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Comment The observation is not completely new... (Score 1) 265

by omega_cubed (#34542390) Attached to: Statistical Analysis of Terrorism
According to this 2005 Nature News article about Clauset and his research, the observation that social interactions (deadly feuds) follow a power law distribution dates back at least half a century. Along a similar vein, Neil Johnson (of University of Miami) and research collaborators recently produced a decent model for this kind of distribution (see their paper in Nature from last year).

Submission + - Gawker Media's Commenter Database and CMS Hacked (mediaite.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Passwords and personal data for 1.3 million Gawker Media readers — this includes readers of sites like Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Kotaku, and io9 — has been released as a BitTorrent by a group of hackers called Gnosis, who also managed to gain access to both the Gawker CMS and Gizmodo's Twitter account.

Gawker confirms and urges readers to change their passwords: "Our user databases do indeed appear to have been compromised. The passwords were encrypted. But simple ones may be vulnerable to a brute-force attack. You should change the password on Gawker (GED/commenting system) and on any other sites on which you’ve used the same passwords. Out of an abundance of caution, you should also change your company email password and any passwords that may have appeared in your email messages.
We’re deeply embarrassed by this breach. We should not be in the position of relying on the goodwill of the hackers who identified the weakness in our systems."

Submission + - 'Grow your own transplant' May be Possible for Men

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Men with type 1 diabetes may be able to grow their own insulin-producing cells from their testicular tissue, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers who presented their findings today at the American Society of Cell Biology 50th annual meeting in Philadelphia. Their laboratory and animal study is a proof of principle that human spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) extracted from testicular tissue can morph into insulin-secreting beta islet cells normally found in the pancreas. And the researchers say they accomplished this feat without use of any of the extra genes now employed in most labs to turn adult stem cells into a tissue of choice.

Submission + - Righthaven Sues for Control of Drudge Report 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that in its latest case, Righthaven is seeking relief from copyright infringement by the Drudge Report website and by the Drudge Archives website and asking for a preliminary and permanent injunction against infringement on a photo copyright, control of the Drudge Report website and statutory damages up to $150,000. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Righthaven complains about the use of Denver Post photograph of a Transportation Security Administration agent patting down an airline passenger. Drudge displayed an unauthorized reproduction of the photo on the Drudge Report website on Nov. 18, according to the civil complaint. Shawn Mangano, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on Righthaven's behalf, says it is the first time Righthaven has sued over use of a copyrighted illustration. Righthaven also takes issue with the fact that the Drudge Report has no DMCA takedown regime to respond to those who allege violations of copyright. "I assume it's going to be very seriously litigated," says Mangano, noting that Drudge has substantial financial resources."
Medicine

Submission + - Energy breakthrough: dual solar/thermal conversion (blorge.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Fujitsu has built a device that can simultaneously harvest energy from either light or heat. They've reduced production costs by using the same cheap organic substrate for both conversion processes, while also doubling the potential amount of energy that can be collected. "Previously, dual harvesting of energy could only be done by combining two different devices," this article notes — and the device's solar converter can even draw energy from indoor lighting as well as direct sunlight. Fujitsu predicts the device will be especially useful for powering medical sensors, since the flexible substrate can be included in monitors which conform to the shape of the human body.

Submission + - Sculptor gives a 'hint' for Kryptos (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
omega_cubed
omega_cubed writes: "The New York Times reports that Jim Sanborn, the sculptor who created the wavy metal pane called Kryptos that sits in front of the CIA in Langley, VA, has gotten tired of waiting for code-breakers to decode the last of the four messages.

“I assumed the code would be cracked in a fairly short time,” [Sanborn] said, adding that the intrusions on his life from people who think they have solved his fourth puzzle are more than he expected. So now, after 20 years, Mr. Sanborn is nudging the process along. He has provided The New York Times with the answers to six letters in the sculpture’s final passage. The characters that are the 64th through 69th in the final series on the sculpture read NYPVTT. When deciphered, they read BERLIN.

