SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Folk musician Pete Seeger was under investigation by the FBI from 1943 until at least 1972, a document released to Mother Jones under the Freedom of Information Act reveals. The file comprises nearly 1800 pages, of which 90 pages were withheld. An early entry explains the agency's initial interest in him:

Subject wrote letter protesting and criticizing the California American Legion's resolution advocating deportation of all Japanese, citizens or not, after the war, and barring all Japanese descendants from citizenship.

In the letter, Seeger had written that "we're fighting precisely to free the world of such Hitlerism, such narrow jingoism." The American Legion forwarded the letter to the FBI.

At the time, Seeger was in the army, undergoing training as an aircraft mechanic. He was never placed on active duty. The father of his fiancée was Japanese but had been exiled from Japan.

Additional coverage:

• Albuquerque Journal
• globalnews.ca
• ABC News
• The Hill
• Billboard
• The Guardian
• The Hamilton Spectator
• Daily Mail

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Professor Stefan Bratzel of the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany doesn't think BMW is close to maximizing its growth yet, and will concentrate on electric and autonomous cars to expand the business.

"BMW may be pretty close to capacity, but of course the company is thinking about growing further otherwise they will get into trouble from competitors. I think the new CEO Harald Krueger sees two big pillars of growth; electro-mobility and autonomous driving. The electric car will get more interesting for BMW and it is hoping the German government and others will push this issue further (with subsidies)," Bratzel said.

Car magazines have been full of teaser pictures recently of the BMW i5, an all-electric SUV to match the Tesla Model X. BMW has yet to confirm the vehicle, which would be the third product for the "i" brand after the i3 electric city car, and the i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. There is speculation too that BMW will expand its "M" sub-brand of hotted up vehicles.

"The second pillar of growth for BMW will be autonomous driving and this should bring more qualitative growth," Bratzel said.

Bratzel predicted electric car sales will start to accelerate between 2017 and 2018 with global sales reaching perhaps to three per cent by 2020.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Google, the owner of the traffic app Waze, has managed to beat back a copyright lawsuit filed by lesser-known rival PhantomAlert.

Back in September 2015 PhantomAlert sued Google over allegations of copyright infringement. Google purchased Waze in June 2013 for over $1 billion. PhantomAlert alleged that, after a failed data-sharing deal between itself and Waze collapsed in 2010, Waze apparently stole PhantomAlert's "points of interest" database.

In a judicial order filed earlier this month, the San Francisco-based federal judge found that PhantomAlert could not allege a copyright claim on simple facts of where different places actually are.

Does this mean databases of people are fair game, too?

Original Submission

AndyTheAbsurd writes:

Nitrogen can triple the energy storage capacity of carbon-based supercapacitors, researchers in China and the United States say, potentially helping make them competitive against some advanced batteries.

Supercapacitors can capture and release energy much more quickly than batteries, but they usually can store less energy. Most supercapacitors in use today use carbon-based electrodes, because their high-surface area stores more charge. "We are able to make carbon a much better supercapacitor," says Fuqiang Huang, a material chemist at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics.

The scientists began with a framework of porous silica and lined the pores with carbon. They next etched away the silica, leaving porous tubes 4 to 6 nanometers wide, each made of five or less layers of graphene-like carbon.

Nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon of extraordinary capacitance for electrochemical energy storage (DOI: 10.1126/science.aab3798)

Original Submission

Fluffeh writes in with an update in the long-running Kim Dotcom extradition saga:

Following an extradition hearing lasting 10 weeks, today New Zealand District Court Judge Nevin Dawson ruled that Kim Dotcom and his colleagues can indeed be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Dotcom confirmed that an appeal to the High Court would go ahead.

[...] In a blow to the Megaupload founder and his former colleagues, Judge Dawson ruled that the quartet can indeed be sent to the United States to face charges of copyright infringement, conspiracy, money laundering and racketeering. Judge Dawson did not determine guilt or otherwise but found that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) had presented enough evidence for New Zealand to grant a request from the the United States to extradite. Dawson said that Dotcom and his colleagues had not done enough to undermine the case.

timbim adds Wired's coverage:

The defendants will be allowed to remain out on bail in the meantime. Although the judge acknowledged there was a high risk of flight, he noted that the four had all abided by the terms of their bail since they were arrested.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

takyon writes:

Sometimes porn doesn't get the chance to become revenge porn, as in this case before the German Federal Court:

Germany's highest court has ordered a man to destroy intimate photos and videos of his ex-partner because they violate her right to privacy. The Federal Court said the man, a photographer, should no longer possess naked photos and sex tapes, even if he had no intention of sharing them.

The woman had originally agreed to the images but this consent stopped when the relationship ended, the court said. Germany has some of the strictest privacy laws in Europe.

