AmiMoJo writes: Last month Microsoft changed its policy on protecting search settings to include any software that attempts to hijack searches as malware. As a result, this month the Ask Toolbar, which most people will probably recognize as being unwanted crapware bundled with Java, was marked as malware and will now be removed by Microsoft’s security software built in to Windows 7 and above. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Ask Toolbar Now Considered Malware By Microsoft
No, not Star Wars . A full quarter century before he played Obi-Wan Kenobi, Alec Guinness starred in one of the purest, most science-focused science fiction films ever made. The Man in the White Suit is about scientific progress, and the law of unintended consequences, and it’s brilliant. Read more…
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Alec Guinness Stars In The Best Science Fiction Movie You’ve Never Seen
sciencehabit writes: The cupboards of the Natural History Museum in London hold spectacular dinosaur fossils, from 15-centimeter, serrated Tyrannosaurus rex teeth to a 4-meter-long hadrosaur tail. Now, researchers are reporting another spectacular find, buried in eight nondescript fossils from the same collection: what appear to be ancient red blood cells and fibers of ancient protein. Using new methods to peer deep inside fossils, the study in this week’s issue of Nature Communications backs up previous, controversial reports of such structures in dinosaur bones. It also suggests that soft tissue preservation may be more common than anyone had guessed. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Signs of Ancient Cells and Proteins Found In Dinosaur Fossils
Samsung has announced a new series of prototype OLED displays in Hong Kong that, with their mirrored and transparent surfaces, are like something from a sci-fi film. Read more…
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Samsung’s Mirrored and Clear OLED Screens Are Straight From the Future
Using a similar approach that allowed MIT to see through walls using just wifi signals , researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, led by Yasamin Mostofi, have found a way to count crowds of people —with a surprising degree of accuracy—using just basic wifi hardware. Read more…
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Wifi Networks Can Count People—No Phones Required
Taco Cowboy writes: The G7 group of countries has issued a pledge that they will phase out fossil fuels by the end of this century. The announcement was warmly welcomed by environmental groups. “Angela Merkel took the G7 by the scruff of the neck, ” said Ruth Davis a political advisor to Greenpeace and a senior associate at E3G. “Politically, the most important shift is that chancellor Merkel is back on climate change. This was not an easy negotiation. She did not have to put climate change on the agenda here. But she did, ” Davis said. The G7 plege includes a goal proposed by the EU to cut emissions 60% on 2010 levels by 2050, with full decarbonisation by 2100. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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G7 Vows To Phase Out Fossil Fuels By 2100
In Switzerland, it’s apparently common for people to leave out bags of stuff they don’t want for others to take, instead of throwing it all in the trash. And when a writer over on Brick Fanatics found a sack of miscellaneous Lego, when he got home he was surprised to find it actually included classic sets, manuals, and catalogs dating back to the 1970s. Read more…
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Lucky guy finds a treasure trove of classic ’70s Lego in a discarded bag
HughPickens.com writes: BBC reports that Germany has abandoned tuition fees altogether for German and international students alike and more than 4, 600 US students are fully enrolled at Germany universities, an increase of 20% over three years. “When I found out that just like Germans I’m studying for free, it was sort of mind blowing, ” says Katherine Burlingame who decided to get her Master’s degree at a university in the East German town of Cottbus. “I realized how easy the admission process was and how there was no tuition fee. This was a wow moment for me.” When Katherine came to Germany in 2012 she spoke two words of German: ‘hallo’ and ‘danke’. She arrived in an East German town which had, since the 1950s, taught the majority of its residents Russian rather than English. “At first I was just doing hand gestures and a lot of people had compassion because they saw that I was trying and that I cared.” She did not need German, however, in her Master’s program, which was filled with students from 50 different countries but taught entirely in English. In fact, German universities have drastically increased all-English classes to more than 1, 150 programs across many fields. So how can Germany afford to educate foreign students for free? Think about it this way: it’s a global game of collecting talent. All of these students are the trading cards, and the collectors are countries. If a country collects more talent, they’ll have an influx of new ideas, new businesses and a better economy. For a society with a demographic problem — a growing retired population and fewer young people entering college and the workforce — qualified immigration is seen as a resolution to the problem as research shows that 50% of foreign students stay in Germany. “Keeping international students who have studied in the country is the ideal way of immigration, ” says Sebastian Fohrbeck.”They have the needed certificates, they don’t have a language problem at the end of their stay and they know the culture.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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How American Students Can Get a University Degree For Free In Germany
WheezyJoe writes: The NY Times brings us a story on the Disney Corporation laying off U.S. tech workers and replacing them with immigrants visiting the country under H1-B visas. The twist is that the immigrant workers are not your nice local visiting foreign guy from the university who wants to stick around ’cause he likes the people here… they are employees of foreign-based consulting companies in the business of collecting H1-B visas and “import[ing] workers for large contracts to take over entire in-house technology units.” The other twist? The U.S. tech workers are required to train their replacements before vacating their jobs, or risk losing severance benefits (excerpts of the Disney’s layoff notice are included in the article). Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Disney Making Laid-Off US Tech Workers Train Foreign H1-B Replacements
Many of us know feeling of posting a regrettable pic or two online. But while your thoughtless photos might be an embarrassment, they (typically) aren’t offensive enough to merit a US Air Force strike. If you’re an terrorist, on the other hand, a wee bit more discretion is probably advised. Read more…
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Air Force Uses ‘Moronic’ Selfie to Bomb ISIS Headquarters