The National Association for the Deaf (NAD) filed a lawsuit (PDF) against Harvard and MIT yesterday, saying the two universities are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act because they don’t properly caption their online course offerings. Harvard’s online courses aren’t really intended for students at the Ivy League university. Rather, the thousands of videos made available are part of the University’s “commitment to equity,” an effort “to create effective, accessible avenues for people who desire to learn but who may not have an opportunity to obtain a Harvard education.” The problem with Harvard’s offering, NAD lawyers say, is that it leaves out hard-of-hearing people. “Much of Harvard’s online content is either not captioned, or is inaccurately or unintelligibly captioned, making it inaccessible for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing,” the complaint reads. “Just as buildings without ramps bar people who use wheelchairs, online content without captions excludes individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Category: reader
Wheel of Time TV pilot producers sue Robert Jordan’s widow for defamation
The tale of the late-night Wheel of Time pilot that aired in a paid infomercial slot on FXX has taken another odd turn. Producers Red Eagle Entertainment LLC and Manetheren LLC have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for central California against Harriet McDougal (widow of James Rigney, who wrote the Wheel of Time novels under the pen name Robert Jordan), her company, Bandersnatch Group Inc., and twenty unnamed other persons (“Does 1-20”). The suit alleges that McDougal’s statements about her lack of involvement in the pilot’s production constitute breach of contract, slander, and interference with contractual relations and prospective economic relations; the suit demands declaratory relief and a jury trial. With the pilot coming essentially out of nowhere and airing with no fanfare, very few fans of the series were even aware of its existence until after the fact; it was clear that the production was accomplished in very little time and on a minimal budget. The resulting effort (titled “Winter Dragon”) did not resemble the series prologue very closely, and it quickly drew strong rebuke from McDougal, who claimed the pilot was made “without my knowledge or cooperation,” and that no one from Robert Jordan’s estate has been involved in any way with it. McDougal claims that Universal currently holds the rights to the Wheel of Time TV series, not Red Eagle Entertainment, and that the pilot made no mention of Universal or her own company, the Bandersnatch Group. That statement was apparently interpreted by Red Eagle Entertainment LLC—the corporate entity that produced the pilot and also claims to hold the television rights to The Wheel of Time —as fighting words. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments
More:
Wheel of Time TV pilot producers sue Robert Jordan’s widow for defamation
Assassin’s Creed movie officially in production
The long-awaited Assassin’s Creed movie is finally moving ahead, with Ubisoft revealing the film has officially entered production. The video game adaptation will be released on December 21, 2016. Word of the production came from the most mundane of places though—Ubisoft’s quarterly financial call. The publisher is co-producing the film with studio New Regency, which has had a golden period in recent years with films such as 12 Years a Slave , Birdman , and Gone Girl under its umbrella. “We have the pleasure to announce today that the green light has been given by New Regency, and the production has already started,” said Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot. “This is a very important milestone for the project and for our team on Assassin’s Creed .” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Continue reading here:
Assassin’s Creed movie officially in production
Microscopic gold tubes can both detect and destroy cancer cells
There’s no doubt that doctors would prefer to treat cancer as soon as they spot it, and it looks like nanotechnology might give them that chance. Researchers at the University of Leeds have successfully tested gold nanotubes that are useful for both imaging and destroying cancer cells. Since the tubes absorb near-infrared light frequencies, which both generate heat and render human skin transparent, you only need to zap them with lasers of varying brightness to achieve multiple ends. You can use a relatively low brightness to reveal tumors, while high brightness will heat the tubes enough to kill nearby tumorous cells. The shape also has room for drugs, so you can deliver medicine at the same time. Scientists have only tried this approach in a mouse model of human cancer, so it’ll be a long while before the technique is ready for your local hospital. However, it might be worth the wait. Besides saving time, the gold nanotubes both enter and leave your body with minimal fuss; you aren’t as likely to grapple with side effects caused by methods like chemotherapy. If all goes well, you’d only need injections and laser blasts to deal with at least some life-threatening conditions. Filed under: Science Comments Via: EurekAlert Source: University of Leeds
Read More:
Microscopic gold tubes can both detect and destroy cancer cells
Apple increases the maximum size of iOS app binaries for the first time ever
For the first time since the introduction of the App Store in 2008 , Apple is increasing the maximum size of the app binaries that developers can upload to iTunes Connect. The company announced today that the cap would increase from 2GB to 4GB , though this doesn’t affect the 100MB limit imposed on apps downloaded on cellular networks. iOS app binaries contain both the executable file and all of the images, sounds, and other assets that the app needs—everything from icons to splash screens to UI is all included in one big file. Because of how they’re packaged, these binaries can get rather large. Binaries include all the assets for all the devices they support. If you’re shipping a universal app that supports all iOS 8 devices, for example, you’ve got Retina iPhone assets, Retina and non-Retina iPad assets, and special “3x” assets specifically for the iPhone 6 Plus (Apple’s got a table here ). Universal apps include all of those assets, and the binary you download from the App Store is the same whether you’ve got an old iPhone 4S or a brand-new iPad Air 2. If you’re running on an iPhone, for example, a universal binary will still contain assets for other iPhones and iPads, increasing the amount of space the app needs even though some of those extra assets aren’t needed for your device. Xcode 6 partially supports vector graphics to ease the developer burden of maintaining and generating all these assets, but they’re still stored as PNG files when the binary is built and uploaded. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Read More:
Apple increases the maximum size of iOS app binaries for the first time ever
US Military Working On 3D Printing Exact Replicas of Bones & Limbs
ErnieKey writes The U.S. military is working with technology that will allow them to create exact virtual replicas of their soldiers. In case of an injury, these replicas could be used to 3D print exact medical models for rebuilding the injured patient’s body and even exact replica implants. Could we all one day soon have virtual backups of ourselves that we can access and have new body parts 3D printed on demand? Read more of this story at Slashdot.
