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Footage from the Eagle’s movie camera has been matched to deconvolved and/or enhanced versions of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image M116161085 (left and right NAC image pairs) which were taken by the LRO on December 22, 2009.

Google Moon does not have a roll angle feature which would be useful for rolling the point of view. Additionally, Google Moon’s digital elevation model is not of a fine enough resolution in order to precisely model the terrain. Thus some of the Google Moon screen captures of the overlaid LRO image may not precisely match the view from the Eagle’s video camera.

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There’s lots of excitement today about Amazon’s new Kindle devices, including an inexpensive tablet running Android. Most of that excitement focuses on the price point, but there’s something in the announcements that may be even more significant.

Amazon’s new devices will ship with a new web browser architecture named Silk, which Amazon describes as ‘cloud-accelerated’. What they mean by that is that Silk browsers will use Amazon’s EC2 essentially as a giant caching proxy. The company says that "“many website requests will never leave the extended infrastructure of Amazon Web Services”".

The stated goal is to improve the user experience by delivering pages faster. But ‘cloud-acceleration’ also creates an entire class of users – which, given the aggressive pricing of the Kindle devices, is likely to be a large class – who will access the web through a chokepoint controlled by Amazon.

What are the implications? The first, for web developers, is that you need to pay close attention to anything in your configuration that affects caching, such as Cache-Control headers and ETags. Get it wrong, and Amazon will cheerfully serve up stale content to all its Silk users. It’s a rule of thumb when you’re writing a complex web app that each layer of caching can be a generous source of hard-to-understand bugs: Amazon’s new scheme has just dropped a giant layer of cache between you and a large number of users.

We’re assuming, of course, that Amazon will play nice and honor the cache control directives you provide, of course. But Amazon is also theoretically free to introduce some ‘optimizations’ of its own that could inadvertently cripple your site.

Not just that, but if you’re worried about Facebook knowing everything you do, you shouldn’t even think of using Silk.

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A new report looking into online music consumption habits shows that since 2009 the number of people who pirate music has dropped by 25 percent in Sweden. The sharp decrease coincides with a massive interest for the music streaming service Spotify. One of the main reasons why people switch to legal services is the wider range of material they can find there.

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The once-secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) slouches toward signing on Saturday. ACTA is expected to raise constitutional issues in the U.S., raise soverenty issues in the E.U., give copyright holders extensive powers to impose DRM and identify alleged infringers, and increase health risks worldwide. In addition, the U.S. has launched the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) to obtain what copyright provisions were stripped from ACTA. (see michaelgeist.ca, techdirt, or slashdot)
There remain plausible options for limiting the damage done in Europe by the copyright clauses, or at least excluding patents from section two.

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Water is essential to life but in such places as India, Pakistan, China, and Thailand deluges have once again caused misery. Typhoon Nesat hit the Philippines earlier this week on its way to south China. In Pakistan, more than 5 million people have been affected by recent flooding, according to the aid agency Oxfam. Pakistan is still struggling to recover from the devastating monsoon rains in 2010. — Lloyd Young(36 photos total)

5
Surging waves hit against the breakwater in Udono in a port town of Kiho, Mie Prefecture, central Japan, Sept. 21. A powerful typhoon was bearing down on Japan’s tsunami-ravaged northeastern coast approaching a nuclear power plant crippled in that disaster and prompting calls for the evacuation of more than a million people. ( #

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Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, unveiled its Kindle Fire tablet computer, taking aim at Apple Inc.’s bestselling iPad with a device that’s smaller and less than half the price.

The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad, Amazon executives said in interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek. The device, a souped-up version of the Kindle electronic- book reader, will run on Google Inc.’s Android software, the Seattle-based company said.

Interesting…

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The New York police said that the protesters hadn’t requested a formal permit for staging a demonstration and their rally has been illegal. Ironically, these statements were made by the authorities of a country, which conventionally intervenes in the internal affairs of other countries and accuses them of denying the civil liberties and rights of their citizens.

