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Science

Submission + - Particle physicists confirm arrow of time using B meson measurements (nature.com)

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "Four years after its closure, researchers working with data from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center’s particle physics experiment BaBar have used the data to make the first direct measurement confirming that time does not run the same forwards as backwards – at least for the B mesons that the experiment produced during its heyday.
The application of quantum mechanics to fundamental particles rests on a symmetry known as CPT, for charge-parity-time, which states that fundamental processes remain unchanged when particles are replaced by their antimatter counterparts (C), left and right are reversed (P), and time runs in the reverse direction (T). Violations of C and P alone were first seen in radioactive decays in the 1950s, and BaBar was used to confirm violations of CP in B meson decays in 2001. To keep CPT intact, that implies that time reversal is also violated, but finding ways to compare processes running forward and backward in time has proven tricky.
Theoretical physicists at the Universityof Valencia in Spain worked with researchers on BaBar to exploit the fact that the experiment had generated entangled quantum states of the meson Bzero and its antimatter counterpart Bzero-bar, which then evolved through several different decay chains. By comparing the rates of decay in chains in which one type of decay happened before another, with others in which the order was reversed, the researchers were able to compare processes that were effectively time reversed version of each other. They report in Physical Review Letters today that they see a violation of time reversal at an extremely high level of statistical significance."
Idle

Submission + - Apes suffer mid-life crisis too (mongabay.com)

Submitted by Damien1972
Damien1972 writes: Humans are not alone in experiencing a mid-life crisis — great apes suffer the same, according to new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A new study of over 500 great apes found that well-being patterns in primates are similar to those experience by humans. This doesn't mean that middle age apes seek out the sportiest trees or hit-on younger apes inappropriately, but rather that their well-being starts high in youth, dips in middle age, and rises again in old age.

Submission + - Encouraging a child's new-found interest in robotics

Submitted by SomeoneGotMyNick
SomeoneGotMyNick writes: With the holiday season coming around, I have to consider what's best for my Son, who is in his early teens, when it comes to giving gifts which are fun, challenging, and career oriented. In the past, racing style video games were popular choices, but I don't want (expect) him to be able to play video games as a career.

He is currently taking courses in school which are introductions to computers and programming. He is familiar with programming concepts from playing around with Scratch for many years. He also likes the idea of tinkering with robot like devices, even though there is little he has available to do so right now.

When I'm doing stuff with my Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards, he always develops an interest, but doesn't quite "get it" when I try to explain the details of what I'm doing with them. Maybe I'm explaining it wrong, or maybe he needs to learn it a different way, perhaps with a collection of hardware add-ons and project documentation which I normally don't use myself.

I would like to encourage the interest he develops, without initially overwhelming him with too many details. Either that, or he is a lot like me when I was growing up, and needs to do a little discovery on his own using these microprocessor based systems, which could lead to a more positive self esteem and appreciation for learning.

What I'm thinking of doing is finding something which merges robotics and computer programming. My first thought is Lego Mindstorms, but I don't know if/how powerful that system can become. I'm hoping to find something that can start off easy, but at the same time, the major investment in components doesn't go to waste because it can be outgrown too quickly.

I've checked on Arduino and Propeller based robot kits, but unless someone else can provide details on their personal experience with them, I think they may have a discouragingly steep learning curve to get started.

Any information will be useful. Are there relatively unknown, but useful kits out there. Is a "piecemeal kit" a better choice, with certain book purchases and a collection of individual components ordered from SparkFun, Jameco, etc? Are Lego Mindstorms a powerful and really good value kit for the money?
Security

Submission + - UN to Seek Internet Kill Switch Next Month (thenewamerican.com)

Submitted by
helix2301
helix2301 writes: "The United Nations and a wide swath of its autocratic member regimes were drafting a plan to give a little-known UN agency control over the online world. Among the most contentious schemes: a plot to hand the International Telecommunications Union a so-called “kill switch” for the Internet that critics say would be used to smash free speech."
Education

