Watching the Watchers

Not Easy to Make 2009 H1N1 Influenza Virus a Killer

Vincent Racaniello — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:41:00 -0500

The second RNA segment of some influenza virus strains encodes a protein called PB1-F2 that might contribute to virulence. Speaking about the 2009 pandemic H1N1 strain, Peter Palese noted that "If this virulence marker is necessary for an influenza virus to become highly pathogenic in humans or in chickens, then the current swine virus doesn't have what it takes to become a major killer."

Persons, Dolphins and Margaret Somerville

Fil Salustri — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:31:32 -0500

Margaret Somerville, a bioethicist at McGill University, is still pushing her Christian-based views as if they were science. Recently, she's taken on the emerging controversy about the rights that dolphins may deserve.

The Nine-Year-Old Air Traffic Controllers

philg — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:29:42 -0500

The nine-year-old children who came into work with their father at the JFK Tower seem to have captured the public imagination. I've been asked my opinion on this subject at least 25 times. A lot of why people are excited seems to stem from a misunderstanding of how the air traffic control (ATC) system works.

Airport Security, Liquids and Legacy Airlines

philg — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:28:45 -0500

I flew from Boston to San Antonio, Texas yesterday on American Airlines. I dutifully segregated my liquids (sunscreen and toothpaste) into a quart-sized Ziploc bag and put it in the front pocket of my carry-on. Then I forgot to take it out when going through the Logan Airport security line at 5:00 am. The 25 TSA employees present at the checkpoint failed to notice this infraction (liquids remaining in bag). It occurred to me that this has happened many times before.

Granny D: Money is Stealing Our Democracy

Granny D — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:49:10 -0500

Doris Haddock, a New Hampshire political activist known as "Granny D," died Tuesday at age 100. A decade ago she walked 3,200 miles across the country in 14 months to draw attention to campaign finance reform. Here's what she had to say last month about the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

Is Recession Dropping Casino Revenues in Nevada?

Jzee — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:02:42 -0500

Just as I discussed the decreasing revenue of Atlantic City Casinos in our previous blog posts, today I came up with more news about casinos losing their revenue share. Why are casinos from a few states showing declines in their revenues?

The Diet Pill Decision

R.M. Yates — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:01:39 -0500

Starting a diet can be difficult. First is finding the motivation to take that first step toward eating healthy. Barring a good friend or spouse who is dieting with you and helping you find that inner strength, most of us are on our own when it comes to jumping that hurdle. But there are lots of weight loss drugs out there that claim to help you control those annoying hunger feelings.

Filling in the Blanks

Rich — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:01:37 -0500

The March issue of Wired magazine has an interesting article about a relatively new method of generating high-quality images from relatively low-quality samples. The technique, known as compressed sensing or compressed sampling, is in some sense an inversion of the more familiar process of data compression.

The Market for Explainables

Doc Searls — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:47:42 -0500

I wonder if we're barking up the wrong tree (or down the wrong hole) when we obsess about "curation" of news â€” a favorite topic of mainstream media preservationists. Maybe what we need is to see explainers as advocates of our curiosity about the deep questions, or deep facts, such that they might become unavoidable in news coverage.

Building the Information Squeezeway

Doc Searls — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:46:15 -0500

Five, ten years from now, all the rest of the independent ISPs and WISPs will be gone. So will backbone players other than carriers and Google. We'll be gaga about our ability to watch pay-per-view on our fourth-generation iPads with 3-d glasses. And we won't miss the countless new and improved businesses that never happened because they were essentially outlawed by regulators and their captors.

Making 'Never Again' a Reality

rhetoric — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:39:25 -0500

When the next Darfur, Rwanda, or Bosnia takes place, the fate of civilians won't depend on armies in green or warlords seeing red. It will rest with the men in grey suits who gather on 1st Avenue in New York. In the backrooms of the United Nations, diplomats from the great powers will gather, wring their hands, and ask themselves: what should the international community do when a state massacres its own citizens?

Iâ€™m New Here: New Album from Gil Scott-Heron

zerode — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:35:17 -0500

At 60 years old, Gil Scott-Heron has a new album out, his first in 16 years. I'm New Here was released by independent label XL Recordings in early February. Work began on the album in 2007 after Scott-Heron's release from prison on drug charges.

The Root of the Problem

Rich — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:33:17 -0500

Professor Steven Strogatz of Cornell has published another installment in his mathematics series in the Opinionator blog at the New York Times. In this post, he talks about solving for X, as he promised last time; this is just another way of referring to the process of finding the roots of an algebraic equation.

