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NASA

Submission + - NASA Launches Giant Magnifying Glass into Space (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by ByronScott
ByronScott writes: Early this morning NASA kicked off Operation LENS, an ambitious plan to concentrate and collect solar power using a giant magnifying glass in outer space. Long speculated to be a rumor, the 7,000,000 ft. wide lens was fabricated over the course of the past 3 years and launched from Cape Canaveral much to the dismay of almost every scientist in the world. While the first phase went exactly as planned, the plan hit a major snag when the magnifying glass began to work a bit too well and ended up scorching large regions in the western hemisphere.

Submission + - Earthquake Predicted by Toads, Scientists Say (discovery.com)

Submitted by reillymj
reillymj writes: Research claims toads sensed a severe quake in last year five days before it hit. Last spring's L'Aquila earthquake devastated the medieval city of the same name in Italy. Five days earlier, a group of biologists noticed some toads behaving strangely in a pond nearby what would later be the quake's epicenter. Coincidence? These researchers think not.
Censorship

Submission + - Fixing Internet censorship in schools (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: Schools and libraries are hurting students by setting up heavy-handed Web filtering. The problem goes back for years. A filter blocked the Web site of former House Majoirty Leader Richard Armey because it detected the word "dick," according to a 2001 study from the Brennan Center of Justice. The purpose of schools should be to teach students to live in a democratic society, and that means teaching critical thinking and showing students controversial Web sites, says Craig Cunningham, a professor at National-Louis University. He quoted from a National Research Council study, "Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks ... [or] teach them to swim." Web filtering also leads to inequities in education based on household income. Students from more affluent areas have access to Internet at home and, often, more enlightened parents who can let them access information blocked in schools and libraries. Poorer students without home access don't have those opportunities

Submission + - Nuclear bunkers for sale on eBay (itworld.com)

Submitted by JimLynch
JimLynch writes: The British government scattered bunkers around the island during the Cold War, so that scientists hidden underground could track the spread of radiation in case the nuclear bombs started falling. Now, if you're interested in a two-room underground getaway spot in the middle of nowhere, with a chemical toilet, you can bid for one online for as little as $4200.
Government

Submission + - FBI wants records kept of Websites visited for 2yr (cnet.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: FBI wants records kept of Web sites visited for 2 years:

The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes.

FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users' "origin and destination information," a bureau attorney said at a federal task force meeting on Thursday.

As far back as a 2006 speech, Mueller had called ( http://news.cnet.com/2100-7348_3-6126877.html ) for data retention on the part of Internet providers, and emphasized the point two years later when explicitly asking Congress ( http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9926803-38.html ) to enact a law making it mandatory. But it had not been clear before that the FBI was asking companies to begin to keep logs of what Web sites are visited, which few if any currently do.

The FBI is not alone in renewing its push for data retention. As CNET reported ( http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10446503-38.html ) earlier this week, a survey of state computer crime investigators found them to be nearly unanimous in supporting the idea. Matt Dunn, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Department of Homeland Security, also expressed support for the idea during the task force meeting.

CNET News : http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10448060-38.html
Idle

Submission + - TSA plays joke on traveller at screening (philly.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As a 22 year old female student at the University of Michigan went through security at Philadelphia International Airport, a TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him. Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on — the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder. Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK. After 20 seconds of crying, the TSA agent waved the baggie. It was his, and it was all a joke. Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman, said this afternoon that the worker is no longer employed by the agency as of today. She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own.
Government

Submission + - Supreme Court Takes Texting Privacy Case (nytimes.com)

Submitted by TaggartAleslayer
TaggartAleslayer writes: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a police department violated the constitutional privacy rights of an employee when it inspected personal text messages sent and received on a government pager.

The case opens a new frontier in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, according to a three-judge panel of an appeals court that ruled in favor of the employee, a police sergeant on the Ontario, Calif., SWAT team.
Space

Submission + - Super Earths discovered orbiting 61 Virginis (sciencedaily.com) 1

Submitted by likuidkewl
likuidkewl writes: Two super Earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away.

"These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away," said Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC.

And yes, it was hard not to type virgins.

Comment No travel allowed (Score 1) 186

by mcclk (#30358928) Attached to: What Do You Look For In a Conference?
Honestly, right now it's just hard. I have plenty of conferences that I would love to attend, but my organization won't pay for any travel at all. I've encountered a couple that are offering webcasts of sessions at a discounted price, and my org. will often allow that - it's the travel piece that they won't pay for. So, if webcasting sessions is an option, that might be a way to up attendance. Especially if you can make it so people can just pay for the sessions they want to attend.
Google

Submission + - Google CEO Says Privacy Worries Are For Wrongdoers (gawker.com) 2

Submitted by bonch
bonch writes: In a surprising statement on CNBC, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told reporter Maria Bartiromo, 'If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.' This will only fuel concerns about Google's behavior as it becomes a powerful gatekeeper of information, though Google says it's aware of its growth and has taken steps to be transparent to users about the information they store.

Submission + - F.C.C. May Pry Open the Cable Set-Top Box (nytimes.com)

Submitted by awyeah
awyeah writes: The New York Times reports that the FCC is finally looking into the practice of cable companies requiring use of their set-top boxes to access their digital cable and video on demand services. The inquiry states "Consumers can access the Internet using a variety of delivery methods (e.g., wireless, DSL, fiber optics, broadband over powerlines, satellite, and cable) on myriad devices made by hundreds of manufacturers; yet we know of no device available at retail that can access all of an MVPD's services across that MVPD's entire footprint."

Yes, there are a few devices out there — for example CableCARD-enabled TVs, and CableCARD/Tuning Adapter-enabled TiVos and Windows Media Center PCs, but only the cable companies' set-tops can access services other than broadcast TV, such as video-on-demand and pay-per-view.

Is it finally time to open these devices and embrace actual standards and competition?

Comment Try Wilma? (Score 1) 232

by mcclk (#29808039) Attached to: What Desktop Search Engine For a Shared Volume?
I've used this program with some of my users on a large network volume that they needed to do keyword searches on. The initial index build takes time (although not days), but subsequent updates are fast, and searching is super-fast. You can tell it what file types to index, too, which is nice. Everyone I've installed it for loves it, even though we have enterprise content management - they just find this easier to use and faster. http://s3.amazonaws.com/redtree/wilma/en/help/index.html

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