Comment NY - 2 hours long lines (Score 1) 821
Few poll workers lots of voters (many who have no idea what they are doing). Long wait to check in and get ballot to feed the machine.
Comment Science and Engineering-Yes (Score 1) 1086
With a background in Engineering and currently a Biologist I would say that calculus and differential equations are absolutely necessary. Things (objects, fluids, heat, proteins, etc.) move over time. There is no way to describe or model these things without calculus.
Submission + - UPenn's GRASP Lab Unleashes a Swarm of Nano Quadro (gizmag.com)
Zothecula writes: Remote-controlled quadrotor robots have been around for some time, but in video just released by a research team at the University of Pennsylvania's General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab, science fiction edges much closer to science fact as a swarm of Nano Quadrotors perform some astounding maneuvers. Admittedly, use of the term "nano" may be stretching things a bit, but even so, the capable little robots provide an interesting glimpse into what the future may hold for surveillance, search and rescue, light construction and warfare.
Comment Re:Hmmm... (Score 1) 1367
They are all old (former heads of whatever) engineers or weathermen. Not a single one is a climate scientist.
Comment Re:Thermodynamic definition of life (Score 1) 299
If said refrigerator could independently make more of itself, then yes. Inclusion of non organic systems is partly the idea.
Comment Thermodynamic definition of life (Score 5, Interesting) 299
Overly inclusive perhaps, but life could generally be defined as the ability to actively resist entropy (maintain low entropy) coupled with a method of passing that ability along. You could say that crystal structure represent a low entropy state, but they have no method to actively propagate it or pass it along other than growing. Throw out counter arguments at will, but I say it's pretty good.
Comment Re:Do you plan to work in the real world? (Score 5, Insightful) 173
A Ph.D. like all degrees has very little to do with genius. It is a signifier of your ability to work independently for long periods of time (3-6 years), and adapt to changing circumstances. This is the kind of aptitude that employers in nearly any field look for. A high schooler, even a genius, remains unproven in that area. This is why many genius people don't get any degree's yet companies still like to hire Ph.D.'s (even though most of them are not genius).
Comment Re:Do you plan to work in the real world? (Score 2) 173
Yeah, as a Biology Ph.D. I have watched many of my friends go into finance and consulting and a number of other fields. No one gives a crap what your Ph.D. is in. They will look at your publication record (academic jobs) or just interview you to asses your specific skills/reasoning abilities.
Comment Re:Phew... (Score 1) 760
Actually efficiency is the fallacy. Because of the huge latency involved in CO2 emissions (what we put up now will be there for ~100 years), the burn rate doesn't matter that much. If we use all of the fossil fuels available it will be the end of the planet as we know it. Whether we draw it out over another 50 years because of increased efficiency doesn't really matter. Increases in efficiency combined with transition away from fossil fuels is the only way to go.
Submission + - British Library scans public domain music and then (earlymusiconline.org)
An anonymous reader writes: The British Library recently announced digitization of 350 volumes of early printed music in public domain. Except that they are now claiming copyright on the digitized versions and even supply a copyright license:
http://www.earlymusiconline.org/licence
http://www.earlymusiconline.org/licence
Submission + - Italian Wikipedia Shuts Down for the Day (wikipedia.org)
Teancum writes: "After a lengthy discussion within the Italian language edition of Wikipedia, the volunteers decided to shut down the Italian language edition of Wikipedia for a day with a protest message addressing a new law passed in Italy which the editors of Wikipedia perceive as being harmful to their participation in the collaborative on-line project. The Wikimedia Foundation (the organization who runs the server farms supporting Wikipedia) issued a statement in support of this action."
Comment Very little, but some (Score 1) 1
No large long term studies have been done. The short term effects are pretty much what you would expect (a shift in blood and urine pH). Read on: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20836884
Submission + - Secrete Messages Encoded in Bacteria (sciencemag.org) 1
sciencehabit writes: Researchers have invented a new form of secret messaging using bacteria that make glowing proteins only under certain conditions. In addition to being useful to spies, the new technique could also allow companies to encode secret identifiers into crops, seeds, or other living commodities.
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Alkaline water benifits? (question.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Recently a friend of mine bough a water ionizer that can, through chemicals, raise or lower the pH of the water to different settings, like 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, etc. I did a bit of research and have yet to find any studies done on this – with 100% of the websites out there having only testimonial type information (which also might explain why this stuff is only sold in the USA through MLM, as it would be illegal to advertise that it cures cancer and aids without proof, but via testimonials apparently its allowed). Have any scientific studies been done on short/long term usage of alkaline water? Are there any proven (once again, through scientific studies) results? Is this stuff just a hoax? Have any REAL doctors and scientists chimed in on this?
Submission + - Google Drops Cloud Lawsuit Against US Gov't (itworld.com)
jfruhlinger writes: "A year ago, Google sued the U.S. government because the government's request for proposals for a cloud project mandated Microsoft Office; Google felt, for obvious reasons, that this was discriminatory. Google has now withdrawn the suit, claiming that the Feds promised to update their policies to allow Google to compete. The only problem is that the government claims it did no such thing."
