smooth wombat writes "Apparently some people just don't take the hint. The latest story in the Sanford Wallace spamming saga is a $230 million verdict against Wallace and his partner, Walter Rines, when they failed to show up in court. Wallace and Rines were accused by MySpace of creating their own accounts and taking over other accounts through phishing scams, and then using those accounts to send out bogus emails to other members. The emails sent would indicate a video or web site but when people would go to the link, the two would make money through the number of hits generated or they would try to sell something such as ring tones. According to MySpace, the pair sent over 730,000 emails to members which resulted in bandwidth and delivery-related costs as well as complaints from hundreds of members. The 2003 CAN-SPAM Act allows MySpace to collect $100 per violation or triple that amount when the spam is sent "willfully and knowingly"."
Three in 10 Americans now do most, if not all, of their talking on cellphones, a study finds. A growing number, mostly the young and less affluent, use mobiles exclusively.
ZDOne writes "ZDNet's reviews team have been tinkering with the various ways of running OS X on standard PCs. They found that with the right hardware components, a standard PC running Mac OS X Leopard is, at first sight, no different from a genuine Apple Mac. Special CPU extensions such as Intel VT-x provide support for software solutions like Parallels Desktop for Mac. Even Adobe Photoshop, which queries a Mac to verify its authenticity, runs fine on a standard PC thanks to EFI emulation. However the article points out that it's a pretty technical proposition at the end of the day and beyond all but the most powerful power users. And then there is the legal question. Don't even think about trying to put OS X on your PC without first purchasing a legitimate copy of Mac OS Leopard."
It’s a paradox that has confounded evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859: Since parasites depend on their hosts for survival, why do they harm them?A new University of Georgia and Emory University study of monarch butterflies and the microscopic parasites that hitch a ride on them finds that the parasites strike a middle ground between the benefits gained by reproducing rapidly and the costs to their hosts. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:05 pm
CHANTILLY, Va., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GTSI Corp.(R) , an IT infrastructure solutions and services provider to government, announced that the first 2008 Regional Seminar Series will be held in Baltimore Maryland on May 22nd. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
Biophan Technologies, a developer of next-generation biomedical technology, has acquired the patent portfolio of Nanoset, a private company and technology collaborator. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
China hopes to destroy Japanese abandoned chemical weapon soon, says vice FM BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government hopes to destroy abandoned wartime Japanese chemical weapons very soon, said Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Tuesday. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
By SUE SCOTT TEES firms, from hairdressers to large scale manufacturers, which use chemicals in their daily business, are being urged to prepare for new rules. REACH - Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals - is due to come into effect on June 1. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
Rentech, Inc. (AMEX:RTK) announced today that all systems required to start-up the Company's Product Demonstration Unit ("PDU") in Commerce City, Colorado are mechanically complete. Commissioning and start-up of the facility will commence over the next few days. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
China work safety agency urges caution in quake-hit areas BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) issued an urgent circular on Tuesday telling its local branches to ensure production safety in earthquake-stricken areas and prevent serious industrial accidents. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- In this Podcast of "Chemistry of Innovations" you will learn how a fungi-protein called "Hydrophobin" can make surfaces water-repellent. The raincoat on a fungus is not a garment, it is a substance called "Hydrophobin". Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
UAE petrochemical capacity to treble US$40 billion in new investments expected in Gulf chemical and petrochemical sector by 2010 Already a global force to be reckoned with, the Middle East's chemical and petrochemical sector is on the brink of a new era of investment and expansion. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- To protect themselves from the swords and arrows of their enemies, soldiers throughout the ages have used armor made of different types of material: leather, bronze or iron. Nowadays there are more comfortable ways to keep yourself protected. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE), a global, integrated chemical company, today announced that Mark Oberle, vice president of investor relations and public affairs, will address investors at the Goldman Sachs Basic Materials Conference in New York on Wednesday, May 21, 2008, at 3:10 p.m. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
DALLAS, May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., , will host its inaugural Institutional Investor Conference on Thursday, May 15, 2008 at the Marriott East Side in New York City. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c91776) has announced the addition of "Automating and Enhancing Processes through Voice in Desktop and Back Office Environments (Strategic Focus)" to their offering. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
