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Submission + - Japan nuclear struggle focuses on cracked reactor (reuters.com) 1

Submitted by SillySnake
SillySnake writes: Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a crack in the pit at its No.2 reactor in Fukushima, generating readings 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour in the air inside the pit.

"With radiation levels rising in the seawater near the plant, we have been trying to confirm the reason why, and in that context, this could be one source," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said on Saturday.
Media

Submission + - Engineering of election debates (plosone.org) 1

Submitted by smolloy
smolloy writes: A recent innovation in televised election debates is a continuous response measure (the “worm”) that allows viewers to track the response of a sample of undecided voters in real-time. A potential danger of presenting such data is that it may prevent people from making independent evaluations. Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Bristol, report an experiment with 150 participants in which they manipulated the worm and superimposed it on a live broadcast of a UK election debate. The majority of viewers were unaware that the worm had been manipulated, and yet the researchers were able to influence their perception of who won the debate, their choice of preferred prime minister, and their voting intentions.
The Internet

Submission + - Vatican Warns that Internet Promotes Satanism 3

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes 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. "There is a particular risk for young people who are in difficulties or who are emotionally fragile." 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. "There's been a revival," says Father Gabriele Nanni, a former exorcist. "We must be on guard because occult and Satanist practices are spreading a great deal, in part with the help of the internet and new technologies that make it easier to access these rituals.""
Transportation

Submission + - Drug Runners Perfect Long Range Subs

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Jim Popkin writes that for decades, Colombian drug runners have pursued their trade with diabolical ingenuity, staying a step ahead of authorities by coming up with one innovation after another. Now authorities have captured a 74-foot camouflaged submarine—nearly twice as long as a city bus—with twin propellers and a 5-foot conning tower that with a crew of four to six, has a maximum operational range of 6,800 nautical miles on the surface, can go 10 days without refueling and was probably designed to ferry cocaine underwater to Mexico. “This is a quantum leap in technology,” says Jay Bergman, the DEA's top official in South America. “It poses some formidable challenges.” The vessel carries a payload of 9 tons of cocaine with a street value of about $250 million and uses a GPS chart plotter with side-scan capabilities, a high-frequency radio, an electro-optical periscope and an infrared camera mounted on the conning tower—visual aids that supplement two miniature windows in the makeshift cockpit. Smuggling huge rolls of Kevlar, four engines, 249 back-breaking batteries, and thousands of obscure marine parts to a remote equatorial shipyard takes patience, money, and cojones. But does building a homemade submarine also take real smarts? “This is the most sophisticated sub we’ve seen to date,” says Jon Wallace who has headed the Personal Submersibles Organization, or Psubs, for 15 years. “It’s a very good design in terms of shape and controls.” In the meantime jungle shipbuilders continue to perfect their craft. “These efforts have been in the making for at least 17 years, since the time of Escobar,” says Miguel Angel Montoya. “It would be realistic to assume that there is a sub en route to Mexico or Europe at this very moment.”"
Music

Submission + - CD ripper "incites law breaking" (pcpro.co.uk) 4

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "A British firm has been banned from advertising a CD ripping device because it "incites law breaking". The Brennan JB7 is “a CD player with a hard disk that stores up to 5,000 CDs”. The adverts for the Brennan highlight the convenience of ripping your entire CD collection to the device – much like we’ve all been doing for years on our PCs, iPods and other MP3 players. The Advertising Standards Authority has banned the ads after concluding "that the ad misleadingly implied it was acceptable to copy CDs, vinyl and cassettes without the permission of the copyright owner"."
Graphics

Company Seeks To Boost Linux Game Development With 3D Engine Giveaway 140

Posted by Soulskill from the for-services-rendered dept.
binstream writes "To support Linux game development, Unigine Corp. announced a competition: it will give a free license for its Unigine engine to a seasoned team willing to work on a native Linux game. The company has been Linux-friendly from the very start; it released advanced GPU benchmarks (Heaven, Tropics, Sanctuary) for Linux before and is working on the OilRush strategy game that supports Linux as well."
Censorship

Oregon Senator Stops Internet Censorship Bill 315

Posted by timothy from the west-coast-style dept.
comforteagle writes "Senator Wyden of Oregon has objected to a bill in committee that if passed would have given the government the ability to censor the Internet. His objection effectively stop its current passing, forcing it to be introduced again if the bill is to continue — which it may not. Oregonians, please send this man pats on the back."
Advertising

AMD Hates Laptop Stickers As Much As You Do 597

Posted by timothy from the boil-the-marketing-folks-in-goo dept.
pickens writes "David Pogue writes in the NY Times that when you buy a new Windows PC, it comes festooned with stickers on the palm rests: one for Windows, one for Skype, one for Intel, one for the laptop company, maybe an Energy Star sticker and so on. 'It's like buying a new, luxury car — and discovering that it comes with non-removable bumper stickers that promote the motor oil, the floor mat maker, the windshield-fluid company and the pine tree air freshener you have no intention of ever using,' writes Pogue. But the worst thing is that when you peel them off, they shred, leaving adhesive crud behind. 'When you've just spent big bucks on a laptop, should you really be obligated to spend the first 20 minutes trying to dissolve away the sticker goop with WD40?' But AMD has a solution. Starting next year, AMD will switch to new stickers that peel off easily, leaving no residue; after that, it's considering eliminating the sticker program altogether."

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