By Guevara, Sophia Minkiewicz, Luray M A QUICK GUIDE TO BORN-DIGITAL AND RE-BORN DIGITAL SOURCES-PART 1 There is a vast amount of chemical information resources available digitally, either through the internet or via online databases, both free and fee-based. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Stan Finger, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Jun. 20--A 30-year-old homeless man faces four criminal charges linked to assaults on women in downtown Wichita over a three-week period. Timothy J. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
Three young men have drowned at Thurmond Lake since mid-May, and Columbia County's emergency services director said deceptive water levels and cold temperatures in deeper water likely contributed to the deaths. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Tracy Manzer LONG BEACH - A 49-year-old Indiana man charged with sparking the Santa Catalina Island wildfires last summer appeared briefly in Long Beach Superior Court Thursday to schedule a date for his preliminary hearing. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 20--Traffic finally began moving in both directions on Interstate 94 west of Milwaukee as flooded southern Wisconsin continued to dry out, clean up and deal with too much water. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Scott Richardson, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill. Jun. 20--HUDSON -- Jerry Martoglio has been fishing for bass for years, and he still shows the "youngsters" a thing or two at tournaments where largemouth are the ticket. But don't kid yourself. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Mike Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 20--WAUKESHA -- Alarmed at the pace Waukesha County's wetlands were being filled in and replaced with homes and other development, a group of citizens banded together in an effort to preserve the county's natural resources. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Lee Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 20--STURGEON BAY -- Any possible large-scale engineering project that might help raise water levels on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron is decades away, a representative of an international study group says. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Steve Lawson I REMEMBER watching Minority Report for the first time and thinking how cool it was when Tom Cruise manipulated holographic computer images using only hand movements. You could just imagine the groans from the eggheads at HP, Dell et al when they saw that. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
POMONA E-waste recycling to help St. Joseph's Area residents and businesses who want to dispose of old electronic equipment can do so Saturday and at the same time help St. Joseph's Elementary School raise money for new computers. Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M. Jun. 20--LAS CRUCES -- Two Las Cruces restaurants were downgraded Thursday following inspections by the Environmental Health Division of the New Mexico Environment Department. Chuck E. Cheese, 700 S. Telshor Blvd., and Church's Chicken, 300 E. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By CAROL HAZARD Real estate agents and homeowners who buy classified advertisements to sell houses in the Richmond Times-Dispatch can get their listings highlighted on a national real estate Web site. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Cindi Ross Scoppe, The State, Columbia, S.C. Jun. 20--CANDIDATE endorsements are never easy if you like gray. With legislation, you can embrace the thrust of a bill but suggest changes. When refereeing an argument, you can pick pieces to agree with from all sides. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Werts, Cybele Elaine NOT EVERY MARKETING EXPERT HAS HIS OWN ACTION FIGURE, BUT GODIN DOES-AND HE'S JOINING SLA IN SEATTLE. Marketing guru Seth Godin is an accomplished fellow. He's the author of nine bestsellers. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By The Philadelphia Inquirer Jun. 20--The last-minute rescue of Philadelphia's wireless network by local investors is a welcome development, since it keeps the city online while ensuring that taxpayers won't be on the hook for the $3 million yearly cost of running the system. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
Select Microsoft resellers to leverage Microsoft marketing investments to improve customer experience and drive sales TIE Commerce, Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
By Joe O'Brien A PENSIONER has been left heartbroken after his pedigree dog was stolen from his car. Pogo, a Pomeranian aged four, vanished from Roy Dickson's Vauxhall Astra while he popped in to Birkenshaw retail park in Uddingston, Lanarkshire. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
Pay with PayPal on eBay and You're Covered PayPal Michael Oldenburg, 408-967-5033 moldenburg@paypal.com or eBay Usher Lieberman, 408-376-4809 ulieberman@ebay.com Logo: http://www.ebay.com eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) and PayPal today announced improved protections for buyers and sellers on eBay.com, in time for this year's holiday shopping season. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Jun 2008 | 8:00 am
CraftyJack writes "Bright white chunks in the trenches dug by the Phoenix Lander have disappeared, leading Peter Smith & co. to believe that the chunks were ice that has since sublimated."
I bought the first issue off the newsstand in 1974, and the story, about suicide-bomber sex-robots, blew my mind.
