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Comment Re:Holy Mackerel! (Score 1) 465

by shma (#25798487) Attached to: Anti-Matter Created By Laser At Livermore

If true, this is the 1940s all over again -- only on a larger scale.

Calm down. The energy released by annihilating 100 billion positrons doesn't even come to 10 millijoules. Let me put it another way. According to Wikipedia, 0.6 g of matter was transformed into energy in the first uranium bomb explosion. This amount of anti-matter weighs 10^-16 g. That's 16 orders of magnitude less energy released. On top of that, there's no way to contain antimatter for long periods of time, so there's no way to gather enough anti-matter to make a bomb. But even if that technology were discovered tomorrow, and we could produce this much anti-matter every second, it would take a billion years to get enough anti-matter to make a bomb as powerful as only the first atom bomb. Feel better?

Comment Re:What? (Score 5, Insightful) 374

by shma (#25742289) Attached to: US Supreme Court Allows Sonar Use

My guess is they considered the science, not the Chicken Little hyperbole.

Environmentalists (as opposed to conservationists) depend on emotional appeal rather than science and rational analysis to further their agenda. Ergo, the court rightly dismissed their claims for the bullshit that it is.

Maybe you should have tried applying some of that rationality by reading the actual article instead of, I don't know, making shit up.

In its 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court said the navy needed to conduct realistic training exercises to respond to potential threats. The court did not deal with the merits of the claims put forward by the environmental groups. It said, rather, that federal courts abused their discretion by ordering the navy to limit sonar use in some cases and to turn it off altogether in others.

They didn't consider the science at all.

Comment Re:The Real Surprise is in Alaska (Score 3, Interesting) 3709

by shma (#25640887) Attached to: Barack Obama Wins US Presidency

They know he'll be expelled, but that the Governor ( Palin) will appoint his successor to serve out the rest of the term....I don't believe that the Governor can appoint herself to the post, so at least the Democrats don't have to worry about hearing the words "Senator Palin".

Actually, it's a little more complicated than that, even if he is kicked out of the senate, which requires a 2/3 majority senate vote that is not guaranteed (Stevens wasn't even supposed to be elected, so I'm not making ANY assumptions here).

In Alaska, the governor doesn't have the power to appoint senators. If he is kicked out, Palin will have to call a special election. And I don't believe that there's any law forbidding her from running. So 'Senator Palin' is most certainly a possibility.

And regardless of their intent, over 106,000 Alaskans still put down a vote for a convicted criminal. The extreme partisanship required to do that is beyond comprehension.
Medicine

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False 259

Posted by kdawson from the peers-can-be-wrong-too dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers have found that the winner's curse may apply to the publication of scientific papers and that incorrect findings are more likely to end up in print than correct findings. Dr John Ioannidis bases his argument about incorrect research partly on a study of 49 papers on the effectiveness of medical interventions published in leading journals that had been cited by more than 1,000 other scientists, and his finding that, within only a few years, almost a third of the papers had been refuted by other studies. Ioannidis argues that scientific research is so difficult — the sample sizes must be big and the analysis rigorous — that most research may end up being wrong, and the 'hotter' the field, the greater the competition is, and the more likely that published research in top journals could be wrong. Another study earlier this year found that among the studies submitted to the FDA about the effectiveness of antidepressants, almost all of those with positive results were published, whereas very few of those with negative results saw print, although negative results are potentially just as informative as positive (if less exciting)."
Government

Submission + - Update for previous story

Submitted by shma
shma writes: This is an update for the story Dodd, Feingold To Try and Filibuster Immunity Bill .

