DrMindWarp - Slashdot User

Comment Re:False positive problem? (Score 1) 578

by DrMindWarp on Sunday March 16, 2008 @07:16PM (#22768470) Attached to: UK Police Want DNA of 'Potential Offenders'

AFAIK, there have been two infamous false-positive cases in recent years. These are just the ones we hear about as they are the most egregious. Despite all the other contrary evidence, the DNA 'matches' led the inquiry and resulted in the investigation and arrest of individuals who could not possibly have been involved in the crimes. It is a major concern that the compelling evidence of innocence (like being 200 miles away at the time of the crime) will take a back-seat to the supposedly infallible "DNA match".

There are reports that 1 in 8 DNA records on the database are incorrectly filed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=519568&in_page_id=1965

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/28/ukcrime.forensicscience

UK Police Want DNA of 'Potential Offenders' 578

Posted by Zonk on Sunday March 16, 2008 @06:29PM from the when-everyone-is-special-nobody-is dept.

mrogers writes "British police want to collect DNA samples from children as young as five who 'exhibit behavior indicating they may become criminals in later life'. A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers argued that since some schools already take pupils' fingerprints, the collection and permanent storage of DNA samples was the logical next step. And of course, if anyone argues that branding naughty five-year-olds as lifelong criminals will stigmatize them, the proposed solution will be to take samples from all children."

Wreck of Australian Warship HMAS Sydney Found? 193

Posted by kdawson on Sunday June 03, 2007 @12:09AM from the frieght-and-salvage dept.

Mendy writes "Tim Ankers, a British archaeologist, claims to have found the wreck of the HMAS Sydney, lost with all hands in the Indian Ocean during World War II. He says that he's done this from the comfort of his home using software he wrote called Merlindown, which can analyze satellite photographs at different wavelengths to 'peer 75 meters into the earth and 16,000 meters beneath the seas.'"

Astronomers Again Baffled by Solar Observations 299

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday May 05, 2007 @05:28AM from the back-to-the-drawing-board dept.

SteakNShake writes "Once again professional astronomers are struggling to understand observations of the sun. ScienceDaily reports that a team from Saint Andrew's University announced that the sun's magnetic fields dominate the behavior of the corona via a mechanism dubbed the 'solar skeleton.' Computer models continue to be built to mimic the observed behavior of the sun in terms of magnetic fields but apparently the ball is still being dropped; no mention in the announcement is made of the electric fields that must be the cause of the observed magnetic fields. Also conspicuously absent from the press releases is the conclusion that the sun's corona is so-dominated by electric and magnetic fields because it is a plasma. In light of past and present research revealing the electrical nature of the universe, this kind of crippling ignorance among professional astrophysicists is astonishing."

openSUSE Hobbled By Microsoft Patents 266

Posted by CowboyNeal on Tuesday April 10, 2007 @07:38AM from the or-at-least-disfigured dept.

kripkenstein writes "openSUSE 10.2 no longer enables ClearType (which would improve the appearance of fonts). The reason given on the openSUSE mailing list for not enabling it is, 'this feature is covered by several Microsoft patents and should not be activated in any default build of the library.' As reported on and discussed, this matter may be connected to the Microsoft-Novell deal. If so, Novell should have received a license for the Microsoft patents, assuming the deal covered all relevant patents. Does the license therefore extend only to SUSE, but not openSUSE?"

Organic Matter Found In Canadian Meteorite 226

Posted by kdawson on Sunday December 03, 2006 @02:06PM from the seeding-gaia dept.

eldavojohn writes "From what sounds like the opening of an X-Files episode, Canadian scientists have reportedly found in a meteorite organic matter older than the sun at Tagish Lake in Canada. From the article: '"We mean that the material in the meteorite has been processed the least since it was formed. The material we see today is arguably the most representative of the material that first went into making up the solar system." The meteorite likely formed in the outer reaches of the asteroid belt, but the organic material it contains probably had a far more distant origin. The globules could have originated in the Kuiper Belt group of icy planetary remnants orbiting beyond Neptune. Or they could have been created even farther afield. The globules appear to be similar to the kinds of icy grains found in molecular clouds — the vast, low-density regions where stars collapse and form and new solar systems are born.' The article implies that life could potentially survive in these meteorites and maybe even travel through space — supporting the theory that life may have arrived on earth and evolved from that point on."

Peter Gabriel Wants You to Re-Shock the Monkey 312

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 19, 2006 @12:40AM from the daddy-wants-more-cowbell dept.

PreacherTom writes "The party line for the music industry has been clear: discourage music downloads at all cost. However, singer Peter Gabriel is taking things in a different direction. In order to promote his own label, he is actually encouraging people to not only download his music, but also adapt it into something more modern. In doing so, he actually posted a sample pack of Shock the Monkey consisting of vocals and other pieces of the original multitrack recording. Some in the music business would call this the commercial equivalent of hiring kidnappers to babysit. In actuality, Gabriel is pleased with the results."

World Class Nanotechnology Research Center Opens 51

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday June 24, 2006 @10:46AM from the can't-see-it-anywhere dept.

Eh-Wire writes "The University of Alberta and Edmonton are mighty proud to be home to the new National Institute of Nanotechnology. The $52.2-million(Canadian) facility is designed to provide the optimal conditions for nano-scale research and to foster collaboration between researchers. Apparently it is Canada's quietest space and engineered that way to minimize vibration and acoustical noise. Even the electrical wiring has been twisted to reduce electro-magnetic interference. Curiously enough the head project architect, Donna Clare of architectural firm, Cohos Evamy was also the head project architect for Edmonton's highly acclaimed Winspear Centre, a concert hall designed specifically to enhance acoustics. There's likely going to be some big things coming from this state-of-the-art research facility for the really really small."

New Caldera Promised 291

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday June 17, 2006 @05:29PM from the people-you-love-to-hate dept.

An anonymous reader writes "SCO has announced their plans to release a new version of Caldera Linux by the end of the year. From the announcement: 'To provide extensive reliability and performance features, the Linux Kernel 2.5 codebase has been merged with recently developed additions to SCO's world leading UNIX core operating system. Already contained code owned by SCO is still included benefiting the stability and overall experience opposed to recent Linux kernel releases.' The question is, is anyone listening?"

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