If you’re a cinema fan you may know part of this story but, if you aren’t, this video is a throughout summary of how American westerns influenced the samurais of Akira Kurosawa—and how the samurais of Akira Kurosawa influenced that galactic western known as Star Wars. Read more…
This 18-inch Clarion Nightsnake (Hypsiglena unaocularus), found on black lava rock habitat on the island of Clarion, is darker in color than its mainland relatives and has a distinctive pattern of spots on its head and neck. The Clarion Nightsnake, which was initially discovered in the first half of the 19th century and then struck from the scientific record, was rediscovered and declared a new species by National Museum of Natural History researcher Daniel Mulcahy and a team of Mexican scientists led by ecologist Juan Martínez-Gómez in May 2014. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Mulcahy) A science mystery, solved! After going missing for 78 years, the Clarion nightsnake (Hypsiglena ochrorhyncha unaocularus), a nocturnal snake first discovered in the 19th century, then struck from the scientific record, has been rediscovered. Read the rest
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Snake species missing for nearly 80 years rediscovered
A comb jelly (University of Florida). A scientist in Florida who studies simple sea animals known as comb jellies says he has discovered a path to a new form of brain development that may one day lead to treatments for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Read the rest
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Could this simple sea creature hold the key to treating Parkinson’s?
The latest update in the saga of Kleargear ( previously ) is downright bizarre. Having invoiced unhappy customers for complaining online about their crappy service and then ruined those customers’ credit rating, the company now refuses to acknowledge a judgment against them from a US court because they insist that they’re located in France and weren’t served there. Read the rest
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Kleargear ruins customers’ credit over online criticism, refuses to honor US judgment
The USS Harry S. Truman apparently had adequate Internet bandwidth for a sailor to hack websites in his spare time. US Navy A 27-year old now-former sailor pleaded guilty in a federal court in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 20 to charges of conspiracy after leading a band of hackers in the US and Canada from onboard an aircraft carrier . Nicholas Paul Knight, who was the system administrator for the USS Harry S. Truman’s nuclear reactors department, was caught trying to hack into a Navy database while at sea. Knight and a co-defendant—Daniel Kreuger of Salem, Illinois—were part of “Team Digi7al,” a collective of hackers who attacked at least 24 websites in 2012 in search of personal identifying information. Knight himself hacked the Navy’s Smart Web Move website , a system for sailors to manage household moves during transfers between stations; that hack included about 220,000 service members’ Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, and other personal data. Other sites attacked by the group included ones operated by the Department of Homeland Security, the Library of Congress, Stanford University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Toronto Police Service, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Sailor convicted of hacking websites from aboard aircraft carrier
Steam has been experimenting with an in-home streaming feature that allows you to host a game on one machine and play it on another. Now, that feature is out of beta and it’s releasing on time, for everyone. Read more…
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Steam In-Home Streaming Now Available to Everyone
Airbnb Home renting company Airbnb announced Wednesday that under pressure from the New York attorney general’s office, it will hand over the anonymized personal data of its New York hosts to the state. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed three years’ worth of data in 2013 in an effort to suss out whether Airbnb users are running “illegal hotels” and to determine if Airbnb’s business model and platform comply with the law. Schneiderman stated his suspicions in April that Airbnb hosts in New York operate residences or parts of their homes like hotels—but without the fire, safety, and tax regulations normally applied to hotels. Airbnb hosts could also be in violation of a 2010 law that prohibits New Yorkers from renting entire apartments for less than 29 consecutive days. Schneiderman claimed that Airbnb sells itself to investors as a hotel network, but it attempts to keep that pitch out of the public sphere for fear of incurring legal hotel status. The New York Supreme Court rejected Schneiderman’s subpoena request on May 13, “but the judge’s ruling also made it clear that he would accept a new, narrower subpoena and require Airbnb to turn over personal information about hosts if the Attorney General’s Office made some changes to their demands,” wrote Airbnb in its blog post Wednesday. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Robbo sez, “The Metropolitan Museum of Art had just released almost 400, 000 visual works in an online searchable database . The images are high rez (10 mega pixels) and free to download. Read the rest
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Met releases 400,000 hi-rez scans for free download, claims copyright over the public domain
Avid Google Play users will be aware of the long-standing 15 minute rule for refunds. Namely, if you return an app within 15 minutes, you get a refund no questions asked. As Android Police discovered, however, you may still be able to get an unconditional refund after that window. Read more…
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You Can Still Get a Refund From Google Play After the 15 Minute Window
Terrence Lui On Tuesday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) officially approved rules to allow the testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads. The rules will take effect September 16, 2014. The move has been a long time coming , with the DMV promising back in December 2013 that it would post regulations for public use of self-driving cars and then holding a public hearing in January to address concerns about them. These new rules will set a statewide standard for all manufacturers. (Although Google has been running pilot programs in Mountain View and elsewhere, it’s not the only company pursuing an automated vehicle—Nvidia told Ars last week that Audi has plans to incorporate a “cruise control for stop-and-go traffic” feature in one of its cars come 2015.) Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS), told Ars that the new rules could change how manufacturers proceed with their testing. “The DMV has a really, really difficult task, and I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of their approach,” he said. “I would say that anyone who is reading these documents will have to read very closely.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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California approves test of self-driving cars on public roads