Steve Jobs famously shunned the idea of an iPad Mini. ( He was kind of right .) But what about an iPad Mega? What about a bigger, better iPad for people who want more out of a tablet? Obviously, iPad Mega is a terrible name, but it’s not a terrible idea. Whether you call it the iPad Pro or the iPad Air Plus, this thing could be real. Read more…
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iPad Pro Rumor Roundup: Everything We Think We Know
The capacity of our digital storage devices has skyrocketed in recent years. But there’s one storage medium that still kicks the crap out of our state-of-the-art solid state, and humans didn’t invent it. It’s called DNA. Read more…
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How DNA Could Replace Hard Drives
coondoggie writes: Based on preliminary analysis, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates it paid $5.2 billion in fraudulent identity theft refunds in filing season 2013 while preventing an additional $24.2 billion (based on what it could detect). As a result, the IRS needs to implement changes (PDF) in a system that apparently can’t begin verifying refund information until July, months after the tax deadline. Such changes could impact legitimate taxpayers by delaying refunds, extending tax season and likely adding costs to the IRS. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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To Fight $5.2B In Identity Theft, IRS May Need To Change the Way You File Taxes
schwit1 (797399) writes FDA officials now admit that when they discovered six undocumented vials of smallpox in a facility in Maryland they also found 327 additional vials that contained dengue, influenza, and rickettsia. “FDA scientists said they have not yet confirmed whether the newly disclosed vials actually contained the pathogens listed on their labels. The agency is conducting a nationwide search of all cold storage units for any other missing samples. Investigators destroyed 32 vials containing tissue samples and a non-contagious virus related to smallpox. Several unlabeled vials were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing and the remaining 279 samples were shipped to the Department of Homeland Security for safekeeping.” The FDA’s deputy director is quoted with what might be the understatement of the year. “The reasons why these samples went unnoticed for this long is something we’re actively trying to understand.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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More Forgotten Vials of Deadly Diseases Discovered
phrackthat (2602661) writes The Senate Finance Committee has been informed that the IRS recycled the hard drive of Lois Lerner, which will deprive investigators of the ability to forensically retrieve emails which were supposedly deleted or lost in a “crash.” This news comes after the IRS revealed that it had lost the emails of Lois Lerner and six other employees who were being investigated regarding the targeting of conservative groups and donors. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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IRS Recycled Lerner Hard Drive
An anonymous reader writes in with news that the IRS lost email scandal is far from over. Representative Steve Stockman (R-TX) has sent a formal letter to the National Security Agency asking it to hand over “all its metadata” on the e-mail accounts of a former division director at the Internal Revenue Service. “Your prompt cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated and will help establish how IRS and other personnel violated rights protected by the First Amendment, ” Stockman wrote on Friday. The request came hours after the IRS told a congressional committee that it had “lost” all of the former IRS Exempt Organizations division director’s e-mails between January 2009 and April 2011. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Congressman Asks NSA To Provide Metadata For "Lost" IRS Emails
Agents from the Agencia Tributaria— the Spanish IRS—announced the find of a priceless Van Gogh which disappeared from the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Vienna, Austria. Dated in 1889, the painting “Cypr ess, sky and field” was discovered in a safe deposit box that belonged to a Spanish fraudster. Read more…
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Police finds priceless Van Gogh taken by Nazis hidden in bank vault
An anonymous reader writes “Norway is the latest country to consider the legal implications of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Norway’s director general of taxation has come out and said ‘[Bitcoin] doesn’t fall under the usual definition of money, ‘ which means that it will be considered as assets and charged under capital gains laws. This sentiment was echoed last week by the European banking authority as well, where citizens were warned of using the cyrptocurrency.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Norway Rejects Bitcoin As Currency; Taxes As Asset, Instead
Bruce66423 writes with news that the IRS hasn’t made much progress improving its poor IT security. From the article: “The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS had only partially implemented 42 percent of the corrective plans it checked off as completed in recent years. … The review (PDF) showed that the IRS failed to properly track its progress toward completing many of the fixes auditors had recommended in recent years. The agency closed most of the cases without adequate documentation and did not always upload the necessary information into a database that helps ensure compliance. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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IRS Left Taxpayer Data Vulnerable and Lied About It
MTorrice writes “To understand the brain and its chemical complexities, researchers would like to peer inside the skull and measure neurotransmitters levels as the brain at work. Unfortunately, research methods to measure levels of chemicals in the brain require drilling holes in the skull, and noninvasive imaging techniques, such as MRI, can’t detect specific molecules. Now, as a first step toward a new imaging tool, chemists report they can detect molecules hidden behind 3- to 8-mm-thick bone.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Detecting Chemicals Through Bone