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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 61 declined, 32 accepted (93 total, 34.41% accepted)

Piracy

Submission + - Don't Forget: "Six Strikes" Starts this Weekend (dslreports.com)

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: If don't recall, then Broadband/DSL Reports is here to remind us that ISPs around the US will begin adhering to the RIAA/MPAA-fueled "Six Strikes" agreement on July 1st. Or is July 12th? Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Cablevision are all counted among the participants. They will each introduce "mitigation measures" against suspected pirates, including: throttling down connection speeds and suspending Web access.
Biotech

Submission + - Human Skin Cells Converted Directly to Neurons (stanford.edu) 1

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Standford's School of Medicine brings us an update in the latest achievements towards in-vitro neuron generation via re differentiation of specialized cells (skin cells in this case.) This important progress follows on last year's success in inducing this change with mice skin cells.

The importance of this line of research lies in that the process does not need to first de-differentiate the skin cells into a kind of stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells. By skipping this phase, the process avoids potential problems in the body's rejection of the iPS cells.

Amazingly, the transformation occurs with the added presence of 4 proteins (one more protein than need to induce the effect in mice) over several weeks (compared to a few days in mice.) Research continues as the study highlights the significant differences in mice and human neural cells as well as the success rate of transformation (2-4% for human cells, 20% for mice.) The resultant cells aren't yet as capable as naturally derived neurons; generating less-robust electrical signals.
Science

Submission + - Rat Lung Successfully Regenerated and Transplanted (nature.com)

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Nature Medicine brings us news of the latest success in the regeneration of the gas exchanging tissues of the lungs of a rat. Led by Harald C. Ott, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston used decellularization to produce a cellular scaffolding to serve as the basis of the transplant lungs. You may recall the previous achievements in use of this cellular scaffolding technique by Yale University. This latest announcement comes with the excellent news that the rat's airway and respiratory muscles performed the necessary ventilation (as a normal rat's would,) and that they provided gas exchange for up to 6 hours after extubation, up from the previous 2 hours. They eventually failed due to capillary leakage resulting in the accumulation of fluids in the lungs. Although there's much work to be done, as not all the cell types found in the lung were regenerated, Ott and his team remain optimistic and estimated we might see regenerated organs for use in human patients within 5 to 10 years.

Furthermore, physorg.com provides three excellent videos of the dry ventilation of a regenerated lung construct, Blood perfusion and ventilation, and the left lung's orthotopic transplantation.
Science

Submission + - Synthetic Genome Drives Bacterial Cell (physorg.com)

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Physorg.com brings us news of a Synthetic Genome, produced by the J. Craig Venter Institute, being used in an existing bacterial cell for the first time. Using a combination of biological hosts, the technique produces short strings of DNA by machine which inserting them into yeast to be stitched together via DNA-repair enzymes. The medium sequences are passed into E. Coli and back into yeast. After three rounds, a genome of three million base pairs was produced.

Specifically, the genome of M. mycoides was synthesized from scratch. This synthetic genome was then inserted into the cells of a bacteria known as Mycoplasm capricolum. The result is a cell, driven by a Syntehtic Genome, producing not the protiens of Mycoplasm capricolum, but of M. mycoides. The institute has far reaching plans for it's synthetic life program, including designing algae that can capture carbon dioxide, make new hydrocarbons for refineries as well as making new chemicals or food ingredients and to speed up vaccine production.
Medicine

Submission + - Amputee Sprinter Wins Olympic Appeal to Compete

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Oscar Pistorius, a 21-year-old South African double-amputee sprinter, has won his appeal filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This overturns a ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations, and allows Mr. Pistorius the chance to compete against other able-bodied athletes for a chance at a place on the South African team for the Beijing Olympics. He currently holds the 400-meter Paralympic world sprinting record, but must improve on his time by 1.01 seconds to meet the Olympic qualification standard. However, even if Pistorius fails to get the qualifying time, South African selectors could add Oscar to the Olympic 1,600-meter relay squad.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Spore Editor Available June 17th

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Ars Technica heralds the coming of the creature editor for the highly anticipated Spore. A previously promised downloadable demo of the creature editor from the September 7th due game, will be available June 17th. Furthermore, a full version of the creature editor will appear as a standalone product at the same time for $10. ComputerandVideogames.com further illuminates the features of the creature editor, in a their article. According to EA:

"The demo lets players shape, paint and play with an unlimited number of creatures, using 25 percent of the creature-making parts from Spore. Gamers can then share these creations with their friends, including seamless uploads to YouTube."
Biotech

Submission + - Manmade Flood to Nourish Grand Canyon Ecosystem

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: The Associated Press brings us news of a flood in the Grand Canyon. This flood is no ordinary flood, however. This is a man-made flood released from the Glen Canyon Dam. The Dam is releasing four to five times its normal amount of water over the course of a three day artificial flood. Scientists are conducting this massive experiment in order to document and better understand the complex relation of the aquatic habitats, natural floods, and the sediment they bring. Floods no longer bring sediment to these parts of the canyon as the Dam keeps it locked up and released in small, drawn out intervals. The Dam prevents the floods from bringing the sediments into replenish the sandbars and allow the river to maintain its warm, murky habitat rather than a cool, clear one. It is thought that this cool clear environment brought on by the dam is responsible for helping to extinguish 4 species of fish and push 2 more towards the brink. It is hoped that this terra-reformation experiment will positively impact the habitat and fish populations, warranting further artificial floods at an increased rate of every one to two years rather than the time span between the two previous floods and this one of 8 and 4 years.
The Courts

