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AnonTechie writes:

What you study - math and science are a plus - seems to matter more than whether your alma mater is public or private when it comes to finding a high-paying job after college, according to a report released Tuesday by the Education Department.

The survey of the class of 2008, by the National Center for Education Statistics, provides an interesting snapshot of the nation's educated elite following a crushing economic recession: Overall, college grads reported lower unemployment rates compared with the national average, although black and Asian college graduates were twice as likely to be out of work than their white classmates. College grads from private four-year schools earned about the same as those from public four-year schools, about $50,000 a year.

But while a paltry 16 percent of students took home degrees in science, technology, engineering or math, or STEM disciplines, those who did were paid significantly better - averaging $65,000 a year compared with $49,500 of graduates of other degrees. The findings are based on a survey of 17,110 students conducted in 2012, about four years after the students obtained their bachelor's degrees.

cafebabe writes:

ScienceDaily reports that:

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a single-celled parasite that is happiest in a cat's intestines, but it can live in any warm blooded animal. Found worldwide, T. gondii affects about one-third of the world's population, 60 million of which are Americans. Most people have no symptoms, but some experience a flu-like illness. Those with suppressed immune systems, however, can develop a serious infection if they are unable to fend off T. gondii.

cafebabe writes:

The BBC News and CNN reports that:

UK police have arrested 660 suspected pedophiles -- including doctors, teachers and scout leaders -- in a six-month operation spanning the country, the National Crime Agency said Wednesday.

The operation -- which targeted people accessing indecent images of children online -- involved 45 police forces across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

More than 400 children across the United Kingdom have been protected from harm as a result, the National Crime Agency said in a statement.

Suspects include a doctor with more than one million images of child porn, and a foster parent. The arrests are allegedly unrelated to emergency snooping powers and separate pedophile scandals in three of the UK's major political parties.

janrinok writes:

It seems that the Human Brain Project (HBP) is currently sailing in rough waters:

*Update, 11 July, 11:58 a.m.: HBP's Board of Directors and its Executive Committee have responded to the the open letter in a 4-page statement released yesterday. They say they are "saddened" by the letter and say that cognitive neuroscience will still be a part of the HBP's Partnering Projects. The statement expresses the hope that HBP will unite the neuroscience, medical, and computing communities.

An influential group of European neuroscientists is threatening to boycott the Human Brain Project (HBP), the hugely ambitious plan to map the entire human brain in computer models that is slated to receive up to 1 billion Euros in funding from the European Union and its member countries. An open letter published today that has so far received 213 signatures sharply criticizes the project for having a narrow focus, questions the "quality of the governance," and calls for a tough review and more independent oversight. Without that, they say they will no longer apply for HBP funding.

But Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, who leads the project, says the signatories have trouble accepting the "methodological paradigm shift" toward computer modelling that the project embodies; he adds that many more neuroscientists still support the project.

wantkitteh writes:

Malaysia Airlines has tweeted that they have lost contact with a Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur as it flew through Ukrainian airspace. Early reports indicate 280 passengers and 15 crew were on board at the time. Bodies and wreckage with Malaysia Airlines insignia have been reported found at the crash site.

The crash site is 25 miles from the Russian border in an area of fighting between Ukrainian military and Pro-Russian rebels. A Facebook update by Anton Gerashenko, advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister, states that the plane was flying at 10,000 metres (32,000 feet) when it was shot down "by a missile fired from a Buk launcher."

This news will be especially hard for Boeing and Malaysia Airlines to digest having lost without trace flight MH370 in March this year, another Boeing 777.

UPDATE: There is no official confirmation that a missile was used to bring the aircraft down. Both sides are denying that they have fired at the aircraft.

UPDATE2: Aircraft reported flying at 32,000 feet - 10,000 metres.

lhsi writes:

The meaning of Microsoft CEO's memo has been translated into action: Microsoft will cut 18,000 jobs, mostly from the Nokia division (12,500 jobs).

