Evidence that L. Rob Hubbard plagiarised Scientology from a 1934 German book called "Scientologie." The text seems to map to various hoo-haw from the cult's official doctrine, too.
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(Thanks, Marilyn!)
The slowdown in the US economy appears to have reached the internet giant Google as its share price closed at its lowest for nine months. By Jemima Kiss Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 11:15 am
Scientists from the University of Oslo announced their discovery of a fossilized, 150 million-year-old “sea monster” on Spitspergen, in the Arctic island chain of Svalbard.The 50 ft. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:48 am
By Evan Ackerman The Optimus keyboard is pretty and all, but it’s awfully flat and keyboardy. The Zen Sandbox PC may be monochrome, but it uses some kind of conceptual “z-axis” electronic... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:40 am
An anonymous reader writes to let us know that the Encyclopedia of Life opened up to the public today with its first 30,000 pages in place — and, according to the AP, promptly crumbled even before being Slashdotted. (The site seems fine now.) We discussed this project last year when it was announced. The Telegraph has an overview of the launch, and reports that only 25 "exemplar" pages on the site are fully fleshed out to the extent scientists hope eventually to attain for all species; the other few tens of thousands are expanded placeholders. The project hopes to begin taking input from citizen-scientists late this year.
A lot of people scratched their heads when Etsy raised $27 million. What on earth? Handmade goods, that's about as low tech as you can get! Then Umair Haque, a well respected blogger and strategist -... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 9:42 am
Australia and New Zealand agreed Wednesday to work together to tackle climate change now that the new government in Canberra has signed up to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 9:39 am
By Andrew Liszewski While it’s not the first underwater hotel (that honor goes to the Poseidon in Fiji) a new hotel being built in Istanbul hopes to set itself apart from its competitors since it’s... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:41 am
Man suffers broken pelvis as magnitude 5.2 tremor centred on Lincolnshire damages buildings and startles people awake Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:36 am
Man suffers broken pelvis as magnitude 5.2 tremor centred on Lincolnshire damages buildings and startles people awake Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:36 am
In our post Beware of Freeconomics, Alex Iskold explained why the 'free' economy proposed by Wired's Chris Anderson may not be a bed of roses. Commenter SJones had an interesting 'bee' metaphor that furthered... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:18 am
Recent dispatches from the outside world... Why a 3D datacentre sounds virtually unpleasant: Blogs ZDNet Australia Can managing server data in a virtual world really be more efficient than the usual means?... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:17 am
Recent dispatches from the outside world... Why a 3D datacentre sounds virtually unpleasant: Blogs ZDNet Australia Can managing server data in a virtual world really be more efficient than the usual means?... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:14 am
By Andrew Liszewski While Robot Coupe is actually an entire brand of catering equipment, I don’t think the word ‘robot’ is the best way to describe this automatic bread slicer. Just feed... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:07 am
Anyone who watched the BlogNation implosion last year certainly doesn’t want to see a rerun. But there are worrying signs coming from Romania-based blog network MyKinda that suggest the young startupis... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:06 am
I recently sprang for a huge, beautiful, kick-ass KitchenAid espresso machine and I love it, but I was disappointed with the junky plastic tamper that came with it. Following the advice of an Amazon... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:01 am
I recently sprang for a huge, beautiful, kick-ass KitchenAid espresso machine and I love it, but I was disappointed with the junky plastic tamper that came with it. Following the advice of an Amazon reviewer, I ordered a brass tamper -- with Tenniel's Mad Hatter custom-engraved into its handle (why not?) -- from Reg Baber, a Canadian artisanal espresso tamper with a global reputation. It arrived yesterday and it's a pure work of art -- and the crema is sweeter than ever. Highly recommended.
