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The DNA Connection: Forensic DNA Technology and the Genocide Dynamic

In the past fifteen years, forensic DNA technology has had an incredible impact on a number of areas. It has changed much about criminal justice systems around the world. It has changed our view of statutes of limitations, making formerly, arbitrarily determined time limits now based on what is scientifically possible. It has changed our view of old and unsolved crimes, giving life to cases previously thought unsolvable. It has challenged our belief in the reliability of our judicial system through postconvicton exonerations. It has become the primary source of identifications in mass disasters. It has even spawned an entire genre of television show.

Circuit City Shareholder Launches Proxy Fight; Slams Blockbuster Rejection

Circuit City has another mess to deal with. In addition to fending off Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), it now has a proxy fight on its hand. Wattles Capital Management, a 6.5 percent holder of the company’s shares, has submitted a slate of five candidates to the company’s board. In its statement, the firm derides the company’s operating performance, adding: “we are deeply concerned by the Board’s track record of rejecting what has appeared to be legitimate third-party interest in acquiring the Company for a premium, including the recent offer of Blockbuster Inc. to acquire the Company for between $6.00 and $8.00 per share in cash.� While Circuit City has questioned where the financing will come from, Wattles says this is hogwash, given that Carl Icahn has apparently agreed to finance the deal.

RIAA Drops Case That Hinges On 'Making Available' Issue - Is RIAA giving up on these cases or just trying to avoid precedent-setting loss?

In the lawsuits that RIAA has filed against P2P users in the past, one of the major questions that has come up has been whether or not it’s illegal to simply make copyrighted files available for others to download. The argument of users is that there has to actually be something stolen, some proof that the file was downloaded, or there was no violation but RIAA has said that the violation takes place when the file is made available online. A New York court recently agreed with users on this issue which has caused other cases to go back to the courts for further review. Perhaps RIAA plans to stop fighting this particularly battle considering that they just voluntarily dismissed a case that had been pending for nearly a year in which the major issue was the “making available” point.

Reputation Has Been Tarnished by a Failure to Encrypt Employee's Personal Data

(11.06.08) - AT&T, the world's largest telecommunications carrier, has joined the growing list of companies whose reputation has been tarnished by a failure to encrypt employee's personal data which has subsequently gone missing. "The fact that it's AT&T that has encountered this problem highlights the fact that no-one is immune to being hit by a data breach that could result in identity theft," said Michael Callahan, Chief Marketing Officer for

Andrei Arshavin, the Euro 2008 Russian sensation, has made it clear that he is not bound for England and the Premier League. He has been in the spotlight since he helped guide his Zenit St Petersburg side to UEFA Cup glory against Glasgow Rangers in

He has attracted interest from Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Newcastle Utd but, according to reports, he has decided to snub English football, preferring a move to the sunnier climes of Spain.

Deutsch embraces change - Aylesbury Automation delivers a flexible solution A flexible robotic production cell solution has been delivered to Deutsch UK by robotics and automation specialist Aylesbury Automation. The robot-based machine has been intr

A flexible robotic production cell solution has been delivered to Deutsch UK by robotics and automation specialist Aylesbury Automation. The robot-based machine has been introduced as a result of increasing product demand. It assembles a range of similar, two pin electrical plugs and sockets and produces one complete part every six seconds.

KDE 4.0.5 released

Another maintenance update of the K Desktop Environment has been issued by the KDE organization. The updates to the desktop environment are minor, mainly bugfixes. We assume most of the work is put into KDE 4.1 at this time. What has been upgraded though, is KWin through some graphical fixes, Juk with some keyboard shortcuts, playback and cover art fixes, and Kopete has been updated to remedy a couple of annoying crashes. KHTML has also received some minor updates, but as we said, nothing major has been changed with this update. You can check out the

A Year of GPLv3

javipas writes "GPLv3 and LGPLv3 were released one year ago, on 29 June 2007. Palamida, who tracks Open Source projects, has made a study of the current situation of these licenses along with AGPLv3, which was released later, in November. The number of projects that have made the transition to these licenses has grown over the last months, and it seems than AGPLv3 has captured a great interest lately. Black Duck Software, a company that tracks Open Source projects too, has made its own study with similar results, and although GPLv3 and its variants have a good adoption rate, the interviews published on the Palamida site (Stallman, Chris Di Bona) show that the acceptance of GPLv3 has still a long way to walk."

