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Submission + - Is Scientific Consensus a Threat to Democracy? (ft.com)

Submitted by
chance_encounter
chance_encounter writes: "President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus has published an article in the Financial Times in which he seems to equate the current global warming debate with totalitarian thought control: "The dictates of political correctness are strict and only one permitted truth, not for the first time in human history, is imposed on us. Everything else is denounced." He goes on to state: "The scientists should help us and take into consideration the political effects of their scientific opinions. They have an obligation to declare their political and value assumptions and how much they have affected their selection and interpretation of scientific evidence." At the end of the article he proposes several suggestions to improve the global climate debate, including this point: "Let us resist the politicisation of science and oppose the term "scientific consensus," which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority.""
The Internet

Submission + - Obama Girl fuels Internet's Influence on Campaigns

Submitted by UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: The NYT and ABC have articles about the Obama Girl music video, the brainchild of Leah Kauffman who was also behind Box in a Box. Kauffman, who pulls it off because of both her incredible voice and political/cultural savvy, is helping define the political campaign landscape for the 2008 Presidential election. Maybe John Edwards should hire her for his campaign...
Upgrades

Submission + - Are there any new motherboards without a TPM?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For those of us who don't want any piece of "treacherous computing" in our PC's, that means not having a TPM chip on the motherboard. That's easy enough if you're using an older computer, but what about the latest offerings? Are there any late-model motherboards or laptops being sold that do not have a TPM chip?
Supercomputing

Submission + - quantum computation with 2 superconducting qubits (physorg.com)

Submitted by
stijn
stijn writes: "Researchers at Delft University of Technology have succeeded in carrying out calculations with two quantum bits, the building blocks of a possible future quantum computer. The Delft researchers are publishing an article about this important step towards a workable quantum computer in this week's issue of Nature."
Privacy

Submission + - FBI Finds It Overstepped in Collecting Data (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by
truthsearch
truthsearch writes: "An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March. The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002. The vast majority of the new violations were instances in which telephone companies and Internet providers gave agents phone and e-mail records the agents did not request and were not authorized to collect. But two dozen of the newly-discovered violations involved agents' requests for information that U.S. law did not allow them to have."
Security

Submission + - Safari 3 Beta Updated, Security Problems Fixed (macworld.com)

Submitted by Llywelyn
Llywelyn writes: Apple has released an update to the Safari 3 Beta. According to Macworld the updates "...include correction for a 'command injection vulnerability,' corrected with additional processing and validation of URLs that could otherwise lead to an unexpected termination of the browser; an out-of-bounds memory read issue; and a race condition that can allow cross-site scripting using a JavaSscript [sic] exploit." It is available through either the Apple Safari download site or through Apple's Software Update.
Security

Submission + - Updated Safari for Windows improves security

Submitted by alittlespice
alittlespice writes: Apple has released Safari Beta 3.0.1 for Windows, an update to their recently-introduced Web browser for Windows XP and Vista that fixes the security issues found this week.

Full details at MacWorld
Businesses

Submission + - Need response for IT's rejection to opensource

Submitted by badcowboy
badcowboy writes: I have been trying to get a LAMP server onto our corporate network. The problem I have been running into is our corporate IT manager has some issues with open source. Here is his response to my request:

"I too like open source software, but not in the enterprise. This would require implementing GPL clients and servers within our organization who's authors have no responsibility or accountability for any security issues that were opened up as a result.

Open source is fine for some implementations. I may take a look at this in my spare time to get a better idea of what it's capabilities and pitfalls are, but in all likelihood this isn't something we're going to implement here for the reasons mentioned above anytime soon.
"

What is the best way to respond?
Windows

Submission + - Apple's Safari on Windows (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by comm2k
comm2k writes: According to the BBC Apple has announced a windows version of its Safari browser.

Apple has launched a version of its web browser Safari for Windows, competing head to head with Microsoft's Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox.
Music

Submission + - Apple hides account info in DRM-free music

Submitted by
Mike
Mike writes: "Songs sold by the Apple iTunes store without DRM still have a user's full name and account e-mail embedded in them, reports Arstechnica. After examining the files Arstechnica noticed their names and e-mail addresses in the files, and they've found corroboration of the find at TUAW, The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Since the entertainment industry is obsessed with the idea of "casual piracy," or the occasional sharing of content between friends it see,s likely that this information will be used to keep tabs on who buys what, and more importantly, where it ends up. Although spoofing the data is trivial, shouldn't the idea that your account name and email address are contained in the files make you uneasy, to say the least?"
Biotech

Submission + - The cure for Baldness.... Really

Submitted by secret_squirrel_99
secret_squirrel_99 writes: Unlike salamanders, humans and other mammals are generally thought to be incapable of true regeneration — growing a new organ or limb when one has been lost entirely. But yesterday, University of Pennsylvania dermatologists announced they had indeed performed this feat of biological renewal, regrowing complex "mini-organs" that are of pressing interest to millions of older men: the follicles that produce hair. The researchers, who are publishing their findings today in the journal Nature, said that by carefully cutting out patches of skin in mice, they awakened a genetic pathway that normally remains dormant after embryonic development. The shallow wounds stimulated new hair growth even though the follicles had been removed; the process worked especially well when researchers artificially boosted levels of a special signaling protein, senior author George Cotsarelis said. The whole article can be found at: http://www.philly.com/philly/health_and_science/20 070517_At_Penn__the_research_is_hair-raising__posi tively.html
Software

Submission + - Game designer causes stink with Virginia Tech game

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Talk about whistling past the graveyard.

An Australian video game designer has caused a major uproar Down Under with his creation of a game based on the Virginia Tech massacre.

Called V-Tech Rampage, the game has several levels of "stealth and murder," reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

But what really is causing the kerfuffle — as if the game itself wasn't in bad enough taste — is that its designer, Ryan Lambourn, says he will take the game down from his Web site only if the public comes up with a $2,000 payoff.

For another grand, he'll apologize.

"I've done offensive things before, but they're not usually this popular," the Morning Herald quoted Lambourn as saying.

He also said that friends encouraged him to put up the cash payment demand.

"Attention angry people," Lambourn wrote on his site. "I will take this game down from Newgrounds (where the game is hosted) if the donation amount reaches $1,000. I'll take it down from (Lambourn's Web site) if it reaches $2,000 and I will apologize if it reaches $3,000."

It's hard to know how to respond to that. So I won't.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9720248-7.html

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