Comment Re:right idea - Wrong fuel (Score 1) 230
There's an interesting google talk on Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgKfS74hVvQ
Submission + - Sex-Crazed Astrologer Was a Stellar Records Keeper (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: If you lived in the time of Shakespeare and wanted to know whether your sick child was going to make it, you might well have paid a visit to the shady offices of physician-cum-astrologer Simon Forman, who, with his student Richard Napier, advised more than 30,000 patients and clients during their careers. Forman would listen to your description of the symptoms, note them meticulously as you spoke, consult the stars, and give you a prognosis or suggest a treatment. Although his fellow physicians considered him a quack, Forman's bad reputation might be about to get a boost; his casebooks between the years 1596 and 1634 have now turned out to be the most extensive and systematic set of known medical records from that period. Historians are putting these records online for all to peruse and study medical trends in Elizabethan England.
Comment Re:EDDE (Score 3, Informative) 105
What magic material will they make this net out of?
This PDF slide deck has some additional details. It describes them as "50-g mesh nets", I couldn't tell you how they are supposed to work.
Comment EDDE (Score 3, Interesting) 105
It looks like they've worked out a possible solution to clearing out debris in LEO.
A small fleet of net-flinging spacecraft could clear every big piece of space junk out of low-Earth orbit within a dozen years, according to a researcher working on the concept. Each spacecraft, known as an ElectroDynamic Debris Eliminator (EDDE), would capture orbital debris in a net, then drag the junk down out of harm's way. The EDDEs would draw their power from the sun and from Earth's magnetic field rather than rely on costly chemical propellants, helping keep costs down, said Jerome Pearson, president of Star Technology and Research, Inc.
Comment Better than fingerprints, no concent required (Score 1) 2
Step 1) Get everybody to put their own profile picture up on social networking sites
Step 2) Government collect all pictures into database
Government now has a huge database they can check against to solve any crimes, or just find the people saying things they don't like.
Submission + - Scotland Yard IS using facial recognition tech (cbsnews.com) 2
nonprofiteer writes: Scotland Yard confirms that it's using facial recognition technology to identify rioters in London. "A law enforcement official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that facial recognition is one of many tools police are using to hunt suspects still at large."
Meanwhile, the vigilante group trying an amateur stab applying facial recognition to the riot photos abandoned the project because the results sucked: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/08/11/london-riots-facial-recognition-vigilantes-abandon-their-project/
This is the big test of the surveillance state that London has become. Are all those cameras effective, or just taking a toll on privacy without bringing added security? http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/london-is-the-surveillance-societys-biggest-test-yet/243445/
Meanwhile, the vigilante group trying an amateur stab applying facial recognition to the riot photos abandoned the project because the results sucked: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/08/11/london-riots-facial-recognition-vigilantes-abandon-their-project/
This is the big test of the surveillance state that London has become. Are all those cameras effective, or just taking a toll on privacy without bringing added security? http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/london-is-the-surveillance-societys-biggest-test-yet/243445/
Submission + - T-Mobile charging for overages on 200mb plans (tekgoblin.com)
tekgoblin writes: "Supposedly they didn't before...
The leaked data shows that apparently each additional MB of data used will cost $0.10 cents more on your monthly bill usage of data. The change may start as early as the 13th or 14th of August. Now there seems to be a maximum charge limit of $30, which means that T-Mobile may not allow users from going over $30 in data overage charges for their own protection. In one sense this is good, customers do not have to worry about ridiculous bills, especially the usage down in family plans. In another sense this means T-Mobile will shut your data off if you are an excessive user and somehow manage to reach over that $30 charge. There is also a 2GB tiered plan that seems to be protected from this change so far. I would speculate that the change does not effect 2GB plan holders because more data usage is probably being consumed by those on the 200MB plan trying to pay the least amount for technically unlimited data."
