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NASA

Submission + - Amazon's Jeff Bezos Expeditions recovers pieces of Apollo 11 rockets (bezosexpeditions.com)

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: So Jeff Bezos has been spending his time lately fishing up old parts of the Apollo 11 rockets. Neat stuff! I will let y'all read his words, I do not think I could be so elegant.

From his blog "What an incredible adventure. We are right now onboard the Seabed Worker headed back to Cape Canaveral after finishing three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface. We found so much. We’ve seen an underwater wonderland – an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program. We photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces. Each piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of engineers who worked together back then to do what for all time had been thought surely impossible."
ISS

Submission + - Sarah Brightman's ISS Trip in Peril

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Actress/singer Sarah Brightman's trip to the International Space Station may not happen in 2015 as scheduled.

Space Adventures works with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) to fly private citizens like Brightman on Soyuz taxi flights. Those taxi missions normally last eight days, but NASA and Roscosmos are considering a plan to extend the 2015 taxi flight to one month, so it can carry a scientist to perform some additional research aboard ISS. If that happens, Brightman will lose her seat.

This situation points to the need for more flexible transportation options and new orbital facilities which are not subject to the same operational restrictions as ISS. SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada are working on the transportation problem, while Bigelow Aerospace expects to begin launching its Space Station Alpha in 2015. So, the era of citizen astronauts visiting ISS may be drawing to a close."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - The Pirate Bay's Oldest Torrent is "Revolution OS" (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by
jrepin
jrepin writes: "After nearly 9 years of seeding The Pirate Bay’s oldest working torrent is still very much alive. Interestingly, the torrent is not a Hollywood classic nor is it an evergreen music album. The honor goes to a pirated copy of “Revolution OS”, a documentary covering the history of Linux, GNU and the free software movement."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft to abandon Windows Phone? (wmpoweruser.com)

Submitted by symbolset
symbolset writes: Microsoft has had some trouble as of late getting adoption of their mobile products. Even Bill Gates has said it was inadequate. Despite rave reviews of Windows Phone in the press it has failed to get double digit share of the smartphone market. Now comes reports from WMPoweruser that WP8 will lose mainstream support in July 2014, before even Windows Phone 7.8.

Is this evidence that Microsoft will give up their quest for mobile relevance?
Displays

Submission + - USC Launches 3D Printed VR Headset Library (roadtovr.com)

Submitted by
Hesh
Hesh writes: "The University of Southern California has launched a website (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/) that contains the blueprints for many of their custom VR headsets as well as new mods to the much anticipated yet unreleased Oculus Rift (http://oculusvr.com). Some are helping push DIY VR forward through custom sensor mounts to support, for example, stereo cameras (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/oculus-sensor-mount/) and others add more functionality like new eye cups (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/eye-cups-for-oculus-rift/) to help increase the already large FOV of the headset. This is truly an exciting time for VR and by GDC developers will already have Rifts in hand and tinkerers can 3D print their own designs now as well!"
Games

Submission + - Saints Row IV Announced (kotaku.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The cartoon heroes are back, with even stronger superpowers. Set to be released this autumn, the next open-world installment of Saints Row, Deep Silver Volition continues the story of the Third Street Saints by elevating their status to the highest level – the leaders of the free world. In Saints Row IV, the head honcho of the Saints has been elected to the Presidency of the United States. Saints Row IV lets players delve into an arsenal of alien weaponry and technology that will turn each Saint into an ultimate entity of destruction. The player utilizes out-of-this-world superpowers to fight all the way to the top. With intensified action and enhanced customization, the protagonists can use their newfound superpowers and leap over buildings, outrun the fastest sports cars, or send enemies flying with telekinesis in the most insane installment of Saints Row yet.
Science

Submission + - Berkely scientists plan to "Jurassic Park" some extinct pigeons back to life (wired.com) 1

Submitted by
phenopticon
phenopticon writes: "Researchers at Berkeley have decided to attempt to revive the extinct passenger pigeon in order to set up a remote island theme park full of resurrected semi-modern extinct animals. Well, they're doing the first part anyway. Maybe not so much the part about the remote island.

About 1,500 passenger pigeons inhabit museum collections. They are all that’s left of a species once perceived as a limitless resource. The birds were shipped in boxcars by the tons, sold as meat for 31 cents per dozen, and plucked for mattress feathers. But in a mere 25 years, the population shrank from billions to thousands as commercial hunters decimated nesting flocks. Martha, the last living bird, took her place under museum glass in 1914."

Submission + - New Process for Nanoscale Filtration Holds Promise of Cheap, Clean Water (reuters.com)

Submitted by Spinnakker
Spinnakker writes: Lockheed Martin, traditionally known for its development military systems and aircraft, has developed a process for perforating graphene (carbon sheets only one atom thick) that could potentially reduce the energy required for desalination by two orders of magnitude. The process tailors the hole size to the molecules being separated. In the case of desalination, one would create holes in the graphene large enough to allow water to pass but small enough to block the salt molecules. The advantage to using graphene comes from how extremely thin the material is compared to traditional filters. The thinner the filter the less energy is required to facilitate reverse osmosis.

Submission + - Minecraft 1.5 "Redstone" Released (mojang.com)

Submitted by
kdogg73
kdogg73 writes: "Jens Bergensten and the Mojang team have released the latest version of Minecraft 1.5 dubbed Redstone. Changes and updates include an added redstone comparator, redstone block, hoppers and droppers, light and weight sensors, Herobrine removal and many bug fixes among other things. Videos detailing the changes and new redstone devices already litter youtube."
Science

Submission + - The Higg's Boson exists! (nytimes.com) 3

Submitted by FBeans
FBeans writes: New York Times:
"Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago, which will go a long way toward explaining what gives electrons and all matter in the universe size and shape."

So it's back to the LHC to find out what type of Higg's Boson this is.

From The Independant:
"Cern says that confirming what type of boson the particle is could take years and that the scientists would need to return to the Large Hadron Collider — the world's largest 'atom smasher' — to carry out further tests. This will measure at what rate the particle decays and compare it with the results of predictions, as theorised by Edinburgh professor Peter Higgs 50 years ago."

Good Job SCIENCE!
Science

Submission + - If violent video games make people violent, so do pictures of snakes. (gamasutra.com)

Submitted by
phenopticon
phenopticon writes: "For nearly thirty years we’ve been having this discussion, asking the question: do violent movies, music or video games make people violent? Well according to Brad Bushman and Craig Anderson of Iowa State University, yes. Based on the results of their research they concluded in 2001 that video games and violent media can make people aggressive and violent. Based upon their data and their conclusions, however, it’s safe to say that photos of snakes, crispy bacon, or a particularly rigorous game of chess can also make people aggressive and violent."
Your Rights Online

Submission + - 9th Circuit Appeals Court: 4th Amendment Applies At The Border (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Techdirt reports:

"Here's a surprise ruling. For many years we've written about how troubling it is that Homeland Security agents are able to search the contents of electronic devices, such as computers and phones at the border, without any reason. The 4th Amendment only allows reasonable searches, usually with a warrant. But the general argument has long been that, when you're at the border, you're not in the country and the 4th Amendment doesn't apply. This rule has been stretched at times, including the ability to take your computer and devices into the country and search it there, while still considering it a "border search," for which the lower standards apply. Just about a month ago, we noted that Homeland Security saw no reason to change this policy.

Well, now they might have to. "

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