The Federal Court was called upon to rule in a dispute between a former couple, who were arguing over whether or not the man should delete intimate photos and videos. In its ruling (in German), the court said everyone had the right to decide whether to grant insight into their sex life - including to whom they grant permission and in what form. It said that by retaining the images, the photographer had a certain "manipulative power" over his ex-lover. He should no longer have rights to the photos and videos once the relationship had ended, it concluded.

It is not clear how the ruling will be enforced.

A 2014 Pew survey of American mobile phone users found that 34% of those aged 25-34 reported receiving "sexts" (sexually suggestive photos or videos), as well as 22% of those aged 35-44 and 15% of those aged 45-54. Across all age groups, 20% reported receiving sexts, an increase from just 15% in 2012. A smaller portion of the population is sending the sexts: 9% of phone users in 2014, from 6% in 2012.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A NASA mission previously scheduled to launch a robotic lander towards Mars in March may face up to a two year delay due to a fault in a seismometer provided by the French space agency:

The InSight spacecraft was scheduled to take off between 4-30 March and land on the Red Planet six months later to examine Mars' geology in depth.

Nasa said it had decided to call off the launch because the agency was unable to fix a leak affecting the seismometer, which required a vacuum seal to cope with harsh conditions on Mars. The instrument is designed to measure ground movements.

"A decision on a path forward will be made in the coming months, but one thing is clear: Nasa remains fully committed to the scientific discovery and exploration of Mars," Nasa's John Grunsfeld was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. The next time the earth and Mars are favourably aligned for a launch will be in 2018.

[More after the break.]

Phoenix666 writes:

According to research [DOI: 10.1136/bmj.h6367] conducted by a team at the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and published earlier this week, watching horror films does actually cause an increase in a particular blood coagulant factor responsible for blood clotting.

The study was conducted on 24 healthy participants aged 30 or younger. These participants were divided into 2 groups, one of 10 participants, the other of 14. The group of 10 was assigned to watch a non-scary educational film followed by a horror film, and the group of 14 was assigned to watch the horror film followed by the educational film, viewed a week apart.

Before and after viewing each film, blood samples were taken from each participant. These samples were analysed for clotting activity, revealing an increase in coagulant factor VIII in more participants that viewed the horror film than watched the educational film.

Higher levels of coagulant, but not Andromeda-Strain high.

Original Submission

oaklandwatch writes:

Last month 188 entries turned up on GitHub in an event challenging programmers to write computer code to generate 50,000-word novels. "The 'novel' is defined however you want," wrote the organizer for National Novel-Generating Month. "It could be 50,000 repetitions of the word 'meow.' It could literally grab a random novel from Project Gutenberg. It doesn't matter, as long as it's 50k+ words." Novels were submitted as Issues on the event's GitHub repository, and this year saw intriguing titles like "The Hero with Arbitrarily-Many Faces," "THE CYBERWHALE – a cyberpunk version of Moby Dick," and "Terms and Conditions – a Legal Thriller."

Original Submission

HughPickens.com writes:

Nicolas Cage is known as an avid collector, with interests that include real estate, rare cars and comic books: In 2011, he sold a like-new copy of Action Comics No. 1, which featured the first appearance of Superman, for $2.1 million. Now Katie Rogers reports at the NYT that Cage has agreed to turn over the skull of a Tyrannosaurus bataar which was the star artifact in a natural history-themed luxury auction in Manhattan and was sold for $276,000 to an anonymous buyer eight years ago.

"Cultural artifacts such as this Bataar Skull represent a part of Mongolian national cultural heritage," says Glenn Sorge. "It belongs to the people of Mongolia. These priceless antiquities are not souvenirs to be sold to private collectors or hobbyists." Several skeletons of the Tyrannosaurus bataar, a large, carnivorous dinosaur that was a close relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, have been returned to Mongolia in recent years.

The private sales of such artifacts have worried paleontologists because it makes it harder for the scientific community to learn more about how the dinosaurs once lived. "We're losing science, we're losing education, we're losing valuable specimens," says Kevin Padian, a paleontologist at University of California, Berkeley.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

It's the holidays and many people are feeling cheerful, but if you're feeling Grinch-like instead this one's for you:

If you've been around for a while, the time will eventually come when a company you work for is in unfortunate shape and will need to "downsize." Having witnessed this at a client of mine this week, I've noticed a pattern and a few warning signs you may find useful...

