842957
submission
NeuroManson writes:
From the "Oh WHAT is it now!?" dept:
"Wind turbines can kill bats without touching them by causing a bends-like condition due to rapidly dropping air pressure, new research suggests. "
"Scientists aren't sure why, but bats are attracted to the turbines, which often stand 300 feet (90 meters) high and sport 200-foot (60-meter) blades. "
832961
submission
NeuroManson writes:
Kofi Outlaw at Screenrant.com writes about the indefinite ban on the release of Watchmen, due to copyright wrangling and disputes between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. From the article:
"The legal broo-ha-ha started back in February of this year, when Fox filed a copy infringement and breach of contract suit against studio Warner Bros., which owns the current version of Watchmen being helmed by director Zack Snyder (300). Fox's claim was that they had obtained the rights to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' genre-shattering graphic novel, and all subsequent film endeavors related to it, between the years of 1986 and 1991."
792671
submission
NeuroManson writes:
From the Teenage Mutant Ninja Mushroom Dept.:
Radiation-loving fungi may also prove useful, according to Dadachova. Their melanin gene, she said, might eventually be popped into food crops and used to help growth in difficult regions. And astronauts on long spaceflights might one day find a useful, self-replenishing diet in black, melanin-rich fungi.
And because the fungi don't actually 'eat' radioactive material, but simply use the energy it radiates, Dadachova said, they're in no danger of becoming radioactive themselves.
744483
submission
NeuroManson writes:
From the Pass the Dramamine dept:
An ambitious architectural project is underway to build a "dynamic" apartment tower in Dubai. Dynamic Archicture's (http://www.dynamicarchitecture.net/) innovative design involves individual floors that rotate around a central core, allowing the tower's appearance to constantly change with the wind, along with turbines built inbetween each floor to generate electricity.
As a result, the tower will be largely self sufficient energy wise, and even provide a surplus of electricity that can be sold off.
Story follows at http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/wind-power-rotating-skyscraper/
How much stock the architects owns in motion sickness drugs is another question, however.
172045
submission
NeuroManson writes:
I finally made the leap to purchasing a cheap TwinhanDTV ATSC (D+A) tuner card recently, and after making massive efforts to get it to operate semi passibly, realized that I pretty much wasted $45 or so on it. Can anyone advise of a good HDTV tuner card for the PC? Requirements include: Reasonable price (if I can just get a standalone HDTV for the same price, it isn't worth it), allow for YPb/PR inputs, and be compatible with MythTV or Dscaler.
This is not a huge amount of requirements, but it still seems like ATSC/HDTV tuner cards are in their relative infancy, with only a handful of external tuner boxes, and another handful of PCI cards, only 1/3 of each category actually performing as advertised or at all. So for that matter, is there any reason why it's taking far longer for HDTV cards to make the market? Regular tuner cards have been available for computers for almost a decade and a half, and yet it's taken almost as long for HDTV tuner cards to show up on the market.
147225
submission
NeuroManson writes:
Long time nemesis to nerds everywhere, Jack Valenti, passed away today following a stroke. Not sure whether to dance a merry jig yet, but "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" springs to mind.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18339220/
LOS ANGELES — Jack Valenti, the former White House aide and film industry lobbyist who instituted the modern movie ratings system and guided Hollywood from the censorship era to the digital age, died Thursday. He was 85.
Valenti had a stroke in March and was hospitalized for several weeks at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore.
He died of complications from the stroke at his Washington, D.C., home, said Seth Oster of the Motion Picture Association of America.
