Comment Hee hee (Score 0) 241
ha ha ha
Submission + - Google Earth highlights Darfur
jc42 writes: NPR, PCworld, and some 400 other news sources (according to Google News) are reporting on a new Google feature: Google Earth, in cooperation with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum now presents details of the growing disaster in Darfur. They give a virtual tour of the area, with details of events in many villages in the words of local residents. So in addition to their "Do no evil" motto, they apparently now have a policy of exposing evil. Needless to say, the Sudan government didn't exactly cooperate with this project.
Feed Don't Sue DontDateHimGirl In The Wrong State (techdirt.com)
There were already plenty of problems with the lawsuit filed by a guy upset about what some women wrote about him on a site called dontdatehimgirl.com. It has been widely discussed that the lawsuit against the site was poorly aimed, since the site was protected against libel charges under section 230 of the CDA. The site is just a service provider, which played no role in writing or verifying the content posted to the site, and therefore should have no liability for the content. However, it appears there was another problem with the suit: jurisdiction. The original lawsuit has been tossed out of a Pennsylvania court, with the judge noting that he has no jurisdiction over the site, which is based in Florida. With that, the liability issue wasn't even addressed -- but could certainly come back up if the suit is refiled in Florida.
Feed iTunes customers to hear MGM's roar (com.com)
Blog: Apple has added MGM's films to the list of movies available through the iTunes Store, which now has over 500 movies.MGM's famous...
Journal Journal: Georgia Tech Unveils Prototype Nanogenerator 208
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a working prototype nanogenerator capable of generating as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter of continuous direct current. The generators are green (to use), drawing power from natural motion in the surrounding environment. They are based on non-toxic chemicals and should be safe for use in biomechanical implants, but that's not their only potential use. From the artic
Feed Lithium Builds Gray Matter In Bipolar Brains (sciencedaily.com)
Neuroscientists have shown that lithium, long the standard treatment for bipolar disorder, increases the amount of gray matter in the brains of patients with the illness.
Chinese Govt Limits Kids to 3hrs of Online Gaming 299
1MC writes "The Chinese govt is requiring game houses to modify MMOG's to restrict under 18 users to 3 hours "productive" gameplay per day. This "anti-addiction" software must be in place within 4 months, with games not compliant by July 15 liable to be shut down in China. Net9, Shanda and NetEase will be moving to comply with the government regulations. Users will have to register with their real names and Chinese identity card numbers to be allowed access to the games."
Feed Verifying The Authenticity Of Organic Foods (sciencedaily.com)
The supermarket sign in the produce aisle says "organic" and the higher price lends credence. But is that organically grown fruit or vegetable authentic or a mislabeled version of some conventionally grown crop?
Feed Personal trainer uses Wii for workouts (engadget.com)
Filed under: Gaming, Household
As anyone who's managed to get their hands on a Wii will no doubt have already discovered, it's relatively easy to work up a sweat and lose some pounds using Nintendo's little white box. Now, the real life activity that's required to succeed at virtual Wii Sports has been picked up on by a personal trainer from Glasgow, Scotland: Zander Urquhart found that kids and adults alike don't mind doing exercise when it's accompanied by on-screen actions by the player's Mii, and is using the Wii specifically as an exercise machine. Zander is apparently the first fitness expert to have seen the potential for the Wii in the field of personal training, but we have a strong feeling he won't be the last. Even if the idea doesn't catch on, we suspect he'll have a healthy stream of geeky customers coming into the gym as long as the Wii stock shortage continues to exist (which, judging by the sporadic shortages of the 10 month old DS Lite, could be some time yet). Be honest with us: have you lost any weight thanks to your Wii?[Via The Raw Feed. Image credit]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
RMS Explains GPLv3 Draft 3 139
H4x0r Jim Duggan writes "A transcript is now online of a talk Richard Stallman gave in Brussels earlier this week about the discussion draft 3 of GPLv3. Among other things, he explained how it will address the Novell-MS deal, from Novell's point of view and from Microsoft's, and he explained how the tivoisation clause was narrowed to make it more acceptable in the hope that it will be used by more people. After the talk he also gave an interview, and yesterday, draft 2 of LGPLv3 was released."
Bookmark Massage, acupuncutre ease pain after cancer surgery (cmpost.com)
Feed Agency Tasked With Keeping Nuclear Secrets Can't Keep Track Of Its Computers (techdirt.com)
Stories about government agencies losing computers with sensitive information have become depressingly common. Last month it was revealed that the FBI tends to lose three or four laptops every month, either through theft or carelessness. But the FBI can feel better about itself knowing it's not the only agency with this problem. An audit of the National Nuclear Security Agency found that it's lost 20 desktop computers (how do you misplace those?) and that some of the computers it is using were not part of its official inventory. Since the NNSA's job is to safeguard the country's nuclear secrets, this news is not particularly comforting. What makes it even worse is the fact that the agency has failed 13 of these audits over the last four years, so it's not as though this news could be characterized as a wake up call that will prompt better practices. Nope, it looks like the government, across many agencies, is chronically ill-equipped to keep track of its own belongings (though it's not as if that's any surprise).
