Roughly two days for Switzerland to have been safe from naked singularities (both point and ring), should Einstein be right. (From somewhen Nov. 3 2009 when the avian deployed a baguette to de-energize the cooling for sectors 7-8 and 8-1, to somewhen in the evening Nov. 5 2009 ( Read more... )

From ComputerWorld:As the conference was kicking off a few days ago, attendees noticed that at ATM placed in the Riviera Hotel, which plays host to the annual event, didn't quite look right, according to a senior conference organizer who identified himself only as Priest. "They looked at the screen where there would normally be a camera," he said ( Read more... )

University of Bonn makes progress on transforming atoms into the Flash:In less politically correct times, physics professors explained the random walk as follows. Suppose a drunk stands under a lamppost, staggering to the right or left with equal probability. After some number of steps, N, he is likely to have taken a few more steps to the left ( Read more... )

Failure exposes the first five digits of the Social Security number. From NetworkWorld:The study comes from Carnegie Mellon University's Alessandro Acquisti, an assistant professor of information technology and public policy, and Ralph Gross, a postdoctoral researcher ( Read more... )

(Note: tracking this as background study for my science fantasy.)

There are no good solutions by the point that the military gets involved in deciding which branch of government is legal. (This could happen in the U.S. The conditions for invoking martial law as denotated in the Insurrection Act of 1807, border on a logic paradox when the threat ( Read more... )

It's Independence Day in the U.S. May all readers enjoy it regardless of whether it is a holiday locally.

(Much as that may be difficult in some parts of the world, e.g. portions of Honduras where procedures strictly analogous to the U.S. Insurrection Act of 1807 have gone off.)

Because you never know who else has leased a server in the same building:According to the owner of one co-location facility, Crydon Technology, which was raided on March 12, FBI agents seized about 220 servers belonging to him and his customers, as well as routers, switches, cabinets for storing servers and even power strips. Authorities also ( Read more... )

Latest poll results from Quinnipiac:
Asked which public official is most to blame for the AIG bonuses:

• 28 percent blame former President George W. Bush;
• 27 percent blame Dodd;
• 20 percent blame Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner;
• 7 percent blame President Barack Obama.

Of these four, Dodd is both obviously involved in creating insufficiently punitive ( Read more... )

How artistic of the crackers:The Far Polo L1 satellite, placed in geostationary orbit to broadcast TV programs to a global audience, appears to have been infected by a virus known as W32/Shatner. Under the control of sci-fi obsessed hackers, the Shatner virus is embedding subliminal images related to Star Trek into popular television programs such ( Read more... )

But it is happening:There are 18 listings in Flint, Mich., for under $3,000, according to Realtor.com. There are 22 in Indianapolis, 46 in Cleveland and a whopping 709 in Detroit. All of these communities have been hit hard by foreclosures, and most of these homes are being sold by the lenders that repossessed them ( Read more... )