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Biotech

Submission + - Consumer genetic testing available in Australia

Submitted by Megaport
Megaport writes: After the banning of direct-to-consumer genetic testing in Australia last July, new rules were imposed to require a physician to be involved in the process. Now a new Australian start-up, Lumigenix, has launched a genome decoding service for Australian (and global) consumers that meets the new regulatory requirements. Their products include genetic testing for health and ancestry information. The Australian government is planning to revisit the issue later this year and further regulation is anticipated in response to the emergence of direct-to-consumer genetic services.

Comment A real who's who of Mars mission science! (Score 1) 288

by Megaport (#34729836) Attached to: 'Colonizing the Red Planet,' a How-To Guide

Doesn't anyone RTFA anymore? Richard C Hoagland is one of the cited authors in the article about terraforming Mars.
http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars102.html (he says that NASA nuked Jupiter with Galileo!)

Most of the chapters were amazing and very scientific, but when I saw that name mentioned the whole document took a nose dive in credibility.

--M

Submission + - Wikileaks Founder Arrested in London (smh.com.au) 1

Submitted by CuteSteveJobs
CuteSteveJobs writes: The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has been arrested by London police on behalf of Swedish authorities on allegation of rape. Assange has admitted that he exhausted by the ongoing battle against authorities. The Swiss Government has confiscated $37K in his Swiss Bank account. PayPal and Mastercard have frozen Wikileak's accounts, hampering Wikileaks from raising any more funds.

Meanwhile Australian PM Julia Gillard and Attorney General Robert McLelland who had publicly accused Assange of illegal acts were unable to say what laws he had broken. The Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis said "As far as I can see he hasn't broken any Australian law, nor does it appear he has broken any American laws." US Attorney General, Eric Holder said he had authorised significant actions aimed at prosecuting WikiLeaks founder but refused to elaborate. Sarah Palin called Assange "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" and Mike Huckabee said "anything less than execution is too kind a penalty". Assange will be represented in London by human rights lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson QC.

Submission + - Julian Assange arrested in UK for sex allegations (news.com.au)

Submitted by kaptink
kaptink writes: British police have reportedly arrested Wikileaks Assange earlier today in relation to the sex allegations assumingly on the revised international warrant issued earlier this week. More details to come.

Submission + - Julian Assange Arrested in UK (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by AndGodSed
AndGodSed writes: Jullian Assange has been arrested on behalf of Swedish police for the rape charges he is due to face in that country. Wikileaks say that they will continue releasing documents in spite of Assange's arrest.

Submission + - Julian Assange arrested in England (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by SJ2000
SJ2000 writes: "Scotland Yard has confirmed that Julian Assange has been arrested by police in England... It is expected he will appear before an extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court today for a ruling to be made on whether or not he should be sent to Sweden."

Comment Re:So really... this means? (Score 1) 95

by Megaport (#33696466) Attached to: Scientists Confirm Nuclear Decay Rate Constancy

On the positive side, it means that we don't have to expect nasty surprises from this new physics for our existing technologies (e.g. we don't have to expect that an extraordinary large solar flare suddenly makes a nuclear reactor fail, or something like that).

Umm, we didn't know that already? Oh dear. "New physics" had better not turn out to be an excuse for why we all suddenly glow in the dark, while it still isn't the nuclear power industry's fault.

--M

(PS - I love nuclear power, but I'm always a sceptic about our confidence when predicting unforeseen consequences.)

Comment Don't go (Score 2, Insightful) 403

by Megaport (#32777696) Attached to: Tunneling Under the Great Firewall?

My daughter is living in Beijing for a year so before she left I got her a notebook and set it up with everything she'd need. For a brief moment I considered installing an SSH tunnel or VPN access back here to home, but then I thought about what my ex-wife's voice would sound like when she said, "they are detaining our daughter because they found military grade encryption software on her computer. How did that get there?" and decided against it.

Seriously, if you disagree with their policy don't go. In your own country you have the right to civil disobedience against unjust laws. In another country you are a guest and should act appropriately.

I'm an Aussie, our countries fought together in many wars (some still ongoing) and about as peaceful a partner as the US can get. Despite having travelled to the US about a dozen times and even lived over there for a couple of years, I have refused to return because you want to fingerprint me on entry now.

If you disagree with a requirement of entry. Don't go. It is astonishing that you would premeditate to break China's laws because of your political views when your own country has a bunch that you have not fought against.

Sheesh.

