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Submission + - Deranged Inmate Sues Steve Jobs, O.J. Simpson (appleinsider.com)

Submitted by
The One and Only
The One and Only writes: "AppleInsider describes South Carolina inmate Jonathan Lee Riches' latest frivolous lawsuit, this time against Apple CEO Steve Jobs and disgraced former football star O.J. Simpson. Among other things, the lawsuit claims that O.J. has been Jobs' hitman since 1985, that O.J. "paid Jobs to clone Dolly the sheep", and that Jobs has aimed nuclear missiles at Riches' brain and Lance Armstrong's bike. The iPhone price drop also makes an appearance in the complaint. Riches, who is serving a prison sentence of identity theft, has a history of filing lawsuits in this vein. US District Judge Gregory Presnell dismissed this suit, noting, "The whole thing reads like a cross between Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' and a Dr. Bronner's soap label, if Dr. Bronner had been a first-year law student with untreated paranoid schizophrenia." All three handwritten pages of the suit are also available."
The Internet

Submission + - What's hot on Wikipedia (wikirage.com)

Submitted by
Craig
Craig writes: "WikiRage lists the pages in Wikipedia which are receiving the most edits per unique editor over various periods of time. Popular people in the news, the latest fads, and the hottest video games can be quickly identified by monitoring this social phenomenon."
Space

Submission + - When Science Mattered

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "I remember growing up in the late 1950's, listening to space launches played over the school intercom at Washington Elementary, and two years later being put into the first math class at junior high to study SMSG's new math, but what I remember most was the sense of urgency from teachers and parents that America "catch up." The New York Times is running a story on those heady days after Sputnik when scientists warned that the cold war would be fought with slide rules, not rifles and Congress rushed to pass the National Defense Education Act to stimulate the advancement of education in science, mathematics, and foreign languages. If you've seen the movie October Sky, you remember what it was like when space first captured the country's imagination and teachers pushed us to pursue our dreams. For me, studying math and science from grade school to college was a natural progression everyone encouraged and I count myself lucky that my personal interests happened to coincide with the nation's. What support did you get in your early years to study science, how did it make a difference in your life, and what can we do today to encourage our kids and grandkids?"
Education

Submission + - Is Scientific Journalism Doomed? (wordpress.com)

Submitted by
scida
scida writes: "I have spent the better half of the past six months trying to understand one thing: how can you effectively present primary scientific literature to the general public? Is this even possible?

There are many facets of Scientific Journalism, but I am only concerned with one here. First, I am not focusing on the coverage scientific work in the development government policy, biographical coverage on individual scientists, or other "newsy" work. I am strictly concerned with the communication and education of the general public of primary scientific information (i.e. what scientists know and publish in their respective academic forums).

I recently attended an interesting seminar, titled, "The Informed Science Journalist: How Much Science Do You Need to Know?" led by UBC journalism Professor and Director of the School of Journalism, Stephen Ward. During the discussion, one theme in particular caught my attention: you don't have to have any background in science to write about science. Anyone with a keen interest for a field and sharp mind can write about anything, from philosophy to advanced string theory to climate modeling.

Is this true? Is a keen interest sufficient?

During the past few months, I have spent entire days locked up in my office, writing my first manuscript to be submitted to a peer reviewed scientific journal. While doing so, I have come to realize the following: details can change everything. There are a number of assumptions I have been forced to make while analyzing my data, many of which are critical for both my methodology and the development of few of my arguments. Why? Often, the information I require simply isn't available (the studies haven't been done, or the studies that exist are based on assumptions of their own).

Now, can someone unfamiliar with a particular field, nay, a sub-discipline of that field, recognize these assumptions for what they are? I can trace the lineage and development of a number of critical assumptions through my sub-discipline's literature that have proven to be incorrect. Ultimately, the focus of the entire field was reshaped, and its direction changed forever as a result of a few "estimations" and assumptions.

Similarly, last year I was involved in organizing a student directed seminar concerned with covering the seminal work of my field over the past 30 years. Three of us canvassed resident professors, professional researchers, and professors and grad students across the world (literally) asking them for their top 20 articles.

I was blown away: more than half of these papers had become nearly obsolete (nearly obsolete, simply because their work was in of itself worthy of admiration for its brilliance). Why? You guessed it — a few key assumptions proven to be incorrect.

