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Earth

Submission + - Obama Proposes 'Meaningful Action' on Climate Change (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "President Barack Obama called for "meaningful progress" on tackling climate change in his State of the Union speech in Washington, DC on Tuesday night. While acknowledging that "no single event makes a trend," the President noted that the United States had been buffeted by extreme weather events that in many cases encapsulated the predictions of climate scientists. "But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods — all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science — and act before it’s too late," Obama added."
Security

Submission + - How Lockheed Martin's 'Kill Chain' Stopped An Attacker Already Inside (darkreading.com)

Submitted by ancientribe
ancientribe writes: Lockheed Martin's director of cybersecurity provided a rare inside look at how the Defense contractor was able to stop sophisticated attackers who had gotten inside its network from actually stealing anything. Lockheed's multi-million dollar Cyber Kill Chain framework, a combination of security intelligence tools and manpower was built to prevent determined attackers who inevitably gain a foothold in the network from taking anything with them. This Dark Reading article highlights an incident where an attacker posed as one of Lockheed's business partners, using legitimate credentials and a stolen RSA SecurID token.
Education

Submission + - Missouri Legislation Redefines Science, Pushes Intelligent Design (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ars reports on new legislation in the Missouri House of Representatives which is seeking equal time in the classroom for Intelligent Design as well as to redefine science itself. You can read the text of the bill online. It uses over 600 words to describe Intelligent Design. Scientific theory, the bill says, is 'an inferred explanation of incompletely understood phenomena about the physical universe based on limited knowledge, whose components are data, logic, and faith-based philosophy.' It would require that 'If scientific theory concerning biological origin is taught in a course of study, biological evolution and biological intelligent design shall be taught.' The legislation's references to 'scientific theory' and 'scientific law' make it clear the writers don't have the slightest idea how science actually works. It also has this odd line near the end: 'If biological intelligent design is taught, any proposed identity of the intelligence responsible for earth's biology shall be verifiable by present-day observation or experimentation and teachers shall not question, survey, or otherwise influence student belief in a nonverifiable identity within a science course.'
Government

Submission + - Earth-buzzing asteroid could be worth big bucks: $195B if we could catch it (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The asteroid NASA say is about the half the size of a football field that will blow past Earth on Feb 15 could be worth up to $195 billion in metals and propellant. That's what the scientists at Deep Space Industries, a company that wants to mine these flashing hunks of space materials, thinks the asteroid known as 2012 DA14 is worth — if they could catch it."

Submission + - Computer Repair Company Takes Revenge on Devious Customer (callnerds.com) 3

Submitted by herrshuster
herrshuster writes: Nerds on call, a small computer repair company, was sued for $500,000 dollars by a customer claiming that they had lost critical information in his litigation. But when they looked into his history, they found this was not the first time he had tried to get money from a company through either his own error or ignorance: http://blog.oregonlive.com/complaintdesk/2011/07/when_store_clerks_give_advice.html In retaliation, they posted an explanation of the circumstances on their site that totalled more than 17,000 words in an attempt to google-bomb his name. Their closing statement: "In the end we won’t label him a scam artist, or assume he had nefarious intent, however, we will let the entire history of our interactions with him stand on their own."

Submission + - Progress Bars 6

Submitted by hyperorbiter
hyperorbiter writes: How come after 25 years in the tech industry someone hasn't worked out how to make accurate progress bars? This migration I'm doing has sat on "less than a minute" for over 30 minutes . . . I'm not an engineer, but is it that hard?
Science

Submission + - Appendix Evolved More Than 30 Times (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: The appendix may not be useless after all. The worm-shaped structure found near the junction of the small and large intestines evolved 32 times among mammals, according to a new study. The finding adds weight to the idea that the appendix helps protect our beneficial gut bacteria when a serious infection strikes.

Submission + - PeerJ is changing everything in academic publishing (techdirt.com)

Submitted by
Mirk
Mirk writes: "Academic researchers want to make their papers open access for the world to read. If they use traditional publishers like Elsevier, Springer or Taylor & Francis, they'll be charged $3000 to bring their work out from behind the paywall. But PeerJ, a new megajournal launched today and funded by Tim O'Reilly, publishes open access articles for $99. That's not done by cutting corners: the editorial process is thorough, and they use rigorous peer-review. The cost savings come from running lean and mean on a born-digital system. The initial batch of 30 papers includes one on a Penn and Teller trick and one on the long necks of dinosaurs."
The Internet

Submission + - Is the concept of "Cyberspace" stupid? (salon.com)