Submission + - Young Students Hiding Academic Talent to Avoid Bullying

Submitted by
jones_supa
jones_supa writes: "The recent anti-bullying survey conducted by ABA brings up some interesting findings. According to it, more than 90% of the 1,000 11-16 year-olds surveyed said they had been bullied or seen someone bullied for being too intelligent or talented. Almost half of children and young people (49.5%) have played down a talent for fear of being bullied, rising to 53% among girls. One in 10 (12%) said they had played down their ability in science and almost one in five girls (18.8%) and more than one in 10 boys (11.4%) are deliberately underachieving in maths – to evade bullying. Worryingly, this means our children and young people are shying away from academic achievement for fear of victimisation."
Intel

Submission + - Hands-on with Intel's Next Unit of Computing (techreport.com)

Submitted by
crookedvulture
crookedvulture writes: "Intel's Next Unit of Computing has finally made its way into the hands of reviewers. The final revision is a little different from the demo unit that made the rounds earlier this year, but the concept remains the same. Intel has crammed what are essentially ultrabook internals into a tiny box measuring 4" x 4" x 2". A mobile Core i3 CPU provides the horsepower, and there's a decent array of I/O ports: USB, HDMI, and Thunderbolt. Users can add their own memory, storage, and wireless card to the system, which will be sold without an OS for around $300. Those extras raise the total price, bringing the NUC closer to Mac Mini territory. The Apple system has a bigger footprint, but it also boasts a faster processer and the ability to accommodate notebook hard drives with higher storage capacities than the mSATA SSDs that are compatible with the NUC. If Intel can convince system builders to adopt the NUC, the future of the PC could be a lot smaller."
Music

Submission + - One Musician's Demand From Pandora: More Data (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Most Slashdotters have been following the debate among the various players in the music industry about how much money artists (and their labels) get from traditional music outlets like radio and newer services like Pandora or Spotify. But Zoë Keating, a professional cellist who has a professional interest in the outcome of this argument, thinks there's one thing missing from all the proposals: more data on who her audience is. Even digital services can't tell her how many people heard her songs or where they're most popular. "How can I grow my business on this information?" she asks. "How do I reach them? Do they know I’m performing nearby next month? How can I tell them I have a new album coming out?""

Submission + - Global Warming On Pace for 4C: World Bank Worried (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by
iONiUM
iONiUM writes: "From the article: "Over the years at the U.N. climate talks, the goal has been to keep future global warming below 2C. But as those talks have faltered, emissions have kept rising, and that 2C goal is now looking increasingly out of reach. Lately, the conversation has shifted toward how to deal with 3C of warming. Or 4C. Or potentially more."
Overall it seems that poorer, less developed nations will be largely impacted negatively, while some countries (like Canada and Russia) will actually experience benefits. Where does that leave the rest of the 1st world countries?"
Windows

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What video games keep you from using Linux? 7

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: Everyone knows content is king. Many of us use Windows or OSX at home instead of Linux because the games we love just are not available on Linux. With Steam moving forward for a Linux launch, I would like to hear from the Slashdot community on this topic. What are the game(s) you cannot live without? If they were available in Linux would you be happy to run Linux instead of Windows or OSX?
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Enabling HTTPS by Default for North American Users (threatpost.com) 1

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Facebook this week will begin turning on secure browsing be default for its millions of users in North America. The change will make HTTPS the default connection option for all Facebook sessions for those users, a shift that gives them a good baseline level of security and will help prevent some common attacks.

Facebook users have had the option of turning on HTTPS since early 2011 when the company reacted to attention surrounding the Firesheep attacks. However, the technology was not enabled by default and users have had to in and manually make the change in order to get the better protection of HTTPS.
Security

Submission + - Two FreeBSD Project Servers Hacked (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: The FreeBSD project has suffered a security breach whereby hackers have successfully compromised servers that were part of the infrastructure used to build third-party software packages. The Security team over at the FreeBSD project is of the opinion that hackers were able to gain access to the servers using legitimate SSH keys and not by exploiting any operating system vulnerabilities. Instances of intrusion were first detected on November 11. FreeBSD project, through a message on public announcements mailing list said that the security breach hasn’t affected the project’s core components like kernel or system libraries but, has only affected third-party software packages being distributed by the project.
Intel

Submission + - Intel CEO Paul Otellini to Retire in May (businesswire.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Intel Corporation today announced that the company’s president and CEO, Paul Otellini, has decided to retire as an officer and director at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting in May, starting an orderly leadership transition over the next six months. Otellini’s decision to retire will bring to a close a remarkable career of nearly 40 years of continuous service to the company and its stockholders.