How do you explain to someone the relative magnitude of these assumptions? I've often caught myself saying, "Well, 10% error is nothing to be worried about. It's the real world, things aren't that simple." Surely 10% isn't much, but what about 50%? 10 fold? I've come across all of these, and justified every one to my colleagues, all whom agreed with me.

Why? There exists a certain type of intuition associated with information — when you become very familiar with a topic, some things feel more or less "right". I have a 'feeling' what is more or less likely to hold up to scrutiny, just as I can usually tell if someone is trying to pull my lab coat over my eyes.

How, then, do you effectively cover a story laden with valid assumptions, some likely to be correct, many likely to be incorrect? Let us use climate models as an example. In order to avoid long computing times, the use of super computers, or simply (and usually) because the information does not exist, modelers are forced to typically make 100's of assumptions when devising their code. Now, I'm not saying these models are not at all useful. Smart modelers have determined ways of lining up their assumptions with observations of the real world (often, modelers must predict what we already know to verify their assumptions — i.e. does it work?).

Here, the same problem exists — how do you, the science journalist, determine which of these assumptions could bring the entire model crashing down? Furthermore, if such an linchpin exists, is it an important one? How important? Is it likely to be incorrect? How likely? Unfortunately, these questions have no definitive answers, except with respect to each other, and with respect to the particular researcher.

Thus, it appears only the 'scientist' can effectively explain the scope of their work to the general public, assuming they have that ability. The socially inept individuals aside, could the front-line scientists replace science journalists, since they are the most familiar with their own assumptions (and thus the likelihood they are wrong)?

I think the answer is fairly obvious — no. Scientists are humans, and humans have emotions (not all scientists put Spock up on his fairly deserved pedestal). Therefore, this is the same as asking a politician to tell his electorate how his motivation for running for office isn't a personal one. Following that argument, competing scientists could not cover their colleagues work either, for friendships or grudges might get in the way.

Who's left? Everyone on the fringe — those in other fields with a solid understanding in your own, without any of the personal relationships (previous supervisors/bosses/friends/foes/etc) to bias their opinion (there is always bias, but the point is to minimize it).

Does such a network exist? I do not think so. However, it is the only viable solution to a problem that will only get worse as time goes on, andthe leading and developing scientific theories further creep into our everyday lives — a international group of scientists dedicated to the self promotion of their trade via the coverage of their distant colleagues work. The only question is, would anyone scientists step up to such a cause?

Ultimately, I think the majority of the public doesn't truly understand what 'scientific theory' means — either they are overly suspicious of anything scientific, or overly accepting of the 'word of the white lab coats'. In either case, scientific journalists only add to this confusion when sensationalizing recently published work, only to be discredited (the scientists, not the journalists) when something new comes along.

I'm not a professional journalist, but I am a scientist. So, whether any of this was insightful — let me know. If any of it is ludicrous, throw a comment my way. If you have suggested readings, I will give you a giant hug."
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Apple's Woz Has Harsh Words for Open Source (eweek.com)

Submitted by buzzardsbay
buzzardsbay writes: In a rollicking interview with eWEEK magazine, Apple guru Steve Wozniak dishes on Jobs, the iPhone and, ultimately, open source, saying: "There's always a group of people that wants to undo the forces of industry that have given us so much in terms of wealth, and there's always people who want things to be free. The open-source movement starts with those sort of people." Woz does concede that open source has "good points that have nothing to do with whether it's free or not." And he was wearing a nixie-tube watch, so how much can you really dislike him?
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Finds Home for Barcode

Submitted by MicroBarcode
MicroBarcode writes: Microsoft Corp. has finally found a taker for a colorful barcode technology the company shelved two years ago because it failed to catch on Microsoft said this week that the small square symbols, filled with red, green, yellow and black triangles, will appear on DVD and video game cases later this year, thanks to a licensing deal with the ISAN International Agency. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Censorship

Submission + - YouTube changes its story...BANS Gisburne forever

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: After deleting Nick Gisburne's account over a video YouTube claims was "Inappropriate Content" YouTube has now changed it's story and has deleted his new account claiming that the exact same video now violates a "Third Parties Copyright". There still exist some 50+ copies of this video that were posted in response to his that still exist on YouTube. Each of these were clearly posted as responses to the original.