Submission + - Comcast Sued over P2P Throttling, Again

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Ars Technica brings us news of a disgruntled Washington D.C. Comcast customer who has filed a lawsuit against Comcast over claims of false advertising. The complaint seeks punitive damages, class-action status, and attorneys' fees. The customer claims Comcast advertised "unfettered access to all the content, services, and applications that the Internet has to offer." This may all sound familiar, but it's no dupe: Slashdot covered a remarkably similar previous lawsuit brought against Comcast by a Californian customer back in November. While Comcast would confirm reception of, but not comment on, the lawsuit, Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas has stated: "To be clear, Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services, and no one has demonstrated otherwise."
The Military

Submission + - US Military seeks Hypersonic Weaponry

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Chief scientist for the Air Force, Mark Lewis in an interview with the Star-Telegram, talks about the USAF's latest development direction. The air force seeks hypersonic missile and bombers for the purposes of reconnaissance and attack. In response to Chinese and Russian anti-satellite developments, the air force plans to develop weapons capable of sustained travel at Mach 6 to allow them to deploy against and take out anti-satellite launch sites before the enemy can fire their missiles. Furthermore, should the US spy satellite network be brought down, the Mach 6 recon flight systems would be capable of filling in. The article also details several programs, both past and present, within the Air Force. Air Force officials hope to deploy a new interim bomber by 2018, followed by a more advanced, and possibly unmanned, bomber in 2035.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Introversion On Staying Independent

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: bit-tech.net has an interesting interview with Introversion Games, creators of Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon, on staying independent. They discuss the challanges and rewards, ranging from developing new technologies for their upcoming game, Subversion, to defining their own style in Darwinia — and nearly bankrupting themselves in the process.

...after the suggestion that we add smiley faces to the Darwinian sprites to make them 'cuter', we knew that self-publishing was the only option...
...one journalist in the UK actually disconnected from the Internet whilst playing Uplink because he really believed he was doing something illegal...
Communications

Submission + - Telco Immunity Goes to Full Debate

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Ars Technica brings us the latests in Congressional proceedings, in reguards to granting the Telecommunications Industry retroactive immunity for their dealings with the NSA and spying on Americans. A Republican cloture motion, which would have blocked any further attempts to remove the retroactive immunity, has failed. The controverisal portion of the Senate intelligence committee surveillance bill may now be examined in full debate. At the same time, a second cloture motion — filed by Congressional Democrats in an effort to force immediate vote on a 30 day extension to the Protect America Act — also failed to pass. The Protect America Act has been criticized for broadly expanded federal surveillance power while diminishing judicial oversight. While the failure of this second closture motion means the Protect America Act may very well expire, a vote tommorrow on a similar motion in the house will not doubt bring the issue back into the Senate in time. It seems, according to the article, that both parties feel that imminent expiration of the Protect America Act is a disaster for intelligence gathering, yet both sides blame the other as progress grinds to a halt. It seems partisan politics have prevented the congress from doing anything and although some may point out that this stops them from helping us, others just as easily point out that this stops them from hurting us, too.
Government

Submission + - New Hampshire Primaries Follow-Up Analysis

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Ars Technica has posted a very nice, if lengthy, follow up analysis of the 2008 New Hampshire Primaries outcomes. The article deals with the O'Dell machine/hand-count table that has been circulating through emails, point out the combination of factors that resulted in such an odd symmetry of numbers, although the article points out too that these numbers have been corrected. The corrections, however, still indicate a discrepancy among the tallies. The article also goes on to talk about the nature of the communities that arrived at these numbers and what/how the handcounts proceeds. Finally, the article concludes that this process has been inconclusive; something that does not bode well for the rest of the primaries and indeed the election itself, as only 16 states currently mandate both a voter-verified paper trail (VVPT) and a random manual audit of election results.
United States

Submission + - Real ID in its Death Throes, says ACLU

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Ars Technica places an article entitled No REAL ID, no problem describing The ACLU, which opposes the plan on civil liberties grounds, comments on recent changes made to the program since the original inception of the act in 2005. The ACLU cites lower standards, and the possibility of yet another compliance deadline extention, possibly to 2005 or later, as evidence that Real ID in its death throes.
Biotech

Submission + - Study Suggests Genome Instability Hotspots

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Ars Technica reports on an interesting new study that suggests not only that certain areas of the mouse genome undergo more changes, but that changes to those areas are more tolerable by the organism than changes in other areas. Recently published in Nature Genetics, the study examined the certain copy number variations of the C57Bl/6 strain in mice that have been diverging for less than 1,000 generations. The results were a surprising number of variations that arose in the short amount of time as well as the notable number of times certain regions were affected. Of the 38 CNVs they looked at in detail, 18 arose more than once, and 10 of those underwent copy number changes more than twice. While the study does not address it, Ars Technica goes on to recount suggestions that genomes evolved to the point where they work well with evolution. That organisms with certain genes, that in specific doses will affect an organism's ability to adapt to environmental changes, may be selected because those genes appear in regions of unstability and therefore give it a faster adaptability rate.
Wii

Submission + - Super Smash Bros. Brawl Delayed

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: As feared when it was announced that the Japanese launch was being pushed back to January 24, Nintendo has announced that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been delayed in North America as well. 1up.com cites the new launch date as Feburary 10th. On the bright side, however, 16-bit era fan's prayers have been answered: Sonic the Hedgehog is officially in the game.

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