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Submission + - Time Names Vladimir Putin Person of the Year 2007 (techluver.com)

Submitted by
Tech.Luver
Tech.Luver writes: "In a year when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize and green became the new red, white and blue; when the combat in Iraq showed signs of cooling but Baghdad's politicians showed no signs of statesmanship; when China, the rising superpower, juggled its pride in hosting next summer's Olympic Games with its embarrassment at shipping toxic toys around the world; and when J.K. Rowling set millions of minds and hearts on fire with the final volume of her 17-year saga — one nation that had fallen off our mental map, led by one steely and determined man, emerged as a critical linchpin of the 21st century. Says Time Magazine, about its Person of the Year 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin. ( http://techluver.com/2007/12/19/time-names-russian-president-vladimir-putin-person-of-the-year/ )"
Government

Submission + - Budget Threat to High Energy Physics Research in U (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The current FY08 Federal Budget is seriously damaging to fundamental physics research in the US. Not only does this threaten the International Linear Collider's future, and the future of particle physics as a whole, this also impacts existing experiments both in the US and coming online at CERN in Europe, since the US is (was?) a major contributor.
Privacy

Submission + - Senate Approves Immunity for Illegal Wiretapping (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Senate just passed a bill with an overwhelming majority that will grant immunity to all the telephone companies that participated in the illegal wiretapping. Senate contends that "(Telephone) companies should be thanked, not punished, for helping defend the United States (by helping with illegal wiretapping)". From the article "The Senate bill would provide new protections of civil liberties, such as requiring tougher congressional and judicial oversight." With a congress and judiciary like this say goodbye to our liberties.
The Internet

Submission + - Why the coming exaflood won't drown the Internet (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by High Waters
High Waters writes: Ars Technica examines predictions of an exaflood of data that some alarmists believe will overwhelm the Internet. 'Doomsday predictions about the collapse of the Internet have never been hard to come by. Most recently, concern has focused on the rise of Internet video, one of the key drivers of traffic growth over the last couple of years. Should Internet traffic surge more quickly than networks can keep up, the entire system could clog up like a bad plumbing job.' But a closer look reveals that many of those raising the alarm about an exaflood are generally doing so to make the case against 'Net neutrality regulation. 'There's a reason that "exaflood" sounds scary. It's supposed to. Though Brett Swanson's Wall Street Journal piece tried to avoid alarmism, it did have an explicitly political point in mind: net neutrality is bad, and it could turn the coming exaflood into a real disaster'
Space

Submission + - Enceladus "sea" mystery deepens

Submitted by
Smivs
Smivs writes: "The BBC reports that an ocean may not be the source of the jets emanating from Saturn's moon Enceladus . Research questions the moon's promise as a target in the search for life beyond Earth and has stirred controversy.
A chemical analysis of Enceladus, led by University of Colorado planetary scientist Nick Schneider, failed to detect sodium, an element scientists say should be in a body of water that has had billions of years of contact with rock. Spectral analysis with the Keck Telescope found no sodium in the plumes or in the vapour that's in orbit around the moon.
At stake is whether Saturn's moon could support alien life and is a worthy target for a US space agency (Nasa) exploratory mission to detect it. Such a mission to Enceladus is one of four currently under review for further development."
The Internet

Submission + - Wikipedia Bans Whistleblower (wikipedia.org)

Submitted by Retired Wikipedia Editor
Retired Wikipedia Editor writes: When a user of Wikipedia complained about a former administrator named Betacommand calling another user a "fucktard", he was banned over it by a power-tripping admin who goes by Moreschi. Why? Because it was the user's first edit to Wikipedia. This user could have been an alternate account of a regular editor, who was afraid of blowing the whistle in fear of retaliation. He was right; the Wikipedia cabal banned him for it. Or maybe he was a lurker who was concerned over such a strong use of language. The discussion about it is still ongoing, but there's a shocking amount of support for the banning of the whistleblower. I used to edit Wikipedia pretty regularly, until I finally gave up on it due to the politics and the need of administrators to pull garbage like this.
Biotech

