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Julian Assange's Online Dating Profile Leaked 334

Posted by samzenpus from the leaker-love dept.
Ponca City writes "The Telegraph reports that an online dating profile created by Julian Assange in 2006 has been unearthed from OKCupid disclosing that the WikiLeaks editor sought 'spirited, erotic' women 'from countries that have sustained political turmoil.' Writing under the pseudonym of British science fiction author Harry Harrison, Assange described himself as a 'passionate, and often pig headed activist intellectual.' Assange said he was seeking a 'siren for [a] love affair, children and occasional criminal conspiracy' adding that he was 'directing a consuming, dangerous human rights project which is, as you might expect, male dominated' and added enigmatically: 'I am DANGER, ACHTUNG.' Among Assange's listed interests were the 'structure of reality' and 'chopping up human brains' – although he added the caveat '(neuroscience background)' lest the latter put off potential admirers. 'I like women from countries that have sustained political turmoil,' Assange wrote. 'Western culture seems to forge women that are valueless and inane. OK. Not only women!'"
Networking

Why Anonymous Can't Take Down Amazon.com 392

Posted by CmdrTaco from the can't-imagine dept.
suraj.sun writes "The website-attacking group 'Anonymous' tried and failed to take down Amazon.com on Thursday. The group's vengeance horde quickly found out something techies have known for years: Amazon, which has built one of the world's most invincible websites, is almost impossible to crash.... Anonymous quickly figured that out. Less than an hour after setting its sights on Amazon, the group's organizers called off the attempt. 'We don't have enough forces,' they tweeted."
Transportation

Toyota Sudden Acceleration Is Driver Error 930

Posted by kdawson from the fed-findings-fault-fat-feet dept.
phantomfive writes "The NHTSA has investigated data recorders from Toyota cars whose owners claimed to have crashed due to an accelerator error. They found that the throttles were wide open and the brakes weren't being pressed. The investigation looked at a sample of the cars, selected by the NHTSA." Jamie found this article with a superior headline at Balloon Juice.
Earth

1,400 Megapixel Pan-STARRS Telescope Comes Online 54

Posted by timothy from the don't-get-your-panstarrs-in-a-bunch dept.
ElectricSteve writes "Astronomers in Hawaii have announced they've successfully managed to boot up the Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) telescope. Working from dusk to dawn every night, Pan-STARRS is able to map one-sixth of the sky each month, allowing astronomers to track all moving objects, calculate their orbits, and identify any potential threats to Earth. There are four Pan-STARRS cameras in total, each capable of capturing around 1.4 billion pixels over a sensor measuring 40 centimeters square. The focal plane of each camera contains an almost complete 64x64 array of CCD devices, each containing approximately 600x600 pixels, for a total resolution of 1.4 gigapixels."
Education

Best OSS CFD Package For High School Physics? 105

Posted by timothy from the why-not-stop-at-algebra-I? dept.
RobHart writes "I am teaching a 'physics of flight' unit to grade 11 Physics students. Part of the unit will have the students running tests on several aerofoils in a wind tunnel. I also want to expose them to a Computational Fluid Dynamics package which will allow them to contrast experimental results with those produced by the CFD package. There are a number of open source CFDs available (Windows- or Linux-based are both fine), but I don't have much time to evaluate which are the simplest to use in terms of setting up the mesh, initial conditions, etc. — a very important issue as students do not have much time in this unit." Can anyone offer insight about ease of use for programs in this niche?
Wii

New Wii Menu Update Targets Homebrew Again 258

Posted by Soulskill from the glad-to-know-you're-still-watching dept.
Nintendo has tried to block homebrew during firmware updates in the past, often unsuccessfully. Now, as it rolls out version 4.3 of the Wii System Menu, stopping homebrew modifications once again seems to be its primary goal. From Nintendo's support site: "Because unauthorized channels or firmware may impair game play or the Wii console, updating to Wii Menu version 4.3 will check for and automatically remove such unauthorized files." Since it's hard to bill that as an upgrade, they vaguely add, "In addition, there are some behind the scenes enhancements that do not affect any prominently-used features or menus but will improve system performance."
Medicine

