environment
Chemically induced sex shifts
Kids of tomorrow are apparently in serious danger of gender-bending caused by chemical poisoning. “Denmark has unveiled official research showing that two-year-old children are at risk from a bewildering array of gender-bending chemicals in such everyday items as waterproof clothes, rubber boots, bed linen, food, sunscreen lotion, and moisturizing cream,” says a Slashdot post, going on »»» A picture is emerging of ubiquitous chemical contamination driving down sperm counts and feminizing male children all over the developed world. Research at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University found that boys whose mothers were exposed to PCBs and dioxins were more likely to play with dolls and tea sets and dress up in female clothes.
Continue reading »Radio astronomers seeking open-spectrum national parks
Readers of Ars will undoubtedly be familiar with some of the battles over spectrum allocation for wireless devices and services. As the number of wireless devices and their bandwidth requirements continue an apparently inexorable climb, the fight over who should get which chunk of the radio spectrum has generally played out between big business and public interests. One group that hasn’t generally appeared to be taking part in the scrum is the science community, but that’s not for lack of interest—the radio spectrum is used for both astronomy and the monitoring of the environment on Earth.
Continue reading »Apple quits Chamber of Commerce, praised for green efforts
Apple’s attention to its environmental impact doesn’t end at “greenest notebook” slogans or earth-friendly graphics on the environment section of its website. The company is taking action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions seriously and has underscored its commitment by resigning from the US Chamber of Commerce this week, citing that group’s criticism of legislation to regulate GHG emissions. And, although the company’s efforts on the green front haven’t yet resulted in much recognition from Greenpeace, Apple is earning accolades for efforts to green its products from the International Chemical Secretariat and Clean Product Action.
Continue reading »Guy Laliberté blasts off for One Drop in space
p2pnet news view P2P | Cool:- Canadian Guy Laliberté, who started out as an accordion player but went on to found the world-famuous Cirque du Soleil, ranks 261 in the Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires for 2009. Which is why he can afford to pay the Russians $35 million for a journey into space. Early this morning, he blasted of from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a rocket-powered trip to the international space station.
Continue reading »TJX Hacker Charged with Heartland, Hannaford Breaches
The constellation of hacks connected to the TJX hacker is growing. Albert “Segvec” Gonzalez, a former Secret Service informant who is already awaiting trial over his involvement in the TJX hack, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey, along with two unnamed Russia-based conspirators, with hacking into Heartland Payment Systems, the New Jersey based card processing company, as well as Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven, Inc, and two unnamed national retailers, according to the indictment unsealed Monday. Prosecutors say they’re investigating other breaches and have not ruled out Gonzalez’s involvement in even more intrusions.
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