Open-Source ATI Driver Achieves Major R500 3D Success

"While the RadeonHD developers have been busy working on Radeon HD 3200 / 780 Series support and other features for this open-source ATI R500/600+ driver, the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) support has been lagging behind. Earlier this month Matthias Hopf was successful in getting DRM working on an RS690 GPU and he has published RadeonHD DRM code into his personal development tree, but no code has yet to reach master. Meanwhile, as the xf86-video-ati driver is using AtomBIOS, they are able to spend more time working on the 3D features and other areas and less time 'banging on registers' or even waiting on register documentation to arrive. David Airlie has been working on the R500 3D support along with Alex Deucher and Corbin Simpson. The trio has been making some great headway towards open-source 3D goodness for Radeon X1000 and HD 2000/3

Quanta Decision Illustrates Case Against Specialized Patent Court

I agree with Mike that the Quanta v. LG decision was a big victory for common sense in patent law. I think it's worth taking a step back to note that this is a continuation of the trend that Mike identified last year. This is at least the fourth time in as many years that the Supreme Court has taken a patent law case, and in every case they've overruled a bad decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has jurisdiction over patent appeals. The Federal Circuit has spent the last 15 years making a mess of patent law, and the Supreme Court has finally started to notice and is working to clean up the Federal Circuit's messes. But it's hard because patents are one of a handful of major issues on its docket, whereas the Supreme Court has lots of other subjects it needs to deal with.

'Shoaib has always been a problem'

Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shahryar Khan has said that fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has been a problem for all his ex-coaches and ex-captains. Khan said that the pacer, who is fighting a five-year ban imposed on him for disciplinary violations by the PCB, has only himself to blame for the problems that he is facing right now.

Chart success for Conan

Funcom has announced that Age of Conan has raced off the starting blocks and now has more than half a million customers. The normal edition of the PC MMO has sold out in many retail outlets and the game is already one of the biggest ever Western MMO titles.

Sony has eyes but only Cowell has walls

Sony BMG is most pleased with its new office space in Derry Street, Kensington. Not only do employees benefit from the great location and the bright, sweeping vistas, but sources at Sony BMG say that they have a view directly into the office of Guy Hands at the rival EMI's headquarters on neighbouring Wright's Lane. Mr Hands has not yet discovered his snooping rivals, but may I advise he invest in some blinds.

TRAC 32: Nanotechnology in Medicine

Nanotechnology has exploded onto the scientific scene in the last few years and has impacted nearly every area of scientific research. The infancy of nanotechnology began in materials science laboratories. The field of nanotechnology has matured and is now at the forefront of medical research. Nanomedicine has been heralded as the next “big thing�. Popular literature promises tiny machines that will have a huge impact on disease and aging. The reality is that nanomedicine can be divided into three basic categories tiny machines, diagnostics, and therapeutic delivery. This course will discuss all of these nanotechnology applications and focus on diagnostics and therapeutics.

COVER IT LIVE LETS BLOGGERS BLAB ABOUT BREAKING STORIES

As blogging has become more mainstream, so has the phenomenon of "live blogging." That's where a blogger covers an ongoing news event in real time, posting new information as it emerges. Live blogging has become commonplace for technology-related events such as Steve Jobs's keynote speeches, but has also become popular in other spheres as well. Both ABC News and The New York Times have live-blogged recent political debates.

Industry Moves: Verisign CEO Roper Resigns; Bidzos Is Interim Head

Verisign, which has pared down the company over the last year, has seen another CEO change: William Roper, who had been president and CEO for a bit more than a year, has resigned and the company board has named Jim Bidzos as interim CEO, president and executive chairman. Bidzos was the company’s founder and first CEO in 1995, and he tried to reassure analysts Thursday that he had the background to step into the role and quickly move forward, WSJ reports.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Well, the fuss has died down, the novelty has worn off and everyone who wanted a copy probably has one by now. So what are we left with? Simply, a fine game that has gripped this gamers attention the same way a decent movie does.

