A group of investment firms is putting their shareholder weight behind asking high-tech companies that deal with repressive regimes to pay more attention to rights violations
Scientists caught eleven fish off the coast of Southern California that have ovary tissue in their testes. Usually, mutant fish like this are only found in freshwater that has been tainted with pollution from industrial facilities — via Boing Boing
AOL is diving deeper in the TV business, announcing that it will begin distributing episodes of more than 300 television series starting in January. The episodes will be available at AOL.com’s new In2TV broadband network, and they will be free. Yes, that’s right, free, with very limited advertising. Among the initial offerings are shows from the Warner Bros. library, currently out of syndication, such as Welcome Back Kotter
and Wonder Woman
and the cult favorite La Femme Nikita
The Brazilian man shot dead by police in the mistaken belief that he was a suicide bomber was killed with a type of bullet banned in warfare under international convention. The firing of hollow point ammunition into the head of Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, is believed to be the first use of the bullets by British police
A team at CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology has developed a small device that can extract enough hydrogen per day from water to power a family car for up to 150kms
Spanish police have traced up to 42 suspected CIA operatives believed to have taken part in secret flights carrying detained or kidnapped Islamist terror suspects to interrogation centres and jails in Afghanistan, Egypt and elsewhere
Sony BMG has decided to stop making CDs with technology designed to protect its music against illegal copying treat all its customers like thieves that, in reality, have been compromising the security of PCs
The US Army is developing a new chewing gum to help soldiers fight dental problems in the field. The gum takes the place of brushing teeth, which the soldier in a combat situation might not have time or means to do
Fungi native to East Africa could be used as a new tool in the fight against malaria. An international team of scientists from the Netherlands, Tanzania and the UK say their technique could significantly reduce malaria cases. When fungi infect certain insects, including malaria-carrying mosquitoes, they grow and quickly kill the animal
Scientists have genetically modified bacteria living in the human body to produce chemicals that block HIV infection. Most HIV transmission occurs on the surfaces of the gut and reproductive areas which are normally coated with a layer of bacteria. The researchers modified one of these bacteria — a form of E.coli — so that it began to secrete proteins that block HIV from infecting its target cells — via Warren Ellis
A US Court has shut down three companies for secretly bundling spyware. The assets of Enternet Media and Conspy, based in California, and Iwebtunes, based in Ohio, have been frozen pending further court action. The court also ordered all three firms to halt downloads of the software
Forbes has a free service that lets you send an e-mail to yourself and have it arrive in 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 years. FutureMe has a similiar service, but does it better — via Boing Boing
A study at MIT has found that aluminium foil headwear — Among a fringe community of paranoids… the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals
— actually amplifies certain frequency bands allocated to the US government, as well as a mobile phone range, and is largely ineffective through the rest of the radio spectrum
You might think it would be difficult for a terrorist to obtain genes from the smallpox virus, or a similarly vicious pathogen. Well, it’s not. Armed with a fake email address, a would-be terrorist could probably order the building blocks of a deadly biological weapon online, and receive them by post within weeks
Big guns in the software industry are massing behind OpenDocument as government customers show more interest in open-source alternatives to Microsoft’s desktop software. IBM and Sun recently convened a meeting in New York to discuss how to boost adoption of the standardised document format for office applications. The ODF Summit brought together representatives from a handful of industry groups and from at least 13 technology companies, including Oracle, Google and Novell
Sony BMG has been hit with a class-action lawsuit by consumers claiming their computers have been harmed by anti-piracy software on music CDs
The Earth just got one step closer to true global broadband through satellite based communications. With the launch of the Zenit-3SL rocket the Inmarsat-4 F2 satellite brings 3G high speed mobile technology to North America. Their onboard technology is designed to allow people to set up virtual offices anywhere around the world via high-speed broadband connections and new 3G phone technology
In recent years car manufacturers have provided trunk release tabs so that you can release yourself, but there were two problems with the early tabs. One, they used words to instruct those trapped inside on what to do, and two, the trunk of a car is pitch black when the door is closed. The new Ford Focus has solved both of these problems with an ingenious pull tab that glows in the dark and has an easy-to-comprehend symbol — via boingboing
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered his first parliamentary defeat during his eight years in power as MPs voted down a core aspect of his anti-terrorist legislation
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