Phenomenon Discovered In Ultracold Atoms Brings Us a Step Closer To Atomtronics

An anonymous reader writes “A new phenomenon discovered in ultracold atoms of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) could offer new insight into the quantum mechanical world and be a step toward applications in ‘atomtronics’—the use of ultracold atoms as circuit components. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have reported the first observation of the ‘spin Hall effect’ in a cloud of ultracold atoms, acting as a single quantum object and then called BEC, the lowest state of matter, with solid and liquid coming next. As one consequence, the researchers made the atoms, which spin like a child’s top, skew to one side or the other, by an amount dependent on the spin direction.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Phenomenon Discovered In Ultracold Atoms Brings Us a Step Closer To Atomtronics

China Criticizes US For Making Weapon Plans Steal-able, Alleges Attacks From US

Etherwalk writes “Huang Chengqing, China’s top internet security official, alleged that cyberattacks on China from people in the U.S. are as serious as those from China on the U.S. ‘We have mountains of data, if we wanted to accuse the U.S., but it’s not helpful in solving the problem.’ Huang, however, does not necessarily attribute them to the U.S. government just because they came from U.S. soil, and he thinks Washington should extend the same courtesy. ‘They advocated cases that they never let us know about. Some cases can be addressed if they had talked to us, why not let us know? It is not a constructive train of thought to solve problems.’ In response to the recent theft of U.S. military designs, he replied with an observation whose obviousness is worthy of Captain Hammer: ‘Even following the general principle of secret-keeping, it should not have been linked to the Internet.'” A few experts think China’s more cooperative attitude has come about precisely because the U.S. government has gone public with hacking allegations. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China Criticizes US For Making Weapon Plans Steal-able, Alleges Attacks From US

European HbbTV Smart TV Holes Make Sets Hackable

mask.of.sanity writes “Vulnerabilities in Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV television sets have been found that allow viewers’ home networks to be hacked, the programs they watched spied on, and even for TV sets to be turned into Bitcoin miners. The laboratory attacks took take advantage of the rich web features enabled in smart TVs running on the HbbTV network, a system loaded with online streaming content and apps which is used by more than 20 million viewers in Europe.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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European HbbTV Smart TV Holes Make Sets Hackable

Disposable VPN: Tor Gateways With EC2 Free Tiers

The established regime in Turkey (not to mention many other countries: take your pick) may not like any-to-many communications, but luckily established regimes don’t always get the final word. An anonymous reader writes “Lahana is my little side project to help people access the Internet and Tor via Amazon EC2 free tier-based VPNs. It’s a couple of scripts that set up a new VPN in a couple of minutes that automatically tunnels everything through Tor. It’s easy to share credentials with groups of people and for most people is free to set up and use. I built it with Turkey in mind, but it no doubt has other uses.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Disposable VPN: Tor Gateways With EC2 Free Tiers

Surgeries On Friday Are More Frequently Fatal

antdude writes “A British Medical Journal (BMJ) research report says that ‘Surgeries on Friday Are More Frequently Fatal … compared to those who opt for really bad Mondays, Britons who have a planned surgery on a Friday are 44 percent more likely to die. And the few patients who had a leisurely weekend surgery saw that number jump to 82 percent. The skeleton staff working on weekends might be to blame.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Surgeries On Friday Are More Frequently Fatal

Google Maps Used To Find Tax Cheats

phantomfive writes “Some countries are worried about the privacy implications of Google Maps, but Lithuania is using them to find tax cheats. ‘After Google’s car-borne cameras were driven through the Vilnius area last year, the tax men in this small Baltic nation got busy. They have spent months combing through footage looking for unreported taxable wealth. … Two recent cases netted $130,000 in taxes and penalties after investigators found houses photographed by Google that weren’t on official maps. … “We were very impressed,” said Modestas Kaseliauskas, head of the State Tax Authority. “We realized that we could do more with less and in shorter time.”‘ The people of Lithuania don’t seem to mind. ‘Authorities have been aided by the local populace. “We received even more support than we expected,” said Mr. Kaseliauskas.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google Maps Used To Find Tax Cheats

Gene Therapy May Protect Against Flu

sciencehabit writes “In 2009, a global collaboration of scientists, public health agencies, and companies raced to make a vaccine against a pandemic influenza virus, but most of it wasn’t ready until the pandemic had peaked. Now, researchers have come up with an alternative, faster strategy for when a pandemic influenza virus surfaces: Just squirt genes for the protective antibodies into people’s noses. The method—which borrows ideas from both gene therapy and vaccination, but is neither—protects mice against a wide range of flu viruses in a new study.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Gene Therapy May Protect Against Flu

Planetary Resources To Build Crowdfunded Public Space Telescope

kkleiner writes “Planetary Resources, the company that set its sights on mining asteroids, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $1M to crowdsource the world’s first publicly accessible space telescope. In an interview, co-founder and co-chairman Peter Diamandis stated that the ARKYD 100 telescope is a means of ‘extending the optic nerve of humanity.’ The company hopes that the campaign, which is supported by Richard Branson, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Seth Green, will make an orbiting telescope available to the public to help schools and museums in their educational efforts to inspire great enthusiasm in space.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Planetary Resources To Build Crowdfunded Public Space Telescope

PETA Wants To Sue Anonymous HuffPo Commenters

MarkWhittington writes, quoting himself: “PETA is incensed over an article in the Huffington Post that details that organization’s unsettling practice of euthanizing animals in a Virginia facility that many have assumed is a no kill shelter. According to the New York Post, PETA wants to sue some of the people who have left comments on the article. The problem is that, following the practice of many on the Internet, many of the comments are under assumed names or are anonymous. PETA is attempting to discover the true identities of their critics so that it can sue them for defamation.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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PETA Wants To Sue Anonymous HuffPo Commenters

Why DOJ Didn’t Need a “Super Search Warrant” To Snoop On Fox News’ E-mail

awaissoft writes “If attorney general Eric Holder wanted to perform even a momentary Internet wiretap on Fox News’ e-mail accounts, he would have had to persuade a judge to approve what lawyers call a ‘super search warrant.’ A super search warrant’s requirements are exacting: Intercepted communications must be secured and placed under seal. Real-time interception must be done only as a last resort. Only certain crimes qualify for this technique, the target must be notified, and additional restrictions apply to state and local police conducting real-time intercepts. But because of the way federal law was written nearly half a century ago, Holder was able to obtain a normal search warrant — lacking those extensive privacy protections — that allowed federal agents to secretly obtain up to six years of email correspondence between Fox News correspondent James Rosen and his alleged sources.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Why DOJ Didn’t Need a “Super Search Warrant” To Snoop On Fox News’ E-mail