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US Courts Consider Legality of Laptop Inspection 595

Posted by CmdrTaco from the my-porn-is-all-grown-up-anyway dept.
ceide2000 writes "The government contends that it is perfectly free to inspect every laptop that enters the country, whether or not there is anything suspicious about the computer or its owner. Rummaging through a computer's hard drive, the government says, is no different from looking through a suitcase. One federal appeals court has agreed, and a second seems ready to follow suit." This story follows up on a story about laptop confiscation at the borders from a few months ago.
Media

A Bleak Future For Physical Media Purchases? 269

Posted by Zonk from the it's-a-madhouse-a-madhouse dept.
KevReedUK writes "The folks at ZDNet are eulogising over the upcoming death of physical media music sales. They refer to the noticeable drop in physical sales of albums whilst digital sales continue climbing (albeit at a reduced rate). Their central argument is that 'the music industry was pillaged by piracy and competition from other forms of entertainment such as video games ... [2007] marked the lowest tally and the steepest decline since Nielsen began publishing estimates based on point-of-sales data in 1993, a Nielsen representative said. The peak year in that time was 2000, when sales reached 785 million units.'"
Media

HD Monitor Causes DRM Issues with Netflix 540

Posted by Soulskill from the new-years-low-resolution dept.
Jeremiah Cornelius points us to Davis Freeberg's blog, where he discusses his "nightmare scenario" of losing access to his DRM-protected purchases by upgrading his PC monitor. "When I called them they confirmed my worst fears. In order to access the Watch Now service, I had to give Microsoft's DRM sniffing program access to all of the files on my hard drive. If the software found any non-Netflix video files, it would revoke my rights to the content and invalidate the DRM. This means that I would lose all the movies that I've purchased from Amazon's Unbox, just to troubleshoot the issue. Because my computer allows me to send an unrestricted HDTV feed to my monitor, Hollywood has decided to revoke my ability to stream 480 resolution video files from Netflix. In order to fix my problem, Netflix recommended that I downgrade to a lower res VGA setup."
Space

The Dark Side of Iapetus 73

Posted by kdawson from the like-e-ink-writ-large dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The difference in coloring between Iapetus' leading and trailing hemispheres is striking. NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs has just released a report on a bizarre 'runaway' process that may explain the strange and dramatically two-toned appearance recently revealed in images collected during a close flyby by the Cassini spacecraft. Scientists believe that initially dark material on one side of Iapetus may have come from other moons orbiting Saturn in the opposite direction. Since Iapetus is locked in synchronous rotation about Saturn, as dusty material from the outer moons spiraled in and hit Iapetus head-on, the forward-facing side began to darken. As it absorbed more sunlight, its surface water evaporated, and vapor was transported from the dark side to the white side of Iapetus. Thermal segregation then proceeded in a runaway process as the dark side lost its surface ice and got darker still. Now the leading hemisphere is as dark as a tarred street and the trailing hemisphere resembles freshly fallen snow."
Data Storage

Coppola Loses All His Data 266

Posted by kdawson from the no-questions-asked dept.
Colin Smith writes in with an object lesson in backup methodology — once you have backed everything up, take it somewhere else. "Film director Francis Ford Coppola has appealed for the return of his computer backup device following a robbery at his house in Argentina on Wednesday. He told Argentine broadcaster Todo Noticias he had lost 15 years' worth of data, including writing and photographs of his family."
Biotech

Happiness Is A Warm Electrode 199

Posted by Zonk from the everything-looks-so-vivid dept.
sufijazz writes "A story by Gregory Mone on the Popular Science website talks about trials to use deep brain stimulation to cure chronic depression. It's a deeper exploration of the 'brain pacemaker' discussed here on the site before, and a practical application of research discussed even earlier. Why the pulses affect mood is still unclear, but scientists believe that they may facilitate chemical communication between brain cells, possibly by forcing ions through nerve fibers called axons. In turn, this may trigger the release of mood-regulating chemicals like serotonin and norepinephrine. Similar trials are being conducted in other places. Exact numbers are hard to ascertain, but it's estimated that fewer than 50 patients in North America are walking around with wires in their brain."
The Almighty Buck

New York Times Ends Its Paid Subscription Service 169

Posted by Zonk from the ding-dong dept.
Mike writes "The New York Times has announced that it will end its paid Internet service in favor of making most of its Web site available for free. The hope is that this move will attract more readers and higher advertising revenue. 'The longer-term problem for publishers like the Times is that they must find ways to present content online rather than just transferring stories and pictures from the newspaper. Most U.S. news Web sites offer their contents for free, supporting themselves by selling advertising. One exception is The Wall Street Journal which runs a subscription-based Web site. TimesSelect generated about $10 million in revenue a year. Schiller declined to project how much higher the online growth rate would be without charging visitors.'"
Yahoo!

Submission + - Burn Water? (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
kaiocool
kaiocool writes: "So its a story that says a scientist is able to release H2 from salt water by exposing it to RF waves, and subsequently the H2 can be used for combustion. This sounds very similar to all those stories about the resonance frequency of water and the water driven car stories you can find all over the internet. The difference in this instance is its salt water. I am not sure if this is really legit, but seems interesting anyway."
Amiga

Submission + - Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt Water - Fuel? (google.com)

Submitted by jefft94704
jefft94704 writes: ERIE, Pa. (AP) — An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century. John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn. The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel. Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations. Story. Video of burning water viewable at WKYC (Cleveland TV station).
Enlightenment

Submission + - "Burning" Sea Water (post-gazette.com)

Submitted by
canadian_right
canadian_right writes: "A technique for "burning" sea water was accidentally discovered when an RF generator was used in an attempt to desalinate water. The water doesn't burn of course, but the RF generator frees hydrogen from the water that can then be burned. A test-tube of sea water resembles an odd candle when lit using this technique. No word on if the hydrogen released has more energy than the electricity used by the RF generator."
Power

Submission + - Scientist Discovers a Way to Burn Salt Water

Submitted by
ClayTapes
ClayTapes writes: "Yahoo reports on the front page that a Pennsylvania cancer researcher happened upon a way to burn salt water. From the article "John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.""
Power

Submission + - Saltwater for fuel

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: RIE, Pa. — An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century. John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn. The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel. Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations. The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said. The discovery is "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years," Roy said. "This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Roy said. "Seeing it burn gives me the chills." Roy will meet this week with officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to try to obtain research funding. The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery. "We will get our ideas together and check this out and see where it leads," Roy said. "The potential is huge. http://www.post-gazette.com/
Power

Submission + - hydrogen energy from salt water (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by spatz noogle
spatz noogle writes: John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn. The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.
Power

Submission + - Burn Water, Burn (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Aqua OS X
Aqua OS X writes: "It seems like every three months someone claims they've figured out how to power a Ford Festiva with either dreams or water. Well, water = fuel is back in the news again. 'John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.' Whether or not this pans out, I have no idea, but it sounds interesting."

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