• NSA revelations raise doubts about passage of cybersecurity legislation

    U.S. officials say the revelations about the National Security Agency’s(NSA) domestic surveillance programs could make it harder for lawmakers to pass a cybersecurity bill. Critics of the House cybersecurity bill, known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which was passed earlier this year (it is still being debated in the Senate), argued the bill could lead to private information falling into the hands of the NSA.

  • Lawmakers want to ease travel to U.S. as part of immigration legislation

    A bi-partisan group of House lawmakers is working to include a provision in the House immigration legislation which will make it easier to travel to the United States. Travel industry groups support the effort, having fought for years to get the government to relax security measures. The industry has argued that these measures have turned off many foreigners from traveling to the United States.

  • Improving crop resilience, yields in a world of extreme weather

    Farmers in the United States witnessed record-breaking extremes in temperature and drought during the last two summers, causing worldwide increases in the costs of food, feed and fiber. Indeed, many climate scientists caution that extreme weather events resulting from climate change is the new normal for farmers in North America and elsewhere, requiring novel agricultural strategies to prevent crop losses. UC Riverside-led research team develops new chemical for improving crop drought tolerance.

  • Rapid, on-site detection of illegal cooking oils

    In recent years, illegal cooking oil incident in China caused serious food safety risks. Researchers have developed two rapid and convenient colorimetric detection methods of illegal cooking oils based on phase transfer technology.

  • FDA shuts down more than 1,500 online pharmacies

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Interpol have shutdown 1,677 online pharmacies for selling counterfeit or substandard medication and selling drugs without the necessary safeguards.

  • Our farblondzhet senators

    The Senate immigration reform bill has been presented as an effort to resolve the many complex problems resulting from the Immigration and Reform Act (IRCA) of 1986. Whether the bill passed by the Senate yesterday will succeed remains to be seen, but what is not in doubt is the fact that the border security provisions in the bill, in the words of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), read “like a Christmas wish list for Halliburton” and other big defense contractors. This is unfortunate, because the U.S.-Mexico border has become a graveyard for a long list of ambitious, technology-heavy – but ultimately ineffective and exceedingly wasteful – programs.

  • Renewables to surpass gas by 2016 in the global power mix: IEA

    An International Energy Agency (IEA) report says power generation from hydro, wind, solar, and other renewable sources worldwide will exceed that from gas and be twice that from nuclear by 2016.

  • Transporting diluted bitumen through pipelines does not increase likelihood of release

    Scientific study has found that the thick Canadian crude oil, known asdiluted bitumen, whichwould be shipped to the U.S. through the Keystone XL pipleline is no more dangerous than transporting other types of crude oil.

  • Environmentalists begin a summer of protest against Keystone project

    A coalition of environmentalist groups calling itself “fearless summer” launched what it said would be a series of protests against the Keystone XLL pipeline project. Near the city of Seminole, Oklahoma, members of the group shackled themselves to industrial equipment and disruoted work at Keystone-related construction site. Ten were arrested.

  • Steering clear of tipping points – and economic collapses

    A new study shows how specific parameters can help us steer clear of tipping points in dynamic systems, such as entire economies. By managing macro-economic parameters, scientists believe it is possible to steer an economy around irreversible changes in its complex dynamics and avert potential economic disasters.

  • States eager to attract cybersecurity companies

    As the threat of cyberattacks grows, Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia want to cash in on the growing business of cybersecurity. Analysts say that several states are using tax breaks to get in on the $207 billion cybersecurity industry, which is expected to show “impressive growth” in the next five years.

  • New guide highlights three cyber security game changers

    Cybercrime is on the rise, and it will grow even faster if organizations ignore an emerging group of cybersecurity game changers: always-on connectivity, an increasingly IT-centric society, and a new class system that separates people by technology skills.

  • Smart technologies tackle global food shortage

    From monitoring soil moisture to measuring oyster heartbeats, Aussie farmers can help to tackle the global food shortage and significantly increase their productivity by taking advantage of new smart farming technologies enabled by next generation broadband networks.

  • $110 billion in damages makes 2012 second only to 2005 in terms of weather-related disasters

    The U.S. National Climatic Data Center’s (NCDC) says that 2012 saw eleven weather and climate disaster events each with losses exceeding $1 billion in damages. This makes 2012 the second costliest year since 1980, with a total of more than $110 billion in damages throughout the year. The 2012 total damages rank only behind 2005, which incurred $160 billion in damages due in part to four devastating land-falling hurricanes.

  • Factors influencing spinach E. coli contamination before harvest

    Researchers have identified a variety of factors that influence the likelihood of E. coli contamination of spinach on farms prior to harvest. They found that E. coli contamination of spinach on farms in Colorado and Texas was 172 times more likely if the produce field was within ten miles of a poultry farm, and sixty-four times more likely if irrigated by pond water.