Magnetic Silly Putty "Hack" Creates Freakish Magnet-Devouring Blob [Video]

Magnetic Silly Putty "Hack" Creates Freakish Magnet-Devouring Blob [Video]: "

This automagically morphing blob of Silly Putty is based in science, silly, not witchcraft. More »

Judge furious at "inexcusable" P2P lawyering, nukes subpoenas

Judge furious at "inexcusable" P2P lawyering, nukes subpoenas: "

There are three quick steps to angering a federal judge: first, launch the country's largest file-sharing lawsuit against 23,322 anonymous defendants, even though most of them don't live where you filed the suit. Second, request 'expedited discovery' in the case, allowing you to quickly secure the subpoenas necessary to go to Internet access providers and turn those 23,322 IP addresses into real names. Third, don't even bother to serve the subpoenas you just told the court were so essential to your case.

Federal Judge Robert Wilkins of Washington, DC this week blasted the conduct of Dunlap, Grubb, and Weaver, the attorneys behind the lawsuit, calling it 'inexcusable.' Dunlap, Grubb, and Weaver helped kickstart the current frenzy of P2P lawsuits last year after filing cases under the name 'US Copyright Group.' The 23,322-person case, their largest to date, involves the film The Expendables.

This homemade hoverbike is a real life Star Wars speeder [Cars]

This homemade hoverbike is a real life Star Wars speeder [Cars]: "

Australian engineer Chris Malloy has spent his spare money and time building a flying motorcycle he calls the Hoverbike. The Imperial Speeder Bike-like bike could reach 10,000 feet and fly 170 mph when finished. Read more about it, and check out more pictures, via Jalopnik! More »

SCOTUS makes patent holders happy, upholds $290M Microsoft verdict

SCOTUS makes patent holders happy, upholds $290M Microsoft verdict: "

The United States Supreme Court has ruled against Microsoft in a $290 million patent infringement case related to Microsoft Word. Microsoft had argued that a patent examiner's decision to grant a patent should be given less deference when a jury is considering evidence that had never been considered by the examiner. The high court unanimously rejected this argument, holding that a century of precedents had specified a high standard of proof for invalidating a patent.

In a New York Times op-ed supporting Microsoft, UCLA law professor Doug Lichtman had argued that changing the standard of proof would 'give relief to the countless businesses that today find themselves vulnerable to patents that shouldn't have been issued in the first place.' A wide variety of companies and public interest groups, including Google, Red Hat, Walmart, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Apache Software Foundation, filed briefs echoing that point. But the Supreme Court decided that whatever the merits of these policy arguments, they couldn't overrule the text of the patent law and the courts' long history of employing the higher standard.

Strange new class of ultra-bright supernova discovered [Mega-explosion]

Strange new class of ultra-bright supernova discovered [Mega-explosion]: "

A new class of supernova has been discovered, with six examples of it seen so far. Powered by a mysterious source, they're brighter and longer-lived than the novae we know now. More »

Bad idea for a custom Visa card

Bad idea for a custom Visa card: "

This aptly titled, unsourced Internet image suggests a truly bad idea for your custom, upload-your-own-design CapitalOne Visa: graphical text reading THIS IS A ROBBERY/I HAVE A GUN/EMPTY YOUR REGISTER.

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

China Prepares Its First Aircraft Carrier [China]

China Prepares Its First Aircraft Carrier [China]: "

China is strutting its stuff and showing off the latest addition to it military — an old Soviet-era aircraft carrier. The Admiral Kuznetsov-class Varyag is one of two ships that were built in the early 80s. More »

Tennessee Just Made Offensive Online Pictures Illegal [Wtf]

Tennessee Just Made Offensive Online Pictures Illegal [Wtf]: "

Goatse. Tub Girl. Lemonparty. They're in the internet pantheon—and sharing them (or anything else that might shock or offend) will now land you in Tennessean jail, thanks to dubious new law of theirs. The war on JPEGs begins. More »

Spectacular Coronal Mass Ejection Hitting Earth Tonight at 3.1 Million Miles Per Hour [Video]

