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Submission + - Hurricane Helene Took Out NC Town the Entire Tech World Relies On (axios.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Spruce Pine is one of the only places in the world to mine high-purity quartz. The mineral is an essential ingredient of chips in countless products, including medical devices, solar panels, cellphones and the chips powering the latest tech craze: artificial intelligence. It's difficult to underscore the significance of Spruce Pine — a town of about 2,000 people, known for its charming downtown and blossoming arts scene — to the global economy. Economics editor Ed Conway put it best in his 2023 book "Material World," writing: "It is rare, unheard of almost, for a single site to control the global supply of a crucial material. Yet if you want to get high-purity quartz — the kind you need to make those crucibles without which you can't make silicon wafers — it has to come from Spruce Pine."

The Quartz Corp and Sibelco both export high-purity quartz from Spruce Pine. While there are other places to find the material, such as Russia and Brazil, this mountain town has the highest quantity of the highest purity, says Conway. A few weeks of shutdown is not the end of the world, Conway tells Axios. However, longer than that could put the industry into "another crisis." The semiconductor industry would need to find alternatives. [...] The mines in Spruce Pine are still accounting for their workers and families, the international companies stated. The level of destruction at the sites is unknown. However, even if the facilities are intact, the railroads that move the quartz will likely need drastic repairs.

Comment Re:It is about not lettting ideas be silenced (Score 1) 194

by bedmison (#41997347) Attached to: The First Amendment and Software Speech

To a point. Beyond a certain point, however, an organization of people can amass the ability to speak at sufficient volume (both in loudness and in quantity) to effectively drown out dissenting voices. Thus, in order to guarantee free speech for the individual, to some degree, the speech of large groups must be kept in check.

Similarly, commercial speech (e.g. advertising) has limits that require a degree of truthfulness.

Clearly you weren't paying a lot of attention to the ads associated with the presidential campaign that just concluded in the US. The Supreme Court was pretty clear in Citizens United opinion (Google it) that an organization's right to free speech/expression cannot be limited by government in the form of limits placed on donor contributions, or how those contributions are used. This case essentially gives any non-corporeal legal entity the protected right to say whatever the hell it wants.

Submission + - Wikileaks "a clear and present danger"

Submitted by
bedmison
bedmison writes: "In an op-ed in the Washington Post titled "WikiLeaks must be stopped", Marc A. Thiessen writes that "WikiLeaks represents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States.", and that the United States has the authority to arrest its founder, Julian Assange, even if it has to contravene international law to do so. Thiessen also suggests that the new USCYBERCOM be unleashed to destroy WikiLeaks as an internet presense. From the article:

"With appropriate diplomatic pressure, these governments may cooperate in bringing Assange to justice. But if they refuse, the United States can arrest Assange on their territory without their knowledge or approval. In 1989, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued a memorandum entitled "Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Override International Law in Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities."

This memorandum declares that "the FBI may use its statutory authority to investigate and arrest individuals for violating United States law, even if the FBI's actions contravene customary international law" and that an "arrest that is inconsistent with international or foreign law does not violate the Fourth Amendment." In other words, we do not need permission to apprehend Assange or his co-conspirators anywhere in the world.

Arresting Assange would be a major blow to his organization. But taking him off the streets is not enough; we must also recover the documents he unlawfully possesses and disable the system he has built to illegally disseminate classified information.

This should be done, ideally, through international law enforcement cooperation. But if such cooperation is not forthcoming, the United States can and should act alone. Assange recently boasted that he has created "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking." I am sure this elicited guffaws at the National Security Agency. The United States has the capability and the authority to monitor his communications and disrupt his operations.""

Comment What are the odds ... (Score 1) 210

by bedmison (#26069403) Attached to: Musicians Protest Use Of Songs By US Jailers
the gov'ment has the correct licensing for the tunes they are using? Last time I checked, ASCAP/BMI gets kind of pissed off when you use a CD you bought at Wally-world in your coffee shop. Something about it only being licensed for private home use. Me thinks Gitmo is neither private, nor home, for anyone there. Ergo, the artists should sue under the notion that the the Gov't is using their IP illegally. Of course, they run the risk of ending up in a cell right next to Osama's assistants, but it might be worth a shot. Might be interesting to see if the RIAA is willing to bite the other hand that feeds.

