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Comment Re: Maybe Putin could help (Score 1) 155

by Erioll (#48538225) Attached to: Romanian Officials Say Russia Finances European Fracking Protests
From the link:

Small earthquakes keep big ones from happening. Each magnitude level represents about 31.6 times more energy released. It takes 32 magnitude 3s to equal the energy released in a magnitude 4, 1,000 magnitude 3s to equal a magnitude 5 and a billion magnitude 3s to equal a single magnitude 9. So while a small quake may temporarily ease stress on a fault line, it does not prevent a large temblor.

This basically says "no effect either way" from my non-expert reading of it. Also, small quakes cause no damage. If fracking causes damaging quakes, then that's an issue. It's like saying "that wind from the desk fan is damaging me, like a hurricane would!" Umm, no it isn't. If it doesn't hit the threshold, you're being an idiot.

Submission + - Why Microsoft skipped Windows 9

Submitted by Bizzeh
Bizzeh writes: Microsoft may not be everybody's favorite company, but they are the kings of backwards compatibility. When testing what was Windows 9 (and is now Windows 10). It seems like they came across some compatibility issues from the Windows 9x days. Mentioned by Mikko Hypponen on twitter (https://twitter.com/mikko/status/517358472715710465), quite a lot of products test the version string with "indexOf("windows 9")". Using searchcode, we can see what he means. https://searchcode.com/?q=if(v...

Submission + - Forest Service clamps down on free speech

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The U.S. Forest Service has instituted rules requiring journalists to get a permit before they can take pictures or videos on federal land. The Bill of Rights is such an inconvenient thing.

Under rules being finalized in November, a reporter who met a biologist, wildlife advocate or whistleblower alleging neglect in any of the nation’s 100 million acres of wilderness would first need special approval to shoot photos or videos even on an iPhone. Permits cost up to $1,500, says Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, and reporters who don’t get a permit could face fines up to $1,000.

First Amendment advocates say the rules ignore press freedoms and are so vague they’d allow the Forest Service to grant permits only to favored reporters shooting videos for positive stories.

The fascist nature of these new rules is revealed by this quote near the end of the article:

[T]he Forest Service is giving its supervisors discretion to decide whether a news outlet’s planned video or photo shoots would meet the Wilderness Act’s goals. “If you were engaged on reporting that was in support of wilderness characteristics, that would be permitted,” [said Liz Close, the Forest Service's acting wilderness director].

But if you are reporting on something the Forest Service disagrees with they obviously believe they have the right to deny you a permit to film or videotape.

Submission + - Microsoft goes cross-platform with a universal keyboard for Android and iOS

Submitted by DroidJason1
DroidJason1 writes: Microsoft has released a new keyboard that is designed to work with all of your devices. The Universal Mobile Keyboard, as Microsoft calls it, works on Android, iPad, iPhone, and Windows. Microsoft is taking the "one experience for everything in your life" mantra quite seriously. The keyboard connects to devices via Bluetooth, and works with Windows 8 and higher; Windows RT; Apple iOS 6 and higher; and Android 4 or higher. It features an OS switch that lets you change from one operating system to another while maintaining a fully functional keyboard. The keyboard cover has an integrated stand that can easily be detached too. The keyboard hits retail in October for $79.95.

Submission + - World's First 3D Printed Castle is Now Complete - On to Printing a House Next (3dprint.com)

Submitted by ErnieKey
ErnieKey writes: A Minnesota man, named Andrey Rudenko has officially finished 3D printing a castle in Minnesota. It is constructed using a 3d printer that extrudes a concrete mixture in 10mm high layers. The project took a couple months to complete, and the results turned out quite incredible. The castle's turrets were printed separately, and it took 7 adult men to lift them and put them on top. With his method now proven, Rudenko now plans to 3D print an entire 2-story home, in one piece, including the roof.

Submission + - A Box of Forgotten Smallpox Vials Was Just Found in an FDA Closet

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: The last remaining strains of smallpox are kept in highly protected government laboratories in Russia and at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. And, apparently, in a dusty cardboard box in an old storage room in Maryland.
The CDC said today that government workers had found six freeze-dried vials of the Variola virus, which causes smallpox, in a storage room at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland last week. Each test tube had a label on it that said "variola," which was a tip-off, but the agency did genetic testing to confirm that the viruses were, in fact, smallpox.

