Comment fun in Virginia (Score 1) 363
Two NASA facilities fun to tour are Langley and Wallops Island.
Comment Re:What next? (Score 1) 319
They don't do much when you do get stabbed with them, depending on where that is. I still have a piece of pencil graphite in my thigh from 12th grade. Won't say how long ago that was... ;)
Submission + - Australia's iconic Parkes telescope celebrates 50 (cio.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "It is rare for a piece of scientific equipment to hold a place in a nation’s heart. But ‘The Dish’ — the CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope — has in its 50 years come to come to mean a lot more to Australians that just a complex piece of technology. The telescope is a 64-metre diameter parabolic dish used for radio astronomy, located about 20 kilometres north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales — about 380 kilometres west of Sydney. It even has its place on the Big Screen, immortalised in the 2000 movie, The Dish. Opened on 31 October 1961, the telescope is perhaps best known to Australians for its role in the 1969 moon landing. On 8 and 9 October, the CSIRO will throw open its doors to the Australian public in celebration of its 50th anniversary,"
Comment Re:Her Defense Was Pretty Good Too (Score 1) 699
Oh thank God! I thought I was the only one. ;)
Comment Dead laurete (Score 3, Informative) 75
Ralph Steinman has died, he might not be awarded the Nobel after all. http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/?page=engine&id=1192
Submission + - Amazon Bulk-Email Service Could Lure Spammers (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: "Amazon Simple Email Service and Amazon Web Services look to be a potent combination for businesses and developers, no matter which side of the law they're on, InfoWorld reports. The newly announced bulk email service, which will enable Amazon customers to send 100 emails for a penny, could prove enticing to those seeking a cheap way to bombard inboxes with spam, malware, and phishing lures. Amazon claims its in-house content filtering technology should assuage anyone thinking SES will be used by scammers. 'Those assurances aren't entirely heartening, though, unless Amazon is way ahead of the curve with content-filtering technology. Email services and software vendors have tried for years to keep spam and other unwanted messages from showing up in users' viewing pane, but the crud keeps slipping through.'"
Submission + - US pushes Internet kill switch again (cbsnews.com) 2
FutureDomain writes: Stymied last time, US lawmakers are again pushing a bill that would give the President the ability to shut down "critical" portions of the Internet. Unlike last time however, the new bill would prohibit judicial review of the law, which would also prevent challenges to any abuses of it.
Submission + - Tau Zero Takes Aim at Interstellar Propulsion (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "Could the future of interstellar space travel be in the hands of a group of volunteer scientists? According to Paul Gilster, of Centauri Dreams fame, interstellar propulsion techniques, by their design, will require an incremental approach, headed not by governments, but by private enterprise. And don't expect to reach the nearest star any time soon, that could take centuries! So you think striving toward interstellar spaceflight is a little "far out"? Not so fast. The Tau Zero Foundation is already on the case and has just completed year one of the five year Project Icarus study, just one project that will hopefully carry mankind beyond our solar system."
Submission + - Microwave Background "Pattern" Probably Just Noise (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "The pattern encoded in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) as announced by world renowned physicist Roger Penrose and co-author Vahe Gurzadyan last month is probably just noise, say two papers rebutting Penrose's controversial research. Although it would have been fun to find a pattern rippling through the slight microwave anisotropies, perhaps revealing a universe before the Big Bang (hinting at a very Stargate Universe-esque "structure" in the CMBR), it would appear that Penrose and co. did the cosmological equivalent of seeing rabbit shapes in clouds."
Submission + - UK govt buries internet interception rule changes (techeye.net)
tenori writes: Here's a good government guide: want to intercept internet traffic but have a pesky public consultation to get out of the way? Just bury it, keep the consultation period as short as you can get away with and exclude the people it affects. Job done!
Rights groups are questioning why the coalition government has only allowed a month for changes to the RIPA act. The Home Office continue to refuse to meet civil society groups saying: "We are focusing on those parties directly affected by the changes to the extent that those parties would be subject to the civil sanction or directly concerned with it, or are directly responsible, where lawful interception is taking place, for ensuring that consent has been obtained to the interception.". The ORG said: "In other words, the many thousands of people who have been adversely affected by illegal interception, and those who seek to stand up for their rights, are not “directly concerned” according to the Home Office."
Rights groups are questioning why the coalition government has only allowed a month for changes to the RIPA act. The Home Office continue to refuse to meet civil society groups saying: "We are focusing on those parties directly affected by the changes to the extent that those parties would be subject to the civil sanction or directly concerned with it, or are directly responsible, where lawful interception is taking place, for ensuring that consent has been obtained to the interception.". The ORG said: "In other words, the many thousands of people who have been adversely affected by illegal interception, and those who seek to stand up for their rights, are not “directly concerned” according to the Home Office."
Submission + - Acquitted of murder because of Internet usage logs (cnn.com) 1
gruenz writes: Midwest police officer acquitted of murder based on the traffic logs of his home computer Internet usage. Now, how could the investigators be so certain it wasn't faked?
Submission + - Mega-Volcanoes Might Be Detectable on Alien Earths (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "Could we detect a huge volcanic eruption on an exoplanet 30 light-years from Earth? Possibly, say scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. What's more, there may be an opportunity for us to spot the ashy pollution ejected into the exoplanetary atmosphere when NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is launched in 2014. According to Discovery News, this would be a huge discovery if an Earth-like world was found to have active volcanoes: "A geologically active terrestrial planet may be more suitable for life. It recycles crust, unleashes greenhouse gasses, opens new environmental niches, and generally provides a dynamic environment for advantageous life forms""
Comment Air & Space Museum (Score 2, Informative) 435
The Saturn 5 exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum in DC is my fave exhibit, but the entire museum is not to be missed. The IMAX theater is great too, unless you get motion sick.
Comment Re:NASA has been hiding life on Mars for years (Score 3, Informative) 102
Um, no. Read this http://drydredgers.org/martian_crinoid.htm to see the photo.
Microsoft Documentation Declared Unfit For US Consumption 243
anomalous cohort writes "Washington DC judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly announced during the ongoing Microsoft antitrust hearings that their documentation is unfit for US consumption. This is relevant in an antitrust hearing as poor documentation on how to inter-operate with Microsoft's products is seen as an unfair barrier to entry for companies who compete with Microsoft. Others see this as yet another example of their crumbling hegemony or indolence as their empire burns."
