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Comment bungled identity theft gave me a boost (Score 1) 190

Someone (I always suspected a neighbour was involved, but without any proof I kept my suspicions to myself) once used my identity to get a 'platinum' credit card issued in my name, and spent a few hundred pounds on some item or other. I knew nothing about it until a bill arrived, which was alarming as I did not use credit cards at all back then. The card company was amazingly helpful, and cancelled the entire amount, with very little effort on my part. A while later, not long after I'd lost my job, a new platinum card arrived at my address. The card had a fairly hefty spending limit, and I just happened to be in need of some ready credit, so I dove right in as the saying goes. That was four years ago and I've been using the card ever since, though I am in good standing because I never miss the repayments.

Submission + - Chinese scientists claim to have genetically modified human embryos (nature.com)

Annanag writes: There were rumours — but now it's been confirmed. Chinese scientists have attempted the ethically questionable feat of genetically modifying human embryos. The scientists try to head off ethical concerns by using 'non-viable' embryos, which cannot result in a live birth, obtained from local fertility clinics. The study is a landmark — but also a cautionary tale.

Submission + - Security Companies Accused Of Exaggerating Iran's Cyberthreats Against The U.S. (dailydot.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A widely-read report accusing Iran of hundreds of thousands of cyberattacks against the U.S. is being criticized as hugely inaccurate as well as motivated by marketing and politics, according to a new whitepaper and critics around the security industry. The original report, solicited by a conservative think tank and published by Norse in the lead up to the RSA Security Conference, hit the front page of the New York Times by calling handshakes and network scans "sophisticated cyberattacks."

Submission + - Hubble finds something astronomers can't explain

schwit1 writes: The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the explosion of a star that does not fit into any theory for stellar evolution.

The exploding star, which was seen in the constellation Eridanus, faded over two weeks — much too rapidly to qualify as a supernova. The outburst was also about ten times fainter than most supernovae, explosions that destroy some or all of a star. But it was about 100 times brighter than an ordinary nova, which is a type of surface explosion that leaves a star intact. "The combination of properties is puzzling," says Mario Livio, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "I thought about a number of possibilities, but each of them fails" to account for all characteristics of the outburst, he adds.

We can put this discovery on the bottom of a very long list of similar discoveries by Hubble, which this week is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its launch.

Comment Re:Solar Lanterns already available (Score 1) 143

Maybe they did it to justify the West dumping all the broken electronics onto a barge and sailing it to India where it becomes somebody else's problem.

This was my first thought. Sounds like a scheme to export an ever-increasing scrap battery problem to the under-developed world, while circumventing the over-developed world's stricter regulations about safe disposal.

India has an average of between 2000 and 3000 hours of sunshine a year, depending on the region, making a far stronger case for solar power and other innovative lighting solutions, such as the recycled plastic bottle solar pipe light mentioned by thunderclap.

Submission + - Canada's Ebola Vaccine Nets Millions for Tiny US Biotech Firm (thestar.com) 1

Anita Hunt (lissnup) writes: Iowa-based NewLink Genetics has secured a US$50million deal with pharmaceutical giant Merck for the experimental Ebola vaccine developed by Canadian government scientists. NewLink bought the exclusive commercial licensing rights to Canada’s VSV-EBOV in 2010 with a milestone payment of just US$205,000. This is an interesting new twist in a story previously discussed on /. and which continues to draw media attention.

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