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The Military

Navy Uses Railgun To Launch Fighter Jet 314

Phoghat writes "In 2015 the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford will take to the seas and the plan is to use a railgun to launch planes, instead of steam powered catapults. From the article: 'The Navy developed its Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System as a replacement for the steam catapults currently used on aircraft carriers. The EMALS is a linear induction motor that's capable of accelerating a 100,000 pound aircraft to 240 miles per hour in the space of 300 feet. Compared to a steam catapult, the railgun catapult is much smaller, more efficient, simpler to maintain, gentler on airframes, and can deliver up to 30% more power. It's also capable of being cranked down a whole bunch, meaning that it can also launch smaller (and more fragile) unmanned drones.'"

Comment Re:Damn leeches (Score 1) 427

I say "pssh" to that concept. The idea that copyright should cover bad luck makes it sound more like a form of life insurance. Copyright exists to promote invention. Why should artists have so much protected beyond life?

What if, instead of the holy pedestal of [career that produces art], you were a coal miner? They get payed pretty well and have great retirements benefits. If you keep working, you will provide for your family quite well. Two years later, you are hit by a bus. It's horrible, but there is no reason for someone from the mine company to step in and continue paying your family. Everyone wants to protect their family. Designing arbitrary laws to do so at a loss to the public is foolish. The world has become too compassionate.
Medicine

Being Slightly Overweight May Lead To Longer Life 383

Hugh Pickens writes "Findings of a new study show that underweight people and those who are extremely obese die earlier than people of normal weight — but those who are only a little overweight actually live longer than people of normal weight. 'It's not surprising that extreme underweight and extreme obesity increase the risk of dying, but it is surprising that carrying a little extra weight may give people a longevity advantage,' said one of the coauthors of the study. 'It may be that a few extra pounds actually protect older people as their health declines, but that doesn't mean that people in the normal weight range should try to put on a few pounds.' The study examined the relationship between body mass index and death among 11,326 adults in Canada over a 12-year period. The study showed that underweight people were 70 percent more likely than people of normal weight to die, and extremely obese people were 36 percent more likely to die. But overweight individuals defined as a body mass index of 25 to 29.9 were 17 percent less likely to die than people of a normal weight defined as a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9. The relative risk for obese people was nearly the same as for people of normal weight. The authors controlled for factors such as age, sex, physical activity, and smoking. 'Overweight may not be the problem we thought it was,' said Dr. David H. Feeny, a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. 'Overweight was protective.'"

Comment Re:Money Grab (Score 1) 793

The human body survives off of calories. The most calorie dense foods, in a calorie per dollar sense, are junk foods. A $3 bag of chips packs about 1700 calories. $3 worth of sweet onions packs about 300 calories. Around here, yes, it is more expensive to eat healthy. Although a big bag of carrots looks like a lot, it isn't as easy to subsist on.
The Internet

Time Warner To Offer Unlimited Bandwidth For $150 479

unr3a1 writes to tell us that Time Warner Cable has responded to the massive criticism of its new plan to cap user bandwidth with a new pricing model. Users will be given a grace period in which to assess their pricing tier. The "overages" will be noted on their bill, allowing them to change either their billing plan or their usage patterns. "On top of a 5, 10, 20, and 40-gigabyte (GB) caps, the company said this week that it would offer an additional 100GB tier for heavy users. Prices (so far) would range from $29.95 to $75.00 a month, with users charged an extra dollar for every GB more they download, although that charge is also capped at $75. An 'unlimited' bandwidth plan, therefore, tops out at $150."

