UK's Copyright Change 'Could Block YouTube'

Lord Mandelson's plans to tackle illegal filesharing have received widespread criticism Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters

From The Guardian:

One of the most contentious parts of the controversial digital economy bill was voted down by the House of Lords last night – only to be replaced by a clause that campaigners say is even more draconian.

The Liberal Democrats forced through a surprise amendment to the bill's notorious clause 17 on Wednesday – in a move that dealt a defeat to the government but troubled critics, who suggest it will have the opposite effect that its creators intend.

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Microsoft Exec Pitches Internet Usage Tax To Pay Or Cybersecurity Programs

From The Hill:

A top Microsoft executive on Tuesday suggested a broad Internet tax to help defray the costs associated with computer security breaches and vast Internet attacks, according to reports.

Speaking at a security conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Vice President for Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney pitched the Web usage fee as one way to subsidize efforts to combat emerging cyber threats -- a costly venture, he said, but one that had vast community benefits.

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What Is The “Einstein” Cyber Shield?

Cybersecurity Chief Howard Schmidt said he wants the U.S. to become "stronger through stronger technology." Lawrence Jackson/White House

Details of “Einstein” Cyber Shield Disclosed by White House -- Wall Street Journal

The Obama administration lifted the veil Tuesday on a highly-secretive set of policies to defend the U.S. from cyber attacks.

It was an open secret that the National Security Agency was bolstering a Homeland Security program to detect and respond to cyber attacks on government systems, but a summary of that program declassified Tuesday provides more details of NSA’s role in a Homeland program known as Einstein.

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More News On The “Einstein” Cyber Shield

The Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative -- National Security Council/The White House
US lifts lid on top secret plan for internet security -- BBC
U.S. Declassifies Part of Secret Cybersecurity Plan -- Threat Level
Monitoring federal networks, global supply chain part of cyber initiative -- Next Gov.
Few details in White House summary of cyber plan -- AP
White House Declassifies Description of National Cyber-Security Program -- Government Security
US intros Einstein plan to defend its cyberspace -- Tech Eye
Obama's cybersecurity chief opens CNCI 'Einstein 3' kimono -- Computer World
Details of American super-secret cyber warfare defences known as 'Einstein' -- Download Squad

Google China Hackers Stole Source Code - Researcher

A Chinese national flag sways in front of Google China's headquarters
in Beijing in this January 14, 2010 file photo.

From Yahoo News/Reuters:

The hackers behind the attacks on Google Inc and dozens of other companies operating in China stole valuable computer source code by breaking into the personal computers of employees with privileged access, a security firm said on Wednesday.

The hackers targeted a small number of employees who controlled source code management systems, which handle the myriad changes that developers make as they write software, said George Kurtz, chief technology officer at anti-virus software maker McAfee Inc .

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'Dinosaurs' 10 Million Years Older Than Previously Thought

Asilisaurus kongwe from the Middle Triassic of Tanzania, with the sail?backed archosaur Hypselorhachis in the background Photo: Marlene Donnelly/Field Museum

From The Telegraph:

Dinosaurs reign over the earth may date back further than previously thought, a new discovery suggests.

Palaeontologists have found a four-legged ancestor of the prehistoric creatures that hails from 250 million years ago – 10 million years earlier than first thought.

The large dog sized creature, which ate meat and vegetation, is thought to be a similar relation to dinosaurs as chimps are to humans.

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Want To Seduce A Man? Smile at Him 35 Times Every Hour: The Bizarre But True Secrets Of Attraction

'Smile at him broadly': The most effective female technique for drawing a man's attention, according to a flirting study (posed by models)

From The Daily Mail:

Relationships should be so simple. You meet someone, you fall in love. If all goes well, you live happily ever after. But finding Mr or Ms Right is rarely that straightforward.

