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Comment Apparently "Reading Comprehension" isn't something (Score 1) 305

by snwyvern (#49958285) Attached to: Lawrence Krauss On the Pope's Encyclical: Not Even Close?

taught at MIT-

The author of the article makes a whole bucket of inferences which are taken out of context, or are just-plain-wrong. Anyone with a 12th grade education can read the front matter and establish the foolish gerrymandering on the part of the author. Perhaps he should stick to "Theoretical Physics."

Submission + - Stallman joins Internet, talks net neutrality, patents and more

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: According to Richard Stallman, godfather of the free software movement, Facebook is a “monstrous surveillance engine,” tech companies working for patent reform aren’t going nearly far enough, and parents must lobby their children’s schools to keep data private and provide free software alternatives. The free software guru touched on a host of topics in his keynote Saturday at the LibrePlanet conference, a Free Software Foundation gathering at the Scala Center at MIT.

Submission + - The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists introduces the Doomsday Dashboard (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: You probably know the hand on the Doomsday Clock now rests at 3 minutes to midnight. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has launched a pretty cool little interactive Dashboard that lets you see data that the Bulletin's Science and Security Board considers when making the decision on the Clock's time each year. There are interactive graphs that show global nuclear arsenals, nuclear material security breaches, and how much weapons-grade plutonium and uranium is stored (and where). The climate change section features graphs of global sea level rise over time, Arctic sea ice minimums. atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and differences in global temperature. There's also a section for research on biosecurity and emerging technologies. A fun little interactive feature.
The Internet

Vatican Warns That Internet Promotes Satanism 585

Posted by timothy from the perhaps-this-is-why-I'm-not-at-church dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that the Roman Catholic Church has warned that the internet has fueled a surge in Satanism that has led to a sharp rise in the demand for exorcists. 'The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Satanism. In just a few minutes you can contact Satanist groups and research occultism,' says Carlo Climati, a member of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome who specializes in the dangers posed to young people by Satanism. Organizers of a six-day conference that has brought together more than 60 Catholic clergy as well as doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers and youth workers, co-sponsored by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and the Congregation for Clergy, say the rise of Satanism has been dangerously underestimated in recent years."
Image

Police Investigating Virtual Furniture Theft 103

Posted by samzenpus from the someone-has-been-sleeping-in-my-virtual-bed dept.
krou writes "Finnish police are involved in the investigation of up to 400 cases of theft from virtual world Habbo Hotel, with some users reporting the loss of up to €1000 of virtual furniture and other items. Users were targeted using a phishing scam that used fake webpages to capture usernames and passwords. There is no mention as to whether or not the thieves made off with the bath towels, gowns, shampoo bottles, and soaps."
Image

Snails On Methamphetamine 93

Posted by samzenpus from the escargot-on-ice dept.
sciencehabit writes "Science answers the question: What happens when you put a snail on speed? From the article: 'The results suggest that meth improves memory, something that has been previously observed in creatures with large, complex brains like rats and humans. But since the snails store their memories in a simple, three-neuron network, the team hopes that studying the meth effect in these gastropods will help pinpoint how the drug's memory magnification powers work.'"
Input Devices

Digitizing and Geocoding Old Maps? 235

Posted by timothy from the walking-directions-rivendell-to-el-dorado dept.
alobar72 writes "I have quite a few old maps (several hundreds; 100+ years old, some are already damaged – so time is not on my side). What I want to do is to digitize them and to apply geo-coordinates to them so I can use them as overlays for openstreetmap data or such. Obviously I cannot put those maps onto my €80 scanner and go. Some of them are really large (1.5m x 1.5m roughly, I believe) and they need to be treated with great care because the paper is partly damaged. So firstly I need a method or service provider that can do the digitizing without damaging them. Secondly I need a hint what the best method is to apply geo coordinates to those maps then. The maps are old and landscape and places have changed, it maybe difficult to identify exact spots. So: are there any experiences or tips I could use?"
Social Networks

Xbox Live Now Allows Gender Expression 348

Posted by Soulskill from the good-on-you dept.
Last year we discussed news that an Xbox Live gamer was banned for identifying herself as a lesbian on her profile. Microsoft said at the time that nothing sexual in nature could appear in Gamertags or profiles. Now, they seem to have reconsidered their stance, and they've updated their Code of Conduct accordingly. Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten wrote: "[The update] will allow our members to more freely express their race, nationality, religion and sexual orientation in Gamertags and profiles. Under our previous policy, some of these expressions of self-identification were not allowed in Gamertags or profiles to prevent the use of these terms as insults or slurs. However we have since heard feedback from our customers that while the spirit of this approach was genuine, it inadvertently excluded a part of our Xbox LIVE community. This update also comes hand-in-hand with increased stringency and enforcement to prevent the misuse of these terms."
Image

Theme Park Searches For the Smelliest Urine 11

Posted by samzenpus from the it's-good-to-have-goals dept.
A Surrey theme park is looking for just the right stench for a new attraction, and that's why they need your pee. The park is offering a £500 cash prize to the person with the most pungent urine sample. In addition to the money, the winner's stink will be recreated and pumped into the new live action horror attraction, Saw Alive. Smells like a winner to me.

Comment Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score 1) 677

by snwyvern (#31066916) Attached to: Verizon Blocking 4chan

While this may (or may not be... time will tell... ianal, etc...) be true there are ISPs *AND* common carriers being sued as co-defendants in Federal District court *right now.* And for those same cases the motions to unglue to actions/defendants have been denied.
The Internet

Verizon Blocking 4chan 677

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the and-nothing-of-value-was-lost dept.
An anonymous reader writes "According to 4chan's owner and administrator 'moot,' Verizon has explicitly blocked all traffic on their network from boards.4chan.org, where all of 4chan's boards are located. Moot explains that only traffic to and from port 80 is being dropped and they were able to confirm that it was intentional. 4chan's downtime for Verizon users has been in effect for at least 72 hours since Saturday, February 7."
Earth

The Environmental Impact of PHP Compared To C++ On Facebook 752

Posted by Soulskill from the efficiency-is-overrated dept.
Kensai7 writes "Recently, Facebook provided us with some information on their server park. They use about 30,000 servers, and not surprisingly, most of them are running PHP code to generate pages full of social info for their users. As they only say that 'the bulk' is running PHP, let's assume this to be 25,000 of the 30,000. If C++ would have been used instead of PHP, then 22,500 servers could be powered down (assuming a conservative ratio of 10 for the efficiency of C++ versus PHP code), or a reduction of 49,000 tons of CO2 per year. Of course, it is a bit unfair to isolate Facebook here. Their servers are only a tiny fraction of computers deployed world-wide that are interpreting PHP code."

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