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By Anonymous At the Machining Research Program of the Center for Manufacturing in the College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky (Lexington), researchers are conducting a project entitled Machining of Biomedical Implants. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Dinwiddie - Three teenagers who were arrested last month after throwing rocks at vehicles traveling on Interstate 85 in Dinwiddie were found guilty last week on felony charges and could face detention when they are sentenced April 22. Judge Valentine W. Southall Jr. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Feb. 27-- If you believe the argument, a single ruling by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has unleashed "regulatory uncertainty" and put the state's very economy at risk. Don't believe it. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Steve Cahalan, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Feb. 27--None of the scenes for the upcoming "Public Enemies" movie will be filmed in the La Crosse area, said Dave Clements, executive director of the La Crosse Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Great Plains Energy has signed an agreement in principle to settle all issues related to its application before the Kansas Corporation Commission requesting approval of its pending acquisition of Aquila. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Koltko, Claire Proposed legislation that would broaden the authority of the Clean Water Act is a leap in the wrong direction, the NAHB told the U.S. Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works on Dec. 13. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Castelluccio, Michael At first, computers had their own Esperanto, and it looked like the lingua digita would achieve something humans have never been quite able to manage-universal communication. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
APPLES with a vibrant red-coloured flesh could appear in UK stores, a retailer has said. Sainsbury's staff visited a grower in Switzerland to sample different strains of the fruit. (c) 2008 Coventry Evening Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous In the highly competitive law field, every little advantage can make the difference between being considered a good firm and a great one. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous A serious discussion about the beautiful machine began in earnest about 10 years ago with David Gelernter's small book Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Technology. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Grainger Inc. (Chicago), a distributor of facilities maintenance supplies, recently awarded nine scholarships to technical education students across the country. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Vallely, John Take advantage of remote infrastructure-management equipment to access and manage IT systems. As the number of remote offices continues to grow, companies are supporting a wide array of geographically dispersed networking infrastructure equipment. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Equipment placed in classrooms will allow for future growth and new technologies. The St. Paul School District in Minnesota recently completed phase one of a multiyear classroom IT project in K-12 classrooms across the entire public school system. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous There are three unusual qualities that recommend the Flip Video Camcorders from Pure Digital Technologies. First, they're about the size of a deck of cards so they disappear with little weight into a shirt or coat pocket. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Practical Oracle Security, by Josh Shaul and Aaron Ingram, is a step-by-step guide to securing both existing and newly installed Oracle databases. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
3BILL has today announced that it has acquired a UK social networking platform aimed at 15-24-year-olds. The company has not disclosed terms of the purchase for the site www.profileheaven.com - winner of 2006 UK Website of the Year - Best Community Site. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Media and public interest organizations tell the jurist that his order violates constitutional provisions against prior restraint of free speech. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Media and public interest organizations tell the jurist that his order violates constitutional provisions against prior restraint of free speech. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Comcast Corp. on Tuesday acknowledged hiring people to fill seats before the start of a contentious federal hearing on how the company manages its broadband network, allowing its employees to take those... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Scientists at universities and corporations are about to get a major leg up in their tireless -- and profitable -- effort to reinvent the corn plant. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
48% of teenagers bought no CDs at all in 2007, up from 38% in 2006. Music downloads continue to grow, though, with iTunes leading the way. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Worried about your mortgage? How about just not paying it? Some banks were so enthusiastic in playing subprime derivatives shell-games that they've literally lost the notes on the mortgages they "own," and can't prove that deadbeat homeowners owe them any money. An estimated $2.1 trillion worth of these mortgages are "orphaned" with no apparent owner.
Joe Lents hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002.
That's when Washington Mutual Inc. first tried to foreclose on his home in Boca Raton. The Seattle-based lender failed to prove that it owned Lents' mortgage note and dropped attempts to take his house. Subsequent efforts to foreclose have stalled because no one has produced the paperwork.
"If you're going to take my house away from me, you better own the note," said Lents, 63, the former chief executive officer of a now-defunct voice recognition software company.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp said on Wednesday they would beef up cooperation in the supply of vehicles in a bid to save development costs in the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:46 am
buzzardsbay writes "Yes, it's all in good fun to point out the mismatched belt and shoes and the atrocious hairstyles, but honestly, I'm committing three of these errors right now! Is that why I can't get a key to the executive washroom? Or is it my rebellious attitude and pungent man-scent that's keeping me down? The shocker in here was pigtails on women... I love pigtails on women!"
Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels over the years: this display-shelf of iced tea promoting the massively multiplayer world Lineage, on sale in a dusty supermarket in Dalian, China.
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Wired's got a long feature on Amanda Baggs, a woman with autism who doesn't speak, but who uses video and online forums and MMOs to make an eloquent case for autism as a different -- but valid -- style of cognition, and argues for the rights of people with autism to be recognized on their own terms. The article looks into the long-held belief that autism and retardation are tied together and concludes that this just isn't true -- rather, that people with autism have been incorrectly classed as retarded for generations.
Baggs is part of an increasingly visible and highly networked community of autistics. Over the past decade, this group has benefited enormously from the Internet as well as innovations like type-to-speech software. Baggs may never have considered herself trapped in her own world, but thanks to technology, she can communicate with the same speed and specificity as someone using spoken language.
Autistics like Baggs are now leading a nascent civil rights movement. "I remember in '99," she says, "seeing a number of gay pride Web sites. I envied how many there were and wished there was something like that for autism. Now there is." The message: We're here. We're weird. Get used to it.
This movement is being fueled by a small but growing cadre of neuropsychological researchers who are taking a fresh look at the nature of autism itself. The condition, they say, shouldn't be thought of as a disease to be eradicated. It may be that the autistic brain is not defective but simply different — an example of the variety of human development. These researchers assert that the focus on finding a cure for autism — the disease model — has kept science from asking fundamental questions about how autistic brains function.
Trader Vic's, the grandfather of tiki bars, is holding a "once-in-a-lifetime" merchandise sale all week, until the 29th, at its Richmond, CA headquarters.
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Here's a page listing status of the invisible systems used by governments and ISPs around the world to "block child pornography." The lists of "child porn" are generally secretly compiled and held, and the blocks often simply return a timeout or 404 error, so it's virtually impossible to determine whether a given page is being filtered by the system. The potential for abuse is incredible, since pages that get added to the list effectively disappear and there's practically no way to appeal the censors' decision (what's more, if you do appeal and lose, you're branded a pedophile).
"Child porn" lists have historically included literature from Nabokov's "Lolita" to Alan Moore's brilliant "Lost Girls". These lists also often pick up material made by gay/lesbian/bi teenagers: journal entries and videos and audio describing their experiences with authority and mainstream society. These kids are even more poorly equipped than Nabokov fans to advocate for their right to communicate with their peers over the Internet.
Link
(Thanks, SethF!)
Eskil Steenberg is a solo game-developer who's bent on creating an entire massively multiplayer online world single-handedly, using procedural generation techniques that cause the game to build itself by starting with clever rules and exploring them outwards. Based on the reports at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, it sounds like Steenberg's really got something, and the screenshots are drop-dead knockout gorgeous.
The game itself, dubbed Love (as in For The Love Of Game Development), is an exploration-based moderately-multiplayer FPS with astounding impressionistic visuals and a procedurally generated universe. Since Steenberg is a one man show, he’s relying on clever maths to build the world for him and then clever gamers to come in and help him figure out where to take it, and what to do with it.
So far he’s already populated it with weird animals and wondrous, gaseous visuals, and he intends to build the world into a kind of communal adventure, where gamers work together to furnish a central village, defend it from enemy attack, and explore the surround world and its many dungeons. Players will be able to do things like deform elements of terrain, allowing them to build tunnel networks or walls to defend their property. Items will also be intended for the good of all as Steenberg creates them and drops them into the world. You won’t be picking up rifles in your adventures, but more likely the plans for the rifle-building machine, that can then be utilised by everyone in your village. Part Zelda, part Tale In The Desert, part adventure shooter, and wholly abstract and beautiful, Love looks the kind of amalgam of art, programming and internet savvy that we’ve desired without even being able to imagine. It has the potential, and Steenberg has the huge intellect, for this to be one of the most precious events in PC gaming.