Spectacular Coronal Mass Ejection Hitting Earth Tonight at 3.1 Million Miles Per Hour [Video]: "

Put on your tinfoil hats, because the Sun just had an indigestion. According to NASA, this 'spectacular coronal mass ejection should deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field during the late hours of June 8th or June 9th.' More »

Strangely behaving supernovae leave physicists bemused

Strangely behaving supernovae leave physicists bemused: "

Supernovae are in the news this week, as two papers in the latest release from Nature provide fresh perspectives on stellar explosions old and new. The old one is Supernova 1987A, the closest one in the age of modern astronomy, which has recently undergone a brightening that indicates a key transition in its evolution has taken place. The new one is actually an entirely new category of supernova, represented by four examples. The output of this new category is heavily biased towards the blue end of the spectrum, it's ten times brighter than a Type Ia supernova, and we aren't sure what could possibly be powering it.

Some basic background on supernovae will make it easier to understand both stories. The initial collapse of a star creates a tremendous explosion, one heralded by the arrival of neutrinos and high-energy photons. But the fusion events that accompany the explosion also produce some unstable radioactive isotopes, such as nickel-56 and -57 and titanium-44. Both immediately after the explosion and for the following several years, the remnant of the supernova is primarily lit by energy released as these isotopes decay. Only after a few decades do other processes, primarily the interaction between the expanding shell of the explosion and the stellar environment, begin to dominate the light seen at the site of the supernova.

RSA finally comes clean: SecurID is compromised

RSA finally comes clean: SecurID is compromised: "

RSA Security will replace virtually every one of the 40 million SecurID tokens currently in use as a result of the hacking attack the company disclosed back in March. The EMC subsidiary issued a letter to customers acknowledging that SecurID failed to protect defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which last month reported a hack attempt.

SecurID tokens are used in two-factor authentication systems. Each user account is linked to a token, and each token generates a pseudo-random number that changes periodically, typically every 30 or 60 seconds. To log in, the user enters a username, password, and the number shown on their token. The authentication server knows what number a particular token should be showing, and so uses this number to prove that the user is in possession of their token.

Chile's Volcano Eruption Looks Like Hell on Earth [Image Cache]

Chile's Volcano Eruption Looks Like Hell on Earth [Image Cache]: "

If you need a reminder on how fucking scary volcanoes can be, check out the explosion of Puyehue volcano in southern Chile. The volcano hadn't erupted for half a century but blew up this past weekend, painting the sky red. More »

US Says It'll Respond to Online Attacks with Offline Warfare [War]

US Says It'll Respond to Online Attacks with Offline Warfare [War]: "

Up until now, the Pentagon's been concerned with how best to out-hack hostile hackers. Counter-cyberwarfare. But that's changed—the military's decided digital attacks can be considered acts of war, with bombs, not bits, dropped in return, the WSJ reports. More »

A way to take out spammers? 3 banks process 95% of spam transactions

A way to take out spammers? 3 banks process 95% of spam transactions: "

If you want to stop spam then going after the banks and payment processors that enable their lucrative trade may be your best bet, according to research performed by a team from the University of California-San Diego, the University of California-Berkeley, and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. After examining millions of spam e-mails and spam Web sites—and making over 100 purchases from the sites advertised by the spammers—the research team found that just three banks were used to clear more than 95 percent of spam funds.

Lodsys Proceeds to Sue iOS Application Developers

Lodsys Proceeds to Sue iOS Application Developers: "Well, I have to say this: Lodsys got some balls. After Apple threatening them with legal action, Lodsys has gone on the offensive, and has proceeded to sue third party iOS application developers. While Lodsys had first given developers 21 days to negotiate an agreement, due to Apple's legal threats, the company has now moved its litigation timing to an earlier date."

Black hole shoots out plasma jets that are even bigger than its galaxy [Video]

Black hole shoots out plasma jets that are even bigger than its galaxy [Video]: "

The galaxy in this picture is Centaurus A, but it's being upstaged in its own cosmic neighborhood. Its central black hole is emitting jets that are a million light-years long...and this is our best look yet at this mysterious phenomenon. More »