Submitted by
frank_adrian314159
frank_adrian314159 writes: "In an article titled "Stop Pretending Cyberspace Exists", Salon writer Michael Lind notes that "Some ideas make you dumber the moment you learn of them. One of those ideas is the concept of 'cyberspace.'” He says that analogizing cyberspace as a real place leads to an inability to think logically about laws, rules, and how and when the governments could or should intervene to regulate the Internet. He states that such a debate is essential, but that that an "[invasion of] a mythical Oz-like kingdom called cyberspace is just as dopey" when talking about governments and corporations taking a larger role in online communications. Is Lind right? Does the notion of cyberspace make the debate over its governance less fruitful?"
Businesses

Submission + - Tesla Battles The New York Times (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "Days after the New York Times released a brutal review of Tesla's electric Model S sedan, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has fired back, claiming the Times article was completely bogus and misleading. In the article in question, Times writer John Broder took the Tesla Model S on a test drive from Washington to Boston, stopping at various service plazas in Delaware and Connecticut well within the projected 265-mile range of the car, as rated by the EPA. However, Broder’s Tesla Model S, despite a heftier 85 kilowatt-hour battery for an extra 100 miles of range in “ideal conditions,” died shortly before reaching its final destination. Broder blames the cold weather and heating issues for his abridged trip; Musk, however, claims the driver did not follow Tesla's instructions, which is why his trip was cut so short. 'We’ve taken great pains to ensure that the car works very well in the cold, which is why we’re so incensed by this ridiculous article,' Musk said."
Open Source

Submission + - DIY Web-Controlled Robot that takes 1 hour to build (pinocc.io)

Submitted by
fixpert
fixpert writes: "We hooked up Pinoccio (an Open Source, wireless Arduino-compatible microcontroller) to a Pololu 3pi Robot to create an unmanned rover that can be driven via the Web. We posted a quick video where you can see us driving our Web Rover in Nevada all the way from Brazil. We used the iPhone's built-in accelerometer as a super-intuitive interface for driving the bot. You can read all about the project — how we built it, what you need to make your own (including source code), and a simulator of the accelerometer interface that you can play with. We're hoping to make Pinoccio the perfect platform for Software Developers to learn how to hack on DIY hardware."
Google

Submission + - More details on Google Pixels found in ChromeOS source (myce.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Details on the Google Pixel have been found in the ChromeOS source code. The device will have a 2056x1700 touchscreen, an Intel IvyBridge Celeron CPU, LTE support and a back-lit keyboard. It's also interesting to note that Sergey Brin has posted a picture of a jellyfish that's similar (colorwise) to the jellyfish in the Google Pixel video. The Pixel is codenamed Link in the ChromeOS source code which contains many references to the device.
Censorship

Submission + - Philippine cybercrime law put on indefinite hold (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Supreme Court of the Philippines has put an indefinite hold on a controversial law that would, among other things, ban cybersex and porn.

A host of groups, particularly journalists, had resoundingly criticized the law, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, as broad and out of touch with how the Internet works. The Philippines’ National Union of Journalists, for example, called its definition of libel “a threat not only against the media and other communicators but anyone in the general public who has access to a computer and the Internet.”
Earth

Submission + - North Dakota Proposes Ban on Natural Gas Flaring after One Year (bismarcktribune.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: A North Dakota lawmaker has proposed a bill that would ban flaring at oil and natural gas sites after one year of that site's operation. ISS footage has revealed that now large swaths of North Dakota are illuminated at night due simply to flaring from Bakken oil and natural gas drilling. Democratic Sen. Tim Mathern, proposer of the bill, said "It’s bringing a higher quality of life to western North Dakota, it’s putting an end to waste (and) it’s addressing the issue of climate change" and "This is taking a, what I’d call, a step-wise approach in addressing health and waste." In 2011, waste from global flaring equivocated to a fourth of the United State's natural gas consumption. The major difference between this bill and current law is that no exemptions whatsoever will be made. Mathern claimed that 30 percent of natural gas is flared in western North Dakota compared to the national average which is in single digits.
Chrome

Submission + - Has the local browser cache become useless? 1

Submitted by lesincompetent
lesincompetent writes: Think about it. In this age of high end hardware and relatively high bandwidth, storing things on a device many orders of magnitude slower than any other is something we should get rid of. Even for static content: is it really worth the disk I\O effort? How much page loading time am i saving? Not to mention the fact that browser caches are among the first causes of system littering. It's been many years now since the last time i had a browser with disk caching enabled on any of my systems (besides chrome, unfortunately, because you can't deactivate it.)

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