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Science

Submission + - First Evidence that Insects Rely on Photosynthesis (vice.com)

tedlistens writes: The idea that aphids may use photosynthesis, as plants do, is based on the recent finding that the bugs are able to synthesize pigments called carotenoids. These pigments are common and necessary for many animals (for non-photosynthesis uses, like maintaining a healthy immune system), but the animal must consume them from outside sources. So far, only plants, algae, fungi, and bacteria are known to be able to synthesize carotenoids themselves, and, in all of those organisms, carotenoids are a key part of photosynthesis. While the co-author of the study, published in Nature's open-access journal Scientific Reports, cautions that more research is needed before we can determine if aphids are photosynthesizing like non-animals, it stil could be one of the more remarkable findings in biology in recent memory, and may hold promise for helping address humanity’s food crisis.
Google

Submission + - Amazon to Eat Google's Lunch (sfgate.com)

wreakyhavoc writes: Nicholas Carlson at Business Insider maintains that Amazon's reviews and One-Click ordering will undercut Google's shopping ad revenue, and that Google is "terrified". How could Google fight this possible threat? Expose the astroturfing of Amazon reviews. Of course this would likely backfire as it would expose the astroturfing, link farming, and SEO games on Google.

From the article:

Google's real rival, and real competition to watch over the next few years is Amazon.

Google is a search company, but the searches that it actually makes money from are the searches people do before they are about to buy something online. These commercial searches make up about 20 percent of total Google searches. Those searches are where the ads are.

What Googlers worry about in private is a growing trend among consumers to skip Google altogether, and to just go ahead and search for the product they would like to buy on Amazon.com, or, on mobile in an Amazon app.

There's data to prove this trend is real. According to ComScore, Amazon search queries are up 73 percent in the last year.

Comment And the Pirate Party says... (Score 4, Informative) 409

Loz Kaye — Pirate Party UK Leader:

By supporting the baseless US extradition case against Richard O'Dwyer today at Westminster Magistrates Court the judge Judge Quentin Purdy has failed to inject the much needed shot of rationality into the insanity of the UK-US extradition arrangements we had all hoped for. The Sheffield student is accused of infringing copyright by setting up the popular UK-based website TV Shack.

TV shack provided a catalogue of links to other sites, with no illegal material available from it at any time. As the server was based in the UK, Richard's lawyer has pointed out that there is simply no valid reason to send a young British citizen to face a court in the US.

[...]

This outcome is a failure on the part of our British justice system to act in a sensible and reasonable way. This case is the perfect example of what enforcing copyright is; excessive, overblown and aimed at easy targets innocent or not whilst ignoring the human.

So, this is what protecting your copyright has come to mean. Accepting unacceptable human collateral like Richard O'Dwyer."
http://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/ofabu/tv_shack_creators_extradition_hearing_is/

Comment Re:UK is first past the post electoral system (Score 1) 116

People seem to expect parties, groups and movements to come out of nowhere and storm to the top, in the UK that simply isn't doable, it takes time and effort. In 2010 the best result in the national election was 0.6% in Gorton, Manchester (with a candidate who had a manifesto and people knocking on doors..), in the local elections in Bury the party managed 3.6% of the vote - obviously a smaller area and different issues, but again, with people out talking to residents and putting forward positions. It's a progression, it won't go on forever, it may fail but it's worth doing. As to political power, the party has very little, where it has any influence at all it is through those people that have managed to raise their own profiles and end up on TV and radio presenting the other side, the party position. That helps a bit, but it certainly isn't the end game. The party needs to raise awareness of the issues it thinks are important and either threaten other partys in marginal seats/wards or find other ways of having other partys take similar positions to them. At present there isn't another party in the UK with similar positions on copyright reform, in fact I can't think of one that is going in the same direction...

