Within the last month, our country has witnessed two senseless, high-profile acts of criminal violence that would have been labeled terrorism if brown-skinned Arab Muslim men with foreign-sounding names had committed them.

HipToday writes "As posted on the OpenBSD Journal, OpenSSH 5.4 has been released: 'Some highlights of this release are the disabling of protocol 1 by default, certificate authentication, a new "netcat mode," many changes on the sftp front (both client and server) and a collection of assorted bugfixes. The new release can already be found on a large number of mirrors and of course on www.openssh.com.""

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Headlines leading up to the annual Austin, Texas conference would make you think that the rivalry between Gowalla and Foursquare will define the nascent 'geolocation' market. Hold your horses: We don't even really know what Facebook will do about this.

This past weekend, Iraq had a real election and in spite of threats and bombings, millions of voters participated in record numbers. It is a giant step forward in Iraq's road to democracy and has the potential to be a beacon for others in this battle-scarred region.

Colleen LaRose, the Pennsylvania woman indicted for allegedly conspiring to support terrorists and kill a person in a foreign country, attempted to commit suicide in 2005, according to a police report filed at the time.

ED will examine the academic opportunities and access of English Learner students in the Los Angeles Unified School District to assess whether they are being denied equal educational opportunities.

Is green tech just another dotcom bubble waiting to happen? Mini bubbles have already burst but there remains societal push for cleaner and domestic sources of energy.

Former 1980s teen movie actor and heartthrob Corey Haim died early Wednesday, authorities said.

The Pennsylvania woman who dubbed herself Jihad Jane is an American who lived literally on Main Street in an apartment where she spent much time online, posting messages saying she was "desperate to do something" to help Muslims.

It's a grass-roots protest movement composed of the newly politicized and people distrustful of hierarchy. So how is it possible to be an illegitimate Tea Party member?

Healthier men, no matter their age, are going to have better sex more frequently and desire it more often than healthier women.

Zordak writes "Amazon's infamous '1-click' patent has been in reexamination at the USPTO for almost four years. Patently-O now reports that 'the USPTO confirmed the patentability of original claims 6-10 and amended claims 1-5 and 11-26. The approved-of amendment adds the seeming trivial limitation that the one-click system operates as part of a "shopping cart model." Thus, to infringe the new version of the patent, an eCommerce retailer must use a shopping cart model (presumably non-1-click) alongside of the 1-click version. Because most retail eCommerce sites still use the shopping cart model, the added limitation appears to have no practical impact on the patent scope.'" Also covered at TechFlash.

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The Firefox backer wants to modernize and simplify the Mozilla Public License and sets an ambitious November deadline.

A few days after I had returned from a six-month deployment to Iraq, my second sojourn in the Middle East since 2001, I remember feeling like I was an alien creature from some other planet.

Some 65 years after their service, a group of former civilian women pilots whose unheralded work was key to helping the U.S. effort in World War II were honored Wednesday with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Geeks rock.

Referenced CVEs:  CVE-2010-0408, CVE-2010-0434 Description:  =========================================================== Ubuntu Security Notice USN-908-1 March 10, 2010 apache2 vulnerabilities CVE-2010-0408, CVE-2010-0434 =========================================================== A security issue affects the following Ubuntu releases: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Ubuntu 8.10 Ubuntu 9.04 Ubuntu 9.10 This advisory also applies to the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu. The problem can be corrected by upgrading your system to the following package versions: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS: apache2-common 2.0.55-4ubuntu2.10 Ubuntu 8.04 LTS: apache2.2-common 2.2.8-1ubuntu0.15 Ubuntu 8.10: apache2.2-common 2.2.9-7ubuntu3.6 Ubuntu 9.04: apache2.2-common 2.2.11-2ubuntu2.6 Ubuntu 9.10: apache2.2-common 2.2.12-1ubuntu2.2 In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes. Details follow: It was discovered that mod_proxy_ajp did not properly handle errors when a client doesn't send a request body. A remote attacker could exploit this with a crafted request and cause a denial of service. This issue affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10. (CVE-2010-0408) It was discovered that Apache did not properly handle headers in subrequests under certain conditions. A remote attacker could exploit this with a crafted request and possibly obtain sensitive information from previous requests. (CVE-2010-0434)

Simmering tension between the White House and U.S. Supreme Court spilled into public this week when Chief Justice John Roberts labeled the political atmosphere at the State of the Union address "very troubling."

Barence writes "A debate that crops up time and again is whether it's better to have a dedicated keyboard on your smartphone or whether an on-screen keyboard with text correction is adequate. Some phones with screen-based keyboards have started to provide tactile feedback, either using an ultra-quick spin of their vibration alert or, like the BlackBerry Storm2, using clever piezo-electric technology to simulate the feel of a button press. But which system works best? PC Pro's Paul Ockendon gathered six of the most popular handsets around and put them through a timed typing test to see which proved quickest and most typo-free."

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A 23-year-old American activist stands in front of an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza. The bulldozer drives over her, crushing her to death. These are the facts.