Science

Curiosity Show’s first new episode since 1990 / Kellogg Australia

For the first time in more than 20 years, Australia’s much-loved kids’ science program, the Curiosity Show, has partnered with Kellogg Australia to create a new episode all in the name of educating Aussie parents and their children about breakfast nutrition — via Youtube

Rights, Technology

Vodafone’s Disclosure Report reveals global scale of mobile phone surveillance

The world’s second largest mobile phone company, Vodafone, says at least six unnamed governments can use its phone system to monitor customers whenever they want.

The company’s Disclosure Report says most governments need legal notices to access its networks, but there are six nations — which is says it cannot name for legal reasons — that have direct access.

It says in those countries authorities have inserted their own equipment into the network or have diverted all data through government systems so they can permanently access customers’ communications.

In a small number of countries the law dictates that specific agencies and authorities must have direct access to an operator’s network, bypassing any form of operational control over lawful interception on the part of the operator, the company said.

It added that in Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Turkey it could not disclose any information related to wiretapping or interception — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Science

45kg of Magnetic Putty / Vat19

We’ve been selling Magnetic Thinking Putty for years and have always been astounded by the burning questions we’ve received for this ever-popular item. So, we decided to do some experimentation utilising a 100-pound ball of Magnetic Thinking Putty and a ridiculously strong magnet — via Youtube

Entertainment

US man auctions rare comic books

A rare collection of first edition comic books featuring inconic heroes Superman, Batman and Flash are to be auctioned in the US.

Kentucky insurance executive John Wise decided it was time to sell the collection he’s been accumulating over three decades, revisiting a childhood pastime that he picked up again in the 1980s after he became established in his career.

I think it’s a good timing for the market, and good timing for me at age 62,” said Wise. It’s not like I’m not going to take them with me.

The comic books sold for as little as 10 cents when they were published, many in the late 1930s and 1940s.

He is auctioning about 175 comics individually, and online bidders have already committed about a half-million dollars to the auction, which ends Tuesday — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Entertainment

Obituary: Doc Neeson

Bernard Doc Neeson, singer-songwriter for veteran Australian rock band The Angels, has died aged 67.

Neeson, who had been suffering from a brain tumour, died in his sleep this morning.

It is with deep sadness and regret that the family of Angels singer/songwriter Bernard Doc Neeson — loving father, family member and friend to so many – announce he has passed away in his sleep at 7.15am, a statement from his family said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Politics

Tony Abbott, President of the USA of Australia / Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Most people know John Oliver for his work on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show — but at the end of April, he got his own program: the satirical weekly Last Week Tonight.

In the episode which just aired on HBO, there was an entire segment devoted to our own Tony Abbott. Cue: the national cringe. Abbott is introduced as a hard-lined right wing Prime Minister, who rose to power promising to be pro-business and religiously anti-immigration. Literally: religiously anti-immigration.

With a quote from Abbott to prove it — Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it is not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia, Abbott says — the narrator skewers the hypocrisy of a national leader who claims immigration to be against Jesus’ way, even though he was himself born in London.

What is it about Tony Dumb-Dumb that’s led to his current approval rating of 30%? he asks. Could it be that he’s personally insulted everyone else in the country, from women to gays to anyone remotely Irish to elderly cancer-ridden phone sex workers?

And it only ramps up from there — via Junkee

Rights, Technology

MP3, DVD and CD Copying is Now Legal in The UK (For Some)

Most people in the UK may not have realised it, but every time they backed up an MP3 or made a copy of a CD or DVD for personal use, they were breaking the law.

Starting today this is no longer the case for the disabled, thanks to a revision of copyright law that just went into effect. Disabled citizens can now copy and publish copyrighted material if there’s no commercial alternative available.

Disabled people and disability groups can now make accessible copies of copyright material (eg music, film, books) when no commercial alternative exists, the Government announced today.

Previously the Government also said that all private copying for personal use would be legal starting in June, but this has apparently been delayed pending Parliament approval.

However, following a thorough inspection of local copyright legislation the UK Government has already committed to change current laws in favor of consumers — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Science

Blasting bushfires with explosives / UNSW

UNSW researchers are a step closer to proving whether explosives — rather than water — can be used to extinguish an out-of-control bushfire.

Dr Graham Doig, of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, is conducting the research, which extends a long-standing technique used to put out oil well fires.

The process is not dissimilar to blowing out a candle: it relies on a blast of air to knock a flame off its fuel source.

Doig travelled to the Energetic Materials Research Testing Center — a high-explosives and bomb test site in a remote part of New Mexico — in January this year to scale up tests he originally conducted at UNSW’s heat transfer and aerodynamics laboratory.

The New Mexico tests used a four-metre steel blast tube — which contained a cardboard cylinder wrapped in detonation cord — to produce a concentrated shockwave and rush of air. This was directed at a metre-high flame fuelled by a propane burner.

The sudden change in pressure across the shockwave, and then the impulse of the airflow behind it pushed the flame straight off the fuel source. As soon as the flame doesn’t have access to fuel any more, it stops burning.

Doig hopes the concept can now be scaled up to fight out-of-control forest and bushfires burning in remote parts of the world — via Youtube

Business, Technology

Australia sees rise in cyber attacks, competitors to blame: CERT

The main motivation behind rising online security attacks in Australia is competitors seeking commercial information and advantage, according to the latest Cyber Crime and Security Survey Report by Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) — part of the Attorney-General’s Department.

The main motivation for cyber-attacks is considered to be competitors seeking commercial advantage, said George Brandis, Australia’s Attorney General and Minister for the Arts. This aligns with the cyber threat of most concern to businesses, which is theft or breach of confidential information or intellectual property.

This of course has recently come to prominence through the US indicting Chinese officials for the theft of IP from US companies by cyber means.

While many of the companies surveyed reported the computer security incidents, others didn’t, raising concerns they don’t know what’s really happening on their networks — via redwolf.newsvine.com