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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Email Workflow and Hillary's Woes 3

Submitted by Tablizer
Tablizer writes: Political blame issues aside, how could a work environment like the State Department monitor and ensure "wrong stuff" does not end up in regular office emails? It seems they should have a monitoring team in place to monitor all emails and outgoing documents. There may be urgent situations that could result in them not having enough time to vet something before it's released, but at least they'd know about it as soon as possible afterwards in order to mitigate the damage, investigate the cause, and "educate" the perpetrator(s), perhaps issuing formal reprimands. Bad habits wouldn't be allowed to fester. Has any slashdotter seen a similar setup at their shop?

Submission + - SPAM: Mysterious, ice-buried Cold War military base may be unearthed by climate change

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie: a secret military operation hidden beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet. But that’s exactly what transpired at Camp Century during the Cold War. In 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the subterranean city under the guise of conducting polar research—and scientists there did drill the first ice core ever used to study climate. But deep inside the frozen tunnels, the corps also explored the feasibility of Project Iceworm, a plan to store and launch hundreds of ballistic missiles from inside the ice.

The military ultimately rejected the project, and the corps abandoned Camp Century in 1967. Engineers anticipated that the ice—already a dozen meters thick—would continue to accumulate in northwestern Greenland, permanently entombing what they left behind. Now, climate change has upended that assumption. New research suggests that as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that, melting could begin to release waste stored at the camp, including sewage, diesel fuel, persistent organic pollutants like PCBs, and radiological waste from the camp’s nuclear generator, which was removed during decommissioning.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Can Crowdfunding Save the Pluto Discovery Telescope? (seeker.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: 85 years before NASA's New Horizons mission buzzed Pluto on July 14, 2015, the dwarf planet (then a planet) was found hidden in photographic plates by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh while he was working at Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Those plates came from a telescope (actually, an "astrograph," or astronomical camera) that was built specifically to hunt down the much-fabled "Planet X" that was believed to be a massive planet orbiting beyond Neptune. Though it turned out Pluto wasn't a massive planet, it was a planet nonetheless and its 1930 discovery went down in the history books as the year an American astronomer added the 9th planet to the solar system. But now, 87 years since its construction, the Pluto Discovery Telescope needs help and a Kickstarter campaign has been set up to get the telescope and its dome back in working order. There are even hopes to get its optics back up to par so it can image Pluto once more. "People have such a connection with Pluto ... there's a certain magic," said Lowell Observatory Historian Kevin Schindler. "There's a lot more feeling and emotion over Pluto than the other planets."

Submission + - WikiLeaks takes down DNC Chair after damaging release (cnn.com) 1

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Sunday she is stepping down as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee at the end of the party's convention, which is set to begin here Monday.

The Florida congresswoman's resignation — under pressure from top Democrats — comes amid the release of leaked emails showing DNC staffers favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the party's 2016 primary contest.

Submission + - DoJ uses obsolete software to subvert FOIA requests (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: An MIT PhD student has filed a suit in Federal court alleging that the use of a 21yo IBM green screen controlled search software to search the Department of Justice databases in response to Freedom of information requests constitutes an deliberate failure to provide the data that should be being produced

Submission + - Scientists Say the Asteroid That Killed The Dinosaurs Almost Wiped Us Out Too

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Conventional wisdom states that mammalian diversity emerged from the ashes of the Cretaceous/Tertiary mass extinction event, ultimately giving rise to our own humble species. But Joshua A. Krisch writes at This Week that the asteroid that decimated the dinosaurs also wiped out roughly 93 percent of all mammalian species. "Because mammals did so well after the extinction, we have tended to assume that it didn't hit them as hard," says Nick Longrich. "However our analysis shows that the mammals were hit harder than most groups of animals, such as lizards, turtles, crocodilians, but they proved to be far more adaptable in the aftermath." Mammals survived, multiplied, and ultimately gave rise to human beings.

