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Communications

Submission + - Rice University sells college radio station (savektru.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Earlier this week, Rice University made public its plans to sell the broadcast FM license, tower and frequency of its longtime college radio station, KTRU 91.7. The station has been student-run for more than 40 years and plays a diverse, eclectic slate of programming. The university described KTRU as an "underutilized asset" and stands to gain $9.5M from the deal, which will give Houston yet another NPR station.

Comment Re:It takes 20 years (Score 1) 179

by Dalambertian (#33326758) Attached to: Google Wave and the Difficulty of Radical Change
Some contemporary examples (from wikipedia): Youtube's official launch was November 2005. By July 2006, they had 26k videos being uploaded per day. Facebook launched c. 2005 and had it's first 100 million users by August 2008, then doubled it in 225 days. Apple's app store was launched mid 2008. There are now some 200k approved apps. Twitter's tipping point happened at SXSW 2007, when it went from 20k to 60k tweets/day. These days, how long is too long to wait for something to take off?

Comment Re:This is why I hate most science reporting (Score 4, Informative) 167

by Dalambertian (#33267564) Attached to: The Sun's 'Quiet Period' Explained
The paper is actually a lot clearer than the press surrounding it. http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2010/2010GL044143.shtml FTFAbstract:

Plasma flowing poleward at the solar surface and returning equatorward near the base of the convection zone, called the meridional circulation, constitutes the Sun's conveyor-belt. Just as the Earth's great oceanic conveyor-belt carries thermal signatures that determine El Nino events, the Sun's conveyor-belt determines timing, amplitude and shape of a solar cycle in flux-transport type dynamos. In cycle 23, the Sun's surface poleward meridional flow extended all the way to the pole, while in cycle 22 it switched to equatorward near 60. Simulations from a flux-transport dynamo model including these observed differences in meridional circulation show that the transport of dynamo-generated magnetic flux via the longer conveyor-belt, with slower return-flow in cycle 23 compared to that in cycle 22, may have caused the longer duration of cycle 23.

Comment Re:Impressive (Score 3, Insightful) 701

by Dalambertian (#32868364) Attached to: Climategate and the Need For Greater Scientific Openness
I believe the catholic church held a similar view when the Gutenburg press came out. They argued that the general public would not understand the scriptures and would take parts of it out of context. They thought that a version filtered through the priesthood was more appropriate; if you really wanted to study the bible on your own, well there's a solution for that: become a priest.

Comment Re:Hmm.... (Score 1) 833

facebook and WoW are not equivalent playing fields. right now, female gamers can play anonymously and (with the right privacy settings) simultaneously maintain a facebook page. they can keep their virtual stalkers in WoW, and still interact with their friends/family through facebook. this little snafu needlessly makes that balancing act even harder.

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