Later today your Senior Leadership Team member will share more on what to expect in your organization. Our workforce reductions are mainly driven by two outcomes: work simplification as well as Nokia Devices and Services integration synergies and strategic alignment.

First, we will simplify the way we work to drive greater accountability, become more agile and move faster. As part of modernizing our engineering processes the expectations we have from each of our disciplines will change. In addition, we plan to have fewer layers of management, both top down and sideways, to accelerate the flow of information and decision making. This includes flattening organizations and increasing the span of control of people managers. In addition, our business processes and support models will be more lean and efficient with greater trust between teams. The overall result of these changes will be more productive, impactful teams across Microsoft. These changes will affect both the Microsoft workforce and our vendor staff. Each organization is starting at different points and moving at different paces.

Second, we are working to integrate the Nokia Devices and Services teams into Microsoft. We will realize the synergies to which we committed when we announced the acquisition last September. The first-party phone portfolio will align to Microsoft's strategic direction. To win in the higher price tiers, we will focus on breakthrough innovation that expresses and enlivens Microsoft's digital work and digital life experiences. In addition, we plan to shift select Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running Windows. This builds on our success in the affordable smartphone space and aligns with our focus on Windows Universal Apps.

Additional reporting at: Forbes, CNET, and El Reg.

cafebabe writes:

The BBC News and RT reports that:

A Swedish court has upheld an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who found shelter in Ecuador's embassy in London two years ago.

The Stockholm District Court moved to uphold the warrant on Wednesday following a legal challenge from Assange's lawyers in June. The challenge was spurred by a change to Swedish criminal proceedings regarding the right to information in criminal procedures which brings the country in line with an EU directive.

Popeidol writes:

The Australian Government has introduced a bill to remove some "outdated" constraints their intelligence agency ASIO works under.

From the Article:

"The bill modernises the way ASIO accesses computers allowing one warrant for a computer to extend to all computers at a location and associated to the relevant person. The act will be amended such that the definition of "computer" in the Act includes all computers operating in a network. [...] It also proposes that only one warrant be required for a series of surveillance techniques conducted as part of an investigation removing the need for a warrant for each individual surveillance effort.

The proposed legislation would also allow Australia's foreign intelligence agency ASIS to collect information on Australians located outside the country and share it with ASIO which the agency is currently required to seek ministerial approval to do."

The full text of the proposed bill is available here.

On a slightly more positive note, the Attorney-General has confirmed that the mandatory data retention proposal he supported a few months ago has been put on the back burner, saying it was "not a matter that the Australian government has yet decided to do."

Silentknyght writes:

For the first time, researchers have shown that installing light rail on an existing traffic corridor not only gets people out of their cars, but reduces congestion and air pollution. The report, accepted for publication in the "Journal of Public Transportation," is important as it is the first of its kind, and validates assumptions that have been widely used in travel demand models used in community planning.

In the study, planners at the University of Utah measured impacts of a new light rail line in Salt Lake City (University Line) on an existing major thoroughfare (400/500 South). Their analysis showed that traffic near the University has fallen to levels not seen since the 1980s, even as the number of students, faculty and staff at the university has increased, and the commercial district along the corridor has expanded.

AnonTechie writes:

At a time when space exploration has become a competition between world powers, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to send an unmanned probe to Mars by 2021, which will be the Arab world's first mission to another planet.

A new UAE Space Agency will be created to coordinate the UAE's growing space technology sector and to supervise the mission. The mission will be led by Emiratis and will expand the nation's human capital through knowledge transfer from international partners, as well as increasing human knowledge about space exploration and distant planets.

"The UAE Mars probe represents the Islamic world's entry into the era of space exploration. We will prove that we are capable of delivering new scientific contributions to humanity," UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a statement Wednesday.

Do you think this is likely? I do not know of any country which was able to launch such missions in only 7 years.

McGruber writes:

Up in the Himalayas, Indian engineers have restarted work on the world's highest railway bridge. When completed in 2016, the arch-shaped steel structure will be 359 metres (1,177 feet) high - 35 metres (115 feet) taller than the Eiffel Tower!