UPDATE: The vote was delayed due to unresolved business over a separate bill (H.R.3221), but went ahead at around 6pm. The cloture motion passed with 80 senators approving and only 15 dissenters. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has expressed his desire to hold a vote on the bill before the July 4th holiday. Without strong opposition, the bill itself is expected to pass the senate by Thursday night.
Government

Submission + - Dodd, Feingold to try and filibuster immunity bill

Submitted by shma
shma writes: Wednesday morning the senate has a scheduled cloture vote to cut off debate on the FISA bill which grants retroactive immunity to telecoms who engaged in warrantless wiretapping. Senators Russ Feingold and Christopher Dodd have pledged to try and filibuster the bill, but require the vote of 40 senators to keep the filibuster alive. The article states that a similar "threatened filibuster failed in February, when the Senate passed a measure that granted amnesty and largely legalized the President's secret warrantless wiretapping programs." Should they lose the cloture vote, the bill is all but assured of passing. A proposed amendment stripping the immunity provision from the bill is also expected to fail.
United States

SCOTUS Grants Guantanamo Prisoners Habeas Corpus 1065

Posted by kdawson from the prove-it dept.
beebee and other readers sent word that the US Supreme Court has, by a 5 to 4 majority, ruled that the Constitution applies at Guantanamo. Accused terrorists can now go to federal court to challenge their continued detention (the right to habeas corpus), meaning that civil judges will now have the power to check the government's designation of Gitmo detainees as enemy combatants. This should remedy one of the major issues Human Rights activists have with the detention center. However, Gitmo is unlikely to close any time soon. The NYTimes reporting on the SCOTUS decision goes into more detail on the vigor of the minority opinion. McClatchy reports the outrage the decision has caused on the right, with one senator calling for a Constitutional amendment "to blunt the effect of this decision."
Technology

Pictorial Tour of World's Longest Linear Accelerator 79

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the always-with-the-measuring-contest dept.
Wired has a great pictorial tour of their recent visit to Stanford University's linear accelerator, the longest in the world. The accelerator has been the vehicle upon which three Nobel Prizes were earned and a the next big project will boast an electron laser roughly 10 billion times more powerful than existing x-ray sources.
Classic Games (Games)

Whatever Happened To The Joystick? 421

Posted by Zonk from the please-make-us-another-tie-fighter-title dept.
Ant writes "MSN UK has up an article that looks into the 'downfall' of the joystick: 'Sometimes technology disappears completely, but often it just fades into the background — still existing, still being used and sold and, occasionally, desired, but probably looking wistfully back on past glories. Which neatly described the joystick's steady slide away from its role as THE gaming peripheral to a fondly remembered also ran. But the joystick's tale is a long and convoluted one — and it is worth looking back into its often mysterious and ill-studied history before explaining why it will rise from the ashes like the mythical phoenix.' Seen on ClassicGaming."
Games

What's the Best Game Console of All Time? 479

Posted by Zonk from the duh-obviously-the-fairchild dept.
The C|Net Crave blog has up an article exploring the history of console gaming, and wonders aloud about the pecking order of the various systems. "Gaming is so subjective that there is no single "greatest" system ever. It might sound like a cop-out, but it really depends on what standards you're using and what generation you grew up in. I loved the SNES, and would personally call it the greatest system of all time. However, the NES and PlayStation could both easily be called the best, based on the standards they set and the advances they presented to gaming." The Guardian follows up this piece, noting that the article's rose-colored recollections of the SNES days may not be entirely accurate. Subjective or not, it's a good question: which consoles have a valid place in history and which ones should be forgotten?
Math

Submission + - Climate change not due to a change in solar output

Submitted by
Pentagram
Pentagram writes: "Skeptics of the scientific consensus that human activity is the primary cause of climate change have frequently pointed to variation in solar activity as an alternative cause. However, new research published by Mike Lockwood and Claus Froehlich in Proceedings of the Royal Society A shows that the Sun's output has actually declined since 1985, apparently ruling this argument out as a cause of climate change over the last 20 years. As lead author Lockwood states, "The temperature record is simply not consistent with any of the solar forcings that people are talking about. They changed direction in 1985, the climate did not ... [the temperature] increase should be slowing down but in fact it is speeding up.""
Education

Submission + - Historical Univeristy Grades

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: When I was in college, choosing professors was pretty much luck of the draw. But now it looks like it doesn't have to be: students at the University of Colorado have put together a website that takes much of the guesswork out of finding the right professors. Students can write reviews of their professors, but more importantly, they can see the grades that the professors have given in the past (apparently from data coerced out of public universities from state laws equivalent to the federal freedom of information act), and then decide who to take. Not really a new idea, but they appear to be the only ones doing it for free. Does this provide useful information to students who wish to exceed, or just make it easier for slackers to skate through college?

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