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The Military

Submission + - Iraq War Ends. Did the US Win? 7

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "As the last American troops exit Iraq, two questions come to mind: Was the war worth it? And did the US, in any sense, win? "The two questions, of course, are related: The first concerns cost, the second benefits," writes Fred Kaplan. "However you do the calculation, it’s clear that the decision to invade Iraq was a major strategic blunder—and that the policies we pursued in the early months of the occupation tipped the blunder into a catastrophe." After Paul Bremer issued Order No. 1 barring members of the once-ruling Baathist party from holding any but the lowliest of government jobs and Order No. 2 disbanding the Iraqi army, tens of thousands of Iraqis, most of them young men with weapons were turned out into the streets, officially disenfranchised and, in many cases, eager to rebel against the agents of their fate. An insurgency arose and there were no Iraqi security forces to clamp it down. But Bush changed course dramatically at the end of 2006 ordering a “surge” of 20,000 extra troops in support of a new counterinsurgency strategy, a gamble that paid off as many Sunni leaders—beginning in Anbar province, which had been one of Iraq’s most violent sectors—suddenly realized that the foreign jihadists, with whom they’d struck an alliance, formed a bigger threat than the American occupiers, and so they turned to the U.S. troops for help. The good news is that there is now a functioning Iraqi government. "The means and institutions do exist for resolving these problems mainly through politics," concludes Kaplan but "failure to resolve the disputes in the halls of politics may spur the most militant constituents—of whom there are many—to revive their armed struggles in the streets.""
NASA

Submission + - Comet Lovejoy Plunges into the Sun and Survives (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
boldie
boldie writes: "NASA has a Story about a comet Lovejoy's close encounter with the sun.

This morning, an armada of spacecraft witnessed something that many experts thought impossible. Comet Lovejoy flew through the hot atmosphere of the sun and emerged intact.

"It's absolutely astounding," says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. "I did not think the comet's icy core was big enough to survive plunging through the several million degree solar corona for close to an hour, but Comet Lovejoy is still with us."

The comet's close encounter was recorded by at least five spacecraft: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and twin STEREO probes, Europe's Proba2 microsatellite, and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. The most dramatic footage so far comes from SDO, which saw the comet go in (movie) and then come back out again (movie).

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught Comet Lovejoy emerging from its scorching close encounter with the sun. [Entrance movie: Quicktime (22 MB), m4v (0.8 MB)] [Exit movie: Quicktime (26 MB), m4v (0.8 MB)]

"
NASA

Submission + - Smallest Known Black Hole Found (forbes.com)

Submitted by smitty777
smitty777 writes: Adding to the recent black hole discoveries of gas clouds and a quasar accretion disc, Forbes is reporting on a recent discovery by NASA’s Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) on the smallest known black hole. From the article:"If the astronomers’ calculations are correct, this black hole is located about 16,000 to 56,000 light years away from Earth (a more precise distance hasn’t yet been determined). The black hole itself is only about three times the mass of the Sun, which means that the original star was just barely big enough to form a black hole. "
Government

Submission + - Blogger Tells Microsoft to Put Up or Shut Up on Ta (microsofttaxdodge.com) 5

Submitted by
reifman
reifman writes: "After The Everett Herald published an editorial condemning Microsoft's hypocritical record of tax dodging while advocating for more education funding, Jeffrey Reading, Microsoft's Senior PR Manager wrote the paper to refute the claims: "Much of the information regarding this issue is misinformation primarily spread by a blogger, and no state official has ever provided any factual data supporting his claims." The editorial was based on reporting I've done since 2004 showing that Microsoft's avoided more than $1.07 billion in state taxes using its Nevada office. If Microsoft wishes to prove that it paid Washington State Royalty Taxes during the years 1998 — 2010, it should disclose its worldwide licensing revenue and its Royalty Tax payments for this time period (as I have done)."
Patents

Submission + - Garman injunction issued against iPhone & iPad (techworld.com.au) 3

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "A German court has ruled that Apple's iPhone and iPad devices infringe a Motorola patent and issued an injunction against sales of the products in Germany, in the latest move in a long series of legal battles between the companies. It's the latest stage in the international patent conflict that's been raging over mobile devices, which has included the recent Samsung victory over Apple in an Australian court and a defeat for Samsung in a Dutch court."
Graphics

Submission + - The Condescending UI 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Paul Miller has some advice for user interface designers: Don't be condescending. 'The Ribbon in Microsoft Office products,' complains Miller, 'is constantly talking down to me, assuming I don't know how to use a menu, a key command, or an honest-to-goodness toolbar.' Miller's got some harsh words for Apple, too: 'And of course, there is the transgression of the century: Apple's downward spiral into overt 1:1 metaphors. The physical bookshelf, the leather desk calendar (complete with a torn page), the false-paginated address book...these new tricks are horrible and offensive [and likened to Microsoft Bob]. They're not only condescending and overwrought, they're actually counter-functional.' So, how does Miller cope while waiting for his UI knight in shining armor? 'I recently switched my Windows 7 install over to the Classic Theme', Miller explains, 'which is basically Windows 95 incarnate, just with all the under-the-hood improvements I've come to rely on. I really like it. It feels right, and if it isn't beautiful, at least it's honest. I wish there was a similar OS 9 mode for OS X.'

