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Submission + - Let Them Eat Teslas

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If you're a bright kid who wants to prepare for the 21st century workforce (pdf) by studying engineering at Purdue, the government will help your parents pay the $100,000 or so tuition tab with a 7.9% interest loan (plus 4% fees) that's likely to be non-dischargeable in bankruptcy and paid back with after-tax money. If, on the other hand, you want to buy a tricked-out $100,000 Model S, Tesla has teamed up with the government, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bank on what it calls a 'Revolutionary New Finance Product' that enables those who play the game right to avoid paying sales tax, get the government to pick up the first $15,000 (no down payment needed!), and also receive a 2.95% bankruptcy-dischargeable loan for the balance, the payments for which could be tax-deductible. Yep, 'Revolutionary' may be about right!
Networking

Submission + - Open DNS Resolvers Center Stage in Massive DDoS Attacks (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: While the big traffic numbers and the spat between Spamhaus and illicit webhost Cyberbunker are grabbing big headlines, the underlying and percolating issue at play here has to do with the open DNS resolvers being used to DDoS the spam-fighters from Switzerland. Open resolvers do not authenticate a packet-sender’s IP address before a DNS reply is sent back. Therefore, an attacker that is able to spoof a victim’s IP address can have a DNS request bombard the victim with a 100-to-1 ratio of traffic coming back to them versus what was requested. DNS amplification attacks such as these have been used lately by hacktivists, extortionists and blacklisted webhosts to great success.
Science

Submission + - Gene Therapy Extends Mouse Lifespan (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by
Grond
Grond writes: "'Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre have demonstrated that the mouse lifespan can be extended by the application in adult life of a single treatment acting directly on the animal's genes. Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals' health, delaying the onset of age-related diseases — like osteoporosis and insulin resistance — and achieving improved readings on aging indicators like neuromuscular coordination.' Notably, the therapy did not cause an increase in the incidence of cancer."
Android

Submission + - Octave and gnuplot coming to Android (walkingrandomly.com) 1

Submitted by MathIsTasty
MathIsTasty writes: Recently, it was announced on the Octave-maintainers list that a Kickstarter campaign has been launched to bring Matlab style numerical computations and graphing to Android via a "more than" port of Octave and gnuplot. While, I doubt it will be as successful as some recent games on Kickstarter, is this a reasonable way to fund free software development? Now, we just have to worry about people working on simulating solar irradiation while driving. Here is a good blog post about the project.
Medicine

Submission + - Paralyzed Man Regains Hand Function after Breakthrough Nerve Rewiring Procedure (medicaldaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A 71-year-old man who became paralyzed from the waist down and lost all use of both hands in a 2008 car accident has regained motor function in his fingers after doctors rewired his nerves to bypass the damaged ones in a pioneering surgical procedure, according to a case study published on Tuesday.
Space

Submission + - Astronomers see *another* star torn apart by a black hole (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by
The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: "A star in a galaxy 2.7 billion light years away wandered too close to a supermassive black hole and suffered the ultimate fate: it was literally torn apart by the black hole's gravity. The event was seen as a flash of ultraviolet light flaring 350 times brighter than the galaxy itself, slowly fading over time. Astronomers were able to determine that some of the star's material was eaten by the black hole, and some flung off into space. Although rare, this is the second time such a thing has been seen; the other was just last year."

Submission + - Which comic books to start my 3 yr old with? 2

Submitted by JeepFanatic
JeepFanatic writes: I've never been one to read comic books however I've always enjoyed superheros. My 3 yr old son is really into superheros (especially Spiderman) and I thought it would be a fun thing to do together to start reading comics to him. Any suggestions on comics that would be more appropriate to start him out with?
Technology

Submission + - Berkeley Student Fills Dorm with Home Automation (electronichouse.com)

Submitted by
ElectronicHouseGrant
ElectronicHouseGrant writes: "Freshman Derek Low rigged up his Berkeley dorm room with something he calls B.R.A.D., which is short for “Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm.” The room includes automated lighting, drapes, music, motion detection, and more. He can control everything through voice recognition, but a wireless remote, his iPhone and his iPad are also in on the control party. Derek started the install on February 4 and finished just a few days ago."

