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Submission + - Is Chernobyl still dangerous or was 60 Minutes pushing propaganda? (atomicinsights.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ron Adams is a long time nuclear advocate, so read with that in mind. This article is an interesting take on media presentation of the present Chernobyl situation.

"The show is full of fascinating contrasts between what the cameras show to the audience and what the narrator tells the audience that they should believe."

Submission + - You're Doing it All Wrong - Solar Panels Should Face West Not South

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: In the US, a new solar project is installed every 3.2 minutes and the number of cumulative installations now stands at more than 500,000. For years, homeowners who bought solar panels were advised to mount them on the roof facing south to capture the most solar energy over the course of the day. Now Matthew L. Wald writes in the NYT that panels should be pointed south so that peak power comes in the afternoon when the electricity is more valuable. In late afternoon, homeowners are more likely to watch TV, turn on the lights or run the dishwasher. Electricity prices are also higher at that period of peak demand. “The predominance of south-facing panels may reflect a severe misalignment in energy supply and demand,” say the authors of the study, Barry Fischer and Ben Harack. Pointing panels to the west means that in the hour beginning at 5 p.m., they produce 55 percent of their peak output. But point them to the south to maximize total output, and when the electric grid needs it most, they are producing only 15 percent of peak.

While some solar panel owners are paid time-of-use rates and are compensated by the utility in proportion to prices on the wholesale electric grid, many panel owners cannot take advantage of the higher value of electricity at peak hours because they are paid a flat rate, so the payment system creates an incentive for the homeowner to do the wrong thing. The California Energy Commission recently announced a bonus of up to $500 for new installations that point west. "We are hoping to squeeze more energy out of the afternoon daylight hours when electricity demand is highest," says David Hochschild, lead commissioner for the agency’s renewable energy division, which will be administering the program. "By encouraging west-facing solar systems, we can better match our renewable supply with energy demand."

Submission + - An Online Game of Skill, Played for Money

Submitted by Capt.Albatross
Capt.Albatross writes: Jason Rohrer, a game developer with an artistic flair (Passage, Sleep is Death) is developing a new game, Cordial Minuet (an anagram of 'demonic ritual'). It is a two-person game of skill, to be played online for money. Rohrer believes that, as a game of skill, it avoids falling foul of U.S. gambling legislation. Emanuel Maiberg's interview of Rohrer discusses the game play, Rohrer's steps to avoid legal problems while monetizing it, and whether games of skill avoid the ethical problems of gambling.

Comment Re:Mass produce! (Score 2) 194

by jdschulteis (#48470721) Attached to: Jackie Chan Discs Help Boost Solar Panel Efficiency

Solar panels = Small percentage of power production Small percentage * 1.22 = Small percentage, just a shade higher.

Its not a game changer. Its just a nice development.

Efficiency improvements, mass production, and making coal internalize the cost of CO2 emissions will eventually make photovoltaics more cost-effective than coal. Once that point is reached, solar will take over a large percentage of electricity production. This might not be the improvement that puts it over the top, but I think your dismissive analysis is a little too simplistic.

Submission + - Rosetta represents an important step forward towards space mining (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: There are two overlapping demands for space mining, and both are explanding. The first is "in-situ resource utilization" (ISRU), because, at some point, it’s far more efficient to gather local resources, especially water for life support and propellant, than to bring all necessary materials from Earth. Commerce represents the second driver for space mining, gathering rare materials such as precious metals from asteroids for use on Earth. So when When Rosetta deployed its Philae probe, the first-ever vehicle to land (or rather dock) on the surface of a comet, it was cause for cheer from three intersecting communities who all have a stake in space mining: science, exploration, and commercial interests.

Submission + - Google Chrome Will Block All NPAPI Plugins By Default In January

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google today provided an update on its plan to remove Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) from Chrome, which the company says will improve the browser’s security, speed, and stability, as well as reduce complexity in the code base. In short, the latest timeline is as follows: Block all plugins by default in January 2015, disable support in April 2015, and remove support completely in September 2015. For context, Google first announced in September 2013 that it was planning to drop NPAPI. At the time, Google said anonymous Chrome usage data showed just six NPAPI plugins were used by more than 5 percent of users, and the company was hoping to remove support from Chrome “before the end of 2014, but the exact timing will depend on usage and user feedback.”

Comment Re:Legal Issue (Score 1) 153

by jdschulteis (#48451067) Attached to: NASA Offering Contracts To Encourage Asteroid Mining
The US has ratified the Outer Space Treaty, so we don't own the Moon (the plaque on the lander says "We came in peace for all mankind").

Articles II and III of the treaty are pertinent:

Article II

Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.

Article III

States Parties to the Treaty shall carry on activities in the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, in accordance with international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, in the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international co-operation and understanding.