By Jessica Schonberg / jschonberg@heraldonline.com York Technical College is made for people such as Kirk Adams. Adams had a good career in the printing industry for about 25 years. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
By Laurie Winslow, Tulsa World, Okla. May 14--About 350 IBM finance and accounting positions in Tulsa will be transferred to an IBM Global Delivery Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the next two years, an IBM spokesman has confirmed. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
Travelers now have a vital resource for making better travel decisions with today's public beta launch of UpTake, a new vacation search site that has amassed the travel industry's largest database of hotels and attractions and analyzed more than 20 million online opinions from other travelers. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
Joe Michaud, a veteran interactive-media publisher whose sites have won numerous awards for excellence, has joined the AIM Group and Classified Intelligence as a senior consultant, founding principal Peter M. Zollman announced today. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
MUSIC "So Far" Bethany Dillon (Sparrow Records/EMI) It's been a busy spring for Christian singer-songwriter Bethany Dillon. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
LOS ANGELES, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- After more than a year in development, RocknRollDating.com (http://www.rocknrolldating.com/) launched as the very first rock music-centric dating website specifically geared towards singles who identify with any subset of rock music as a critical lifestyle choice, not just a radio station preference. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
According to a comScore study done last year, booking travel over the Internet has become something of a nightmare for people. It's not that using any of the booking engines is difficult, it's just that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
A federal judge orders "Spam King" Sanford Wallace and his partner to pay MySpace about $230 million in what is believed to be the largest anti-spam judgment ever. The tough part, of course, is collecting one thin dime from the pair, who lost the case when they just didn't bother to show up to court.
When does the conductor answer to the semiconductor? When a robot is leading the symphony. Last night a 4ft-tall automaton with a baton called Asimo conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a performance... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:49 pm
Seven Nato members signed a deal today to provide staff and funds for a new research centre designed to boost the alliance's defences against cyber-terrorism. Defence ministers from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:36 pm
Investors stripped nearly a fifth off the value of Pioneer Corp. on Wednesday, the day after the troubled Japanese electronics company warned it is heading for a fifth straight year of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:34 pm
blind biker writes "The AP reports (via the Herald Tribune) of Tarek Bayassi, a 24-year old Syrian blogger sentenced to three years in jail for "undermining the prestige of the state and weakening national morale". The original sentence was 6 years but it was commuted on appeal. Apparently, this isn't an isolated case in Syria."
A team of notorious American internet spammers has been fined a record $230m for bombarding MySpace users with adverts for pornography and gambling websites. "Spam king" Sanford Wallace, along with his... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:11 pm
Business software and computer network developer SI International Inc. said Wednesday it won an $11 million, one-year contract to provide information technology services to the Indian Health Service. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:08 pm
Sony swung to a profit of $277 million for its fourth fiscal quarter on Wednesday, a reversal from from a year ago as losses dwindled for its struggling PlayStation 3 video game business... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:01 pm
Data recording company NICE Systems said Wednesday its first-quarter profit fell on higher costs. Net income dropped 9.2 percent to $7.9 million or 13 cents per share from $8.7 million or 16 cents per... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:01 pm
Business software company Metastorm Inc. said Tuesday it plans an initial public offering of common stock but did not disclose any terms of the IPO in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:01 pm
iCAD Inc., which makes cancer-identification computer systems, said Wednesday that Anthony F. Ecock has been appointed to its board. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 1:01 pm
First, let me say that I am not sure about the utility of video comments. I've seen them and even viewed them on Techcrunch and I think they slow down and break up the conversation more than they contribute... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 12:59 pm
An anonymous reader writes "The Mormon Church has instructed its lawyers to gag the Internet over WikiLeaks' release of the 1968 and 1999 versions of its confidential handbook for Church leaders. Apart from attacking WikiLeaks, legal demands were sent to Jimmy Wales of the WikiMedia foundation for a WikiNews article merely linking to the material, and scribd.com has also been censored. WikiLeaks has (of course) refused to remove the documents."
CACI International Inc. , a provider of information-technology services to the U.S. military, said Wednesday the Army increased the value of a communications contract by $97.9 million. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 12:51 pm
George W. Crane, MD, was a marriage counselor and wrote a syndicated national newspaper column called "The Worry Clinic." He developed a test in the late 1930s called the Marital Rating Scale -- Wife's Chart. Here's the fist page of the test.