Comment Re:In Sweden (Score 1) 116

>The bottom line is that the PP is not going anywhere as a political party until it has an opinion on day care. It is questionable whether it has it in itself of getting that, and if not it should stay out of election That is exactly that the party is doing now. The party has been through a number of elections and the people who involved themselves in those elections, the people from the party who were out on the ground either knew this already or learned rather quickly, it is also why the party is pushing on policy and anything it can do to have it's positions heard in one forum or another. As to vulgarizing the debate, I might have agreed a year ago (before I was a party member), indeed looking at some of the press stuff from the early days, the discussions etc.. it rings true to a certain degree, I would hope that this will change over the next few years as the party matures and learns, indeed that's what I am aiming for.

Comment Re:Whats in a name? (Score 1) 116

The problem really is two edged. If the party doesn't approach other issues, the ones everyone feels is important, no-one would vote for the party. This is the largest criticism the party see's, 'how can we vote for you, even if we support your ideas on copyright, civil liberties etc.. if you don't have any policies on education/health/the economy'. So it's time to see if we can find policies that makes sense given the ideals and principles that inform our positions on copyright. Our candidates have theoretically had their own platforms in previous elections (with mixed success) but they haven't been well communicated or terribly well formed in all cases, broadening where there is consensus will help with this, more to the point, candidates can still do what they want to do in terms of policy, as long as they are clear to the party and the public, what they are standing on.

Comment Re:Whats in a name? (Score 1) 116

The issue that the party has is that it's small, has a limited number of activists and was scrambling somewhat in terms of political direction and understanding the process up until a few months ago. The way the party has been fixing that is by sorting the admin (new leadership team came in and fixed it..), getting some structure in place (candidate selection, policy process, even thins like web infrastrucutre and dev..) and building the people who can talk to the press to do so. The party didn't have a press office 6 months ago (it had a collection of people who would issue press releases ad hoc) it didn't have a central phone number, a development web server, amongst other things... There are massively more things that the party wants to do regionally, nationally and locally, but it will take us time with the members we have now, we could do more with more active members and supporters... One of the problems I see in the UK is that many people discussing politics, especially those sympathetic to the Pirate Party, are only interested in fully formed parties that can 'win' immediately, whereas realistically it takes time to build an organisation and have an impact (if you can even do it...).
Politics

Submission + - Pirate Party UK - Looking forward to 2012. (pirateparty.org.uk)

Ajehals writes: "The UK Pirate Party new years message suggests a new sense of direction for the party, with a focus on policy and politics beyond what was seen as the party's norm, single issue position of copyright reform. Hoping to learn from and emulate the German Pirate Party's success in Berlin, Partly Leader Loz Kay is looking back over 2011 and to the future."
United Kingdom

Submission + - So much for Civil Liberties online in the UK... (pirateparty.org.uk)

Ajehals writes: "It's "acceptable to shut Twitter and Facebook off for an hour or two"... But Government has "no intention of restricting Internet services"? Governments don't get technology.

At every turn, the coalition has been exposed as having no coherent policy on digital rights. Nothing illustrates this better than its zig-zag course on Internet filtering and website blocking."

Comment FBI (Score 1) 1

It seems LOIC may not have been such a great idea (I seem to remember someone hailing this as the first wave of cyber-activism, others categorising it as cyber-warfare..) although I wonder what proportion of those involved in the attacks this group of under 50 actually is...

Comment Cost of doing business (Score 1) 2

The quote you are after is

The real reason is likely international licensing fees, which led Pandora to pull the plug on international users back in 2007. Itâ(TM)s unfortunate for users outside of Last.fmâ(TM)s top countries, but likely a necessary move to continue to provide sustainable service, even though the outfit is now owned by media conglomerate CBS.

If they aren't making enough money to cover their outgoings, whether that is licensing fees hosting or anything else, then I don't see this as such a bad thing. It is more sensible than trying to cram an advert in every corner and going under (or rather being wound down by the parent) anyway. It would be nice if this kind of service could be provided for free, but with licensing deals being as they are it might simply not be feasible.

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