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The Military

Researchers To Build Underwater Airplane 263

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the journey-to-the-bottom-of-the-sea dept.
coondoggie writes to tell us that DARPA seems to still be having fun with their funding and continues to aim for the "far out." The latest program, a submersible airplane, seems to have been pulled directly from science fiction. Hopefully this voyage to the bottom of the sea is of the non-permanent variety. "According to DARPA: 'The difficulty with developing such a craft come from the diametrically opposed requirements that exist for an airplane and a submarine. While the primary goal for airplane designers is to try and minimize weight, a submarine must be extremely heavy in order to submerge underwater. In addition, the flow conditions and the systems designed to control a submarine and an airplane are radically different, due to the order of magnitude difference in the densities of air and water.'"
Microsoft

Microsoft Uses "I'm a PC" Character In New Ads 837

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the straight-for-the-jobsular dept.
arcticstoat writes to tell us that in the wake of their largely unsuccessful Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign Microsoft is setting their sights directly on recent Apple ads by featuring the "I'm a PC" character in their new advertising campaign. "He then follows this with another phrase, such as 'and I've been made into a stereotype' before the advert shifts to a range of people performing a diverse assortment of jobs, all of which also say they're a PC. Among those featured are astronaut Bernard Harris, as well as religious author Deepak Chopra and 'Desperate Housewives' actress Eva Longoria. The ad also features a wide range of anonymous people, including a shark diver, a teacher and a guy with a beard."
Software

SGI Releases OpenGL As Free Software 167

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the let-my-graphics-go dept.
StoneLion writes "Since its release, the OpenGL code that is responsible for 3-D acceleration on GNU/Linux has been running on licenses that were accepted by neither the Free Software Foundation (FSF) nor the Open Source Initiative. Today, however, the FSF has announced that the licenses in question have been rewritten, the problems resolved, and the code freed. Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF, says, 'This represents a huge gift to the free software community.'"
Democrats

Submission + - No Linux allowed for video at the Dem Convention? (demconvention.com)

Submitted by bucketoftruth
bucketoftruth writes: If you browse to the Democratic Convention website and attempt to check out any of their upcoming streams you bump into the following artificial limitation:

We're sorry, but the Democratic Convention video web site isn't compatible with your operating system and/or browser. Please try again on a computer with the following Compatible operating systems:
Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or a Mac with Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard (OS 10.5).
Compatible browsers: Internet Explorer (version 6 or later), Firefox (version 2), or, if you are on a Mac, Safari (version 3.1) also works.

What reason could they have to block Linux from viewing streaming videos?
Power

Submission + - A timetable for nuclear fusion

Submitted by IAmTheRealMike
IAmTheRealMike writes: This article offers an in depth but readable review of the current state of fusion research, along with a timetable for the future, a description of what still needs to be figured out and a fascinating look at what it'd take to scale up to worldwide commercial generation levels. Executive summary, by 2100 if all goes according to plan fusion might be able to generate 30% of Europes present day demand. The delay is largely due to tightly limited tritium supplies. Whilst a sustainable fusion reactor will produce tritium, it would do so only in small amounts so a reactor would take 2-3 years to produce enough tritium to "give birth" and start another one. It looks like even with the most optimistic assumptions, by the time Tokamak based fusion can meaningfully contribute we will likely be deep in the midsts of an energy crisis.
Politics

Doomsday Clock To Advance 283

Posted by kdawson from the fire-next-time dept.
Dik Zak writes "Many news sites are reporting that the magazine Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists intends to move the hands of the Doomsday Clock on Wednesday 17 January. The clock was started at seven minutes to midnight during the Cold War and has been moved forward or back at intervals, depending on the state of the world and the prospects for nuclear war. Midnight represents destruction by nuclear war. It is not revealed in which direction the hands of the clock will be moved, but it should be safe to assume that they will move closer to midnight: the magazine cites 'worsening nuclear [and] climate threats.' The clock stood at two minutes to midnight when both the United States and the Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons in 1953. The farthest away from midnight it ever got was 17 minutes, in 1991 when both superpowers signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. It currently stands at seven minutes to midnight."

Who Wants To Be a Cognitive Neuroscientist Millionaire? 65

Posted by Zonk from the science-beats-voodoo-any-old-day-of-the-week dept.
ThePolynomial writes "Last night Ogi Ogas, a cognitive neuroscientist and Homeland Security Fellow, became the first person to face the million-dollar question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in three years. He now has a first-person narrative on seedmagazine.com where he describes using techniques from cognitive science to think of answers on the show." From the article: "I used priming on my $16,000 question: 'This past spring, which country first published inflammatory cartoons of the prophet Mohammed?' I did not know the answer. But I did know I had a long conversation with my friend Gena about the cartoons. So I chatted with Meredith about Gena. I tried to remember where we discussed the cartoons and the way Gena flutters his hands. As I pictured how he rolls his eyes to express disdain, Gena's remark popped into my mind: 'What else would you expect from Denmark?'"

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