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Submission + - Utilities fight back against solar energy (bloomberg.com) 1

Submitted by JoeyRox
JoeyRox writes: The exponential growth of rooftop solar adoption has utilities concerned about their financial future. Efficiency gains and cost reductions has brought the price of solar energy to within parity of traditional power generation in states like California and Hawaii. HECO, an electric utility in Hawaii, has started notifying new solar adopters that they will not be allowed to connect to the utility's power grid, citing safety concerns of electric circuits becoming oversaturated from the rapid adoption of soloar power on the island. Residents claim it's not about safety but about the utility fighting to protect its profits.

Submission + - Millions of Dogecoin stolen over Christmas

Submitted by Kenseilon
Kenseilon writes: The Verge reports(http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/26/5244604/millions-of-dogecoin-stolen-in-christmas-hack) that millions of Dogecoins — an alternative cryptocurrency — was stolen after the service DogeWallet was hacked. DogeWallet worked like a bank account for the currency, and the attackers modified it to make sure all transactions ended up in a wallet of their choice. This latest incident is just one in the long (and growing) list of problems that cryptocurrencies are currently facing. It brings to mind the incident where bitcoin exchange service GBL vanished and took a modest amount of Bitcoins with them (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/11/12/1553216/chinese-bitcoin-exchange-vanishes-taking-25m-of-coins-with-it). While not a similar case, it highlights the difficulties with trusting service provides in this market.

Submission + - What can the NSA learn from your phone metadata? There's an app for that.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last month researchers at Stanford kicked off MetaPhone, a crowdsourced study of phone metadata. They've since reported that phone activity reveals private relationships, is densely interconnected at just two or three "hops", and can trivially be identified. But now you can see for yourself: an updated version of the Android app will show you how many users you're connected to, as well as the businesses you've been in touch with. It's downright spooky.

Submission + - Google's Duplicitous Stance on Loopholes, Spirit of Law 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: When it comes to tax loopholes, Google has certainly embraced the letter and not the spirit of the tax law. "Google plays by the rules set by politicians," quipped Google's UK head, defending the company's payment of a mere £6m in tax on sales of £2.6bn. "I view that you should pay the taxes that are legally required," added Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. "If the British system changes the tax laws then we will comply." So, one might ask whether Rap Genius was also playing by the letter of the rules, if not the spirit, when Google penalized Rap Genius for its link schemes. After all, don't they have the same fiduciary responsibility to investors that Google says motivates its tax strategy? Well, you could ask, but it wouldn't matter. In a case of what's-good-for-the-goose-is-not-good-for-the-gander, Google makes it clear that it won't countenance BS letter-of-the-law defenses from those who seek to exploit loopholes. From the Google Webmaster Guidelines, "These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behavior, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here. It's not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn't included on this page, Google approves of it. Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit." So, in Lord Google's eyes, is exploiting loopholes good AND evil?

Submission + - Houston Expands Downtown Surveilance, Unsure If It Helps (khou.com)

Submitted by SpaceGhost
SpaceGhost writes: Associated Press reports that the Houston (Texas) Police will be adding 180 surveillance cameras in the downtown area, bring the total to close to 1000. While most cover public areas (stadiums, theater district) the police suggest that Houston also has more "critical infrastructure" (energy companies) than other cities. Interestingly AP points out that "Officials say data is not kept to determine if the cameras are driving down crime." Didn't London face the same issue?

Submission + - What would it cost to build a Windows version of the pricey new Mac Pro? (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: The new Mac Pro is the most powerful and flexible computer Apple has ever created, and it’s also extremely expensive — or is it? With a price tag that can climb up around $10,000, Apple’s latest enterprise workhorse clearly isn’t cheap. For businesses with a need for all that muscle, however, is that steep price justifiable or is there a premium “Apple tax” that companies will have to pay? Shortly after the new Mac Pro was finally made available for purchase last week, one PC enthusiast set out to answer that question and in order to do so, he asked another one: How much would it cost to build a comparable Windows 8 machine?...

Submission + - Antarctic Climate Research Expedition Trapped in Sea Ice

Submitted by Stinky Cheese Man
Stinky Cheese Man writes: An antarctic climate research expedition, led by climate researcher Chris Turney of the University of New South Wales, has become trapped in heavy ice near the coast of Antarctica. The captain has issued a distress call and three nearby icebreaker ships are on their way to the rescue. According to Turney's web site (http://www.christurney.com/), the purpose of the expedition is "to discover and communicate the environmental changes taking place in the south". Read the fine article at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/25/antarctic-expedition-scientists-trapped-ice

Submission + - 'Glow-In-The-Dark' Piglets Born In China (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by minty3
minty3 writes: Using a technique developed by reproductive scientists from the University of Hawaii, ten transgenic piglets have been born in China. Under a black light, the pigs have a greenish tint.

Comment "The present is becoming the future.. (Score 2) 208

..faster than it is becoming the past."

(That may be a paraphrase of a quote in the last year or so from a lady whose name I can't recall. Nor can I find the original text where it appeared. But it has stuck with me just the same. My apologies to the original author.)

Comment Eerie when it happens (Score 2) 351

by blahblahwoofwoof (#44559495) Attached to: Neurologists Shine Light On Near-Death Experiences

During my wife's battle with cancer 20 years ago, she "coded out" two times, once when I was with her in the ICU, once on the operating table. She had the full-up near-death experience each time.

She described pretty much what you've all read in the other personal accounts of such events.

Whatever the biology, or even the physics (some have proposed a type of quantum entanglement occurs) of near-death are, I can affirm that it changed the way my wife looks at the nature of her life and existence in general. I am not unscathed by it, of course, but it is among the most deeply personal experiences one can have.

Although probably obvious, I'll close by saying my wife and I are still married and she has been cancer-free since the ordeal.

Submission + - Some volcanoes 'scream' at ever-higher pitches until they blow their tops (washington.edu)

Submitted by vinces99
vinces99 writes: Swarms of small earthquakes often precede a volcanic eruption. They can reach such rapid succession that they create a "harmonic tremor" that resembles sound made by some musical instruments. A new analysis of an eruption sequence at Alaska's Redoubt Volcano in March 2009 shows the harmonic tremor glided to substantially higher frequencies and then stopped abruptly just before six of the eruptions. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Volcano Observatory have dubbed the highest-frequency harmonic tremor at Redoubt Volcano “the screams” because the episodes reach such high pitch compared with a 1-to-5 hertz starting point. Alicia Hotovec-Ellis, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences and an author of two papers examining the phenomenon, has created a 10-second recording and a one-minute recording that provides a 60-times faster representation of harmonic tremor and small earthquakes.

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