Tag: facebook

Panoramic Picture Taken By China’s Moon Lander

Taco Cowboy writes “Perhaps it’s not much, but China has released a panoramic view of the moonscape where their lander has landed. They ‘stitched’ up some 60 photos taken by 3 cameras on the Chang’e 3 lander, taken from 3 different angles — Vertical, 15 degrees up, and 15 degrees down. From the picture, there is a significant sized crater is seen, several meters wide, off to the left of Yutu, the (jade rabbit) moon rover, and located only about 10 meters away from the Chang’e-3 lander.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continued here:
Panoramic Picture Taken By China’s Moon Lander

U.S. Mobile Internet Traffic Nearly Doubled This Year

An anonymous reader sends this news from the NY Times Bits Blog: “Two big shifts happened in the American cellphone industry over the past year: Cellular networks got faster, and smartphone screens got bigger. In the United States, consumers used an average of 1.2 gigabytes a month over cellular networks this year, up from 690 megabytes a month in 2012, according to Chetan Sharma, a consultant for wireless carriers, who published a new report on industry trends on Monday. Worldwide, the average consumption was 240 megabytes a month this year, up from 140 megabytes last year, he said.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See the original article here:
U.S. Mobile Internet Traffic Nearly Doubled This Year

British doctor branded his initials on patient’s liver

Artists generally like to sign their work. Painters, sculptors, poets, all leave their name as a mark of pride. But when your brush is a scalpel and your canvas is the human body, it’s probably best to avoid that urge. One British surgeon is finding that out, after being suspended for branding his initials on a patient’s liver . These ain’t cattle, doc! Read more…        

Taken from:
British doctor branded his initials on patient’s liver

The Math Behind the NSA’s Email Hacks

We’re all outraged by the NSA’s invasions of privacy, sure—but we don’t perhaps understand exactly how it managed it. This video explains the maths behind the agency’s surveillance. Read more…        

Read this article:
The Math Behind the NSA’s Email Hacks

How to: Read books buried 2000 years ago

When the first excavations of the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum began in 1738, the diggers found what appeared to be charcoal and half-burnt logs . In reality, those blackened lumps were papyrus scrolls. Buried beneath the detritus of Mt. Vesuvius, a Herculanean villa contained a whole library of the things. And now, thanks to micro-CT imaging and other digitization techniques , researchers are finding ways to read those scrolls.        

Read the original:
How to: Read books buried 2000 years ago

DoD Public Domain Archive To Be Privatized, Locked Up For 10 Years

Jah-Wren Ryel writes “Looks like the copyright cartel have raided the public domain yet again — the US DoD has signed an exclusive contract with T3 Media to digitize their media archive in exchange for T3 having complete licensing control for 10 years. Considering that all output from the US government is, by law, ineligible for copyright, this deal seems borderline illegal at best. To make matters worse, it appears that there is no provision to make the digitized content freely accessible after the 10 years are up — which means we risk having all that content disappear into T3.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
DoD Public Domain Archive To Be Privatized, Locked Up For 10 Years

Researchers Crack Major HIV Mystery

mrspoonsi sends this news from Scientific American: “The difference between HIV infection and full-blown AIDS is, in large part, the massive die-off of the immune system’s CD4 T-cells. But researchers have only observed the virus killing a small portion of those cells, leading to a longstanding question: What makes the other cells disappear? New research shows that the body is killing its own cells in a little-known process. What’s more, an existing, safe drug could interrupt that self-destruction, thereby offering a way to treat AIDS. The destructive process has caught scientists by surprise. ‘We thought HIV infects a cell, sets up a virus production factory and then the cell dies as a consequence of being overwhelmed by virus. But there are not enough factories to explain the massive losses, ‘ says Warner Greene, director of virology and immunology at the Gladstone Institutes, whose team published two papers today in Science and Nature describing the work. Greene estimates 95 percent of the cells that die in HIV infections are killed through pyroptosis, so the findings raise hope for a new type of treatment that could prevent HIV from progressing into AIDS. ‘Inhibiting activation of the immune system is not a new concept, but this gives us a new pathway to target, ‘ says Robert Gallo. And in fact, a drug already exists that can block pyroptosis.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Excerpt from:
Researchers Crack Major HIV Mystery

Data Broker Medbase200 Sold Lists of Rape & Domestic Violence Victims

McGruber writes “During her testimony (PDF) at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing Wednesday about the data-broker industry, Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, revealed that the Medbase200 unit of Integrated Business Services Incorporated had been offering a list of ‘rape sufferers’ on its website, at a cost of $79 for 1, 000 names. The company, which sells marketing information to pharmaceutical companies, also offered lists of domestic violence victims, HIV/AIDS patients, and ‘peer pressure sufferers.’ In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Integrated Business Services Incorporated President Sam Tartamella initially denied that his company maintained or sold databases of rape victims. After the Journal provided him a link to the ‘rape sufferers’ page, he said he would remove it from Medbase200’s website and denied ever having sold such a list. The page was removed later Wednesday.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See original article:
Data Broker Medbase200 Sold Lists of Rape & Domestic Violence Victims

Neglect Causes Massive Loss of ‘Irreplaceable’ Research Data

Nerval’s Lobster writes “Research scientists could learn an important thing or two from computer scientists, according to a new study (abstract) showing that data underpinning even groundbreaking research tends to disappear over time. Researchers also disappear, though more slowly and only in terms of the email addresses and the other public contact methods that other scientists would normally use to contact them. Almost all the data supporting studies published during the past two years is still available, as are at least some of the researchers, according to a study published Dec. 19 in the journal Current Biology. The odds that supporting data is still available for studies published between 2 years and 22 years ago drops 17 percent every year after the first two. The odds of finding a working email address for the first, last or corresponding author of a paper also dropped 7 percent per year, according to the study, which examined the state of data from 516 studies between 2 years and 22 years old. Having data available from an original study is critical for other scientists wanting to confirm, replicate or build on previous research – goals that are core parts of the evolutionary, usually self-correcting dynamic of the scientific method on which nearly all modern research is based. No matter how invested in their own work, scientists appear to be ‘poor stewards’ of their own work, the study concluded.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visit link:
Neglect Causes Massive Loss of ‘Irreplaceable’ Research Data

BlackBerry Posts $4.4 Billion Loss, Will Outsource To Foxconn

iONiUM writes “Today BlackBerry announced a $4.4 billion loss, and a deal with Foxconn to outsource hardware manufacturing. One interesting stat is that 75% of sales were actually older BB7 devices. That said, CEO John Chen says, ‘We are very much alive, thank you.’ He adds, ‘Our “for sale” sign has been taken down and we are here to stay. BlackBerry recently announced it has entered into an agreement to receive a strategic investment from Fairfax Financial and other institutional investors, which represents a vote of confidence in the future of BlackBerry.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read this article:
BlackBerry Posts $4.4 Billion Loss, Will Outsource To Foxconn