DC recently released an anthology of all 8 issues of the short-lived series.
Which brings us to Buddy Blank, a regular dude who works for Build-A-Friend until he’s selected by the faceless Peace Agency to become the One Man Army Corps. When OMAC takes over, Buddy disappears, but does return later on in the series.
Over the next 8 issues, Kirby throws OMAC against everything from a rented city of assassins trying to kill him, a giant spider-like monster, future gangsters, a vast cloning ring, a mad scientist stealing the Earth’s water and more. Kirby’s wild pencils really bring these out-there concepts to life, punching you in the eyes with incredibly crisp pencils.
holy_calamity writes "New Scientist have an interview with a Nokia researcher who uses anthropological methods to study how people use their phones. His work currently focusses on watching how people in emerging markets like Africa use their devices to inform designs. For example, after finding that in Uganda many people use one handset, they shipped a version with multiple separate address books. There's also a slideshow of Chipchase's research images."
The Great American Run brings back the glory days of cheap gas and unfettered speed with a modern take on the famous Cannonball Run that leaves a Shaq-size carbon footprint.
It doesn't make the story of the previous five any less disturbing or mysterious, but there can be a plausible explanation - there was a crash of a float plane in 2005.
Five people dead and no bodies recovered.
It's common for feet to be severed in a plane crash and all the feet so-far recovered were wearing sneakers - with buoyant soles so they float.
When Dries Buytaert built a simple bulletin board system for his classmates, he wasn't setting out to create something that would eventually grow into one of the web's most beloved open source publishing systems. But that's exactly what happened.
Michael writes "Back in September AMD had announced a new ATI Linux driver as well as opening up their GPU specifications, and today they have taken an additional step to better support the Linux OS. With the just-announced Radeon HD 4850 RV770 they have provided same-day Linux support, and the Linux driver is now shipping alongside the Windows driver on their product CDs. In addition, they are encouraging their AIB partners to showcase Tux on the product packaging as a sign of Linux support. Last but certainly not least, AMD is committed from top-to-bottom product support on Linux and they will be introducing high-end features in their Linux driver such as MultiGPU CrossFire technology. Phoronix has a run-down on AMD's evolutionary leap in Linux support along with information on the open-source support for the RV770 GPU."
In an exclusive interview, the head of the Defense Department's premiere science and technology arm blasts the Pentagon's higher-ups. It's part of an unusually public spat over tens of millions of dollars for cutting-edge research.
Ultraexactzz writes "Wikipedia's content is licensed under the GFDL, which permits such content to be copied with attribution — and Wikipedia is used to its content being copied and mirrored. However, a new website at e-wikipedia.net/ appears to have taken this a step further by mirroring the entire English Wikipedia — articles, logos, disclaimers, userpages, and all. Compare Wikipedia's About page with e-wikipedia.net's. The site even adds to Wikipedia's normally ad-free interface by including text ads." Just try logging in or actually editing an article, though, and you'll get the message "The requested URL /w/index.php was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request." If there's credit here, I don't see it — sure looks like it's intentionally misleading readers.
biogeochick writes "Ever turn on the air conditioner on a hot day? How about a heater when it gets cold? OK, so we all know that humans act to keep themselves cool, but what about trees? A recent article on tree core isotopic evidence has shown that trees from tropical to boreal forests all grow at 70 degrees. The study, published in Nature by some fantastic researchers (so one of them is my adviser, so sue me) and covered by NPR on All Things Considered, has shed some light on the convergent temperature at which trees perform photosynthesis." Update: 06/19 21:31 GMT by T : I give, I give -- that's 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
jcatcw writes "Brian Nadel's ThinkPad R50 just hit its fifth birthday, and the years haven't been kind to it. When it was new, the notebook was reliable and fast. Now it's slow and prone to annoying shutdowns. Is it a good investment to revamp a notebook that's worth about $350? It sure is, because this old notebook will get a new lease on life for about $125 — a bargain, considering what it could cost to replace." On the other hand, upgrading RAM, keyboard and hard drive don't get you a smaller (netbook-style) computer, a new battery, or the transflective screen on the Toshiba linked above.
When I was in Clown College they showed us Charles and Ray Eames’ film “Clown Face”, which they made in 1971 (I went to Clown College in ‘79).
