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Phoenix666 writes:

Thousands of Apple Macbook owners are campaigning for action over reported issues with the laptop's retina screen. They are reporting "horrific stains" spreading across screens, in the forms of spots and patches.
...
A website called "Staingate" has been set up by a group unhappy with Apple's response.

Some of them say they have been told they will have to pay $800 (£519) for repair work, the Staingate website states.

A Facebook group formed by people experiencing problems with their Macbook screens has 1,752 members, and Staingate claims to have been contacted by more than 2,500 people so far. US legal firm Whitfield Bryson & Mason has contacted the Facebook group offering to investigate.

Its 2013 models seem to be worst affected, but there are online forums discussing the problem dating back to 2009.

People do pay a premium for Apple hardware, perceiving them as higher-end. Take a look at the images of screen damage—is their anger justified?

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

To the untrained eye, it's just a lot of birds on an otherwise deserted stretch of muddy, flat coastline. But for ornithologists, North Korea's west coast is a little piece of paradise each spring—and both the birds and a dedicated group of birdwatchers travel a long way to get there.

While North Korea is wary of letting foreigners inside its borders, a recent trip by a New Zealand research team to the mudflats near Nampo, southwest of the capital, Pyongyang, underscores some tentative but significant progress by outside scientists to conduct small-scale research projects—as long as they don't rub up against sensitive topics and are seen as useful to North Korea itself.

Last year, for example, an international team of scientists was allowed to set up seismographs and other equipment to monitor ominous activity on Mount Paektu, a huge volcano that straddles North Korea's border with China.

In typical North Korean style, the New Zealand ornithologists were told not to take photos of the birds in some places. Their mobile phone and computer access was also partly restricted. But the researchers say that overall, the trip went smoothly.

This year's trip was the first of four formal visits that will end in 2018, but there's hope the visits will continue past that date, Melville said.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a new ruling on a category of drugs known as NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), strengthening the label warnings that taking the medications increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes. NSAIDs include both prescription drugs and popular over-the-counter medications, including ibuprofen (sold under brand names including Advil and Motrin) and naproxen (brands include Aleve). NSAIDs reduce the body's production of prostaglandins, compounds which may play a role in inflammation.

The new warning guidelines stop well short of recommending that mostly-healthy people not to use NSAIDs, partly because the science isn't settled. Some doctors already report that patients are confused by the new advisories.

Aspirin is also an NSAID, but was specifically excluded from the FDA advisory. Acetaminophen, another popular drug for pain relief (e.g. Tylenol), is not an NSAID, but some researchers have cautioned that studies show correlations between heavy acetaminophen use and early mortality and other adverse medical effects.

Phoenix666 writes:

Privacy advocates, public interest groups and even some celebrities are raising alarms about a proposal that could limit the ability of some website owners to disguise themselves.

The issue has caught fire over the past few months as an obscure organization that manages the Internet's domain name system was inundated with comments about a proposal that could bar commercial websites from using proxies to register their web addresses.

Advocates argue anonymity is a key feature of free speech online, and removing that protection from people who create a website for commercial purposes could open vulnerable populations up to abuse.

El Reg reports:

As it stands on the last day of the comment period – 7 July – there are over 11,000 responses and the issue may break the previous record when ICANN proposed giving the green light to internet extension '.xxx' which would be used exclusively for adult content websites (in that case there were 12,757 comments).

Get while the gettin's good, Anonymous Cowards!

[Editor's Note: The "obscure organization" being ICANN...]

Phoenix666 writes:

The "friendly" bacteria inside our digestive systems are being given an upgrade, which may one day allow them to be programmed to detect and ultimately treat diseases such as colon cancer and immune disorders.

In a paper published in the journal Cell Systems, researchers at MIT unveil a series of sensors, memory switches, and circuits that can be encoded in the common human gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.

These basic computing elements will allow the bacteria to sense, memorize, and respond to signals in the gut, with future applications that might include the early detection and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer.

Researchers have previously built genetic circuits inside model organisms such as E. coli. However, such strains are only found at low levels within the human gut, according to Timothy Lu, an associate professor of biological engineering and of electrical engineering and computer science, who led the research alongside Christopher Voigt, a professor of biological engineering at MIT.

You can see it now, can't you? "Dave...I'm not comfortable with the pizza you ate, Dave. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes in with a story from The Register:

The University of Oxford has gone all medieval over some dot-com domain names, insisting that it be handed control of oxfordcollegeirl.com and oxfordcollegesc.com due to rights dating back to 1214 A.D.

A panelist at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) agreed, although his job was made easier by the fact that the current owners of the domains, Oxford College for PhD Studies, didn’t bother to respond to the complaint.

It is debatable whether the University of Oxford has the right to the domains even though "in the year 1214 the body of Masters and Scholars at Oxford was placed under the jurisdiction of a Chancellor, to be appointed by the Bishop of Lincoln" and the institution has a variety of "Oxford" trademarks.