The test was designed to give couples feedback on their marriages. Either husbands or wives could take the test, which rated wives in a variety of areas. For instance, if your wife "uses slang or profanity," she would get a score of five demerits. On the other hand, if she "reacts with pleasure and delight to marital congress," she would receive 10 merits. The test taker would add up the total number of merits and demerits to receive a raw score, which would categorize the wife on a scale from "very poor" to "very superior."
George W. Crane, MD, was a marriage counselor and wrote a syndicated national newspaper column called "The Worry Clinic." He developed a test in the late 1930s called the Marital Rating Scale -- Wife's... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 12:49 pm
An anonymous reader sends a pointer to Erik Schwiebert's blog — he's the design lead of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit — where he announces that Visual Basic will be returning to Mac Office. Not in Office 2008, which started shipping earlier this year. We discussed the announced death of VBA in Mac Office 17 months back. Schwiebert says that the interval to the next version of Mac Office will be shorter than 4 years but isn't able to offer any more detail. The blog post calls for feedback on what features of VBA and Windows interoperability are most important to people.
Sometimes it's just hard to keep up. In this technology-focused niche we all live in there are new applications, new initiatives, and new platforms that spring up every day, not to mention constantly breaking... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 12:00 pm
Craigslist is fighting back against minority shareholder eBay with a countersuit that accuses the online auction giant of false advertising, trademark infringement and unfair competition. The lawsuit... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:53 am
Handset retailer, e2save.com has been in a nostalgic kind of mood recently, and decided to create this little movie illustrating the evolution of the mobile phone through time and a brief look at the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:48 am
The problem of providing mobile phone coverage to large expanses of the developing world may be coming closer to being solved through the use of alternative fuels. The BBC reports. "Many people have... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:42 am
For nearly three in 10 households, don't even bother trying to call them on a landline phone. They either only have a cell phone or seldom if ever take calls on their traditional phone. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:37 am
After the many rumors that have gone around, this time it looks official. The iPhone will finally launch in Switzerland with Swisscom. But they're still keeping us guessing about a launch date. [via... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:35 am
The 3G version of the iPhone will be unveiled "in the coming weeks", the boss of Apple's exclusive mobile phone partner in the UK and Ireland hinted today. Speculation is rife that Apple will reveal the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:32 am
The Interstitial Arts Foundation (promoting "art made in the interstices between genres and categories...disciplines, mediums, and cultures") is celebrating the anniversary of the release of the Interfictions... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:23 am
The Interstitial Arts Foundation (promoting "art made in the interstices between genres and categories...disciplines, mediums, and cultures") is celebrating the anniversary of the release of the Interfictions Anthology with a charity auction featuring jewelry made by Interfictioneers and inspired by the stories in Interfictions. This is a fascinating gang of science fiction/fantasy people who are really breaking new ground!
(Pictured: 'Willow Pattern' by Elise Matthesen, based on the story 'Willow Pattern' by Jon Singer.)
To celebrate the anniversary of Interfictions, we invited jewelers/beaders to create wearable art based on the 19 stories in our first original anthology. Come bid on some amazing pieces by many talented artists, including Elise Matthesen, JoSelle Vanderhooft — and Interfictions authors Leslie What, Rachel Pollack, and K. Tempest Bradford, who have created one-of-a-kind, collectible wearable interpretations of their own work!
New pieces go up every two days and auctions last for 4-7 days. Bid early and often–bids start as low as $10! All proceeds will go to supporting Interstitial Arts projects, including the second Interfictions volume, Interfictions 2, to be published in Fall 2009
Paraben Corporation, a digital forensic technology provider, has announced a new product, The CSI Stick. This is a thumb drive size device that forensically acquires data from cell phones. Just plug... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:13 am
Glyn sez, "I am loosing count of the number of different way that have been tried to bring software patents into Europe. I thought by now just about everyone knew they where a bad idea." "European Commissioner... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:13 am
Glyn sez, "I am loosing count of the number of different way that have been tried to bring software patents into Europe. I thought by now just about everyone knew they where a bad idea."
"European Commissioner McCreevy is pushing for a bilateral patent treaty with the United States. This Tuesday 13 May in Brussels, White House and European representatives will try to adopt a tight roadmap for the signature of a EU-US patent treaty by the end of the year. Parts of the proposed treaty will contain provision on software patents, and could legalise them on both sides of the Atlantic."
Link
(Thanks, Glyn!)