Comment Re:Legal services (Score 1) 440

by bedmison (#25971111) Attached to: Losing My Software Rights?
But don't be surprised if the a lawyer/law school faculty at your university doesn't want to give you advise. Most student legal service offices at universities won't help students where one of the parties in the dispute is the university itself, because of the conflict of interest this presents.
Space

Spider Missing After Trip To Space Station 507

Posted by CmdrTaco from the lost-in-space dept.
Garabito writes "A spider that had been sent to the International Space Station for a school science program was lost. Two arachnids were sent in order to know if spiders can survive and make webs in space, but now only one spider can be seen in the container. NASA isn't sure where the other spider could have gone. I, for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords."
Power

Submission + - Big Red Button disasters

Submitted by FredDC
FredDC writes: The Daily WTF? has a story about a Big Red Button disaster. What Big Red Button disaster have you experienced? caused? heared about? Or can happen any day now?
Games

Inside Bungie - Living The Spartan Life 58

Posted by Zonk from the cat-hats-for-all dept.
Straight from the latest issue of Edge, a great feature all about the life inside Bungie studios. The article gets into a good bit of detail on the mindset of this insular part of Microsoft's development network. Interviewed developers discuss what it is like working for Microsoft, and how hard it is not to be hard on themselves. Specifically, the developers have some surprisingly harsh criticism of their own opus - Halo 2. From the article, comments by technical lead Chris Butcher: "One of the things that stuns me when I think about it, and I can't believe this is true - we had [no time to polish] for Halo 2. Take that polish period and completely get rid of it. We miscalculated, we screwed up, we came down to the wire and we just lost all of that. So Halo 2 is far less than it could and should be in many ways because of that. It kills me to think of it. Even the multiplayer experience for Halo 2 is a pale shadow of what it could and should have been if we had gotten the timing of our schedule right. It's astounding to me. I f***ing cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer. I cannot do it. And that's why I know Halo 3 is going to be so much better."
Space

Detection of Earth-like Civilizations in Space Now Possible 345

Posted by Zonk from the in-spaaaaaaace dept.
Mr. McGibby writes "Astronomers have come up with an improved method of looking for extraterrestrial life with an Earth-like civilization. Theorist Avi Loeb proposes to use instruments like the Low Frequency Demonstrator (LFD) of the Mileura Wide-Field Array (MWA), an Australian facility for radio astronomy currently under construction. The array could (theoretically) detect civilizations broadcasting in the same frequencies as our own society. From the article: 'Loeb and Zaldarriaga calculate that by staring at the sky for a month, the MWA-LFD could detect Earth-like radio signals from a distance of up to 30 light-years, which would encompass approximately 1,000 stars. More powerful broadcasts could be detected to even greater distances. Future observatories like the Square Kilometer Array could detect Earth-like broadcasts from 10 times farther away, which would encompass 100 million stars. ' The original paper describes the details."
Slashdot.org

Submission + - new nanoparticle cancer therapy

Submitted by
quixote9
quixote9 writes: "Tbe BBC reports on a new nanoparticle-based therapy that sounds particularly promising. Biologically, it makes sense. For the drug companies, they don't need to tailor individual drugs, which is their problem with monoclonal antibodies. Watch this one closely!

From the article:

"The researchers used the nanoparticles to zero in on the network of blood vessels that supply the tumours in mice with nutrients and oxygen. A potentially powerful function of nanoparticles is the ability to home in on particular targets inside the body. While various nanoparticles have been designed to target tumours, the efficiency is relatively low. The researchers developed a technique for amplifying this homing ability by designing a multifunctional nanoparticle that binds to a protein structure found only in tumours and associated blood vessels. ... The tests showed that within hours of the injection, the artificial platelets began blocking the supply without harming normal tissues. The scientists believe the nanoparticles could also be used to carry drugs to the tumour.

[PS. No "medicine" subtopic. Couldn't find a relevant subtopic.]"
User Journal

Journal Journal: Biased Science

Journal by drcoppersmith
While I hate seeing articles like this one, where the veracity of scientific claims are brought into question, it's something that the public needs to know.
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - World's First Virtual Banking Licenses

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?relea se_id=200858

MindArk PE AB, creators of Entropia Universe — the original virtual universe with a real cash economy, today announced the auction of five virtual banking licenses which will integrate real world banking systems into the virtual world. These two-year exclusive licenses will be available through the public auction within Entropia Universe and will be open for bids beginning mid January 2007."

Sling Streams iTunes Content To TV 134

Posted by kdawson from the pulling-the-rug dept.
Vitamin_Boy writes "Sling has a new product out, the 'SlingCatcher.' It sends video from the PC to the TV and does it for $200. Oh, and it works with iTunes. Will this undercut Apple's iTV? The Ars Technica article thinks it might: 'The SlingCatcher... is media-agnostic. It doesn't care what codec videos are encoded with, nor whether or not they have been purchased from an approved online store. It is designed to take video output and stream it, which means that you could use the SlingCatcher with video purchased from other online services, such as the iTunes Store or CinemaNow. In this way, the SlingCatcher may turn out to be a one-size-fits-all solution in a field populated with specialty products.'"

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