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Sci-Fi

Submission + - Scientists Discover 'Kryptonite' in Serbian Mine

Submitted by
TheCybernator
TheCybernator writes: "Scientists have discovered a new mineral that matches the composition of kryptonite, the mythical rock that could sap Superman's strength in comic books. The rock — named jadarite — was discovered in a mine in Jadar, Serbia, by the Rio Tinto company and identified by London's Natural History Museum. Though the white rock didn't resemble anything known to real-life man, it did match the one substance known to destroy Superman's power. "The new mineral does not contain fluorine and is white rather than green, but in all other respects the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite," said Chris Stanley, the mineralogist who identified the jadarite. The mineral is sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, which "probably won't do Superman or us any harm whatsoever," said Mike Rumsey, a mineral curator for the museum."
Mozilla

Submission + - Must-Have Extensions for Thunderbird 2.0

Submitted by Operator
Operator writes: While Firefox has been in the spotlight for some time now, Thunderbird has yet to enjoy the same wide adoption or glowing praise despite being an excellent email client. It's no surprise that a popular topic has been Firefox's best (and worst) extensions while Thunderbird add-ons have gone largely unnoticed. In celebration of the recent release of Thunderbird 2.0 here are the best extensions for the program along with some honorable mentions.
Math

Submission + - BBC and William Hill fail miserably at statistics

Submitted by
goatpunch
goatpunch writes: "According to the BBC a male and female child have an 18.1% and 23.5% chance respectively of reaching age 100. By age 40 these chances have apparently dropped to 8% and 11.7%. What on earth can account for such a vast reduction in the odds? Surely they should improve with age.

How on earth did the expert statisticians at William Hill give a 90 year old a 0.4% chance (250 to 1) of reaching 100. Something is wrong here. This story has been widely reported, but no-one has pointed out the glaring error in the statistics- bookmakers employ people who devote their lives to defeating gamblers through statistics."
Education

Submission + - Good Teaching Tools for the Kids

Submitted by jdramer
jdramer writes: I was recently asked by someone who home-schools her kids what kind of programs are available for teaching kids about what you can do with computers. She was thinking things like computer animation, drawing programs; basically anything that encourages creativity. So I'm wondering what programs are out there that would be good for young children in primary school?

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