Comment Re:I keep thinking about milking the first cow... (Score 4, Funny) 214
I've always wondered how to first guy to drink milk from a cow was able to get the second guy to do it.
Comment Hammers and Nails (Score 2) 200
Yeah, this definitely feels like a case of "When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail".
WiFi meshes like crap. Your first responders will spend valuable time just trying to get their devices to work. While your volunteer situation is well understood, and your budget is probably pretty low, don't ask people to depend on consumer stuff for this sort of thing. A trunk radio system (and one that is not too highly loaded) or something similar is highly recommended.
Comment Re:Money Does Trickle Down (Score 0) 696
Where I come from, the word "trickle" is defined:
trickle (trkl)
v. trickled, trickling, trickles
v.intr.
1. To flow or fall in drops or in a thin stream.
2. To move or proceed slowly or bit by bit: The audience trickled in.
v.tr.
To cause to trickle.
n.
1. The act or condition of trickling.
2. A slow, small, or irregular quantity that moves, proceeds, or occurs intermittently.
So, yeah, what the wealthy are getting in waves, the rest of the economy is getting in drops. Boy, that'll stimulate things!
Comment I thought it said "orgasm's lifespan" (Score 1) 86
and I thought "Damn, that must be a pretty short program.
Comment This isn't the first time (Score 5, Interesting) 627
Dr. Mann has had this sort of thing happen to him his entire professional career. Here's one from 2002
http://it.slashdot.org/story/02/03/14/2051228/airport-security-vs-cyborg-steve-mann
Submission + - Sugar May Help Pave the Way for Synthetic Livers (medicaldaily.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Sugar is used to produce a variety of desserts and beverages, but with new studies, researchers may not be too far off from creating a synthetic liver with the help of sugar.
For years researchers and scientists have faced a number of hurdles while generating synthetically engineered cells. These cells frequently died before the tissue could be formed, but with the use of 3D printers, scientists were able to use sugar as a building material.
For years researchers and scientists have faced a number of hurdles while generating synthetically engineered cells. These cells frequently died before the tissue could be formed, but with the use of 3D printers, scientists were able to use sugar as a building material.
Submission + - Small Molecule May Play Big Role in Alzheimer's Disease (utexas.edu)
aarondubrow writes: "Researchers from UC Santa Barbara used the Ranger supercomputer to simulate small forms of amyloid peptides that are believed to be a primary cause of toxicity in Alzheimer's disease. They found that hairpin-shaped forms of the peptide initiated the aggregation of oligomers that ultimately led to the formation of a fibril. The simulations are leading to new diagnostic and treatment options they may stop the disease."
Comment One word (Score 1) 191
Unobtainium
Comment Re:Are those motorcycle tires? (Score 1) 249
Methinks if you find you need a replacement rotor, finding an Autozone will be the least of your problems.
Comment You'll be comforted to know (Score 4, Informative) 969
You'll be comforted to know that a good deal of the worlds oil production in is done by thousands people who are contracted to work 12 hour days, 6.5 days per week, for 4 to 6 weeks per hitch. This is usually after killer jet lag, since the majority of them fly 8-20 hours to get to work. I know, I did it for a couple of years.
All that explosive, environmentally dangerous stuff managed by people who are impaired due to continuous overtime and lack of sleep? How could that be a problem?
Submission + - Canonical puts Ubuntu on Android smartphones (pcpro.co.uk) 1
nk497 writes: "Canonical has revealed Ubuntu running on a smartphone — but the open source developer hasn't squashed the full desktop onto a tiny screen. Instead, the Ubuntu for Android system runs both OSes side by side, picking which to surface depending on the form factor. When a device — in the demo, it was a Motorola Atrix — is being used as a smartphone, it uses Android. When it's docked into a laptop or desktop setup, the full version of Ubuntu is used. Files, apps and other functionality such as voice calls and texting are shared between the two — for example, if a text message is sent to the phone when it's docked, the SMS pops up in Ubuntu, while calls can be received or made from the desktop."
Submission + - Damaged US passport chip strands travelers (kdvr.com)
caseih writes: "Damaging the embedded chip in your passport is now grounds for denying you the ability to travel in at least one airport in the US. Though the airport can slide the passport through the little number reader as easily as they can wave it in front of an RFID reader, they chose to deny a young child access to the flight, in essence denying the who family. The child had accidentally sat on his passport, creasing the cover, and the passport appeared worn. The claim has been made that breaking the chip in the passport shows that you disrespect the privilege of owning a passport, and that the airport was justified in denying this child from using the passport."
Submission + - New Film Documents Heartless Man (singularityhub.com)
kkleiner writes: "By criteria doctors conventionally use to analyze patients, Craig Lewis was dead. He had no heartbeat, no pulse, his EKG was flatlined. Yet he left the hospital and returned home to his wife. So what happened? Last March, doctors cut out Lewis' heart entirely and replaced it with a centrifugal pump — a revolutionary procedure that was only attempted because Lewis' health prognosis was so dire."
Submission + - Unconstitution video game law costs California $2 Million (examiner.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: In hopes of protecting the children of California from the ravages of violent video games, then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attempted to push through a law that would fine retailers $1000 for each infraction of selling a violent game to an underage child. However, in the wake of appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down the law, California is now forced to pay the legal fees of all parties to the tune of $2 million dollars
Submission + - Google: IE Privacy Policy Is Impractical (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: "In response to Microsoft's claim that Google circumvented Internet Explorer privacy protections (following the discovery that Google also worked around Safari's privacy settings), Google on Monday said that IE's privacy protection, called P3P, is impractical to comply with."