The leaked data shows that apparently each additional MB of data used will cost $0.10 cents more on your monthly bill usage of data. The change may start as early as the 13th or 14th of August. Now there seems to be a maximum charge limit of $30, which means that T-Mobile may not allow users from going over $30 in data overage charges for their own protection. In one sense this is good, customers do not have to worry about ridiculous bills, especially the usage down in family plans. In another sense this means T-Mobile will shut your data off if you are an excessive user and somehow manage to reach over that $30 charge. There is also a 2GB tiered plan that seems to be protected from this change so far. I would speculate that the change does not effect 2GB plan holders because more data usage is probably being consumed by those on the 200MB plan trying to pay the least amount for technically unlimited data."
Submission + - US Energy Panel Cautiously Endorses Fracking
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Christian Science Monitor reports that a US Energy Department advisory panel has endorsed fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a promising technology that injects a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals underground to fracture rock and release shale gas previously thought unretrievable paving the way for tens of thousands of new wells. If fracking can be done safely, it could be a major source of domestic energy over the next century. Shale gas makes up about 14 percent of the US natural gas supply today but is expected to reach 45 percent by 2035. But first, serious environmental concerns must be addressed. Earlier this year, a Duke University study of 68 private groundwater wells in Pennsylvania and New York state found evidence that shale-gas extraction has caused them to become contaminated with methane. One key recommendation by the panel is a call for transparency regarding the use of chemicals in the extraction process. Drillers say they would like to keep the exact formula of the chemicals they use secret because it represents a competitive advantage. "Shale gas represents a bright hope for America’s energy future" concludes CSM's editorial staff. "But only if its benefits don’t bring along an environmental disaster with them."
Submission + - Why Google needs Firefox (extremetech.com)
MrSeb writes: "Almost the entirety of Mozilla's income — 97% of $104 million — arrives in the form of royalties from the Firefox search box, and the lion's share (86%, $85 million) of those royalties are paid by the default search engine: Google. In November 2011, however, Mozilla's contract with Google will expire. Will Google renew it? A better question to ask, though, is whether Mozilla wants Google as its primary search engine."
Submission + - Google: Microsoft Improperly Showed Android Code (computerworld.com)
CWmike writes: "Google asked the International Trade Commission on Wednesday to block the testimony of a Microsoft expert witness in the latter's 10-month-old action against Motorola over patents allegedly used by Android. Google says Microsoft did not ask permission before showing Robert Stevenson the Android source code. 'The protective order governing confidentiality in this investigation explicitly requires that Microsoft disclose to Google any consultant or expert seeking access to Google confidential business information or highly confidential source code before [emphasis in original] allowing a consultant or expert to review such information so that Google has an opportunity to object prior to disclosure,' Google's complaint reads. 'The confidential source code improperly provided to Dr. Stevenson is highly proprietary source code that Google does not even share with its partners, such as Motorola,' Google said. Patent activist and analyst Florian Mueller said Thursday that Google's move was little more than delaying tactic. 'This is a secondary theater of war,' Mueller told Computerworld. 'It's about procedural tactics, maybe hoping that this could cause a delay, but whatever the outcome may be, it won't change anything about the substance of this case.'"
Submission + - Obama Reverses Again, Closing Datacenters (smartertechnology.com)
An anonymous reader writes: After quadrupling the number of government datacenters over his first three years, Obama's Administration is reversing course and closing the most recently opened datacenters. With one datacenter reportedly the size of three football fields, my question is what happens to all those recently purchased servers? Will the government hold a server fire sale? Count me in!
Comment Re:...And one generation behind on HTML5 (Score 1) 341
> There's "fat-val", "tracer JIT" and "method JIT". Just curious, given all these advances in JS speed, are there technical reasons why stuff like Python, Ruby and Perl aren't getting similar improvements in speed?
Python, Ruby, and Perl are all server side scripts as opposed to Javascript which is run inside the client's browser. I'm sure the run speed of the other languages is improving over time, it just isn't in the spotlight that the browsers get.
Geologists Might Be Charged For Not Predicting Quake 375
mmmscience writes "In 2009, a series of small earthquakes shook the region of L'Aquila, Italy. Seismologists investigated the tremors, but concluded that there was no direct indication of a big quake on the horizon. Less than a month later, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed more than 300 people. Now, the chief prosecutor of L'Aquila is
looking to charge the scientists with gross negligent manslaughter for not predicting the quake."