Submission + - Asheron's Call to end active development, Turbine to release server software (asheronscall.com)

Submitted by _KiTA_
_KiTA_ writes: Asheron's Call, one of the longest running modern era MMOs at 15 years, will have one final monthly update on March 4th, whereupon the game (alongside Asheron's Call 2) will be placed in Mothball — going free to play for existing accounts, with only bugfix and balance updates to be expected.

However, at the same time, Turbine's going out with a bang — adding a Disgaea-like character reincarnation system, LOTRO style evolving weapons, and a fanservice-filled bonus dungeon for the remaining (and returning) faithful players.

Oh, and they're planning on releasing the game's servers, client, utilities, and art assets for free. Similar to how Ultima Online spawned a host of unofficial and technically illegal 3rd party servers, Turbine is going to officially allow 3rd party servers now that the game is being retired. There are also increasing rumors that Turbine might be working on an Asheron's Call 3 or AC Reboot, as well.

Submission + - Group Thinks Anonymity Should Be Baked Into the Internet Itself Using Tor

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: David Talbot writes at MIT Technology review that engineers on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an informal organization of engineers that changes Internet code and operates by rough consensus, have asked the architects of Tor to consider turning the technology into an Internet standard. If widely adopted, such a standard would make it easy to include the technology in consumer and business products ranging from routers to apps and would allow far more people to browse the Web without being identified by anyone who might be spying on Internet traffic. The IETF is already working to make encryption standard in all web traffic. Stephen Farrell believes that forging Tor into a standard that interoperates with other parts of the Internet could be better than leaving Tor as a separate tool that requires people to take special action to implement. “I think there are benefits that might flow in both directions,” says Farrell. “I think other IETF participants could learn useful things about protocol design from the Tor people, who’ve faced interesting challenges that aren’t often seen in practice. And the Tor people might well get interest and involvement from IETF folks who’ve got a lot of experience with large-scale systems.” Andrew Lewman, executive director of Tor, says the group is considering it. “We’re basically at the stage of ‘Do we even want to go on a date together?’ It’s not clear we are going to do it, but it’s worth exploring to see what is involved. It adds legitimacy, it adds validation of all the research we’ve done.”

Submission + - No, the Tesla Model S Doesn't Pollute More Than A SUV (greencarreports.com) 1

Submitted by thecarchik
thecarchik writes: In an exhaustive 6,500-word article on the financial website Seeking Alpha, analyst Nathan Weiss lays out a case that the latest Tesla Model S actually has higher effective emissions than most large SUVs of both the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and smog-producing pollutants like sulfur dioxide.

This is absolutely false.

Virtually all electric car advocate agree that when toting up the environmental pros and cons of electric cars, it's only fair to include powerplant emissions. When this has been done previously, the numbers have still favored electric cars. The Union of Concerned Scientists, for example, concluded in a 2012 report, "Electric vehicles charged on the power grid have lower global warming emissions than the average gasoline-based vehicle sold today.

Working through everyone of Weiss' conclusions may show a higher emissions rate than Tesla's published numbers but in no way does a Model S pollute the amounts even close to an SUV.

Submission + - Kenneth Appel Remembered For Four Color Theorem (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Kenneth Appel (1932-2013) together with Wolfgang Haken, proved the four color theorem and broke new ground in using a computer to complete the proof. For the first time a computer played a major role in proving a major mathematical theorem.This was not a proof that was liked by all mathematicians. The use of the computer resulted in a proof that could not be checked by an unaided human. It was a huge shock for many mathematicians at the time to have to move over and allow a computer to take part in mathematics. There was a feeling at the time, and perhaps there still is, that the proof was a temporary matter and soon a real mathematician would step up and provide a "real" proof. Even today many mathematicians have their reservations about the proof and there have been attempts to simplify it, but so far they all involve computers. Mathematicians are still searching for something that would look more like an elementary proof.
Appel and Haken's proof may be the most controversial in mathematics but it also put the computer into pure mathematics.
Kenneth Appel died on April 19, 2013 at the age of 80.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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