So what was the great secret that our possum-like ancestors knew that dinosaurs did not? One answer is that early mammals were small enough to survive on insects and dying plants, while large dinosaurs and reptiles required a vast diet of leafy greens and healthy prey that simply weren't available in the lean years, post-impact. So brontosauruses starved to death while prehistoric possums filled their far smaller and less discerning bellies. "Even if large herbivorous dinosaurs had managed to survive the initial meteor strike, they would have had nothing to eat," says Russ Graham, "because most of the earth's above-ground plant material had been destroyed." Other studies have suggested that mammals survived by burrowing underground or living near the water, where they would have been somewhat shielded from the intense heatwaves, post-impact. Studies also suggest that mammals may have been better spread-out around the globe, and so had the freedom to recover independently and evolve with greater diversity. "After this extinction event, there was an explosion of diversity, and it was driven by having different evolutionary experiments going on simultaneously in different locations," Longrich says. "This may have helped drive the recovery. With so many different species evolving in different directions in different parts of the world, evolution was more likely to stumble across new evolutionary paths."

Submission + - And then, after you die, some genes turn ON and start to...

Submitted by gurps_npc
gurps_npc writes: Gizmodo has a summary of two separate scientific studies about what your genes do after you die. You think your body stops after death, but up to 2 days later certain genes may turn ON and start doing stuff for another 2 days before they give up the ghost. We are all zombies for upto 4 days after death.

Submission + - Appeals court slams record companies on DMCA in Vimeo case

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: In the long-simmering appeal in Capitol Records v. Vimeo, the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld Vimeo's positions on many points regarding the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. In its 55 page decision (PDF) the Court ruled that (a) the Copyright Office was dead wrong in concluding that pre-1972 sound recordings aren't covered by the DMCA, (b) the judge was wrong to think that Vimeo employees' merely viewing infringing videos was sufficient evidence of "red flag knowledge", and (c) a few sporadic instances of employees being cavalier about copyright law did not amount to a "policy of willful blindness" on the part of the company. The Court seemed to take particular pleasure in eviscerating the Copyright Office's rationales. Amicus curiae briefs in support of Vimeo had been submitted by a host of companies and organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Public Knowledge, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Microsoft, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Submission + - Obama Admits The Government Monitors Your Browsing History (zerohedge.com) 3

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: However, as AllOutdoor notes, if you listen carefully to Obama's full response, there is a comment Obama gives about knowing browser history that should sent everyone into a blind rage.

"I just came from a meeting, today, in the situation room, in which I’ve got people who we know have been on ISIL websites living here in the United States — US citizens. And we’re allowed to put them on the no fly list when it comes to airlines, but because of the National Rifle Association I cannot prohibit those people from buying guns!"

Based on browser history — pardon? What the president just confirmed is that someone from the government is noting everyone's browsing history, determining which websites are not to be visited, and furthermore, if someone does visit the website for whatever reason they get put on a no fly list.

The Anonymous Conservative goes on an epic rant about this revelation.

Now, how are they finding out who is visiting those websites? How big is the unit watching that? What websites are considered verboten by the Fedguv? Who determines the status of a website? Do they have a warrant to surveil what websites people are visiting? Is there any oversight, by any elected body? Nobody knows, because that section of the government is completely hidden from everyone’s view, and the media will never dare ask, for some unimaginable reason.

Imagine how powerful the machine is, that it is actually aware of who is looking at what online. Imagine how powerful the machine is, that an airline executive picks up the phone to hear a disembodied voice say, “You aren’t going to sell this guy a plane ticket today.” No airline asks questions, and nobody asks for a court order or government document. Imagine the power, that the American media dare not mention anything about it. Everyone just jumps to do what they are told. What does the government have on the airline people, the media, the politicians, that everyone will be so blindly obedient, and never even act as if the beast stalking them could possibly exist?