Submission + - Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Fo (washingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by mlimber
mlimber writes: The Washington Post has a story about the future of biotech: "The cobbling together of life from synthetic DNA, scientists and philosophers agree, will be a watershed event, blurring the line between biological and artificial — and forcing a rethinking of what it means for a thing to be alive.... Some experts are worried that a few maverick companies are already gaining monopoly control over the core 'operating system' for artificial life and are poised to become the Microsofts of synthetic biology. That could stifle competition, they say, and place enormous power in a few people's hands."
Government

Submission + - Guantanamo deleted detainee IDs from Wikipedia (ljsf.org) 1

Submitted by James Hardine
James Hardine writes: The New York Times and The Inquirer are reporting that Wikileaks, the transparency group that published two manuals leaked from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba earlier this month has now caught US armed forces personnel there conducting propaganda attacks over the Internet. The activities uncovered by Wikileaks include deleting Guantanamo detainees' ID numbers from Wikipedia, posting of self-praising comments on news websites in response to negative articles, promoting pro-Guantanamo stories on the Internet news focus website Digg, and even altering Wikipedia's entry on Cuban President Fidel Castro to describe him as "an admitted transexual". Guantanamo spokesman Lt. Col. Bush blasted Wikileaks for identifying one "mass communications officer" by name, who has since received death threats for "simply doing his job — posting positive comments on the Internet about Gitmo". In response Wikileaks has posted independent confirmation of their analysis by security expert Bruce Schneier.
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA protests Oregon AG discovery request (blogspot.com) 2

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA is apparently having an allergic reaction to the request by the State Attorney General of Oregon for information about the RIAA's investigative tactics, in Arista v. Does 1-17, the Portland, Oregon, case targeting students at the University of Oregon. See The Oregonian, December 1, 2007 ("UO suspects music industry of spying") and p2pnet, November 29, 2007 ("RIAA may be spying on students: Oregon AG"). Not only are the record companies opposing the request (pdf), they're asking the Judge not to even read it. (pdf)"
Privacy

Submission + - Witness, expert and plaintiff all at once

Submitted by
oh2
oh2 writes: "A swedish prosecutor has allowed the plaintiffs in a filesharing case to act as experts and to examine harddrives seized as evidence by the police according to Dagens Nyheter. Antipiratbyrån is an organization funded by the BSA, IFPI and a long list of movie and music industry companies.

The prosecutor in question, Britt-Louise Viklund, sees no problem with using IFPI and Antipiratbyrån as experts. "They are the experts on whats copyrighted and if the material on the harddrives is of the type they have the rights to. Its not so easy for me to know that."
When asked if this wasnt a matter for the police rather than the plaintiffs she responded "Yes, but the police have looked at it as well. I thought that Antipiratbyrån was the best people to determine what was legal or not, one of their investigators will be heard at the trial as a witness."

(Translations from the article by me.)"
Media

Submission + - A&E beaming adverts directly into your head. 2

Submitted by Fantastic Lad
Fantastic Lad writes: Hear Voices? It May Be an Ad. New Yorker Alison Wilson was walking down Prince Street in SoHo last week when she heard a woman's voice right in her ear asking, "Who's there? Who's there?" She looked around to find no one in her immediate surroundings. Then the voice said, "It's not your imagination." Indeed it isn't. It's an ad for "Paranormal State," a ghost-themed series premiering on A&E this week. The billboard uses technology manufactured by Holosonic that transmits an "audio spotlight" from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium.
NASA

Submission + - NASA's THEMIS Program Makes Discoveries (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Aurora Borealis. The Northern lights. NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission is designed to answer more questions about our own planet. And discoveries are rolling in. The discoveries from the article, "The satellites have found evidence of magnetic ropes connecting Earth's upper atmosphere directly to the sun. We believe that solar wind particles flow in along these ropes, providing energy for geomagnetic storms and auroras." It also notes that "the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy." Another interesting thing to note is that THEMIS has observed a number of tiny explosions in Earth's magnetic bow shock. We discussed the launching of the probes now the results are rolling in."

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