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Earth

Submission + - Wind Map of US Will Blow You Away

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Talk about visualizations. Ever wondered what the wind would look like if you could see it in action from above? A new project posted online by a pair of Google computer scientists, called simply Wind Map, has to be seen to be believed. "It can be quite hypnotizing to watch the gusty trails blast across the American continent, skitter over the Sierras, get roughed up by the Rockies, and whoosh over the great plains on its way to Canada," writes Chris Taylor. Wind Map is the brainchild of Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, the co-leaders of Google’s “Big Picture” visualization research group in Cambridge, Mass. Wind patterns are constantly changing, of course, which is why the Wind Map designers have also given us a moving-image gallery of previous blustery days."

Submission + - City of Boston pays $170,000 to settle landmark case involving man arrested for (aclum.org) 1

Ian Lamont writes: "The City of Boston has reached a $170,000 settlement with Simon Glik who was arrested by Boston Police in 2007 after using his mobile phone to record police arresting another man on Boston Common. Police claimed that Glik had violated state wiretapping laws, but later dropped the charges and admitted the officers were wrong to arrest him. Glik had brought a lawsuit against the city (aided by the ACLU) because he claimed his civil rights were violated. According to today's ACLU statement:

As part of the settlement, Glik agreed to withdraw his appeal to the Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel. He had complained about the Internal Affairs Division's investigation of his complaint and the way they treated him. IAD officers made fun of Glik for filing the complaint, telling him his only remedy was filing a civil lawsuit. After the City spent years in court defending the officers' arrest of Glik as constitutional and reasonable, IAD reversed course after the First Circuit ruling and disciplined two of the officers for using "unreasonable judgment" in arresting Glik.

"

Spam

Now Even Photo CAPTCHAs Have Been Cracked 340

MoonUnit writes "Technology Review has an interesting article about the way CAPTCHAS are fueling AI research. Following recent news about various textual CAPTCHAs being cracked, the article notes that a researcher at Palo Alto Research Center has now found a way crack photo-based CAPTCHAs too. Most approaches are based on statistical learning, however, so Luis von Ahn (one of the inventors of the CAPTCHA) says it is usually possible to make a CAPTCHA more difficult to break by making a few simple changes."
Security

Journal SPAM: 5-Year-Old Boy Detained as US National Security Threat 1

It's a case of a mistaken identity for a 5-year-old boy from Normandy Park. He had trouble boarding a plane because someone with the same name is wanted by the federal government. "When his mother went to pick him up and hug him and comfort him during the proceedings, she was told not to touch him because he was a national security risk. They also had to frisk her again to make sure the little Dilling

Books

Submission + - SPAM: Online cartoonist breaks publishing record?

destinyland writes: "The first collection of "Perry Bible Fellowship" comics racked up pre-sales of $300,000 due to its huge online following, and within seven weeks required a third printing. Ironically, the 25-year-old cartoonist speculates people would rather read his arty comics in a book than on a computer screen, and warns that "There's something wonderful, and soon-to-be mythic, about the printed page..." He also explains the strange anti-censorship crusade in high school that earned him an FBI record!"
Link to Original Source
Google

Submission + - Google Algorithm to Search Out Hospital Superbugs 1

Googling Yourself writes: "Researchers in the UK plan to use Google's PageRank algorithm to find how super-bugs like MRSA spread in a hospital setting. Previous studies have discovered how particular objects, like doctors' neckties, can harbor infection, but little is known about the network routes by which bugs spread. Mathematician Simon Shepherd plans to build a matrix describing all interactions between people and objects in a hospital ward, based on observing normal daily activity. "Obviously nurses move among patients and that can spread infection, but they also touch light switches and lots of other surfaces too," says Shepard., "If you observe a network of all those interactions you can build a matrix of which nodes in the network are in contact with which other nodes." Combining that information with the strength of different interactions within a ward makes it possible to calculate which ties to cut — by, perhaps, tougher cleaning — to maximally disrupt the network and cut infections. "Ultimately, we would like to produce a software tool so managers of wards can carry out the analysis for themselves," says Shepherd."
Puzzle Games (Games)

Submission + - Science "can prove the universe is a simulatio

holy_calamity writes: A New Zealand physicist has written a paper saying that physicists should seriously explore the possibility the universe is a giant virtual reality simulation. He says that the existence of quantum phenomena could be due to the underlying digital nature of the simulation and also claims his VR hypothesis can explain relativity, the big bang and more. It should be possible to perform experiments to prove the hypothesis too. He reasons that if reality was to do something that information processing cannot, then it cannot be virtual.
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Antitrust Suit Filed To Halt Apple Music Monopoly (informationweek.com)

Dotnaught writes: "An anti-trust lawsuit filed against Apple on December 31st, 2007, charges the company with maintaining an illegal monopoly on the digital music market. The complaint charges Apple with crippling its hardware as a means to maintain online music market dominance. "Apple, however, deliberately designed the iPod's software so that it would only play a single protected digital format, Apple's FairPlay-modified AAC format," the complaint states. "Deliberately disabling a desirable feature of a computer product is known as 'crippling' a product, and software that does this is known as 'crippleware.'""
Government

Submission + - Airport profilers learn to read facial expressions 2

nldavepc writes: Cory Doctorow at boingboing.net comments on a rather scary development in airport security. Airport profilers are watching people's facial expressions for clues of terrorist intent. Corry's comments can be read here:http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/01/tsa-to-punish-fliers.html And here is a link to the original article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/344868_airportprofiler26.html
Power

Submission + - Molten Salt based Solar Power Plant (wsj.com)

rcastro0 writes: "Hamilton Sundstrand, a division of United Technologies, announces today that it will start to commercialize a new type of solar power plant, says this WSJ article. A new company called SolarReserve will be created to "provide heat-resistant pumps and other equipment, as well as the expertise in handling and storing salt that has been heated to more than 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit." According to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla "Three percent of the land area of Morocco could support all of the electricity for Western Europe." Molten Salt storage is already used in Nevada's Solar One power plant. Is this be the post-hidrocarbon world finally knocking?"
Security

Submission + - TSA limits lithium batteries on airplanes

yali writes: The U.S. Transportation and Security Administration has issued new rules limiting travel with lithium batteries. As of January 1, no spare lithium batteries are allowed in checked luggage. Batteries carried in the cabin are subject to limitations on per-battery and total lithium content, and spare batteries must have the terminals covered. If you're returning home from the holidays with new toys, be sure to check out the new restrictions before you pack.
The Internet

Submission + - New Jersey Denies Internet from Sex Offenders (nytimes.com) 3

eldavojohn writes: "New Jersey just passed legislation making it illegal for sex offenders to use the internet. NJ congresswoman Linda D. Greenstein said, "When Megan's Law was enacted, few could envision a day when a sex offender hiding behind a fake screen name would be a mouse-click away from new and unwitting victims. Sex offenders cannot be given an opportunity to abuse the anonymity the Internet can provide as a means of opening a door to countless new potential victims." While they still can search for jobs, this is a major expansion over the prior legislation which barred them from social networking sites like facebook or myspace."

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