21989826
submission
Endloser writes:
Irony has her day as Chris Hansen has been caught cheating on his wife with a woman 20 years younger than himself, and on hidden camera. Chris, who is 51 and married, is alleged to have been cheating on his wife with 30 year old Florida journalist Kristyn Caddell in southern Florida for the last four months.
21989408
submission
h1q writes:
MySpace was sold today for less than a tenth of what it was purchased for six years ago.
What will Facebook and LinkedIn be worth six years from now?
21988472
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Ad-targeting firm Specific Media has agreed to buy News Corp.'s struggling social-media site Myspace.
The deal, expected to be announced today, values Myspace at between $30 million and $40 million, well below the $100 million News Corp. was seeking for the troubled social-media site. The deal involves considerably more equity for News Corp. than cash, according to a person familiar with the matter. News Corp will retain a small stake in the site, the people familiar with the matter said.
21392282
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
An international group of physicists has found a way of measuring both the position and the momentum of photons passing through the double-slit experiment, upending the idea that it is impossible to measure both properties in the lab at the same time.
In the classic double-slit experiment, first done more than 200 years ago, light waves passing through two parallel slits create a characteristic pattern of light and dark patches on a screen positioned behind the slits. The patches correspond to the points on the screen where the peaks and troughs of the waves diffracting out from the two slits combine with one another either constructively or destructively.
In the early twentieth century, physicists showed that this interference pattern was evident even when the intensity of the light was so low that photons pass through the apparatus one at a time. In other words, individual photons seem to interfere with themselves, so light exhibits both particle-like and wave-like properties.
However, placing detectors at the slits to determine which one a particle is passing through destroys the interference pattern on the screen behind. This is a manifestation of Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which states that it is not possible to precisely measure both the position (which of the two slits has been traversed) and the momentum (represented by the interference pattern) of a photon.
What quantum physicist Aephraim Steinberg of the University of Toronto in Canada and his colleagues have now shown, however, is that it is possible to precisely measure photons' position and obtain approximate information about their momentum, in an approach known as 'weak measurement'.
Steinberg's group sent photons one by one through a double slit by using a beam splitter and two lengths of fibre-optic cable. Then they used an electronic detector to measure the positions of photons at some distance away from the slits, and a calcite crystal in front of the detector to change the polarization of the photon, and allow them to make a very rough estimate of each photon's momentum from that change.
Average trajectory
By measuring the momentum of many photons, the researchers were able to work out the average momentum of the photons at each detector. They then moved the crystal progressively further away from the slits, and so by "connecting the dots" were able to trace out the average trajectories of the photons. They did this while still recording an interference pattern at each detector position.
Intriguingly, the trajectories closely match those predicted by an unconventional interpretation of quantum mechanics known as pilot-wave theory, in which each particle has a well-defined trajectory that takes it through one slit while the associated wave passes through both slits. The traditional interpretation of quantum mechanics, known as the Copenhagen interpretation, dismisses the notion of trajectories, and maintains that it is meaningless to ask what value a variable, such as momentum, has if that's not what is being measured.
Steinberg stresses that his group's work does not challenge the uncertainty principle, pointing out that the results could, in principle, be predicted with standard quantum mechanics. But, he says, "it is not necessary to interpret the uncertainty principle as rigidly as we are often taught to do", arguing that other interpretations of quantum mechanics, such as the pilot-wave theory, might "help us to think in new ways".
"Experiments are only relevant in science when they are crucial tests between at least two good explanatory theories," Deutsch says. "Here, there was only one, namely that the equations of quantum mechanics really do describe reality."David Deutsch of the University of Oxford, UK, is not convinced that the experiment has told us anything new about how the universe works. He says that although "it's quite cool to see strange predictions verified", the results could have been obtained simply by "calculating them using a computer and the equations of quantum mechanics".
But Steinberg thinks his work could have prectical applications. He believes it could help to improve logic gates for quantum computers, by allowing the gates to repeat an operation deemed to have failed previously. "Under the normal interpretation of quantum mechanics we can't pose the question of what happened at an earlier time," he says. "We need something like weak measurement to even pose this question."
