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"Farming" Amoebas Discovered Screenshot-sm 49

Researchers from Rice University have found a type of amoeba that practices a sort of "primitive farming behavior." When their bacteria food become scarce, the Dictyostelium discoideum will group together and form a "fruiting body" that will disperse bacteria spores to a new area. From the article: "The behavior falls short of the kind of 'farming' that more advanced animals do; ants, for example, nurture a single fungus species that no longer exists in the wild. But the idea that an amoeba that spends much of its life as a single-celled organism could hold short of consuming a food supply before decamping is an astonishing one. More than just a snack for the journey of dispersal, the idea is that the bacteria that travel with the spores can 'seed' a new bacterial colony, and thus a food source in case the new locale should be lacking in bacteria." It's good to know that even a single celled creature is not immune to the pull of Farmville.

Comment Re:Sauce for the gander (Score 1) 794

I don't have any personal anecdotes about "bitches", just what I read in the papers, my friend. And yes, the proper term is butchered. Hunted down in the street in front of the neighbours and had her throat cut. Sounds like butchery to me - maybe not to you. (where on a woman's body would you find the steaks anyway?) I'm amazed that a street full of Canadians would stand by and watch it happen.

Up here the cops agitated for years until they were given the power to lay charges in cases of domestic abuse. They were tired of seeing women treated like punching bags with no recourse and no one on their side. I'm not sure what the law is down in the Excited States, but I'm pretty sure that in most states it's the same as in Canada - the police can lay charges in cases of domestic violence. Generally speaking, I find Americans are a step ahead of Canadians when it comes to liberal positions on social justice. YMMV.

This case might fit your definition of butchery and it's just the top citation of a google search.

I'm not sure what women have ever done to you, but in your present state of mind, I doubt I'd introduce you to my sister.

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Students Banned From Bringing Pencils To School Screenshot-sm 426

mernilio writes "According to UPI: 'A Massachusetts school district superintendent said a memo banning sixth graders from carrying pencils was written without district approval. North Brookfield School District interim Superintendent Gordon Noseworthy said Wendy Scott, one of two sixth-grade teachers at North Brookfield Elementary School, did not get approval from administrators before sending the memo to all sixth-grade parents, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported Thursday. The memo said students would no longer be allowed to bring writing implements to school. It said pencils would be provided for students in class and any students caught with pencils or pens after Nov. 15 would face disciplinary action for having materials 'to build weapons.'"
Graphics

The First Photograph of a Human 138

wiredog writes "The Atlantic has a brief piece on what is likely to be the first photograph (a daguerreotype) showing a human. From the article: 'In September, Krulwich posted a set of daguerreotypes taken by Charles Fontayne and William Porter in Cincinnati 162 years ago, on September 24, 1848. Krulwich was celebrating the work of the George Eastman House in association with the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Using visible-light microscopy, the George Eastman House scanned several plates depicting the Cincinnati Waterfront so that scholars could zoom in and study the never-before-seen details.'"
Data Storage

Submission + - Toshiba claims to quintuple density of HDD (pcworld.com)

blair1q writes: Today, at The Magnetic Recording Conference at UCSD, Toshiba is revealing bit-patterned media for hard drives that they claim raises the maximum bit density from 541 Gb/in^2 to 2.5 Tb/in^2. The technology reduces the number of magnetic grains needed to store a bit by prealigning the grains into stripes when manufacturing the platter, rather than leaving them in a random organization.
Transportation

Convicted NY Drunk Drivers Need Ignition Interlocks 911

pickens writes "Starting yesterday in New York state, anyone sentenced for felony or misdemeanor DWI, whether a first-time or repeat offender, will have to install an ignition interlock in any vehicle they own or operate. The interlock contains a breath-checking unit that keeps the car from starting if the offender's blood-alcohol level registers 0.025 or higher, a little less than one-third of the legal limit. 'The addition of ignition interlocks will save lives in New York state,' says State Probation Director Robert Maccarone, who led the team that wrote the regulation. 'It's been proven in other states. New Mexico realized a 37 percent reduction in DWI recidivism.' Whether that will be enough to persuade more people to take a cab or find a designated driver is unknown. 'It's one more thing to make people think, it may help — it may keep a few people from getting behind the wheel,' says Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh."
Space

