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Submission + - The X-37B just keeps going

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Energizer bunny of space: The X-37B has now completed more than 600 days in orbit, with no indication when it will return to Earth.

The Air Force is believed to have only two X-37B space planes. These space planes have flown at otal of three missions, which are known as OTV-1, OTV-2 and OTV-3. (“OTV” is short for Orbital Test Vehicle.) The first mission blasted off in April 2010, and the craft circled Earth for 225 days. The second X-37B vehicle launched in March 2011, performing the OTV-2 mission. This spaceflight lasted 469 days, ultimately landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in June 2012. That was the same landing site OTV-1 used after completing its mission.

The current OTV-3 mission is reusing the first X-37B space plane from the OTV-1 flight, showcasing the reusability aspect of the program.

Submission + - States Allowing Medical Marijuana Have Fewer Painkiller Deaths (smithsonianmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Narcotic painkillers aren't one of the biggest killers in the U.S., but overdoses do claim over 15,000 live per year and send hundreds of thousands to the emergency room. Because of this, it's interesting that a new study (abstract) has found states that allow the use of medical marijuana have seen a dramatic reduction in opioid overdose fatalities. "Previous studies hint at why marijuana use might help reduce reliance on opioid painkillers. Many drugs with abuse potential such as nicotine and opiates, as well as marijuana, pump up the brain’s dopamine levels, which can induce feelings of euphoria. The biological reasons that people might use marijuana instead of opioids aren’t exactly clear, because marijuana doesn’t replace the pain relief of opiates. However, it does seem to distract from the pain by making it less bothersome." This research comes at a time when the country is furiously debating the costs and benefits of marijuana use, and opponents of the idea are paying researchers to paint it in an unfavorable light.

Submission + - Firefox 31 Garbage Collection

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Firefox 31 now has the Generational Garbage Collection and now the future of Garbage Collection in Firefox is about adding Compaction to this GGC (Generational Garbage Collection). After implementing Exact Rooting this is the most natural transition. As a Research Student I want to study the Generational Garbage Collection followed by Firefox 31. According to the Benchmark results (http://www.arewefastyet.com/) Firefox have seen some performance improvements but somewhere they seem to degrade as well. So I want to know what is the reason behind this.

I am curious to know what is the exact algorithm that is being followed for GGC in Firefox 31. Even a link where it is described with enough details will be a great help.

Submission + - Google Introduce HTML 5.1 Tag to Chrome (datamation.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Forget about HTML5, that's already passe — Google is already moving on to HTML5.1 support for the upcoming Chrome 38 release. Currently only a beta, one of the biggest things that web developers will notice is the use of the new "picture" tag which is a container for multiple image sizes/formats. Bottom line is it's a new way to think about the "IMG" tag that has existed since the first HTML spec.

Submission + - John Walker Dead at 77 (ap.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The mastermind behind one of America’s most damaging spy rings has reportedly died. John A. Walker Jr., 77, was sentenced in 1986 to two life terms plus 10 years for selling U.S. secrets to the Soviets as a cryptologist in the Navy and after he retired.

Victor IIIs are unofficially known to the US Navy as the Walker class, since many of the improvements in quieting the boats and in providing them with more effective sensors were the product of the activities of the Walker spy ring.

Comment Re:Obvious Reason (Score 1) 579

by SpzToid (#47785261) Attached to: Why Women Have No Time For Wikipedia

I am a man, and I completely agree with your female friend. Wikipedia doesn't seem worth much investment of my own time and energy, especially given my experience contributing to technical topics like round-robin DNS . Hell, I've got the Slashdots for that! (Plus the other stuff, all of which is usually taking place, when I can turn my attention to the Slashdots; where my karma is what it is).

Comment Stakeholders vs. Customers (Score 2, Interesting) 111

by SpzToid (#47784835) Attached to: How Big Telecom Smothers Municipal Broadband

Seems to me that stakeholders in municipal broadband are a more satisfied lot than the customers of the Telcos (with their paid lobbyists so nicely donating money to the boy/girls scouts to enlist their 'support' for crazy-ass mergers and what-not; nevermind that The Public has Clearly Told The 3 (is it?) commissioners at the FCC to take a flying leap).

Submission + - The American Workday, By Profession (npr.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: NPR has created an interesting visualization of workday data from the American Time Survey. It shows what the typical working times are for each profession. You can see some interesting trends, like which professions distribute their work throughout the day (firefighters and police), which professions take their lunch breaks the most seriously (construction), and which professions reverse the typical trends (food service). "Still, Americans work more night and weekend hours than people in other advanced economies, according to Dan Hamermesh and Elena Stancanelli's forthcoming paper (PDF). They found that about 27 percent of Americans have worked between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. at least once a week, compared with 19 percent in the U.K. and 13 percent in Germany."

Submission + - J P Morgan and 'four other banks' subjected to 'sophisticated' cyber attack

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
The quality of the attack, which appears to have led to 'gigabytes' of data being lost, is raising the prospect of a state being the source. The present culprit suggested is Russia... why the assumption it's not China — just because China isn't invading the Ukraine at the moment?

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