By Article II, the US cannot make a sovereign claim to an an asteroid and assign mineral rights as it does on other federal lands, unless it abrogates the treaty. By Article III, "use of ... celestial bodies, in accordance with international law", it seems similar to mining on the sea floor in international waters, which is governed by an international authority.

Submission + - Harvard Students Move Fossil Fuel Stock Fight to Court (nytimes.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: A group of Harvard students, frustrated by the university’s refusal to shed fossil fuel stocks from its investment portfolios, is looking beyond protests and resolutions to a new form of pressure: the courts.

The seven law students and undergraduates filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in Suffolk County Superior Court in Massachusetts against the president and fellows of Harvard College, among others, for what they call “mismanagement of charitable funds.” The 11-page complaint, with 167 pages of supporting exhibits, asks the court to compel divestment on behalf of the students and “future generations.”

Submission + - Murdoch's hold on News Corp threatened

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: Mystery of missing News Corp votes

A Saudi prince, a disappearing share bloc and an upset voting result has produced the first serious threat to the Murdoch family’s future control of News Corporation and 21st Century Fox. ... So what happened to the missing shares in the proposal to abolish the two classes? .

The 87.6 million shares voted against the proposal was 4.3 million shares short of the Murdoch/Alwaleed total. The result was a terrifyingly close margin for a family that has not faced a serious threat to its control in 60 years. .

Two theories have emerged in the confusing aftermath of the annual meeting to explain the missing shares..

First, that it was a stuff up. Prince Alwaleed’s executives ticked the Approve box on every proposal and didn’t realise they needed to oppose the share classes resolution. Implausibly, this means News Corp executives who knew the proxy numbers didn’t pick up the phone to call their firmest supporter to ask what was going on. The result was a shambles..

Alternatively, Prince Alwaleed split his vote, with a majority supporting the Murdochs, with whom he could still say he had kept faith in, but a significant stake opposing them..

Whatever the reason, there is no mistaking the message from shareholders.

Excluding the Murdoch and Alwaleed stock, less than 24 per cent of shareholders voted for Rupert Murdoch to remain on the News board, part of an across-the-board vote against directors by institutions.

Submission + - Senate Republicans are getting ready to declare war on patent trolls (vox.com) 2

Submitted by XxtraLarGe
XxtraLarGe writes: Regardless of party affiliation, I think this is probably one thing most of us on Slashdot can applaud:

Republicans are about to take control of the US Senate. And when they do, one of the big items on their agenda will be the fight against patent trolls.

In a Wednesday speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) outlined a proposal to stop abusive patent lawsuits. "Patent trolls – which are often shell companies that do not make or sell anything – are crippling innovation and growth across all sectors of our economy," Hatch said.

Submission + - Is Amnesty Crossing The Line? (amnesty.org)

Submitted by Anita Hunt (lissnup)
Anita Hunt (lissnup) writes: In offering Detekt — a new tool to help identify government surveillance spyware on computers — for download from its website, is "non-government" organisation Amnesty International crossing a line into "anti-government" behaviour? How might this impact Amnesty's credibility when engaging with government on human rights issues?

Submission + - Robert Langer: Creating things that could change the world (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by Jim_Austin
Jim_Austin writes: Robert S. Langer has more than 1000 patents, licensed to more than 300 companies. His academic articles have more than 163,000 citations, for an h-index of 203. He talks about science, graduate education in the sciences, entrepreneurship, and the connections among them.

Submission + - Major brain pathway rediscovered after century-old confusion, controversy (washington.edu)

Submitted by vinces99
vinces99 writes: A couple of years ago a scientist looking at dozens of MRI scans of human brains noticed something surprising: A large fiber pathway that seemed to be part of the network of connections that process visual information that wasn't mentioned in any modern-day anatomy textbooks. “It was this massive bundle of fibers, visible in every brain I examined,” said Jason Yeatman, a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. “... As far as I could tell, it was absent from the literature and from all major neuroanatomy textbooks.”

With colleagues at Stanford University, Yeatman started some detective work to figure out the identity of that mysterious fiber bundle. The researchers found an early 20th century atlas that depicted the structure, now known as the vertical occipital fasciculus. But the last time that atlas had been checked out was 1912, meaning the researchers were the first to view the images in the last century. They describes the history and controversy of the elusive pathway in a paper published Nov. 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Submission + - US Marshals auctioning $20M worth of Silk Road's Bitcoins (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: The US Marshals office this week said it would auction off almost 50,000 or about $20 million worth of alleged Silk Road creator Robert Ulbricht’s Bitcoins. The auction, which is the second sale of Silk Road’s Bitcoin collection, will take place during a 6-hour period on Dec. 4 from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. EST. Bids will be accepted by email from pre-registered bidders only, the US Marshall’s office stated. In June a more than $17 million in Bitcoins seized from the Silk Road take-down was auctioned off.

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