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Science

Submission + - Pussy-slurping: You think you understand it, BUT Y (theregister.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
climenole
climenole writes: "Videos Time-rich boffins in the States, who have been analysing the mechanism by which cats lap up beverages for more than three years — research which included the construction of an articulated, robotic feline tongue simulator — say they have finally cracked the mysterious moggies' methods."
Idle

Submission + - Artists Meld Mind with Machine (youtube.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Linux based CNC system built by two artists in Nebraska paints real artwork. Recently featured on ABC News (YouTube video), the open source system, known as Vangobot, is self contained with an array of paint brushes and onboard paint mixing system. The artists call the technique Synthesized Painting and compare the development to the early days of music synthesizers. The artists are releasing build plans under a creative commons license.

Submission + - Copyright License Fees drive Pandora out of Canada (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Online streaming music services such as Pandora are abandoning plans to launch in Canada, claiming licensing fees are too high: “These rates ... are astronomical,” Tim Westergren, founder of California-based Pandora wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.

The agency that collects music royalties in Canada on behalf of record companies and performing artists wants to charge web-based music sites that stream to mobile devices the greater of two figures: 45 per cent of the site's gross revenues in Canada or 7.5-tenths of a cent for every song streamed.

Meanwhile, record labels are blaming the lack of online music services in Canada on piracy: “Why would you spend a lot of money trying to build a service in Canada when Canadians take so much without paying for it?” said Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, which represents major record labels.

Comment De-franchise ISP's (Score 1) 390

by nj_peeps (#33435304) Attached to: AT&T Says Net Rules Must Allow 'Paid Prioritization'
This is the exact reason why we need to defranchise the cable-co and telco's. If they do not have any one to compete against (other then cable vs. telco) they have no reason to make them selves competitive by expanding or upgrading their networks. If Comcast had to compete against Cox, Charter, TWC, etc. and Verizon's FiOS was competing with AT&T's U-Verus, I bet broadband speeds in the US would be much better. Then if you really didn't like they way your ISP was operating, you would have more then just one other choice. But I doubt that will ever happen since private corporations have Congress in their pocket.

Submission + - UVB-76 Explained (wikipedia.org)

Submitted by Useful Wheat
Useful Wheat writes: Recently slashdot covered the reappearance of UVB-76 in the news. Thanks to some heavy digging in an achieved Russian web page, the function of the mysterious transmitter has been revealed.

According to an archived Russian web page (purportedly written by the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces), UVB-76 is used to transfer orders to military personnel, along with the time at which they should be executed. Sample orders are given on this page, which match the format of messages transmitted by the station in the past: 45359 ½ 3749 6335 79992 f 9923 7768 7117 5770 28138 77560151 05515597 76785508 6121 2637 0931 "Words for the radio messages and code tables are selected mainly from the scientific terms of chemistry (Brohman), Geology (ganomatit), philology (Izafat), geography (Bong), Zoology (kariama), history (Scythian), cooking (drying), sports (krolist) and others, as well as rare Russian words (glashatel)."

The page continues to list all 23 transmissions that have been made from the station in the past, showing that UVB-76 may be more active than believed.
Music

Submission + - I SAID, MORE TEENS ARE SUFFERING A HEARING LOSS (skunkpost.com) 3

Submitted by crimeandpunishment
crimeandpunishment writes: A new study says one in five American teens has lost some hearing. Some experts are warning kids to turn down the volume on their earbuds, even though they don't have any hard evidence that listening to your iPod too long and too loud is to blame. Most of the hearing loss is considered slight, but it's still enough to cause problems in school and in everyday life....for example, they'd hear all the vowel sounds clearly, but might miss some consonant sounds. The senior author of the study says "Although speech will be detectable, it might not be fully intelligible". The findings appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Comment Re:Troubling (Score 2, Insightful) 404

by nj_peeps (#33230966) Attached to: ISP Owner Who Fought FBI Spying Freed From Gag Order

I really don't see the 1st amendment issue here. The NSL law is troubling for other reasons (prohibition on seeking legal advice) but not because you can't disclose the letter while the investigation is still ongoing.

Last I checked you always have the right to an attorney (which he did contact) no matter what, but this is only part of the problem with NSL's. It's more the infringement of the 4th amendment that concerns me. This is just as bad as the warrantless wire tapping that was going on (and most likely still it). It's an abuse of power if you don't have one branch of government checking on the other. Now if the NSL came with a warrent, signed by a judge to obtain the information/items that where being asked for in the NSL (with just the NSL having the gag order to "protect the ongoing investigation") that would be IMHO would not be an abuse of power.
Idle

Submission + - Girl quits job on dry erase board, emails entire o (gizmodo.com) 4

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Girl quits her job on dry erase board, emails entire office (33 Photos)

Young woman has job. Boss calls young woman "hot piece of ass." Young woman quits, uses dry erase board to fire back by emailing these photos to the entire office. Boss, it seems, loved playing FarmVille during work hours too much.

Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5609415/hot-piece-of-ass-busts-boss-for-farmville-obsession

the Chive: http://thechive.com/2010/08/10/girl-quits-her-job-on-dry-erase-board-emails-entire-office-33-photos/

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