asquithea - Slashdot User

Submission + - Dutch Man Builds Ark

Submitted by

Shifty Jim

on Sunday April 29, 2007 @01:18AM

Shifty Jim writes: "Johan Huibers, a Dutch creationist and contractor, has built a full-sized biblical ark in Schagen, Netherlands. From the article:
"Reckoning by the old biblical measurements, Johan's fully functional ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That's two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house. Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold."
Designed by his wife and built mostly by Johan himself using modern tools, construction on the ark began in May 2005. Now he's just keeping his eyes peeled for some serious precipitation."

Submission + - Woman Denied Teaching Degree Over MySpace Photo

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 29, 2007 @12:19AM

An anonymous reader writes: A woman was denied a teaching degree by Pennsylvania based Millersville University at the last minute, due to a "Drunken Pirate" photo of her on her own MySpace page. According to the story, even though Ms. Snyder received "competent" or "superior" ratings in her final student-teacher evaluation, she was ultimately denied the teaching degree. Conestoga Valley High School threatened to no longer accept student-teachers from Millersville University if Ms. Snyder went unpunished for her "Drunken Pirate" photo.

Submission + - No major scientific hurdle to Z-pinch fusion

Submitted by

nanotrends

on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @05:41PM

nanotrends writes: "The Sandia Z-pinch device can be fired once every 10 seconds thanks to a new device called a linear transformer driver. This achievement has been described as "amazing" and "the biggest breakthrough in energy generation in decades". It seems to indicate that no scientific hurdle stands in the way of nuclear fusion. Just 5-7 years of engineering and configuring about 60 next generation linear transformer drivers. Then refining the system for commercial use starting in 20 years or less. All the pieces are now ready and proven, we just need to put them together for commercial nuclear fusion.

The Z-pinch can operate at 2 billion degrees kelvin which allows for the use of helium 3 for cleaner nuclear fusion

The Z-pinch technology is also the basis of the minimag Orion concept of Andrew Space Minimag Orion could be used for 90 day or less travel to Mars using sub-critical explosions. A full fusion system would be even more powerful."

Submission + - Unsolicited telemarketing calls from abroad

Submitted by

Chet

on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @04:31PM

Chet writes: "Today, for the umpeenth time, I received at my home phone an unsolicited telemarketing call. This time, it was from Dish Network. They were selling me their satellite TV, I presume. The guy calling had an Indian accent (I'm of Indian origin, and I can tell), identified himself as working for Dish Network, in Seattle, WA, and refused to connect me with his supervisor. Of course, calling Dish Network's customer service did not yield me a phone number for either their corporate switchboard, or their legal department. Heck, I couldn't get to a supervisor there, either. I'm on the Federal Do-Not-Call list. And yet, I get lots of these calls, on behalf of lots of US-based companies, and always with details similar to above. I'm sure I'm not alone, and I wonder whether these companies are breaking the law, or have merely found a loophole. Certainly, it's awful behaviour. Anybody else out there experiencing this? Anybody know what to -do- about it?"

Submission + - Girl Stuffs Beaver with PC

Submitted by Strio on Friday April 13, 2007 @12:24PM

Strio writes: Someone turned a stuffed beaver into a case mod. Kasey McMahon, the girl behind the case mod said "The hardest part was actually cleaning out the beaver." http://yourpsychogirlfriend.com/beav/

Submission + - Fan-made Battlestar Galactica Mod Released

Submitted by WMCoolmon on Sunday April 01, 2007 @03:00AM

WMCoolmon writes: Beyond the Red Line, a fan-made total conversion set in the Battlestar Galactica universe, has just made its first demo release. Beyond the Red Line is a total conversion based on the upgraded, open-source version of the Freespace 2 engine, known as FS2_Open. The demo features a three-mission singleplayer campaign, as well as full multiplayer support. It is fully voice-acted and has a significant amount of original music. Screenshots and videos may be found on the project's website.

So far, only a Windows installer has been released, but OS X and Linux installers are planned as well.

And no, this is not an April Fool's Day joke. ;)

Submission + - Engineering the heart piece by piece

Submitted by

webdoodle

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @02:21AM

webdoodle writes: "Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering have made significant advances in regards to growing heart tissues. This articles summarizes the recent advances and the hurdles still remaining on the path to creating a whole heart."

Submission + - Robot-a-Week

Submitted by Robot Queen on Sunday April 01, 2007 @01:56AM

Robot Queen writes: This is a mailing list in which subscribers get... yes, a robot a week. Robots range from the cute and conceptual to the functional and menacing: http://apocolis.com/robot-a-week.html

Submission + - Police Shut Down LAN Tournament

Submitted by

Sibko

on Saturday March 31, 2007 @10:34PM

Sibko writes: "17 year old Zach Wigal, a Saline High School student, spent 9 months organizing a Halo 2 LAN tournament that was to be held on March 20th, spending $650 of his own money to help launch the event. He had talked to school officials, printed fliers to help advertise, and had parents and teachers agree to be chaperones. Everything was fine, until his father called the local police to inquire about the availability of a uniformed officer. This raised concerns with departmental community coordinator Ritchie Coleman who serves on the Southeast Michigan Chapter of the Parents TV Council.

"I'm not saying boycott the game, I just think that kids 17 and under playing an M-rated game for money is not something appropriate for the high school,'' Phillips said.
Due to the police involvement just four days prior to the event, it had to be shut down."

Submission + - Ocean Fortress The Principality of Sealand Sold

Submitted by

Jon

on Saturday March 31, 2007 @09:00PM

Jon writes: "After four weeks of negotiations and in a historic move, the founders of Whitedust.net have purchased the Principality of Sealand for an undisclosed sum. The Whitedust.net founders, represented at negotiations by Paul S. Gates, and the Bates family are both said to be pleased by the settlement figure, which will not be announced in keeping with the final agreement. More details here."

Submission + - Is age 40 too old for IT or Software Development?

Submitted by on Sunday March 04, 2007 @02:17PM

An anonymous reader writes: I have read some stuff on Dice.com's message boards where some people are claiming that after age 40 or so that jobs become very scarce in the IT profession. I was wondering how prevalent this really is, and in particular I was wondering how hard it would be to actually start a career in IT or Software Development at age 40.

I recently finished up a degree in physics, and I have done a little basic IT support as well as some programming as part of my job working in an environmental testing lab. How difficult would it be to start a computer career at age 40, and what industries and fields will have the most problem with my age and which will have the least problem with my age?

Submission + - Final AACS key found

Submitted by julie-h on Sunday March 04, 2007 @01:52PM

julie-h writes: The PowerDVD AACS private key for playing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD's have been found. This was the last key needed. What does this mean? We don't have to sniff/snoop Volume IDs anymore. We can create a program that can decrypt (or play if you will) a disc without any need for WinDVD or PowerDVD. So no sniffing/extracting of keys anymore. And more over: it can work on all platforms... In other words: we can make our own independent, user friendly player (or decrypter).

Slashdot Top Deals