Submission + - Was Russia Behind Stuxnet? (the-diplomat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Despite the U.S. and Israel being widely assumed to be responsible for Stuxnet, Russia is the more likely culprit, says U.S. Air Force cyber analyst. The nuclear gangsterism of the past 20 years give sit plenty of motive.

Submission + - Wifi Signals Damage Sperm (reuters.com) 2

Submitted by iggymanz
iggymanz writes: Argentinian scientists find that microwave emissions from laptop wifi adapter damage sperm cells and their DNA, in a study led by Dr. Conrado Avendano of Nascentis Medicina Reproductiva in Cordoba. At the end of the linked article a U.S. urologist pooh-poohs the results but last quoted words were "..I don't know how many people use laptops on their laps anyway."
Australia

Submission + - iPhone Self-Combusts on Plane (theage.com.au)

Submitted by nfras
nfras writes: The Melbourne AGE is reporting that an iPhone 4 was "glowing red hot and emitting a significant amount of smoke" on a plane in Australia. Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) are investigating.
Censorship

Submission + - Battlefield 3 banned in Iran (gamepron.com) 1

Submitted by dotarray
dotarray writes: Iranian gamers hoping to get their hands on Battlefield 3 will be sorely disappointed, as the country has officially banned EA's latest shooter. Why? The game features an American war force launching an assault on Iranian capital city Tehran.
Businesses

Submission + - Europe's Largest IT Company to Ban Internal Email 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos, Europe's Largest IT Company, wants a "zero email" policy to be in place in 18 months, arguing that only 10 per cent of the 200 electronic messages his employees receive per day on average turn out to be useful and that staff spend between 5-20 hours handling emails every week. "The email is no longer the appropriate (communication) tool," says Breton. "The deluge of information will be one of the most important problems a company will have to face (in the future). It is time to think differently." Instead Breton wants staff at Atos, an international information technology corporation which operates in 42 countries worldwide, with over 78,500 employees, to use chat-type collaborative services inspired by social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter as surveys show that the younger generation have already all but scrapped email, with only 11 per cent of 11 to 19 year-olds using it,. For his part Breton hasn't sent a work email in three years. "If people want to talk to me, they can come and visit me, call or send me a text message. Emails cannot replace the spoken word.""

Comment Re:iPhones win by default (Score 5, Funny) 125

by Jimme Blue (#38043402) Attached to: Army Plots Its Smartphone Strategy

Blackberry - designed by untrustworthy Canadians
Android - based on Linux which was written by communists
iPhone - designed by Apple in California

I think by this logic it's going to have to go to Microsoft (unfortunately):
  - Blackberry => Canadians => socialists => communists
  - Android => Linux => communists
  - iPhone => Apple => California => communists

  - LatestMicrosoftPhoneSoftware => Microsoft => Washington => Confused With Washington, DC => Pentagon => DoD => Command Driven Economy => Shit.......Never mind.

iPhones win by default!

Comment Re:More information (Score 4, Informative) 93

by Jimme Blue (#38042366) Attached to: Canary Islands Eruption Could Create New Land

Incidentally, what are the chances they'll just end up with an atoll? Would this land rush be damp squib?

Zero. An atoll is made up of coral, not volcanic rock.

I believe that answer is actually much greater than zero (possibly 1.00), depending upon the the allowed timescale. Coral atolls are formed on top of old volcanices.

From the last the last of the following links:

"In 1842 Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a five-year voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. Accepted as basically correct, his explanation involved considering that several tropical island types—from high volcanic island, through barrier reef island, to atoll—represented a sequence of gradual subsidence of what started as an oceanic volcano. He reasoned that a fringing coral reef surrounding a volcanic island in the tropical sea will grow upwards as the island subsides (sinks), becoming an "almost atoll", or barrier reef island, as typified by an island such as Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, Bora Bora and others in the Society Islands. The fringing reef becomes a barrier reef for the reason that the outer part of the reef maintains itself near sea level through biotic growth, while the inner part of the reef falls behind, becoming a lagoon because conditions are less favorable for the coral and calcareous algae responsible for most reef growth. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface and the barrier reef remains. At this point, the island has become an atoll."

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Atoll
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_Hawaiian_volcanoes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atoll
Education

Submission + - High School Kills Color-Coded ID Program

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Anaheim Union High School District has killed a controversial incentive program that assigned students color-coded ID cards and planners based on state test scores, required those who performed poorly to stand in a separate lunch line and awarded the others with discounts. The program was designed to urge students to raise scores on the California Standards Tests, but it also raised concern among parents and students who said it illegally revealed test scores and embarrassed those who didn't do well.

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