Tuesday, October 28, 2008

$125 Million Settlement In Authors Guild v. Google

Posted by timothy on Tuesday October 28, @10:12AM

from the something-had-to-give dept.

James Gleick writes"Authors, publishers, and Google are announcing a huge settlement deal today in their lawsuits over the scanning of millions of copyrighted books in library collections. Google has agreed to a huge payout for books that were scanned without permission, but now they'll be allowed to scan the books legitimately. Most important, they'll be able to put millions of books online, including those still in copyright--not just for searching and not just in snippets. There is a groundbreaking new licensing system meant to make the books as widely available as possible while protecting the authors' copyrights and enabling them to share in the revenue. Some will differ, but personally I think this is a wonderful outcome, for readers and for authors alike."

Student Charged With Three Felonies for Finding Security Flaw — and Reporting it

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday October 28, @05:35AM

from the no-good-deed-goes-unpunished dept.

Well, yet another teenage hacker who "did the right thing" by reporting a security flaw is being punished for his actions. Although it definitely sounds like the whole story may not be in the clear yet, a 15-year-old New York high school student has been charged with three felonies claiming that he accessed a file containing social security numbers, driver's license numbers, and home addresses of past and present employees ... and then sent an anonymous email to the principal alerting him to the security flaw."All that was needed to access the information was a district password. School officials have admitted that thousands of students, faculty and employees could have accessed the same file for up to two weeks."

Burden on scientists to educate public on climate change

by PATRICIA MAYVILLE-COX
Oct 28th 2008 @ 9:02AM

Filed under: Climate Change

Bryan Walsh reports on the gap in public understanding that exists regarding climate change in Time last week. The gap, according to Walsh, is between scientists who think that climate change is very serious and needs to be dealt with immediately and the public, who believes for the most part, that it is real, but rarely ranks it as a high priority. In a study cited by Walsh, a UN survey found that 54% of Americans are for taking a "wait-and-see" approach. Similar results were found in Russia, China and India.

According to John Sterman at MIT, "Most of us really don't understand how carbon accumulates in the atmosphere." To stabilize temperature increases, we need to cut carbon emissions drastically according to Sterman, and a "wait-and-see" approach won't work, because by the time we "see" the results of climate change, it could be too late. Even Bill Gates doesn't get this fact according to Sterman,quoting Gates, "Fortunately climate change, although it's a huge challenge, it's a challenge that happens over a long period of time, you know, we have time to work on it."

According to Walsh's interview, the burden is on scientists to better explain the risks of climate change to the public.

What do you think? Do you think the public doesn't understand the role of carbon emissions in climate change? Or do you think they just don't want to make changes?

And that is how the fight was started.

1: When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive... ..so, I took her to a gas station..... and that's how the fight started....

2: I tried to talk my wife into buying a case of Miller Light for $14.95. Instead, she bought a jar of cold cream for $7.95. I told her the beer would make her look better at night than the cold cream. And that's how the fight started.

3: After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later. The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application. When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too'. And that's how the fight started.....

4: My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife asked, 'Do you know her?' 'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.' 'My God!' says my wife, 'Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?' And that's how the fight started.....

5: I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny? Yeah, well I couldn't believe it.... he was a DWARF!!! He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, 'I AM NOT HAPPY!!!' So, I looked down at him and said, 'Well, then which one are you?' And that's how the fight started.....

6: I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my order first. 'I'll have the strip steak, medium rare, please.' He said, 'Aren't you worried about the mad cow?' 'Nah, she can order for herself.' And that's how the fight started.....

The Second Coming of Virtual Worlds

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday October 28, @03:28AM

from the when-someone-asks-if-you're-a-god-you-say-yes dept.

An anonymous reader writes"Things have been a bit quiet on the virtual world front recently but according to an article in Silicon.com, things are about to change. Apparently it's only now that virtual worlds are really going to become a force to be reckoned with. 'Now experts predict the virtual world phenomenon is entering a second phase in which businesses will become shrewder about their involvement in such environments and look more carefully at the tangible benefits they can realize. Emerging technology specialist at IBM, Robert Smart, is confident virtual worlds will become more important to businesses in the coming years.'"

Models Help Assess Biofuels' Sustainability

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2008) — Many agricultural products can be converted into feedstocks for alternative fuel. Now analysis from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) suggests that they can be used this way without reducing the nation's food supply, soil production capacity or environmental quality.

Healing Process Found To Backfire In Lung Patients

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2008) — A mechanism in the body which typically helps a person heal from an injury, may actually be causing patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) to get worse, researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and their collaborators have found.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

First Mars-Goers Should Prepare For a One-Way Trip

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 23, @02:53PM

from the buy-round-trip-tickets-to-slip-past-tsa-though dept.

