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Censorship

Pentagon Seeking Out Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange 628

a user writes "The Pentagon is desperately seeking the 'cooperation' of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in order to stop him from releasing over 250,000 pages of confidential foreign policy documents. The documents were allegedly provided to Assange by Bradley Manning, the same solider who leaked a video showing a US Army helicopter killing unarmed civilians and international press correspondents."
Image

Russian Officials To Investigate Regional President's Alien Abduction Claims 184

wdef writes "The BBC reports that a Russian MP has asked President Dmitry Medvedev to investigate claims by a regional president that he has met aliens on board a spaceship. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the leader of the southern region of Kalymkia, made his claim in a television interview. Mr Ilyumzhinov said in an interview on primetime television that he had been taken on board an alien spaceship which had come to planet Earth to take samples — and claims to have several witnesses. He has been president of Kalmykia, a small Buddhist region of Russia which lies on the shores of the Caspian Sea, for 17 years. As president of the World Chess Federation, he has spent tens of millions of dollars turning the impoverished republic into a mecca for chess players — building an entire village to host international tournaments. MP Andre Lebedev is not just asking whether Mr Ilyumzhinov is fit to govern. He is also concerned that, if he was abducted, he may have revealed details about his job and state secrets."
Image

Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687

garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"
NASA

NASA To Cryogenically Freeze Satellite Mirrors 47

coondoggie writes "NASA said it will soon move some of the larger (46 lb) mirror segments of its future James Webb Space Telescope into a cryogenic test facility that will freeze the mirrors to -414 degrees Fahrenheit (~25 K). Specifically, NASA will freeze six of the 18 Webb telescope mirror segments at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, or XRCF, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in a test to ensure the critical mirrors can withstand the extreme space environments. All 18 segments will eventually be tested at the site. The test chamber takes approximately five days to cool a mirror segment to cryogenic temperatures."
Space

Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242

likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."

Comment Re:Karma. (Score 1) 219

just as I've thought: 1) It was intentional. 2) It is his "public" profile.

"zuck"'s wall (supposedly his non public profile page) is open stating the same thing (at least it was last night when I posted).

Yet it wasn't open after el Reg posted an article about this.

Regardless of facebook's shiny new "privacy tools", platform problems that cause privacy settings not to apply to some "friends" will breach a persons privacy anyway. Be it friend lists not applying correctly or wall updates tagged with the wrong fbuid, facebook seems like a platform just waiting to leak.

Comment Re:Karma. (Score 4, Informative) 219

Which is apparently what he did.

http://www.facebook.com/markzuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg For those wondering, I set most of my content on my personal Facebook page to be open so people could see it. I set some of my content to be more private, but I didn't see a need to limit visibility of pics with my friends, family or my teddy bear :)

Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook Retroactively taking back User Names

Matt Wilson writes: "It appears Facebook is retroactively taking back user names for celebrities, even if you have a legitimate reason for having the user name. My wife previously had www.facebook.com/Brigitte (her name *is* Brigitte Wilson) until she just received this e-mail: From: The Facebook Team Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:37:36 -0700 Subject: Removed Username To: brigittew21@gmail.com Hi, Your chosen username was on a list of terms that were meant to be blocked from registration, and it was only made available as the result of an error. We have no choice but to remove it from your account. We understand the inconvenience this creates, so we've added 500 credits to your account to express our gratitude for your understanding. These credits can be used in our Gift Shop (http://www.facebook.com/giftshop.php) to purchase virtual gifts. Thanks,"

Comment Re:Read TFA (Score 1) 330

I think that rig has a SO259 ;)

I dunno, but I wish I had the funds to setup a rotor. Manually aiming an Arrow II is pretty mundane.

There's a fair bit of flack over the article and I hope it doesn't dissuade any of the project team from hacking on more projects or getting involved with the hobbyist scene. As much as I find it odd they're being paid tribute for doing something many folks, over a wide range of ages, have done before - I'm sure most of us can appreciate how it felt for them to have accomplished this and don't want to put their ISS virginity back in the box.

It's pretty awesome to work your first space box!

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