New Code Tracks Genes, Not Jeans
Researchers on Friday unveiled a potentially important tool that could lead to better medicine and also help combat biowarfare. It's based on the same idea that in 1973 brought about the UPC bar code -- which created a standard code system that, can be affixed to every product and distinguishes it from every other product in the marketplace. These new Nanobarcodes, however, will not be found on beer cans or cereal boxes. Rather, their inventory keeping is done at the molecular and cellular level.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47317,00.html
Tower Wreckage Reveals Clues
In a scrap yard across the Hudson River from the fallen twin towers, engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl pores over the 1,500 tons of twisted, charred steel arriving here each day from the remains of the World Trade Center like an archaeologist, like a coroner. The University of California at Berkeley professor unveiled new details about the skyscrapers' cause of death Friday, displaying for the first time beams hit by one of the jets that ultimately brought down the towers, as well as scraps from the plane itself. Astaneh-Asl -- who has had access to 40,000 tons of scrap -- said his findings confirm the widely held theory about the buildings' demise: that the impact of the planes did relatively little damage to the Towers. Rather, it was 1,000-plus-degree heat from the burning jet fuel that caused key outer beams to buckle, and floor after floor to fall.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47357,00.html
Xerox Can Continue Grafitti Suit
Xerox Corp. won a favorable ruling Friday in a legal battle with Palm Computing over software used to recognize handwriting on computer screens. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Xerox could pursue a lawsuit charging that Palm's Graffiti software, which is used for interpreting handwriting on Palm Pilot computers, infringes on one of its patents. The decision reverses an earlier ruling to dismiss the case issued last year by a federal judge in Rochester, New York. In Friday's order, a panel of three judges unanimously agreed that Xerox has a reasonable chance of prevailing in its claims and said that the lower court used "defective factual predicates" in tossing out the case.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47363,00.html
Shower Curtain Rises on Ig Nobels 
If this year's winners are any indication, it's probably just as hard to win an Ig Nobel prize as it is to win a bona fide Nobel. Contrary to what you might believe, the ten new winners of the Ig -- a send-up of the Nobel, giving prizes to people whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced" -- aren't on a lower rung of the genius ladder than, say, those mussy-haired physicists who dabble in relativity. They just think a little differently, they say. Indeed, some of the new Ig Nobel laureates, who were honored at a ceremony on Thursday evening at Harvard University, solved a few of the most vexing questions of our time. For example, why does a shower curtain billow inwards when the shower is on?
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47334,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47336,00.html
FCC Grants Waivers on E911
The FCC on Friday granted temporary waivers to mobile phone operators who failed to implement technology that lets emergency dispatchers locate cell-phone callers. FCC Chairman Michael Powell said he was "disappointed" and "unsatisfied" his commission had to grant temporary waivers to Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless and Nextel -- which all failed to meet an Oct. 1 deadline to implement the location-based technology known as E911. "I know and respect that carriers have made concerted strides in this area, but those efforts must be re-doubled," Powell said. "It goes without saying that there is a new sense of urgency around using mobile phones as important safety devices. They have become indispensable tools for calling for help and for delivering help."
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47356,00.html
No Smoking Gun in Terror Bill
A well-known exception in federal gun control law commonly known as the "gun show loophole" can allow, for example, foreign tourists to walk into a gun show in 32 states and buy weapons with cash, no questions asked. Nowhere in the Bush administration's fledgling anti-terror legislation does it address this issue. In a licensed gun shop, required background checks would generally stop sales to anyone in the United States on a temporary visa -- the kind most of the Sept. 11 terrorists had. But under the terms of the Brady Handgun Control Act -- the 1993 gun control measure that required background checks -- unlicensed, "private" gun salesman can sell firearms without requiring background checks. Many gun-reform advocates recognize this as a loophole in the law.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47286,00.html
Debka: Conflict's Drudge Report?