ALPHARETTA, Ga., May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Adtech Global Solutions (AGS) announced the addition of software development and consulting to their base of technology solutions... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Record number of kidnappings reported in 2007 SANTA ANA, Calif., May 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The number of reported kidnappings of local San Diego residents in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:00 am
SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Business and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) were recognized today with a Best Solution award... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:00 am
DULLES, Va., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GeoEye, Inc. (Nasdaq: GEOY), a premier provider of satellite, aerial and geospatial information, announced an August 22,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Performance, Enhanced Technology, Reliability CHANTILLY, Va., May 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- TallyGenicom today announces the release of the new... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:00 am
CALGARY, Alberta, May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) today announced it has been selected to provide operator training simulator technology for Suncor Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:00 am
ALBANY, N.Y. and EATONTOWN, N.J., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- StratoComm Corporation (STCO) has responded to a request to propose a wireless IT infrastructure to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Budgens, a London supermarket chain, secretly records biometric facial photos of people who buy cigarettes and alcohol and compares it to a database of known underage buyers, and they're hoping to link their database with other grocery chains around the country. This means that just bringing a bottle up to the till means that your likeness and details will be added to a nationwide database, recording your movements and purchasing habits.
They'll probably be forced to drop the "secrecy" bit in the end, but that will not bring an end to the practice. Instead, they'll just put a sign up next to the till saying, "By buying alcohol here, you agree that we can violate your privacy and share your information with anyone we feel like." After all, that's what they do with the CCTV signs in London already.
If successful, it could be rolled out across the country to create a database of youngsters who try to buy alcohol.
The system alerts a cashier if it 'recognises' someone who has previously been unable to prove they are 18.
It is believed to be the first time a British retailer has used the technology in this way.
The software takes measurements between key points on the face to make a template of a person's features that is stored as a "token".
Customers' images are monitored and relayed to a control centre to be compared with under-18s already on record.
Future options include other retailers linking the scheme to their shops to create a giant database.
Several readers relayed the press release from JPL about the upcoming landing of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on May 25. It's going to set down in the north polar regions and look for indications of whether conditions have even been favorable for microbial life. "Phoenix will enter the top of the Martian atmosphere at almost 21,000 kilometers per hour... In seven minutes, the spacecraft must complete a challenging sequence of events to slow to about 8 kilometers per hour... before its three legs reach the ground. Confirmation of the landing could come as early as 7:53 p.m. EDT. 'This is not a trip to grandma's house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky,' said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. 'Internationally, fewer than half the attempts have succeeded.'"
[A] scarily realistic adventure about how homeland security technology could be abused to wrongfully imprison innocent Americans. A teenage hacker-turned-hero pits himself against the government to fight for his basic freedoms. This book is action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophile’s civil protest.
Here's how to submit your Little Brother HOWTO video to Boing Boing tv:
(1) Shoot it!
(2) Upload it to YouTube or another video hosting site!
(3) Tell us where to find it! Submit the url here.
(4) Selected videos will be featured on BBtv!
Also in today's episode (which, by the way, is Cory's BBtv debut): Legendary dumpster-diver Darren Atkinson was the subject of Cory's first-ever WIRED magazine feature in 1994. Cory returns to the trash-heap for BBtv with the "modern industrialist philosopher of garbage," who also performs
in multiple WHO cover bands.
Dekortage writes "Analyzing DVR viewing research, Ad Age has noted something unexpected: older DVR users are more likely to skip ads than younger DVR users. The skew is particularly apparent among men: 50% of seniors skipping all the ads, but only 20% of teens do so. Women of any age group tend to be around 35%. Ad Age hypothesizes that younger viewers 'just pay attention to other media when the ads are on TV or, worse yet, perhaps the TV is just "background music"...' I always thought that ad skipping was a major benefit of DVRs. Do you skip all the ads?"
Thomas Petazzoni writes "The fourth edition of Embedded Linux Conference was held from April 15 to 17 in Mountain View, California. With more than fifty talks and tutorials around the use of Linux in embedded devices, this conference covered a wide range of topics: power management, debugging techniques, system size reduction, flash filesystems, embedded distributions, real-time, graphics and video, security, etc. For those who could not attend the conference, Free Electrons has published under a free license videos of nineteen talks and an extensive report of them. You can for example watch Andrew Morton's keynote, Klaas van Gend's talk about the real-time version of the Linux kernel, or Mike Anderson's tutorial on the use of JTAG probes for kernel debugging."