[..]

p>Interestingly, Yahoo as one of the most prominent providers of internet services in the United States has blocked the access of its users to the emails which contained information regarding the rallies and demonstrations of the Occupy Wall Street group. It has also prevented the organizers from sending emails about the date and time of the rallies. Although Yahoo has officially apologized and put the blame on an external spam filter, it was clearly evident that the blockage has been a predetermined and state-sanctioned move.

US Citizens reading this will likely take issue with the above and are no doubt able to make a good point against them – but remember, the rest of the world sees things differently..

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Even after a teen-ager tragically committed suicide in suburban Buffalo this month in the wake of constant harassment, the bullying allegedly did not stop with his death.

The parents of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who was found dead at their home on Sept. 18, indicated in an exclusive interview with TODAY’s Ann Curry on Tuesday that their daughter endured further taunts at a school function immediately after Jamey’s wake. At a homecoming dance she attended shortly after her brother’s death, a potentially poignant moment turned ugly after a song by Lady Gaga, Jamey’s favorite artist, who recently dedicated a song at a concert in his memory.

“She was having a great time, and all of a sudden a Lady Gaga song came on, and they all started chanting for Jamey, all of his friends,’’ Jamey’s mother, Tracy, told Curry. “Then the bullies that put him into this situation started chanting, ‘You’re better off dead!’ and ‘We’re glad you’re dead!’ and things like that.

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The elderly community was horrified to learn that Eugénie Blanchard, who held the Guinness World Record as the oldest living person, died of mysterious circumstances on Thursday.

The shocking news came in light of the fact that the 114-year-old nun had only recently been awarded the prestigious record before she unexpectedly died.

Blanchard had taken the title in May when Okinawa resident and previous record holder Kama Chinen died under similarly suspicious circumstances just a week before her 115th birthday.

The series of unexplained deaths of old-age record holders has led Stella Samuelson, a spokesperson for The Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly (CARIE), to speculate that the string of deaths is not just a coincidence. She noted that Blanchard’s and her predecessors each only held their titles for less than a year before mysteriously succumbing to what she has been calling “The Guiness Curse”.

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LRAD Corp., manufacturer of a sonic device deployed against protestors during the 2009 G-20 Summit, has disputed the claims made in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit.

Last week, a bystander who suffered permanent hearing loss after Pittsburgh police deployed a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) against protestors during the G-20 Summit filed a federal lawsuit against the city. It was the first time the sound cannon had been used publicly. The device emits loud sounds to disperse crowds and is also deployed on American warships.

She is being represented by the the American Civil Liberties Union.

“LRAD is not a weapon,” LRAD spokesman Robert Putnam told the Associated Press. “It is an effective long range communications system used to clearly broadcast critical information, instructions and warnings.”

LRAD Corp. is not a defendant in the lawsuit.

It’s not a weapon. It’s a communication system. Go back to bed.

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On the day in 2004 that her first cousin Cameron Todd Willingham was scheduled to be executed in Texas, Patricia Cox had good reason to believe he was innocent.

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The American League of Lobbyists on Monday called for the withdrawal of a new ethics regulation that would prohibit all government employees from accepting gifts from lobbyists.

Wait, let me get my surprised face…

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Reuters published the above image as an Editor’s Choice photo yesterday, and almost immediately readers began leaving comments questioning whether the photograph was Photoshopped. The debate soon spread to other websites, including Reddit, and it appears that the photographs has since been taken down (though it can still be seen in its original slideshowfrom last week).

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But earlier this month, something quietly snapped as I listened to two Jehovah’s Witnesses at my door. Actually, I only listened to one — there’s always a Talker and what I guess you’d call…a witness. The Talker had started by reading me a weirdly mundane verse from Psalms, then asked for my reaction. What follows is as close to verbatim as I can recall.

This is ridiculous.

Apple announces a media event and people start analyzing the icons in the event announcement to speculate what might be introduced..

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For more than a decade, California and other states have kept their newest teen drivers on a tight leash, restricting the hours when they can get behind the wheel and whom they can bring along as passengers. Public officials were confident that their get-tough policies were saving lives.

