Monday, August 17

In the news:


A MILLIESECOND: _Firesheep brings out the hacker in us all_

Let's be clear: I do not know how to hack a computer. However, with the release of a new Firefox extension, any schmo like myself could access your information stored as "cookies" fairly easily. And I did "“ I put my hand in the cookie jar, kind of. There were clear ethical dilemmas, but sans malice and for the sake of research, I was ready to try and hack my peers. Read more...


USAC holds Community Service Day

Last year, second-year neuroscience student Will Mendanha spent a day cleaning up the Pomona Wetlands for Community Service Day. Read more...

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About 400 students participated in Community Service Day last year. At this Saturday’s eighth annual service day, students will volunteer at a variety of organizations, including Children’s Hunger Fund, Tree Musketeers and Kitten Rescue.





Diagram measures planetary colors, may help investigate Earth-like planets through light

While growing up in rural New Hampshire, Carolyn Crow would gaze in wonder at the stars and planets in the night sky. Today, the UCLA graduate student's work with planetary colors may provide insight into planets outside our solar system and could lead to the discovery of other planets like Earth. As an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, Crow worked with her adviser, Dr. Lucy McFadden, to devise a method to distinguish Earth from other planets in the solar system based on color. The method involves plotting the colors of the planets on a "color-color space diagram," Crow said. On her color-color diagram, planets are separated into groups based on the colors their surfaces and atmospheres reflect. Read more...