Luminary Crush writes with this excerpt from PhysOrg about the permanance of leaving Earth for Mars, at least for early travelers:"The first astronauts sent to Mars should be prepared to spend the rest of their lives there, in the same way that European pioneers headed to America knowing they would not return home, says moonwalker Buzz Aldrin. '[the distance and difficulty is why you should] send people there permanently,' Aldrin said. 'If we are not willing to do that, then I don't think we should just go once and have the expense of doing that and then stop.'"On the other hand, maybe they'll catch a ride back with Carrie-Anne Moss.

Exercise Gives Longer Life For People With Heart Disease

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2008) — Exercising once a week can help prolong life expectancy for people with heart disease according to a new study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway.

Interactive Mirror dazzles onlookers, never lies

by Tim Stevens, posted Oct 23rd 2008 at 11:09AM

It was just a month ago that Alpay Kasal of Lit Studios was impressing us with LaserGames, beaming all sorts of fun, interactive visuals on the wall. Now, with a few tweaks, he's turned that projector around and made a two-way mirror into a sort of digital portal. "Interactive Mirror" uses the same basic mouse emulation as LaserGames -- it seems to lack multi-touch but offers some interesting ideas, like showing how a custom T-shirt would look if you were wearing it. That's potentially useful, but its primary function seems to be inducing childish wonderment in your friends. If the wide-eyed participants in the video below are any indication, it seems to do that quite well.

Check these cools pics of the Hot Sun

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sun.html

X-Rays Emitted From Ordinary Scotch Tape

Posted by timothy on Wednesday October 22, @02:12PM

from the unusual-circumstances dept.

Maximum Prophet writes"When I was in High School, I built an X-Ray machine that (probably) didn't produce any X-Rays. I used an old vacuum tube and high voltage. Little did I know that simple triboluminescence would have enough energy to do useful work."The catch: you'll need to peel your tape in a vacuum, and have the x-ray film at the ready.

Throwing Light On The Dark Side Of The Universe

ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2008) — Although we may believe humans know a lot about the Universe, there are still a lot of phenomena to be explained. A team of cosmologists from the University of the Basque Country are searching for the model that best explains the evolution of the Universe.

Impacts Of Climate Change On Lakes

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2008) — Climate change will have different effects on lakes in warmer and colder regions of the globe. This is the conclusion reached by Japanese and German researchers following studies of very deep caldera lakes in Japan.

Voters Swayed By Candidates Who Share Their Looks

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 23, @12:23AM

from the govern-by-proxy dept.

iandoh writes"Stanford researchers have found that voters are subconsciously swayed by candidates who share their facial features. In three experiments, researchers at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab worked with cheap, easy-to-use computer software to morph pictures of about 600 test subjects with photos of politicians. And they kept coming up with the same results: For the would-be voters who weren't very familiar with the candidates or in perfect lockstep with their positions or political parties, the facial similarity was enough to clinch their votes."

Inside the World's Most Advanced Planetarium

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 22, @10:21PM

from the laser-floyd-will-never-be-the-same dept.

notthatwillsmith writes"Earlier this month, the most technologically-advanced digital planetarium in the world opened in San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences. The new Morrison Planetarium's 75-foot screen replaces the traditional Zeiss projector with an array of 6 high-resolution DLP projectors arrayed around the edge of the theater, which are powered by three very different, but interesting computing clusters. The three clusters allow for projection of traditional planetarium shows, playback of ultra-high resolution movies, and display of anything from current atmospheric conditions on Earth to a (greatly accelerated) trip to the farthest reaches of the universe, all rendered in real-time on an 8800 sq. ft. dome. Maximum PC went on a behind the scenes tour with the engineers who built the systems that do everything from run the planetarium lights to the sound systems to the tech behind the screen to show you how it works and what it's like to drive, well... the universe."

SMART pulls the cloth off multitouch table for school kids

by Samuel Axon, posted Oct 22nd 2008 at 10:07PM

Determined to make us jealous that our kids' childhood experiences are more marvelous than ours, SMART Technologies will tomorrow unveil the SMART Table, a primary education "interactive learning center" (we'd rather call it Surface Jr.). It'll be available Spring of next year, and will work out of the box with learning applications that can be operated by any number of kids and all their fingers. Other classroom multitouch devices are on the horizon, but most of them are a little further from market than this Canadian contraption, which includes custom lesson plans, gesture support and a (touted but unspecified) wide viewing angle. At $8,000 we're not sure it's an option for public schools whose budgets only have room for essentials, but if you work at a school that's totally loaded with cash and think the kiddos would dig this, feel free to look at SMART's short promotional vid after the break.

The Walking House

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 23, @04:25AM

from the baba-yaga-eat-your-heart-out dept.

What is 10' tall, has six hydraulic legs, and is powered by the wind and solar panels? The prototype pod house built by art collective N55 in Copenhagen, Denmark. With the help of MIT, N55 built the pod over a two-year period at a cost of £30,000. Designers say it provides a solution to the problem of rising water levels as the house can simply walk away from floods. One of the designers says, "This house is not just for travellers but also for anyone interested in a more general way of nomadic living." It won't be long now until the Japanese makeHowl's Moving Castle.