Charles apparently liked photographing clowns. I recently discovered this photo that was made apparently as a promo shot for Herman Miller. I don’t know if Charles shot it, but the photo is cool, nonetheless.
I found the photo via Pop Art Machine, which somehow has linked into the Library of Congress image database. The image search function through Pop Art Machine (I’m not sure what it’s really supposed to be for) is often better than the LOC search page.
Fred sez, "Prof. Robert Brauneis of GW Law School has done a mind-boggling amount of research into the origins and copyright history of 'Happy Birthday to You,' a song that still makes $2m per year for its copyright owner. Not only does Prof. Brauneis debunk many old myths about the song, he also concludes that the song is almost certainly in the public domain, although it's probably too expensive for anyone to actually prove that in court. But Prof. Brauneis is posting more than 200 documents unearthed in his research, so you all now have a head start."
Link
(Thanks, Fred!)
An anonymous reader writes "This just in: a new 'compromise' FISA Bill (PDF) was just made public, which, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports, 'contains blanket immunity for telecoms that helped the NSA break the law and spy on millions of ordinary Americans.' The House vote is tomorrow, June 20. After all the secret rooms and everything ... if they get immunity and the public never finds out what happened, the only other logical next step is to convince everyone I know not to get an iPhone." CNN covers this get-out-of-lawsuit play as well.
Regarding today's post on the Media Bloggers Association, whom the AP and New York Times said would "represent bloggers" in negotiations over whether the AP would be able to charge $12.50 for quoting five words from a news story (and only if you promised not to criticize the AP!), Mary sez, "AP (and the NYTimes) misrepresented that the MBA is representing bloggers
to negotiate a policy about use of AP story quotes.
I don't know Robert Cox, and wasn't familiar with the MBA, but some of the founding members
include Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen, O Willis, Rebecca MacKinnon and Micah Sifry.
Jay, Liza and others are saying that when the MBA represents bloggers in trouble with
the FBI, over C&Ds and with other issues, they've been helpful."
The NYT (in implying) and AP in it's headline and throughout the article outright, completely misunderstand this, and lead readers to misunderstand that there is even an institution that can "negotiate for the blogosphere." The blogophere is made up of millions of little spheres of conversation and influence, and those are made up of tens of millions of bloggers. It's utterly ridiculous and shows a complete lack of understanding of the blogosphere to believe there is some sort of institution on the other side of traditional media. The whole point of blogging is that people do what they want, that online publishing is completely atomized, and that if some sort of policy were to be negotiated with one small group, no one else would likely follow it *because Fair Use exists* and I would personally rather follow the constitution on this one.
I think it's time for a correction/restatement/clarification at NYT and a complete retraction at AP.
Richard Esguerra from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez,
After weeks of empty rhetoric about coming to a "compromise" on new spying laws, the House of Representatives is set to vote on telecom immunity tomorrow. The bill is HR 6304 and contains the exact same blanket immunity provisions, only with a few cosmetic changes so that political spin doctors can claim that it actually provides meaningful court review.
Whether or not Congress decides to offer immunity for telecoms that cooperated in warrantless spying programs is a key part of the broader battle over the Bush Administration's legal doctrine of unchecked executive power.
If you live in the US, please visit stopthespying.org, find your Representative's phone number in Washington D.C., and tell them to oppose immunity for lawbreaking telecoms!
Congress is set to free the nation's telecoms from lawsuits accusing them of illegally helping the government spy on Americans and greatly expand the government's ability to plant wiretaps inside the nation's telecom infrastructure. The win for the White House comes as Democrats backed down over election fears after having resisted the president's demands in February.
