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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 50 declined, 17 accepted (67 total, 25.37% accepted)

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Submission + - Adobe admits to using 'synthetic' deblur images in (dpreview.com) 1

ColdWetDog writes: Adobe has admitted an image used in its 'image deblur' presentation was artificially blurred for the purposes of the demonstration. The company said the blur on the image was 'more complicated than anything we can simulate using Photoshop's blur capabilities.' It described the move as 'common practice in research' and defended the use of the image because 'we wanted it to be entertaining and relevant to the audience.' The other images shown were the result of camera shake, it said.

Adobe has photoshopped Photoshop.

NASA

Submission + - To Boldly Go Nowhere (theatlantic.com)

ColdWetDog writes: A brief note in the Atlantic notes that Congress has failed to supply funds to continue Plutonium-238 production, needed for radioisotope generators for NASA's interplanetary probe programs. No PU-238 means no more missions like Cassini-Huygens and pretty much anywhere that the sun doesn't shine enough to power the satellite via solar cells.

The article notes that the only other source of PU-238 is Russia — either through the government or through trolling through Siberia and the Russian coastline looking for old Soviet Era lighthouses and power stations.

Robotics

Submission + - The Uncanny Valley Explained (digitaltrends.com)

ColdWetDog writes: "Scientists now believe they’ve figured out what causes the uncanny valley response. By using functional MRI and comparing scans of volunteers when watching images of human appearing androids or the humans that the robots were created to mimic, they noted that

"The results suggests that the uneasiness we feel could be caused by a “perceptual mismatch between appearance and motion.” Basically, the brain seemed to negatively react like crazy when the robotic motions of the android didn’t match its human-like appearance.""

Idle

Submission + - Minor Delay in End of World (csmonitor.com)

ColdWetDog writes: The World apparently didn't end last week. However, it appears that we only get a brief reprieve. Harold Camping has recalculated Rapture and it will occur October 21. The Christian Science Monitor did not give exact time or time zone.

Enjoy your summer!

Submission + - Javascript vs. the New York Times (niemanlab.org)

ColdWetDog writes: "As we've discussed earlier, the New York Times is about to throw up a controversial paywall. Apparently the wall isn't too strong and can be defeated with 4 lines of Javascript.

The Times paywall doesn’t launch in the United States for another week; the paper has plenty of time to plug this particular Javascript vulnerability, which goes by the name NYTClean, if it wants to. But the real question is: Is this a hole they really want closed? Or is this one of the intentional leaks in the wall?

I just got an email inviting me to access the site for free for the rest of the year. Seems like they aren't really serious about this and the whole implementation is pretty odd. I suspect a committee somewhere."

Television

Submission + - Serenity Flies Again (ew.com)

ColdWetDog writes: The Science Channel has acquired the rights to the cult-hit [Firefly] and will air the series in its short-lived entirety, plus some new extras. Science Channel will wrap each episode with interstitial segments starring renowned physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, who will discuss the theoretical science behind the show’s sci-fi concepts.

While I'm not sure of the utility of explaining how horses and pistols work, the fact that Nathan Filler is keen on returning to the show is interesting. What about Jewel Stait, Summer Glau and the rest of the seven stranded castaways?

Software

Submission + - Pros and Cons of the App Store for OS X (theregister.co.uk)

ColdWetDog writes: El Reg has an interesting article concerning how Apple's new App Store for OS X is changing how software is developed and marketed. The store offers benefits of increased exposure and a potentially less work marketing and selling the product. The downsides appear to center on the immaturity of it's execution (with some surprising holes left by Apple), the lack of direct customer feedback, inability of offer upgrades, the lack of free demos and of course, Apple's famous control issues.

I looked at the App store today and came away totally underwhelmed, but I suspect that most people here are not the target demographic. It seems to be just too locked down and limited to really catch on, especially as certain classes of programs are essentially forbidden (Parallels, Fusion, and Codeweaver's products). If nothing else, I cannot see how this would become the only method of getting software on a Mac. Anybody think it will really fly?

The Courts

Submission + - May I see your cellphone, please? (arstechnica.com)

ColdWetDog writes: Ars is running an article on a new ruling by the California Supreme Court that allows for warrentless searches of cell phones after virtually any arrest. This brings up a host of obvious concerns aptly summarized by the article:

South Texas College of Law professor Adam Gershowitz argued in a 2008 paper that the proliferation of iPhone-like devices means that officers fishing through your pockets for weapons can suddenly access a plethora of sensitive documents, not to mention possible passwords. "[S]ince the Supreme Court has ruled that police have broad authority to arrest people for even trivial infractions, such as failure to wear a seat belt, the current rule gives law enforcement officers broad discretion to transform a routine traffic stop into a highly intrusive excavation of your digital life,"

Buckle up!

Data Storage

Submission + - How much do you remember? (macworld.com) 1

ColdWetDog writes: It's the end of another calendar year and time for all sorts of retrospective pieces. Instead of going back to last year or even last decade, MacWorld has a quick slide show on the The Evolution of Hard Drives which, more accurately would be described as "A Dozen Pictures of Ancient Magnetic Storage Devices". Still and all, it might be interesting to those young'uns who think that 10 Gigabytes is small.

Submission + - Suo-yo duh doh dhr-dang

ColdWetDog writes: According to an interesting graphic in TMW it may be time to brush up on your Mandarin:

"China gained 36 million additional internet users last year meaning there are now over 440 million internet users in the country. English has long been the most widely used language on the internet but with Chinese Internet growth rising at the rate it is, it could be less than five years before Chinese becomes the dominant language on the internet."

A tiny bit more in an Atlantic Blurb. Basically it's them and us on the Internet. Time to review those old Firefly episodes.

Google

Submission + - Browsing the Body (googlelabs.com)

ColdWetDog writes: Google labs has an interesting new line of business — human anatomy. The Google Body Browser is a 3D representation of the major pieces parts of the human body. Based on the well known and very expensive Zygote 3D artwork, you can zoom in, rotate, view the various organ systems (bone, internal organs, nerves) in various states of transparency. Very much like Google Earth in both execution and concept.

Written with HTML5, it requires WebGL to work. Firefox 4 beta seems to work fine. Google, of course, recommends Chrome.

Neat.

Robotics

Submission + - Snakes ARE the Plane (washingtonpost.com)

ColdWetDog writes: There are several Asian snakes of the genus Chrysopelea that can sort of fly

they undulate from side to side, in almost an air-slithering, to create an aerodynamic system. It allows them to travel from the top of the biggest trees in the region (almost 200 feet high) to a spot about 780 feet away from the tree's trunk.

Unfortunately, you will have to wait until November 24th to read more about it. While initially funded by National Geographic, it seems that DARPA has recently picked up the tab. With all of their works with robots and the like, I wonder if it is time to welcome our Aerobatic Robotic Reptilian Overlords?

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