As author ANDREW TREES reveals in his new book Decoding Love, science and statistics can offer the best help with our quest for romance.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1255000/Want-seduce-man-Smile-35-times-hour-The-bizarre-true-secrets-attraction.html#ixzz0hA4wFb17

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Mass Loss from Alaskan Glaciers Overestimated? Previous Melt Contributed a Third Less to Sea-Level Rise Than Estimated

NAU geographer Erik Schiefer surveys a debris-covered glacier margin.
(Credit: Photo by Amanda Stan)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Mar. 3, 2010) — The melting of glaciers is well documented, but when looking at the rate at which they have been retreating, a team of international researchers steps back and says not so fast.

Previous studies have largely overestimated mass loss from Alaskan glaciers over the past 40-plus years, according to Erik Schiefer, a Northern Arizona University geographer who coauthored a paper in the February issue of Nature Geoscience that recalculates glacier melt in Alaska.

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The Man Behind The Technology Of "CSI"

Biomedical engineering professor Zheng Ouyang (left), chemistry professor Graham Cooks and post-doc Guangming Huang with a mass spectrometer that is fitted with a DESI ion source. The system is used for high-throughput screening of foodstuffs for melamine, and related trace analysis experiments, using ionization of whole samples such as milk, biological tissue, or even a suitcase. Credit: Purdue News Service

From Live Science:

R. Graham Cooks, Purdue University's Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry, has made mass spectrometry appeal to mass audiences with technology featured on the hit series "CSI." Mass spectrometry turns molecules into ions so their mass can be analyzed, and traditionally requires chemical separations, manipulations of samples and containment in a vacuum chamber.

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Internet Industry Told To Respect Human Rights Abroad

Photo: Internet rights: Dick Durbin and Nicole Wong, vice president and deputy general counsel of Google, at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law.

From Technology Review:

Senator Durbin promises legislation that would force companies to protect human rights.

Yesterday a leading member of Congress put pressure on Internet companies to support human rights and Internet freedom abroad. U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, the Democratic representative from Illinois and the Senate majority whip, said he plans to introduce legislation "that would require Internet companies to take reasonable steps to protect human rights or face civil or criminal liability." An aide later said the proposed legislation had not been written, but would likely be based on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

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To Mars In 39 Days

An artist's impression of VASIMR - a rocket that may cut down the
travel time to Mars to just 39 days. Credit: NASA

From Cosmos/AFP:

WASHINGTON: A journey from Earth to Mars could eventually take just 39 days - cutting current travel time nearly six times - according to a rocket scientist who has the ear of U.S. space agency NASA.

Franklin Chang-Diaz, a former astronaut and a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, says reaching the Red Planet could be dramatically quicker using his high-tech VASIMR rocket, now on track for liftoff after decades of development.

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Tons Of Water Ice At The Moon’s North Pole Could Sustain A Lunar Base

From Discover Magazine:

Water, water, everywhere! Radar results from a lunar probe have revealed that the moon’s north pole could be holding millions of tons of water in the form of thick ice, raising the possibility that human life could be sustained on Earth’s silvery satellite, NASA scientists said.

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Dirty Tricks Of The Egg And Sperm Race

In many mammals the entire sperm enters the egg, bringing proteins that may influence development (Image: Thierry Berrod/Mona Lisa Production/SPL)

From New Scientist:

EVEN the most romantic evolutionary biologist knows that sexual reproduction is rarely a harmonious affair. Among most higher animals it is often predicated on fierce fighting, showy one-upmanship, exploitation and deception. Charles Darwin himself drew the battle lines, when he set out his ideas on sexual selection to explain the evolution of traits that provide mating advantages - either through contests between members of the same sex or by increasing attractiveness to the opposite sex. Much of what Darwin said still guides our thinking. However, since the mid-19th century it has become clear that there is more to successful reproduction than mere copulation.

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New Sensors Directly Track The Brain's Chemical Messengers For The First Time

Imaging the Brain Patrick Gillooly

From Popular Science:

Courtesy of those brainy folk at MIT and Caltech.

