CaptainDork shares a report from BBC: A manager of the Exmo Bitcoin exchange has been kidnapped in Ukraine. According to Russian and Ukrainian media reports Pavel Lerner, 40, was kidnapped while leaving his office in Kiev’s Obolon district on December 26th. The reports said he was dragged into a black Mercedes-Benz by men wearing balaclavas. Police in Kiev confirmed to the BBC that a man had been kidnapped on the day in question, but would not confirm his identity. A spokeswoman said that the matter was currently under investigation, and that more information would be made public later on. Mr Lerner is a prominent Russian blockchain expert and the news of his kidnapping has stunned many in the international cryptocurrency community. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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A Manager of the Exmo Bitcoin Exchange Has Been Kidnapped In Ukraine
Cheap, reliable, and strong, the rubber band is one of the world’s most ubiquitous products. It holds papers together, prevents long hair from falling in a face, acts as a reminder around a wrist, is a playful weapon in a pinch, and provides a way to easily castrating baby male livestock … While rubber itself has been around for centuries, rubber bands were only officially patented less than two centuries ago. Here now is a brief history of the humble, yet incredibly useful, rubber band. Read more… 
dcblogs writes “One year ago this month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $120 million plan to develop a technology capable of radically extending battery life. ‘We want to change the game, basically, ‘ said George Crabtree, a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and a physics professor who is leading the effort. The goal is to develop a battery that can deliver five times the performance, measured in energy density, that’s also five times cheaper, and do it in five years. They are looking at three research areas. Researchers are considering replacing the lithium with magnesium that has two charges, or aluminum, which has three charges. Another approach investigates replacing the intercalation step with a true chemical reaction. A third approach is the use of liquids to replace crystalline anodes and cathodes, which opens up more space for working ions.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Mark Gibbs writes “AT&T’s implementation of the FCC’s Emergency Alerts System provides minimally useful information in an untimely fashion with little geolocational relevance. … Yesterday California got its first AMBER alert and my notification arrived at 10:54pm. It came up as panel over my lock screen and here’s what it looked like on my notifications screen: ‘Boulevard, CA AMBER Alert UPDATE: LIC/6WCU986 (CA) Blue Nissan Versa 4 door.’ The problem with this it that’s all there is! You can stab away at the message as much as you like but that’s all you get, there’s no link to any detail and considering the event it related to occurred over 240 miles away from me near to the Mexican border, the WEA service seems to be poorly implemented. Indeed, many Californians were annoyed and confused by the alert and according to the LA Times ‘Some cellphones received only a text message, others buzzed and beeped. Some people got more than one alert.’ I got a second copy of the alert at 2:22am and other subscribers reported not receiving any alert until late this morning.” It seems to have gone down about as well as New York’s. Read more of this story at Slashdot.