But the world-famous learning institution was no doubt driven to press its rights when it saw what appears on the websites.

While the "Oxford College for PhD studies" purports to offer a whole range of courses, and prominently features people receiving degrees, it goes to some lengths to explain – in fancy language – that it is basically a sham.

"We neither issue nor do we in any way hold ourselves out to or purport to issue any degrees, statements, or pronouncements of any type or description which might be taken to be or otherwise interpreted as educational award or scholastic approbation, and nor do we intend to at any juncture," the website reads.

...

The panelist, Tobias Malte Müller, decided to largely overlook the addition of "irl" and "sc" on the end of the "oxfordcollege" domains, claiming that the domains "wholly incorporate the Complainant's trademark and the addition respectively of the descriptive elements "collegeirl" and "collegesc" does not serve to distinguish the disputed domain names from the OXFORD trademarks."

"It is the view of this Panel that the addition of the element 'sc' results to be a common typographical error when typing 'colleges.com,' while the addition of the element 'irl' refers to Ireland, which is where the Respondent is based. Both added elements will therefore be understood to be a reference to a satellite or associated college of the Complainant in Ireland. In any case both do not serve to distinguish the disputed domain names."

From this, it seems that you can no longer run a simple diploma mill with a name pretty similar to a prestigious world renowned university. Who'd a thunk it?

HughPickens.com writes:

Anna North writes in the NY Times about Star Trek's "post-economic" system, in which money no longer exists and anything you want can be made in a replicator, essentially for free. According to Manu Saadia, the author of "Trekonomics," a forthcoming book about the economics of the Star Trek universe, when everything is free, objects will no longer be status symbols. Success will be measured in achievements, not in money: "Instead of working to become more wealthy, you work to increase your reputation," says Saadia. "You work to increase your prestige. You want to be the best captain or the best scientist in the entire galaxy. And many other people are working to do that, as well. It's very meritocratic"

In a time of rising inequality and stagnating wages, a world where everyone's needs are met and people only work if they feel like it seems pretty far away but a post-scarcity economy is actually far more within reach than the technological advances for which Star Trek is better known. If productivity growth continues, Saadia believes there will be much more wealth to go around in a few hundred years' time. In general, society might look more like present-day New Zealand, which he sees as less work-obsessed than the United States: "You work to live rather than the other way round." Wealthy retirees today also already live an essentially post-money existence, "traveling and exploring and deepening their understanding of the world and being generally happy." According to Saadia we're beginning to get a few hints of what the post-money, reputation-based economy might look like. "If you look at things like Instagram, Vine, places where people put a huge amount of work into basically just gaining a certain amount of reputation, it's fascinating to see. Or even Wikipedia, for that matter. The Internet has begun to give us a hint of how much people will work, for no money, just for reputation."

Phoenix666 writes:

Agricultural robotics research fellow Dr Christopher Lehnert spoke at CQUniversity yesterday about robots being developed to pick fruit and detect weeds.

One problem they could solve was harvesting labour shortages.

"It's a causal workforce problem. (For farmers) their really high risk is getting a workforce to pick the fruit," Mr Lehnert said.

"There's not a worry about job losses. We're just shifting the paradigm. Instead of being in the field, they will control robots."

He hoped to be well on the way towards a commercial fruit-picking design by the end of next year.

Another part of his research was designing robots for broadacre weed management.

"We are looking at taking the human out of the tractor and getting an autonomous platform," he said.

"The large machines they use on farms do a lot of damage to the soil. They compact the soils and destroy them.

"But robots would be smaller, they wouldn't cause this issue."

Hmm, this kind of thing didn't end well for the Quarians...

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes with a story from El Reg:

The four founders of the Pirate Bay have been cleared of copyright infringement in a Belgian court – after it was found that they couldn’t be held responsible for the site after selling it in 2006, it is reported.

The Pirate Bay's cofounders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, former site spokesman Peter Sunde, and site financier Carl Lundström, were charged with criminal (rather than civil) copyright infringement and abuse of electronic communications, according to Belgian newspaper De Standaard (via TorrentFreak.)

We're told the prosecutors said they were able to download copyrighted material from the site between September 2011 and November 2013, and held the four guys responsible for allowing that to happen. But the case fell apart when the foursome showed that they had had nothing to do with Pirate Bay since the site was sold to outside investors in 2006, it was reported on Friday.

Furthermore, the court was informed that Svartholm couldn't possibly have had any involvement in the claimed crimes as he had the perfect alibi – he was in a Swedish prison serving a two-year sentence for hacking into the Swedish arm of IT services firm Logica at the time.

Phoenix666 writes:

The story of nanomaterials in textiles dates back at least to the formation of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) at the beginning of the 21st Century, when Nanotex was the NNI’s poster company for the new exciting world of nanotechnology.

The role of nanomaterials in textiles has evolved since then from comparatively simple hydrophobic materials that Nanotex continues to produce to where we now are creating textile electrodes using graphene or weaving nanowires into t-shirts to make them into supercapacitors.

