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Submission + - Obama's promise to "Protect Whisleblowers" disappears from the web

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Obama administration's campaign site Change.gov has been removed, a possible reason Sunlight Foundation comments may be that a statement from the Administration that outlined the protection of Whistleblowers, "Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government." when the exact opposite has occurred and Obama is threatening trade sanctions against countries who give Edward Snowden asylum.

Submission + - Gut Microbes Can Split a Species (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: The community of microbes in an animal's gut may be enough to turn the creature into a different species. Species usually split when their members become so genetically distinct--usually by living in separate environments that cause them to evolve different adaptations (think finches on different islands)--that they can no longer successfully breed with each other. Now researchers have shown that a couple groups of wasps have become new species not because their DNA has changed, but because the bacteria in their guts have changed--the first example of this type of speciation.

Submission + - Microsoft Has 1 Million Servers. So What? (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: The only thing that's noteworthy about Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's recent disclosure that the company has one million servers in its data centers is that he decided to disclose it — most of the industry giants like to keep that information to themselves, says ITworld's Nancy Gohring. But just for fun, Amazon Web Services engineer James Hamilton did the math: One million servers equals 15–30 data centers, a $4.25 billion capital expense, and power consumption of 2.6TWh annually, or the amount of power that would be used by 230,000 homes in the U.S. Whether this is high or low, good or bad is impossible to know without additional metrics.

Submission + - TSA orders searches of valet parked car at airport (whec.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Laurie Iacuzza walked to her waiting car at the Greater Rochester International Airport after returning from a trip and that's when she found it — a notice saying her car was inspected after she left for her flight. She said, “I was furious. They never mentioned it to me when I booked the valet or when I picked up the car or when I dropped it off.”

Iacuzza's car was inspected by valet attendants on orders from the TSA.

Submission + - Congressman Wants to Repeal Patriot Act (techdirt.com)

Submitted by korbulon
korbulon writes: New Jersey congressman Rush Holt has submitted legislation to repeal both the Patriot Act and FISA Amendments Act in an attempt to curtail the expansion of government infringment of citizens' rights and privacy. In a press announcement Holt stated: "My bill would restore the probable cause-based warrant requirement for any surveillance against an American citizen being proposed on the basis of an alleged threat to the nation." In an interesting twist, Holt is currently running for a U.S. Senate seat, giving NJ voters have a chance to indirectly voice their opinion regarding NSA surveillance and eavesdropping .

Submission + - Bell Labs Break Record with 31Tbps via a Single 7200km Optical Fibre (ispreview.co.uk)

Submitted by Mark.JUK
Mark.JUK writes: Alcatel-Lucent's research and development division, Bell Labs, has successfully broken yet another record after it used 155 lasers (each operating at different frequencies and carrying 200Gbps of data over a 50GHz frequency grid) and an enhanced version of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) to send information at a staggering speed of 31 Terabits per second over a single 7200km long optical fibre cable. Previous experiments have been faster but only over shorter distances or by using a different type of fibre optic cable entirely.

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