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Angry Jesus writes:

"The Chicago Police Department is mis-applying epidemiological science (the study of entire populations) to target individuals in a real-life version of Minority Report. They have decided that it is a good idea to put people on a secret list based on a Big Data analysis of their social networks. But don't worry, it isn't racist or abusive because, Science!"

AnonTechie writes:

"A paper strip can sample urine for signs of tumors in the body. The cancer-detecting strip could one day make it simpler and more affordable to detect some cancers at an early stage. Unlike communicable infections like HIV and tuberculosis, signals from tumor proteins are difficult to detect. To get around that problem, the researchers created nano-scale biomarkers that can be injected into the bloodstream. Each marker is designed to interact with specific proteins that are produced by cancer cells. When the two meet, the proteins snip off tiny fragments of the marker. Those fragments eventually find their way into the urine. The test works like a pregnancy test; a person urinates on a paper strip coated with antibodies that can detect the marker fragments. If the fragments are present, the paper displays a line indicating the presence of cancer tissue in the body. Altogether, the process takes about an hour."

[ED Note: Link is to an abstract. PDF with more detailed info here.]

r00t writes:

"It appears that Microsoft has decided it's time they own a video streaming website. Orange, the current owners of the video streaming site, have been quoted as saying 'I think it makes a lot of sense for us, as for Microsoft, to reach an accord that would be above all a partnership.' Yahoo tried to purchase DailyMotion last year, however the French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg blocked the deal.

Orange's Chief Executive Stephane Richard said that while no agreement had been made yet, he is 'confident' that the companies could come to some arrangement. Whatever the terms may be, Orange will retain a majority stake in the company."

Fluffeh writes:

According to TorrentFreak, Google is downranking The Pirate Bay's website in its search results for a wide variety of queries, some of which are not linked to copyright-infringing content. Interestingly, the change mostly seems to affect TPB results via the Google.com domain, not other variants such as Google.ca and Google.co.uk.

It also seems that Google may only be downranking searches that are explicitly looking for copyright-infringing content, not searches that are simply looking for The Pirate Bay itself. It will be interesting to see whether this is a backhanded effort to appease the media companies, or a taste of things to come to all the Google domains.

c0lo writes:

An Australian blogger shares his personal experience with orders put on hold by the Australian subsidiary of Element 14 (the former Farnell shop), reportedly based on a watch list maintained by US govt.

From the blog:

The counter person wasn't sure, so checked with someone else who came and wasn't 100% sure, but knew that the system does automatically flag orders based on various identifiers. It could have possibly been one of those stupid US government trade restriction things, because, you know capacitors and opamps can be used by evil terrorists and the like... (International customers have to fill out silly forms with US distributors and manufacturers saying we won't use the parts in nuclear weapons - seriously)

But they enquired further with someone else and the word came back that it wasn't the parts that had been flagged, it was my NAME that was flagged. And they said it was a US government watch list of some description. I was stunned, and it seemed like they didn't quite understand why I was so shocked at this. Because, you know, the whole world has to just sit by and let the US government dictate everything at will.

...

  So lets see if I have this straight - An Australian subsidiary, owned by a UK parent company, listed on the UK stock exchange, has an ordering system that automatically matches generic names against some secret US Government watch list, and flags those orders and puts them on hold, for parts that are already stocked in Australia, are likely not made in the US, and likely have come from the main UK warehouse. Call me stupid, but something doesn't seem right with that...

Sir Garlon writes:

"Researchers in Japan have developed a chainsaw-wielding robot that climbs trees and prunes off limbs. Such pruning is currently done by humans, who can't always use a cherry picker and sometimes have to climb the tree and operate the chainsaw one-handed. That is, not surprisingly, rather dangerous. The robot is still experimental, and it's remotely operated, not fully autonomous. But it's an impressive gadget none the less. Robots with chainsaws, what could possibly go wrong? Linked article includes video."

jbernardo writes:

"Having had several issues with systemd, and really not liking the philosophy behind it, I am looking into alternatives. I really prefer something that follows the Unix philosophy of using small, focused, and independent tools, with a clear interface. Unfortunately, my favourite distro, Arch Linux, is very much pro-systemd, and a discussion of alternatives is liable to get you banned for a month from their forums. There is an effort to support openrc, but it is still in its infancy and without much support.

So, what are the alternatives, besides Gentoo? Preferably binary... I'd rather have something like arch, with quick updates, cutting edge, but I've already used a lot in the past Mandrake, RedHat, SourceMage, Debian, Kubuntu, and so on, so the package format or the package management differences don't scare me."

