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Students Banned From Bringing Pencils To School 426

Posted by samzenpus from the watch-how-you-play dept.
mernilio writes "According to UPI: 'A Massachusetts school district superintendent said a memo banning sixth graders from carrying pencils was written without district approval. North Brookfield School District interim Superintendent Gordon Noseworthy said Wendy Scott, one of two sixth-grade teachers at North Brookfield Elementary School, did not get approval from administrators before sending the memo to all sixth-grade parents, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported Thursday. The memo said students would no longer be allowed to bring writing implements to school. It said pencils would be provided for students in class and any students caught with pencils or pens after Nov. 15 would face disciplinary action for having materials 'to build weapons.'"
Media

1928 Time Traveler Caught On Film? 685

Posted by samzenpus from the I-hate-time-travel-stories dept.
Many of you have submitted a story about Irish filmmaker George Clarke, who claims to have found a person using a cellphone in the "unused footage" section of the DVD The Circus, a Charlie Chaplin movie filmed in 1928. To me the bigger mystery is how someone who appears to be the offspring of Ram-Man and The Penguin got into a movie in the first place, especially if they were talking to a little metal box on set. Watch the video and decide for yourself.
Censorship

North Korea's Own OS, Red Star 316

Posted by timothy from the linux-is-sometimes-for-communists dept.
klaasb writes "North Korea's self-developed computer operating system, named 'Red Star,' was brought to light for the first time by a Russian satellite broadcaster yesterday. North Korea's top IT experts began developing the Red Star in 2006, but its composition and operation mechanisms were unknown until the internet version of the Russia Today TV program featured the system, citing the blog of a Russian student who goes to the Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang."

Comment Re:Because it's a gay site? Or is it because... (Score 1) 265

by bobdown2001 (#31279558) Attached to: Citibank Cancels Bank Account of Objectionable Blogger

Actually, my experience with Citibank is that they pretty much do hand out accounts on street corners. I can remember more than one occasion when I've been pounced on and hounded by their sales people while walking through an airport minding my own business.

Any organisation that feels they need to conduct business in that manner I stay well away from!

My new approach to them is try to keep my distance and avoid eye contact at all costs :P.
NASA

Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266

Posted by Soulskill from the new-perspective-on-an-old-tragedy dept.
longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."
Image

Australia Bans Small Breasts In Adult Films 8

Posted by samzenpus from the bigger-is-better dept.
mariushm writes "The Australian Sex Party (ASP) said Wednesday that the Australian Classification Board (ACB) is now banning depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. It comes just a week after it was found that material with depictions of females ejaculating during orgasm are now Refused Classification and Australian Customs directed to confiscate it. The National Classification Code dictates that anything that describes or depicts a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18 (whether the person is engaged in sexual activity or not) in a way that is likely to cause offense to a reasonable adult is Refused Classification." First they crack down on cartoon porn, and now this. It must be arbitrary sex law week in Australia.

Comment Re:Prices (Score 1) 289

by bobdown2001 (#29126405) Attached to: TomTom Releases iPhone Navigation App
It looks like the price has dropped, but maps for Australia are still $99.95 AUD which equals around $82 USD at the moment.

But the price of new maps is still so high that you might as well buy a new GPS with all the latest features, or go for the iPhone option.
Security

Submission + - Scammer plants a fake ATM at Defcon 17 (semiaccurate.com)

Submitted by
Groo Wanderer
Groo Wanderer writes: "Normally, a well crafted fake ATM would skim a lot of card information before it was noticed, if it was ever noticed at all. Because it is safer for the criminals and harder to prosecute, financial crimes like this are spreading fast. If you are smart, you don't try to pull one off in the middle of a computer security convention where the attendees are very good at spotting these scams. That said, some not so bright criminal tried to plant a fake ATM at Defcon. He now has one less fake ATM and a whole lot of investigators on his tail."
Space

Submission + - Experts Puzzled by Bright Spot on Venus 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "BBC reports that astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus first identified by US amateur astronomer Frank Melillo on 19 July and was later confirmed by the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft. "I have seen bright spots before but this one is an exceptional bright and quite intense area," says Melillo. The bright spot has started to expand since its first appearance, being spread by winds in Venus' thick atmosphere and scientists are unsure as to what is causing the bright spot tens of kilometers up although a volcanic eruption is a possibility. "A volcanic eruption would be nice, but let's wait and find out!" says Venus specialist Dr Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin. "An eruption would have to be quite energetic to get a cloud this high." Furthermore, at a latitude of 50 degrees south, the spot lies outside the region of known volcanoes on Venus. Another potential source for the bright spot are charged particles from the Sun interacting with Venus' atmosphere or alternatively, atmospheric turbulence may have caused bright material to become concentrated in one area. "Right now, I think it's anybody's guess," add Limaye."

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