An explosive new report by Reuters released Friday may upturn the narrative surrounding the potential cancer risks of talcum powder. According to the report, Johnson & Johnson—the makers of the most popular consumer talc product, Baby Powder—knew for decades that its products at times contained carcinogenic asbestos, but did everything possible to keep its findings Read more about Report: Johnson & Johnson Knew About Asbestos in Its Baby Powder Products for Decades[…]

Thousands of machine-learning wizards have signed an open statement boycotting a new AI-focused academic journal, disapproving of the paper’s policy of closed-access.Nature Machine Intelligence is a specialized journal concentrating on intelligent systems and robotics research. It’s expected to launch in January next year, and is part of Nature Publishing Group, one of the world’s top Read more about AI boffins rebel against closed-access academic journal Nature[…]

GitHub user Zeffy has created a patch that removes a limitation that Microsoft imposed on users of 7th generation processors, a limit that prevents users from receiving Windows updates if they still use Windows 7 and 8.1. Source: User-Made Patch Lets Owners of Next-Gen CPUs Install Updates on Windows 7 & 8.1 MS wants to Read more about MS now blocking updates for Win7 & 8 on PCs with modern CPUs. User makes patch to be able to install updates after all.[…]

A recent study from researchers at University of Twente (UT) and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) has found that three-phase static (electronic) energy meters, which are replacing traditional electromechanical meters, can exaggerate energy consumption by as much as 582 per cent. Estimates of the number of households in the Netherlands with smart meters range Read more about “smart” meters caught simply making up readings[…]

Welcome to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room. Do UFOs fascinate you? Are you a history buff who wants to learn more about the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam or the A-12 Oxcart? Have stories about spies always fascinated you? You can find information about all of these topics and more Read more about CIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room releases 12m new documents[…]

An 18-year-old broke France’s anti-terror laws by naming his home Wi-Fi network “Daesh 21” – after the medieval murder bastards ISIS. The unnamed teen was given a three-month jail sentence, suspended for now, after he was found guilty of essentially publicly condoning a terrorist act or group. Source: Teen in the dock on terror apologist Read more about Teen in the dock on terror apologist charge for naming Wi-Fi network ‘Daesh 21’[…]

Somewhere a Lenovo engineer is crying over how your OS is accessing the SSD Source: Lenovo downward dogs with Yoga BIOS update supporting Linux installs Finally – wtf is with Lenovo!?

You find a fault in a Tesla. You ask for repairs. Tesla comes back offering 50% of the repair price, but only if you promise to not tell anyone about the problem you found! This offer, to repair a defective part in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement, is unheard of in the auto industry. More Read more about Tesla Suspension Breakage: It’s Not The Crime, It’s The Coverup – Slashdot[…]

Recently, Microsoft’s policy had been to throw up a dialogue box asking you whether you wanted to install Windows 10. If you clicked the red “X” to close the box – the tried-and-tested way to make dialogue boxes vanish without agreeing to do anything – Microsoft began taking that as permission for the upgrade to Read more about Microsoft removes the X to close the Windows 10 update after they decided the closing X meant yes, do it now[…]

Linksys has been collaborating with chipmaker Marvell and the makers of OpenWrt to make sure its latest WRT routers can comply with the new rules without blocking open source firmware, company officials told Ars. Linksys’s effort stands in contrast with TP-Link, which said it would entirely prevent loading of open source firmware on its routers Read more about Linksys WRT routers won’t block open source firmware despite FCC rules[…]

Nearly two-and-a-half months ago, I started a daily examination of the Trans Pacific Partnership focused on the intellectual property and digital policy issues raised by the agreement. My initial plan for the Trouble with the TPP series was to write for one month leading up to the planned signing in New Zealand on February 4th. Read more about The Trouble With the TPP, Day 50: The Case Against Ratifying the Trans Pacific Partnership – Michael Geist[…]

Dr Grimes initially created an equation to express the probability of a conspiracy being either deliberately uncovered by a whistle-blower or inadvertently revealed by a bungler. This factors in the number of conspirators, the length of time, and even the effects of conspirators dying, whether of old age or more nefarious means, for those conspiracies Read more about Oxford Prof calulates how long it would take for large-scale conspiracies to reveal themselves[…]

Following up Lenovo’s blunders regarding the Superfish malware and altered BIOS, Michael Horowitz at ComputerWorld reports that a refurbished ThinkPad he bought includes Lenovo spyware under the guise of “Customer Feedback”. After some digging around, he found the following in a support document: “Lenovo says here that all ThinkPad, ThinkCentre and ThinkStation PCs, running Windows Read more about Lenovo, still spying on all PCs[…]

Wikipedia is no stranger to scandals, but a quiet update on its administrators’ announcement board reveals a big problem. The site’s CheckUser team recently banned 381 editors’ accounts for “undisclosed paid advocacy.” In other words, these Wikipedians were secretly shilling for brands and even resorting to extortion. The scam is relatively straightforward. Using sockpuppet accounts, Read more about 381 Wikipedia editors ban hammered for extorting article subjects to pay “protection money”[…]

Pinterest promoters zonder werk na 'spamklem' – Emerce. wow – killing your most active userbase is an awesome plan!

Don’t be evil? via Google Public Policy Blog: Continued progress on fighting piracy.

From 1972 onwards, until his retirement in 1984, he took extensive manuscript notes of many of the papers passing through his hands. Following his retirement he organised this material geographically and typed out systematic studies of KGB operations in different parts of the world in 10 volumes. He and his family and his archive were Read more about Massive 36 volume collection of KGB information given to the UK released to public[…]

The database that will store the entire nation’s health records has a series of "backdoors" that will allow police and government bodies to access people’s medical data. David Davis MP, a former shadow home secretary, told the Guardian he has established that police will be able to access the health records of patients when investigating Read more about Police will have ‘backdoor’ access to health records despite opt-out, says MP[…]

Google has updated its terms of service, allowing the company to use your profile information in ads. That means your face, name and personal details will start popping up all over your network. Your Face and Name Will Appear in Google Ads Starting Today. Opt out of this here!

So does the British Phonography Industry RIAA Uses Pirated Code on Its Website Because of Course It Does.

Nortel went bankrupt in 2009. In 2011, it held an auction for its massive patent portfolio. The winners of the auction were Apple, Microsoft, Sony, RIM, and others, who bought the patents for $4.5 billion as a consortium named Rockstar Bidco.  http://m.slashdot.org/story/193739 Great. They want to stop Google from being a search engine. Patents are really good for Read more about Patent strike on Google by evil empire[…]

The court has struggled over the issue of allowing the copying of the hard drive. This is a serious invasion of privacy and is certainly not a standard remedy… The tipping point for the court comes from evidence that the defendants – in their own words – are hackers. By labeling themselves this way, they Read more about Call yourself a ‘hacker’, lose your 4th Amendment right against seizures[…]

Instead of sending suspected terrorists to Guantanamo Bay or secret CIA “black” sites for interrogation, the Obama administration is questioning terrorists for as long as it takes aboard U.S. naval vessels. http://m.military.com/daily-news/2013/10/08/under-obama-black-sites-swapped-for-ships.html?ESRC=topstories.RSS

Wow. Now there’s a surprise. Not. NSA Officers Spy on Love Interests – Washington Wire – WSJ.