The bridge is part of the Jammu Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Railway Link, a railway line being built to connect the states of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country. When completed, the route will shorten the travel time from Baramulla to Jammu to six-and-a-half hours, almost half the time it currently takes.

The estimated cost of the project, which is being handled by Konkan Railway Corporation, a subsidiary of state-owned Indian Railways, is $92 million.

The 1,315-meter long bridge will use up to 25,000 tonnes of steel with some material being transported by helicopters due to the tough terrain.

AnonTechie writes:

Stick an electrode in the ground, pump electrons down it, and they will come: living cells that eat electricity. We have known bacteria to survive on a variety of energy sources, but none as weird as this. Think of Frankenstein's monster, brought to life by galvanic energy, except these "electric bacteria" are very real and are popping up all over the place.

Unlike any other living thing on Earth, electric bacteria use energy in its purest form -- naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals. We already knew about two types [ed: subscription required], Shewanella and Geobacter. Now, biologists are showing that they can entice many more out of rocks and marine mud by tempting them with a bit of electrical juice. Experiments growing bacteria on battery electrodes demonstrate that these novel, mind-boggling forms of life are essentially eating and excreting electricity.

AnonTechie writes:

If you'd prefer your digital life to be as neatly tidied up as your real one, then Yahoo Japan is offering (English translation) the solution. The outfit is offering Yahoo Ending, a service that'll help locals prepare for their funerals in the real world, as well as closing down their social media profiles after notifying followers and friends of their demise.

The package will also close down any digital wallet accounts held by Yahoo, and can even offer basic will-writing advice for those who need it. There's no word as to the company's plans to bring the offering to the western world, so until then, we'll just have to hope that future archaeologists don't use our poolside selfies as exhibits in a museum.

cafebabe writes:

ScienceDaily reports that:

Healthy living kidney donors often face pointless post-donation hurdles when seeking or changing health or life insurance, according to results of a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

"Living donors are some of the healthiest people in the United States. They're heavily screened before they're approved for donation and should be easily insurable," says study leader Dorry Segev, M.D., Ph.D., M.H.S., an associate professor of surgery and epidemiology at The Johns Hopkins University.

Further:

Little evidence suggests any extra health risks or a shortened life span after live kidney donation, says Segev, an abdominal transplant surgeon, but he and his colleagues had heard stories from their patients about insurance troubles after donation. Seeking hard data about such anecdotal tales, the researchers surveyed 1,046 people who donated a kidney at The Johns Hopkins Hospital between 1970 and 2011. They asked them whether they had initiated or changed health or life insurance in the years after their donation and whether they had any problems with the process. They also explored possible reasons for their problems.

cafebabe writes:

The BBC News reports that:

Ryan Block simply wanted to cancel his Comcast internet service.

Instead of a short phone call with the company, however, his experience turned into a 20-minute ordeal, as Block and his wife were berated by a Comcast "retention specialist" who doggedly refused to accept the request.

"Help me understand why you don't want faster internet?" he repeatedly asked. "I'm trying to help you. You're not letting me help you."

Mr Block, a technology journalist who works for AOL, recorded the final eight minutes of the call and shared the audio with his 82,000 Twitter followers. The speed at which the clip went viral - the Soundcloud audio file had almost 4 million plays within two days - reflects that Mr Block is not alone in his frustration with major telecommunications providers.

gizmobeast writes:

Steve Jobs hated IBM. And vice versa. But past is past. After all, business is business. Apple turns to IBM to develop apps for iPhones and iPad aimed at business consumers. The partnership will also include more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions, ; IBM cloud services optimized for iOS; AppleCare tailored for enterprise customers; and Apple devices directly from IBM. This deal is expected to boost smartphone software security and data privacy. To read more, refer to http://www.gizmobeast.com/apple/old-rivals-apple-and-ibm-team-up-to-sell-more-iphones-and-ipads.html