To make things even more bizarre, several outspoken Christians (firefly515 and GlenReb) apparently launched a "flag and complain" campaign against Nick in an attempt to have him removed from YouTube. firefly515 has made a video gloating about getting NickGisburne2000 banned. After posting that video he received so much flack from the YouTube community as a whole that he made a video asking everyone to vote on whether or not he should delete all of his videos and his account.

The YouTube community has been left confused over what really happened here. Was the Christian campaign successful? Did the video actually violate the YouTube TOS for appropriate content? Did the video in fact violate copyright law as outlined in the DMCA?
Biotech

Journal Journal: Alzheimer's and Vasectomies Linked? New Research 2

Journal by cogno64
Northwestern University researchers have discovered men with an unusual form of dementia have a higher rate of vasectomy than men the same age who are cognitively normal. Certain organs including the testes and the brain exist in what is the equivalent of a gated community in the body. Tiny tubes within the testes (in which sperm are produced) are protected by a physical barrier of Sertoli cells. The tight
Businesses

Submission + - Ten Years of Steve Jobs

Submitted by Gammu
Gammu writes: Apple is nearing its tenth anniversary of Steve Jobs-leadership. On December 20, 1996, Apple's acquisition of NeXT went public and a mere seven months later, on July 9, 1997, Steve Jobs had ousted Amelio and most of the board of directors. What followed was an aggressive reorganization that cut thousands of jobs and most of the projects in R&D. The product matrix and Apple's strategy for targeting two markets (consumer and pro) emerged and Apple began its road to recovery.
Slashback

Submission + - Does Losing Weight Make You Happy?

Submitted by
atanas
atanas writes: "Joi Ito posted "Before and After" images of himself on Flickr. He lost 15 kgs (33 lbs.) and is happy with his new, healthier lifestyle. I congratulate him for his effort, and for achieving his goal (I assume this was his goal). But this also made me think: Have you noticed that in almost all "Before and After" images the person looks happier in the "Before" image? They look more slender, fitter, muscular, trimmer in the "After" image, but something seems to have left them... The spark in their eye is gone... http://atanasentchev.blogspot.com/2007/02/before-a fter.html"
Supercomputing

Submission + - World's first Quantum Computer to be demoed

Submitted by
Leemeng
Leemeng writes: "EE Times reports that D-Wave will demonstrate the world's first commercial quantum computer on Tuesday (Feb 13) at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. If it works, that means it can solve some of the most difficult problems, called NP-complete problems, thousands of times faster than current supercomputers. Initially, D-Wave (Vancouver, B.C.) will lease time on its quantum computer, which will be accessed over a secure Internet connection. Eventually, the company plans to sell quantum computer systems.

Being able to quickly solve NP-complete problems has enormous consequences. A fairly well-known NP-complete problem is the travelling salesman problem, which has real-world implications for logistics. NP-complete problems are present in such diverse fields as medicine, biology, computing, mathematics, and finance. Of immediate concern is quantum computers' potential for cryptanalysis (codebreaking). Specifically, a quantum computer could factor very large numbers in a fraction of the time needed by current computers. That BTW, is just what you need for cracking the RSA cipher and other widely-used ciphers that depend on one-way mathematical functions. Perhaps this will light a fire under quantum cryptography efforts."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - "Star Trek Gamers" Blacklisted By Bethesda

Submitted by sandus
sandus writes: The largest Trek game fansite StarTrek-Gamers.com was officially blacklisted by Bethesda Softworks not long ago. To discover the reasoning behind this decision the Fallout news site NMA has conducted an in-depth interview with StarTrek-Gamers' webmaster, Victor. From the interview:

NMA: Star Trek Gamers has been officially blacklisted by Bethesda. Why, do you feel, did Bethesda do this?

Victor: They did it for several reasons. One of them being that one or two other major fansites haven't officially come out in public on their front page and panned Legacy, only the STG did.
Music

Submission + - Steve Jobs Publishes Reaction To Open DRM

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Steve Jobs has published an essay on the State of DRM, and Apple's public stance on the issue of opening FairPlay DRM, licensing it to other online music retailers. In it, he examines three possible options: continuing as the industry currently operates, licensing FairPlay, or abolishing DRM altogether. From the article: "Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat."

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