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Space

Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242

likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."
XBox (Games)

Modded Xbox Bans Prompt EFF Warning About Terms of Service 254

Last month we discussed news that Microsoft had banned hundreds of thousands of Xbox users for using modified consoles. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has now pointed to this round of bans as a prime example of the power given to providers of online services through 'Terms of Service' and other usage agreements. "No matter how much we rely on them to get on with our everyday lives, access to online services — like email, social networking sites, and (wait for it) online gaming — can never be guaranteed. ... he who writes the TOS makes the rules, and when it comes to enforcing them, the service provider often behaves as though it is also the judge, jury and executioner. ... While the mass ban provides a useful illustration of their danger, these terms can be found in nearly all TOS agreements for all kinds of services. There have been virtually no legal challenges to these kinds of arbitrary termination clauses, but we imagine this will be a growth area for lawyers."
Space

Herschel Spectroscopy of Future Supernova 21

davecl writes "ESA's Herschel Space Telescope has released its first spectroscopic results. These include observations of VYCMa, a star 50 times as massive as the sun and soon to become a supernova, as well as a nearby galaxy, more distant colliding starburst galaxies and a comet in our own solar system. The spectra show more lines than have ever been seen in these objects in the far-infrared and will allow astronomers to work out the detailed chemistry and physics behind star and planet formation as well as the last stages of stellar evolution before VYCMa's eventual collapse into a supernova. More coverage is available at the Herschel Mission Blog, which I run."

Comment anoymous (Score 1) 600

as I've seen on episodes of court tv shows, if they came into this with clean hands. aka filing suit saying apple themselves are breaking rules instead of circumventing i would be more likely to side with them and against apple (which btw, is a lame - cheap ass - underhanded way to monopolize itunes/ipod) but they didn't and they can't go home to mommy and daddy later on and whine and complain that apple isn't playing fair.

Comment Re:Simple... if "Y" chromosome found = male (Score 1) 1091

I never saw this woman til just now... but she's really manly looking, no offence intended. Maybee the tests aren't infoulable but considering how many would test to be xxy I'd say test them and if they happen to be that 1% give it to them. but genetal checks don't mean anything if a guy could get a great doctor and other body differences (to my knowledge) are chopped upto things like hormones (size of middle/second last finger)
GNU is Not Unix

Leaving the GPL Behind 543

olddotter points out a story up at Yahoo Tech on companies' decisions to distance themselves from the GPL. "Before deciding to pull away from GPL, Haynie says Appcelerator surveyed some two dozen software vendors working within the same general market space. To his surprise, Haynie saw that only one was using a GPL variant. 'Everybody else, hands down, was MIT, Apache, or New BSD,' he says. 'The proponents of GPL like to tell people that the world only needs one open source license, and I think that's actually, frankly, just a flat-out dumb position,' says Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, one of the many organizations now offering an open source license with more generous commercial terms than GPL."

Comment freeballer (Score 0, Redundant) 185

kinda stupid to compare palm cracking of itunes and this false positive, used to be virus scanners found false positives in x:\windows praise jebus now it just mucks up your itunes.. That being said, can't it not be defined as as an exception anyways? lol Not saying this wasn't a dumb mistake just saying its not newsworthy, inprobable, or easily fixed...

Comment freeballer (Score 1) 394

while I'm no angel when it comes to downloading. Yes, I've downloaded an episode I missed or other things AND I feel that patend/trademarks should be allowed. I think though these guys might as well ask for world peace, curing all deseases and removal of all nuclear arms in the world. I don't like how copyrighted material is enforced, and their rediculous claims of "losses" in court you'll never get what your asking for "pirate party"... You should shoot for a, possibly, acheivable goal such as writting laws that allow for upto 3 copies per household or personal use. THAT COULD HAPPEN

Comment Re:freeballer (Score 1) 631

I've seen a back specialist. but are you refering to someone just to help in pain management? Would I be refered to by my family doctor or through hospital?

I've tried Lyrica, gabapentin at different dozes, along with many others. Right now I'm on Tridural 200mg but is doing nothing and will need to see doctor again soon to change or go back to tylenol 3..

Ketamine seems to work well with other forms of pain or releif. but what concerns me is the halicinative state it says on wiki and webmd. Perhaps at a low dose isn't an issue, but it could be something to discuss with him and see. I will definitely ask about pain specialist or ask if some other specialist can help with my problems

thanks for your reply weirdjohn
Geo

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