Gawain and the Green Knight

Ed — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:28:21 -0500

The Green Knight is a character in a story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. The Green Knight rides into their hall, in Jessie Weston's translation. Although it draws on rich tradition, the story itself was composed by a single writer, a contemporary of Chaucer's who is generally known as the "the Gawain Poet" or the "Pearl Poet."

Another Internet Explorer Flaw

Rich — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:23:35 -0500

In addition to the patches it released earlier today, Microsoft has confirmed that it is investigating another security vulnerability in its Internet Explorer Web browser. The flaw is potentially a serious one, since under certain conditions it could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code remotely.

Thereâ€™s a Patch for That

Rich — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:22:40 -0500

Regular readers and Windows users will be all too familiar with the monthly process of installing the latest security updates for Windows and Office from Microsoft. But what about all the other programs that you may have on your computer?

Obama OK with DNA Sampling Upon Arrest?

wok3 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:21:14 -0500

When someone is arrested, the theory is that they are innocent until proven guilty. Some say that giving a DNA sample is no different from having your fingerprints taken, also a common occurence after an arrest. Another factor is that innocent people have already been released due to this DNA sample being retrieved upon an arrest, as the legal system finds out that it has the wrong person locked away.

Delaware Prominent State for Blackjack

Jzee — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:56:29 -0500

Friends you may soon find it very easy to play blackjack and other table games in Delaware, the state which has been the recent on the list to green light table games. Few days back Delaware State Senate had approved and passed a bill called the Table Game Bill which would allow people to play table games at Casinos across the state.

Granny D Has Died

btchakir — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:55:39 -0500

I am sad to note that "Granny D" (Doris Haddock), the 100-year-old activist from Dublin, NY has died. Haddock's efforts to change the system were profiled in the 2007 documentary film "Run Granny Run." Some of Haddock's thoughts and speeches were uploaded to the film's web site, where they remain today.

Futures of the Internet

Doc Searls — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:54:53 -0500

Earlier this year the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and Elon University conducted research toward The Future of the Internet IV, the latest in their survey series, which began with Future of the Internet I â€“ 2004. This latest report includes guided input from subjects such as myself (a "thoughtful analyst," they kindly said) on subjects pertaining to the Net's future.

Google Maps Adds Bike Routes

Rich — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:53:19 -0500

In an announcement today on the official Google Blog, the company announced that it was now offering information on bicycling routes, and directions for cyclists, on its popular Google Maps service.

Trivalent Influenza Vaccine for the 2010-2011 Season

Vincent Racaniello — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:52:14 -0500

The World Health Organization and the US Food & Drug Administration have decided on the composition of the influenza virus vaccine that will be used during the 2010-2011 season in the northern hemisphere.

Protection Against 2009 Influenza H1N1

Vincent Racaniello — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:15:54 -0500

Influenza A viruses typically cause severe respiratory disease mainly in the very young or the elderly. The 2009 swine-origin H1N1 virus is unusual because it preferentially infects individuals under 35 years of age. We've previously noted that being older is a good defense against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, in part because older people have antibodies that block infection.

The Foster Child and the Hamster

cb — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:07:20 -0500

Our foster child has now been with us for five months. She arrived late on a Thursday night. That evening as we made something light for her to eat, she told me about her hamster. She was worried about her hamster because she had only had her for a few days and she was at home alone. Noone to feed him or look after him.

Horrifying Femme Fatale -- Clear Rivers

nmraymond — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:03:11 -0500

One of the remaining survivors of Flight 180, death itself stalks her. Clear Rivers is not forced off the plane during Alex's panic; she voluntarily steps off the plane during the heated confrontation between classmates and airline personnel. Cheating death once, Clear along with the other survivors discover death's design and its plan to kill anyone who was meant to die on the plane.

MS Patch Causes Blue Screen of Death

Rich — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:01:18 -0500

Brian Krebs, in his â€œKrebs on Securityâ€ blog, is reporting that one of the patches from this month's Microsoft â€œPatch Tuesdayâ€ is causing some Windows computers to crash with the infamous â€œBlue Screen of Deathâ€.

Haiti and How You Can Help

sensico — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:23:05 -0500

As many of you know an earthquake hit Haiti and has caused a collapse of buildings leaving everything in rubble. This already poor country does not have the money or infrastructure to support itself. Though the U.S. and other countries have vowed to help and send aid to the people of Haiti, it's still important to donate even a little money to help those in need. MSNBC has provided a list and information on how you can donate and help.

