jgeada - Slashdot User

High Fructose Corn Syrup Causes Bigger Weight Gain In Rats 542

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @05:30PM from the subsidies-cause-fatter-corn-farmers dept.

krou writes "In an experiment conducted by a Princeton University team, 'Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.' Long-term consumption also 'led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides.' Psychology professor Bart Hoebel commented that 'When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese — every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight.'"

Comment Re:But wait! (Score 1) 631

by jgeada on Friday March 19, 2010 @08:38PM (#31546126) Attached to: Company Sued, Loses For Not Using Patented Tech

Good tie in to the health care debate: I don't give a damn how unsafe you want to make your life as long as you don't show up at an emergency room when the inevitable catastrophe happens. If you intend to make use of the emergency room, then you'd better have fully paid up health insurance. But the odds are that you're also the overconfident idiot that thinks he won't need health insurance either. So, since the sane among us don't want to fork out for your stupidity, it is easier to guard (somewhat) against your ability to incur costs on us. Thus seat-belt, airbag, helmet laws. And yes, American table-saws are extremely unsafe. Heck, virtually none even have riving knives (required in European table saws), which means there are a significant number of standard cuts that can't be made with the saw guards in place: ie the saws are designed to be unsafe for normal use. Table saws cause more industrial accidents than any other tool, and maybe this type of judgement is a wake up call to the manufacturers.

Offline Book "Lending" Costs US Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion 494

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 19, 2010 @02:07PM from the oh-the-humanity dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from a tongue-in-cheek blog post which puts publisher worries about ebook piracy into perspective: "Hot on the heels of the story in Publisher's Weekly that 'publishers could be losing out on as much $3 billion to online book piracy' comes a sudden realization of a much larger threat to the viability of the book industry. Apparently, over 2 billion books were 'loaned' last year by a cabal of organizations found in nearly every American city and town. Using the same advanced projective mathematics used in the study cited by Publishers Weekly, Go To Hellman has computed that publishers could be losing sales opportunities totaling over $100 billion per year, losses which extend back to at least the year 2000. ... From what we've been able to piece together, the book 'lending' takes place in 'libraries.' On entering one of these dens, patrons may view a dazzling array of books, periodicals, even CDs and DVDs, all available to anyone willing to disclose valuable personal information in exchange for a 'card.' But there is an ominous silence pervading these ersatz sanctuaries, enforced by the stern demeanor of staff and the glares of other patrons. Although there's no admission charge and it doesn't cost anything to borrow a book, there's always the threat of an onerous overdue bill for the hapless borrower who forgets to continue the cycle of not paying for copyrighted material."

Copyright Industries Oppose Treaty For the Blind 135

Posted by kdawson on Saturday December 12, 2009 @04:29PM from the see-it-my-way dept.

langelgjm sends in a piece from Wired, which details the background of a proposed treaty to allow cross-border sharing of books for the blind — a treaty which is opposed by an almost unified front of business interests in the US, with the exception of Google. "A broad swath of American enterprise ranging from major software makers to motion picture and music companies are joining forces to oppose a new international treaty that would make books more accessible to the blind. With the exception of Google, almost every major industry player has expressed disapproval of the treaty, which would allow cross-border sharing of digitized books accessible to the blind and visually impaired. Google's chief copyright counsel believes the industry-wide opposition is mainly due to 'opposition to a larger agenda of limitations and exceptions... We believe this is an unproductive approach to solving what is a discrete, long-standing problem that affects a group that needs and deserves the protections of the international community.'"

Comment Re:Modern-Day Galileo (Score 1) 1747

by jgeada on Thursday December 10, 2009 @07:08PM (#30396128) Attached to: The Science Credibility Bubble

Agreed. Remember, at all times, in all countries, 50% of the people will be below median intelligence. And of those at or above the mark, some non-insignificant percentage will have received inferior education.
Everyone has an opinion, but the odds of their opinion being worth the time to even listen to aren't good.

