Comment Jake, Fred, we've been found out! (Score 1) 253
Dang modern science, guys, they found us! It'll only be a matter of time before they round us up. I mean, it's not like you all should be GRATEFUL to your elders but NO
Submission + - Latest victim of Gov't Shutdown: Bill Gates
Dr. Tom writes: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Festival, an annual event scheduled to be held next week, has been canceled. Bill Gates was to have delivered the opening keynote speech tomorrow (Monday):
http://researchfestival.nih.gov/
http://researchfestival.nih.gov/2013/schedule.shtml
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
David E. Barmes Global Health Lecture
Bill Gates, Co-chair and Trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Masur Auditorium (Videocast Overflow in Lipsett Amphitheater)
Many of us at the NIH were looking forward to attending the lecture, which was to have been videocast across the NIH campus, and are also saddened that the actions of a small minority have been able to disrupt this celebration of medical science and research.
http://researchfestival.nih.gov/
http://researchfestival.nih.gov/2013/schedule.shtml
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
David E. Barmes Global Health Lecture
Bill Gates, Co-chair and Trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Masur Auditorium (Videocast Overflow in Lipsett Amphitheater)
Many of us at the NIH were looking forward to attending the lecture, which was to have been videocast across the NIH campus, and are also saddened that the actions of a small minority have been able to disrupt this celebration of medical science and research.
Comment Re:Disgusting anus (Score 1) 161
sorry, I thought this was a different thread. Oops! I'm an idiot. Ha ha.
Comment Re:Disgusting anus (Score -1, Flamebait) 161
I marked this as offtopic stale troll spam under submissions, but they posted it anyway. You don't have to be a genius to predict exactly this kind of response, but noooooo, somehow Mr. Soulskill thought it'd be a laugh. Yeah, look, lots of posts! Ad revenue! I'm going to disable ads now. Thanks.
Journal Journal: People, please. 1
Before posting JEs and comments, for the love of all that is good in this universe, run it through notepad, or your favorite plain text editor to get rid of things that don't render.. You know, like 'smart' quotes and apostrophes. Don't make reading so painful
Submission + - Photographer Builds an Amazing DIY Digital Camera Stabilizer (lensvid.com)
Iddo Genuth writes: Videographer Tom Antos developed an advanced DIY camera stabilizer which can hold almost any DSLR or mirrorless camera steady for video photography. Although this surly isn’t as sophisticated (and super expensive) as the professional MVI M10 handheld 3-axis digital stabilized camera gimbal, its still quite impressive especially when you consider it only cost a few hundred dollars rather then tens of thousands — that is if you feel like building it yourself.
Submission + - Overweight and obesity rates are increasing in schoolchildren across Europe - iV (weebly.com)
iValueHealth.NET writes: A recent study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, published in the beginning of 2013 shows that overweight and obesity rates throughout Europe have increased in recent decades.
Submission + - Google floats balloons for free Wi-Fi
BrokenHalo writes: Google has revealed that it has 30 balloons floating over New Zealand in a project to bring free wi-fi to earthquake-stricken, rural or poor areas. Eventually, as the balloons move across the stratosphere, consumers in participating countries along the 40th parallel in the Southern Hemisphere could tap into the service. The technology will be trialled in Australia next year, possibly in Tasmania. If the latter happens to be true, then you'll probably hear the telcos' screams in New York.
Submission + - NY's Bloomberg and SF mayor announce tech summits (newsok.com)
Clarklteveno writes: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his San Francisco counterpart, Ed Lee, said at a news conference Friday that they are sponsoring a pair of technology summits over the next year. The mayors said the "digital cities" summits — one in New York in September and another in San Francisco early next year — will seek to find ways to use technology to solve problems the cities face. The mayors made the announcement after touring the office of San Francisco-based mobile payment company Square with co-founder Jack Dorsey, who also helped found Twitter. Bloomberg pointed to power outages and dangerous winds and flooding from Hurricane Sandy as examples of issues the summits would seek to address.
Submission + - Astronauts Must Deal with Perchlorate (piosonous soil) on Mars (space.com)
Thorfinn.au writes: The pervading carpet of perchlorate chemicals found on Mars may boost the chances that microbial life exists on the Red Planet — but perchlorates are also perilous to the health of future crews destined to explore that way-off world.
Perchlorates are reactive chemicals first detected in arctic Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix lander that plopped down on Mars over five years ago in May 2008.
It is likely both of NASA's Viking Mars landers in 1976 measured signatures of perchlorates, in the form of chlorinated hydrocarbons. Other U.S. Mars robots — the Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity — detected elemental chlorine. Moreover, orbital measurements taken by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft show that chlorine is globally distributed.
Smith said microbes on Earth use perchlorate for an energy source. They actually live off highly oxidized chlorine, and in reducing the chlorine down to chloride, they use the energy in that transaction to power themselves. In fact, when there's too much perchlorate in drinking water, microbes are used to clean it up, he said.
Furthermore, seasonal flow features seen on Mars may be caused by high concentrations of the brines of perchlorate, which has a strong attraction to water and can drastically lower its freezing point, Smith told SPACE.com.