What US Health Care Needs 584

Posted by kdawson from the velluvial-matrix dept.
Medical doctor and writer Atul Gawande gave the commencement address recently at Stanford's School of Medicine. In it he lays out very precisely and in a nonpartisan way what is wrong with the institution of medical care in the US — why it is both so expensive and so ineffective at delivering quality care uniformly across the board. "Half a century ago, medicine was neither costly nor effective. Since then, however, science has... enumerated and identified... more than 13,600 diagnoses — 13,600 different ways our bodies can fail. And for each one we've discovered beneficial remedies... But those remedies now include more than six thousand drugs and four thousand medical and surgical procedures. Our job in medicine is to make sure that all of this capability is deployed, town by town, in the right way at the right time, without harm or waste of resources, for every person alive. And we're struggling. There is no industry in the world with 13,600 different service lines to deliver. ... And then there is the frightening federal debt we will face. By 2025, we will owe more money than our economy produces. One side says war spending is the problem, the other says it's the economic bailout plan. But take both away and you've made almost no difference. Our deficit problem — far and away — is the soaring and seemingly unstoppable cost of health care. ... Like politics, all medicine is local. Medicine requires the successful function of systems — of people and of technologies. Among our most profound difficulties is making them work together. If I want to give my patients the best care possible, not only must I do a good job, but a whole collection of diverse components must somehow mesh effectively. ... This will take science. It will take art. It will take innovation. It will take ambition. And it will take humility. But the fantastic thing is: This is what you get to do."
Image

How Sperm Whales Offset Their Carbon Footprint 150

Posted by samzenpus from the all-natural-solution dept.
Boy Wunda writes "Scientists at Flinders University in South Australia found that in an awesome example of design by Mother Nature, Southern Ocean sperm whales offset their carbon footprint by simply defecating – an action that releases tons of iron a year and stimulates the growth of phytoplankton which absorb and trap carbon dioxide. If only we humans could say the same for our poop, which really doesn't do much more than just sit there." I'm going to do my part by buying some iron supplements and a can of chili, and heading off toward the ocean.
Math

First Self-Replicating Creature Spawned In Conway's Game of Life 241

Posted by Soulskill from the emergent-gameplay dept.
Calopteryx writes "New Scientist has a story on a self-replicating entity which inhabits the mathematical universe known as the Game of Life. 'Dubbed Gemini, [Andrew Wade's] creature is made of two sets of identical structures, which sit at either end of the instruction tape. Each is a fraction of the size of the tape's length but, made up of two constructor arms and one "destructor," play a key role. Gemini's initial state contains three of these structures, plus a fourth that is incomplete. As the simulation progresses the incomplete structure begins to grow, while the structure at the start of the tape is demolished. The original Gemini continues to disassemble as the new one emerges, until after nearly 34 million generations, new life is born.'"
Businesses

Wii 2 Delay Is Hurting Nintendo 310

Posted by Soulskill from the hurting-all-the-way-to-the-bank dept.
BanjoTed writes "Michael Pachter's ongoing spat with Nintendo regarding the Wii 2 is well documented. Pachter is sure it's coming, Nintendo says it's not. Now the analyst has gone one further by claiming that the declining sales of the Wii documented in the platform holder's recent financial statements will only get worse unless it speeds up attempts to get its successor to market. He said, 'The reason for this is clear: the software being created is just not interesting enough or compelling enough to drive Wii owners to buy more than two [games] per year, and most of those purchases are first party software. We can blame the third party publishers for making shovelware, or for misjudging the Wii market, but the simple fact is that the publishers have to develop completely separate games for the Wii because its CPU is not powerful.'"
Image

