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Opossums Overrun Brooklyn, Fail To Eliminate Rats 343

Posted by samzenpus from the urban-opossum-blight dept.
__roo writes "In a bizarre case of life imitates the Simpsons, New York City officials introduced a population of opossums into Brooklyn parks and under the boardwalk at Coney Island, apparently convinced that the opossums would eat all of the rats in the borough and then conveniently die of starvation. Several years later, the opossums have not only failed to eliminate the rat epidemic from New York City, but they have thrived, turning into a sharp-toothed, foul-odored epidemic of their own."
America Online

Submission + - Is AOL finally crashing and burning? (marketwatch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AOL's disastrous quarterly report showed cash from continuing operations was down 44% from a year ago (while "adjusted operating income" was down 37%), as it continues a rocky transition from monthly subscription fees into advertising. (Their quarterly report also notes "the cessation of large-scale access subscriber acquisition campaigns" — investor-speak for the fact that AOL will finally stop mass mailings of free trial accounts.) Unfortunately, AOL's advertising business "did even worse. Its revenues declined by $110 million...every single segment is down." AOL has already lost 86% of the 30 million subscribers it reported in 2001 — down to just 4.3 million — but advertising hasn't yet filled the gap (possibly because many AOL ads had been displayed to the users AOL no longer has). But at least, as one technology blogger notes, AOL has finally released a mobile application, "In the new definition of 'late to the party'."
Earth

Submission + - 100 sq-mile ice sheet breaks off Arctic glacier (cnn.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: The 260 square-kilometer (100 square miles) ice island separated from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland early on Thursday, researchers based at the University of Delaware said.

The ice island, which is about half the height of the Empire State Building, is the biggest piece of ice to break away from the Arctic icecap since 1962 and amounts to a quarter of the Petermann 70-kilometer floating ice shelf, according to research leader Andreas Muenchow.

Environmentalists say ice melt is being caused by global warming with Arctic temperatures in the 1990s reaching their warmest level of any decade in at least 2,000 years, according to a study published in 2009.

Current trends could see the Arctic Ocean become ice free in summer months within decades, researchers predict.

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/08/07/greenland.ice.island/index.html
Science

Your Feces Is a Wonderland of Viruses 211

Posted by timothy from the and-so-can-you dept.
sciencehabit writes "Thanks to an anlaysis of fecal samples from four sets of Missouri-born female identical twins and their mothers, researchers have concluded that human guts harbor viruses as unique as the people they inhabit; the viral lineup differs even between identical twins. Even more surprising? These viruses may be doing good work inside of us."
Google

Submission + - Chrome OS to Support "Legacy" PC Apps

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: According to a message posted to a public mailing list dedicated to Chrome OS a new feature is in the works that will grant users access to "legacy PC applications" through some kind of remote desktop connection process. Google software engineer Gary Kamark, who first spilled the beans on the feature, calls the process, "Chromoting." The current speculation amongst Chrome enthusiasts is that the Chromoting process is more akin to a VPN/sharing functionality than anything else. In that case, one would have to leave one's Windows-based desktop or laptop system on in order to access apps via a connected Chrome OS computer—which, itself, is hardly a technological leap given that numerous applications today offer users an analogous screen-sharing / remote access functionality.

Submission + - North Korean Flash Games for Export (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by linzeal
linzeal writes: Despite it being pretty-much closed off to the world, North Korea is the next boom place for IT and tech outsourcing, PC World has reported. Flash games are being developed there for outside publishers, largely thanks to the home-grown talent. Does this mean that the the cartoon company that makes the Simpsons might use North Korea as well? Well it looks like they already have started.

Submission + - A Battle of Wits on the Net's Effect on the Mind (roughtype.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There's a fascinating duel going on between two Harvard-associated authors, Steven Pinker and Nicholas Carr, on the topic of the Net's influence on the mind. In a New York Times op-ed, Pinker criticizes Carr's argument, as laid out in his new book The Shallows, that our use of the Net is encouraging us to become distracted, superficial thinkers. The Net and other digital technologies "are the only things that will keep us smart," writes Pinker. In a response on his blog, Carr tears apart Pinker's argument, claiming that Pinker's examples should actually make us even more worried about the possible "ill effects" the Net is having on our minds. Carr concludes: "We're training ourselves, through repetition, to be facile skimmers, scanners, and message-processors — important skills, to be sure — but, perpetually distracted and interrupted, we're not training ourselves in the quieter, more attentive modes of thought: contemplation, reflection, introspection, deep reading, and so forth." Behind the debate is the deeper controversy over whether the human brain is fundamentally adaptable ("neuroplasticity") or genetically locked into patterns of behavior ("evolutionary psychology").

Submission + - Help finding a good photo manager?