I love internet cafes. Given that my job requires hours of sitting and typing, sitting and drawing, or sitting and procrastinating, a change of scenery is welcome, allowing me to be around people without actually having to interact with them, listen to them or acknowledge their existence beyond sharing a power outlet. To me, a cafe is like a large desktop image that dispenses caffeinated beverages and scones.
However, as any science-fiction writer can tell you, with any new technology come new problems and new sex acts. I haven't gotten to the sex act part yet, but the problem is quite apparent: What do I do with my laptop when I have to use the bathroom?
Yeah, great idea. I'll just throw my credit cards and loose change on the table, too, maybe carve my Social Security number and bank password into the wood to maximize the convenience of anyone who wants to ruin my life.
Solution 2: Ask the person next to me to keep an eye it
It's not that I think the guy next to me is going to steal my laptop -- he's already got one, and his is generally nicer -- it's just that I don't think he's going to do a damn thing if a desperate-looking hood and/or thug walks right up and grabs my iBook. Hell, if he's like me, he won't even notice. If I were the sort of person who paid attention to his surroundings, I wouldn't be bringing a laptop into public spaces.
Solution 3: Bring it in with me
The easiest thing would be just to tuck it under my arm and head to the head. And yet ... I feel like that raises questions. "Why is he bringing a laptop into the bathroom? Has he been overwhelmed by the erotic power of superheroine porn? Is this some sort of sick YouTube stunt? Who said he could do that? Why won't somebody stop him?" I don't trust people to say one word if a pod of roving computer thieves leaps from a running van and grabs my laptop, but I'm sure someone will tackle me at the knees to prevent me from carrying it into the john.
Solution 4: Bring everything in with me
OK, this doesn't even make sense to me, but here's what I often do: I put my laptop back into my satchel, put my iPod back into my coat and bring my entire life with me into the bathroom. I don't know why I feel this is more socially acceptable. What do I want them to think is in there? A makeup case? A wide selection of hygiene products? Maybe I'm trying to fool them into thinking I'm just stopping by the men's room on the way out. If so, it works, because I generally come back to find my coffee cup in the bus bin and my seat taken.
Solution 5: Lock the thing up
I haven't tried this, but it would be the very avatar of simplicity to get one of those laptop locks and attach my laptop to the table or chair. I'm reluctant, though, because I don't want to come across as one of those twitchy people who obsess about extremely unlikely crimes and devise elaborate schemes to foil largely fictional criminals. However, looking back over this, I guess I am one of those people. I should probably just blog from an underground bunker in rural Montana, pausing every three paragraphs to re-oil my shotgun. I'd probably get more work done.
- - -
Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a Beat poet, a beatboxer and a beat frequency.
1796: Edward Jenner inoculates a boy with cowpox. After the lad recovers from the infection, Jenner inoculates him with smallpox, but the boy remains healthy. Vaccination is born.
Before Jenner, smallpox was a massive scourge and a leading cause of death, especially among children. Those whom it didn't kill it disfigured with pockmarked faces.
Some European families adopted the Turkish practice of inoculating their children with low doses of smallpox in hopes of building up their immunity to the disease. This was popularized in England by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who had her own child inoculated. The Royal family, freshly arrived from the Kingdom of Hanover in Germany, inoculated two of the Princess of Wales' children in 1723 to secure the succession. (Ironically, the Hanovers had come to the throne of Great Britain because so many Stuart and Orange heirs had succumbed to smallpox.) But the process was risky.
Jenner had heard the folk wisdom that milkmaids and others who contracted the mild and harmless cowpox through their proximity to cattle did not fall victim to the deadly smallpox. He inoculated his year-and-a-half-old son in 1789 with swine pox (a related pig disease) and then smallpox. The boy did not contract smallpox.
The dramatic 1796 experiment used fluid taken from a cowpox sore on milkmaid Sarah Nelmes. The experimental subject was 8-year-old James Phipps, who did not get smallpox despite Jenner's repeated attempts to infect him starting July 1. Ethicists debate whether such an experiment would be at all possible today.
Jenner carried out further experiments on patients and was likewise unable to infect them with smallpox if he had vaccinated them or they had contracted cowpox naturally. He published the results of 23 cases in a 1798 monograph, An inquiry into the causes and effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of the cow-pox.