Devilishly dangerous
The high levels of perchlorate found on Mars would be toxic to humans, Smith said.
Perchlorates are reactive chemicals first detected in arctic Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix lander that plopped down on Mars over five years ago in May 2008.
It is likely both of NASA's Viking Mars landers in 1976 measured signatures of perchlorates, in the form of chlorinated hydrocarbons. Other U.S. Mars robots — the Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity — detected elemental chlorine. Moreover, orbital measurements taken by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft show that chlorine is globally distributed.
Smith said microbes on Earth use perchlorate for an energy source. They actually live off highly oxidized chlorine, and in reducing the chlorine down to chloride, they use the energy in that transaction to power themselves. In fact, when there's too much perchlorate in drinking water, microbes are used to clean it up, he said.
Furthermore, seasonal flow features seen on Mars may be caused by high concentrations of the brines of perchlorate, which has a strong attraction to water and can drastically lower its freezing point, Smith told SPACE.com.
Devilishly dangerous
The high levels of perchlorate found on Mars would be toxic to humans, Smith said.
Submission + - Ancient Roman Concrete Is About to Revolutionize Modern Architecture (businessweek.com) 1
schwit1 writes: After 2,000 years, a long-lost secret behind the creation of one of the world’s most durable man-made creations ever—Roman concrete—has finally been discovered by an international team of scientists, and it may have a significant impact on how we build cities of the future.
Researchers have analyzed 11 harbors in the Mediterranean basin where, in many cases, 2,000-year-old (and sometimes older) headwaters constructed out of Roman concrete stand perfectly intact despite constant pounding by the sea. The most common blend of modern concrete, known as Portland cement, a formulation in use for nearly 200 years, can’t come close to matching that track record. In seawater, it has a service life of less than 50 years. After that, it begins to erode.
The secret to Roman concrete lies in its unique mineral formulation and production technique. As the researchers explain in a press release outlining their findings, “The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock. For underwater structures, lime and volcanic ash were mixed to form mortar, and this mortar and volcanic tuff were packed into wooden forms. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated—incorporating water molecules into its structure—and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together.”
Researchers have analyzed 11 harbors in the Mediterranean basin where, in many cases, 2,000-year-old (and sometimes older) headwaters constructed out of Roman concrete stand perfectly intact despite constant pounding by the sea. The most common blend of modern concrete, known as Portland cement, a formulation in use for nearly 200 years, can’t come close to matching that track record. In seawater, it has a service life of less than 50 years. After that, it begins to erode.
The secret to Roman concrete lies in its unique mineral formulation and production technique. As the researchers explain in a press release outlining their findings, “The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock. For underwater structures, lime and volcanic ash were mixed to form mortar, and this mortar and volcanic tuff were packed into wooden forms. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated—incorporating water molecules into its structure—and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together.”
Submission + - Draft NASA funding bill cancels asteroid mission for return to the moon (examiner.com)
MarkWhittington writes: A draft version of the 2013 NASA Authorization Bill nixes any funding for President Obama’s asteroid retrieval mission and instead directs NASA to return astronauts to the lunar surface as soon as possible, funding of course permitted.
The NASA bill is currently working its way through the House Science Committee. Thus far the Senate has not taken up NASA authorization. However the cancellation of the asteroid retrieval mission and an insistence on returning to the moon, which both President Obama and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden have opposed, would place Congress on a collision course with the White House should that version of the bill be passed by both houses of Congress.
The NASA bill is currently working its way through the House Science Committee. Thus far the Senate has not taken up NASA authorization. However the cancellation of the asteroid retrieval mission and an insistence on returning to the moon, which both President Obama and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden have opposed, would place Congress on a collision course with the White House should that version of the bill be passed by both houses of Congress.
Submission + - Robot dominates air hockey, adapts to opponents' playing style (networkworld.com)
colinneagle writes: Researchers at Chiba University in Japan have developed a robot that could frustrate teenagers worldwide with its impressive air hockey skills. What's remarkable about this air hockey-playing robot, which is not the first of its kind, is that it can sense human opponents' playing styles and adapt to defend against them. The key is how the computer controlling the robot views its opponent — at a speed of 500 frames per second. From there, the robot uses a three-layer control system to determine motion control, when it should hit the puck, defend its goal or stay still, and a third that determines how it should react to its opponent's playing style.
Submission + - How Linux Foundation Runs Its Virtual Office (informationweek.com)
CowboyRobot writes: The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit that manages much of the day-to-day business behind the open source operating system, maintains a small office in San Francisco. Stop by, however, and you probably won't find anyone there. That's because the organization's 30-something employees work virtually. It's like the anti-Yahoo: Just about everyone, including Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds, works from home. "We really wanted to have that effectiveness and nimbleness of a virtual organization," said Amanda McPherson, Linux Foundation's VP of marketing and developer programs. "You have that commitment and ownership of your job more than when you're just sitting there in that cube farm," McPherson said. "For us, if you hire the right people who are motivated by that, you just get more commitment. [You get] people who really love their jobs and like to work, but also like that they can go to the gym at 2 in the afternoon when it's not crowded. In an office, [people would say]: 'Why isn't he at his desk? It's 2. There must be something wrong.'"