Google Hacked Via IE Exploit

Rich — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:19:59 -0500

There has been considerable coverage in the press over the last few days of Google's claim that its network had been attacked from China, possibly with the connivance or active support of the Chinese government, and Google's threat to withdraw from that market. It has also been reported that several other large technology companies, notably Adobe, were also attacked. Google said that the attackers apparently made of with some of its software, in addition to attempting to access the E-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

What Iâ€™m Looking Forward to in 2010

Simon Mackie — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:23:48 -0500

I still can't really believe that the â€œnoughtiesâ€ have nearly gone; it'll be 2010 in less than a month. I've been thinking about 2010 (what an impossibly futuristic date that sounds!) and what it might hold in store for me as a web worker.

Medical Test Data on Wolfram|Alpha

Bertalan MeskÃƒÂ³ — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:17:02 -0500

Scienceroll.com readers know well I'm an admirer of WolframAlpha: I use WolframAlpha because sometimes (if I know exactly what I want to find) it saves me plenty of time and clicks. If I want to calculate BMI, Google lists me several calculators. WolframAlpha calculates it itself.

Influenza Virus Growth in Eggs

Vincent Racaniello — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:10:18 -0500

Before the development of cell culture, many viruses were propagated in embryonated chicken eggs. Today this method is most commonly used for growth of influenza virus. The excellent yield of virus from chicken eggs has led to their widespread use in research laboratories and for vaccine production. In fact the vast majority of influenza vaccines -- both inactivated and infectious -- are produced in chicken eggs. How is influenza virus propagated in eggs?

The Fair Use Hammer

Derek Bambauer — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:09:23 -0500

The Joel Tenenbaum â€“ RIAA case has produced a terrific opinion by Judge Nancy Gertner of the District of Massachusetts. This is the most thoughtful, balanced, and insightful copyright opinion I've read in years.

Hyper Hygiene Increases Allergies, Auto-Immune Conditions

Rich — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:01:56 -0500

One of the slightly odd things that emerges when one looks at the history of health problems in the developed world is that, although the incidence and severity of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, has steadily declined, the incidence of allergic and auto-immune conditions, such as eczema and asthma, has increased. In some cases the increase is quite significant.

EmploymentCrossing Helps Job Seekers

R.M. Yates — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:01:55 -0500

The Internet can be a powerful tool when it comes to finding a job. But figuring out which of the dozens of web sites on the vast World Wide Web could best help you land that job is difficult. EmploymentCrossing is a site that provides expertise on everything every other job site has to offer.

EmploymentCrossing finds the jobs posted on every other site and shows them in one spot. No more hopping from site to site to find out what's available. If they've got it, you'll find it at EmploymentCrossing. The site also checks the employment listings on every company web site they can find and displays those jobs too.

While other job-seeking sites are free to job hunters, EmploymentCrossing charges $49.95 for 30 days of access but it does offer a free trial period. This is because the other sites charge the companies by the listing or a fee if the company finds the right employee through their site. The companies have no fee to worry about from EmploymentCrossing.

EmploymentCrossing reviews detail how the site can work from those who found their new job using the site. It's a site for those who are serious about finding the right employment.

How I Found Design

Fil Salustri — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:58:08 -0500

A student of mine, apparently taken by my enthusiasm for design, once asked me how I had come to the field. This gave me pause, because as I tried to formulate an answer, I found myself pushing further and further into my memory. Finally, I told the student, "It's a long story," because I realized it all started when I played in my parents' gravel driveway as a child. I think the story is interesting, not because I love talking about myself, but because of how natural a progression it was.

Priority = Impact + Effort

Fil Salustri — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:57:05 -0500

There's many time management systems and software tools that include the concept of priorities. But priorities change with time and circumstance. Priorities can be useful, but not if you're constantly re-evaluating them to keep them accurate. I think we can get around this conundrum with a combination of due dates and measuring one or both of two other characteristics: impact and effort.

Email, Social Media at Work, and the Next Big Thing

Fil Salustri — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:55:07 -0500

Recently, on CBC Spark, host Nora Young interviewed Luis Suarez about quitting email at work. You can also see Suarez's Web 2.0 Expo talk at Youtube. It got me thinking about the role of software in our lives -- especially in our work lives, and that regardless of how many new applications and systems are popping up, we're still missing the Next Big Thing -- maybe.

In Defense of Euthanasia

Fil Salustri — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:53:21 -0500

My father died in 2008, of colon cancer. He went into hospital April 17th and he died June 8th at the age of 91. For those seven weeks â€“ most of which he spent in the palliative ward -- he showed remarkable grace and dignity, in spite of what was happening to him and around him. There was relatively little physical pain, thanks to the drugs they administered. At first, the doctors held out some hope that they could do something to help him. There was a battery of extensive and conclusive tests conducted immediately upon his admission to hospital. By April 19th, they knew his condition was terminal, because the cancer had spread aggressively to his liver. And that's when my dad started asking, calmly and seriously, for a morphine overdose.

