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Security

Applying Pavlovian Psychology to Password Management 288

Posted by timothy from the risk-versus-reward-baby dept.
Ars Technica reports on an interesting and sensible-sounding approach to password policy that I'd like to see adopted just about everywhere I have a password (which, these days, is quite a few). An excerpt: "For instance, a user who picks "test123@#" might be required to change the password in three days under the system proposed by Lance James, the head of the cyber intelligence group at Deloitte & Touche. The three-day limit is based on calculations showing it would take about 4.5 days to find the password using offline cracking techniques. Had the same user chosen "t3st123@##$x" (all passwords in this post don't include the beginning and ending quotation marks), the system wouldn't require a change for three months."

Submission + - Scientists Race To Develop Farm Animals That Can Survive Climate Change

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Evan Halper writes in the LA Times that with efforts to reduce carbon emissions lagging, researchers, backed by millions of dollars from the federal government, are looking for ways to protect key industries from the impact of climate change by racing to develop new breeds of farm animals that can stand up to the hazards of global warming. ""We are dealing with the challenge of difficult weather conditions at the same time we have to massively increase food production" to accommodate larger populations and a growing demand for meat, says Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. For example a team of researchers is trying to map the genetic code of bizarre-looking African naked-neck chickens to see if their ability to withstand heat can be bred into flocks of US broilers. "The game is changing since the climate is changing," says Carl Schmidt. "We have to start now to anticipate what changes we have to make in order to feed 9 billion people," citing global-population estimates for 2050.

Warmer temperatures can create huge problems for animals farmed for food. Turkeys are vulnerable to a condition that makes their breast meat mushy and unappetizing. Disease rips through chicken coops. Brutal weather can claim entire cattle herds. Some climate experts, however, question the federal government's emphasis on keeping pace with a projected growing global appetite for meat. Because raising animals demands so many resources, the only viable way to hit global targets for greenhouse gas reduction may be to encourage people to eat less meat and point to an approach backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates that takes animals out the process altogether. "There's no way to produce enough meat for 9 billion people," says Bill Gates. "Yet we can't ask everyone to become vegetarians. We need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources."
Mars

ISS Studies Show Bacteria From Earth Could Colonize Mars 103

Posted by timothy from the let's-get-this-process-underway dept.
As reported by Tech Times, research conducted aboard the ISS has shown that Earth bacteria could survive the rigors of travel to Mars better than might be expected. "Research into bacterial colonization on the red planet was not part of the plan to terraform the alien world ahead of human occupation. Instead, three teams investigated how to prevent microbes from Earth from hitching a ride to the red planet aboard spacecraft. It is nearly impossible to remove all biological contaminants from equipment headed to other planets. By better understanding what organisms can survive in space or on the surfaces of other worlds, mission planners can learn which forms of microscopic life to concentrate on during the sanitation process. 'If you are able to reduce the numbers to acceptable levels, a proxy for cleanliness, the assumption is that the life forms will not survive under harsh space conditions,' Kasthuri Venkateswaran of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-author of all three papers, said."

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Transfused Blood Rejuvenates Old Mice - Wall Street Journal (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

Daily Mail
Transfused Blood Rejuvenates Old Mice
Wall Street Journal
Giving old mice blood from young ones makes them smarter and improves such functions as exercise capacity, according to reports from two research teams that point to new ways to study and potentially treat diseases of aging. In one study, researchers at...
Science: Delicious Young Blood Contains The Elixir Of LifeGothamist
Could Young Blood Be the Fountain of Youth?Slate Magazine (blog)
Blood transfusions from the young could help Alzheimer's patientsExpress.co.uk
Hilton Head Island Packet-The Seattle Times-UCSF News Services
all 88 news articles

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Asteroid 2014 HL129 Narrowly Misses Earth Barely Getting Noticed - American Live (google.com)

