Naval Sonar Exercises Linked to Whale Strandings

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Whales are affected by Naval Sonar Exercises.

Scientists have long been aware of a link between naval sonar exercises and unusual mass strandings of beaked whales. Evidence of such a link triggered a series of lawsuits in which environmental groups sued the U.S. Navy to limit sonar exercises to reduce risk to whales. In 2008, this conflict rose to the level of the US Supreme Court which had to balance potential threat to whales from sonar against the military risk posed by naval forces inadequately trained to use sonar to detect enemy submarines. The court ruled that the Navy could continue training, but that it was essential for the Navy to develop better methods to protect the whales.

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Youngest Y Combinator Founders Launch MinoMonsters, The Pokemon Of Social Games

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At age 15, most normal people are going to high school, learning to drive, not listening to their parents, and doing things that they’ll later tell their kids not to do. Josh Buckley is not a normal teenager. At 15, he was selling his first company for just over six figures.

Today, the 18-year-old entrepreneur and angel investor has partnered with 17-year-old engineer Tyler Diaz to co-found MinoMonsters, a social game in which players collect and battle pet monsters.

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Large Hadron Collider Could Be World’s First Time Machine

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The latest concept at what could product time travel.

If the latest theory of Tom Weiler and Chui Man Ho is right, the Large Hadron Collider — the world’s largest atom smasher that started regular operation last year — could be the first machine capable of causing matter to travel backwards in time.

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40th Anniversary Of The Computer Virus

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A dreaded word to any computer user.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Creeper, the world’s first computer virus. From Creeper to Stuxnet, the last four decades saw the number of malware instances boom from 1,300 in 1990, to 50,000 in 2000, to over 200 million in 2010.

Besides sheer quantity, viruses, which were originally used as academic proof of concepts, quickly turned into geek pranks, then evolved into cybercriminal tools. By 2005, the virus scene had been monetized, and virtually all viruses were developed with the sole purpose of making money via more or less complex business models…

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U.S. Military Developing False Online Personalities to Counter “Enemy Propaganda”

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The US Central Command (Centcom) has purchased software that creates false online personalities for what it calls “information operations.”

Using the software, one member of the U.S. Military can control up to ten different fake accounts that appear to belong to civilians living in other countries. The government purchased the software from California-based Ntrepid for $2.76 million.

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Sanity Comes to Sexting Laws in New Jersey

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Where is the middle ground for sexting laws?

Salon’s Tracy Clark-Flory writes about a new bill in New Jersey that would prevent minors who engage in “sexting” (taking naked pictures of themselves and sharing them with boy- and girlfriends) from being prosecuted as child pornographers. As Clark-Flory explains, you don’t have to be in favor of kids sharing naked pictures of themselves to understand that child porn laws shouldn’t be used against them…

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Is Twitter Dividing the Happy From the Unhappy?

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Anyone who thought that social media was going to usher in a utopian era of communication without borders is going to have their faith badly shaken by a new study from Cornell University. On Twitter, it seems, there are already at least two walled-off nations: happy people and unhappy people.

And never the twain shall tweet.

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Get Paid to Teach Anything With New Online Education Platform

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Name: Learnable

Quick Pitch: Learnable allows anyone to create and charge for online courses.

Genius Idea: Many schools have started to take online education seriously. By 2006, 66% of postsecondary learning institutions included in federal financial aid programs were already reporting that they offered some form of Internet learning, and a 2009 report from the U.S. Department of education found that those students who studied in online learning environments performed modelstly better than peers who were receiving face-to-face instruction.

This is very much along the lines of what Futurist Thomas Frey predicted in his 2007 paper on the Future of Education.

It’s great news for people who are looking to work toward a college degree, but there are few affordable parallels for people who just want to pick up a skill. Where does one go for affordable online lessons on homepage design? Javascript programming? Guitar? the Irish Whistle?

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In Lasers We Trust: NASA Researches 5kW Galactic Trash Disposal System

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Dealing with space junk.

Space junk is a growing problem — 200,000 pieces and counting — and as the amount of earth’s orbital debris increases, so does the chance some satellite will be involved in a cosmic collision. As this would cause much gnashing of teeth and woe for the affected terrestrial parties, some researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center have pitched the idea of removing said junk with a laser — once again proving that everything’s better with lasers…

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RIP Zune Player, 2006-2011

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May all your Zunes come true.

Microsoft is not planning on releasing any further Zune devices. Instead, the company plans to focus on Zune software for smartphones.

Microsoft declined to comment on the future of the Zune players, but in a statement to Bloomberg noted that it remains “committed to supporting our devices in North America.”

Zune launched in November 2006 to much fanfare and hopes that it could beat Apple’s iPod. But sales never came close to reaching the levels of Apple’s best-selling and market changing music and media player…

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The Baikonur Cosmodrome – The World’s Oldest Spaceport

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A newly “rolled out” Proton-M, carrying the Inmarsat-4F3 spacecraft.


There are, to be frank, not many spaceports on the planet as of 2011. Of the thirty or so only six of them have sent people in to space. Four of those are located in the US, another in China and the sixth and oldest is to be found in Kazakhstan…

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The Salton Sea: A ‘Dead’ Sea Ready to Rise?

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Half a century ago, the Salton Sea was called the “French Riviera of California” — and that claim really held water as celebrities and many others seeking a spectacular getaway escaped to the “mini-ocean” just past Palm Springs.

But today, the abandoned remains of this former tourist hot spot represent an eerie aftermath: a virtual ghost town where once the rich came to play.
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