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Comment Re:Well (Score 5, Interesting) 405

I know someone who is involved in the Bloodhound project, working with a large education company over here (one of the sponsors of the car). There is a really big focus on the education side of things with this; they're touring schools and colleges doing presentations, along with a full size replica of the car. One of the big reasons for doing it is to get kids at school interested in science, maths and engineering and that seems like a pretty good idea because there has been a continuing decline in students going on to study those subjects at higher levels in the UK (and I believe most Western countries these days).

There's a bit about it on their website http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/education.cfm . I also doubt that the overall resource usage for the entire project is actually that high (I'd bet fewer resources used than most Hollywood films for instance), so if it increases interest in the areas they're targeting so that general science and engineering gets a bit more attention, I don't think that's too bad a result.

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Comment Re:Not fiber? (Score 1) 368

I've not seen many that come with full-sized displayport and even the Apple ones don't use mini displayport... And, of course, none of these adaptors are standard anymore, they're all $20 extra...

The Apple Cinema Displays *do* use Mini DisplayPort, and it's been officially brought into the standard now, so isn't just an Apple only port. There's also quite a few laptops out there using it, from Dell, Toshiba HP... The Wikipedia page for Mini DisplayPort has a list of a few.

Comment Re:"Thunderbolt"? Bleh... (Score 1) 368

...At least "Light Peak" gave me a vague idea of how the tech works by the name alone, whereas Thunderbolt just sounds completely unrelated to the technology.

It's worth bearing in mind that the version of Light Peak that we're likely to see tomorrow, is probably going to be copper-based rather than optical, so Light Peak would probably be just as unrelated as Thunderbolt

Comment Re:No surprise (Score 4, Informative) 334

Since we already are required by law to carry our driving licence while driving most people just keep it in their wallet. This allows the police to stop and search you at any time and find out who you are. Stop and search in the UK does not require a warrant.

We're not required to have it with us while driving. If you don't have it on you the Police can demand that you take it into a Police station within 7 days though.

Comment Re:Not really so (Score 1) 367

3 years is not that old for a PowerMac purchased in late 2006, and which now refuses to run Safari 4 and other recent software, since they require 10.6 or higher.

That's not actually true, Apple provide a download of Safari 4 for Snow Leopard (10.6), Leopard (10.5) and Tiger (10.4). That G5 purchased in 2006 would have shipped with 10.4, so you don't even need to have purchased any additional software in order to use the very latest version of Safari. You can download a 10.4 compatible version of Safari from here.

I really don't know where you're getting this 10.6 requirement from, because there really isn't one.

Programming

Evolution of Mona Lisa Via Genetic Programming 326

mhelander writes "In his weblog Roger Alsing describes how he used genetic programming to arrive at a remarkably good approximation of Mona Lisa using only 50 semi-transparent polygons. His blog entry includes a set of pictures that let you see how 'Poly Lisa' evolved over roughly a million generations. Both beautiful to look at and a striking way to get a feel for the power of evolutionary algorithms."
Announcements

Submission + - Automotive X-Prize Reveals First 31 Teams

An anonymous reader writes: The Automotive XPRIZE announced yesterday the first 31 teams to have signed on for the competition to build 100 mpge (mile-per-gallon equivalent) automobiles. The list contains obvious contenders like electric bike vendor ZAP, electric truck peddler Phoenix Motorcars, Munich's überefficient Loremmo AG, and Elon Musk-backed Tesla Motors as well as Cornell University and a laundry list of other less well known names. There's even a team commited to an Open Source-like license. Notable is the total absence of any established manufacturer. Contrary to expectations of a Big Auto win, could the AXP be up for grabs?
Education

Submission + - Monkeys and humans learn the same way (sciencedaily.com)

Lucas123 writes: "A new study from UCLA showed that monkeys, like humans, learn faster by being actively involved in the learning process rather than just having information placed before them, according to a story in ScienceDaily. In the study, two rhesus macaque monkeys learned to put up to 18 photos on an ATM-like touch screen in a row. 'The monkeys did much better on the first three days when they had the help than when they didn't, but on the test day, it completely reversed.'"
Security

Submission + - Should We Rebuild America with Minneapolis Bridge? (popularmechanics.com) 2

mattnyc99 writes: The tragic collapse last night in Minneapolis of a truss bridge—one that the U.S. Dept. of Transportation found "structurally deficient" two years ago—raises an important issue beyond just the engineering of one single span. As national security expert Stephen Flynn pleads in an op-ed on American infrastructure in the wake of yesterday's disaster, "The blind eye that taxpayers and our elected officials have been turning to the imperative of maintaining and upgrading the critical foundations that underpin our lives is irrational and reckless." Do we need to start spending to rebuild America?

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