Comment Re:They (well some of them) are mental disorders (Score 1) 412
Must be a birth defect. Maybe they'll invent a pill to fix that someday :)
Comment Re:Transgender Persons (Score 1) 412
Sure. Next up: a 'cure' for being gay. Or lesbian. Or a conservative. Or a liberal.
The Search For Starivores, Intelligent Life That Could Eat the Sun 300
sarahnaomi writes: There could be all manner of alien life forms in the universe, from witless bacteria to superintelligent robots. Still, the notion of a starivore — an organism that literally devours stars — may sound a bit crazy, even to a seasoned sci-fi fan. And yet, if such creatures do exist, they're probably lurking in our astronomical data right now.
That's why philosopher Dr. Clement Vidal, who's a researcher at the Free University of Brussels, along with Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology Stephen Dick, futurist John Smart, and nanotech entrepreneur Robert Freitas are soliciting scientific proposals to seek out star-eating life.
That's why philosopher Dr. Clement Vidal, who's a researcher at the Free University of Brussels, along with Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology Stephen Dick, futurist John Smart, and nanotech entrepreneur Robert Freitas are soliciting scientific proposals to seek out star-eating life.
Comment Re:It's more than people with nerd privilege deser (Score 1) 287
I don't have one, you insensitive clod!
Comment Re:It's more than people with nerd privilege deser (Score 1) 287
I'm confused now. Why would rats need money?
Comment Re:Scare them with China, make it a contest again (Score 2) 287
And to what end? What was that line from the Stargate SG1 tv series? Oh, yes:
They said the something about the Apollo program, they brought back moon rocks. You may have noticed we haven't been to the moon in 25 years.
To the best of my knowledge, there's nothing of value on the moon. Instead, it's full of razor sharp rocks and razor sharp dust. Why would anyone want to live there? Just to wave that flag you planted around every day?
Comment Diet/Exercize (Score 1) 214
I want to level up!
Comment Re:Choose the right diet (Score 1) 214
I looked at that website and to me, it looked like a fundraising efford. Give that research grant to us, because we know better how to do proper research. Nothing more, nothing less.
Comment Re:No problem. (Score 1) 137
You must be new here.
Comment Oh No! (Score 1) 153
A blinding flash of the obvious!
Comment Re:I'm quite surprised it wasn't (Score 1) 523
Perhaps, but, statistically, a failing rocket will not fall on your head, but nearby. Then you care if your land is only burned and poisoned or irradiated, burned and poisoned
FTFY. Rocket fuel (hydazine) is highly toxic. If a rocket goes down near your home, you WILL be in trouble no matter what.
Real Steampunk Computer Brought Back To Life 81
New submitter engineerguy writes We discovered a 100 year old 19th century computer that does Fourier analysis with just gears spring and levers. It was locked in a glass case at the University of Illinois Department of Mathematics. We rebuilt a small part of the machine and then for two years thoroughly photographed and filmed every part part of the machine and its operation. The results of this labor of love are in the video series (short documentary), which is 22 minutes long and contains stunning footage of the machine in action — including detailed descriptions of how it operates. The photos are collected in a free book (PDF). The computer was designed by Albert Michelson, who was famous for the Michelson-Morley experiment; he was also the first American to win a Nobel Prize in physics.
Comment Re:Congratulations! (Score 5, Informative) 188
The mission in it's entirety, including the planning stage, took around 25 years. Or so they said during the post-landing press conference.
Comment Semi-live coverage for the bandwidth-impaired (Score 5, Informative) 74
EU Court Rules Embedding YouTube Videos Is Not Copyright Infringement 68
Maurits van der Schee writes "The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that embedding a copyrighted YouTube video in your site is not copyright infringement. From the article: "The case in question was referred to EU’s Court of Justice by a German court. It deals with a dispute between the water filtering company BestWater International and two men who work as independent commercial agents for a competitor. Bestwater accused the men of embedding one of their promotional videos, which was available on YouTube without the company’s permission. The video was embedded on the personal website of the two through a frame, as is usual with YouTube videos. While EU law is clear on most piracy issues, the copyright directive says very little about embedding copyrighted works. The Court of Justice, however, now argues that embedding is not copyright infringement."