* * *

This isn't necessarily shocking, but it should get people to understand that the government does in fact know much more than they let on. After all, this NSA data center in Utah wasn't built for nothing

Submission + - Angie's List To Charge User $1000 For Any Post That Runs Afoul of New T&C (angieslist.com) 2

Submitted by Kagato
Kagato writes: Customers of Angie's List may end up regretting not reading the new terms and conditions. Effective June 1st they added the following to the terms and conditions: "If You post Content in violation of this Agreement, You agree to promptly pay Angie’s List One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) for each item of Content posted in violation of this Agreement. We may (but shall not be required to) to issue You a warning before assessing damages." It's not clear what the consumer oriented website intends to do with the stipulation, but the rest of the terms and conditions are vague enough that they could attempt to fine members for just about anything they find objectionable.

Submission + - Microsoft removes the "X" from Windows 10 update leaving no way out 2

Submitted by simpz
simpz writes: The Register reports that Microsoft has changed the Windows 10 update dialog and no longer shows the X close button. They say once agreed to there is no obvious back out method and it is now out of step with Microsoft's own documentation on this. They have a screenshot of this.

Submission + - Court bans smart meter blueprints from public, requester sued amid terror fears (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Phil Mocek, the sysadmin-activist at the center of a bizarre legal battle over a smart meter network in Seattle, Washington, says he never expected a simple records request to turn into a lawsuit.

"We all assume these meters simply monitor the amount of energy usage in the home," Mocek explained. "But they monitor it in real time in ways that other meters did not." When he asked Seattle City Light, a public power utility, to provide details on the designs and rollout of its smart power meter grid, he was simply hoping to find out what security safeguards the city and hardware providers Landis+Gyr and Sensus USA planned to use.

This, says Mocek, is where things started to get real odd.

After an email exchange with Seattle City Light officials, he obtained a mix of unredacted and redacted documents by the city, which he uploaded to the web – only to be told that the smart meter suppliers objected to the release of the information on the grounds that the unredacted documents would disclose their trade secrets and open the public to terrorist attacks on their infrastructure. Landis+Gyr and Sensus promptly sued the city, Mocek and Muckrock, and filed for an injunction: ultimately, the suppliers wanted the documents taken down, and the unredacted copies banned from public view.

On Thursday, a temporary restraining order was granted by the King County Superior Court in Washington – and Muckrock founder Michael Morisy confirmed the unredacted documents have been taken down pending the outcome of the case.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How is Windows 10 these days? 2

Submitted by Quantus347
Quantus347 writes: Whenever I think of Windows 10 these days I, like so many others out there, immediately feel a swell of rage over to heavy-handed way that the "upgrade" has been forced on me and so many others. I have already had to downgrade one of my computers that installed windows 10 over a weekend I was gone, and have been fending off the update ever since. But as my calmer and more rational mind reasserts itself, I find myself wondering if Windows 10 is actually that bad. With the end of the "free" upgrade period quickly coming to an end, my fiscally conservative side is starting to overwhelm my fear and distrust of all things New, and I'm wondering if it's time to take the leap. I've been burned too many times for being an early adopter of something that proved to be an underdeveloped product, but Windows 10 has been around for long enough that I'm wondering if it might have it's kinks worked out.

So I ask you, Slashdot, what are your experiences with Windows 10 itself, aside from the auto-upgrade nonsense? How does it measure up to its predecessors, and is it a worthwhile OS in its own right?

Submission + - How close Atlas V came to Failure in this Week's Cygnus Launch (spaceflight101.com)

Submitted by FullBandwidth
FullBandwidth writes: The folks over at Spaceflight101.com did some post-processing on publically-available telmetry, and concluded that "Atlas V dodged a bullet earlier this week when launching the Cygnus OA-6 cargo craft on a resupply mission to the International Space Station, coming much closer to a launch failure than initially let on by launch vehicle manufacturer and operator United Launch Alliance."

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