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Power

Europium's Superconductivity Demonstrated 103

Posted by samzenpus from the great-new-taste dept.
gabrlknght writes "An old element just learned a new trick under pressure. When cooled and squeezed very hard, the soft metallic element europium turns into a superconductor, allowing electrons to flow unfettered by resistance, a study appearing May 13 in Physical Review Letters shows. The results make europium the 53rd of the 92 naturally occurring elements to possess superconductivity, which, if harnessed, could make for more efficient energy transfer."

Comment Re:hilarious (Score 2, Insightful) 1297

by glowworm (#27515101) Attached to: South Park Creators Given Signed Photo of Saddam Hussein

He employed an industrial plastic shredder to shred alive anyone who spoke out after having the wife raped... Hated people were fed in head first, really hated people were fed in feet first.

Wow, are you really so gullible to believe the propganda the American media spout as truth? This story is so very false. As false in fact as the WMDs America used as justification to start a war.

and nobody is fooled except the usual fools

I have rarely seen a more apt signature.

Comment Re:Fucking Americans (Score 5, Insightful) 1297

by glowworm (#27514361) Attached to: South Park Creators Given Signed Photo of Saddam Hussein
The parent has sort of a point apart from expressing disgust in an innapropriate manner, it is a little lame that Americans are proclaiming with glee how they insulted a foreign leader to his face before hanging him.

"Nya nya nya nya nya, you are a fag and the devil's butt monkey" - It's not really adult behaviour is it, and certainly not the behavior of a country that likes to think they are a world leader.

Take the high moral ground guys, don't play childish games like this and maybe the rest of the world might respect you.

Let's hope that the soldiers who did this are brought up on disciplinary charges.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Violent Video Games Can Improve Vision 205

Posted by kdawson from the look-sharp dept.
Ponca City, We love you writes "According to a new study, people who played fighting games on their PCs became up to a 58 percent better at perceiving fine contrast differences, an important aspect of eyesight. The breakthrough is significant because it was previously thought that the ability to notice even very small changes in shades of grey against a uniform background could not be improved. Contrast sensitivity is the primary limiting factor in how well one sees. Volunteers in the study played intensively for 50 hours over nine weeks with either Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2, and the results were compared with another group who played The Sims 2, which is richly visual but does not require as much hand-eye coordination. The improvements lasted for months after game play stopped. The new finding suggests action video games could be used as training devices as a useful complement to eye-correction techniques, since gaming may teach the brain's visual cortex to make better use of the information it receives."
The Internet

Euro Parliament Warns Against Overzealous IP Enforcement 73

Posted by timothy from the death-to-whistlers-of-beatles-tunes dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Days after New Zealand dropped its support for the 'three strikes and you're out' approach for terminating Internet subscribers, the European Parliament has now similarly rejected the proposed approach. Today the EP adopted a new report on security and fundamental freedoms on the Internet that expressly rejects disproportionate measures for IP enforcement and the use of excessive access restrictions placed by IP rights holders."
Microsoft

Submission + - TomTom Sues Microsoft For Patent Infringement (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "GPS device maker TomTom has shot back at Microsoft with a claim of patent infringement, after the software giant raised concerns in the Linux community with a recent lawsuit against TomTom. In a suit filed earlier this week, TomTom alleges that Microsoft infringes on four patents in mapping software Microsoft Streets and Trips. TomTom is asking for triple damages for willful infringement, since it says it had notified Microsoft about its alleged infringement. Microsoft said it was reviewing TomTom's filing and that it remains committed to a licensing solution and has been for more than a year."
Biotech

Submission + - Turning Sugar Water into Biofuel (marketwatch.com)

Submitted by bihoy
bihoy writes: It seems that a company bt the name of Virent has come up with a process to turn sugars directly into fuel rather than an ethanol additive.

Virent CEO Lee Edwards talks about the technology in an online vidoe stating that their patented catalysts turn biomass sugars directly into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, not ethanol, so it has a high energy content that can be dropped in to existing infrastructure, says .

There is also an article where he is quoted as saying "I believe we're at the bottom-end of the cycle on crude oil and that in the long-run crude oil will become more expensive," Edwards said in an interview with MarketWatch. "Virent's got a really unique technology that's able to transform sugars from biomass directly into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. In our view that's the right path to take."

Apparently, compared to water-based ethanol, the fuel contains more energy and it's easier to transport via pipeline since it doesn't absorb water and corrode pipes.
Censorship

Submission + - Aussie blacklist revealed, blocked company pissed (computerworld.com.au) 1

Submitted by
mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: "Australia's secretive Internet filter blacklist held by its communications watchdog has been leaked, revealing the government has understated the amount of banned Web pages by more than 1000.

Multiple legitimate businesses and Web sites have been banned including two bus companies, online poker sites, multiple Wikipedia entries, Google and Yahoo group pages, a dental surgery and a tour operator.

Betfair, a billion-dollar business blocked by the blacklist, CEO Andrew Twaits was furious the government has potentially annexed tens of millions of dollars in revenue after its Betfair.com gambling site was blacklisted.

The blacklists were reportedly leaked by a Web filter operator to wikileaks which has published the full list of banned URLs.

Outraged privacy advocates say the government has effectively lied about the amount of URLs included in the blacklists, totalling more than 2300, and the type of content which it would ban.

The leak follows a series attacks on the watchdog in which irate users successfully lobbied for web sites to be banned, only to be threatened with an $11,000 fine for publishing the link contained in the PR response. It was also revealed the watchdog can ban Web sites at a whim, with no accountability."

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