Now, though, a nationwide analysis of crash data suggests that the restrictions may have backfired: While the number of fatal crashes among 16- and 17-year-old drivers has fallen, deadly accidents among 18-to-19-year-olds have risen by an almost equal amount. In effect, experts say, the programs that dole out driving privileges in stages, however well-intentioned, have merely shifted the ranks of inexperienced drivers from younger to older teens.

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My straw-man proposal for a software liability law has three clauses:

Clause 0. Consult criminal code to see if any intentionally caused damage is already covered.

I am trying to impose a civil liability only for unintentionally caused damage, whether a result of sloppy coding, insufficient testing, cost cutting, incomplete documentation, or just plain incompetence. Intentionally inflicted damage is a criminal matter, and most countries already have laws on the books for this.

Clause 1. If you deliver software with complete and buildable source code and a license that allows disabling any functionality or code by the licensee, then your liability is limited to a refund.

This clause addresses how to avoid liability: license your users to inspect and chop off any and all bits of your software they do not trust or do not want to run, and make it practical for them to do so.

The word disabling is chosen very carefully. This clause grants no permission to change or modify how the program works, only to disable the parts of it that the licensee does not want. There is also no requirement that the licensee actually look at the source code, only that it was received.

All other copyrights are still yours to control, and your license can contain any language and restriction you care to include, leaving the situation unchanged with respect to hardware locking, confidentiality, secrets, software piracy, magic numbers, etc. Free and open source software is obviously covered by this clause, and it does not change its legal situation in any way.

Clause 2. In any other case, you are liable for whatever damage your software causes when used normally.

If you do not want to accept the information sharing in Clause 1, you would fall under Clause 2 and have to live with normal product liability, just as manufacturers of cars, blenders, chainsaws, and hot coffee do. How dire the consequences and what constitutes “used normally” are for the legislature and courts to decide.

An example: A salesperson from one of your longtime vendors visits and delivers new product documentation on a USB key. You plug the USB key into your computer and copy the files onto the computer. This is “used normally” and should never cause your computer to become part of a botnet, transmit your credit card number to Elbonia, or send all your design documents to the vendor.

The majority of today’s commercial software would fall under Clause 2. To give software houses a reasonable chance to clean up their acts and/or to fall under Clause 1, a sunrise period would make sense, but it should be no longer than five years, as the laws would be aimed at solving a serious computer security problem.

And that is it, really. Software houses will deliver quality and back it up with product liability guarantees, or their customers will endeavor to protect themselves.

If big software comparies suddenly become liable for all the bugs in their existing software, the resulting liability lawsuits could bankrupt them. This proposal could destroy the software industry as we know it.

And beyond that effect there would probably be some negative consequences as well.

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Germany’s top judge has issued a blunt warning that no further fiscal powers may be surrendered to Europe without a new constitution and a popular referendum, vastly complicating plans to boost the EU’s rescue machinery to €2 trillion.

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The technology needed to cut the world’s greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050 already exists, according to a joint statement by eleven of the world’s largest engineering organisations….

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What makes individual stockbrokers blow billions in financial markets with criminal trading schemes? According to a new study conducted at a Swiss university, it may be because share traders behave more recklessly and are more manipulative than psychopaths.

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Facebook on Monday defended its practice of gathering data from “Like” buttons even after users have logged out, saying that the collection is part of a system to prevent improper logins and that the information is quickly deleted.

[..]

“The onus is on us is to take all the data and scrub it,” said Arturo Bejar, a Facebook director of engineering. “What really matters is what we say as a company and back it up.”

Short version: “trust us!”

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In an interview on BBC News this morning that left the hosts gob-smacked (google it… it is the BBC after all), Alessio Rastani outlines in a mere three-and-a-half-minutes what we all know and most ignore. While the whole interview is worth watching, the money shot for us was "This economic crisis is like a cancer, if you just wait and wait hoping it is going to go away, just like a cancer it is going to grow and it will be too late!".