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Security

SSL and the Future of Authenticity 98

Posted by Soulskill from the laying-off-alice-and-bob dept.
An anonymous reader writes "There has been a growing tide of support for replacing SSL's Certificate Authorities with an alternative authentication mechanism. Moxie Marlinspike, the security researcher who has repeatedly published attacks against SSL, has written an in-depth piece about the questions we should be asking as we move forward, and urges strong caution about adopting DNSSEC for this task."
United States

Submission + - Patriot Act Up For Renewal, Nobody Notices

Submitted by
Ponca City, We Love You
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "When the Patriot Act was first signed in 2001, it was billed as a temporary measure required because of the extreme circumstances created by the terrorist threat. The fear from its opponents was that executive power, once given, is seldom relinquished. Now the Examiner reports that on January 5th, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) introduced a bill to add yet another year to the soon to be expiring Patriot Act extending it until February, 2012 with passage likely to happen with little debate or contention. If passed, this would be the second time the Obama administration has punted on campaign promises to roll back excessive surveillance measures allowed under the act passed in the wake of 9/11. Last years extension passed under the heading of the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act. "Given the very limited number of days Congress has in session before the current deadline, and the fact that the bill’s Republican sponsor is only seeking another year, I think it's safe to read this as signaling an agreement across the aisle to put the issue off yet again," writes Julian Sanchez."
Science

Submission + - US revamps sci-tech standard-setting efforts (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been given new marching orders: expand work with the private sector to develop standards for a range of key technologies such as cloud computing, emergency communications and tracking, green manufacturing and high performance green building construction. NIST could also see its core science and technology budget double by 2017. NIST has also cut the number of labs it runs to 6 from 10. NIST labs now include, engineering, physical measurement, information technology, material measurement, the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology and the NIST Center for Neutron Research.
Idle

Submission + - Scientists find the anti-Viagra: a woman's tears (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The male test subjects didn't know what they were smelling, they were just given little vials of clear liquid and told to sniff. But when those vials contained a woman's tears (collected while she watched a sad movie), the men rated pictures of women's faces as less sexually attractive, and their saliva contained less testosterone. Is this proof that humans make and respond to pheromones? The researcher behind the study doesn't use that controversial word, but he says his findings do prove that tears contain meaningful chemical messages.

Submission + - College Students Lack Scientific Literacy

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Most college students in the United States do not grasp the scientific basis of the carbon cycle – an essential skill in understanding the causes and consequences of climate change, according to research published in the January issue of BioScience. The study, whose authors include several current and former researchers from Michigan State University, calls for a new way of teaching – and, ultimately, comprehending – fundamental scientific principles such as the conservation of matter.
Medicine

The Future of the Most Important Human Brain 252

Posted by Soulskill from the do-neurosci-texts-read-as-cookbooks-to-zombies dept.
mattnyc99 writes "About a year ago, we watched live as neuroanatomist Jacopo Annese sliced the brain of Memento-style patient Henry Molaison (aka H.M.) into 2,401 pieces. Since even before then, writer Luke Dittrich — whose grandfather happened to be the surgeon to accidentally slice open the H.M. skull in the first place — has been tracking Annese and a new revolution in brain science. From the article in Esquire: 'If Korbinian Brodmann created the mind's Rand McNally, Jacopo Annese is creating its Google Maps. ... With his Brain Observatory, Annese is setting out to create not the world's largest but the world's most useful collection of brains. ... For the first time, we'll be able to meaningfully and easily compare large numbers of brains, perhaps finally understanding why one brain might be less empathetic or better at calculus or likelier to develop Alzheimer's than another. The Brain Observatory promises to revolutionize our understanding of how these three-pound hunks of tissue inside our skulls do what they do, which means, of course, that it promises to revolutionize our understanding of ourselves.'"
Earth

New Batfish Species Found Under Gulf Oil Spill 226

Posted by timothy from the had-to-flush-'em-out-somehow dept.
eDarwin writes "Researchers have discovered two previously unknown species of bottom-dwelling fish in the Gulf of Mexico, living right in the area affected by the BP oil spill. Researchers identified new species of pancake batfishes, a flat fish rarely seen because of the dark depths they favor. They are named for the clumsy way they 'walk' along the sea bottom, like a bat crawling."
Medicine

Submission + - FDA says Homeopathic Cure can Cause Loss of Smell

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The FDA has advised consumers to stop using Matrixx Initiatives' Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel marketed over-the-counter as a cold remedy because it is associated with the loss of sense of smell (anosmia) that may be long-lasting or permanent. The FDA says about 130 consumers have reported a loss of smell after using the homeopathic cure containing zinc, an ingredient scientists say may damage nerves in the nose needed for smell and health officials say they have asked Matrixx executives to turn over more than 800 consumer complaints concerning lost smell that the company has on file. "Loss of the sense of smell is potentially life threatening and may be permanent," said Dr. Charles Lee. "People without the sense of smell may not be able to detect life dangerous situations, such as gas leaks or something burning in the house." The FDA said the remedy was never formally approved because it is part of a small group of remedies known as homeopathic products that are not required to undergo federal review before launching. The global market for homeopathic drugs is about $200 million per year, according to the American Association of Homeopathic Pharmacists. Matrixx has settled hundreds of lawsuits connected with Zicam in recent years, but says it "will seek a meeting with the FDA to vigorously defend its scientific data, developed during more than 10 years of experience with the products, demonstrating their safety.""
Patents

English Court Allows Patents For "Complex" Software 132

Posted by timothy from the first-a-trickle dept.
jonbryce writes "The court of appeal in England has ruled that companies should be granted patents for 'complex' software products. In this particular case, Symbian had written something that makes mobile phones run faster. The court case has received very little attention because of the bank crisis, but it can be appealed to the House of Lords and then the European Court of Justice."
Biotech

DNA Bar Coding Finds Mislabeled Sushi 285

Posted by timothy from the travesty-of-the-seas dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who graduated this year from the Trinity School in Manhattan, took on a freelance science project to check 60 samples of seafood using a simplified genetic fingerprinting technique called DNA Bar Coding to see whether the fish New Yorkers buy is what they think they are getting, and found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled: A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming. Roe supposedly from flying fish was actually from smelt." (More below.)
Image

Family Circus Cthulhu Edition 4

Posted by samzenpus from the dead-but-dreaming dept.
Next week, follow Billy's dotted-line path into madness.

Comment Re:This means what? (Score 1) 638

by MighMoS (#23827813) Attached to: Wine 1.0 — Uncorked After 15 Years

Even if you get an app working, chances are it will break with every update. How do you sell that to someone? "Here is this new cool operating system, and here is the guy you're going to have to employ to configure every single windows-based application you want to try out...Oh, and no guarantees, he may not be able to get it to work."
Guess what? Don't upgrade. That's just not smart. I know of ZERO companies who installed Windows Vista the day it came out on their production servers, and if anyone does the same with Wine, bad things can happen. Quite frankly Wine is understaffed for the purposes of recreating a whole operating system, but your argument of "These two secret apps don't work and never will" doesn't really hold much water. Even "These two secret apps don't work because...blah blah blah" would be better. "It dont work" is NOT a valid technical issue. And adding references to shit does't exactly make you more credible.
Music

Jobs to Labels- Lose the DRM & We'll Talk Price 459

Posted by CmdrTaco from the ten-bucks-a-gig dept.
eldavojohn writes "Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been talking smack about DRM and has recently issued a verbal offer to major music lables stating that if they are willing to lose the DRM, he'd be willing to raise his 99 cent price for those iTunes songs. These tracks (such as the recent EMI deal) would also have better sound quality & cost about 30 cents more."

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