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Science

Submission + - Multicellular life made in months (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: The origin of multicellular life, one of the most important developments in Earth’s history, could have occurred with surprising speed, US researchers have shown. In the lab, a single-celled yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) took less than 60 days to evolve into many-celled clusters that behaved as individuals. The clusters even developed a primitive division of labour, with some cells dying so that others could grow and reproduce.

Multicellular life has evolved independently at least 25 times, but these transitions are so ancient that they have been hard to study.

The researchers wanted to see if they could evolve multicellularity in a single-celled organism, using gravity as the selective pressure. In a tube of liquid, clusters of yeast cells settle at the bottom more quickly than single cells. By culturing only the cells that sank, they selected for those that stick together. After many rounds of selection over 60 days, the yeast had evolved into 'snowflakes' comprising dozens of cells.

Many single-celled organisms, including yeast, often form clumps of genetically distinct cells. But Ratcliff’s snowflakes were made up of genetically identical cells that had budded off and stuck together. Many other multicellular organisms may well have evolved through a similar 'divide-and-stick' process.
Google

Submission + - Google IP addresses found to be vandalising data i (opengeodata.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Following reports of misconduct by Google employees in Kenya and India, It has been found that Google IP addresses have been responsible for deliberate vandalism of OpenStreetMap data. While it is unlikely that this was a deliberate or coordinated attack by Google HQ on the competition, multiple such reports does raise the question of whether or not Google has become too big to effectively enforce it's "Do no evil" philosophy across its massive organization.
Idle

Submission + - Death by Rollercoaster (discovery.com) 1

Submitted by disco_tracy
disco_tracy writes: A design for a hypothetical coaster could be the future of humane euthanasia. The designers says that it is engineered to give a person a way to die with "with elegance and euphoria."
Security

Submission + - Apple In Doghouse For Not Blocking Stolen Certs (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "A security researcher is criticizing Apple for lagging with its response to the DigiNotar certificate fiasco. He is urging the company to quickly update Mac OS X to protect users. 'We're looking at some very serious issues [about trust on the Web] and it doesn't help matters when Apple is dragging its feet,' said Paul Henry, a security and forensics analyst with Lumension. Unlike Microsoft, which updated Windows on Tuesday to block all SSL certificates issued by DigiNotar, Apple has not updated Mac OS X to do the same. Meanwhile, even Mac OS X users who want to go DIY are stymied, reports Bob McMillan, because the OS can't properly revoke dodgy digital certificates."
Science

Submission + - World's Oldest Fossils Found on Australian Beach (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Researchers say they have discovered the fossils of 3.4-billion-year-old cells in between the cemented sand grains of an ancient beach in Western Australia , possibly the oldest fossils ever found. Chemical analyses of the minerals near the cells suggest the microorganisms depended on sulfur for fuel. Such a beach might have been life's first breeding ground, one author says.
The Internet

Submission + - Web Surfing At Work Can Boost Productivity (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Wall Street Journal reports on a study into productivity and efficiency in the workplace, which found that people who are given a break to surf the web return to their work with 'lower levels of mental exhaustion, boredom and higher levels of engagement.' Researchers tested against two other groups; one continued working, and one was given a break that did not involve web browsing. They concluded that 'browsing the Internet serves an important restorative function,' while dealing with personal email was 'particularly distracting.' In the end, the researchers recommended that employers loosen restrictions on employee web access.
Education

Submission + - School Police Departments? (washingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by
Is Any Nickname Left
Is Any Nickname Left writes: "The Washington Post has an article on school systems with their own police force. Focusing on Texas, which has the highest number of "School Police Departments," of which there are so many the have their own trade association. Highlights: 1) Houston fourth-grader stood on a stool so he could see the judge. He pleaded guilty. To a scuffle on a school bus.; 2) 275,000 juvenile tickets in fiscal 2009, to students as young as 5; 3) Austin middle school student ticketed after she sprayed herself with perfume when classmates said she smelled; 4) a 17-year-old was in court after he and his girlfriend poured milk on each other. “She was mad at me because I broke up with her,” he said. I waiting for the Alamo Heights Special Airborne Brigade and SEAL TEAM CROCKETT."
Science

