Submission + - World's largest diamond found in South Africa (mybroadband.co.za)
slash-sa writes: "The world's largest diamond, said to be twice the size of the
previous biggest stone, has
been found in the North West province of South Africa. According to the
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) the diamond was transported to
a secure vault in Johannesburg under strict security measures."
Submission + - Senator Larry Craig Arrested for Disorderly Condu (blogspot.com)
Mike Kuykendall writes: "Another Republican involved in mischief, this time arrested for disorderly conduct, rumors of "lude conduct in a men's bathroom"..."
Submission + - Google unveils prototype of personal health record (memag.com)
Dances With Volts writes: Medical Economics Magazine, a publication for physicians, is currently running this story:
"Imagine a computerized healthcare system in which insurers, pharmacies, hospitals, retail clinics, and doctors upload clinical information as it's generated to a patient's personal health record, or PHR. Then imagine that Google, king of search engines, is somehow at the center of this data network." — Am I being paranoid, or does this give anyone else the creeps.
Submission + - Apple founded on Phone Phreakers, goes after iPhon (9to5mac.com)
Anonymous Coward writes: "Apple's founders got their start in 1975 by building and selling "Blue Boxes" that hacked AT&T's network. Now they've flipped the script — cutting down others that are trying to Open the iPhone for use on other networks. Going to be hard for Apple to take the moral high ground on this one — especially when the evidence is on Woz's website!"
Submission + - Iraqi whistleblower imprisoned and tortured (footballfans.tv)
wwmedia writes: One after another, the men and women who have stepped forward to report corruption in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq have been vilified, fired and demoted.
Or worse.
For daring to report illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods.
There were times, huddled on the floor in solitary confinement with that head-banging music blaring dawn to dusk and interrogators yelling....
Or worse.
For daring to report illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods.
There were times, huddled on the floor in solitary confinement with that head-banging music blaring dawn to dusk and interrogators yelling....
Submission + - Sleepy?Spend less time on the internet/watching TV (dailymail.co.uk)
Ant writes: "The Daily Mail reports people, who spend time on the internet or watching television before they go to bed, are more likely to feel like they don't get enough sleep.
Even though they sleep almost as long as people who spend fewer pre-bedtime hours in front of a computer or television screen, they will stil feel tired according to a new survey...
Seen on Digg."
Submission + - England's Database Of Children COmes Under Fire (timesonline.co.uk)
Mike writes: "A comprehensive database of every single child in England is slated to go live next year amid growing doubts as to the system's security and safety. Possible misuse by unauthorized users is only one concern. Ian Brown, a computer security research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, summed it up nicely: "When you have got more than 300,000 people accessing this database, it's just very difficult to stop the sale of information." With an estimated 330,000 "vetted users" and over 11 million children listed, can there be any doubt that this database will be a virtual magnet for pedophiles, spammers, and scammers?"
Submission + - Student suspended for website sues
An anonymous reader writes: A University of Delaware student suspended for a humor website that a fellow student found 'disturbing' has filed a lawsuit alleging that the University violated his First Amendment rights. A separate site (created for this purpose) has more details.
From the complaint, "UD makes available its Internet server for students to create web sites with no restrictions on content... As such, UD may not, consistent with the First Amendment, punish any student based on the content of his or her website, even though the content may have an adverse emotional impact on some readers."
Submission + - Texas Instruments doesn't know Avogadro's Number?
lpq writes: Was watching Monk last night and some kid wrote Avogadro's number (or something that looked like it) on a blackboard. They wrote 6.0221415 * 10^23. Today I was trying to remember the extra digits (only carried around 3 digits of accuracy in brain...not a constant I need alot or alot of precision of, usually.
I remembered my Texas Instruments Solar calculator had it as a programmed in constant. All sources I've seen have the exponent as 23, but the number part varies a bit, source to source. The farthest "off" from the others is the one on my TI-36X calculator. Some values I've found:
(all scaled by 10^23, lowest to highest)
6.022 131 67 Texas Instruments (built-in to calculator):
6.022 141 5 Monk TV show (USA Network)
6.022 141 79 NIST (website)
6.022 141 79 Wikipedia Same as NIST
6.022 142 5 Google
6.022 257 Lapeer County, MI ("http://chem.lapeer.org/Chem1Docs/MolExercise.htm l")
So why all the different answers? Has the value of Av's Num been fluctuating lately like the price of gold or the stock market? Are the other answers "older, accepted values?"
Google is "close" — if they had left it at 7 digits (6.033142) I would have thought it a rounding of the NIST value, but throwing in that 7th decimal place shoots that idea out of the water.
Seems like Lapeer County is most off from everyone else (varying by .00035), being on the high side, but a _CALCULATOR_ company?