--M
Piracy

Swedish Pirate Party To Run Pirate Bay From Parliament 288

Posted by kdawson from the criminalizing-dirty-tricks dept.
rdnetto sends in this clip from TorrentFreak. To pursue these plans the Pirate Party needs to win 4% of the seats in Parliament in an election coming up in September. "After their former hosting provider received an injunction telling it to stop providing bandwidth to The Pirate Bay, the worlds most resilient BitTorrent site switched to a new ISP. That host, the Swedish Pirate Party, made a stand on principle. Now they aim to take things further by running the site from inside the Swedish Parliament. ... The party has announced today that they intend to use part of the Swedish Constitution to further these goals, specifically Parliamentary Immunity from prosecution or lawsuit for things done as part of their political mandate. They intend to push the non-commercial sharing part of their manifesto, by running The Pirate Bay from inside the Parliament, by Members of Parliament."
Math

First Self-Replicating Creature Spawned In Conway's Game of Life 241

Posted by Soulskill from the emergent-gameplay dept.
Calopteryx writes "New Scientist has a story on a self-replicating entity which inhabits the mathematical universe known as the Game of Life. 'Dubbed Gemini, [Andrew Wade's] creature is made of two sets of identical structures, which sit at either end of the instruction tape. Each is a fraction of the size of the tape's length but, made up of two constructor arms and one "destructor," play a key role. Gemini's initial state contains three of these structures, plus a fourth that is incomplete. As the simulation progresses the incomplete structure begins to grow, while the structure at the start of the tape is demolished. The original Gemini continues to disassemble as the new one emerges, until after nearly 34 million generations, new life is born.'"
Education

Gulf Oil Spill Disaster — Spawn of the Living Dead 228

Posted by timothy from the less-on-your-plate dept.
grrlscientist writes "A recently published study, intended to provide data to commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico so they maximize their catch of Yellowfin Tuna, Thunnus albacares, whilst avoiding bycatch of critically endangered Atlantic (Northern) Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus, suggests that the Deepwater Horizon oil leak may devastate the endangered Atlantic bluefin population, causing it to completely collapse or possibly go extinct."
Image

North Korea Develops Anti-Aging "Super Drink" 296

Posted by samzenpus from the can-full-of-wonder dept.
__roo writes "According to North Korea's official news agency, a drink produced by North Korea's Moranbong Carbonated Fruit Juice Joint Venture Company can cure aging and all disease. 'It, with effects of both preventive and curative treatment, helps improve mental and retentive faculties by multiplying brain cells. It also protects skin from wrinkles and black spots and prevents such geriatric diseases as cerebral hemorrhage, myocardium and brain infarction by removing acid effete matters in time.' It also has no side-effects." Last month North Korea announced its fusion breakthrough, and now it has a super drink. One can only imagine what wonders may come in July — perhaps self-buttering toast.
Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings Online To Go Free-To-Play 138

Posted by Soulskill from the has-a-nice-one-ring-to-it dept.
darkwing_bmf sends word of Turbine's announcement that Lord of the Rings Online will become a free-to-play game this fall. 'The move is another validation of the free-to-play business model, where gamers can play for free and pay real money for virtual goods such as better weapons or decorative gear for their game characters. The business model has been popular in Asia but only recently took off in the US. This move shows the pressure is building on game publishers to shift to the new business model or face declining audiences.' According to a post on the official website, LotRO's micro-transaction system will be "very similar" to how Turbine's DDO store works, and current subscribers will maintain all of their privileges.
Image

Snails On Methamphetamine 93

Posted by samzenpus from the escargot-on-ice dept.
sciencehabit writes "Science answers the question: What happens when you put a snail on speed? From the article: 'The results suggest that meth improves memory, something that has been previously observed in creatures with large, complex brains like rats and humans. But since the snails store their memories in a simple, three-neuron network, the team hopes that studying the meth effect in these gastropods will help pinpoint how the drug's memory magnification powers work.'"
Image

Man Builds His Own Subway 174

Posted by samzenpus from the everyone-needs-a-hobby dept.
jerryjamesstone writes "Everybody is into rail these days; it is the greenest way to get around next to a bike. Leonid Mulyanchik has been into it for years since before the Berlin Wall fell, since before the first Macintosh, building his own private underground Metro railway system. English-Russia says that he has been doing it with his pension, that it is all legal and approved and that he is still at it. Gizmodo calls it 'Partly the traditional, inspiring, one man against all odds type of persistence, but more the obsessive, borderline insane persistence.'" Update: 06/02 07:33 GMT by T : And if you're the type to visit Burning Man, you can actually ride a home-made monorail this summer, too.

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