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Comment Re:I hold my phone to my left ear (Score 1) 288

by Aranwe Haldaloke (#28468853) Attached to: Need a Favor? Talk To My Right Ear

I'm right-handed and not deaf, but I also hold up the phone to my left ear, but because I hear better with it and thus am able to listen better with it. Also, when I'm wearing headphones and hearing music and I actually want to listen to what someone has to say, I take off the left headphone so I can pay attention better.

I also prefer my left eye; I wear contacts and have a harder time seeing when I'm wearing only the right-eye contact.

So it's also more like the usual right- or left-handedness in that you're better suited to do certain tasks with a particular side.
Space

Could Betelgeuse Go Boom? 383

Posted by timothy from the betelgeuse-betelgeuse-betelgeuse-winona dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The answer is No. In space, nobody can hear you scream. However, it might go supernova in the near future, if it hasn't already. I wanna see that, even if it would permanently disfigure Orion. Ka freaking bam!"
Biotech

Louisiana Rep. Preps State Bill Banning Human-Animal Hybrids 422

Posted by timothy from the gas-electric-hybrids-only dept.
mikeljnola writes with an excerpt from NOLA.com that says state senator Danny Martiny (R-Kenner) will introduce a bill to the Louisiana legislature on April 27 to "'make it illegal to "create or attempt to create a human-animal hybrid, ... transfer or attempt to transfer a human embryo into a non-human womb ... (or) transfer or attempt to transfer a non-human embryo into a human womb."' With budget cuts all around, our struggling state is concerned with the eminent danger of human-animal hybrids. The upside is that the odds of the Louisiana becoming the Bayous of Dr. Boudreaux are now even slimmer."
Software

Symantec Support Gone Rogue? 268

Posted by Soulskill from the less-than-helpful dept.
DigitalDame2 writes "PCMag Security Analyst Neil Rubenking has always praised Symantec's tech support. Lately, though, a number of readers have reported problems with chat support, so he investigated. Rubenking was trying to install Norton 360 version 3.0 on a malware-infested system when the computer crashed with a blue screen error. He connected with Symantec tech support and was told that they could fix the problem, but for a fee of $100! (Here is the transcript and screen-captures of the chat.) Even more, Symantec support suggested that he use a malware-removal tool that wasn't even made by Symantec."
Space

Illinois Declares Pluto a Planet 512

Posted by timothy from the after-ruling-out-pebble-and-mailing-tube dept.
The Bad Astronomer writes "The legislators in Illinois, always on the lookout for more places to find voters, have passed a resolution declaring Pluto is a planet. I'm not sure what else can be said here, except that — besides overstepping their jurisdiction just a wee bit — they make a couple of scientific howlers in the resolution itself."

Comment Re:Well (Score 1) 681

by Aranwe Haldaloke (#27063787) Attached to: Should Job Seekers Tell Employers To Quit Snooping?

Sadly no mod points at the moment, but I want to say not only how true this can be, but that it can also depend heavily on the circumstances.

I started on a new job just yesterday after months of searching. And what happens? When going with my boss to one of our client's offices we got pulled over. The officer was in the right, but my boss thought we could not miss the meeting and bribed the cop.

Now, what to do? Do you choose your own ideals and morals, missing that meeting and possibly starting off giving your boss a headache and who knows what other difficulties down the road, but staying with a clean conscience of doing what's right? Or just suck it up and go with the flow because you just got that job you were desperately needing for a while now?
Image

Crocodiles With Frickin' Magnets Attached to Their Heads Screenshot-sm 304

Posted by samzenpus from the stick-one-on-the-fridge dept.
Brickwall writes "Florida, faced with a problem of crocodiles returning to residential neighborhoods after being relocated elsewhere, is trying to solve it by affixing magnets to the crocs' heads. The theory is the crocodiles use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation, and the magnets may interfere with that. What I'd like to know is, whose job is it to put the magnets on?" So far the magnet program appears to be working, unfortunately the crocs have started to collect huge amounts of take-out menus and child artwork.