Comment Re:RealClimate has a big reply on this (Score 1) 882

by jgeada on Friday November 20, 2009 @11:56PM (#30181718) Attached to: Climatic Research Unit Hacked, Files Leaked

Hmm, there seems to be some other ways the "game" may legitimately play out:

(S,H): the middle-of-the-road global warming theories turn out to have been conservative, the truth was in the more extreme models. Temperate zones that currently feed the bulk of the world population dry out causing massive widespread famines. Sea level rises quickly and flooding destroys most coastal cities (ie all the interesting/big ones) and world economy tanks. Warfare over the remaining resources breaks out. So long, thanks for the fish.

(R,H): world temperatures rise moderately, but air quality, water quality all improve significantly. Due to the investment in green energy, industrialized/educated economies stop sending nearly so much cash to nomadic desert people that happen to be sitting on lots of oil. With the cash to buy weapons drying out, fanatics the world over lose their easy cash income, terrorism dies out, world peace breaks out.

What credentials do I have to back up my game results? Show me yours first :-)

Climatic Research Unit Hacked, Files Leaked 882

Posted by kdawson on Friday November 20, 2009 @03:51PM from the playing-dirty dept.

huckamania was one of many readers to write with the news that the University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Unit was hacked, and internal documents released. Some discussion and analysis of the leaked items can be found at Watts Up With That. The CRU has confirmed that a breach occurred, but not that all 61 MB of released material is genuine. Some of the emails would seem to raise concerns about the science as practiced — or at least beg an explanation. From the Watts Up link: "[The CRU] is widely recognized as one of the world's leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change. Consisting of a staff of around thirty research scientists and students, the Unit has developed a number of the data sets widely used in climate research, including the global temperature record used to monitor the state of the climate system, as well as statistical software packages and climate models. An unknown person put postings on some climate skeptic websites that advertised an FTP file on a Russian FTP server. Here is the message that was placed on the Air Vent today: 'We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps. We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents.' The file was large, about 61 megabytes, containing hundreds of files. It contained data, code, and emails apparently from the CRU. If proved legitimate, these bombshells could spell trouble for the AGW crowd." Reader brandaman supplied the link to the archive of pilfered data. Reader aretae characterized the emails as revealing "...lots of intrigue, data manipulation, attempting to shut out opposing points of view out of scientific journals. Almost makes you think it's a religion. Anyone surprised?" And reader bugnuts adds, for context: "These emails are certainly taken out of context, whether they are legitimate or fraudulent, which adds to the confusion."

Submission + - CIT Group Files Capter 11 Bankruptcy (nytimes.com)

Submitted by cdmsr on Sunday November 01, 2009 @08:46PM

cdmsr writes: CIT Group filed for a 'pre-packaged' style bankruptcy on Sunday afternoon.. The 101-year old lender had received $2.3 Billion in bailout fund from the federal government last year in exchange for preferred stock. That money will likely be completely lost as a result of the action today.

Submission + - OpenGL vs. Direct3D (tomshardware.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01, 2009 @03:26AM

An anonymous reader writes: I'm working for a gaming company that is creating simple games like slot and card games, we are also controlling the hardware to run these games. Until recently we used our own propriety game engine on Windows XP, and within couple of months manage to convert it to Direct3D. I'm now checking the alternative to switch to Linux and OpenGL. Reading the review at Tom's Hardware gives the impression that it is not such a good idea. I'd like to learn from the experience of other developers regarding driver's support, ease of development (C++) and other such factors.

Plowing Carbon Into the Fields 467

Posted by kdawson on Saturday October 31, 2009 @11:47PM from the going-green-can-be-exhausting dept.