More:
US Military Working On 3D Printing Exact Replicas of Bones & Limbs
Researcher Developing Tattoo Removal Cream
BarbaraHudson writes During tattooing, ink is injected into the skin, initiating an immune response, and cells called “macrophages” move into the area and “eat up” the ink. The macrophages carry some of the ink to the body’s lymph nodes, but some that are filled with ink stay put, embedded in the skin. That’s what makes the tattoo visible under the skin. Dalhousie Uiversity’s Alec Falkenham is developing a topical cream that works by targeting the macrophages that have remained at the site of the tattoo. New macrophages move in to consume the previously pigment-filled macrophages and then migrate to the lymph nodes, eventually taking all the dye with them. “When comparing it to laser-based tattoo removal, in which you see the burns, the scarring, the blisters, in this case, we’ve designed a drug that doesn’t really have much off-target effect, ” he said. “We’re not targeting any of the normal skin cells, so you won’t see a lot of inflammation. In fact, based on the process that we’re actually using, we don’t think there will be any inflammation at all and it would actually be anti-inflammatory.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read More:
Researcher Developing Tattoo Removal Cream
Notorious 8chan Board Has History Wiped After Federal Judge’s Doxing
AmiMoJo writes On Monday, imageboard site 8chan’s “baphomet” subboard, an Internet destination known for hosting aggressive “doxing” posts, received a major history wipe the day after one of its users posted the personal information of a federal judge in the Silk Road case. A follow-up post by baphomet’s “Board Owner” account stated that “HW, ” a reference to site founder Frederick “hotwheels” Brennan, deleted “the SSN posts” and told the baphomet board founder, previously identified via an associated Twitter handle as Benjamin Biddix, to “lay low.” The same day baphomet’s “Board Owner” announced a “doxing for hire” service due to “running low on funds.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read More:
Notorious 8chan Board Has History Wiped After Federal Judge’s Doxing
Farewell to Helpouts, Google’s expert-on-demand video service
On April 20th, 2015, Helpouts will follow Reader , Latitude , Schemer and many other services to wherever old Mountain View products retire. Google launched Helpouts less than two years ago as a service where anyone can ask (or pay) for advice or lessons from experts in their fields through a Hangouts session. Subjects include photography, languages, speech, math, science, art, among many other topics — you can even use it to seek medical advice . Unfortunately, Helpouts never became popular enough even after the mobile apps were released later on. In its announcement earlier, Google said it’s sunsetting the service because it “hasn’t grown at the pace [the company] had expected.” As for why Helpouts never flourished, well, we can only guess. Maybe it’s because people would rather watch instructional videos on YouTube for free, or it may be due to a number of different factors combined. The website will continue working until April 19th, and providers can still do Hangouts sessions with their students and clients up till the very last day. Customers can then download their history through Google Takeout (which, thankfully, still exists) until November 1st, after which, it’ll vanish into the ether. Filed under: Misc , Google Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Helpouts
View the original here:
Farewell to Helpouts, Google’s expert-on-demand video service
Apple reportedly has ‘hundreds’ working on an electric car (updated)
Those ages-old rumors of Apple working on its own cars may have some merit after all. Wall Street Journal sources report that Cupertino has “several hundred” staffers working on an electric car project nicknamed Titan. It’s supposedly early days (a release would be “several years” away), but the current effort apparently resembles a minivan. There’s no mention of whether or not Apple’s camera-toting vans are linked to this EV effort, although it’s certainly tempting to make that connection. One thing is clear, if the claims are true: Apple isn’t taking the project lightly. The WSJ understands that ex-Ford engineer and veteran iPhone leader Steve Zadesky is heading up Titan. The Financial Times , meanwhile, has learned that Apple is recruiting loads of automotive experts, including former Mercedes-Benz research chief Johann Jungwirth (who’s officially tasked with Mac Systems Engineering). The company may be talking to vehicle suppliers like Magna, too. It’s possible that there’s something less ambitious in the works (such as more substantive car infotainment systems ) or that the initiative will fall apart, but the sheer scale and focus suggests that Tesla could get stiff competition in its own back yard. Update: Reuters sources believe that the project is a self-driving electric car. If so, those augmented minivans on the road might be contributing to Apple’s autonomous driving research. [Image credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for (RED)] Filed under: Transportation , Apple Comments Source: Wall Street Journal , Financial Times
Read more here:
Apple reportedly has ‘hundreds’ working on an electric car (updated)