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Earth

Journal Journal: Superheated Ground Anomaly

Journal by Nymz
Ground temperatures exceeding 800 degrees (C? F? HOT!) are being recorded at the Los Padres Forest in Ventura County, California. Geologists are uncertain why, but a popular theory is that hydrocarbons in some form (petroleum, gas, coal) are being exposed to air through cracks formed in dry ground. (Fuel + Oxygen + Heat = Fire Triangle) The last thin
Businesses

Dead At 92, Business Computing Pioneer David Caminer 142

Posted by timothy from the 92-and-holding dept.
Brooklyn Bob points out this fascinating obituary of David Caminer, the first systems analyst. "The tea company he worked for developed their own hardware and software — in 1951! Quoting New Scientist: 'In today's terms it would be like hearing that Pizza Hut had developed a new generation of microprocessor, or McDonald's had invented the Internet.'"
Google

Google News to Host Wire Service Stories 63

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the baskets-of-all-the-eggs dept.
knhasan writes to tell us that Google has just announced a new program in which they will host wire news stories directly on their site. This is widely believed to be the first concrete fallout from recent troubles with Agence France Presse (who sued Google for alleged copyright infringement) among other wire services. "The new feature unveiled Friday is called 'duplicate detection,' which lets Google News identify the original source of a story that may appear in tens or hundreds of news outlet Web sites. If the source story is from one of the four news service agencies that Google has licensing agreements with, Google will display the story on a page that it hosts."
Programming

Submission + - Are we getting carried away with CSS3? (dave-woods.co.uk)

Submitted by
Dave Woods
Dave Woods writes: "I've been trying to catch up a lot recently with the progress of CSS3 and how it can be used positively to improve code and simplify both the HTML and CSS. CSS.info is a great resource for this kind of information and a lot of the content is useful, but the recent post on "Lists to get more decorative" which contains information on the new lists module got me thinking that some of the modules being talked about may not be all that useful and we might just be getting carried away with the buzz and excitement."
Announcements

Submission + - Polar cap almost half gone in less than a decade (www.hs.fi)

Submitted by
SuurMyy
SuurMyy writes: "Finnish newspaper "Helsingin Sanomat" reports that Danish scientists from their University of Technology have found out from satellite pictures that polar cap has diminished 40 to 45 % after years 1997-2000. If melting goes on at this rate, which is partly caused by sea currents, the polar ice will be gone in 15 — 20 years — very much in the life-time of most of the Slashdot readers.

I'm sure there will be other non-Finnish references shortly, but this was the only one that I was able to find at this very moment."
Biotech

Submission + - Summertime Babies More Prone To Myopia

Submitted by
pygm
pygm writes: "A new groundbreaking theory has emerged, claiming that babies born during the summer months of June and July have a 24% greater chance of becoming severely shortsighted than those born between December and January. After more than 30 years of eye-research, Prof. Michael Belkin, a professor at Tel Aviv University, advices parents to make sure their infants wear sunglasses. The reason: early-life exposure to natural light. According to Belkin, the body has a mechanism that causes the eyeball to lengthen, causing shortsightedness, when exposed to prolonged illumination. Hence, the more light a newborn is exposed to after birth, the more the eyeball lengthens and the worse the myopia will be."
The Internet

Submission + - Public rallies behind free wireless broadband

Submitted by thefickler
thefickler writes: A proposal to deliver free wireless broadband to 95% of the US population is finding public support, even as it looks like it will be rejected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). According to the company behind the proposal, M2Z Networks, more than 1000 people from 49 states have written to the FCC in an attempt to reverse a draft order by FCC Chairman Martin that is believed to deny the application.
Privacy

Submission + - Rick Rubin discloses Sony rootkit called home

Submitted by caffeinemessiah
caffeinemessiah writes: Rick Rubin, the legendary music producer, recently signed on as co-head of Columbia Records, which is owned by Sony BMG. In a recent New York Times interview (on pg. 4 of the online version), he discloses (possibly accidentally):

It was the highest debut of Neil [Diamond]'s career, off to a great start. But Columbia — it was some kind of corporate thing — had put spyware on the CD. That kept people from copying it, but it also somehow recorded information about whoever bought the record...
Seems like the rootkit might have been a little more than your vanilla invade-your-rights-DRM scheme.

Feed Science Daily: The Bonobo Handshake (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
What's it like to work with relatives who think sex is like a handshake, who organises orgies with the neighbours, and firmly believes females should be in charge of everything? On September 11, a group of young researchers will head to the Congo to study our mysterious cousin, the bonobo.

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