TI getting their programmed in constants, "WRONG"?!? What faith should I have in any of their other constants or their formulae and calculations? They seem to be low by ".000 010 12", or to put things in obfuscating perspective:
1.012 x 10^18 or about 1 quintillion?
Is it common for calculator manufacturers to have such different values? Haven't checked other constants — maybe they are better, but it seems "concerning" (if I needed more precise constants, my calculator could be very misleading). It reminded me of the Pentium math bug where it returned the wrong answer on some calculations. We just accept these things as "right" or "correct".
Is quality control dropping? (Calculator made in China). Is it a "foreign-made" quality issue?
Thanks for any insights on why things are so odd....
I remembered my Texas Instruments Solar calculator had it as a programmed in constant. All sources I've seen have the exponent as 23, but the number part varies a bit, source to source. The farthest "off" from the others is the one on my TI-36X calculator. Some values I've found:
(all scaled by 10^23, lowest to highest)
6.022 131 67 Texas Instruments (built-in to calculator):
6.022 141 5 Monk TV show (USA Network)
6.022 141 79 NIST (website)
6.022 141 79 Wikipedia Same as NIST
6.022 142 5 Google
6.022 257 Lapeer County, MI ("http://chem.lapeer.org/Chem1Docs/MolExercise.ht
So why all the different answers? Has the value of Av's Num been fluctuating lately like the price of gold or the stock market? Are the other answers "older, accepted values?"
Google is "close" — if they had left it at 7 digits (6.033142) I would have thought it a rounding of the NIST value, but throwing in that 7th decimal place shoots that idea out of the water.
Seems like Lapeer County is most off from everyone else (varying by
TI getting their programmed in constants, "WRONG"?!? What faith should I have in any of their other constants or their formulae and calculations? They seem to be low by ".000 010 12", or to put things in obfuscating perspective:
1.012 x 10^18 or about 1 quintillion?
Is it common for calculator manufacturers to have such different values? Haven't checked other constants — maybe they are better, but it seems "concerning" (if I needed more precise constants, my calculator could be very misleading). It reminded me of the Pentium math bug where it returned the wrong answer on some calculations. We just accept these things as "right" or "correct".
Is quality control dropping? (Calculator made in China). Is it a "foreign-made" quality issue?
Thanks for any insights on why things are so odd....
Submission + - Mortgage foreclosure rescue scams growing rapidly (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: "The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning US homeowners that it has heard complaints from victims of online foreclosure rescue schemes in almost all 50 states. Not surprisingly, states with the highest foreclosure rates — such as Georgia, Colorado and Ohio — have an exceptionally high number of complaints for companies offering foreclosure rescue. An example of how fast the problem is growing: In the last three years, the Clearwater, FL BBB received 508 complaints for foreclosure services headquartered in their area. Of those complaints, 322 came within the last 12 months. The total amount of refunds requested by the complainants in the Clearwater area amounts to more than $600,000.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18726"
Submission + - Army Drops Charges for Marine Haditha Massacre (blogspot.com)
Mike Kuykendall writes: "What's the best way to calm the Arabic world? Exonerate those responsible for the highly publicized, horrible massacre of 24 men, women, and children at Haditha in Iraq, of course."
Submission + - Australia on internet porn crusade (news.com.au)
rbb writes: "John Howard is going to spend $189 million on "cleaning up the internet" for Australian families, blocking pornography, upgrading the search for chat-room sex predators and cutting off terror sites. Every Australian family will be provided with a free internet filter and the federal Government will enter an unprecedented partnership with service providers to filter pornography at the source. Communications and Australian Federal Police resources will be boosted immediately to expand checks on internet chat rooms to detect child predators, and privacy laws masking sex offenders on the net will be altered."
Submission + - The impact of pirated software on free software (tlug.jp)
jmglov writes: "Dave Gutteridge has an interesting take on why people are not interested in saving money by using a free-as-in-beer OS like Linux or *BSD: because Windows is free. At least, that is an all-too-common perception, thanks to bundling and piracy. Bundling is a well-known problem to the adoption of Open Source operating systems, so Dave takes a look at the piracy issue in depth. His title may offend you, but his well-written article will most likely get you thinking hard about the question, "how much *does* Windows cost?"."
Submission + - Scientists Discover New Link in Ocean Currents (cnn.com)
an.echte.trilingue writes: CNN is running a story about the discovery of one of the last ocean currents near Tasmania. From the article:
New research shows that a current sweeping past Australia's southern island of Tasmania toward the South Atlantic is a previously undetected part of the world climate system's engine-room, said scientist Ken Ridgway.
The Southern Ocean, which swirls around Antarctica, has been identified in recent years as the main lung of global climate, absorbing a third of all carbon dioxide taken in by the world's oceans.
