98888337
submission
capedgirardeau writes:
Researchers with the renowned Ramazzini Institute (RI) in Italy announce that a large-scale, lifetime study of lab animals exposed to environmental levels of cell tower radiation developed cancer (full study PDF). The RI study also found increases in malignant brain (glial) tumors in female rats and precancerous conditions including Schwann cells hyperplasia in both male and female rats. A study of much higher levels of cell phone radiofrequency (RF) radiation, from the US National Toxicology Program (NTP), has also reported finding the same unusual cancer called Schwannoma of the heart in male rats treated at the highest dose.
89733905
submission
capedgirardeau writes:
A little-noticed bill moving through the US Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information. Giving employers such power is now prohibited by US law, including the 2008 genetic privacy and nondiscrimination law known as GINA. The new bill gets around that landmark law by stating explicitly that GINA and other protections do not apply when genetic tests are part of a 'workplace wellness' program.
61084111
submission
capedgirardeau writes:
An update to the Google Play store now groups app permissions into collections of related permissions making them much less fine grained and potentially misleading for users. For example the SMS permissions group would allow an app access to both reading and sending SMS messages. The problem is that once an app has access to the group of permissions, it can make use of any of the allowed actions at anytime without ever informing the user. As Google explains: "It’s a good idea to review permissions groups before downloading an app. Once you’ve allowed an app to access a permissions group, the app may use any of the individual permissions that are part of that group. You won’t need to manually approve individual permissions updates that belong to a permissions group you’ve already accepted."
47669939
submission
capedgirardeau writes:
Caleb Kraft of the well known Hack-A-Day site noticed that game controllers and alternate keyboard for people with physical challenges were very expensive. Simple switches for buttons that could be made for a few dollars were running USD$60 or $70 apiece. Working with a young man he knew who loved gaming and has muscular dystrophy, Caleb created a do-it-yourself controller for people with physical challenges using a 3D printer, a super cheap micro-controller board and some simple keyboard emulation software. He is freely releasing all the 3d printer files and tutorials to make his and other controllers on a new site, http://thecontrollerproject.com/ and encourages people to also checkout The AbleGamers Foundation
33981365
submission
capedgirardeau writes:
Via Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing:
Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin has an in-depth look at the "Defensive Patent License," a kind of judo for the patent system created by ... EFF's Jason Schultz (who started EFF's Patent Busting Project) and ... Jen Urban (who co-created the ChillingEffects clearinghouse). As you'd expect from two such killer legal freedom fighters, the DPL is audacious, exciting, and wicked cool. It's a license pool that companies opt into, and members of the pool pledge not to sue one another for infringement. If you're ever being sued for patent infringement, you can get an automatic license to a conflicting patent just by throwing your patents into the pool. The more patent trolls threaten people, the more incentive there is to join the league of Internet patent freedom fighters.
21569478
submission
capedgirardeau writes:
AP: ...with [a] retired Bozeman engineer's 70th birthday approaching, disabled gamers say they fear there will be no one to replace Yankelevitz, who has sustained quadriplegic game controllers for 30 years almost entirely by himself. The retired aerospace engineer hand makes the controllers with custom parts in his Montana workshop, offering them at a price just enough to cover parts.