Submission + - Pandemic bird flu research published (wisc.edu) 1

Submitted by
daveschroeder
daveschroeder writes: "After a marathon debate over a pair of studies that show how the avian H5N1 influenza virus could become transmissible in mammals, and an unprecedented recommendation by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to block publication, and its subsequent reversal, a study by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin–Madison was finally and fully published today in the journal Nature. The full journal article: Experimental adaptation of an influenza H5 HA confers respiratory droplet transmission to a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus in ferrets."
Government

Submission + - Twitter Leaks Obama's Visit To Afghanistan (itproportal.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: When you're the President of the United States, sometimes certain activities you're involved in can be hard to keep secret — and yesterday was no exception, after Twitter let it slip that Obama was secretly in Kabul. On Tuesday, the White House released a fabricated itinerary — consisting of all-day meetings in the Oval Office to cover up the fact that Obama was secretly flying to Afghanistan. Whilst only a few US journalists were aware of this event, by mid-morning, a lot more people were suddenly in on the revelation courtesy of Twitter. The first tweet to let the virtual cat out of the bag was Afghanistan news site TOLOnews which reported: "United States President Barack Obama has arrived in Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai." To the innocent public, it sounds like a great opportunity for the US President to become better acquainted with Afghanistan. To the not-so-innocent public? The perfect opportunity to launch a terrorist act.
Google

Submission + - Google Apps beats Office 365 for DOI contract (techworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "The U.S. Department of the Interior has picked Google Apps to provide cloud-based email and collaboration applications to about 90,000 staffers, choosing Google's services over Microsoft's Office 365. Google had sued the U.S. agency in 2010, claiming its requirements for the contract tilted the scales unfairly toward Microsoft. Google eventually dropped its lawsuit last September."
Security

Submission + - BART Defends Mobile Service Shutdown (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "In a filing to the FCC, Grace Crunican, BART's general manager, defended last August's mobile shutdown, saying that 'a temporary disruption of cell phone service, under extreme circumstances where harm and destruction are imminent, is a necessary tool to protect passengers.' Taking the opposing position, digital rights groups, including Public Knowledge, Free Press, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology, told the FCC that 'wireless interruption will necessarily prohibit the communications of completely innocent parties — precisely those parties closest to the site where the emergency is located or anticipated.'"
BSD

Submission + - Bug Busters! OpenBSD 5.1 released. (openbsd.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today the 31st release of OpenBSD has surfaced. As usual, it includes improved hardware support, OpenSSH 6.0, and over 7000 ports with major performance and stability improvements in the package build process(and some really cool stickers).
http://www.openbsd.org/51.html
Space

Submission + - Venus to Appear in Once-In-A-Lifetime Event (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by revealingheart
revealingheart writes: ScienceDaily reports that on 5 and 6 June this year, millions of people around the world will be able to see Venus pass across the face of the Sun in what will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It will take Venus about six hours to complete its transit, appearing as a small black dot on the Sun's surface, in an event that will not happen again until 2117.

Transits of Venus occur only on the very rare occasions when Venus and Earth are in a line with the Sun. At other times Venus passes below or above the Sun because the two orbits are at a slight angle to each other. Transits occur in pairs separated by eight years, with the gap between pairs of transits alternating between 105.5 and 121.5 years — the last transit was in 2004.

"We are fortunate in that we are truly living in a golden period of planetary transits and it is one of which I hope astronomers can take full advantage," writes Jay M Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College, Massachusetts.
Businesses

Submission + - IBM offers retirement with job guarantee through 2013 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: IBM is offering employees who are nearing retirement — and may be worried about a layoff — a one-time voluntary program that would ensure their employment through Dec. 31, 2013. The program, described in a letter addressed to IBM managers, "offers participants 70% of their pay for working 60% of their schedule." Participating employees would receive "the same benefits they do today, most at a full-time level, including health benefits and 401(k) Plus Plan automatic company contributions." IBM isn't offering the program in lieu of U.S. workforce cutbacks. In 2006, IBM employed about 127,000 in U.S. The Alliance@IBM, a CWA local, now estimates the U.S. workforce at around 95,000. How far IBM will go in cutting gets debate, including one radical estimate.

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