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American Live Wire
Asteroid 2014 HL129 Narrowly Misses Earth Barely Getting Noticed
American Live Wire
Our ability to detect dangerous asteroids may be getting better, but there are still many that slip through the cracks. Asteroid 2014 HL129 squeaked by Earth on Saturday at a distance that was even closer than our own moon. It may have been almost 200,000...
Asteroid the size of a bus grazes past Earth - coming even closer than the moon ... Daily Mail
Small Asteroid Whizzed by Earth at Range Closer Than Moon on SaturdayGuardian Liberty Voice
Asteroid 2014 HL129 Narrowly Misses Earth Just Days After Being Discovered ... International Business Times
The Space Reporter-Daily Digest-Aitkin Independent Age
all 20 news articles

Security

Europe's Cybersecurity Policy Under Attack 22

Posted by timothy from the teenagers-are-pretty-darn-creative dept.
wiredmikey (1824622) writes "As Europe powered up its most ambitious ever cybersecurity exercise this month, doubts were being raised over whether the continent's patchwork of online police was right for the job. The exercise, called Cyber Europe 2014, involved 200 organizations and 400 cybersecurity professionals from both the European Union and beyond. Yet some critics argued that herding together normally secretive national security agencies and demanding that they spend the rest of 2014 sharing information amounted to wishful thinking. Others questioned whether the law enforcement agencies taking part in the drill should be involved in safeguarding online security, in the wake of American whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations of online spying by western governments. Eurostat figures show that, by January 2012, only 26 percent of EU enterprises had a formally defined information technology security plan in place. One industry insider said the view in Brussels is that EU cybersecurity was "like teenage sex: everyone says they are doing it but not that many actually are.""

Submission + - Europe's Cybersecurity Policy Under Attack (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: As Europe powered up its most ambitious ever cybersecurity exercise this month, doubts were being raised over whether the continent's patchwork of online police was right for the job. The exercise, called Cyber Europe 2014, involved 200 organizations and 400 cybersecurity professionals from both the European Union and beyond.

Yet some critics argued that herding together normally secretive national security agencies and demanding that they spend the rest of 2014 sharing information amounted to wishful thinking. Others questioned whether the law enforcement agencies taking part in the drill should be involved in safeguarding online security, in the wake of American whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations of online spying by western governments.

Eurostat figures show that, by January 2012, only 26 percent of EU enterprises had a formally defined information technology security plan in place. One industry insider said the view in Brussels is that EU cybersecurity was "like teenage sex: everyone says they are doing it but not that many actually are."
Earth

Finally, Hi-Def Streaming Video of the ISS's View of Earth 97

Posted by timothy from the extra-monitor-over-the-crib dept.
An anonymous reader writes with a snippet from ExtremeTech: "After being continuously inhabited for more than 13 years, it is finally possible to log into Ustream and watch the Earth spinning on its axis in glorious HD. This video feed [embedded at ExtremeTech] comes from from four high-definition cameras, delivered by last month's SpaceX CRS-3 resupply mission, that are attached to the outside of the International Space Station. You can open up the Ustream page at any time, and as long as it isn't night time aboard the ISS, you'll be treated to a beautiful view of the Earth from around 250 miles (400 km) up."
Programming

Ask Slashdot: Joining a Startup As an Older Programmer? 274

Posted by timothy from the ask-slashtot dept.
First time accepted submitter bdrasin (17319) writes "I've had a series of interviews with a late-term startup (approx. 300 employees) and I think there is a good chance they will make me an offer. The technology is great, my skills and interests are a good fit for the position, I think the company has a promising future, and I like they team. Frankly I'm damn excited about it, more so than for any job in my career. However, I'm worried about what could euphemistically be called 'cultural' issues. I'm a few years over 40, with a wife and kids, and all of the engineers at the company seem to be at least 10 years younger than I am. Being at the company's office gives me a distinct old guy at the club feeling. I don't think the overall number of hours the team works is more than I could handle, but the team does a lot of young-single-guy-at-a-startup group activities (rent-a-limo-and-go-clubbing night, weekends in Tahoe, Burning Man, in-office happy hour) that I wouldn't want or be able to participate in; I need to be home with my family for dinner most nights and weekends and so on. I'm wondering if anyone else has had the experience of working at a startup with, or as, an older programmer, and how it worked out?"

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