Comment Conroy does down under (Score 1) 361
Picture of Senator Conroy threatening to forcibly penetrate the Australian public with his massive NBN. Legal or not legal?
New Fish Species Discovered 4.5 Miles Under the Ocean 96
eldavojohn writes "The University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab (a partner in the recent census of marine life) has discovered a new snailfish. That might not sound very exciting, unless you consider that its habitat is an impressive four and a half miles below the ocean's surface (video). If my calculations are correct, that's over ten and a half thousand PSI, or about seventy-three million Pascals. The videos and pictures are a couple years old, as the team has traveled around Japan, South America and New Zealand to ascertain the biodiversity of these depths. The group hopes to eventually bring specimens to the surface. It seems the deepest parts of the ocean, once thought to be devoid of life, are actually home to some organisms. As researchers build better technology for underwater exploration, tales of yore containing unimaginable monsters seem a little more realistic than before."
Firefighters Let House Burn Because Owner Didn't Pay Fee 2058
Dthief writes "From MSNBC: 'Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee. Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat. "They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.'"
UK Teen Banned From US Over Obscene Obama Email 555
British teenager Luke Angel has been banned from the US for sending an email to the White House calling President Obama an obscenity. The 17-year-old says he was drunk when he sent the mail and doesn't understand what the big deal is. "I don't remember exactly what I wrote as I was drunk. But I think I called Barack Obama a p***k. It was silly -- the sort of thing you do when you're a teenager and have had a few," he said. The FBI contacted local police who in turn confronted Luke and let him know that the US Department of Homeland Security didn't think his email was funny. "The police came and took my picture and told me I was banned from America forever. I don't really care but my parents aren't very happy," Angel said.
Comment Re:What the.... (Score 1) 450
Well let me tell you from ground zero here in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I've been watching the tyrannical creep for some years now. The latest in melbourne is that buskers are to be licensed, and must pass talent auditions!! hehe. This is clearly unlawful. Before long, Polic(y) officers will be able to claim that you made a singing sound without a license, and throw you in a FEMA concetration camp. I believe it's a very long term incremental squeeze by the lefties, much like in the US and UK.
By the way, I think it's time people woke up and realised that all of these bullshit fines are only enforceable under law if you accept them. The morons creating these nanny rules are just a private corporation (do your research! They do not represent you at all). If you receive a fine or bill (same thing) and respond to it making excuses, you tacitly accept contract with the corporation that issued you the bill or fine. Then it is enforceable under maritime law (look up common law vs admiralty (contract) law, because you have accepted their corporate Statutes. Send them all back with "Return To Sender - motion denied".
Slow site but great info for my comrades -> http://www.flightoffire.com.au/articles/2-leading-edge-research/66-addressing-speeding-fines
By the way, I think it's time people woke up and realised that all of these bullshit fines are only enforceable under law if you accept them. The morons creating these nanny rules are just a private corporation (do your research! They do not represent you at all). If you receive a fine or bill (same thing) and respond to it making excuses, you tacitly accept contract with the corporation that issued you the bill or fine. Then it is enforceable under maritime law (look up common law vs admiralty (contract) law, because you have accepted their corporate Statutes. Send them all back with "Return To Sender - motion denied".
Slow site but great info for my comrades -> http://www.flightoffire.com.au/articles/2-leading-edge-research/66-addressing-speeding-fines
Icelandic Company Designs Human Pylons 142
Lanxon writes "An architecture and design firm called Choi+Shine has submitted a design for the Icelandic High-Voltage Electrical Pylon International Design Competition which proposes giant human-shaped pylons carrying electricity cables across the country's landscape, reports Wired. The enormous figures would only require slight alterations to existing pylon designs, says the firm, which was awarded an Honorable mention for its design by the competition's judging board. It also won an award from the Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Architecture competition."
New Mars Rover Rolls For the First Time 100
wooferhound writes "Like proud parents savoring their baby's very first steps, mission team members gathered in a gallery above a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to watch the Mars Curiosity rover roll for the first time. Engineers and technicians wore bunny suits while guiding Curiosity through its first steps, or more precisely, its first roll on the clean room floor. The rover moved forward and backward about 1 meter (3.3 feet). Mars Science Laboratory (aka Curiosity) is scheduled to launch in fall 2011 and land on the Red Planet in August 2012. Curiosity is the largest rover ever sent to Mars. It will carry 10 instruments that will help search an intriguing region of the Red Planet for two things: environments where life might have existed, and the capacity of those environments to preserve evidence of past life."
