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Submission + - "Creationist intro" Origin of Species distributed (livingwaters.com)

Submitted by kyriosdelis
kyriosdelis writes: On November 18th, creationist Ray Comfort had an edition of Darwin's Origin of Species with a 54-page creationist foreword, distributed to more than 50 major university campuses across the US (original list here:http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/18717#comment-267224). The intro itself has been described as "a hopeless mess of long-ago-refuted creationist arguments, teeming with misinformation about the science of evolution, populated by legions of strawmen, and exhibiting what can be charitably described as muddled thinking."
The giveaway was originally scheduled for the 19th, but it was rushed to the 18th, to prevent the scheduled organized reaction by each campus' freethinkers. Fellow slashdotters from these universities with an interest in evolution, are encouraged to seek people with no biology background that got any of the books, and help them get their facts straight.
Power

Submission + - Big Bang Could Be Recreated Inside A Metamaterial (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by
KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: "Metamaterials are substances with a permittivity and permeability that has been manipulated in a way that allows fine control over the behaviour of light. They have famously been used to create an invisibility cloak that hide objects from view (see, for example, here or here). Now one physicist in the US has calculated how they could be used for a much more profound demonstration: to reproduce the behaviour of light in various kinds of spacetimes, in particular a (2+2) spacetime (which means having two dimensions of space and two of time). His method is to show that there is formal mathematical analogy between the way metamaterials and spacetimes effect light. He goes on to show how a phase transition in a (2+2) spacetime leads to the creation of a (2+1) spacetime filled with photons, an event that is analogous to the Big Bang."
Communications

TerreStar Launches World's Largest Telecom Satellite 57

Posted by Soulskill from the bigger-they-are-the-harder-hey-wait-a-sec dept.
An anonymous reader sends news that TerreStar-1, the largest satellite ever made for the purpose of telecommunications, successfully launched earlier this week from a European spaceport. Its launch weight was 6,910 kg, and it is "distinguished by a giant, 60-foot (18-meter) wide S-band antenna that will be unfurled in the coming weeks. Once the satellite's two solar wings are deployed, TerreStar-1 is expected to have a wingspan of about 106 feet (32.4 meters). ... It is designed to provide mobile voice and data communications in North America to smartphone-size handsets using the 2-gigahertz, or S-band, portion of the radio spectrum. The system is designed to function with a network of ground-based signal amplifiers to permit service in areas the satellite cannot reach, such as urban canyons and areas outside the line-of-sight view of the spacecraft." Video and details of the launch are available from the ESA.

Comment The Doctor from "The Authority" comic series. (Score 1) 860

by kyriosdelis (#28374849) Attached to: Who is your favorite fictional doctor?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authority_(comics)
Quoting Wikipedia:

Jeroen Thornedike, a Dutch heroin addict, was destined to become the next Doctor and a member of The Authority. Jeroen was "a multimedia millionaire by twelve, a dot-com billionaire by twenty, and staring into space in a psychiatric home by the age of twenty-one". He eventually gave away all his money and tried to have an ordinary life until the original Doctor died and Jeroen inherited his abilities. Jeroen refused to accept the responsibility and instead spent his days shooting heroin, watching pornographic videos of horses having sex with women and playing Sonic the Hedgehog.

Dude, this guy rocks :p

Comment Re:when it will happen (Score 2, Funny) 383

by kyriosdelis (#28305341) Attached to: Could Betelgeuse Go Boom?

It's probably gonna blow the next time Lydia yells Betelgeuse 3 times.

Lydia the Tattooed Lady?

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?
Lydia the Tattooed Lady.
She has eyes that folks adore so, and a torso even more so.
Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopedia.
Oh Lydia the queen of tattoo. On her back is The Battle of Waterloo.
Beside it, The Wreck of the Hesperus, too.
And proudly above waves the red, white, and blue.
You can learn a lot from Lydia!
La-la-la...la-la-la. La-la-la...la-la-la.

/ducks
It's funny. Laugh.

Human Laughter Up To 16 Million Years Old 149

Posted by samzenpus from the a-pierolapithecus-catalaunicus-walks-into-a-bar dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Published today in the journal Current Biology, a new study shows that laughter is not a unique human trait, but a behavior shared by all great apes. Tickle a baby chimpanzee and it will giggle just like a human infant. This is because laughter evolved millions of years ago in one of our common ancestors, say scientists."
Image

Finnish Guy Gets Prosthetic USB Finger Storage 113

Posted by samzenpus from the I'd-still-choose-a-shotgun-leg dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Jerry had a motorcycle accident last May and lost a finger. When the doctor working on the artificial finger heard he is a hacker, the immediate suggestion was to embed a USB 'finger drive' to the design. Now he carries a Billix Linux distribution as part of his hand."
Emulation (Games)

ScummVM 0.13.0 Delivers New Adventure Games 69

Posted by Soulskill from the ever-expanding-selection dept.
KingofGnG writes "The classics, by definition, never go out of fashion, let alone if they are the graphic adventures of past decades. The preferred tool of true adventurers is ScummVM, software that works as an interpreter between data files of such adventures and modern operating systems. 6 months after the release of version 0.12.0, developers have now delivered a new main release of the virtual machine, which includes novelties both for the interface and supported games."
Image

Science Unlocks The Mystery Of Belly Button Lint 161

Posted by samzenpus from the extreme-navel-gazing dept.
After three years of research, including examining 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button, Georg Steinhauser has discovered a type of body hair that traps stray pieces of lint and draws them into the navel. Dr Steinhauser's observations showed that "small pieces of fluff first form in the hair and then end up in the navel at the end of the day." Chemical analysis revealed the pieces of fluff were not just made up of cotton from clothing. Wrapped up in the lint were also flecks of dead skin, fat, sweat and dust. Unfortunately, further study has failed to yield a hair or fiber that would give Dr. Steinhauser the last three years of his life back.

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