Here's a little Wired profile on the secret shoppers used by Consumer Reports Labs. I've had some meetings at the labs and they're incredibly impressive: top notch researchers and top notch facilities, and integrity out the wazoo.
Making these purchases without saying why can be tricky. Once, Jon told a phone salesman that he needed a particular model because his mother had Alzheimer's and he'd never be able to teach her how to use a new brand. He laughs when he describes the wary looks he got after filling up a shopping cart with condoms. He fondly recalls the time he purchased five different washing machines, claiming that his landlord father had given tenants their choice of brands.
But Jon's favorite story by far is the ice cream. With pints stacked on the floor and an angry stocker looming overhead, Jon had to say something. "So I go into my Rain Man routine," he says. "Count the vanilla, count the vanilla, gotta count the vanilla.' Eventually, the stocker just gives up and walks away. And I get my ice cream." Once products are purchased, they're taken back to Consumer Reports' Yonkers, New York, headquarters, where the magazine maintains 50 tricked-out, cost-is-no-object laboratories. There are labs where trained tasters sample chocolate, labs where air conditioners are evaluated to see if units are more efficient at blowing cool air to the right or to the left, and labs where strollers are pushed over a series of bumps for hours at a time.
The Subprime Primer is a 45-slide presentation that uses stick figures to explain the present economic meltdown as the world slides into depression fuelled by $500 trillion worth of toxic derivatives.
Link
(via Making Light)
iamlucky13 writes "A minor academic debate among astronomers is the final fate of the earth. As the sun ages and enters the red giant stage of its life, it will heat up, making the earth inhospitable. It will also expand, driven by helium fusion so that its outer layers reach past the earth's current orbit. Previously it had been believed that the sun would lose enough mass to allow earth to escape to a more distant orbit, lifeless but intact. However, new calculations, which take into account tidal forces and drag from mass shed by the sun, suggest that the earth will have sufficiently slowed in that time to be dragged down to its utter destruction in 7.6 billion years. "
Working as a secret shopper for Consumer Reports requires not only persistence and attention to detail, but also a knack for creative explanations to eyebrow-raising purchases.
SAN JOSE, California, February 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Finjan Inc., a leader in secure web gateway products, today announced it has uncovered a database containing more than... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 5:00 am
Science has traditionally viewed autistics as solitary types. Amanda Baggs is part of the increasingly visible community of autistics who use technologies like type-to-speech software, blogs and online video to reach out to others.
ROSH HA'AYIN, Israel, February 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ECtel Ltd. (NASDAQ: ECTX), a leading provider of Integrated Revenue Management(TM) (IRM(TM)) solutions,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 5:00 am
MERRIMACK, N.H., Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Brookstone today announced that customers affected by the recent action to suspend acceptance of Sharper Image gift cards and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 5:00 am
CAMBRIDGE, England and PLEASANTON, California, February 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autonomy ZANTAZ, a leader in the archiving, eDiscovery and Proactive Information Risk Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 4:00 am
WALLDORF, Germany, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it will showcase its entire portfolio for small businesses and midsize... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 4:00 am
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- AVG Technologies, a leading provider of Internet Security software, today released AVG Internet Security 8.0, the latest version of Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 4:00 am
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have expressed full confidence that the Olympic relay torch can scale Mount Everest without sputtering out, a newspaper said on Wednesday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 3:55 am
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is in the final stages of talks with Sony Corp to jointly build a new liquid crystal display (LCD) production line, a Samsung source said on... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 3:49 am
SAN FRANCISCO Are Internet users clicking on fewer Google ads and putting the companys growth prospects at risk? Those questions are weighing on investors, who have cut the value of Google shares by... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 27 Feb 2008 | 3:36 am
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Websense is reporting that Gmail's CAPTCHA has been broken, and that bots are beginning to sign up with a one in five success rate. More interestingly, they have a lot of technical details about how the botnet members coordinate with two different computers during the process. They believe that the second host is either trying to learn to crack the CAPTCHA or that it's a quality check of some sort. Curiously, the bots pretend to read the help information while breaking the CAPTCHA, probably to prevent Google from giving them a timeout message."
