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Security

Submission + - Coordinated, Global ATM Heist Nets $13 Million (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An international cybercrime gang stole $13 million from a Florida-based financial institution earlier this year, by executing a highly-coordinated heist in which thieves used ATMs around the globe to cash out stolen prepaid debit cards. The attack is eerily similar to the 2008 attack on RBS WorldPay that stole $9.4M. The men who pleaded guilty to the RBS attack were arrested and charged in Russia, but were later given only probation.
Medicine

Submission + - Common Cause of All Forms of ALS Discovered (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by intellitech
intellitech writes: The underlying disease process of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS and Lou Gehrig's disease), a fatal neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes its victims, has long eluded scientists and prevented development of effective therapies. Scientists weren't even sure all its forms actually converged into a common disease process, but a new Northwestern Medicine study has identified a common cause of all forms of ALS for the first time. The basis of the disorder is a broken down protein recycling system in the neurons of the spinal cord and the brain. Optimal functioning of the neurons relies on efficient recycling of the protein building blocks in the cells. In ALS, that recycling system is broken. The cell can't repair or maintain itself and becomes severely damaged. The discovery by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers, published in the journal Nature, provides a common target for drug therapy and shows that all types of ALS are, indeed, tributaries, pouring into a common river of cellular incompetence.
Beer

Submission + - Yeast's Epic Journey Ages Ago Gave Rise to Lager (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by intellitech
intellitech writes: In the 15th century, when Europeans first began moving people and goods across the Atlantic, a microscopic stowaway somehow made its way to the caves and monasteries of Bavaria. The stowaway, a species of yeast that may have been transported from a distant shore on a piece of wood or in the stomach of a fruit fly, was destined for great things. In the dank caves and monastery cellars where 15th century brewmeisters stored their product, the newly arrived yeast fused with a distant relative, the domesticated yeast — used for millennia to make leavened bread and ferment wine and ale. The resulting hybrid, representing a marriage of species as evolutionarily separated as humans and chickens, would give us lager — the clear, cold-fermented beer first brewed by 15th century Bavarians and that today is among the most popular, if not the most popular, alcoholic beverage in the world.
Social Networks

Submission + - Sources Retract '83% of Google+ Users Inactive' Cl (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "A win for the data geeks: After some sharp criticism (including mine) of data underlying the claim that 83% of Google+ users are inactive, several sources have backed away from that number, writes Computerworld's Sharon Machlis. Bime Analytics, which published an infographic containing the stat despite admitting they didn't know what it actually measured (see the heated exchange about it), has now removed the number from an infographic. And GigaOm, which trumpeted the stat in a headline and story, updated its article to focus instead on the rise of student users on Google+."
Android

Submission + - Using tablets becoming popular bathroom activity (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: With the market flush with hot-selling tablet computers, it shouldn't bowl anyone over to learn that many users are taking the plunge and bringing their devices to the bathroom. According to a new survey published by Staples Advantage, the business-to-business division of Staples Inc., 35% of tablet users copped to using their iPad or other tablets while in the bathroom, while a whopping 78% of tablet users said they used their tablets while lying in bed. And in a data point sure to further damage techies' reputation for social skills, Staples Advantage also reported that 30% of tablet users said they used their tablets while at restaurants.
Games

Submission + - Entrepreneur Makes $Millions Selling Virtual Land (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes: "How much would you pay for a piece of imaginary real estate? Anshe Chung has made millions renting it. Today, Anshe Chung Studios has 80+ employees managing thousands of rental properties, helping design new 3D virtual chat rooms, and making tons of money on virtual to real currency exchanges. Anshe was the first person whose virtual property exceeded a real world value of 1 million dollars, and Anshe Chung Studios is perhaps the single largest third party developer of virtual property ever."
Science

Submission + - New Site Lets you Design Your Own 3D Objects (thehighlow.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From the Department of the Future (okay, actually, from Cornell University) comes Endless Forms, a new site created by Cornell engineers that lets any and all laypeople design 3D objects, from lamps to faces. Users need not have any computer design technical know-how. Instead, they start the design by selecting “parent” objects offered by the site, and mating them. Like in nature, their offspring are created from a random mutation of the parent objects’ pre-programmed genomes. Each refinement equals a new “generation” of object.
Canada