"

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Thinky gifts for young kids? 3

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Societal norms and my sibling's procreative endeavors have put me in the position of having to buy gifts twice a year for young children. What makes them happy are unremarkable bits of plastic. They already have innumerable unremarkable bits of plastic (from their parents and grandparents). My preference would be to get them gifts that challenge them to think creatively (or at least to think), which they'll be able to pick up and enjoy even after they outgrow their train/truck/homemaking fetishes. Beyond the Rubick's Cube, what thinky toys from your childhood are still in production? What new thinky toys have you discovered that work for the 5 — 10 age range?

Submission + - Guy Fined For Posting Links To Official Broadcast (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by hcs_$reboot
hcs_$reboot writes: Over in Sweden, it appears that a guy has been fined for linking to an online broadcast of a hockey game. We've heard stories of people getting in trouble merely for linking to unauthorized content, but this story is even more ridiculous. The guy wasn't linking to unauthorized content. He was linking to an online video feed from the official broadcaster, Canal Plus.
The issue was that Canal Plus was apparently technically incompetent in how they set up the feeds, and never intended to make the feeds public.

Submission + - Earthquake hazard in Midwest equal to California? (failuremag.com)

Submitted by swellconvivialguy
swellconvivialguy writes: Next year marks the bicentennial of the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes, with earthquake drills and disaster tourism events planned across the Midwest, including the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut. But despite the fact that Earthquake Hazard Maps equate the New Madrid seismic zone with California, geologist Seth Stein says new science (especially GPS data) tells us the hazard has been significantly overestimated and that we should not spend billions on earthquake preparations in the Midwest.

Submission + - UK law body targets RIAA style settlement letters (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by PerformanceDude
PerformanceDude writes: The Register reports that a major UK law firm knew it sometimes had no reliable evidence of unlawful filesharing when it demanded hundreds of pounds damages from internet users, according to the solicitors' watchdog.

London-based Davenport Lyons threatened thousands of people with legal action for alleged copyright infringement between 2006 and 2009. They were told that by quickly paying around £500 damages, plus costs, they could avoid court.

Following complaints to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), Davenport Lyons now stands accused of deliberately ignoring concerns over the standard of its evidence.

Submission + - TV Tropes Self-Censoring under Google Pressure (tvtropes.org) 1

Submitted by
mvdwege
mvdwege writes: "The popular wiki TV Tropes, a site dedicated to the discussion of various tropes, clichés and other common devices in fiction has suddenly decided to put various of its pages behind a 'possibly family-unsafe' content warning, apparently due to pressure by Google withdrawing its ads.

What puzzles me most is the content that is put behind this warning. TV Tropes features no explicit sexual content, and no explicit violence. It does of course discuss these things, as is its remit, but without actual explicit depictions. In fact, something as relatively innocuous as children being raised by two females, whatever the reason are put behind the content warning, even if the page itself doesn't take a stand on the issue, merely satisfying itself by describing the occurence of this in fiction."
Facebook

Submission + - The Queen Joins Facebook (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by H3xx
H3xx writes: The Queen is set to have an official presence on Facebook when a British Monarchy page launches on the internet-based social networking site. Buckingham Palace says it is not a personal profile page, but users can "like" the service and receive updates on their news feed.

The Queen has reportedly embraced the web and sends e-mails. A British Monarchy Twitter feed is also available.

The Facebook page is due to go live from Monday morning. The page will also feature the Court Circular, recording the previous day's official engagements.

Comment Re: move along now (Score 1) 264

by omega_cubed (#33061210) Attached to: Possible Room Temperature Superconductor Achieved
This is informative? No serious mathematician takes the Erdös number as more than pure entertainment (for what it's worth, I am a professional mathematician). You are essentially advocating authority by association, which can rapidly degenerate into nepotism. I don't know about other fields, but mathematics is actually one field where truth can be judged (though sometimes it take ridiculously long) and reputation earned.

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