Topic: Drone - on April 7, 2012 at 7:37:00 PM CEST
Navy's Robot Helicopters Will Automatically Spot Pirates
Helicopter drones that have already helped catch cocaine smugglers at sea could soon get much smarter about hunting modern-day pirates. The U.S. Navy plans to upgrade its robotic Fire Scouts with electronic "brains" that are able to automatically recognize small pirate boats spotted through 3D laser imaging.
The Fire Scout drones would bounce millions of laser pulses off distant objects to create a 3D "radar" image of any boats on the high seas — a technology known as LIDAR or LADAR — so that their new software could automatically compare the 3D images to pirate boat profiles on record. A first test is scheduled to take place with seven small boats off the California coast this summer.
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Topic: STRANGE - on April 7, 2012 at 7:31:00 PM CEST
"Die Roma kommen": Schweizer "Weltwoche" empört mit Roma-Artikel
Die Angehörigen der Volksgruppe werden darin fast durchwegs "Zigeuner" genannt - politische Korrektheit vortäuschend, unter Anführungszeichen
Zürich/Wien - Am Titelblatt steht ein kleiner Bub, der mit der Waffe auf den Betrachter zielt. Darunter die Schlagzeile: "Die Roma kommen: Raubzüge in die Schweiz". Im Blattinneren ändert sich die Tonart nicht: "Sie kommen, klauen und gehen", lautet die Titelgeschichte der neuen Ausgabe des Nachrichtenmagazins "Die Weltwoche" über steigende Kriminalität von Roma.
"Ein Spiel mit dem Feuer"
Die Angehörigen der Volksgruppe werden darin fast durchwegs "Zigeuner" genannt - politische Korrektheit vortäuschend, unter Anführungszeichen. Im Fahrwasser der Unterschriftenaktion gegen Zuwanderung provoziert das Magazin im Sinne der rechten SVP. "Das ist einfach widerwärtig", urteilt der Schweizer Journalist Dante Andrea Franzetti: "Ein Spiel mit dem Feuer. Damit werden Themen salonfähig gemacht, die man nicht debattieren sollte."
derstandard.at Wiener Journalist zeigt Schweizer "Weltwoche" wegen Verhetzung an Roger Köppel - ein "krimineller Ausländer" balkanblog.org
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Topic: Space - on April 7, 2012 at 7:29:00 PM CEST
Astronauts Snap 1 Million Photos from Space Station
Astronauts on the International Space Station have the ultimate 24/7 view of planet Earth, and the photo album to prove it: The shutterbug astronauts recently snapped the millionth photo from the orbiting lab.
The millionth photo from the space station is, not surprisingly, a view of Earth from one of the outpost's windows as the orbiting lab sailed 240 miles (386 kilometers) above the southeastern Tasman Sea. Two Russian spacecraft are also visible, along with a green band of aurora light and the Earth in the background.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on April 7, 2012 at 5:07:00 PM CEST
Eggs unlimited: an extraordinary tale of scientific discovery
Two biologists, split by rivalry and disagreement, suddenly realised that they were on the same side. The result was a revolutionary breakthrough.
A dogma has haunted the study and treatment of female infertility for more than half a century. It states that a baby girl is born with an ever-diminishing number of egg cells which cannot be renewed or replenished during her life, and that when she runs out of these eggs an irreversible menopause begins.
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Topic: MUSIK - on April 7, 2012 at 4:51:00 PM CEST
Damon Albarn: Gorillaz, heroin and the last days of Blur
Do Blur have a future? Are Gorillaz gone for good? Is his feud with Noel Gallagher really over? The heroin issue… Damon Albarn answers some tricky questions
You get a good view from the top floor of Damon Albarn's west London studio: the uneven sprawl extending out towards Kensal Green and Wormwood Scrubs. The first thing you notice, though, is the huge elevated road celebrated by Albarn's band Blur, whose single For Tomorrow crystallised the queasy alienation of London living as a matter of being "lost on the Westway".
Soon enough, Albarn tells me, what we can see is set to be transformed by a 34-storey student hall of residence. He is not best pleased, and having registered a planning objection, his pain has been poured into a new song he plays me just before I go home, full of references to "men in yellow hats" and a world "where the money always comes first".
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Topic: COPYRIGHT - on April 7, 2012 at 4:09:00 PM CEST
Where TPP Goes Beyond ACTA -- And How It Shows Us The Future Of IP Enforcement
ACTA and TPP have much in common. That's no coincidence, since they are both born of a common desire to move away from multilateral forums like WIPO that are relatively open to scrutiny, to invitation-only groups negotiating behind closed doors. That lack of transparency has allowed all kinds of extreme measures to be proposed without any countervailing arguments being heard about why they are neither fair nor sensible.
On "Technological Protection Measures" TPP has two nasty turns of the infringement screw:
TPP goes beyond ACTA by applying provisions on technological protection where circumvention is carried out unknowingly or without reasonable grounds to know.
and
TPP goes beyond ACTA by explicitly limiting the possible limitations and exclusions to the TPM circumvention rules, while ACTA gives a country free reign to create exceptions and limitations it finds reasonable.
The second of those is particularly troublesome, since it reduces the scope for signatories to introduce more balanced copyright laws even if they wanted to. </p>
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Topic: POLICE REPORT - on April 7, 2012 at 2:16:00 PM CEST
Fotografierverbot von Polizisten rechtswidrig - aber...
Das Fotografieren von Polizeikräften im Dienst ist ein Thema, das in der Praxis gerne auf unterschiedliche Rechtsaufassungen von Fotografen und Polizeibeamten stößt, in Fotografieforen immer mal wieder heiß diskutiert wird und auch in der Theorie nicht ganz uninteressant ist. Das Bundesverwaltungsgericht hat nun letztinstanzlich ein Fotografierverbot von sich im Dienst befindlichen Polizisten als rechtswidrig aufgehoben. Das Urteil ist über den konkreten Fall hinaus interessant, da das Gericht ganz grundsätzliche Sachverhalte festgelegt hat. Auch wenn die Schlagzeilen es suggerieren mögen: Einen Freibrief für das beliebige Fotografieren und Veröffentlichen von Polizeibeamten gibt es weiterhin nicht.
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Topic: POLICE REPORT - on April 7, 2012 at 2:14:00 PM CEST
"Die 'stille SMS' ist nicht durch die Strafprozessordnung gedeckt"
Im Interview mit Telepolis erklärt der Experte für Strafrecht und Strafverfahrensrecht Tobias Singelnstein, warum die heimlichen Ortungsmaßnahmen quer zur bundesdeutschen Rechtsetzung liegen
Seit letztem Herbst wird offenkundig, wie extensiv Bundesbehörden ebenso wie Landeskriminalämter Mobiltelefone mit sogenannten "stillen SMS" als Ortungswanze nutzen.
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Topic: Drone - on April 7, 2012 at 2:12:00 PM CEST
US draws up plans for nuclear drones
Technology is designed to increase flying time 'from days to months', along with power available for weapons systems
American scientists have drawn up plans for a new generation of nuclear-powered drones capable of flying over remote regions of the world for months on end without refuelling.
The blueprints for the new drones, which have been developed by Sandia National Laboratories – the US government's principal nuclear research and development agency – and defence contractor Northrop Grumman, were designed to increase flying time "from days to months" while making more power available for operating equipment, according to a project summary published by Sandia.
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