Here are several warning signs you're about to be laid-off. If you've noticed more than perhaps one of these, your Spidey-Sense should be tingling—it's time to start polishing that resume/CV!
...
  I. Backups
"Have you backed-up all your work to XYZ?"
...
  II. Training
"Please train your co-worker on X, we need everyone up to speed on these components."
...
  III. Important Project or Person MIA
Just like the old Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life, where the very existence of the main character is erased from history, a similar fate will happen to $BIG_PROJECT or important people.
...
  IV. Mandatory Meeting
Subject: Moving Forward in $YEAR+1

Content-free meeting invitations or email focused on date periods, especially late-in the year (a nod to tax purposes). "Let's discuss our plan for 2016." **gulp**

That's my list for now, please chime in with any others you can think of.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

China's economic conditions deteriorated across the board in the fourth quarter, according to a private survey from a New York-based research group that contrasted with recent official indicators that signaled some stabilization in the country's slowdown.

National sales revenue, volumes, output, prices, profits, hiring, borrowing, and capital expenditure were all weaker than the prior three months, according to the fourth-quarter China Beige Book, published by CBB International. The indicator is modeled on the survey compiled by the Federal Reserve on the U.S. economy, and was first published in 2012.

The world's second-largest economy lacks the kind of comprehensive data available on developed nations, making it harder for investors to get a clear read -- particularly as China transitions from reliance on manufacturing and investment toward services and consumption. Official data on industrial production, retail sales and fixed-asset investment all exceeded forecasts for November, while consumer inflation perked up and a slide in imports moderated.

What they need is a good war to take people's minds off their troubles.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Geek.com reports

The Tokyo police will soon be deploying an anti-drone drone squad to assist in the capture of rogue drones that fly within restricted airspace. That's right, crime-fighting drones.

[...] Through a [process] of trial and error, the police settled on equipping a drone with a three meter by two meter net to ensnare suspect drones. ...Police will [first] attempt to issue a warning to the rogue drone's operator before they send in the calvary[sic] to dispatch it. The net has been designed to disable and capture suspect drones rather than damage or destroy, as you'll see in the demonstration video.

[...] This new anti-drone unit will be charged with patrolling at-risk spots, such as the Diet building [legislature], the Imperial Palace, and the prime minister's office where an incident occurred just a few months ago. Police have taken these precautions after an incident in April where a drone placed radioactive soil from Fukushima Prefecture on the roof of the prime minister's office. The Aviation Law has also been amended, which adds tighter airspace restrictions.

If "they send in the cavalry to dispatch it", I hope they ride in on these.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/panopticlick-20-launches-featuring-new-tracker-protection-and-fingerprinting-tests

Today we're launching version 2.0 of our tracking and fingerprinting detection tool, Panopticlick. This version brings new tests to our existing tool, such as canvas and touch-capability fingerprinting, updating its ability to uniquely identify browsers with current techniques. In addition, we're adding a brand new suite of tests that detect how well your browser and extensions are protecting you from (1) tracking by ads; (2) from tracking by invisible beacons; and also (3) whether they encourage compliance with the Do Not Track policy, which EFF and a coalition of allies launched earlier this year. We've also redesigned the site look and feel, including friendlier layout on mobile devices. If your browser lacks protections, Panopticlick 2.0 will recommend installing tools that are available on your platform, such as Privacy Badger, Disconnect or AdBlock, in order to get better protections as you navigate the Web.

Try Panopticlick 2.0 here.

"Nearly six years ago, EFF launched the original Panopticlick, a website that allowed users to gather information on how unique – and trackable – their browsers are. By using web headers, JavaScript and plugins, to measure visitors' settings, we were able to confirm that millions of browsers across the globe had unique fingerprints which could be used by tracking companies to follow them around the Web, even if they blocked cookies or hid their IP addresses. Panopticlick continues to be used by hundreds of thousands of people every month to determine just how much identifiable information their settings and configuration exposes. Shortly after the initial launch, we were able to determine that 84% of users were uniquely identifiable by their browsers alone, without ever logging in to a user account. In the last six years, novel techniques such as canvas fingerprinting have allowed trackers to spy on users more effectively than ever before. The use of anonymity software such as Tor Browser mitigates the effectiveness of fingerprinting by delivering the same headers for every browser, removing plugins, and limiting de-anonymizing JavaScript techniques. In version 2.0, we've included simplified the results from the fingerprinting tests to make them more understandable (you can still click through to the comprehensive results)."

More links in the original submission below.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Tim Berners-Lee's first World Wide Web page flickered to life at CERN on December 20th, 1990:

The inaugural page wasn't truly public when it went live at CERN on December 20th, 1990 (that wouldn't happen until August 1991), and it wasn't much more than an explanation of how the hypertext-based project worked. However, it's safe to say that this plain page laid the groundwork for much of the internet as you know it -- even now, you probably know one or two people who still think the web is the internet.

Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.

Original Submission