[ED Note: I'm imagining FreeBSD sitting in the room with the all the Linux distros he mentioned being utterly ignored like Canada in Hetalia.]

l3g0la5 writes:

"Security researchers have found a vulnerability in latest version of iOS 7 which could allow attackers to record users' touch / tap events on non-jailbroken iDevices, including iPhone 5S. Researchers have created a proof-of-concept app that successfully bypassed Apple's app review process. Researchers over at FireEye have claimed that the vulnerability is present in iOS 6.1.x, iOS 7.0.4, iOS 7.0.5 and even in iOS 7.0.6, which was released just a few days before."

lhsi writes:

"The BBC is reporting that starting in early March, Facebook is ending its @facebook.com e-mail system, due to a lack of use. E-mails sent to a users @facebook.com address will now be 'forwarded to the personal email address from which the member signed up for the site'.

If this is the e-mail address that is the personalised user URL followed by @facebook.com, does that mean that users will potentially be exposed to e-mail spam through it? The @facebook.com e-mails can be pieced together easily enough (and go to an 'Other' folder in the Facebook Messages area without notifying users so can currently be ignored), but actual e-mail addresses, including ones that could now have e-mails forwarded to, can be kept private. There is little information about this at the moment, even on the Facebook newsroom."

AnonTechie writes

Media Development Investment Fund, a New York based non-profit, is looking to offer a world-wide data stream free of charge.
Dubbed the 'Outernet', the network will broadcast a one-way data stream to the entire world via a network of mini satellites. The idea is to bridge the digital divide, offering some of the most important (and basic) information on the internet to people regardless of location.

Outernet has posted intention to deliver staples such as: local and international news, OpenStreetMap, Wikipedia, Ubuntu, various educational courseware, and emergency communications systems for use when cell systems fail.

GungnirSniper writes:

"The Journal of the American Medical Association, Pediatrics, has found that use of acetaminophen (paracetamol) during pregnancy is associated with a higher risk for HKDs [hyperkinetic disorders] and ADHD-like behaviors in children. More than half of all mothers in the study reported acetaminophen use while pregnant.

The LA Times has a longer and lighter story about the study which reminds us 'that unchecked fevers have been associated with a number of poor health outcomes in babies, including lowered IQs.'

Led by neuropsychologist Miriam Cooper of the University of Cardiff in Wales, the group wrote that without more details on how acetaminophen might lay the foundations for later ADHD, and when and in whom it is most likely to boost risk, the current findings should be interpreted cautiously and should not change practice.

For pregnant women, the study underscores that, even when a medication is billed as safe, the safest route is to take it as rarely as possible and at the lowest effective dose, said UCLA obstetrician Dr. Daniel Kahn, a maternal-fetal health specialist who was not involved in the study.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't?"

c0lo writes "No, unfortunately surveillance evangelism has not been made illegal overnight.

The EFF reports that, in an ironic twist of karma, FBI agents arrested a Mexican tycoon named Jose Susumo Azano Matsura at his Coronado, Calif. home on Wednesday as part of a political bribery investigation based on captured emails, seized banking records, and covertly recorded conversations. Azano, and three Americans who acted as his agents, are now facing felony charges in an alleged conspiracy to illegally pump roughly $500,000 into local election campaigns in the border city of San Diego.

Does SoylentNews have contributors from Mexico to share with us some insight (or just local gossip) about this shoddy character?"

AnonTechie writes "Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., today released a significant expansion and upgrade to a public, on-line database that houses a unique and extensive collection of information about a family of complex, carbon-rich molecules that are both widespread and abundant throughout the universe. Scientists believe more than 20 percent of the carbon in the universe is tied up in this extensive family of compounds, collectively know as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or simply PAHs.

nobbis writes "In an article entitled 'How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations' Glenn Greenwald publishes training material from the Snowden archive that illustrates how GCHQ uses "cyber-offensive techniques against people who have nothing to do with terrorism or national security threats", for example against "Hacktivism".

These techniques include disseminating deception on-line and harming the reputations of their targets with a honey trap , a blog from a purported victim of the target, or 'changing their photos on social media sites'. Similarly companies are discredited by leaking of confidential information, or posting negative information on appropriate forums. The covert agents' play book includes infiltration, false flag, disruption and sting operations.

When questioned GCHQ replied "It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters""

lennier writes "Has Magic the Gathering Online Exchange tapped all its mana? MtGox, the first and best known Bitcoin exchange, has abruptly shut down, and CEO Mark Karpeles has resigned from the Bitcoin Foundation after rumors of ongoing theft related to the transaction malleability issue reported several weeks ago. According to the latest news reports, Bitcoin has hit a three-month low of $465 USD per coin."