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Science

Immaculate Conception In a Boa Constrictor 478

Posted by samzenpus from the gold-frankincense-and-mice dept.
crudmonkey writes "Researchers have discovered a biological shocker: female boa constrictors are capable of giving birth asexually. But the surprise doesn't end there. The study in Biology Letters found that boa babies produced through this asexual reproduction — also known as parthenogenesis — sport a chromosomal oddity that researchers thought was impossible in reptiles. While researchers admit that the female in the study may have been a genetic freak, they say the findings should press researchers to re-think reptile reproduction. Virgin birth among reptiles, especially primitive ones like boas, they argue may be far commoner than ever expected."

Submission + - Chess ratings - move over Elo (kaggle.com)

Submitted by databuff
databuff writes: Less than 24 hours ago, Jeff Sonas, the creator of the Chessmetrics rating system, launched a competition to find a chess rating algorithm that performs better than the official Elo rating system. The competition requires entrants to build their rating systems based on the results of more than 65,000 historical chess games. Entrants then test their algorithms by predicting the results of another 7,809 games. Already three teams have managed create systems that make more accurate predictions than the official Elo approach. It's not a surprise that Elo has been outdone — after all, the system was invented half a century ago before we could easily crunch large amounts of historical data. However, it is a big surprise that Elo has been bettered done so quickly!
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Volvo Safety Demo Goes Poorly 34

Posted by samzenpus from the that-wasn't-supposed-to-happen dept.
Lanxon writes "At a demonstration of Volvo's new collision warning system in Sweden this week, Wired got first-hand experience (and video) of what happens when it goes badly wrong. The new Volvo S60, due for release later this year, was fired out of Volvo's testing tunnel at around 30MPH, and the collision detection system should have kicked in, bringing the car automatically to a halt before hitting the truck in its path. It didn't. Instead, the brand new car ploughed into the back of the truck in front of us, and indeed the world's press who had gathered in Sweden to see the collision detection system in action."

Comment I would buy a Kindle, if Amazon sold them to me... (Score 1) 503

by Kaleidoscopio (#29386831) Attached to: E-book readers ...
I cant buy a Kindle in Portugal, Amazon UK (Which is on the EEU) doesn't ship Electronics to Portugal, why? Never understood, there are no borders (as stated in EEU commerce laws) so I can't understand why they wont sell me a Kindle. :\
On the other hand, Books will always have a place in my home, but I can't take 4 or 5 books when I go on vacancies, but I can easily take a Kindle with me.

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