Juries and Fair Use

Derek Bambauer — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:35:34 -0500

As copyright folks know, fair use is messy, case-specific, and fact-intensive; it's a muddy standard and not a crystal rule. Thus, it's generally something that ought to be handled by juries, upon which we depend for resolution of tough fact issues. However, I don't think that Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum was correct in arguing that his fair use claim should go before a jury.

14 Days to Seal Historyâ€™s Judgment on This Generation

transitionwestmarin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:42:06 -0500

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last yearâ€™s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage.

AIDS Drug AZT Inhibits XMRV

Vincent Racaniello — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:14:42 -0500

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus (XMRV) has been implicated in prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Because XMRV is a retrovirus, it has been suggested that it might be susceptible to some of the many drugs available for treatment of AIDS. Of ten licensed compounds evaluated for activity against XMRV, just one, AZT (azidothymidine), was found to inhibit viral replication.

If Carbon Cuts Were Wagesâ€¦

Dave Bath — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:36:27 -0500

Imagine if the rules for carbon emissions constraint by different countries were applied to wages and taxation within the community: Those who are poorest would be hardest hit, needing to return to wages of a few years agoâ€¦ and as most would be young "developing" workers, that might be before they were working, or working for a pittance as a trainee. Meanwhile, the wealthiest might well be getting more money, based on their income from boom times when they were ripping everyone else off through commissions on dodgy derivatives. There'd be a bloody revolution.

Terrorist Trials in N.Y.C.

wok3 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:32:36 -0500

Many conservatives seem to think that the suspects we have in custody do not deserve a trial, as they are seen as Prisoners of War. POW's do not have a right to trial, and are normally interned for the duration of the particular conflict. And that might pose a problem here, as technically the war on terror will never actually be over, and these prisoners were never soldiers of a particular country. Not to mention the fact that we have already arrested, tortured, and even managed to kill some of those we believed to be our enemies, and the only problem here of course is that we managed to arrest innocent people, and even kill some of them while in custody. So, indefinite detention seems a rather imperfect solution to the problem.

Iâ€™m the Poster Child for Public Healthcare

Lara — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:03:30 -0500

I am a poster child for public health. Why do I say this? Because I live in a state where there is a low-income, public healthcare option. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was able to utilize this option for my treatment. It worked, and it worked extremely well.

Broadband on Wheels

R.M. Yates — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:05:28 -0500

Wireless broadband has become a common, useful tool for many people. Toyota has recognized this by introducing a 2010 Prius outfitted with wireless built-in broadband connection. It's like having a smart phone on wheels.

Opening the Vote

Rich — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:35:03 -0400

Maybe there's something in the air. After the recent news that Microsoft is going to publish the documentation of the PST file format used by Outlook, there is now an article in Wired reporting that Sequoia Voting Systems will publish the source code for their new optical-scan voting system. This is, in its own way, as noteworthy as the announcements of Microsoft's new openness; Sequoia historically has fought tooth and nail to keep its source code and other details of its systems secret.

Russian Ministry Wants ISPs to Filter Internet

Bruce Etling — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:09:22 -0400

Evegeny Morozov over at Foreign Policy recently shared this story from the Russian site InfoX.ru, which reports that Russia is considering technical filtering options. ONI research has not found technical filtering in Russia to date, so if this plan goes through it could be one of the first known instances of technical filtering in Russia.

Defining Network Neutrality

Derek Bambauer — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:04:09 -0400

The net neutrality fight is on, as FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposal for new rules moved on to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Now, the two sides are digging in: AT&T, telcos, and unions on one side; Google and content providers on the other. I tend to favor protecting end-to-end in the Internet context, but I'm a bit worried about what the net neutrality rules will look like in practice.

Remote Safety

Rich — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:02:58 -0400

Almost since the first time-sharing computer was accessed with a dumb terminal, a phone line, and a modem, maintaining the security of remote access has been the concern of system administrators. We use passwords, of course, but these suffer from a number of potential problems, as I've discussed before. Two-factor authentication schemes have been used in an attempt to bolster security, but they can be attacked, too.

The Trojan Horse, 2.0

Rich — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:58:45 -0400

I'm sure most readers are familiar with the story of the Trojan Horse, told most notably in Virgil's Latin epic, The Aeneid, in which the Greeks used a clever trick â€” a giant horse with soldiers hidden inside â€” to overcome the city of Troy. In the computing world of today, a Trojan Horse is a malicious program disguised as a program that does something useful.