This month, the free SFinSF reading series features two of my favorite writers, Carol Emshwiller and Pat Murphy. If you're in San Francisco and you want to hit a fantastic science fictional event, this is your best bet:
Carol Emshwiller
Pat Murphy
Saturday, June 21
Lounge and cash bar open at 6:00 PM
Readings begin at 7:00PM
The Variety Preview Room
The Hobart Building, 1st Floor
582 Market St. @ Montgomery & 2nd, by Montgomery St. MUNI/BART
Entrance to the Hobart Bldg. is between Citibank and Quiznos
An anonymous reader writes "Now that the Swedish government (in its infinite wisdom) has passed a law allowing them to monitor email traffic, a question that I think a lot of people are asking (or at least should be asking) is: 'What can I do to improve my privacy?' The answer is not obvious. So, what are the best solutions for seamless email encryption, search privacy, etc? What are your experiences with PGP vs GPG vs ...? In this day and age, why is the use of this type of privacy technologies still so limited? Why isn't there a larger movement promoting the use of privacy tools? Also, what is in your opinion the largest privacy concern? Search tracking? Email transfer? I believe this is an interesting question not only for Swedes, but for everyone. Lots of traffic is passing through Sweden, but more importantly, the Swedish government is not alone in using this type of surveillance."
Daniel Bauen made a nifty pedal-powered tennis ball launcher
Both cleanly powered and built from 2 recycled bicycles, scrap steel and wood, leaking 5 gallon water jug and a lacross stick, our pedal powered tennis ball launcher was created as a unique entry for the Innovate or Die pedal powered machine contest.
It allows players varying in skill levels to practice to be better at both tennis and cycling. The launcher is towed to the court on its built-in bicycle trailer. A bike is secured to it and functions to drive the device. Pedaling the cycle as one would on a trainer drives the two launcher wheels. The cyclist then aims and pulls the lever to launch balls to the hitter.
The good news is that the wait is over: Qtrax has finally begun offering its first free downloads of major-label music. Now for the bad news: Only a smattering of songs are available, and for many, they won't play.
emyar writes "At JavaOne in May, 2006, Sun Microsystems announced they were going to release Java as free software under the terms of the GPL. The size of the task (6.5 million lines of code) was only eclipsed by the size of the opportunity for Java as a free and open technology. [...] This week the IcedTea Project reached an important milestone — The latest OpenJDK binary included in Fedora 9 (x86 and x86_64) passes the rigorous Java Test Compatibility Kit (TCK). This means that it provides all the required Java APIs and behaves like any other Java SE 6 implementation — in keeping with the portability goal of the Java platform."
klubar writes "According to a a recent survey, one in three IT staff snoops on colleagues. U.S. information security company Cyber-Ark surveyed 300 senior IT professionals, and found that one-third admitted to secretly snooping, while 47 percent said they had accessed information that was not relevant to their role. Makes you wonder about the other 2 out of 3. Did they lie on the survey or really don't snoop?"
Jay Maynard, better known as Tron Guy, has purchased a custom airplane designed to match his hand-painted unitard inspired by characters from the '80s Disney film.
The words come in a rapid, random progression on the computer screen: "POET," "BEACH," "ATTENDANT," "JURY," "CAVE" … there are 15 in all. I'm watching them tick by one by one, slightly panicked that I am going to forget them.
The screen goes dark, and I’m now supposed to write down as many of the words as I can quickly recall.
I am annoyed when I manage only five words.
Pat Turk says not to worry, that this is fairly typical. Turk is director of business development for Cognitive Drug Research, a British firm that uses automated tests to gauge how well we think. He's come to my office in San Francisco to administer a battery of tests to check out my attention, memory and executive function.
I will be compared on this test and several others with people my age and to those who are younger and older. Their results have been averaged on a database of tens of thousands of adults. I'll also get a "brain-age" score.
I have to admit to certain nervousness. What if a) I turn out to be a moron; or b) my brain-age is older than I am?
Cognitive Drug Research is one a handful of businesses, most of them outside of the U.S., that work with pharmaceutical companies to test how new drugs for everything from nicotine addiction to Alzheimer's disease affect the mind's ability to remember things, make decisions, and analyze information.
The results from their tests are recognized "end points" by the Food and Drug Administration to determine if new brain medications work, which means that the drug industry has billions of dollars in potential revenues riding on them.
(For more information, see "The Ultimate Cure," an article on the neurotechnology industry in the June issue of Conde Nast Portfolio.)
Cognitive tests have been around for a century as examinations taken with paper and pencil. In the 1970s and '80s the tests shifted to computers, Cognitive Drug Research founder Keith Wesnes says. He is a psychologist and neuroscientist who started the company in 1986 as an outgrowth of testing programs he developed for his academic experiments on cognition.
