A 17-year-old Idaho student reportedly hired someone to overwhelm his school districts computer system with a Distributed Denial of Service attack. A spokesperson for the school district told KTVB that the DDoS attack restricted many schools access to the internet but did not go after any student's data. The general havoc caused by the interruption of service at schools caused many students to lose their work while taking the Idaho Standard Achievement tests. You might think that getting to take a break from standardized testing would be cause to celebrate but that is not the case. Some kids have had to re-take the test more than once during the week and a half that the DDoS attacks took place. The student responsible has been suspended and recommended for expulsion. The teen will most likely serve up to 180 days in a juvenile detention center for the state felony charge that this offense carries and may be facing federal felony charges as well.
news
Via BBC:
The vast plume was initially spotted by amateur astronomers in 2012, and appeared twice before vanishing.
Scientists have now analysed the images and say that say the formation, stretching for more than 1,000km, is larger than any seen before.
Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers believe the plume could be a large cloud or an exceptionally bright aurora.
However, they are unsure how these could have formed in the thin upper reaches of the Martian atmosphere.
"It raises more questions than answers," said Antonio Garcia Munoz, a planetary scientist from the European Space Agency.
Minneapolis teacher, Starri Hedges, is now dealing with upset parents after taking kids from middle to high school age on a field trip to a local adults-only emporium named Smitten Kitten. The store itself offers educational workshops which the students took part in from a library section of the store that was separate, but apparently in view of, the products they offer. Angry parents were not aware of the trip before it took place but since the school in question is a K-12 private school, it is unclear whether any laws were broken.
Hedges herself admitted to the Star Tribune that she "unfortunately didn't communicate well enough with parents ahead of time." While that was unquestionably poor judgment, the rest of the issues surrounding the trip remain in a grey area. Investigation is ongoing to the conditions of the shop and context of the trip to determine if Hedges or the store violated any laws by bringing the students there.
One of the world's great radio telescopes isn't hearing voices – for the first time another giant dish has picked up one of the mysterious "fast radio bursts" (FRBs) that have been puzzling astronomers at the Parkes Radio Telescope. The find confirms these bursts indeed come from outer space, but beyond that their source is still wide open.
Last year the astronomers reported four bursts picked up by the celebrated Australian telescope. As each FRB lasted around a millisecond there was no time to have other telescopes check the same location, and the fact that no other telescope had picked up anything similar raised the possibility that something local was interfering with the Parkes telescope.
Now, however The Astrophysical Journal reports that the 305m Arecibo Telescope has picked up a similar burst while searching for pulsars. The burst occurred in 2012, but not noticed at the time. "FRB 121102's brightness, duration, and the inferred event rate are all consistent with the properties of the previously detected Parkes bursts," the authors report.
In a super-touching image, a British Mom posted a back-to-school picture of her daughter Emily after losing her to childhood cancer in a super-effective effort to raise awareness of the disease.
She is encouraging everyone on Facebook to "Go Gold for Cancer Awareness" on your profile pic, like this:
Get all the links to show your support on Facebook and Twitter, and to learn more about the "Go Gold Project" here.
Boston Marathon runner, Mike Rossi, took his two third-graders out of school to go with him and his wife on a family vacation. The girls missed three days of school during a trip that included watching their father run the Boston Marathon and touring historical sites in Boston. In return they received a form letter from their school saying that the days they missed would be counted as unexcused absences. Rossi's written response to the school supporting his children's educational experience on the trip has gotten a lot of media attention.
Rossi does not deny that this is the policy of the school. Concerning his response to the schools letter, Rossi said this to Philadelphia Magazine:
"These rules should be in place for parents who aren't involved and who, in some cases, don't even know their kids are absent. This is not for responsible parents trying to teach their kids the right things and teach them about the world outside the classroom."
The largest solar sail ever constructed is headed for the launch pad in 2014 on a mission to demonstrate the value of "propellantless propulsion"— the act of using photons from the sun to push a craft through space.