21337722
submission
lucidkoan writes:
Today the World Health Organization declared electromagnetic radiation from cell phones to be a class 2B carcinogen (pdf) — the same classification as lead, auto exhaust, and the pesticide DDT. The announcement was spurred by a series of studies peer-reviewed by a team of 31 scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, who found that radiation emitted by cell phones is "possibly carcinogenic to humans".
21080138
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
Sony Corp has been hacked again.
So-Net, the Internet service provider unit of Japan's Sony, alerted customers that an intruder broke into its system and stole virtual points from account holders worth $1,225.
This latest setback comes after personal information of some 100 million Sony user accounts was stolen last month when its online gaming systems, the PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment, were hacked.
“What we've done is stopped the So-Net points exchanges and told customers to change their passwords,” So-Net said in a statement to customers on its website in Japanese.
About 100,000 yen ($1,225) was stolen from accounts that were attacked. The company said there was no evidence that other accounts in the online system had been hacked.
“At this point in our investigations, we have not confirmed any data leakage. We have not found any sign of a possibility that a third party has obtained members' names, address, birth dates and phone numbers.”
Security experts have told Reuters that Sony's networks around the world remain vulnerable to attack.
Sony in the U.S. could not immediately be reached on Friday.
20931188
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
Hackers have broken into two websites belonging to Japanese video games maker Square Enix.
The company confirmed that the e-mail addresses of up to 25,000 customers who had registered for product updates may have been stolen as a result.
Resumes of 350 people applying for jobs in its Canadian office could also have been copied from the web servers.
Square Enix, which makes the popular Final Fantasy, Deus Ex and Tomb Raider games, apologised for the breach.
In a statement, it said: "Square Enix can confirm a group of hackers gained access to parts of our Eidosmontreal.com website as well as two of our product sites.
"We immediately took the sites offline to assess how this had happened and what had been accessed, then took further measures to increase the security of these and all of our websites, before allowing the sites to go live again."
It is understood that the websites affected were Eidosmontreal.com, run by Square Enix's subsidiary Eidos, and Deusex.com, a promotional site for the forthcoming game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
20923842
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that people cannot keep police from entering their homes, even if the entry is "unlawful."
In a 3-2 decision, the court held there are valid reasons for police officers to enter homes without a warrant and without knocking , including concerns for an officer's safety or that a suspect may escape or that evidence may be destroyed.
"We believe. . .a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," wrote Justice Steven David. "We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest."
David said a person arrested following an unlawful entry by police can still be released on bail and has other opportunities to protest the entry through the court system.
20897342
submission
smoke writes:
Scala 2.9.0 has been released.
20876092
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
The Crab Nebula has shocked astronomers by emitting an unprecedented blast of gamma rays, the highest-energy light in the Universe.
The cause of the 12 April gamma-ray flare, described at the Third Fermi Symposium in Rome, is a total mystery.
It seems to have come from a small area of the famous nebula, which is the wreckage from an exploded star.
The object has long been considered a steady source of light, but the Fermi telescope hints at greater activity.
The gamma-ray emission lasted for some six days, hitting levels 30 times higher than normal and varying at times from hour to hour.
While the sky abounds with light across all parts of the spectrum, Nasa's Fermi space observatory is designed to measure only the most energetic light: gamma rays.
These emanate from the Universe's most extreme environments and violent processes.
The Crab Nebula is composed mainly of the remnant of a supernova, which was seen on Earth to rip itself apart in the year 1054.
At the heart of the brilliantly coloured gas cloud we can see in visible light, there is a pulsar — a rapidly spinning neutron star that emits radio waves which sweep past the Earth 30 times per second. But so far none of the nebula's known components can explain the signal Fermi sees, said Roger Blandford, director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, US.
"The origin of these high-energy gamma rays has to be some other source," he told BBC News.
