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Comment Not "soon" (Score 1) 318

The article never says that such a system "could soon be rolled out in Europe." What it says is that the European Union is doling out grant money to researchers to study such a system, and that they might try some live experiments. It's pretty clear that this is still a research project, with many technical, regulatory, and societal hurdles to clear before we see it in action.

Music

Record Label Infringes Own Copyright, Site Pulled 282

AnonCow sends in a peculiar story from TorrentFreak, which describes the plight of a free-download music site that has been summarily evicted from the Internet for violating its own copyright. The problem seems to revolve around the host's insistence that proof of copyright be snail-mailed to them. Kind of difficult when your copyright takes the form of a Creative Commons license that cannot be verified unless its site is up. "The website of an Internet-based record label which offers completely free music downloads has been taken down by its host for copyright infringement, even though it only offers its own music. Quote Unquote Records calls itself 'The First Ever Donation Based Record Label,' but is currently homeless after its host pulled the plug."
Medicine

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False 259

Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers have found that the winner's curse may apply to the publication of scientific papers and that incorrect findings are more likely to end up in print than correct findings. Dr John Ioannidis bases his argument about incorrect research partly on a study of 49 papers on the effectiveness of medical interventions published in leading journals that had been cited by more than 1,000 other scientists, and his finding that, within only a few years, almost a third of the papers had been refuted by other studies. Ioannidis argues that scientific research is so difficult — the sample sizes must be big and the analysis rigorous — that most research may end up being wrong, and the 'hotter' the field, the greater the competition is, and the more likely that published research in top journals could be wrong. Another study earlier this year found that among the studies submitted to the FDA about the effectiveness of antidepressants, almost all of those with positive results were published, whereas very few of those with negative results saw print, although negative results are potentially just as informative as positive (if less exciting)."
Security

TSA Employee Caught With $200K Worth of Stolen Property 655

The plane moves me or I move the plane? writes "After years of people complaining about their luggage locks being broken in the name of the Transportation Security Administration, and after countless properly-stowed utilities and tools had been scrutinized from a paranoid point of view, an employee of the TSA (which is part of the Department of Homeland Security) has been captured with evidence of over $200,000 worth of stolen property he was selling on eBay. With the help of local police and the USPS, a search of his house found a great deal of property pilfered from the un-witnessed searches that occurred after luggage had been checked, where the rightful owner was not allowed. 'Among the items seized were 66 cameras, 31 laptop computers, 20 cell phones, 17 sets of electronic games, 13 pieces of jewelry, 12 GPS devices, 11 MP3 players, eight camera lenses, six video cameras and two DVD players, the affidavit said.'"
Biotech

Submission + - Study Finds Banked Blood Not as Effective as Hoped (reuters.com)

URSpider writes: "A study by Duke Researchers, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that donated blood rapidly loses much of its ability to transfer oxygen, and that this loss is associated with the dissipation of the trace gas nitric oxide in as little as three hours after the blood is collected. This result explains previous findings that transfusion recipients did not fare as well as would be expected. The authors suggest that future work might focus on how to replace the lost nitric oxide, as well as to take a fresh look at the benefits of blood transfusion."
Communications

Submission + - Is VZ telling the truth about FIOS hookups? (house.gov)

Alexander Graham Cracker writes: As reported elsewhere http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-5701533-7.html & http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/07/AR2005050700178.html
Every time Verizontal has installed FIOS at a friend's house; they have insisted they have to cut off the copper and move your POTS to the glass. By doing so, they block anyone else such as COVAD or Cavalier from renting the copper for competitive access. Sources report that today, at the Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-ti-hrg.100207.Witness.List.pdf Thomas Tauke, Exec VP for Verizon, denied ever doing that. [The transcript should be up in a day or so.] Oh? I wonder if Dingell's Committee staff is interested in hearing from people where they did just that?
http://energycommerce.house.gov/membios/contact_form.shtml

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