“Paul Otellini has been a very strong leader, only the fifth CEO in the company’s great 45-year history, and one who has managed the company through challenging times and market transitions,” said Andy Bryant, chairman of the board. “The board is grateful for his innumerable contributions to the company and his distinguished tenure as CEO over the last eight years.”
Space

Submission + - Astronomers get picture of nearby exoplanet

Submitted by
The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: "While nearly a thousand planets are known to orbit other stars, getting direct pictures of them is extremely difficult due to the glare from their host stars. Fewer than a dozen images of exoplanets exist. However, we can now add one more to the list: Kappa Andromedae b, or Kap And b for short. It's about 170 light years away, and orbits Kappa And, a massive star bright enough to see with the naked eye. One hitch: its mass puts it right at the upper limit for a planet, and it may edge into brown dwarf territory. Further observations are needed to pin its mass down."

Submission + - The cutting edge of short range ballistic missile defense systems (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new Israeli missile defense system can lock onto oncoming missiles, compute trajectory, and blow oncoming Hamas missiles out of the sky — all in less than 20 seconds. The operation of the system requires a high degree of tech wizardry, some attributed to video game playing. Colonel Zvika Haimovich, commander of the Israel Air Force’s Active Defense Wing has this to say about its operators:

My Iron Dome operators are all fighters, and sure, many of them probably played PlayStation and computer games in their teens before they got to my unit...Being a techie is no longer something to be ashamed of, no longer a dirty word, in the IDF. These teenagers who get drafted into the army need to be able to thrive in a technological environment"
Science

Submission + - U.S. says exascale unlikely before 2020-22 because of budget woes (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: The U.S. Dept. of Energy is now targeting 2020 to 2022 for an exascale system, two to four years later than earlier expectations. William Harrod, research division director in the advanced scientific computing in the DOE Office of Science, previewed its planned Exascale Computing Initiative report at the SC12 supercomputing conference last week. "When we started this, [the timetable was] 2018; now it's become 2020 but really it is 2022," said Harrod. DOE will soon release its report on its Exascale Computing Initiative as part of effort to get funding approved in the FY 2014 budget. But current fiscal problems in Congress, the so-called fiscal cliff in particular, makes Harrod pessimistic about funding for next year. "To be honest, I would be somewhat doubtful of that at this point in time," he said. "The biggest problem is the budget," said Harrod. "Until I have a budget, I really don't know what I'm doing," he said. DOE has not said how much money it will need, but analysts say billions of dollars will needed to develop an exascale system. A major research effort is needed because of power, memory, concurrency and resiliency challenges posed by exascale. Data transport may be the leading problem. In today's systems, data has to travel a long way which uses up power. Datasets are "being generated are so large that it's basically impractical to write the data out to disk and bring it all back in to analyze it," said Harrod. "We need systems that have large memory capacity. If we limit the memory capacity we limit the ability to execute the applications as they need to be run," he said.
Crime

Submission + - Murder suspect/fugitive John McAfee launches blog, offers $25K reward (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The IT security pioneer John McAfee has launched a blog to document his life on the lam, as Belize police chase him down for suspicion of killing a neighbor. McAfee is using the blog to state his case, raise suspicions about Belize authorities and to offer a $25K reward to find the real killer or killers.
Politics

Submission + - Open Standards reaching critical mass in Europe

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: European countries are one by one adopting Open Standards through Government ICT policies. Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Portugal have published standards lists. Denmark has adopted ODF and PDF/A and the UK, amid controversy and fighting seems committed to Open Standards as well. Is the European wide adoption reaching critical mass? What is the situation in the US?

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