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Comment Re:It's Actually A Good Point (Score 1) 771

Fact: We are pumping and mining billions of tons of hydrocarbons out of the ground each year, and then burning most of it. Fact: The earth's climate is warming faster than it typically has during previous warming episodes. You are probably not a very rational person if you don't believe these facts. They are simple measurements that have been taken in multiple ways. One may choose to focus on outliers that disagree with the bulk of the data, but such a focus is not rational. You are also probably not a very rational person if you don't accept that the above facts are likely related to each other. It is exceedingly unlikely that such a dramatic rate of consumption would not have atmospheric and thus climatic impacts. One may as well believe that the oceans are too big to be polluted or over fished. That there is a correlation between such irrational points of view with conspiracy theorists and the religious right is hardly surprising. If one is irrational about their religious point of view, or political, or historical they are likely irrational in other ways as well.
The Courts

Submission + - X-Rays show memory card still in digestive tract of accused hang glider. (www.cbc.ca)

dumuzi writes: A hang glider instructor in British Columbia is accused of obstructing justice during a police investigation of the death of one of his passengers. Lenami Godinez's boyfriend bought her a hang gliding experience for their anniversery. Immediatly after take off Godinez began to fall. She struggled to hold onto the pilot William Orders, who attemped to help her according to bystanders. Godinez was unable to hang on and fell to her death. A police investigation revealed the memory card from the camera attached to the hang glider was missing and Orders was arrested for obstruction of justice. Several recent X-Rays show the memory card is making its way through Orders digestive tract while he is being held in custody. The card likely contains video evidence which is expected to be intact once the memory card is recovered.

Comment Re:Time delay - info from the future? (Score 1) 465

How would the no-communication theorem take effect in the following: With a very long fiber optic cable send the two photons in, knowing that if some stock goes up tomorrow then Victor will entangle them, Alice and Bob measure the photons today and then decide whether or not to invest in the stock. It may require a 7 billion mile (twice the distance to pluto) long fiber optic cable (assuming the index of refraction is about 1.5), but perhaps a superhigh index of refraction material, like a bose-einstien condensate would help. Actually instead of a fiber optic cable just put a big mirror on Pluto.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook begins allowing users to download their collected data (examiner.com)

An anonymous reader writes: "Today, Facebook announced that they will provide its users with a download of all of the data it collects on them. In this data, it includes: chat logs, photos, friends. friend's emails, wit all posts, IP Addresses you have used, the previous names you have used, friend requests you have made, and more will be added soon. For the friend's emails, they only show users the emails that their friends have shared with them(so, if their email is listed as only viewable to them, or group you're not in, you can't see it). They also stated that this expanded archive will slowly roll out to all of the sites 845 million users.
Crime

Submission + - How Walmart Covered up Massive Corruption of Executives in Mexico (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In September 2005, a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received an alarming e-mail from a former executive at the company’s largest foreign subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico. In the e-mail and follow-up conversations, the former executive described how Wal-Mart de Mexico had orchestrated a campaign of bribery to win market dominance. In its rush to build stores, he said, the company had paid bribes to obtain permits in virtually every corner of the country. The former executive gave names, dates and bribe amounts. He knew so much, he explained, because for years he had been the lawyer in charge of obtaining construction permits for Wal-Mart de Mexico.

  In a confidential report to his superiors, Wal-Mart’s lead investigator, a former F.B.I. special agent, summed up their initial findings this way: “There is reasonable suspicion to believe that Mexican and USA laws have been violated.” The lead investigator recommended that Wal-Mart expand the investigation. Instead, an examination by The New York Times found, Wal-Mart’s leaders shut it down.

Google

Submission + - Billionaires and polymaths to unveil a plan to mine asteroids. (wsj.com)

dumuzi writes: A team including Larry Page, Ram Shriram and Eric Schmidt (Google), James Cameron (Director), Charles Simonyi (Microsoft executive and astronaut), Ross Perot Jr. (son of Ross Perot), Chris Lewicki (NASA Mars mission manager), and Peter Diamandis (X-Prize) from a new company called Planatary Resources are expected to announce plans on April 24th to mine asteroids. A study by NASA released April 2nd claims a robotic mission could capture a 500 ton asteroid and bring it to orbit the moon for $2.6 billion. The additional cost to mine the asteroid and return the ores to Earth would make profit unlikely even if the asteriod was 20% gold. But with many raw materials on Earth expected to run out in 50-60 years perhaps now is the right time to invest in this project.

Submission + - First full observable universe simulation

slashmatteo writes: The goal of the DEUS project (Dark Energy Universe Simulation) is to investigate the imprints of dark energy on cosmic structure formation through high-performance numerical simulations. In order to do so, the project has conducted a simulation of the structuring of the entire observable universe, from the Big Bang to the present day. Thanks to the Curie super-computer, the simulation has made it possible to follow the evolution of 550 billion particles. Two other complementary runs are scheduled by the end of May. More details on the press release.
Microsoft

Submission + - In Soviet Russia, Bing Searches You!

theodp writes: A newly surfaced Microsoft patent application, reports GeekWire, describes a 'user-following engine' that analyzes your posts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to deduce your mood, interests, and even your smarts. The system would then automatically adjust the search experience and results to better match those characteristics, explains Microsoft, such as changing the background color of the search interface to suit your mood, or bringing back only those search results that won't strain your feeble brain. From the patent application: 'In addition to skewing the search results to the user’s inferred interests, the user-following engine may further tailor the search results to a user’s comprehension level. For example, an intelligent processing module may be directed to discerning the sophistication and education level of the posts of a user. Based on that inference, the customization engine may vary the sophistication level of the customized search result.' So, is this the same technology the Microsoft Store used to determine I'd need a $49-an-hour Microsoft "personal trainer" to grasp Windows Live Photo Gallery, the same software that 4-and-a-half year-old Kylie mastered on her own?

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