Submission + - Small Canadian Drone used by Libyan rebels (suasnews.com)

Submitted by
garymortimer
garymortimer writes: "While NATO countries fly unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) high above Libya, none of these UAVs, or the vital intelligence they provide, was available to the Libyans fighting to free their country – they were fighting blind. So, they got one of their own. It can now be disclosed that the Libyan rebels have been using the Aeryon Scout Micro UAV to acquire intelligence on enemy positions and to coordinate their resistance efforts.

Representatives from the Transitional National Council (TNC) were looking for an imagery solution to provide to the troops on the ground. They evaluated a series of micro UAVs and chose the Aeryon Scout – and they needed it delivered immediately to those fighting at the front. Large UAVs are often flown far away from the frontline – often overseas – making it difficult to get the imagery to troops in combat. With the Aeryon Scout, the operator has direct control over the UAV and is able to see imagery in real-time."
Education

Submission + - Chemist Mom Kick's Tiger Mother's Butt 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Earlier this year, Yale Law prof Amy Chua captured the nation's attention with Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, her best-selling book on how Chinese parents like her raise stereotypically successful kids. Watch out Tiger Mother, there's a new Mom in town. Besides hailing from tiny-but-tony Harker School ($36,435 tuition), Nikhil Parthasarathy and Rohan Mahajan — who together accounted for 5% of the 40 brainiac finalists in this year's Intel Science Talent Search — had something else in common: Dr. Mala Raghavan, the Harker AP Chemistry and Organic Chemistry teacher who is Mom to Nikhil and was mentor to Rohan, which should make her a shoe-in to beat out Chua for Slashdot's 2011 Mother of the Year. Which is not to take anything away from Rohan and Nikhil, who also collaborated with UCSC profs on their projects — A Morphological Analysis of z~3 Lyman Break Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (Nikhil), and The Effect of Doping on CdS Sensitized TiO2 Nanowires for Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Generation (Rohan).
Science

Submission + - Oyster Mushrooms Could Break Down Diapers in month (inhabitots.com) 3

Submitted by greenerd
greenerd writes: Disposable diapers are one of the biggest contributors to overflowing landfills, piling up at a rate of 1 ton of trash per kid per year — and they take 500 years to decompose. But now, a scientist named Alethia Vázquez-Morillas from the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City has found a way to turn that 500-year span to a mere 4 months, by using oyster mushrooms to accelerate the breakdown.
Books

Submission + - What to do with old CompSci/Engr Textbooks? 1

Submitted by HockeyPuck
HockeyPuck writes: I'm cleaning out the house in preparation for a newborn, and I've come across boxes of old (mid 90s) college engineering/compsci text books. Most used books stores won't take them and I'm hoping to avoid having to put them in the recycle bin. I'm not a developer so EE or programing books are useless to me and shipping books to a Books for Africa depot is too expensive. Anybody within the /. crowd have some ideas?
Moon

Submission + - Japanese Plan Would Turn Moon into a Giant Solar C (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: "Shimizu, a Japanese company, has announced a scheme to turn the Moon into a giant solar collector. Using a concept first developed by Dr. David Criswell of the University of Houston, Shimizu proposes to circle the lunar equator with solar panels, using local materials, and beam the energy collected to receiving stations on Earth."
Science

Submission + - Activists destroy scientific GMO experiment (deredactie.be)

Submitted by
Freggy
Freggy writes: "In Belgium, a group of activists calling themselves the Field Liberation Movement has destroyed a field which was being used for a scientific experiment with genetically modified potatoes. In spite of the presence of 60 police officers protecting the field, activists succeeded pulling out the plants and sprayed insecticides over them, ruining the experiment. The goal of the experiment was to test potato plants which are genetically modified to be resistant to potato blight. It's a sad day for the freedom of scientific research."

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