Comment CT scanners already in use at PHX (Score 1) 125
They are already using CT scans at PHX airport. It is much more convenient, I didn't even have to take my laptops out of my bag.
Comment Amusing Ourselves to Death (Score 1) 140
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by educator Neil Postman. Written about TV, but equally applicable to what the internet has become today.
The book's origins lay in a talk Postman gave to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984. He was participating in a panel on Orwell's 1984 and the contemporary world. In the introduction to his book Postman said that the contemporary world was better reflected by Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, whose public was oppressed by their addiction to amusement, than by Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, where they were oppressed by state control.
Submission + - Tools, Techniques, Procedures of the RSA hackers revealed
An anonymous reader writes: Details of the tools, techniques and procedures used by the hackers behind the RSA security breach have been revealed in a research paper published by Australian IT security company Command Five. The paper also, for the first time, explains links between the RSA hack and other major targeted attacks. This paper is a vendor-neutral must-read for any network defenders concerned by the hype surrounding "Advanced Persistent Threats".
Oklahoma Ambulances Debut Sirens That You Can Feel 128
djupedal writes "Booming like a 1980s video game, the Howler can even make liquids ripple — Oklahoma's largest ambulance company will become the first ambulance service in the nation to outfit its entire fleet with new Howler sirens, designed to emit low-frequency tones that penetrate objects within 200 feet — such as cars — to alert drivers." This is all well and fine, but I wonder what they plan to do when their sirens call up one of the big worms from deep below?
Music Decoded From 600-Year-Old Carvings 243
RulerOf writes "Musicians recently unlocked a 600 year old mystery that had been encoded into the walls of the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, the one featured in The Da Vinci Code. The song was carved into the walls of the chapel in the form of geometric shapes that a father-son team — both are musicians and the father is an ex-Royal Air Force code breaker — finally matched to so-called Chladni patterns (see the Wikipedia article on cymatics). The recovered melody was paired with traditional lyrics (translated into Latin) and recorded; the result can be heard in this video (also linked from the musicians' website). The video also gives a visual representation of how the engravings match up to the cymatic patterns." From the Reuters article: "'The music has been frozen in time by symbolism... [The carvings] are of such exquisite detail and so beautiful that we thought there must be a message here.' The two men matched each of the patterns on the carved cubes to a Chladni pitch, and were able finally to unlock the melody."
Feed New Computer Processor Has The Potential Of Reaching Trillions Of Calculations P (sciencedaily.com)
The prototype for a revolutionary new general-purpose computer processor, which has the potential of reaching trillions of calculations per second, has been designed and built by a team of computer scientists.
Feed Sea Snails Break The Law (sciencedaily.com)
Lizards gave rise to legless snakes. Cave fishes don't have eyeballs. In evolution, complicated structures often get lost. Dollo's Law states that complicated structures can't be re-evolved because the genes that code for them were lost or have mutated. A group of sea snails breaks Dollo's law, according to scientists.
Feed Lead-'scrubbing' Drug May Also Improve Muscle Function In Lead-exposed Children (sciencedaily.com)
Environmental health researchers say a therapy commonly used to remove dangerously high levels of lead from the body may also improve muscle functions associated with postural balance and movement in lead-exposed children.
Feed Hibernating Bears Conserve More Muscle Strength Than Humans On Bed Rest Do (sciencedaily.com)
A new study quantifiably measures the loss of strength and endurance in black bears during long periods of hibernation. The scientists found that black bears in hibernation lost about one-half as much skeletal muscle strength as did humans confined to bed rest for similar periods of time.
Journal Journal: More On Ohio 3
Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?
The answer appears to be yes.
Actually, no.
Journal Journal: If you're a PHB or thinking about becoming one
A couple of months ago, I discovered a podcast called Manager Tools.
Journal Journal: Rites of passage are more than just for teenagers 2
Everyone knows about the coming of age things that kids have to do or go through or whatever. But more and more, there are additional events/rites/etc for middle aged people.
Some of these have been around for ages, things like getting married and having kids. These are big changes in life and are definitely a trial of your endurance and patience and how grown up you are.
Journal Journal: Slashdot just isn't "it" anymore 2
My current gig is working on a major newspaper's website. Now that I have access to logs and stuff of a MSM, it is very interesting to see where the traffic comes from—and slashdot doesn't really figure into the mix, even though we've been linked.
The three biggest sources of hits are Drudge, Digg and Fark, in that order, with Drudge being larger than #2 by an order of magnitude.
Submission + - Patent Reform Legislation Hits The U.S. Congress
mrneutron2004 writes: Finally, someone on Capital Hill woke up and noticed how utterly absurd modern patent law. Abuse of patent law has spiraled out of control in the digital age, with many companies being taken to the cleaners for significantly huge sums over what we feel are extremely vague patents. Two congressmen from both parties have begun forcing through legislation to significantly cap patent infringement awards. Let's hope that alongside this potentially positive development, the U.S. Judiciary will get involved in self-education. As large an issue is a judiciary that fundamentally doesn't understand technology, and the absurdly vague patents and suits thereof that cycle through our legal system.
http://www.fastsilicon.com/latest-news/patent-refo rm-legislation-hits-the-u.s.-congress.html?Itemid= 60
Feed Satellite duo performs space pas de deux (pheedo.com)
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Thus spake the master programmer: "When a program is being tested, it is too late to make design changes." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