"It takes about six years for light to cross the nebula, so it must be a very compact region in comparison to the size of the nebula that's producing these outbursts on the time scales of hours."
20850210
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
Should the teachings of the Church of Scientology shape the integrity and moral rectitude of children in Illinois’ public schools? A resolution before the state’s House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee this week poses that very question.
House Resolution 254 would endorse three options for character education in the state’s public school system, including Good Choices, a curriculum based on a code of conduct created by Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard.
According to the resolution, the Good Choices program would satisfy the state school code that states “every public school teacher shall teach respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, trustworthiness, and citizenship, in order to raise pupils’ honesty, kindness, justice, discipline, respect for others and moral courage for the purpose of lessening crime and raising the standard of good character.”
The code of conduct, titled “The Way to Happiness,” offers 21 precepts for a happier life, including many principles that resemble the 10 Commandments, the Golden Rule and advice from Mom.
State Rep. Jerry Mitchell (R-Sterling), a spokesman for the state’s House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, said he had no problem with the common sense content of the book until he turned to the back page, which listed Hubbard as the author.
The person campaigning for the curriculum also raises eyebrows, he said. Actress Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson and a well-known Scientologist, will lobby the panel on Wednesday. The resolution's sponsor, State Rep. Dan Burke (D-Chicago), thought it would be fun to have the voice of the mischievous and ribald cartoon character backing character education, Mitchell said. (Burke has not yet been reached for comment.)
But “levity has turned to consternation,” Mitchell said. The program’s ties to the Church of Scientology risks violating the “strong separation of church and state in our constitution,” he said. He would knock a code of conduct authored by Pope John Paul II as much as the one authored by Hubbard, he said.
19972784
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
TOKYO (Reuters) — Plutonium found in soil at the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex heightened alarm on Tuesday over Japan's lengthy battle to contain the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the radioactive material, which is used in nuclear bombs, was traced in soil at five locations at the complex, hit by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
The drama at the six-reactor facility has compounded the Asian nation's agony after the natural disasters killed at least 11,000 people, left more than 17,000 missing, and made about a quarter of a million people homeless in the devastated north.
In a briefing around midnight in Tokyo, the vice-president of under-pressure TEPCO apologized for making people even more worried with the announcement — but stressed the traces of plutonium 238, 239 and 240 were not dangerous.
"Plutonium found this time is at a similar level seen in soil in a regular environment and it's not at the level that's harmful to human health," Sakae Muto told reporters.
Muto said the readings were similar to those found in the past in other parts of Japan due to particles carried in the atmosphere after nuclear testing abroad.
TEPCO said it was unclear where the plutonium was from, though it appeared two of the five finds were related to damage from the plant rather than from the atmosphere.
19972168
submission
bityz writes:
ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2011) Scientists have claimed one of the milestones in the drive for sustainable energy — development of the first practical artificial leaf. Speaking in Anaheim, California at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they described an advanced solar cell the size of a poker card that mimics the process, called photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert sunlight and water into energy.
19908232
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
The theory that our sense of smell has its basis in quantum physics events is gaining traction, say researchers.
The idea remains controversial, but scientists reporting at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, are slowly unpicking how it could work.
The key, they say, is tiny packets of energy, or quanta, lost by electrons.
Experiments using tiny wires show that as electrons move on proteins within the nose, odor molecules could absorb these quanta and thereby be detected.
If the theory is right, by extending these studies, an "electronic nose" superior to any chemical sensor could be devised.
In 1996, Luca Turin, now of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, suggested that the "vibrational modes" of an odorant were its signature.
Molecules can be viewed as a collection of atoms on springs, and energy of just the right frequency — a quantum — can cause the spring to vibrate.
Since different assemblages of molecules have different characteristic frequencies, Turin proposed, these vibrations could act as a molecular signature.
The idea has been debated in the scientific literature, but presentations at the American Physical Society meeting put the theory on firmer footing.
Most recently, Dr Turin published a paper showing that flies can distinguish between molecules that are chemically similar but in which a heavier version of hydrogen had been substituted.