Believing You Are Very Good Or Evil Boosts Your Physical Capabilities 192
Research by Kurt Gray, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, shows that a person's capacity for willpower and physical endurance increases if they perceive themselves as good or evil. "Evil" acts in particular give a person a large boost in physical strength. From the article: “'People perceive those who do good and evil to have more efficacy, more willpower, and less sensitivity to discomfort,' Gray said. 'By perceiving themselves as good or evil, people embody these perceptions, actually becoming more capable of physical endurance.' Gray’s findings run counter to the notion that only those blessed with heightened willpower or self-control are capable of heroism, suggesting instead that simply attempting heroic deeds can confer personal power."
New LLVM Debugger Subproject Already Faster Than GDB 174
kthreadd writes "The LLVM project is now working on a debugger called LLDB that's already faster than GDB and could be a possible alternative in the future for C, C++, and Objective-C developers. With the ongoing success of Clang and other LLVM subprojects, are the days of GNU as the mainstream free and open development toolchain passé?" LLVM stands for Low Level Virtual Machine; Wikipedia as usual has a good explanation of the parent project.
China Explains Internet Situation In Whitepaper 115
eldavojohn writes "In a new whitepaper, China has declared the Internet to be 'the crystallization of human wisdom' and officially issued what appears to be a defense of its policies on Web censorship, while at the same time making contradicting statements like 'Chinese citizens fully enjoy freedom of speech on the Internet' and (in the same paper) 'Laws and regulations clearly prohibit the spread of information that contains content subverting state power, undermining national unity, [or] infringing upon national honor and interests.' The paper also claims some questionable superlatives such as 'China is one of the countries suffering most from hacking.' On the positive side, this 31-page document might be offered as an operating guide for businesses, like Google, looking to understand exactly what the law is surrounding the Internet in China. The document is a rare glimpse of transparency in China's regulations."
Cloth Successfully Separates Oil From Gulf Water 327
Chinobi writes "Di Gao, an assistant professor at the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, has developed a method of separating oil from water within just seconds using a cotton cloth coated in a chemical polymer that makes it both hydrophilic (it bonds with the hydrogen atoms in water) and oleophobic (oil-repelling), making it absolutely perfect for blocking oil and letting water pass through. Gao tested his filter successfully on Gulf Oil water and oil and has an impressive video to demonstrate the results." This is a laboratory demonstration; the technology hasn't been tested at scale.
Anti-Speed Camera Activist Buys Police Department's Web Domain 680
Brian McCrary just bought a website to complain about a $90 speeding ticket he received from the Bluff City PD — the Bluff City Police Department site. The department let its domain expire and McCrary was quick to pick it up. From the article: "Brian McCrary found the perfect venue to gripe about a $90 speeding ticket when he went to the Bluff City Police Department's website, saw that its domain name was about to expire, and bought it right out from under the city's nose. Now that McCrary is the proud owner of the site, bluffcitypd.com, the Gray, Tenn., computer network designer has been using it to post links about speed cameras — like the one on US Highway 11E that caught him — and how people don't like them."
Comment Save the naughty humans from their sins? (Score 1) 1046
Come on slashdotters, read a bit of history, this is nothing new. "I cometh to save you from your sins". Burn 'climate deniers' at the stake if they could? I'll leave the science to Lord Christopher Monkton. I have code to debug!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTFUqhGkU3c
Girl Claims Price Scanner Gave Her Tourette's Syndrome 558
Attorneys for Dominica Juliano claim that she was burned and developed psychological problems after a store clerk aimed a hand-held price scanner at her face. Store attorneys say their scanners uses a harmless LED light and that the girl had serious health problems before she was scanned. From the article: "Dominica Juliano was 12 when she and her grandmother entered the Country Fair store in Erie in June 2004. A clerk allegedly called the girl 'grumpy' before flashing his hand-held bar code scanner over her face and telling her to smile. Attorneys for Ms. Juliano and her guardian say the girl was sensitive to light and burned, and later developed post-traumatic stress and Tourette's syndrome."
Comment Life imitating art (Score 1) 522
Could they have picked a more stereotypical "Revenge of the Nerds" character to read the autocue? hehe
I felt like cream-pieing him in the first 10 seconds.