Submitted by JeremyDuffy
JeremyDuffy writes: Ask Slashdot: I have an photo project of over 7000 photos. I want to tag them based on location, time of day, who's in them, etc. Doing this by hand one at a time through the Windows 7 interface in explorer is practically madness. There has to be a better way. Is there a photo manager that can easily group and manage file tags? And most importantly, something that stores the tag and other data (description etc) in the FILE not just a database? I don't care if the thing has a database, but the data MUST be in the file so when I upload the files to the Internet, the tags are in place.
User Journal

Journal Journal: very late preliminary micro-review: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 1

Journal by drinkypoo

"Universal" direct-contact heat pipe cooler with real big fan, simple installation on AMD platform, not-too-complicated installation on Intel but I have AMD, three/four pin connector for full compatibility, super cheap (~$20), Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz O/C to 3.2 GHz via multiplier idles at 98 with ambient of about 80. Easy to install second fan, hardware for same included. Medium weight, minimal but attractive packaging, would buy again, unless it lets me down sometime soon. Comes with apparen

Submission + - House Calls For Hearing On Stock Market "Glitch" (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: The House Financial Services securities subcommittee plans to hold a hearing next Tuesday to examine what caused the U.S. Stock Market to plunge almost 1,000 points in a half hour Thursday, and it called on the SEC to investigate possible problems with computer algorithms that may have exacerbated a human order-entry error and lead to the precipitous drop. 'Reports have surfaced that much of this movement was potentially as a result of a computer glitch," Committee Chairman Kanjorski said. "We cannot allow a technological error to spook the markets and cause panic. This is unacceptable. In this day and age and with the use of such complex technology, we should be able to make sure that our financial markets are effectively monitored and investors are protected.'
Games

Submission + - Will Cartridges Come Back? Is Disc Media Dead? (dasreviews.com)

Submitted by sk8pmp
sk8pmp writes: Will the cost of solid state memory going down, will we see the return of the game catridge? Or will digital distribution reign supreme and transition our entertainment into the cloud? This editorial explores the beginnings of the cartridge vs disc battle and theorizes a second one in the future.
Biotech

Submission + - Bio-Detector Scans for 3,000 Viruses and Bacteria (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by separsons
separsons writes: Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently unveiled a three-inch-long bio-detector than can scan for 3,000 different types of viruses and bacteria in just 24 hours. The device, dubbed the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA), boasts significant advantages over traditional bio-detectors, which can only identify a maximum of 50 pathogens. The three-inch-long glass slide is packed with 388,000 probes that can detect more than 2,000 viruses and 900 bacteria. The device may have huge implications in identifying agents released during biological and chemical attacks. Plus, in more everyday uses, LLMDA can ensure food, drug and vaccine safety and help diagnose medical problems. Scientists' next version of LLMDA is even more impressive: A new bio-detector will be lined with 2.1 million probes that can scan for 5,700 viruses and thousands of bacteria as well as fungi and protozoa.
Security

Submission + - Have We Lost the Desktop Security Battle? (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: For years, security experts, analysts and even users have been lamenting the state of desktop security. Viruses, spam, Trojans and rootkits have added up to create an ugly picture. But, the good news is that the desktop security battle may be over. The less-than-good news, however, is that we may have lost it. Jeremiah Grossman, CTO of WhiteHat Security, said Thursday that many organizations, particularly in the financial services industry, have gotten to the point of assuming that their customers' desktops are compromised. And moving forward from that assumption, things don't get much prettier.
Security

Submission + - Security Firm Reveals Microsoft's 'Silent' Patches (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Microsoft silently patched three vulnerabilities last month, two of them affecting enterprise mission-critical Exchange mail servers, without calling out the bugs in the accompanying advisories, a security expert said on Thursday. Two of the three unannounced vulnerabilities, and the most serious of the trio, were packaged with MS10-024, an update to Exchange and Windows SMTP Service that Microsoft issued April 13 and tagged as 'important,' its second-highest threat ranking. Ivan Arce, CTO of Core Security Technologies, said Microsoft patched the bugs, but failed to disclose that it had done so — which could pose a problem. 'They're more important than the [two vulnerabilities] that Microsoft did disclose,' said Arce. 'That means [system] administrators may end up making the wrong decisions about applying the update. They need that information to assess the risk.' Secret patches are neither new or rare. 'This has been going on for many years and the action in and of itself is not a huge conspiracy," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. What is unusual is that Core took Microsoft's silent updates public. Saying that Microsoft 'misrepresented' and 'underestimated' the criticality of MS10-024 because it didn't reveal the two bugs, Core urged company administrators to 'consider re-assessing patch deployment priorities.' Microsoft confirmed this instance and defends the practice, noting that updates can "be destructive to customer environments." But Storms echoed Arce's concern about possible misuse of the practice, which could result in a false sense of security among users.
Nintendo

Submission + - Wii 2 delay is hurting Nintendo (mcvuk.com) 2

Submitted by BanjoTed
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 claming that the struggling sales of Wii documented in the platform holder’s recent financials will only get worse unless it speeds up attempts to get its successor to market.

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