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Submission + - Embed A Video... Go To Jail? (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A few weeks ago, Slashdot had a post about the new bill in Congress to make streaming infringing videos a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in jail if just 10 people watch the video. As more details come out, the bill keeps looking worse and worse, as it appears that the definitions used in the bill would mean that merely embedding or linking to an infringing YouTube video could put you on the hook for jailtime. Obviously, supporters of the bill insist that's not who will be targeted with this bill, but just the fact that they could be should be worrisome enough. We've seen other laws "misused" in the past.

Comment Re:Professor of Woo? (Score 1) 487

by ferd_farkle (#35940040) Attached to: Reform the PhD System or Close It Down

If I wanted the thoughts and discussion of a proponent of a Demon Haunted World, I would go to BioLogos, not where I go for 'News for Nerds'. Really, Templeton Prize winners' wacky notions of reality are available all over the web, if you bother to explore a bit. I'm reading Slashdot for a reason, and Woo isn't what I'm looking for.

Comment Professor of Woo? (Score 1, Informative) 487

by ferd_farkle (#35939840) Attached to: Reform the PhD System or Close It Down

Before going to the article, I quick checked Wikipedia for "Mark C. Taylor".
First sentence:

Mark C. Taylor (born 13 December 1945) is a philosopher of religion and cultural critic who has published more than twenty books on theology, philosophy, art and architecture, media, technology, economics, and the natural sciences.

I didn't read the article.

Comment Re:With all these recent findings... (Score 1) 97

by ferd_farkle (#35477324) Attached to: Laser Scribing Promises More Efficient Solar Cells

"findings"? What "findings", exactly?

The research project will continue for a three year period, by the end of which which the scientists hope to have established the scientific basis for their laser-ablation technique.

Wow! Lasers! This is the kind of news I get up early for. Will there be film at 11:00?
America Online

Submission + - AOL's "Dirty Little Secret": 60% of AOL's Profits (huffingtonpost.com) 4

Submitted by satuon
satuon writes: Ken Auletta's big New Yorker piece on AOL (subscription only) this week revealed an interesting detail about the company's inner workings. According to Auletta, 80% of AOL's profits come from subscribers, and 75% of those subscribers are paying for something they don't actually need.

Auletta lays out how this works:
The company still gets eighty percent of its profits from subscribers, many of whom are older people who have cable or DSL service but don't realize that they need not pay an additional twenty-five dollars a month to get online and check their e-mail. "The dirty little secret," a former AOL executive says, "is that seventy-five percent of the people who subscribe to AOL's dial-up service don't need it."
IBM

Submission + - IBM: Graphene won't replace silicon in CPUs (bit-tech.net)

Submitted by arcticstoat
arcticstoat writes: IBM has revealed that graphene can't fully replace silicon inside CPUs, as a graphene transistor can't actually be completely switched off. In an interview, Yu-Ming Lin from IBM Research — Nanometer Scale Science and Technology explained that that "graphene as it is will not replace the role of silicon in the digital computing regime." Last year, IBM demonstrated a graphene transistor running at 100GHz, while researchers at the UCLU produced a graphene transistor with a cut-off frequency of 300GHz, prompting predictions of silicon marching towards its demise, making way for a graphene-based future with 1THz CPUs. However, Lin says that 'there is an important distinction between the graphene transistors that we demonstrated, and the transistors used in a CPU. Unlike silicon, graphene does not have an energy gap, and therefore, graphene cannot be "switched off," resulting in a small on/off ratio.' That said, Lin also pointed out that graphene 'may complement silicon in the form of a hybrid circuit to enrich the functionality of computer chips.' He gives the example of RF circuits, which aren't dependent on a large on/off ratio.
Medicine

Bad Science Writer Talks About the Placebo Effect *NSFW* 131

Posted by samzenpus from the I-want-to-believe dept.
The Guardian newspaper's Bad Science columnist Dr. Ben Goldacre does a stand-up routine about medicine, the placebo effect, and the mysteries of the human body at Nerdstock. From a scientific standpoint, I can't accurately say how funny it is because I was told it was great before I saw it.
Media

Righthaven Adds Forum Posters To Copyright Suit 83

Posted by Soulskill from the seeing-what-sticks dept.
eldavojohn writes "The last time we discussed the Las Vegas Review-Journal and their litigating attorneys at Righthaven LLC, they were suing all the websites that had violated their news copyrights. Well, they've now added seven individual message board posters that they've managed to identify, bringing the number of DMCA-related lawsuits they have launched since March to 203. In one case, LVRJ is upset that a Google Groups user named Jim_Higgins posted a column that cited the columnist but failed to cite the original LVRJ article. But Google Groups is protected from these suits, as the article explains: 'Both the madjacksports and Google sites are somewhat protected from copyright lawsuits because they have posted "DMCA" notices as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These notices, which must be registered with the US Copyright Office, inform copyright holders who to contact if they would like infringing material removed.' The first decision of this cluster of lawsuits was against Righthaven, yet the onslaught continues. Righthaven has publicly dismissed fair use as well."
Security

Threat of Cyberwar Is Over-Hyped 123

Posted by Soulskill from the let's-stick-to-normal-levels-of-hype dept.
nk497 writes "A new OECD report suggests the cyberwar threat is over-hyped. A pair of British researchers have said states are only likely to use cyberattacks against other states when already involved in military action against them, and that sub-state actors such as terrorists and individual hackers can't really do much damage. Dr. Ian Brown said, 'We think that describing things like online fraud and hacktivism as cyberwar is very misleading.'"
Image

Study Finds ATMs Are Dirtier Than Public Toilets 6

Posted by samzenpus from the customers-must-wash-their-hands dept.
You might want to wear gloves the next time you use an ATM according to a new study. Swabs of public banking machines found bacteria levels at least equal to those found in public restrooms. From the article: "'We were surprised by our results because the ATM machines were shown to be heavily contaminated with bacteria; to the same level as nearby public lavatories,' Richard Hastings, a microbiologist for BioCote, which sponsored the study, told the Telegraph newspaper. 'In addition, the bacteria we detected on ATMs were similar to those from the toilet, which are well-known as causes of common human illnesses.'"
Science

Hubble Confirms Nature of Mysterious Green Blob 140

Posted by CmdrTaco from the send-in-kilowog dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In 2007, Dutch secondary school biology teacher Hanny van Arkel spotted something mysterious in the night sky. Combing through Galaxy Zoo, an online database set up to enlist the public's help in classifying galaxies, she came across a glowing green smudge of light approximately 650 million light-years away. The object, which became known as Hanny's Voorwerp (Dutch for 'object'), is one of the most mysterious in the universe. Now, detailed Hubble Space Telescope images and new x-ray observations presented here today at the 217th meeting of the American Astronomical Society may finally confirm what it is."

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They are called computers simply because computation is the only significant job that has so far been given to them.

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