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Submission + - Aristotle on Trolling

Submitted by Max Hyre
Max Hyre writes: from the how'd-he-find-out-about-that? dept.

A newly-discovered (and translated) papyrus holds Aristotle's analysis of trolling , and exactly on point it is, too. Though hardly suprising for an expert on excellence.

Abstract That trolling is a shameful thing, and that no one of sense would accept to be called 'troll', all are agreed; but what trolling is, and how many its species are, and whether there is an excellence of the troll, is unclear. [....]

Submission + - Employees in Swedish Office Complex Volunteer for RFID Implants for Access (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: A Swedish office building is enabling corporate tenants to implant RFID chips into employee's hands in order to gain access through security doors and use services such as photocopiers. The employees working at Epicenter, a 15,000-square-foot building in Stockholm, can even pay for lunch with a swipe of their hand. Hannes Sjöblad, founder of Bionyfiken, a Swedish association of Biohackers, said Epicenter is not alone in a movement to experiment with uses for implanted chips that use RFID/NFC technology. There are also several other offices, companies, gyms and education institutions in Stockholm where people access the facilities with implanted chips. Bionyfiken just began a nationwide study using volunteers implanted with RFID/NFC. "It's a small, but indeed fast-growing, fraction which has chosen to try it out." The goal of the Bionyfiken project is to create a user community of at least 100 people with RFID implants who experiment with and help develop possible uses. But, not everyone is convinced it's a good idea.

John Kindervag, a principal security and privacy analyst at Forrester Research, said RFID/NFC chip implants are simply "scary" and pose a major threat to privacy and security. The fact that the NFC can't be shielded like a fob or chip in a credit card can with a sleeve means it can be activated without the user's knowledge, and information can be accessed. "I think it's pretty scary that people would want to do that [implant chips]," Kindervag said.

Submission + - This Man Is the Dark Net's Drug Counselor (vice.com)

Submitted by sarahnaomi
sarahnaomi writes: Brands and retailers adorn their businesses with illuminating information, also known as marketing, but the trustworthiness of their claims can fluctuate considerably. Examples can be found all too often in the drug trade, where the relation between fantastical promises, commercial transparency and actual effect can be especially disadvantageously skewed by dealers.

Ironically, the impersonal trade on the deep web black market could remedy this. And that’s not just due to the eBay-style rating systems that let buyers know which power sellers they can expect safe deliveries from. It’s also due to dedicated volunteers, like DoctorX, the deep web doctor you can trust.

Submission + - New Study Says Governments Should Ditch Reliance on Biofuels

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: The NYT reports on a new study from a prominent environmental think tank that concludes that turning plant matter into liquid fuel or electricity is so inefficient that the approach is unlikely ever to supply a substantial fraction of global energy demand and that continuing to pursue this strategy is likely to use up vast tracts of fertile land that could be devoted to helping feed the world’s growing population. “I would say that many of the claims for biofuels have been dramatically exaggerated,” says Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, a global research organization based in Washington that is publishing the report. “There are other, more effective routes to get to a low-carbon world.” The report follows several years of rising concern among scientists about biofuel policies in the United States and Europe, and is the strongest call yet by the World Resources Institute, known for nonpartisan analysis of environmental issues, to urge governments to reconsider those policies.

Timothy D. Searchinger says that recent science has challenged some of the assumptions underpinning many of the pro-biofuel policies that have often failed to consider the opportunity cost of using land to produce plants for biofuel. According to Searchinger if forests or grasses were grown instead of biofuels, that would pull carbon dioxide out of the air, storing it in tree trunks and soils and offsetting emissions more effectively than biofuels would do. What is more, as costs for wind and solar power have plummeted over the past decade, and the new report points out that for a given amount of land, solar panels are at least 50 times more efficient than biofuels at capturing the energy of sunlight in a useful form. “It’s true that our first-generation biofuels have not lived up to their promise,” says Jason Hill said. “We’ve found they do not offer the environmental benefits they were purported to have, and they have a substantial negative impact on the food system.”