Submission + - No Higgs just yet (nature.com) 1

Submitted by
gbrumfiel
gbrumfiel writes: "Last month, scientists reported a number of "excess events" that could be caused by the appearance of the long-sought Higgs boson inside the LHC. But it looks like they'll have to put the champagne back on ice. New data presented at a conference in India shows no new signs of the Higgs. The signal was probably just a statistical fluctuation."
Science

Submission + - American Grant Writing: Race Matters (ht.ly)

Submitted by PHPNerd
PHPNerd writes: You might expect that science, particularly American science, would be colour-blind. Though fewer people from some of the country’s ethnic minorities are scientists than the proportions of those minorities in the population suggest should be the case, once someone has got bench space in a laboratory, he might reasonably expect to be treated on merit and nothing else. Unfortunately, a study just published in Science suggests that is not true. The study looked at the pattern of research grants awarded by the NIH and found that race matters a lot. Moreover, Asian and Hispanic scientists do just as well as white ones. Black scientists, however, do badly.

Submission + - ATT Kills $10 Texting Plan, Pushes $20 Plan 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "AT&T is scrapping its 1,000 texts for ten bucks plan and replacing it with a plan that offers unlimited texts for $20 and users who don't want the unlimited plan can opt to pay 20 cents per text. Current AT&T subscribers are grandfathered in, so you can stick with whatever plan you selected when you signed your contract. "The vast majority of our messaging customers prefer unlimited plans and with text messaging growth stronger than ever, that number continues to climb among new customers," says AT&T. The news has not been received warmly in the tech blogosphere. "AT&T calls this "streamlining." We call it what it is: an outrageous, gigantic scam," writes Sam Biddle in Gizmodo. "AT&T's taken away new customers' option to spend less, whereas carriers like Verizon still offer tiered texting plans for varying budgets.""
Technology

Submission + - Fake Names On Social Networks: A Fake Problem (discovery.com)

Submitted by disco_tracy
disco_tracy writes: The leading social networks demand that members use their real names, and they're not afraid to evict violators. Many Facebook users have quietly complied, despite the problems that rule creates for political dissidents, stalking survivors and others. Much of this discussion has centered around people in physical or financial danger of having their identities revealed. But there are broader reasons for social networks to stop pushing real-name policies.
Technology

Submission + - Tech Could Beam Lasers to Power Drones (discovery.com)

Submitted by disco_tracy
disco_tracy writes: Modern militaries depend on fuel. Nearly 80 percent of the supplies delivered to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan consist of fuel, and it's no surprise that those military convoys are frequently the targets of insurgents. In the last decade, 1000 soldiers have died delivering gasoline to military operations. A new approach using lasers could provide power to drones in flight or to machines on the ground and remove the need for gas deliveries to army bases.
The Courts

Submission + - Supreme Court To Weigh Warrantless GPS Tracking (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "In a move with far-reaching privacy implications, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear a case involving the government's authority to conduct prolonged GPS tracking of suspects in criminal cases without first obtaining a court warrant. The government has argued that it has the authority to conduct such searches ; privacy advocates have argued that such tracking violates Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. The Supreme Court's decision in the case will be pivotal because lesser courts around the U.S. have appeared split on the issue in recent years, with some upholding warrantless GPS tracking and others rejecting it. Last August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit sided with the subject of the Supreme Court hearing, Antoine Jones, a Washington, D.C. man who was convicted in 2008 on charges of possessing and conspiring to distribute more than 50 kilograms of cocaine, and rejected claims by the government that federal agents have the right to conduct around-the-clock warrantless GPS tracking of suspects."
Security

Submission + - Fired IT worker replaces CEO's PPT with porn (sophos.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 52-year-old Walter Powell wanted revenge when he was fired from his position as an IT manager at Baltimore Substance Abuse System Inc.

So, he hacked into their systems — installing keyloggers to steal passwords.

And then, when his CEO was giving a presentation on a 64 inch TV to the board of directors... he replaced the slides with pornographic images of naked women.

Powell has now been given a 2 year suspended sentence, and 100 hours community service.

The moral? Don't piss off your IT staff

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