Hugh Pickens writes “The Washington Post reports that the increasing number and intensity of cyberattacks has attracted the attention of the Obama administration and Congress, which have begun steering dollars to the problem. Much of that new spending, estimated at $6 to $7 billion annually just in unclassified work, is focused on the Washington region, as the federal government consolidates many of its cybersecurity-focused agencies in the area. (more…)

Critics of Arizona’s tough new immigration law, which makes illegal immigration a state crime, have called supporters of the bill “racist,” “mean-spirited” and “un-American.” Here’s the newsflash: The measure is also good politics, not only in Arizona, but nationally.

More…

kreide33 writes “Key/Value storage systems are gaining in popularity, much because of features such as easy scalability and automatic replication. However, there are several to choose from and performance is an important deciding factor. This article compares the performance of two of the most well-known projects, Cassandra and Voldemort, using several different mixes of access types, and compares both throughput and latency.”

Read (more…)

A Small bubble turned into a big trouble.The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column.

More…

azoblue passes along a story in the Washington Post, which begins:
“NASA’s Mars Meteorite Research Team reopened a 14-year-old controversy on extraterrestrial life last week, reaffirming and offering support for its widely challenged assertion that a 4-billion-year-old meteorite that landed thousands of years ago on Antarctica shows evidence of microscopic life on Mars. In addition to presenting research that they said disproved some of their critics, (more…)

For those legal Arizonans worried that their skin tone may now result in their being routinely pestered by local law enforcement (as well as those unwilling or unable to spring for a skin-whitening procedure a la Sammy Sosa or the late King of Pop), Zubi, a Hispanic ad agency based out of Miami, has offered a solution: the Gringo Mask.

More…

An anonymous reader writes “IEEE Spectrum reports that German researchers, seeking to find out what would happen if a robot handling a sharp tool accidentally struck a human, set out to perform a series of cutting, stabbing, and puncturing tests. They used a robotic manipulator arm, fitted with various sharp tools (kitchen knife, scalpel, screwdriver) and performed striking tests at a block of silicone, a pig leg, and at one point, even the arm of (more…)

Technological advances are making it easier to spot cancer early, which is key to better survival rates. Mammograms, CT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds have long been a part of cancer diagnosis. Below are some of the other imaging and diagnostic tools available.

More…

Just about everyone agrees the scheduled 21 percent pay cut to doctors in America’s Medicare program would be a devastating blow to patient care. But without the cut, the federal deficit will balloon another $300 billion over the next decade.

More…

Tiger4 writes “A huge number of fonts are migrating from the print-only world to the Web. As the browser manufacturers get on board, the WWW will be a much more interesting place (see the article illustration). ‘Beginning Tuesday, Monotype Imaging, a Massachusetts company that owns one of the largest collections of typefaces in the world, is making 2,000 of its fonts available to Web designers. The move follows that of San Francisco-based FontShop, (more…)