Jenner wrote several revisions of this work as he added cases, and other researchers soon replicated his work. He called the process vaccination after the Latin word for cow, vacca. He also introduced the word virus.
Vaccination caught on quickly, but more than a century passed before scientists isolated and understood the viruses involved. After a global vaccination campaign, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in 1979.
A newly published letter reveals that Albert Einstein viewed religion and religious works as "childish," and "primitive works."
In the letter, dated January 3 1954, he wrote: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.
"No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this..."
"For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people."
The NNDB Mapper is a visual tool for tracking the connections of more
than 32,000 famous people- linking them together through family
relations, corporate boards, tv shows, political alliances and shadowy
conspiracy groups.
Creating a map with the NNDB Mapper tells a story about the world through
connecting the lives of billionaire executives, scientists and inventors,
politicians and activists, writers and musicians, and even Hollywood
stars.
This afternoon, an NPR colleague of mine and I were almost arrested at Washington DC's Union Station for taking panorama photos with a Gigapan, a robotic camera mount developed by Carnegie Mellon University originally for the Mars Rover. The university had sent us a loaner of the robot for us to evaluate.
Though we were initially allowed to take photos, they unexpectedly changed their minds, demanding that we delete our pictures and cease taking pictures, or face arrest. They didn't seem to care I was Twittering their comments throughout the incident, though. I've posted a summary of what happened, as well as the resulting half-gigapixel panorama photo, on my blog.
icknay writes "Here's an interesting rant on the OLPC from someone who worked there, including: 'The core mistake of the present Sugar approach is that it couples phenomenally powerful ideas about learning — that it should be shared, collaborative, peer to peer, and open — with the notion that these ideas must come presented in an entirely new graphical paradigm. We reject this coupling as untenable. Choosing to reinvent the desktop UI paradigm means we are spending our extremely over-constrained resources fighting graphical interfaces, not developing better tools for learning.' I have an OLPC, and the OS itself seems quite unfinished. I buy the argument that it would be better to focus on Sugar as educational software, and let it run on Linux, Windows, whatever."
Thomas Denton of comic blog Say It Backwards has a nephew who was diagnosed with cancer. A charity called Candlelighters helped his family out. Thomas decided to use his connections in the comics world to organize some charitable auctions featuring original artwork by various artists to give something back to the organization. Apparently Time Warner (who own DC comics, who in turn own Superman, Batman and most of the cool superheroes who wear capes) objected to the selling of the pieces featuring their copyrighted and trademarked characters on eBay, specifically Superman from what I understand.
Using characters owned by the major comic book corporations is pretty common in charity auctions at comic book conventions. This is not to mention that if you go on eBay right now there are a lot of auctions for artwork featuring those same characters, none of which Time Warner seems to be going after.
Thomas has posted a statement apologising to everyone involved in the affair (artists, bidders), but it doesn't seem right that he's been left holding the bag for trying to something for sick kids. Some letters to Time Warner's PR department might make them think twice about sending out cease and desist orders so wantonly, and who knows, might even prompt them to kick some cash Candlelighters' way.
bsk_cw writes "Brian Nadel got hold of cellular network cards from AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, and tried them out with a Lenovo ThinkPad X300 notebook. He watched videos on commuter trains, worked with e-mail at cafes, listened to Internet radio at the airport, and downloaded large files while in a moving car. AT&T came out on top in his tests in the New York area (summary here). Some of the reader comments report different conclusions, so a YMMV is in order."
USTelematics is using WiMax and IPTV technology to bring real-time television to your car without a satellite antenna. Soon you'll have 500 channels in traffic and nothing to watch.
IRS workers in California face federal criminal charges after allegedly browsing taxpayers' returns, as the agency struggles with an epidemic of so-called UNAX, or unauthorized access, from within.
Sun Microsystems' chairman and Duke Energy's CEO share a stage to promote networking everyday devices like toasters to revolutionize the way that electricity is used.
Craigslist has filed a suit against its minority stakeholder, eBay. The lawsuit alleges that eBay used its seat on the Craigslist board to gain inside information on the classified ad site, launch a competitor, and dilute Craigslist's brand through misrepresenting links on Google ads.
iDial adds an old timey rotary phone dial interface to your "jailbroken" iPhone.
