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Lie Detector Company Threatens Critical Scientists With Suit 367

Posted by timothy from the slapp-ing-them-around dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Swedish newspaper DN reports that the Israeli company Nemesysco has sent letters to researchers at the University of Stockholm, threatening legal action if they do not stop publishing findings (Google translation). An article called 'Charlatanry in forensic speech science: A problem to be taken seriously' was pulled by the publisher after threats of a libel lawsuit." Online translations can be a little wonky; if your Swedish is as bad as mine, this English-language article describes the situation well.

Feed Engadget: SSDs save battery power, right? Wrong. (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Storage

If you just shelled out some pretty pennies for the a high-speed, low-power SSD, Tom's Hardware may have stumbled onto some findings that won't sit well. According to a rigorous benchmarking session, they discovered that not only do the drives not save you battery power... they eat more of it. How is this possible you ask? Well mechanical drives only hit peak drainage when the actuator has to move the heads, whereas SSDs use full power whenever they're in use, so the end result is actually a diminished efficiency. What that means is that the hype over "green" drives may be just that: pure hype. On the other hand, you're still getting a drive with no moving parts, which at least makes your data more secure, if not more eco-friendly.

[Via Eeeuser; Thanks, Tony]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments


Comment Corn (Score 5, Informative) 1083

by Jeremiah Cornelius (#23448244) Attached to: Fat People Cause Global Warming, Higher Food Prices
Corn? Yes, Corn!

Michael Pollan will convince you, that this is no accident. You are eating nothing but corn - with a four-carbon configuration that is destroying your healt and nutrition, as it wrecks ecosystems in its cultivation.

Thanks, Cargill! Thanks, Mosanto! If Chevron-Texaco is Emperor Palpatine, these two are Darth Vader and Tarkin.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Keanu Reeves makes the earth stand still (sffmedia.com)

Submitted by
bowman9991
bowman9991 writes: "Keanu Reeves' big budget remake of the 1951 science fiction classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still" has all the right ingredients to be his biggest hit since "The Matrix". SFFMedia asks whether we are looking at another classic or a disastrous Hollywood star studded rehash? Now that the cold war anxieties from the original movie have been replaced with the threat of environmental catastrophe, will Keanu become some type of extraterrestrial Al Gore and ruin the movie? Or will Klaatu's giant 8-foot robotic pal called "Gort", John Cleese, excellent special effects, and Keanu's immense star power save the day?"
User Journal

Journal Journal: People who told you to "sit up straight" were wrong...

Journal by Firefalcon
The BBC has an article about research from the Radiological Society of North America, which proves that advice to "sit up straight" is wrong:

"Sitting up straight is not the best position for office workers...the best position in which to sit at your desk is leaning slightly back, at about 135 degrees."
Idle

Submission + - The Silent Scream of the Asparagus 2

Submitted by
mernil
mernil writes: "The weekly standard reports: "You just knew it was coming: At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the "dignity" of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called "plant rights" is being seriously debated."
The Courts

Submission + - Virginia top court to rehear spammer's conviction (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
arbitraryaardvark
arbitraryaardvark writes: "Mega-spammer Jeremy Jaynes was convicted in Virginia of spamming in '05, sentenced to 9 years, and lost his appeal, 4-3, at the Virgina Supreme Court. But the court has just ordered a new hearing on whether the anti-spam statute is unconstitutional under the First Amendment, reports How Appealing.
We previously covered the appeal and the conviction."

Feed Science Daily: Mothers And Offspring Can Share Cells Throughout Life (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Cutting the umbilical cord doesn't necessarily sever the physical link between mother and child. Many cells pass back and forth between the mother and fetus during pregnancy and can be detected in the tissues and organs of both even decades later. This mixing of cells from two genetically distinct individuals is called microchimerism. The phenomenon is the focus of an increasing number of scientists who wonder what role these cells play in the body.
Censorship

Submission + - Illegal to even REPORT Child Pornography? (kennesaw.edu) 1

Submitted by
thbarnes
thbarnes writes: "I reported suspected Internet child pornography to the FBI and received the attached threatening voicemail from an FBI agent in Washington, DC at 12:30AM. Apparently, it is illegal to even accidentally encounter and report child pornography."
Security

Submission + - Google shares its security secrets

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Google is offering security professionals a look into its security systems. Scott Petry, director of Google's Enterprise and founder of security firm Postini, explained to attendees at the RSA conference how the company handles constant pressure and scrutiny from attackers. In order to keep its products safe, Google has adopted a philosophy of 'security as a cultural value'. The programme includes mandatory security training for developers, a set of in-house security libraries, and code reviews both by Google developers and outside security researchers.
Idle

Saudi Arabia Bans Roses 3

Posted by samzenpus
Saudi Arabia's religious police are seeing red over red roses. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered the removal from stores any items colored scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolizing love. It is not unusual for the Saudi vice squad to become stricter before Valentine's Day, which it sees as encouraging relations between men and women outside of wedlock. Saudi officials said they are studying the effects of other things that fuel lust, like being awake, the vibrations of a heavy truck driving close by and the cute cashier at the gas station.
Privacy

Do Not Call Registry Set to Become Permanent 183

Posted by Zonk from the finally-our-government-at-work dept.
coondoggie passed us a NetworkWorld article about an initiative by the Senate to transform the Do Not Call list into a permanent institution. Originally individuals on the list were to have their place on the list revoked; up to a third of the people who signed up might have fallen off the list by the Autumn without renewing legislation. A move by the Senate this past Wednesday will permanently prevent salesmen from calling those who have registered for the list. "Aside from what telemarketing junk the bill does prevent, experts note what may also be a big deal is a provision that is NOT in this bill and that is protection for those other annoying time wasters: political robo calls."

Feed Schneier: Cyber Storm Details (schneier.com)

From feed by bsfeed
Recently the Associated Press obtained hundreds of pages of documents related to the 2006 "Cyber Storm" exercise. Most interesting is the part where the participants attacked the game computers and pissed the referees off: However, the government's files hint at...

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