VeriSign names founder Bidzos as executive chairman, CEO

VeriSign has named Jim Bidzos to the position of executive chairman on an interim basis. Additionally, VeriSign's board of directors has elected Bidzos as president and chief executive officer, on an interim basis, replacing William A Roper, who resigned from the company and the board of directors effective 30 June. As the company's founder and initial CEO, Bidzos has served as either chairman or vice chairman of the board of directors of VeriSign since April 1995. Bidzos has also served in both senior executive and board level capacities with RSA from 1986 to 2002.

NBC cozies up to iTunes UK and Zune, but not iTunes US

Diva network NBC has solidified its throne as the queen of negotiating tactics by licensing its content to web-based video stores once again. This time around, Microsoft has scored some shows, and even iTunes UK has gotten some love from NBC. iTunes Store US, however, has been left as the odd man out.

What is the Fastest Spinning Object in the Solar System? Near-Earth Asteroid 2008 HJ

A British astronomer has discovered a strange spinning object. The fact that it is spinning in itself is not strange, but the speed it is doing so has raised some eyebrows. The near-Earth asteroid 2008 HJ has been spotted spinning at a rate of one rotation every 42.7 seconds, breaking the record for the fastest rotating natural object in the Solar System. It is so fast that it has been designated as a "super-fast rotator". What makes this discovery even more interesting was that it was spotted by an amateur astronomer when using the Australian Faulkes Telescope South observatory, operating it remotely over the Internet, in his Dorset home in the south of the UK…

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed two more copyright infringement lawsuits on behalf of the developers of the Linux-based BusyBox utility suite. Kernel release: 2.6.25.7, Jun 16, 20082.6.25.7 has been released today. See changelog

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed two more copyright infringement lawsuits on behalf of the developers of the Linux-based BusyBox utility suite.

Sony: "enthusiasm for GTA IV... will further drive PS3 sales."

Grand Theft Auto IV has been on store shelves for a few days now, although no official sales information has been released for North America. To get things started, Sony has given us word that the game has given the PlayStation 3 platform a boost in sales. There is precious little talk about how the company sees their boost in relation to the game's performance on the 360, but surely Microsoft won't be too far behind with their own positive spin on the game.

Pirate Bay Faces Off Against Corrupt Entertainment Industry

Much of the entertainment industry has it in for the big BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay. A man dubbed The Web Sheriff has been working with has-been music artists on developing a copyright infringement lawsuit against The Pirate Bay. Folks who have joined the fight include Michael Jackson, the Village People and UB40. The Web Sheriff is urging ABBA to join the fight since he says that ‘they personify the Swedish music industry’s successes and are renowned ambassadors for Sweden, contrary to The Pirate Bay’. These artists aren’t the only problem facing The Pirate Bay, though; The MPAA has recently demanded $15 million for copyright violations.

Skype vs. 3G iPhone

The "Independent" Skype Journal (aka The Skype Cheerleading Squad) has published a list of "advantages" of Skype over the 3G iPhone. Unfortunately, the very first item on their list highlights one of the major flaws in Skype. They list "Sharing your availability and mood message" - in fact, Skype has tremendous problems with accurately showing availability (or presence), to the point where in many cases it is basically random information with no real significance. So what is the point of faulting the 3G iPhone for not having something that Skype has proven incapable of doing themselves? In the same vein, the Skype "mood message" has been the source of security problems recently, was completely blocked for a while because of security concerns, and judging from complaints made in the Skype "Community", is still not working properly for many

"Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," a graver fantasy

Here in the unenchanted world of ordinary moviegoing, it has been about two and a half years since "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," the first installment in Walt Disney and Walden Media's mighty "Chronicles of Narnia" franchise. In wartime England, where the Pevensie children live when they're not consorting with talking lions and battling witches, a year or so has gone by. But in Narnia itself, to which the four plucky Pevensies return in "Prince Caspian," the second movie in the series, centuries have passed, and everything has changed. The grand hall where Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were made monarchs of the realm has fallen into ruin, and the friendly woodland creatures with their homey British accents and computer-animated fur seem to have vanished from the scene.

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