The machines are coming to take their jobs away, so the workers resist. A band of craftsmen rally behind the mythical figure of Ned Ludd in a quixotic attempt to halt progress.
Take the Wired.com tour of professor Omar Yahgi's lab, which produces custom crystals that absorb and store specific molecules, including harmful vehicle and landfill emissions.
nweaver writes "In a response to the LA Times editorial on copyright which we discussed a week ago, the paper published a response arguing: 'If Intellectual Property is actually property, why isn't it covered by a property tax?' If copyright maintenance involved paying a fee and registration, this would keep Mickey Mouse safely protected by copyright, while ensuring that works that are no longer economically relevant to the copyright holder pass into the public domain, where the residual social value can serve the real purpose of copyright: to enhance the progress of science and useful arts. Disclaimer: the author is my father."
Kevin Lynch, Adobe's new chief technology officer, tells Wired.com about the role open-source played in the development of his company's new AIR technology. He also discusses the state of Flash on Linux and mobile devices.
The Planetary Society announces the winners of a contest to design a satellite mission that would collect data on a large asteroid. The "Apophis" (asteroid 2004 MN4) has a slim chance of smashing into the Earth in 2036.
grassy_knoll asks, "So how fragile is the electrical grid, and just what technical problems could shut down five reactors?" "Five reactors at a nuclear power plant in Florida had gone down on Tuesday and two were now back online amid a massive power outage in the southern state, CNN reported. The report on the Turkey Point nuclear plant came as four million people had lost electricity in Miami and elsewhere in Florida, with traffic signals out and major delays on roads, authorities and media said."
alphadogg notes a story over at portfolio.com claiming, and presenting evidence, that Comcast paid people off the street to take up room at yesterday's FCC hearing in Massachusetts. Comcast acknowledges that it paid people to hold places in line for its employees. But Save The Internet claims that people were bussed in by Comcast and then took up almost all available seats in the meeting room 90 minutes before the meeting opened, blocking scores of interested people from attending. Such tactics are not unheard of in Washington DC, but how appropriate are they in a regional meeting on a college campus?
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Prof. Johan Pouwelse of Delft University — one of the world's foremost experts on the science of P2P file sharing and the very same Prof. Pouwelse who stopped the RIAA's Netherlands counterpart in its tracks back in 2005 — has submitted an expert witness report characterizing the work of the RIAA's expert, Dr. Doug Jacobson, as 'borderline incompetence.' The report (PDF), filed in UMG v. Lindor, pointed out, among other things, that the steps needed to be taken in a copyright infringement investigation were not taken, that Jacobson's work lacked 'in-depth analysis' and 'proper scientific scrutiny,' that Jacobson's reports were 'factually erroneous,' and that they were contradicted by his own deposition testimony. This is the first expert witness report of which we are aware since the Free Software Foundation announced that it would be coming to the aid of RIAA defendants."
oliderid writes to let us know that, even as the UK threatens ISPs who don't clamp down on P2P traffic, the rest of the EU is going the other way. (Here is a link with a a bit more technical detail.) Europe recently agreed to: "...spend 14M Euros to create a standard way to send TV via the Net. The project will create a peer-to-peer system that can pipe programs to set-top boxes and home TV sets. It will be based on the BitTorrent technology. The four-year research project will try to build a system that can stand alongside the other ways that broadcasters currently get programs to viewers."
alx5000 writes "In an interview conducted last week with Consumer Eroski (link in Spanish; Google translation), the father of Tetris Alexey Pajitnov claimed that 'Free Software should have never existed,' since it 'destroys the market' by bringing down companies that create wealth and prosperity. When asked about Red Hat or Oracle's support-oriented model, he called them 'a minority,' and also criticized Stallman's ideas as 'belonging to the past' where there were no software 'business possibilities.'"
