seconds the presence of explosive compounds using internalized equipment. With this method, it is possible to inspect 1,200 passengers per hour.
38386979
submission
evrybodygonsurfin writes:
The UK Government will announce details this month of a controversial national identity scheme which will allow people to use their mobile phones and social media profiles as official identification documents for accessing public services.
People wishing to apply for services ranging from tax credits to fishing licences and passports will be asked to choose from a list of familiar online log-ins, including those they already use on social media sites, banks, and large retailers such as supermarkets, to prove their identity.
38386849
submission
Penurious Penguin writes:
Earlier this week, City Commissioners of Delray Beach finalized a policy which now prohibits agencies from hiring employees who've used tobacco products within 12 months prior to application. In other Florida cities, such as Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, prospective employees must sign affidavits declaring themselves tobacco-free for 12 months prior to the date of application. Elsewhere, throughout the states, both cities and businesses are moving to ban tobacco-use beyond working hours. The city of Fort Worth, TX is considering such bans, and many hospitals have already done so, or intend to. In some environments referred to as nicotine-free, employee urine-samples are taken and tested for any signs nicotine, not excluding that from gum or patches. Employees testing positive can be terminated.
The rationale behind these policies has been primarily economic, citing greater insurance-costs for smokers and the savings implied by eliminating them from the workforce. In some less aggressive situations, persistent smokers are imposed a "Tobacco User Surcharge" of $20 per paycheck and offered waived co-payments for smoking-cessation drugs.
As one might presume, this subject isn't without controversy. Many argue that in efforts to address the effects of tobacco, other confirmed sources of ill-health are treated with less concern, such as transfats, nitrates, obesity, excessive sugar consumption and sloth. The fact that not just smoking, but tobacco and nicotine itself are being banned beyond the workplace, is certainly worth some consideration — especially while they remain legal activities.
Is tobacco an intrinsically wicked plant? In Sweden, where tobacco products are commonly used in the form of snus, tobacco-related cancers are amongst the lowest in Europe. Due to its curing process, nitrosamines — a primary carcinogen in tobacco — are found in much lower levels in Swedish snus than in other tobacco products. Snus is even labeled as a food product in Sweden. Strangely, what so often seems left out of anti-tobacco rhetoric are the aspects of abuse, deceptive advertisement and peculiar ingredients. Whether or not tobacco can cause grievous harm is not a matter to contest; but maybe perspective has wandered. Would we decline employment to the likes of an Oppenheimer, Hubble, or Einstein because they toked a smoke 6 months ago? Surely one might encourage them to quit, but to shun? Have we become so self-righteous that we no longer lend others the privilege of indulging in lawful behavior? Without making any cases for a hideous industry, can it be asked if this is going too far?
38386465
submission
Thinkcloud writes:
It was an interesting look at an alternative concept for building a Linux system. I now have a downloadable virtual appliance that weighs in at right around 27MB, zipped. I am also considering using this system for other servers, at least for testing.
38385501
submission
thomst writes:
David Kravets of Wired's Threat Level blog reports that Google's Thabet Alfishawi has announced YouTube will alter its algorithms "that identify potentially invalid claims. We stop these claims from automatically affecting user videos and place them in a queue to be manually reviewed.” YouTube's Content ID algorithms have notably misfired in recent months, resulting in video streams as disparate as Curiosity's Mars landing and Michelle Obama's Democratic Convention speech being taken offline on specious copyright infringement grounds. Kravets states, "Under the new rules announced Wednesday, however, if the uploader challenges the match, the alleged rights holder must abandon the claim or file an official takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act." (A false takedown claim under the DMCA can result in non-trivial legal liability.)
38385463
submission
cylonlover writes:
NASA launched a strategic partnership with location-based social networking site foursquare in 2010 with the first-ever check-in from the International Space Station (ISS) by astronaut Doug Wheelock. Now the space agency has gone one better with the first check-in on another planet thanks to its Curiosity Mars rover. Since fellow foursquare users will have a hard time checking in on the Red Planet themselves, they’ll instead be able to earn a Curiosity-themed badge for visiting locations relating to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The badge will be available later this year and is designed to spark the scientific curiosity of foursquare users by encouraging them to visit science centers, laboratories and museums.
38383253
submission
hypnosec writes:
YouTube has announced that it is going to manually review for some of the copyright infringement claims and change its Content ID algorithms that block disputed footage automatically. The problem with the Content ID system was that it functioned largely in auto-pilot mode and there were cases of overmatches and rogue claims where videos were being either hijacked by false claims or were removed all together. Up until now, a user didn’t have any option of disputing the claim when it came to certain types of Content ID claims. But, following the changes to existing methods of analyzing videos and new rules that have been announced, if a content ID match is challenged the rights holder will have the option of either abandoning the claim or filing an official takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
38379881
submission
shreshtha writes:
AMD has announced it is joining with Oracle Inc. to work on how Java can be accelerated by a mix of processor engines including graphics processor units (GPUs). AMD, Oracle and other members of the OpenJDK community are forming Project Sumatra to help bring heterogeneous computing capabilities to Java for server and cloud computing environments.
This primary goal of this project is to enable Java applications to take advantage of graphics processing units (GPUs) and accelerated processing units (APUs)--whether they are discrete devices or integrated with a CPU--to improve performance.
38375989
submission
theodp writes:
GeekWire reports that Microsoft is sticking to its decision to implement 'Do-Not-Track’ as the default for IE 10, despite drawing the ire of corporate America, the Apache Software Foundation, and the FTC Chairman. Representatives of a veritable Who's Who of Corporate America — e.g., GM, IBM, BofA, Walmart, Merck, Allstate, AT&T, Motorola — signed off on a letter blasting Microsoft for its choice. 'By presenting Do Not Track with a default on,' the alliance argues, 'Microsoft is making the wrong choice for consumers.' The group reminds Microsoft that Apache — whose Platinum Sponsors include Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo — has branded Microsoft’s actions a deliberate abuse of open standards and designed its software to ignore the 'do-not-track' setting if the browser reaching it is IE 10. It also claims that the FTC Chairman, formerly supportive of Microsoft's privacy efforts, now recognizes 'the harm to consumers that Microsoft’s decision could create.' So, is this a watershed moment for consumers? Will Microsoft cave under the pressure?