This is your brain. This is your brain's blood flow, courtesy of brain scan technologies. And this is dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that plays pivotal roles in learning, memory, addiction and movement. MIT and Caltech scientists have created new molecular sensors that allow them to track dopamine for the first time, and provide the most direct detection ever of brain activity.

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New Era Of Planet Discovery On Horizon

The deepest image of the universe ever taken in near-infrared light, captured by Hubble Space Telescope Photo: NASA/AP

From The Telegraph:

Thousands of new planets will be identified in the next few years, some of which may harbour life, say scientists.

British astronomers are in the vanguard of the search, which could transform humanity's view of its place in the universe.

More than 400 ''exoplanets'' orbiting stars beyond the Sun have been catalogued so far since the first were discovered in 1991.

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Spanish Police Arrest Ringleaders Who Infected 13m PCs With Credit-Card Stealing Virus

The virus was used to steal login credentials and record every key stroke on the 13m infected computers

From The Daily Mail:

Spanish police have arrested three men accused of masterminding one of the biggest computer crimes to date, which created a network of 13million virus-infected computers.

The virus, named the Mariposa botnet, stole credit card numbers and other personal details from infected machines.

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Limp Wrists And tight Fists: What Your Handshake Says About You

From Scientific American:

There is a man—a very well-known man, a legend of sorts—whom I’ve been privileged enough to have seen on occasion through the years at various venues and events. (Never mind his reputation. To protect my career, he shall remain anonymous.) Our exchanges have been pleasant enough, I should say—inconsequential, really, and empty of any real substance. Now, as an admiring subordinate, I have enormous respect for this person. I suspect I probably also have a mild envy given his vast and ever-lasting contributions to our shared discipline. But our first interaction, which lasted mere seconds, left me with a rather negative, viscerally based impression of him.

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Learning Keeps Brain Healthy: Mental Activity Could Stave Off Age-Related Cognitive And Memory Decline

New findings suggest that learning promotes brain health -- and, therefore, that mental stimulation could limit the debilitating effects of aging on memory and the mind. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Mar. 3, 2010) — UC Irvine neurobiologists are providing the first visual evidence that learning promotes brain health -- and, therefore, that mental stimulation could limit the debilitating effects of aging on memory and the mind.

Using a novel visualization technique they devised to study memory, a research team led by Lulu Chen and Christine Gall found that everyday forms of learning animate neuron receptors that help keep brain cells functioning at optimum levels.

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Earth's Earthquake Hotspots

The Seward highway in Alaska after the 1964 earthquake / USGS

From Live Science:

The powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake that rocked Chile was strong enough to shift the planet's axis by 3 inches, and came soon after the catastrophic magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti and right after a magnitude 7.0 event hit off the coast of Japan.

Where might earthquakes hit next? Earth scientists might not be able to give us a date and time, but using history and plate tectonics as a guide they can come up with some rough estimates as to where.

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Polar Bear And Its Cub Drift On Shrinking Ice 12 Miles From Land ... But Is It All It Seems?

Adrift: The polar bear cub snuggles against its mother as they drift 12 miles from land

From The Daily Mail:

A forlorn polar bear cub is comforted by its mother as they drift miles from shore on a rapidly shrinking ice floe.

The Arctic-dwelling animals have become an iconic cause for green campaigners, who claim dramatic images such as these prove that global warming is destroying the world.

But despite this image being released today, it was actually taken in August last year, when it is normal for coastal ice to naturally break up and melt.

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Androids Will Challenge The iPad

Image: Tap and go: This prototype device runs on the Android operating system and features a customizable home screen. The interface was created by Boston-based company Tap 'n Tap.
Credit: Tap 'n Tap

From Technology Review:

Tablets powered by Google's mobile operating system are set to debut.

Apple's iPad is certain to grab headlines when it hits stores next month. But a number of touch-screen tablets powered by Google's Android operating system will also debut this year. Competing with Apple's latest consumer gadget won't be easy, but analysts say the software behind these devices could give them a few key advantages.

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