Woman Claims Wii Fit Caused Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome 380

Posted by samzenpus from the can't-stop-playing dept.
Amanda Flowers always liked her Wii Fit but now she can't get enough of it. Amanda claims a fall from her balance board damaged a nerve and has left her suffering from persistent sexual arousal syndrome. From the article: "The catering worker said: 'It began as a twinge down below before surging through my body. Sometimes it built up into a trembling orgasm.' A doctor diagnosed her with persistent sexual arousal syndrome due to a damaged nerve."
Piracy

Sony Joins the Offensive Against Pre-Owned Games 461

Posted by Soulskill from the saddle-up dept.
BanjoTed writes "In a move to counter sales of pre-owned games, EA recently revealed DLC perks for those who buy new copies of Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Now, PlayStation platform holder Sony has jumped on the bandwagon with similar plans for the PSP's SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3. '[Players] will need to register their game online before they are able to access the multiplayer component of the title. UMD copies will use a redeemable code while the digital version will authenticate automatically in the background. Furthermore ... anyone buying a pre-owned copy of the game will be forced to cough up $20 to obtain a code to play online."

Comment Re:There's your answer (?) (Score 1) 1063

by Breiny (#15757423) Attached to: President Bush Blocks NSA Wireless Tapping Probe
by cluckshot (658931) on Friday July 21, @06:53AM (#15755886)
"any realistic choice who might dare to challenge the forming dictatorship having his character assassinated by this NSA data."

This is a move pioneered by William Jefferson Clinton by personally obtaining/maintaining detailed FBI files on people.

Release a little private data here or there just so that it paints a picture you want and suddenly a potent political threat becomes a laughing stock in the eyes of the general voting public.

"The real issue here is the construction of a system that not even the NAZI SS could in their wildest immagination have dreamed of being able to achieve" --hahaha

"I know there are people here who will see this in a partizan light"
Well I for one am sure glad that YOU don't!! In fact, from reading your post, it appears that you are THE most non-partisan/impartial/unbiased person on the planet.(Sarcastically)

"The program has nothing what so ever to do with fighting Al Qaeda."
You're right. It has everything to do with tracking YOUR every move- to find whether you floss at night, are you lying to your mother, what you're smoking... You're right. I can see absolutely NO way that a program to monitor communication between people potentially linked to Al Qaeda could have anything to do with Al Qaeda.

"To prove this ask yourself the following question..."
While I may not agree with the president or a lot of what has transpired over the last few years, I have a hard time following your claim that America has done absolutely nothing since 9/11. You really should try to get out and meet some soldiers who have returned from Iraq. Then you can tell them to their face that their work in teaching people, building schools and public infrastructure...
Perhaps you were busy reading dirty magazines during the election and drafting of the Iraqi constitution?
While there are still problems, that doesn't mean that nothing good has been done.

"Every American regardless of party should wake up to the seriousness and awful reality of this situation." I agree with you here. Many Americans have a terrible disease called apathy. They are more concerned with playlists on their iPODs than growing instability in the world around us. It is our civic duty to be aware of everything going on around us and to strive to make our communities, cities, states, country and world a better place for our having been here. We enjoy INCREDIBLE priveleges and opportunities. Appreciate and use them to make a difference. Seek out the most honorable men, encourage them to run for office. If you can't find any, YOU run for office.

"At the cost of nearly 20,000 soldiers"... Why limit yourself to such small exaggeration (10X)- if you add another digit then you can claim "200,000 soldiers".

I'm not sure if you've had any real conversation with "soldiers who are out there dealing with it" or soldiers who have returned or not. I have. Please don't malign/discount their efforts or claim to represent their views with a sweeping claim such as this.

"... if you cannot stand the truth..." ??? This is coming from someone who is evidently neither burdens him/herself with facts nor cares about selectively applying gross "hyperbole" (some might just call it BS) to try to make your point?

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