Atlantis Seekers Given Thrill by Google Ocean 321

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the jump-to-conclusions-mat dept.
RcK writes "Numerous articles are springing up regarding a feature found using the new Google Ocean, which some claim could be the location of Atlantis. While this is obviously early, and probably has the same credibility levels as previous claims of finding the mythical city, the detected anomaly is quite convincingly linear, is apparently the size of Wales and sits near where Plato hypothesized the city to be located." Google has stated that this is an issue with the way their ocean mapping software is working, but clearly that is a cover up while Google execs try to buy the real estate. I just hope they bring back Elvis next.
Science

Human Eye Could Detect Spooky Action At a Distance 255

Posted by samzenpus from the I-seen-things dept.
KentuckyFC writes "The human eye is a good photon detector--it's sensitive enough to spot photons in handfuls. So what if you swapped a standard photon detector with a human eye in the ongoing experiments to measure spooky-action-at-a-distance? (That's the ability of entangled photons to influence each other, no matter how far apart they might be.) A team of physicists in Switzerland have worked out the details and say that in principle there is no reason why human eyes couldn't do this kind of experiment. That would be cool because it would ensure that the two human observers involved in the test would become entangled, albeit for a short period time. The team, led by Nic Gisin, a world leader on entanglement, says it is actively pursuing this goal (abstract) so we could have the first humans to experience entanglement within months."
Medicine

Sea Sponge Extract Conquers Resistant Bacteria 132

Posted by kdawson from the soaking-it-in dept.
Science News has an article on research into a compound found in a particular kind of sea sponge that seems to have the ability to restore antibiotics' effectiveness against resistant bacteria. The hope is that, since the compound is not itself deadly or even harmful to bacteria, it may skew the antibiotic-bacteria arms race in our favor. "Chemical analyses of the sponge's chemical defense factory pointed to a compound called algeferin. Biofilms, communities of bacteria notoriously resistant to antibiotics, dissolved when treated with fragments of the algeferin molecule. And new biofilms did not form. So far, the algeferin offshoot has, in the lab, successfully treated bacteria that cause whooping cough, ear infections, septicemia and food poisoning. The compound also works on... [MRSA] infections, which wreak havoc in hospitals. 'We have yet to find one that doesn't work,' says [one of the researchers]."
Government

Cuba Launches Own Linux Variation 494

Posted by samzenpus from the the-people's-OS dept.
willclem writes "According to Reuters, it seems that Cuba has launched its own variation of Linux in order to fulfill its government's desire to replace Microsoft operating systems. 'Getting greater control over the informatic process is an important issue,' said Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes, who heads a commission pushing Cuba's migration to free software."
Software

30th Anniversary of the (No Good) Spreadsheet 407

Posted by timothy from the malignant-cells dept.
theodp writes "PC Magazine's John C. Dvorak offers his curmudgeonly take on the 30th anniversary of the spreadsheet, which Dvorak blames for elevating once lowly bean counters to the executive suite and enabling them to make some truly horrible decisions. But even if you believe that VisiCalc was the root-of-all-evil, as Dvorak claims, your geek side still has to admire it for the programming tour-de-force that it was, implemented in 32KB memory using the look-Ma-no-multiply-or-divide instruction set of the 1MHz 8-bit 6502 processor that powered the Apple II." On the brighter side, one of my favorite things about Visicalc is the widely repeated story that it was snuck into businesses on Apple machines bought under the guise of word processors, but covertly used for accounting instead.
Networking

Researchers Apply P2P Principles To Car Traffic 111

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the traffic-eagle-eye dept.
alphadogg writes to tell us that lessons learned from peer-to-peer networks are being applied to traffic systems in order to prevent jams. "Their Autonet plan would center around ad hoc networks of vehicles and roadside monitoring posts supported by 802.11 technology (the prototype uses 11b). The vehicles would essentially be the 'clients' in such a system and feature graphical user interfaces to pass along information to drivers. They're building the system to be able to handle data on thousands of traffic incidents and road conditions."

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