Comment Re:Huh. (Score 5, Insightful) 1297

I have always hated this statement, as it's a logical fallacy. If it were true, the greatest nation in the world would not only let all of it's most deplorable citizens do anything they want, it would give them candy in the process. Statements like this garner admiration because they sound neat. They also serve as a tool for people looking to have evidence to support their opinions on any nation, since basically any nation will prosecute their worst criminals.
Enlightenment

Submission + - New discovery may end transplant rejection (examiner.com) 1

mmmscience writes: http://www.examiner.com/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m4d7-New-discovery-may-end-transplant-rejection Big news in the medical world: scientists in Australia have found a way to stop the body from attacking organ transplants, greatly decreasing the possibility of organ rejection. Researchers focused on regulatory T cells which are capable of quieting the immune system, stopping the killer T cells from seeking out and attacking foreign objects such as newly transplanted tissue.
The Media

Submission + - AP Ultimatum: Share Your Revenue or Face Lawsuits (nytimes.com)

eldavojohn writes: "The Associated Press is starting to feel the bite of the economic recession and said on Monday that they will "work with portals and other partners who legally license our content and will seek legal and legislative remedies against those who don't." The are talking about everything from search engines to aggregators that link to news articles and some sites that reproduce the whole news article. The article notes that in Europe legislative action has blocked Google from using news articles from some outlets similar to what was discussed here last week."
United States

Submission + - Secretary of Defense Proposes Weapons Cuts

Hugh Pickens writes: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to announce a far-reaching overhaul of the Pentagon's annual $500 billion-plus budget, including likely cuts in missile defense programs, in the Army's expensive Future Combat Systems and in Navy shipbuilding. Defense experts say that Gates is likely to cut $1 billion to $2 billion from programs for defenses against missiles, and that Boeing's airborne laser system, which would equip a modified 747 jetliner with a laser to shoot down missiles, might be killed. Officials say they expect Gates to go ahead with plans to buy four more of the Air Force's advanced F-22 fighter jets although the bigger question was whether he would support earlier plans by the Air Force to buy 20 more in fiscal 2010 and possibly an additional 40 in the following two years. Gates is expected to end a Navy program to build a $3 billion stealth destroyer, and there may be a temporary reduction from 11 aircraft carriers in service to 10. "Everybody seems to be focusing on that he's making cuts. He's going to be adding a lot of things to capabilities that we need too," says Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. Gates has argued that the military is still too oriented toward fighting a peer nation like China and hasn't devoted enough resources toward preparing for irregular, low-intensity conflicts that he sees continuing into the near future."

Comment Re:Nikola Tesla (Score 0, Redundant) 397

Umm, that's not quite true. For Serbian Cyrillic, transliteration is not accomplished by what the letter appears to look like, it's done by sound. The actual transliteration is.....Nikola Tesla. That "H" you see is actually pronounced like an N and the "backwards N" is basically an i. The rest follows as well.

Comment Re:Non fighting, non loot games... (Score 1) 329

But you do have tons of free time... Almost all of the amazingly strenuous activities you listed are recreational, the others - a regular thing for most teenagers. Tell me how difficult it is to find free time when you are older. I am only a few years older, but even I know not to make an assumption of that magnitude. 7 hours of sleep per night? Lucky. Some people waste their time when they're younger. You obviously don't. However, it isn't comparable to the lack of time that accompanies responsibility. Try going to work all day and then coming home to take care of a child. Try pursuing a real degree in college. A large percent of people would look at your schedule and welcome it as a break. Being young is not an excuse to be presumptuous. Don't forget that, at some point, old people were young.
The Internet

Graduate Student Defends Right To Own Chicago2016.com 461

An anonymous reader points to a story in the Chicago Tribune about another domain-name battle. Quoting the article: "As Chicago wages its battle to host the 2016 Olympics, it also finds itself scrapping over a valuable piece of cyberspace: the domain name of Chicago2016.com. The bid team along with the U.S. Olympic Committee are trying to wrest that online address from Stephen Frayne Jr., a 29-year-old MBA student. Frayne snagged it back in 2004, about two years before the bid was launched. ... 'We certainly see Chicago2016.com as the logical default domain for our site, and we believe having someone else control it is misleading for people seeking information about Chicago's bid,' said Patrick Sandusky, a spokesman for Chicago 2016, a moniker protected by trademark."
Image

Not Even Norton Can Protect You Screenshot-sm 3

For those of you who have never seen a virus.

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