Comment unobta'i'nium would be even nicer (Score 1) 160
Brought to you by the letter I and a spelling nazi
Comment YouTube direct link (Score 1) 60
Woman Trademarks Name and Threatens Sites Using It
273
An anonymous reader writes "Be careful mentioning Dr. Ann De Wees Allen. She's made it clear that she's trademarked her name and using it is 'illegal... without prior written permission.' She even lists out the names of offenders and shows you the cease-and-desist letter she sends them. And, especially don't copy any of the text on her website, because she's using a bit of javascript that will warn you 'Copyright Protect!' if you right click on a link."
Frustrated Reporter Quits After Slow News Day
178
Norwegian radio journalist Pia Beathe Pedersen quit on the air complaining that her bosses were making her read news on a day when "nothing important has happened." Pedersen claimed that broadcaster NRK put too much pressure on the staff and that she "wanted to be able to eat properly again and be able to breathe," during her nearly two-minute on-air resignation.
Empathy Is For the Birds 201
grrlscientist writes "Common Ravens have been shown to express empathy towards a 'friend' or relative when they are distressed after an aggressive conflict — just like humans and chimpanzees do. But birds are very distant evolutionary relatives of Great Apes, so what does this similarity imply about the evolution of behavior?"
Bill To Ban All Salt In Restaurant Cooking 794
lord_rotorooter writes "Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn, introduced a bill that would ruin restaurant food and baked goods as we know them. The measure (if passed) would ban the use of all forms of salt in the preparation and cooking of food for all restaurants or bakeries. While the use of too much salt can contribute to health problems, the complete banning of salt would have negative impacts on food chemistry. Not only does salt enhance flavor, it controls bacteria, slows yeast activity and strengthens dough by tightening gluten. Salt also inhibits the growth of microbes that spoil cheese."
Apple Removes Wi-Fi Finders From App Store 461
jasonbrown writes "Apple on Thursday began removing another category of apps from its iPhone App Store. This time, it's not porn, it's Wi-Fi. Apple removed several Wi-Fi apps commonly referred to as stumblers, or apps that seek out available Wi-Fi networks near your location. According to a story on Cult of Mac, apps removed by Apple include WiFi-Where, WiFiFoFum, and yFy Network Finder."
Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child
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Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Submission + - Slashdot removes post about hacked climate emails. (slashdot.org) 6
wulfmans writes: When i checked my Google RSS feeds of Slashdot I saw a story that interested me (http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Ltx1dUIvKyA/Hacked-Climate-Emails-Stoke-Debate)
I went to click on it and it gave me a page that said i was not allowed to see the page or the page did not exist. I searched Slashdot but the story has vanished. The story said that the mails leaked to wiki leaks were causing a lot of commotion. Since i was not able to read the full post ( Google only gives me a little bit to see ) I am unable to read about this missing story
I went to click on it and it gave me a page that said i was not allowed to see the page or the page did not exist. I searched Slashdot but the story has vanished. The story said that the mails leaked to wiki leaks were causing a lot of commotion. Since i was not able to read the full post ( Google only gives me a little bit to see ) I am unable to read about this missing story
Submission + - LHC has first collisions after years of waiting (web.cern.ch)
An anonymous reader writes: Only after four days from first attempt to send a particle beam all around the LHC circle have we arrived at the point that today all four experiments got their first real collisions from the machine. This was met by celebrations and champagne as people have been waiting years and years for this moment. It is a statement to the engineering of the machine that collisions were reached already few days after restart and the LHC has already demonstrated ca 10h stable beams and now also stable beams in both directions at the same time. In the coming weeks we now have just to wait for increased intensity and first attempts to acceleration.
Submission + - New Virginia IT Systems Lack Network Backup (timesdispatch.com)
1sockchuck writes: Virginia's new state IT system is experiencing downtime in key services because of a mind-boggling oversight: the state apparently neglected to require network backup in a 10-year, $2.3 billion outsourcing deal with Northrop Grumman. The issue is causing serious downtime for state services. This fall the Virginia DMV has suffered 12 system outages panning a total of more than 100 hours, and downtime hampered the state transportation department when a state of emergency was declared during the Nov. 11 Northeaster. Where was the oversight? Virginia's Secretary of Technology while the system was being implemented was Aneesh Chopra, who is now the federal CTO for the Obama administration.
Submission + - Obama Kicks Off Massive Science Education Effort (whitehouse.gov)
An anonymous reader writes: In a speech at the Whitehouse today President Obama launched a new campaign; "Educate to Innovate," designed to get American students fired up about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). "The new campaign builds on the President’s Inaugural Address, which included a vow to put science “in its rightful place.” One of those rightful places, of course, is the classroom. Yet too often our schools lack support for teachers or the other resources needed to convey the practical utility and remarkable beauty of science and engineering. As a result, students become overwhelmed in their classes and ultimately disengaged. They lose, and our nation loses too. The partnerships launched today aim to change that. They respond to a challenge made by the President in April, when he spoke at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences and asked the nation’s philanthropists, professional and educational societies, corporations, and individuals to collaborate and innovate with the goal of reinvigorating America’s STEM educational enterprise. The partnerships announced today — dramatic commitments in the hundreds of millions of dollars, generated through novel collaborations and creative outreach activities — are just the first wave of commitments anticipated in response to his call."
Comment Re:Time for a new tagline (Score 1) 278
Slashdot - news for idiots, stuff that's obvious
But that still puts Slashdot out of league of 90% of the world's internet users.
Comment Re:windows marketplace (Score 1) 289
I like windows mobile 6.5, it is actually stable and fast IMO. What I despise is the UI, they actually took a step backwards compared to 6.0. However, after killing palm, like with IE they went stagnant, and now have to deal with a dead OS overshadowed by nearly anything else. If they would have "windows 7ened" their mobile OS in time for the win7 launch their mobile OS future might not be so dim. What I like about win mobile is the wide and open (compared to apple) variety of aps, I can install whatever browser or media player I want.
Comment Re:Sci-fi not predicting far enough? (Score 1) 479
Some of the jokes surrounding the
[SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER]
French character had me doubled over laughing. "Laterre" and "Magna Feeks" or whatever. Hilarious.
Liked the book a lot. The ending fell apart a little (especially the heavily foreshadowed last major plot event/action sequence that never materialized) but it was still pretty good. I think Cryptonomicon is still my favorite of his novels, but Anathem is solidly second.
However, I (finally) read A Canticle for Leibowitz just prior to reading Anathem as I'd heard that they were similar (not so much, as it turns out) and didn't want my reading of the earlier novel to be tainted by the later one, and... well, it's in a whole different class, aside from bearing only a passing resemblance in terms of story. I haven't read everything by Stephenson yet, but I doubt he's got anything that's even close to it. It's one of the few sci-fi books I've read that I could have read right after tackling one of the canonical literary classics without being jarred by the sudden drop in quality of prose and general execution of the story and themes.