The Iraqis are training Osama bin Laden's troops in chemical and biological weapons; Russian commando units packing newly acquired American arms are poised to storm Afghanistan; Israel is about to be charged with damaging the mosques on Jerusalem's contested Temple Mount. Stories like these# are making the free-wheeling Israeli news site Debkafile an increasingly popular destination for Americans looking for the inside scoop on the conflict with terrorism. Offered in Hebrew and English, Debkafile offers a blend of anonymous tips, unsubstantiated rumors and chilling, detail-laden stories on Middle Eastern military, intelligence, diplomatic, and terrorist matters.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47325,00.html
Thought Police Peek Into Brains
U.S. investigators are facing the daunting task of sorting through more than 700 suspects in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A neuroscientist from Iowa says he's got the perfect tool to help them do it. Lawrence Farwell says he has devised a test that will ascertain whether the suspects have criminal knowledge of the terrorist attack by measuring their brainwaves. He calls it "brain fingerprinting." It a nutshell, it works like this: A subject's head is strapped with electrodes that pick up electrical activity. He sits in front of a computer monitor as words and images flash on the screen. When he recognizes the visual stimuli, a waveform called the P300 reacts and the signal is fed into a computer, where it is analyzed using a proprietary algorithm.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47221,00.html
Korean firms seek ban on Windows XP
Korea's biggest internet portal is seeking an injunction to ban the sale of Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system in South Korea. Daum Communications said it has filed a complaint with the Seoul District Court to block the sale of Windows XP, arguing that it will stifle its own internet messaging product. Windows XP is due to for a global launch on October 25, in time for the Christmas sales season. The new software revamps Microsoft's windows operating system, and is set to become the firm's bridgehead for its new for its new net-based services.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/bus...00/1580497.stm
NSA offers supersecure Linux
The National Security Agency, the government's security arm, along with help from Network Associates, last week announced it has made a security-enhanced version of Linux available for download.The NSA said it realizes that operating system security is necessary and that mainstream operating systems often lack critical security features that could enforce the confidentiality and integrity of network communications. Dubbed Security-Enhanced (SE) Linux, the NSA's version allows programs to have only the slimmest security permissions to run. SE Linux has a strong, yet flexible, access control architecture incorporated into the kernel to foil tampering and bypassing of security mechanisms.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/1...idg/index.html
Survivability of nuclear plants to be re-examined
After initially playing down the chance that a falling jetliner could disable or destroy a nuclear power plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now planning to study whether a plant could survive such a disaster. The agency's shift comes amid heightened concern about the vulnerability of nuclear facilities to terrorist attacks. A Chronicle review of recent NRC inspections shows that although nuclear plants serving California are generally secure, they may not be 100 percent safe. Immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the NRC issued a reassuring statement: "Although nuclear power plants are not explicitly designed to withstand the crash of a large commercial airliner, plants have inherent capability to provide for the protection of public health and safety.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...5/MN197269.DTL
Discovery of 'Baby Galaxy' a Clever Feat
Using a clever technique that pushed two of the world's most powerful telescopes to their limits, a team of scientists has discovered a "baby galaxy" so small, faint and distant that it may be one of the long sought-after building blocks of modern galaxies. To find their galactic infant, the astronomers used a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein in the general theory of relativity -- employing a massive group of galaxies, themselves, as an extra lens. Most astronomers believe today's massive spiral and elliptical galaxies emerged from much smaller building blocks made up of clusters of stars. But astronomers have had a hard time seeing the galactic birthing process: Even the oldest known galaxies look similar to modern, mature galaxies, such as our own Milky Way.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...01galaxy.story
UK campaigners call for anti 'anti-rip' CD day of action 
Campaigners will take to the streets of Britain this Saturday (6 October) in a bid to raise public awareness of the music industry's attempts to prevent listeners from copying CDs or playing discs on PCs. The UK's Campaign for Digital Rights, a loose, Web-based affiliation of computer users and music fans, is calling on anyone concerned about the implementation of the European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) - the EU equivalent of the US' controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act - and the music industry's use of anti-rip technologies like Macrovision's SafeAudio and Midbar's Cactus to spread the word outside the nation's record stores. So far, stores in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Rugby, Brighton and Cambridge have been targeted.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/22041.html
National geek guard to save the data
Get ready for geeks in green fatigues busting onto the scene of ground zero of any national disaster ready to save the data. That’s an idea being floated in Congress in the aftermath of the attacks in New York and Washington. As the mind-numbing human tragedy unfolded, many had to sit in anguished silence with nothing but a busy signal for solace. But that wouldn’t be the case if the National Emergency Technology Guard were in place.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/637621.asp?0si=-
Retinal photographs pinpoint people at high stroke risk
Retinal snapshots could help pinpoint people at high risk of suffering a stroke, say US researchers. They say their technique is cheap enough to be used by opticians and GPs to mass-screen patients. Strokes are caused by brain cell death due to bleeding from damaged blood vessels. Over 500,000 people suffer strokes every year in the US alone. Drugs that are effective at preventing stroke in high-risk patients are available, so doctors are keen to identify people with changes to their network of blood vessels - their vascular system - that make them more likely to suffer a stroke.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991388
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