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Earth

The Fjord-Cooled Data Center 195

Posted by samzenpus from the norwegian-blue dept.
1sockchuck writes "A new data center project in Norway plans to use a fjord-powered cooling system, drawing cold water from an adjacent fjord to cool data halls. The fjord provides a ready supply of water at 8 degrees C (46 degrees F), eliminating the need for an energy-hungry chiller. The Green Mountain Data Center joins a small but growing number of data centers are slashing their cooling costs by using the environment as their chiller, tapping nearby lakes, wells and even the Baltic Sea."
Medicine

Manufacturing Dreams 114

Posted by Soulskill from the starring-leonardo-dicaprio dept.
New submitter geekgirl09 sends in a story from Wired about the U.S. Army's efforts to develop methods for digitally manufacturing dreams to soothe combat vets who suffer from PTSD. From the article: "Fifty-two percent of combat veterans with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) reported having nightmares fairly often, according to the National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study. ... So the researchers will ask troops to take control of the 'creation of the customized healing imagery (therapeutic dreams) to counter the impact of nightmares,' according to a military contracting document. The hope is that these 'power dreams' can be watched from laptops and 'home training and 3-D goggles work to gradually enhance the strength of these new neurological images.'"

Comment Re:Subsidies inflate pricing. (Score 2) 1797

by kingramon0 (#37821140) Attached to: Ron Paul Wants To End the Federal Student Loan Program

See, his education got paid for back in the 1950's. Probably by his parents. So, he's got his. Fuck the rest of us.

He paid for his own education by working over the summers. He wants people to be able to do that again, and NOT be in debt for life for a degree.

I think he is right. Government subsidies tend to make prices go up.

Comment Re:Great (Score 2) 392

by kingramon0 (#37661886) Attached to: Amazon Pushes For National Internet Sales Tax

In addition to the national income tax, most states have their own state income tax. In addition to that most, have property taxes, school taxes (also paid by property owners). Counties, towns, and other localities can also levy their own property taxes and sales taxes.

The national income tax goes directly to the federal government (which they then use to bribe the states into passing laws they can't pass nationally), everything else is local to the state and/or municipalities.

When you add everything up, I'm not sure it is so certain that our taxes are lower than anywhere else, but I have not looked at the numbers closely.
Businesses

Ask Slashdot: CS Grads Taking IT Jobs? 520

Posted by samzenpus from the welcome-to-the-help-desk dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I'm a soon-to-be Master's graduate from a public university majoring in computer science — with all that CS entails. Of course, it's come time to start job hunting, and while there are a few actual CS-type jobs around, I've noticed that a few IT jobs would be substantially more convenient for me personally. But this leads me to the question (assuming they would hire me, of course) — would having IT experience hurt my job prospects down the road? Would future employers see that and be less likely to hire me — or pigeon-hole me into IT?"

Comment Re:probably should have been lowered anyway (Score 1) 1239

by kingramon0 (#37007144) Attached to: United States Loses S&P AAA Credit Rating

Money wouldn't even have the same real value today compared to a hundred years ago without inflation, since it would experience deflation.

You're right, it wouldn't be worth the same. Deflation would cause it be worth more.

Even an entirely gold-based economy would experience inflation.

It would only experience inflation if the amount of gold being mined and added to the money supply substantially outpaces the addition of new labor into the workforce.

Comment Re:Mod parent up. (Score 1) 1239

by kingramon0 (#37007062) Attached to: United States Loses S&P AAA Credit Rating

I think you are absolutely right.

We are entering an era where individuals have unprecedented access to information and have a much greater ability to innovate. However, go ahead and try to do that and see how far you get.

As soon as you start to make any kind of money with something, the IRS will consider your little venture to be a business and you will have to pay self-employment taxes (that is, all the taxes you would normally pay if you worked for someone else PLUS the employer-paid portions). If, despite that and all the hoops you have to jump through to make your business legal, you still manage to grow successfully, you will have to hire employees (paying more taxes, more regulations, etc).

If you STILL have the gall to be successful, why we'll show you! We'll just raise your taxes! Anyone making over $250k a year (that's enough for a business to hire, what, one or two employees?) is rich and needs to pay more!