Submission + - Telomere-Lengthening Procedure Turns Clock Back Years in Human Cells (gizmag.com) 2

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a new procedure to increase the length of human telomeres. This increases the number of times cells are able to divide, essentially making the cells many years younger. This not only has useful applications for laboratory work, but may point the way to treating various age-related disorders – or even muscular dystrophy.

Submission + - Researcher claims proof that Isis is funding itself via Bitcoin (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A researcher from a Singapore-based research group claims to have found an Isis 'fundraising website' based around Bitcoin, allegedly fulfilling the promise of the document sent to Sky News last year, which claimed that Isis cells would soon favour a combination of Bitcoin, Dark Wallet and the 'Dark Net' (Tor, I2P, Freenet, iprediaOS and others) in order to maintain a circulation of funding obscured from government eyes. Speaking to Israeli newspaper Haaretz [http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.639542 — PAYWALLED], Ido Wulkan from Simulation Software & Technology, who found the alleged site by gaining access to a closed Turkish forum, said: "There was smoke, and now we have found the fire,"

Submission + - Architect Reveals Plans to 3D Print Entire Concrete Village (3dprint.com)

Submitted by ErnieKey
ErnieKey writes: We've seen and heard about 3d printed houses, apartments and even entire estates being erected all throughout the world. Now, one architect, who happens to be the man who brought us the first 3d printed castle, looks to create an entire village using a 3d printer. Andrey Rudenko has revealed his plans to create an entirely 3D printed village which he hopes will allow students and engineers to experiment with the capabilities that 3d printing offers the construction industry, while at the same time, create a tourist destination like none other.

Submission + - As real Flash patches go out, fake ones hit thousands of Facebook users (cso.com.au)

Submitted by River Tam
River Tam writes: On the heels of two real Flash Player security updates being distributed by Adobe Systems this week, hackers are spreading a fake update for the media player via a scam on Facebook that has exposed at least 5,000 users to the threat.

Fake Flash Player update through a three-day Facebook scam beginning Friday. The hackers are targeting the social network’s users by tagging would-be victims in photos that purport to be racy videos.

Submission + - The Most Popular Passwords Are Still "123456" and "password"

Submitted by BarbaraHudson
BarbaraHudson writes: From the "I-have-the-same-password-on-my-luggage" department The Independent lists the most popular passwords for 2014, and once again, "123456" tops the list, followed by "password" and "12345" at #3 (lots of Spaceballs fans out there?) . "qwerty" still makes the list, but there are some new entries in the top 25, including "superman", "batman", and "696969". The passwords used were mostly from North American and Western European leaks.

Submission + - Fox News Apologizes for False Claims of Muslim-Only Areas in England and France (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by operator_error
operator_error writes: Fox News issued an unusual on-air apology on Saturday night for having allowed its anchors and guests to repeat the false claim for a week, that there are Muslim-only “no-go zones” in European countries like England and France that are not under the control of the state and are ruled according to Shariah law.

Fox Report host Julie Banderas, said that “over the course of this last week, we have made some regrettable errors on air regarding the Muslim population in Europe, particularly with regard to England and France.”

“Now this applies especially to discussions of so-called no-go zones, areas where non-Muslims allegedly are not allowed in and police supposedly won’t go,” Ms. Banderas continued. “To be clear, there is no formal designation of these zones in either country and no credible information to support the assertion that there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion.”

The claim that such areas existed attracted widespread attention, and a wave of online derision."

Submission + - The Secret Chat Logs Of Barrett Brown

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: At Barrett Brown’s initial sentencing hearing last month, U.S. attorneys surprised Brown's defense team with a whopping 500 pages of new evidence in a last-minute effort to land the Texas journalist and Anonymous provocateur with a maximum sentence of eight and a half years in prison. This exclusive report reveals the private chat logs the government left out.

Submission + - Your entire PC in a mouse

Submitted by slash-sa
slash-sa writes: A Polish software and hardware developer has created a prototype computer which is entirely housed within a mouse . Dubbed the Mouse-Box , it works like a conventional mouse, but contains a processor, flash storage, an HDMI connection, and Wi-Fi connectivity. It is connected to a monitor via the HDMI interface and connects to an Internet connection through standard Wi-Fi.

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