Submission + - The Term Paper is Dead
gyges writes: The Washington Post picked up an article I wrote on the current outcry in academic circles over cut-and-paste plagiarism based on the following premise:
Plagiarism today is heavily invested with morality surrounding intellectual honesty. That is laudable. But truly distinguishing plagiarism is a matter of intent. Did I mean to copy, was it accidental (a trick of memory), was it polygenesis. Up until now, intent has largely been determined at a functional level (how many lines show up in another source) and the burden of proof weighs heavily against a student.
Now lets add, Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, and TurnItIn.com into the equation. Lets go a few years down the road and assume Google has finished scanning the Harvard library, Amazon has expanded there available chapter views, and both Wikipedia and TurnItIn have tripled in size (say 7 years). How many students, writing term papers on old chestnuts like Jane Eyre are going to be able to write a full paper without having several sentences with an 80-100% match with some other source.
So, if schools continue to use papers as primary assessment tools; (I had college classes where papers were 100% of my grade, and 60% or so in high school) and you can fail a paper or be expelled for plagiarism of as little as 2-3 lines; there is a visible point where this system will break down. Schools need to develop more comprehensive systems that include the paper, oral reporting, in class writing, and more in proper ratios. If they do not many innocent students will have their academic careers derailed and schools and teachers will waste millions of dollars on tools (like TurnItIn) that are only assuring they will see an "increase" in plagiarism because there is only one way to write "George Washington was the first President of the United States".
Finally, schools view this so narrowly as a morality issue, that most do not help students to develop the "plagiarizing" skills I use at work on a daily bias. Worse students frequently leave schools thinking that the rules of plagiarism are law, when the real laws are copyright and far more nuanced. It would be nice to see schools develop more models where they synthesize (through a combination of copying and original thought) multiple documents into a complete, single-voiced whole.
Plagiarism today is heavily invested with morality surrounding intellectual honesty. That is laudable. But truly distinguishing plagiarism is a matter of intent. Did I mean to copy, was it accidental (a trick of memory), was it polygenesis. Up until now, intent has largely been determined at a functional level (how many lines show up in another source) and the burden of proof weighs heavily against a student.
Now lets add, Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, and TurnItIn.com into the equation. Lets go a few years down the road and assume Google has finished scanning the Harvard library, Amazon has expanded there available chapter views, and both Wikipedia and TurnItIn have tripled in size (say 7 years). How many students, writing term papers on old chestnuts like Jane Eyre are going to be able to write a full paper without having several sentences with an 80-100% match with some other source.
So, if schools continue to use papers as primary assessment tools; (I had college classes where papers were 100% of my grade, and 60% or so in high school) and you can fail a paper or be expelled for plagiarism of as little as 2-3 lines; there is a visible point where this system will break down. Schools need to develop more comprehensive systems that include the paper, oral reporting, in class writing, and more in proper ratios. If they do not many innocent students will have their academic careers derailed and schools and teachers will waste millions of dollars on tools (like TurnItIn) that are only assuring they will see an "increase" in plagiarism because there is only one way to write "George Washington was the first President of the United States".
Finally, schools view this so narrowly as a morality issue, that most do not help students to develop the "plagiarizing" skills I use at work on a daily bias. Worse students frequently leave schools thinking that the rules of plagiarism are law, when the real laws are copyright and far more nuanced. It would be nice to see schools develop more models where they synthesize (through a combination of copying and original thought) multiple documents into a complete, single-voiced whole.
Feed JavaScript Hijacking (schneier.com)
Private File Sharing To Remain/Become legal In EU 147
orzetto writes "Italian newspapers are reporting that the European parliament's Commitee for Legal Affairs approved an amendment presented by EMP Nicola Zingaretti (PSE, IT), that makes piracy a felony—but only if a monetary profit is made. As in the EU parliament's press release: 'Members of the Legal Affairs' committee [...] decided that criminal sanctions should only apply to those infringements deliberately carried out to obtain a commercial advantage. Piracy committed by private users for personal, non-profit purposes are therefore also excluded.' The complete proposal was passed with 23 votes in favour, 3 against and 3 abstained, and is intended to be applied to copyright, trademark, design and other IP fields, but not patent right which is explicitly excluded. The proposal has still to pass the vote of the parliament before becoming law in all EU countries, some of which (like Italy) do have criminal laws in place for non-profit file sharing. A note: Most EU countries use civil law, not common law. Translation of legal terms may be misleading."
Slashdot Top Deals
Neutrinos have bad breadth.