Ok, ok. I'm a little frustrated at how hard it is to start a business. I guess it doesn't help that I live in New York state.
Space

Evaluating the Capabilities of Chip-Sized Spacecraft 96

Posted by Soulskill from the remember-when-we-had-people-sized-spacecraft dept.
kgeiger writes "The Sprite project is testing the feasibility of chip-sized spacecraft. 'Rather than hand building one-of-a-kind spacecraft, we envision constructing spacecraft on wafers in much the same way that common integrated circuits are made today. During fabrication, solar cells and other components would be incorporated with microelectromechanical systems techniques. Instead of exhaustively testing each part, as is done with current spacecraft, engineers will be able to monitor Sprite quality in a less labor-intensive fashion by using statistical process control, testing a few chips from each batch to make sure they meet specifications.' The project's goal is to deploy true 'smart dust,' comprised of 5- to 50-mg single-sensor spacecraft capable of forming deep-space sensor arrays."

Comment Re:if he's so concerned (Score 1) 949

by kingramon0 (#36749974) Attached to: Slate: Amazon's Tax Stance Unfair and Unethical

He is not necessarily advocating anarchy, but liberty.

Government's main role is to protect the people's rights, but the philosophy of liberty says that people cannot delegate authority to another agent that they don't have to begin with. So, if you don't have the right to use violence against others to take away their possessions, neither can you delegate that ability to the government.

In your example, the person raping and pillaging the countryside does not have the right to use violence against others. However, the victims of his actions do have the right to defend themselves, using force if necessary. Therefore, those individuals can delegate the task of protecting them to the government, who can use force and the law to prosecute that individual.
AI

Researchers Grow a Brain In a Dish 235

Posted by samzenpus from the please-kill-me dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Dr. Jeffrey H. Toney writes that a team of biomedical engineers at the University of Pittsburgh led by Henry Zeringue have managed to grow an active brain in a dish, complete with memories by culturing brain cells capable of forming networks, complete with biological signals. To produce the models, the Pitt team stamped adhesive proteins onto silicon discs. Once the proteins were cultured and dried, cultured hippocampus cells from embryonic rats were fused to the proteins and then given time to grow and connect to form a natural network. The researchers disabled the cells' inhibitory response and excited the neurons with an electrical pulse which were then able to sustain the resulting burst of network activity for up to what in neuronal time is 12 long seconds compared to the natural duration of .25 seconds. The ability of the brain to hold information 'online' long after an initiating stimulus is a hallmark of brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex. The team will next work to understand the underlying factors that govern network communication and stimulation, such as the various electrical pathways between cells and the genetic makeup of individual cells. 'This is amazing,' writes Toney. 'I wonder what the "memory" could be — could be a good subject for a science fiction story.'"
Science

Artificial Synapse Created For Synthetic Brain 129

Posted by timothy from the let's-vote-these-amateur-clowns-out-of-office dept.
Zothecula writes "It's probably still going to be a while before autonomous, self-aware androids are wandering amongst us. That scenario has come a little closer to reality, however, with researchers from the University of Southern California having created a functioning synapse circuit using carbon nanotubes. An artificial version of the connections that allow electrical impulses to pass between neurons in our brains, the circuit could someday be one component of a synthetic brain."

Comment Re:No. (Score 1) 1486

by kingramon0 (#35756664) Attached to: Is Science Just a Matter of Faith?

But the changes happen very quickly. Natural selection happens over a very long period of time.

I don't think the changing beak sizes are due to natural selection. I think the capability for the range of beak sizes is already present in their DNA (and maybe they evolved that way). But the changes are too fast to say that natural selection is causing the variance. If it were true, wouldn't there be a lot of dead finches? (Maybe there are, but I haven't heard any mention of it)

Comment Re:No. (Score 1) 1486

by kingramon0 (#35756190) Attached to: Is Science Just a Matter of Faith?

Being a seeker of the truth, if something I say is incorrect, I will gladly accept correction. Name-calling is totally unnecessary and inappropriate.

My understanding is that Darwin attributed the changes in the finches' beak sizes to natural selection; that they were evolving to new species as a result of a separation of different populations of finches on the islands.

He was only observing them for a short time, so he would not have noticed that the beak sizes actually revert back to their previous size once the environmental conditions favor it. Because it happens in far less time than would be required if natural selection were the mechanism of change, it would seem that Darwin's theory does not explain the changing beak sizes in the finches.

I have not read any books on Darwin's Finches, so if I am mistaken on anything I said, please feel free to enlighten me.

Nothing I said should be construed to suggest that I don't believe evolution is a real phenomenon.

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