Perhaps the greatest metric of how far nanomaterials have come in textiles is the range of work being done by students at Cornell University where they are using a variety of different nanomaterials in combination with cotton to create clothing that kills bacteria, conducts electricity, and serves as a platform for electronic devices.

"Cotton is one of the most fascinating—and misunderstood materials," said Juan Hinestroza, associate professor of fiber science, who directs the Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory at Cornell, in a press release. "In a nanoscale world—and that is our world—we can control cellulose-based materials one atom at a time."

Ugh, Cotton? Does. Not. Breathe.

Phoenix666 writes:

UBC research shows world's monitored seabird populations have dropped 70 per cent since the 1950s, a stark indication that marine ecosystems are not doing well.

Michelle Paleczny, a UBC master's student and researcher with the Sea Around Us project, and co-authors compiled information on more than 500 seabird populations from around the world, representing 19 per cent of the global seabird population. They found overall populations had declined by 69.6 per cent, equivalent to a loss of about 230 million birds in 60 years.

"Seabirds are particularly good indicators of the health of marine ecosystems," said Paleczny. "When we see this magnitude of seabird decline, we can see there is something wrong with marine ecosystems. It gives us an idea of the overall impact we're having."

The dramatic decline is caused by a variety of factors including overfishing of the fish seabirds rely on for food, birds getting tangled in fishing gear, plastic and oil pollution, introduction of non-native predators to seabird colonies, destruction and changes to seabird habitat, and environmental and ecological changes caused by climate change.

Phoenix666 writes:

California's epic drought is pushing Big Oil to solve a problem it's struggled with for decades: what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater that gush out of wells every year.

Golden State drillers have pumped much of that liquid back underground into disposal wells. Now, amid a four-year dry spell, more companies are looking to recycle their water or sell it to parched farms as the industry tries to get ahead of environmental lawsuits and new regulations.

The trend could have implications for oil patches across the country. With fracking boosting the industry's thirst for water, companies have run into conflicts from Texas to Colorado to Pennsylvania. California could be an incubator for conservation efforts that have so far failed to gain traction elsewhere in the U.S.

If you were thinking California's drought might accelerate desalinization technology, you're wrong. It's actually helping the oil and natural gas industries make more money.

gawdonblue writes:

In the early 1960s, the US began setting up deep-space tracking stations in Australia. Doug Rickard found himself tracking missions to Mars and the moon. Friendly scientific rivalry and those small but spectacular mistakes in space exploration made for a rich episode in Doug's life. These are stories from his memoirs.

AnonTechie writes:

Beer—is there anything it can't do?

You can chug it to improve the watchability of baseball, use it to de-ice roads, and now even power your car with it, thanks to the New Zealand biofuel "Brewtroleum." The ethanol used in the greener gas, which was dreamed up by DB Export, is derived from leftovers of the brewing process, chiefly grain and yeast.

The company calls it the "world's first commercially available biofuel" derived from beer, and an Internet search seems to confirm the boast. However, researchers have long dreamed of manufacturing a suds-based fuel. The stuff produces a lot fewer greenhouse gases than petroleum. And making ethanol with fermentation waste is reportedly better for the planet than relying on standard production methods, such as growing vast fields of corn.

This week, drivers in Auckland lined up at a gas station to fill their tanks with the brew juice, which DB Export claims emits 8 percent less carbon than gasoline. (Though the customers might have been environmentalists, the offer of a free $50 fill-up probably helped improve the turnout.) Stocks of "Brewtroleum" are expected to run out in about six weeks, though the company is toying with making more. Reports Stuff: "This is a genuinely exciting opportunity. It's a world-first, we're helping Kiwis save the world by doing what they enjoy best—drinking beer... If you were to fuel your car with biofuel over a year it would be over 250 tonnes of carbon emission you would be saving."

takyon writes:

Work by scientists at the Oak Ridge and Los Alamos National Laboratories has led to an explanation of the "missing" magnetism of plutonium. Plutonium had been predicted to be magnetic by conventional theories, which successfully predicted the element's structural properties, but its magnetism had never been observed experimentally. Until now:

Finally, after seven decades, this scientific mystery on plutonium's "missing" magnetism has been resolved. Using neutron scattering, researchers from the Department of Energy's Los Alamos and Oak Ridge (ORNL) national laboratories have made the first direct measurements of a unique characteristic of plutonium's fluctuating magnetism. In a recent paper in the journal Science Advances, Marc Janoschek from Los Alamos, the paper's lead scientist, explains that plutonium is not devoid of magnetism, but in fact its magnetism is just in a constant state of flux, making it nearly impossible to detect.

"Plutonium sort of exists between two extremes in its electronic configuration—in what we call a quantum mechanical superposition," Janoschek said. "Think of the one extreme where the electrons are completely localized around the plutonium ion, which leads to a magnetic moment. But then the electrons go to the other extreme where they become delocalized and are no longer associated with the same ion anymore."