US$25 Raspberry Pi Personal Computer Nears Launch Date
December 29th, 2011Via: Gizmag:
Budding computer hackers/scientists are about to get a welcome gift, albeit a bit late for Christmas 2011. The non-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation (RPF) is nearing the release date of its surprisingly powerful and remarkably affordable Raspberry Pi line of bare-bones machines that have been developed in an effort to broaden kids’ access to computers in the UK and abroad. How affordable? The figure above was no typo. Read on to learn just what US$25 will get you when these nifty, fully-assembled, credit-card sized computers go on sale next month (sorry, case, monitor, keyboard and mouse not included … we did say bare bones).
More: Raspberry Pi: An ARM GNU/Linux Box for $25
Los Angeles: From Planes To Trains: TSA Expands Spot Searches To Union Station
December 29th, 2011Via: CBS:
An all-too-familiar sight at LAX and the rest of the nation’s airports will soon be coming to the city’s busiest train station.
KNX 1070?s Pete Demetriou reports rail passengers have started seeing Transportation Security Administration on patrol at Union Station on a more frequent basis.
As many as 25 VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response) teams began patrolling train stations nationwide last summer conducting an estimated 9,300 “suspicionless” spot searches of travelers.
Department of Homeland Security Using Fake Facebook and Twitter Accounts to Monitor Posts Containing Certain Keywords
December 28th, 2011Via: Electronic Privacy Information Center:
EPIC has filed a Freedom of information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force disclosure of the details of the agency’s social network monitoring program. In news reports and a Federal Register notice, the DHS has stated that it will routinely monitor the public postings of users on Twitter and Facebook. The agency plans to create fictitious user accounts and scan posts of users for key terms. User data will be stored for five years and shared with other government agencies.The legal authority for the DHS program remains unclear. EPIC filed the lawsuit after the DHS failed to reply to an April 2011 FOIA request.
More: Courthouse New Service: Your ‘Human-to-Animal’ Tweets Aren’t Safe, Privacy Watchdog Says
The Leading Cause of Breast Cancer: Medical Radiation
December 28th, 2011But keep getting those scans, the New York Times reminds you:
The most consistent data suggest that women can reduce their risk by avoiding unnecessary medical radiation, forgoing hormone treatments for menopause that combine estrogen and progestin, limiting alcohol intake and minimizing weight gain, the report found. (Controlling weight appears helpful only in preventing postmenopausal breast cancers, not those in younger women.) Overuse of CT scans, which deliver a relatively high dose of radiation, was a particular concern, but the report stated that women should not be deterred from having routine mammograms, which use a much smaller dose.
Via: CounterPunch:
Profiteers in the medical CT scan business took a big hit last week from a major new government report on the causes of breast cancer.
Published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the exhaustive analysis found that medical radiation, particularly the large radiation dose delivered by CT scans, is the foremost identifiable cause of breast cancer.
Research Credit: roaches
Taiwanese Rice Headed to Japan
December 28th, 2011Via: Taipei Times:
A shipment of Taiwanese rice bound for Tokyo departed central Taiwan yesterday, the second in a series of three deliveries of the biggest rice order received from Japan in eight years.
A ceremony was held in Changhua County’s Pitou Township , where the rice supplier, Union Rice Co, is based, to mark the shipment and the success of Changhua rice in entering Japan’s market.
The rice is being delivered to major Japanese rice importer Kitoku Shinryo Co, which ordered 360 tonnes earlier this year, the largest purchase of rice since exports to Japan were resumed in October 2004.
The rice will be distributed directly to Japanese retailers, the first time Taiwanese rice will be sold to Japanese consumers. In the past, it was mostly sold to wholesalers supplying restaurants or food processors.
Agriculture and Food Agency Director Li Tsang-lang said rice exports have long been constrained by high costs of production, which make Taiwanese rice more expensive than that grown in the US, Thailand and Australia.
Kitoku Shinryo decided to place an order due to the high quality of Taiwan’s rice, he said.
“After the rice passed all tests, they placed an order with us. The success represents positive recognition of the quality of Taiwanese rice and the technology used to process it,” Li said.
The Council of Agriculture said rice exported to Japan must pass 591 pesticide residue tests before being given the green light.
Makoto Hirayama, president of Kitoku Shinryo Co, visited Taiwan last month to inspect paddy fields, barns and processing plants and tasted the rice himself before placing the order.
The order has been partly motivated by the food shortages faced in Japan recently. Radiation contamination of farms from the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and flooding in Niigata, a famous rice production district, have combined to limit Japan’s food output, the council said.
Ten Plotlines You’ll Find in Science Fiction — Over and Over Again
December 28th, 2011This topic needs a far weirder treatment than the khaki-clad nine-to-fivers at io9 are capable of providing. Maybe Brainsturbator will do this properly someday. For an unabridged version, see Secret Sun.
Via: io9:
Science fiction is a genre of limitless possibilities, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few ideas writers keep coming back to as trusty old standbys. Here are ten of science fiction’s most common tropes…and how they’ve evolved.
Obviously, no list like this can ever be considered comprehensive, and we could probably do dozens of sequels to this post. But what we want to examine here are some of the most common building blocks of science fiction stories. For each trope, we explain where it came from, what cemented it as an iconic part of science fiction, and some of the things modern storytellers are doing to keep it and interesting. So, let’s take a look…
Trading Update / Disclosure: Closed Out DBA
December 28th, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
I closed out my DBA long position today. It could easily keep going, but I sold for multiple reasons:
1. Overhead resistance is looming.
2. Price is rising on declining volume.
3. I had a nice profit on the trade and bearish reversals on dead cat bounces can be particularly violent. (In other words, fear of loss of profit outweighed greed.)
I felt the arguments for dumping the whole position into strength were more compelling than trying to pare it down to let it ride.
Finally, I wanted to free up capital for another trade that’s setting up. (Get the clothes peg ready for your nose when I disclose this next one.)
Sears Holdings Will Close One Hundred Sears and KMart Stores
December 27th, 2011Via: AP:
After a disastrous holiday shopping season, the parent company of Sears and Kmart will close at least 100 stores to raise cash — a move that sparked speculation about whether the 125-year-old retailer can avoid a death spiral fed by declining sales and deteriorating stores.
Sears Holdings Corp., a pillar of American retailing that famously began with a mail-order catalog in the 1880s, declared Tuesday that it would no longer prop up “marginally performing” locations. The company pledged to refocus its efforts on stores that make money.
Sears’ stock quickly plunged, dropping 27 percent.
Reminder: Comex is a Fractional Reserve Gold Market
December 27th, 2011Actually, all physical commodity futures and options markets are like this, but this short video is a good reminder to those of you who own paper gold for the long haul and think that you own the real thing. You could be in the the shock of your life.
Note: Audio level is very low.
Via: YouTube:
Research Credit: RT
Exploit Allows Attackers to Take Remote Control of Any GSM Phone
December 27th, 2011Via: Domain B:
A widely used wireless technology could allow hackers to gain remote control of any GSM mobile phone because of outdated mobile network security, says German mobile phone security researcher Karsten Nohl.
According to a study to be presented today by Nohl, mobile users on GSM networks that are used by billions of people around he world may be vulnerable to having their personal voice mail hacked because of the way in which they handle commands.
This vulnerability gives hackers remote control of phones, instructing them to send text messages or make calls, says Nohl, who will present his results at a convention of the Chaos Computer Club, a hackers’ group, in Berlin.
After conducting a study of 31 mobile operators in Europe, Morocco and Thailand, Nohl, found that many operators provided poor or weak defences to protect consumers from illegal surveillance and identity theft.
