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Submission + - Uncontacted Tribes Die Instantly After We Meet Them (vice.com)

Daniel_Stuckey writes: It’s a story we all know—Christopher Columbus discovers America, his European buddies follow him, they meet the indigenous people living there, they indigenous people die from smallpox and guns and other unknown diseases, and the Europeans get gold, land, and so on.

It’s still happening today in Brazil, where 238 indigenous tribes have been contacted in the last several decades, and where between 23 and 70 uncontacted tribes are still living. A just-published report that takes a look at what happens after the modern world comes into contact with indigenous peoples isn’t pretty: Of those contacted, three quarters went extinct. Those that survived saw mortality rates up over 80 percent. This is grim stuff.

Submission + - Navy creates fuel from sea water (navy.mil) 1

lashicd writes: Navy researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL),demonstrate proof-of-concept recovery of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater and conversion to a liquid hydrocarbon fuel.

Submission + - Rover Curiosity Discovers 'Australia' on Mars (discovery.com)

astroengine writes: NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has begun science operations in a new area of study nicknamed “the Kimberly” after the Western Australian region. But in a new image uploaded to the Mars Science Laboratory raw image archive, it seems “the Kimberly” is a little more Australian than mission managers originally thought. As spotted by @CoUdErMaNn on Twitter, Curiosity’s Navcam photographed a rather interesting-looking rock formation just in front of the rover. The rock, which appears to have been formed through some erosion process, will likely fascinate geologists for some time. But at first glance the rock also appears to take the shape of Australia.

Submission + - AMD Unveils The Liquid-Cooled, Dual-GPU Radeon R9 295X2 At $1,500 (tomshardware.com)

wesbascas writes: This morning, AMD unveiled its latest flagship graphics board: the $1,500, liquid-cooled, dual-GPU Radeon R9 295X2. With a pair of Hawaii GPUs that power the company’s top-end single-GPU Radeon R9 290X, the new board is sure to make waves at price points that Nvidia currently dominates.

In gaming benchmarks, the R9 295X2 performs pretty much in line with a pair of R9 290X cards in CrossFire. However, the R9 295X2 uses specially-binned GPUs which enable the card to run with less power than a duo of the single-GPU cards. Plus, thanks to the closed-loop liquid cooler, the R9 295X doesn’t succumb to the nasty throttling issues present on the R9 290X, nor its noisy solution.

Submission + - Kate Mulgrew, aka Captain Janeway, Thinks Sun Revolves Around Earth. (rawstory.com) 3

synaptik writes: A new documentary film, narrated by a former Star Trek actress, promotes the long-ago disproven idea that the sun revolves around the Earth. 'Everything we think we know about our universe is wrong,” says actress Kate Mulgrew as she narrates the trailer for “The Principle.' The film, which is set to be released sometime this spring, was bankrolled in part by the ultra-conservative and anti-Semitic Robert Sungenis, who maintains the blog 'Galileo Was Wrong.'

Submission + - Elite Violinists Fail to Distinguish Legendary Violins From Modern Fiddles (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: If you know only one thing about violins, it is probably this: A 300-year-old Stradivarius supposedly possesses mysterious tonal qualities unmatched by modern instruments. However, even elite violinists cannot tell a Stradivarius from a top-quality modern violin, a new double-blind study suggests. Like the sound of coughing during the delicate second movement of Beethoven's violin concerto, the finding seems sure to annoy some people, especially dealers who broker the million-dollar sales of rare old Italian fiddles. But it may come as a relief to the many violinists who cannot afford such prices.

Submission + - SF evictions surging from crackdown on Airbnb rentals (sfgate.com)

JoeyRox writes: The city of San Francisco is aggressively enforcing its ban on short-term rentals. SF resident Jeffrey Katz recently came home to an eviction notice posted on his door that read "You are illegally using the premises as a tourist or transient unit". According to Edward Singer, an attorney with Zacks & Freedman who filed the notice against Katz, "Using an apartment for short-term rentals is a crime in San Francisco". Apparently Airbnb isn't being very helpful to residents facing eviction. "Unfortunately, we can't provide individual legal assistance or review lease agreements for our 500,000 hosts, but we do try to help inform people about these issues", according to David Hantman, Airbnb head of global public policy. SF and Airbnb are working on a framework which might make Airbnb rentals legal, an effort helped by Airbnb's decision last week to start collecting the city's 14% hotel tax by summer.

Comment Re:Whaling bad, mass breeding cattle and pigs good (Score 1) 188

They're a slow-breeding, unfarmed animal. Whaling has essentially been outlawed* because they can't sustain being hunted for food.

That's true, but if Japan did start farming whales for consumption, that would still be unacceptable to those currently opposed to Japan's whaling.

The main reasons are that whales are somewhat cute and are considered by some to at least as intelligent as humans.

Comment Re:Obligatory Fight Club (Score 2, Insightful) 357

I don't think that your grasp of fiduciary duty is as strong as you think it is.

CEOs and corporations are not "required by law to be heartless bastards". If that were true, corporations would be barred from working with charities.

Corporations are also allowed to consider reputation as acting in the interests of the company.

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