Besides drug trials, cognitive experiments are being run on patients who have had open heart surgery; take cholesterol-lowering drugs; experience what is known as "Chemofog," a cognitive decline that sometimes accompanies chemotherapy treatments for cancer; and soldiers returning from Iraq with head trauma.
Tests have been run on children eating sugary breakfast cereals versus more healthy breakfasts, and on the cognitive impact of being obese.
An Australian competitor of Cognitive Drug Research, Cogstate, offers a product called Cogstate Sport that monitor an athlete’s recovery from concussions. Customers include the Rugby Football League in Britain and the Australian Football League.
Somewhat ominously, Cogstate also offers a test that allows employers to check out their workers. According to the company's website:
CogState WorkPlace allows employers to comprehensively measure if their employees are fit for duty when it comes to their ability to think and act. Taking only around 8 minutes to complete, it has been proven to be sensitive to the effects of alcohol, fatigue and certain types of drugs. This method of testing is significantly less invasive than existing methods of drug and alcohol testing and therefore can be used as a less invasive step within an OH&S (Occupational Health and Safety) system.
Experimenters also have tested methods for enhancing cognition. For instance, placing subjects into a room high in oxygen apparently makes the brain very happy given the improved scores on cognition and memory. Drugs on the market and being tested also improve scores for healthy people, in some cases by as much as 20 percent.
Issues of enhancement and testing workers raise a host of ethical issues, including the possibility that these tests will be abused by individuals wanting to boost their own intelligence with drugs, or by employers discriminating against people who don’t score high on the tests.
And what should be done about the prospect of delivering bad news to people with mental disorders, who might get more depressed, or worse?
Wesnes says that his privately held company has tested about 30,000 people, and earns about $7 million to $8 million a year. But adds that he believes the cognitive-testing market is on the verge of expanding into an online business that would offer tests directly to consumers, businesses, or anyone else.
Consumers would need to be protected from anyone abusing these sites and the information generated; and accommodations would need to be made to protect or educate patients who might be upset by the results.
For healthy people, the sites could be used to run self-experiments, such as comparing one’s cognitive abilities while listening to, say, Carlos Santana versus listening to a Bach concerto; or before and after a bike ride.
The price won’t be outrageous—perhaps $40 or $50, says Wesnes, though he has not yet done an analysis to set prices.
Last weekend, I got my results from my own battery of test, and was surprised to hear that despite being 50 years old, my "brain age" is in my 20s. I was quick in responses and usually pretty accurate, said Wesnes.
"But that doesn't mean that you weren't sharper in your 20s," he said. "We are all on our own scale, and we all decline with age."
So I think that’s good news—for now. We’ll see how I do on the next test I’m planning with Wesnes, Turk, and Cognitive Drug Research—to determine how my brain does after drinking a glass or two of a modestly-priced Bordeaux.
AP - A federal appeals court in San Francisco has made it more difficult for employers to legally access e-mails and text messages sent by their workers on company accounts. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Jun 2008 | 12:12 pm
AFP - For people looking for a dance partner that doesn't step on toes, toymakers Sega and Hasbro on Thursday unveiled a new two-wheeled dancing robot with stereo sound.
USATODAY.com - CANNES, France - They're hip, hot and everywhere on the planet. But despite a drumbeat about mobile phones being the new frontier in the ad world, marketers have been slow to dial it up, particularly in the USA. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Jun 2008 | 11:03 am
USATODAY.com - Even if you're an active Web surfer you probably don't pay much attention to the browser you are using. By default, you likely employ Microsoft's Internet Explorer on a Windows machine, if only because Internet Explorer sits right there on your desktop. The Apple crowd typically sticks with Safari. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Jun 2008 | 11:03 am
Today at Boing Boing Gadgets we tightened up the graphics; looked at two new Mobile Internet Devices; drooled over a better ice cream scoop; and wondered why on earth someone would use a tablet PC as a hammer.
AP - Yahoo Inc. is offering free e-mail accounts under two new designations in an effort to attract Web surfers unhappy with their current addresses.
AFP - For people looking for a dance partner that doesn't step on toes, toymakers Sega and Hasbro on Thursday unveiled a new two-wheeled dancing robot with stereo sound.
AP - Google Inc.'s YouTube is setting up a virtual screening room to bring the work of independent filmmakers to a global audience.
