38245637
submission
RougeFive writes:
Imagine a warship weapon that can launch projectiles at Mach 10 without explosives (more than three times the muzzle speed of an M16 rifle), that has a range 220 miles and that uses the enormous speed to destroy the target by causing as much damage as a Tomahawk missile. Meet the US Navy's electromagnetic railgun programme.
38240269
submission
another random user writes:
Plans to offer UK-based firms shorter internet domain names backed by added security features have been proposed.
The scheme would give businesses the chance to register www.name.uk as their web address. It would run alongside the current www.name.co.uk service.
Applicants would have to prove they had a UK presence and pay a higher fee.
A three-month consultation is under way. Some companies may oppose the move on the grounds they already face having to buy other new net addresses.
Eleanor Bradley, Nominet's director of operations, stressed that the idea was "not a money marking exercise" and that any additional earnings derived would be passed onto an independent trust to invest in improving internet access and security.
36424881
submission
TrueSatan writes:
One of the world's best preserved prehistoric human brains was recently found in a waterlogged U.K. pit.
The brain belonged to an Iron Age man who was hanged and then decapitated, with his head falling in the pit shortly thereafter.
Scientists believe that submersion in liquid, anoxic environments helps to preserve human brain tissue.
A human skull dated to about 2,684 years ago with an "exceptionally preserved" human brain still inside of it was recently discovered in a waterlogged U.K. pit, according to a new Journal of Archaeological Science study.
The brain is the oldest known intact human brain from Europe and Asia, according to the authors, who also believe it's one of the best-preserved ancient brains in the world.
"The early Iron Age skull belonged to a man, probably in his thirties," according to lead author Sonia O'Connor. "Cause of death is rarely possible to determine in archaeological remains, but in this case, damage to the neck vertebrae is consistent with a hanging."
36415363
submission
Sparrowvsrevolution writes:
At the Usenix security conference in Seattle last week, a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, Oxford University and the University of Geneva presented a study that hints at the darker side of a future where we control computers with our minds rather than a mouse. In a study of 28 subjects wearing brain-machine interface (BMI) headsets built by companies like Neurosky and Emotiv and marketed to consumers for gaming and attention exercises, the researchers found they were able to extract hints directly from the electrical signals of the test subjects’ brains that partially revealed private information like the location of their homes, faces they recognized and even their credit card PINs.
For the moment, the experimental theft of users' private information from brain signals is more science fiction than a real security vulnerability, since it requires tricking the victim into thinking about the target information at a certain time, and still doesn't work reliably. (Though much better than random.) But as BMI gets more sophisticated and mainstream, the researchers say their study should serve as a warning about privacy issues around the technology of mind-control.
36390847
submission
bbianca127 writes:
Curiosity sent a picture down to us, and it looks a lot like Earth. Actually, the picture's color quality has been changed — to human eyes, the landscape would look a lot more reddish. Still, it looks remarkably like the southwestern United States (bringing to mind the AD quote about how Lucille Bluth would rather be dead in California than alive in Arizona).
36351029
submission
neo12 writes:
Making the first formal announcement on the country’s Mars mission, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said India will send a mission to the Red Planet that will mark a huge step in the area of science and technology.
36345973
submission
cylonlover writes:
Scientists may have hit upon a new means of predicting solar flares more than a day in advance, which hinges on a hypothesis dating back to 2006 that solar activity affects the rate of decay of radioactive materials on Earth. Study of the phenomenon could lead to a new system which monitors changes in gamma radiation emitted from radioactive materials, and if the underlying hypothesis proves correct, this could lead to solar flare advance warning systems that would assist in the protection of satellites, power systems and astronauts.
36312395
submission
Qedward writes:
The BBC has revealed that on the busiest day of its London 2012 Olympics coverage it delivered 2.8 petabytes worth of content, peaking when Bradley Wiggins won gold, where it shifted 700Gb/s.
It has also said that over a 24-hour period on the busiest Olympic days it had more traffic to bbc.co.uk than it did for the entire BBC coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2010 games.
They revealed they had 106 million requests for BBC Olympic video content, which included 12 million requests for video on mobile devices across the whole of the Games.
Mobile saw the most uptake at around 6pm when people had left the office but still wanted to keep informed of the latest action.
Tablet usage, however, reached a peak at around 9pm, where people were using it as a second screen or as they continued to watch the games in bed.
36197441
submission
derekmead writes:
Meshworm is an indestructible, robotic earthworm that can crawl virtually silently at a speed of about 5 millimeters per second. DARPA wants to send it into battle.
Believe it or not, the Pentagon’s been working on building a robotic earthworm for a while. They tried putting one together with gears. They tried with air-powered and pneumatic pumps, but the results were bulky and untenable. Then, researchers at Harvard, MIT and Seoul National University in Korea put their heads together and designed an “artificial muscle.” It’s essentially a polymer mesh that’s wrapped with nickel and titanium wire designed to stretch and contract with heat. When an electric current is applied, the mesh mimics the circular muscle system of an earthworm to scoot forward.
36122255
submission
wiredmikey writes:
Despite its significant user base within enterprises, BlackBerry devices have managed to stay off the radar for malware writers. That may be ending, as four new Zeus-in-the-mobile (Zitmo) samples targeting BlackBerry users in Germany, Spain, and Italy have been found.
Zitmo, which hit Android devices back in July 2011, refers to a version of the Zeus malware that specifically targets mobile devices.
Denis Maslennikov, a security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, also identified a new Zitmo variant for Android using the same command and control (C&C) numbers as the BlackBerry versions. While previous Android variants have been primitive, the latest.apk dropper, which shows up as an app "Zertifikat," looks "more similar to 'classic'" Zitmo, he said. When executed, it displays a message in German that the installation was successful, along with an activation code. The Android sample also included a self-issued certificate that indicates it was developed less than a month ago.
36118369
submission
RougeFive writes:
A new wave of Kamikaze unmanned military aircraft, ground robots and water vessels are being built to deliberately destroy themselves as they hit their targets. Since it now makes more economic sense to have them crash into enemy targets rather than engage them, and since direct impact needs only manned or automated navigation rather than the highly-trained skills of multiple operators, these UAVs could well become the de-facto method of engagement of the future.
36100503
submission
Billly Gates writes:
Slashdotters and webmasters alike favorite browser (sarcasm intended) will have DO NOT TRACK settings enabled by by default in IE 10. IE 10 comes with Windows 8 and will go release candidate for Windows 7 very soon according to Anne Kohn in a comment in IE's blog. IE 10 already has a score of 319 in html5test.com, while MS is trying to position IE as a great browser again. Will this pressure other browsers such as Firefox and Opera to do the same?
