You know what would have REALLY been able to "see back to the beginning of time"? A proper gravitational observatory like the LISA/Pathfinder project, which would have used three satellites to measure fluxuations in space-time less than the width of an atomic nucleus. It was planned to be operational by 2015 and would have been able to "see" better and farther than light-based telescopes.

But I probably will never see anything as cool as that, because it lost funding when the Webb sucked up all the oxygen in the room.

First, the guy is a Canadian, not an American.

Second, as he CLEARLY STATES IN THE ARTICLE, his device does *not* record images by default. The only reason it recorded images is that when he was assaulted and his system was damaged, it stopped over-writing images in the buffer, which were then recovered later.

Bloke was being who he is: a geeky techno pioneer with a focus on developing augmented sight for the seeing impaired.

You, sir, are the dick.

I like to think I have an open mind when it comes to cosmology, but I've never liked the Dark Matter "theory". If they ever find direct evidence, fine, but I will remain unconvinced until then.

My personal favourite alternative hypothesis is called Modified Newtonian Dynamics, which is based on the idea that gravity exerts a stronger pull between objects that are more or less in the same inertial frame (ie at very low relative accelerations, that "acceleration is not linearly proportional to force at small values").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOND

Obviously, a lot of people find this blasphemy, but I don't see what is so bad with modifying the law of gravity as compared to invoking "ghost matter".

"any excuse to use a laser cutter is a good excuse"

That should be added to the Slashdot quotes.

heh heh. "Mark 1 eyeballs".

exactly!

I like them. I trust them. They are their own record. And, if you like, you can spoil them.

In Canada, we have our ballots counted within hours of the polls closing. And you can go back and re-count them if necessary.

Keep it simple!

There are rational objections to this proposal. Landauer's principle is really an expression of entropy in information systems -- which can be mathematically modeled as though they were thermodynamic systems. It's a bold claim to say this has a physical reality and a loss of information actually does release energy -- and since Landauer's principle expresses this as heat energy, wouldn't it then be detectable (i.e. not dark)?

Well, so much for *that* objection. :)

http://http//www.universetoday.com/85855/astronomy-without-a-telescope-holographic-dark-information-energy/

"Besides creating a gigantic virtual mirror, interferometry also greatly improves the telescope's spatial resolution and zooming capabilities."

Should read:

"Interferometry greatly improves the telescopes' spatial resolution."

I find it amusing that the same mind that could be outraged at the prosection of "four innocent men... accused of copyright infringement" would then go on to say "we urge the public to boycott and lynch those responsible".

Boycott, sure. Protest, fine. Even a little creative vandalism is good. But lynching?

I would say someone has their priorities out of whack. Either they haven't thought this through or they are just *that* dumb that they would offer "support" to someone on trial by calling for violence against the plaintiffs.

I thought hackers were supposed to be ingenious and creative thinkers. Not the equivalent dumbass jocks on a rampage.