Topic: nuclear power - on December 1, 2013 at 1:48:00 PM CET
For Nearly Two Decades the Nuclear Launch Code at all Minuteman Silos in the United States Was 00000000
Today I found out that during the height of the Cold War, the US military put such an emphasis on a rapid response to an attack on American soil, that to minimize any foreseeable delay in launching a nuclear missile, for nearly two decades they intentionally set the launch codes at every silo in the US to 8 zeroes.
We guess the first thing we need to address is how this even came to be in the first place. Well, in 1962 JFK signed the National Security Action Memorandum 160, which was supposed to ensure that every nuclear weapon the US had be fitted with a Permissive Action Link (PAL), basically a small device that ensured that the missile could only be launched with the right code and with the right authority.
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Topic: SECURITY - on November 30, 2013 at 3:28:00 PM CET
Snowden Document Says Dutch Secret Service Hacks Internet Forums
In the ever-longer wake of the NSA scandal, much-respected Dutch newspaper NRC today reveals, in English, as mandated by the gravity of the occasion, that the Dutch secret service, the AIVD, hacks internet forums. And yes, that is gross misconduct against Dutch law. The service, whose headquarters are in Zoetermeer, did not yet comment upon the divulgence of the document from Edward Snowden's collection. Incensed Dutch parliamentarians are calling for an enquiry.
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Topic: SECURITY - on November 30, 2013 at 2:24:00 PM CET
NSA Spying Risks $35 Billion in U.S. Technology Sales
International anger over the National Security Agency’s Internet surveillance is hurting global sales by American technology companies and setting back U.S. efforts to promote Internet freedom.
Disclosures of spying abroad may cost U.S. companies as much as $35 billion in lost revenue through 2016 because of doubts about the security of information on their systems, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a policy research group in Washington whose board includes representatives of companies such as International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Intel Corp. (INTC)
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Topic: BOARD NEWS - on November 29, 2013 at 10:27:00 PM CET
Urzeit-Klo: Die älteste Toilette der Welt
Acht Haufen mit bis zu 90 Klumpen: In Südamerika haben Paläontologen die versteinerten Hinterlassenschaften von Urzeittieren ausgegraben. Die öffentliche Toilette diente offenbar der Kommunikation, meinen Forscher.
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 29, 2013 at 4:47:00 PM CET
Legalized pot could threaten the alcohol industry
As the legalization of recreational marijuana gains momentum across the United States with public support at an all-time high, many advocates eagerly await to see what effect legalization will have on big alcohol. Will it be forced to fight for market share? Or is alcohol so heavily ingrained in our society that pot legalization will barely create a ripple with booze consumption remaining unaffected?
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Topic: Phone - on November 29, 2013 at 4:46:00 PM CET
Build your own cellphone for $200
David Mellis, one of the minds behind the Arduino platform, has released the blueprints to a cellphone that, with time and patience, anyone can build. Mellis used the readily available Arduino GSM Shield, which lets Arduino-based machines access the web over cellular networks, as the basis for his project, but greatly expanded upon the component's hardware and software, adding support for a display, buttons, speaker, microphone, and a full interface. The result is a basic cellphone that can make and receive calls, text messages, store names and numbers, and display the time.
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Topic: Space - on November 29, 2013 at 2:46:00 PM CET
Second Planetary System Like Ours Discovered
A team of European astronomers has discovered a second planetary system, the closest parallel to our own solar system yet found. It includes seven exoplanets orbiting a star with the small rocky planets close to their host star and the gas giant planets further away. The system was hidden within the wealth of data from the Kepler Space Telescope.
KOI-351 is “the first system with a significant number of planets (not just two or three, where random fluctuations can play a role) that shows a clear hierarchy like the solar system — with small, probably rocky, planets in the interior and gas giants in the (exterior),” Dr. Juan Cabrera, of the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center, told Universe Today.
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Topic: Space - on November 29, 2013 at 2:44:00 PM CET
Verschwundener Komet: "Ison" ist wieder da
Astronomen hatten ihn schon aufgegeben - doch offenbar überstand Komet "Ison" die Annäherung an die Sonne. Die extreme Hitze hat den Schweifstern anscheinend stark demoliert.
Hamburg - Das Schicksal des Adventskometen "Ison" beschäftigt weiter die Astronomen. Womöglich könnten doch Teile des Kometen dessen Vorbeiflug an der Sonne überstanden haben, wie aktuelle Aufnahmen von Sonnensonden am Freitag nahelegen. "Ein Bruchteil des Kometen hat offenbar überlebt und ist auf der anderen Seite der Sonne wieder hervorgekommen", sagte die Bochumer Astronomin Susanne Hüttemeister.
spiegel.de nightskyinfo.com Satellitenaufnahmen: "Isons" Höllenritt in die Sonnenglut ISON's Nucleus Survives Journey Through Sun's Corona (NASA VIDEO)
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Topic: COMPUTER - on November 29, 2013 at 2:42:00 PM CET
Linux.Darlloz worm attacks embedded systems
A Symantec researcher has discovered a worm that runs on embedded Linux systems, like those found in set-top boxes and routers. It's common for owners of these devices to forget about them, letting them run in the background for so long as they don't misbehave -- and as a result, they are often out of date. The worm, called Linux.Darlloz, attacks out-of-date Linux installations running on Intel hardware (a small minority in the embedded systems world), but it would not be hard to modify it to attack embedded linuces on other chips.
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 29, 2013 at 12:43:00 PM CET
Berlin plant Deutschlands erstes Marihuana-Café
Mit großer Mehrheit hat sich das Bezirksparlament Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg für die Eröffnung eines Coffeeshops ausgesprochen. Die Politik will damit die Drogenproblematik im Görlitzer Park in den Griff bekommen.
In Berlin-Kreuzberg könnte bald ein Tabu gebrochen werden: Das Bezirksparlament Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg hat mit großer Mehrheit den parlamentarischen Antrag für einen Coffeeshop im Görlitzer Park verabschiedet, wie die Grünen-Fraktion mitteilte. Das Cannabis-Modellprojekt soll dort die negativen Folgen des Schwarzmarktes eindämmen.
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 29, 2013 at 12:41:00 PM CET
Winners of the 26th Annual Amsterdam Cannabis Cup
The house was packed this evening as the winners of the 26th Annual Amsterdam Cannabis Cup were announced.
Congratulations to all the winners!
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 28, 2013 at 2:56:00 PM CET
Recherchereise zum besten Hasch der Welt
Bis in die 1920er-Jahre, als Nordmarokko von Spanien besetzt wurde, war Chefchaouen im Grunde eine von der Außenwelt abgeschottete Stadt. Als die ersten Truppen in die Stadt eindrangen, trafen sie auf Juden, die eine mittelalterliche Sprachstufe des Kastilischen sprachen, das man auf der Iberischen Halbinsel seit 400 Jahren nicht mehr gehört hatte. Außerdem begegneten sie einer Bevölkerung, die das Christentum vehementer ablehnte als alle militanten Reddit-Atheisten zusammen.
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