The Sun's 'Quiet Period' Explained 167

Arvisp writes with this excerpt from the BBC: "Solar physicists may have discovered why the Sun recently experienced a prolonged period of weak activity. The most recent so-called 'solar minimum' occurred in December 2008. Its drawn-out nature extended the total length of the last solar cycle — the repeating cycle of the Sun's activity — to 12.6 years, making it the longest in almost 200 years. The new research suggests that the longer-than-expected period of weak activity may have been linked to changes in the way a hot soup of charged particles called plasma circulated in the Sun."
Privacy

75% Use Same Password For Social Media & Email 278

wiredmikey writes "Over 250,000 user names, email addresses, and passwords used for social networking sites can easily be found online. A study of the data collected showed that 75 percent of social networking username and password samples collected online were identical to those used for email accounts. The password data was gathered from blogs, torrents, online collaboration services and other sources. It was found that 43 percent of the data was leaked from online collaboration tools while 21 percent of data was leaked from blog postings. Meanwhile, torrents and users of other social hubs were responsible for leaking 10 percent and 18 percent of user data respectively...."
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Geek Squad Sends Cease-and-Desist Letter To God Squad Screenshot-sm 357

An anonymous reader writes "A Wisconsin priest has God on his car but Best Buy's lawyers on his back. Father Luke Strand at the Holy Family Parish in Fond Du Lac says he has received a cease-and-desist letter from the electronics retailer. From the article: 'At issue is Strand's black Volkswagen Beetle with door stickers bearing the name "God Squad" in a logo similar to that of Best Buy's Geek Squad, a group of electronics troubleshooters. Strand told the Fond du Lac Reporter that the car is a creative way to spur discussion and bring his faith to others. Best Buy Co. tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it appreciates what Strand is trying to do, but it's bad precedent to let groups violate its trademarks.'"
Hardware Hacking

Dutch Hackers Create Wi-Fi Sniffing Drone 81

An anonymous reader writes "The WASP, or Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform, has been built out of a hobby-grade airframe and open source Ardupilot autopilot, reports sUASnews. In the words of the Rabbit-Hole website, it's a 'Small Scale, Open Source UAV using off the shelf components. Designed to provide a vehicle to project cyber-offensive and defensive capabilities, and visual / electronic surveillance over distance cheaply and with little risk.'" Want a drone of your own? The makers have some pointers to helpful resources.
Security

Stand-Alone Antivirus Software? 159

An anonymous reader writes "I work for a company that repairs specialty devices that have an embedded Mini-ATX motherboard without a CD-ROM drive and run Windows XP Home. And while the USB flash drives we insert into them have a physical write-protect tab, we still encounter a (rather annoying) display dialog from malware/viruses to remove the write-protect so the malware can infect the flash drive. We don't remove the write-protect, obviously, but would like to offer our customers the option of removing the malware/virus without having to install any software. We would rather not install/uninstall antivirus software even for one-time use, due to various licensing issues, nor do we want to connect to the Internet to use web-based online scanners. Is there any stand-alone anti-virus/anti-malware software for Windows that can be run directly from the write-protected flash drive itself?"

Comment Re:College ruled paper is fascist (Score 1) 373

I was taught to take notes by the infantry. We learned to use a Field Note Book. It is graphed and fits in a pants pocket. Because of the small format, it teaches brevity and the graph paper enables those graphically challenged to diagram gun emplacements, terrain, troop deployments and so on. When I returned to the navy, I made sure to have a steady supply of field not books handy. I can't get them anymore but there are plenty of like sized graphed note books for sale.

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