OzPeter writes "A wheat farmer in Australia has eliminated adding fertilizer to his crop by the simple process of injecting the cooled diesel exhaust of his modified tractor into the ground when the wheat is being sown. In doing so he eliminates releasing carbon into the atmosphere and at the same time saves himself up to $500,000 (AUD) that would have been required to fertilize his 3,900 hectares in the traditional way. Yet his crop yields over the last two years have been at least on par with his best yields since 2001. The technique was developed by a Canadian, Gary Lewis of Bio Agtive, and is currently in trial at 100 farms around the world."

Submission + - Microsoft's Lost Decade

Submitted by theodp on Saturday October 31, 2009 @05:03PM

theodp writes: Newsweek's Daniel Lyons explains Why Steve Ballmer is no Bill Gates, arguing that what most hurt Microsoft was BillG's decision to step down as CEO in January 2000: 'Gates was a software geek. He understood technology. Ballmer is a business guy.' And the problem with putting nontechies in charge of tech companies, concludes Lyons, is that they have blind spots. So while Microsoft's revenues nearly tripled from $23B to $58B under Ballmer's helm, says Lyons, the company became bureaucratic and lumbering, slowing down while the rest of the world — including Google, Apple and Amazon — sped up.

Lawmakers Caught Again By File-Sharing Software 203

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 31, 2009 @01:28PM from the guns-don't-kill-people,-file-sharers-do dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A document, apparently a 'confidential House ethics committee report,' was recently leaked through file-sharing software to the Washington Post. According to the article, 'The committee's review of investigations became available on file-sharing networks because of a junior staff member's use of the software while working from home.' Of course, P2P software is entirely at fault for this incident. If you begin seeing more interest in DRM from Congress, you now know why." Reader GranTuring points out that the RIAA took the opportunity to make a ridiculous statement of their own. They said, "the disclosure was evidence of a need for controls on peer-to-peer software to block the improper or illegal exchange of music."

Moon-Excavation Robots Face Off 61

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 31, 2009 @11:23AM from the can-you-dig-it dept.

avishere writes "Student teams designed and built robotic power-lifters to excavate simulated lunar soil (a.k.a. 'regolith') earlier this month, with $750,000 in prizes up for grabs. Excavating regolith, according to NASA, will be an important part of any construction projects or processing of natural resources on the Moon. Interestingly, regolith is especially difficult to dig because its dust particles want to stick together. The whole robotic system has to be sturdy enough to scoop moon dirt and powerful enough to move through the dust while still meeting the weight requirements. The winning excavator, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, lifted 1,103 pounds within the allotted time, and got its creators a sweet $500,000 for their troubles."

Submission + - UK govt fires drugs adviser for telling truth 2

Submitted by

David Gerard

on Friday October 30, 2009 @03:29PM

David Gerard writes: "Professor David Nutt of Imperial College was chairman of the British government's advisory committee on the misuse of drugs — until today. On Wednesday night, he gave a speech ahead of a paper noting that on the basis of harm, alcohol was far more dangerous than ecstasy or cannabis. Today, Home Secretary Alan Johnson has fired Professor Nutt, saying that "It is important that the government's messages on drugs are clear and as an advisor you do nothing to undermine them." Such as inconvenient matters of reality-based thinking, apparently. He did this just in time for the six o'clock news, and the press is up in arms. Channel 4 journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy notes with amazement that "nobody will come on to defend Alan Johnson. They all prefer to issue statements that can't be questioned." It's already being tagged the War on Science."

Comment Re:Liquids on planes (Score 3, Interesting) 560

by jgeada on Tuesday October 27, 2009 @04:08PM (#29888303) Attached to: Laptop Fires On Airplanes

I do not believe that the statement "private companies aren't required to make any service available to anyone they don't want to" is quite correct. Once a product is on the market you do have to sell it to everyone on equal terms. You are not allowed to discriminate against potential clients on the base of gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs/non-beliefs, political affiliations etc. Just try to run a bus service that requires people of different races to sit in different sections of the bus to see what I mean. Just being a corporation does not give you the rights to ignore the law.

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