This week, for the first time in decades, the Colorado River flowed to its natural end in the Gulf of California. But it was the opposite of a natural event. The artificially engineered “pulse flow” that pushed the waters all the way to the Gulf required an unprecedented collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico, wading into a complex body of laws around a basic question: to whom does a river belong? Read more…
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How the Colorado River Finally Reached the Sea Again
Satya Nadella and his team are hosting an event in New York City, where Microsoft has already revealed its Surface Pro 3. Not surprisingly, the company’s placing a lot of focus in the integrated pen. ” When you hold a pen in your hand, it has to feel light, ” said Panos Panay on stage. But what exactly is Microsoft doing to make this happen? Well, according to Panay, it is very important to know that the Surface Pro 3’s pen is “not a stylus, ” but rather meant to mimic a real, ink-based pen, with a similar form factor and weight. Developing … To show off the new pen, Microsoft brought out the New York Times Crossword app, which you can see in action in the video below. Also shown off on stage was Final Draft, an app designed specifically for the Surface Pro 3 that uses the pen to let you edit movie scripts in real-time. “I t doesn’t just mean writing; it’s experiences, ” said Panay about the applications. That’s not it, though, as you can also use it to take notes with OneNote — a simple click on the pen seamlessly sends your scribbles to the cloud, even if the device is off. Photoshop CC users, meanwhile, can expect some integration with an upcoming touch-friendly version Adobe is working on, which is expected to be optimized to take full advantage of Microsoft’s new tablet. As Adobe’s Michael Goff puts it, the software is expected to be “a creative’s dream come true. Filed under: Microsoft Comments
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Microsoft wants its new pen to be a big part of the Surface Pro 3
Tomorrow in New York, Microsoft is holding a Surface-themed event that was expected for a time to include the unveiling of a new, smaller Surface device — the Surface Mini as it was dubbed by the media. Not so, it now appears. Reports have cropped up that a smaller device isn’t happening, and that instead, Microsoft will release a larger screened Surface device. Color me excited. I’ve since… Read More
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Microsoft Likely To Break Out A Bigger, Not Smaller, Surface Tomorrow Morning
You might want to be careful of what you say over the phone the next time you visit the Bahamas. According to The Intercept , NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal that the security agency is not just listening to all mobile calls made to, from and within the island nation, but also recording and archiving them for up to a month. Apparently the access was legally obtained via the US Drug Enforcement Administration and is part of a top-secret program called SOMALGET, which itself is a piece of MYSTIC, a larger NSA program that The Washington Post wrote about in March. While MYSTIC can detect metadata such as the time, location and date of the call, SOMALGET can supposedly store “full-take audio” or the call’s entire contents. The Intercept reports that MYSTIC is already deployed in countries such as Mexico, the Philippines and Kenya, but SOMALGET is unique to the Bahamas and a mysterious “unnamed country” that the publication refuses to divulge in fear of violent retaliation. The documents state that SOMALGET was enacted to locate “international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers, ” though it appears that the NSA has been recording calls indiscriminately, regardless of their connection to the drug trade. Neither the NSA or any of the countries mentioned had any comment, though the agency did tell The Intercept that it does attempt to “protect the privacy of U.S. persons” for “incidentally collected” communications. Comments Source: The Intercept
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The NSA is recording all cellphone calls in the Bahamas
To learn how the whole brain works, it doesn’t do to just record from one neuron—you want to know what every single neuron is doing every millisecond . Now scientists have invented a technique that can actually capture the 3D activity of an entire brain milliseconds at the time—possibly the most complete picture of brain activity we’ve ever had. Read more…
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Every Neuron in a Brain Recorded in 3D on a Millisecond Timescale
BioLite has been recharging smartphones, action cams and GPS units via camp stove fire since 2012, but now it’s offering a larger model that will grill enough grub to feed your entire crew. The BaseCamp stove offers the same heat-to-electricity conversion, but with a much larger cooking surface for grilling dinner (up to eight burgers at a time) for more than just a pair of weary hikers. The built-in power pack has been upgraded as well, generating 5W and storing power for juicing up devices during dessert alongside a UI that gauges temperature and displays the amount of electricity being generated. Need to use a pot to boil water? That cooking surface can wrangle the flame for optimal output with the flip of a lever. If all of that sounds too good to pass up, units are set to ship in September and you can one for $299 during the company’s Kickstarter effort. Filed under: Misc Comments Via: Uncrate Source: Kickstarter
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Generate power to recharge gadgets while grilling with this camp stove
Hunter Edwards On Monday, Sprint agreed to pay the Federal Communications Commission $7.5 million to resolve violations of the Do Not Call registry—the largest settlement payout ever. The program first began in 2003 as a way to allow Americans to opt out of unsolicited sales calls. According to the FCC, Sprint will also put into effect a “robust compliance plan,” designate a new senior manager to deal with compliance, retrain its employees, and report any further noncompliance to the agency, among other necessary actions. “We expect companies to respect the privacy of consumers who have opted out of marketing calls,” said Travis LeBlanc, acting chief of the Enforcement Bureau, in a statement . “When a consumer tells a company to stop calling or texting with promotional pitches, that request must be honored. Today’s settlement leaves no question that protecting consumer privacy is a top enforcement priority.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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For Do Not Call violations, Sprint will pay FCC $7.5M in largest ever settlement
Gray’s Anatomy No, urine is not sterile, according to a study presented this week by researchers from the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University. Instead, the bodily excretion does contain a diverse array of bacteria that can vary depending on bladder condition. Up until now, the types of bacteria present have been hard to detect because they don’t grow in urine cultures. That urine is not sterile is not actually news; the same medical school reported findings in 2012 suggesting that urine can contain bacteria when drawn directly from the bladder. But the study may surprise many due to the deeply entrenched belief , even in the medical community, that urine is bacteria-free and thus safe to use in a number of activities, from drinking to rinsing wounds in a pinch. A commonly traded rule of thumb is that, while the initial part of a stream of urine contains bacteria washed from the urethra, the “mid-stream” is safely sterile. This is not so, or at least it’s not entirely reliable information. The two studies, from 2013 and 2012, looked only at samples from women. The 2013 study compared samples from women with and without overactive bladder disorder (OAB) and found different types of bacteria in both types of samples, including Streptococcus and Staphylococcus. The authors of the study suggested that the presence of certain types of bacteria in women with OAB could be causing their symptoms, and treating their presence could help with their condition. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Urine and the bladder are not sterile, contain bacteria
MattSparkes (950531) writes “Law enforcement around the world has teamed-up to arrest 97 for buying/using Blackshades malware, which can remotely seize control of a victim’s computer, access documents, record keystrokes and even activate their webcam to take surreptitious pictures and video. It is also able to encrypt files in order to extract a ransom for their release. Blackshades RAT is a commercial product costing less than $200 which was marketed as a tool to test network security. However, it is widely used by hackers and was even said by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to have been used against Syrian activists by the government in 2012.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Almost 100 Arrested In Worldwide Swoop On Blackshades Malware
