Comment Excelsior! (Score 1) 57
'Nuff said.
China's Controversial Brain Surgery To Cure Drug Addiction 385
kkleiner writes "A small handful of doctors in China are using a highly controversial procedure to rid people of drug addiction by destroying a part of patients' brains. The procedure involves drilling small holes into the skulls of patients and inserting long electrodes that destroy a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. This area, often referred to as the "pleasure center" of the brain, is the major nucleus of the brain's reward circuit. Is it worth being cured of addiction if, losing the addiction, we also lose part of who we are?" The practice has been officially banned, but apparently continues nonetheless.
Comment Re:Progress! (Score 1) 215
Err, there's a reason luxury vehicles are RWD.. FWD overburdens the front wheels with both steering and propulsion tasks, which can lead to lower peak traction in emergency situations, oversteer and torque steer. Weight distribution is also a factor that affects handling as well. FWD was far more useful in snow and ice prior to the advent of traction control, and having an unbalanced-heavy front helps in that situation at the expense of driving dynamics in normal conditions. FWD also provides more interior room typically, which makes it ideal for building lower-cost vehicles (less material for the same space).
IMO the ideal vehicle would be driven by an under-the-floor rear electric motor (or separate electric motors in the rear and front for AWD) along with under-the-floor high-capacity batteries, and a gasoline-powered SOFC, turboshaft or optimized 1l H6 motor (scaled-down Gold Wing, say) with direct injection, a turbo and variable cycle capabilities. Keep all the weight as low as possible, and with batteries you can spread them out to get perfect weight distribution.
Comment Plenty of xenon.... (Score 1) 225
... as a fission product. With LFTR, it can be collected as it bubbles out of the core.
Comment Re:SimpleMobile (Score 1) 288
I have the same plan, along with Vitelity paygo setup for using the internal SIP client. Works fairly well, though I wish the internal client had more and selectable codecs based on available bandwidth. I'm considering Bria with G729a, but from what I've read it's not up to snuff given the price.
Microsoft Drops 'Metro' Name For Windows 8 UI 356
hawkinspeter writes "The BBC is reporting that Microsoft is dropping the 'Metro' name for the new Windows 8 UI. Apparently, the catchy new name they've settled on is 'Windows 8 style UI!' This has happened due to a (potential) trademark dispute with Metro AG, a German retail giant. Microsoft said, 'We have used Metro style as a code name during the product development cycle across many of our product lines. As we get closer to launch and transition from industry dialogue to a broad consumer dialogue we will use our commercial names.' I'm wondering if Microsoft planned this to get publicity for their new OS and UI or whether they just forget to check on how 'Metro' is used around the world."
DirecTV Drops Viacom Channels 378
An anonymous reader writes "DirecTV has dropped all of Viacom's channels. This includes channels such as MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. The drop is reported to be over a carrier fee dispute. It appears programming content can magically disappear from satellite, too, and not just from streaming services. Viacom said it was 'because contract talks with DirecTV had “reached an impasse.” DirecTV, in turn, said in a statement that it had offered Viacom “increased fees for their networks going forward; we just can’t afford the extreme increases they are asking for.”' I guess pirating and physical media is the only way to make sure the content we pay for doesn't disappear."
Stone-Throwing Chimp Back In the News With Better Plan
235
sciencehabit writes "Three years ago, a stone-throwing chimpanzee named Santino jolted the research community by providing some of the strongest evidence yet that non-humans could plan ahead. Santino, a resident of the Furuvik Zoo in Gävle, Sweden, calmly gathered stones in the mornings and put them into neat piles, apparently saving them to hurl at visitors when the zoo opened as part of angry and aggressive 'dominance displays.' But some researchers were skeptical that Santino really was planning for a future emotional outburst. Now Santino is back in the scientific literature, the subject of new claims that he has begun to conceal the stones so he can get a closer aim at his targets—further evidence that he is thinking ahead like humans do."
Comment Old Man in the Cave 1.0 (Score 1) 148
Comment Looks like someone... (Score 1) 264
... pulled God's finger!
Just blame it on the dog. The big, huge dog.
Massive Methane Release In the Arctic Region 264
Taco Cowboy writes "Arctic methane release is a well recorded phenomenon. Methane stored in both permafrost (which is melting) and methane hydrates (methane trapped in marine reservoirs) are vulnerable to being released into the atmosphere as the planet warms. However, researchers who are trying to map atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations on a global basis have discovered that the amount of methane emissions in the Arctic region do not total up. Further research revealed that significant amounts of methane releases came from the Arctic ocean (abstract) — as much as 2 milligrams of the gas is released per square meter of ocean, each day — presumably by marine bacteria surviving in low-nutrient environments."
Self-Sculpting "Sand" Can Allow Spontaneous Formation of Tools 124
parallel_prankster writes "Researchers at MIT are developing tiny robots that can assemble themselves into products and then disassemble when no longer needed. 'A heap of smart sand would be analogous to the rough block of stone that a sculptor begins with. The individual grains would pass messages back and forth and selectively attach to each other to form a three-dimensional object; the grains not necessary to build that object would simply fall away. When the object had served its purpose, it would be returned to the heap. Its constituent grains would detach from each other, becoming free to participate in the formation of a new shape.' To attach to each other, to communicate and to share power, the cubes use 'electropermanent magnets,' materials whose magnetism can be switched on and off with jolts of electricity."
Mike Smith (Bubbles) Leading the Race For Space 32
New submitter reovirus1 writes "Mike Smith, the character Bubbles on the Canadian TV show Trailer Park Boys, is leading the
Race for Space contest that will send one lucky reader into space. 'Throughout the series, Bubbles often talks about his love for space and his lifelong desire to become a spaceman someday, but his poor eyesight has always prevented him from even owning a driver's license. It's a fictional show obviously, but Bubble's desire to go to space on the show was actually born out of my love of space and rocketry. It has been a hobby of mine since I was 5 years old. If I win this chance to go to space, I intend to shoot a documentary of the entire process leading up to the flight, in hopes of inspiring a new generation of young people to become involved in space exploration,' he writes."
Comment Torrents? (Score 1) 284
So, does this include torrents that don't route outside of Comcast's network? Presumably a good proportion of P2P need not cross their perimeter, I wonder if support for such "preferred" netranges can be added to P2P clients..
Ask Slashdot: Any Smart Phones Made Under Worker-Friendly Conditions? 371
New submitter unimacs writes "So Apple has been under fire recently for the conditions at the factories of their Chinese suppliers. I listened to 'This American Life's' recent retraction of the Michael Daisey piece they did a while back. Great radio for those of you who haven't heard it — rarely has dead air been used to such effect. Anyway, while his work has been discredited, Michael Daisey wasn't inaccurate in his claims that working conditions are poor in iPhone and iPad factories. Given that, are there any smart phone manufacturers whose phones are made under better conditions?"
