Comment Re:I'd love an invite! (Score 1) 1223
Oooh, the love of slashdot! I have received several invites already. Thanks everyone!
Comment I'd love an invite! (Score 1) 1223
I'd like an invite, if anyone has one to spare. You can email me at myslashdotusername at gmail or send me slashmail.
Comment Re:Missiles? (Score 1) 59
Tornadoes form where hot moist air and cold dry air meet, the two weather systems creating a strong downdraft on one side, strong updraft on the other. I think it might be possible for a well-placed explosion to create an updraft on the downdraft side, disrupting the initial horizontal rolling air column that, when it dips down at one end then becomes a tornado. You would want to do this long before it develops into a mile-wide vertical column of a massive tornado. Testing this would be difficult, and implementing it on all possible tornadoes before they form is impractical (and then there would be explosion fallout problems), but it is still theoretically possible.
Comment bump (Score 1) 1
Doesn't anyone want to talk about this?
Submission + - "Digg Patriots" bury liberal stories on Digg (scienceblogs.com) 1
jcdill writes: From TFA: "A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives. An undercover investigation has exposed this effort, which has been in action for more than one year. "
Submission + - A Google-Verizon Deal that Might Not Violate Net N (nytimes.com)
saddleupsancho writes: Writing on the New York Times Op-Ed page (subscription required), Robert X. Cringely suggests that a Google-Verizon deal could involve placement of Google data centers in or near Verizon data centers, resulting in shorter latencies from users to Google and back, without explicit favoritism toward some traffic over others. "With servers so close to users, Google could not only send its data faster but also avoid sending it over the Internet backbone that connects service providers and for which they all pay. This would save space for other traffic — and money for both Verizon and Google, as their backbone bills decline (wishful thinking, but theoretically possible). Net neutrality would be not only intact, but enhanced."
Submission + - Flash ported to iOS and iPhone 4 (geek.com)
An anonymous reader writes: You may remeber in early July Flash was ported to iPad under the name of Frash. Well, now that same port has been updated to allow it to run on iPhone 4 and iOS. But that’s not all, the same port will run on iPhone 3GS, iPad, and iPod touch.
Submission + - Do Traffic Signs And Signals Make The Roads More D (advicegoddess.com)
Suki I writes: Spotted this from Amy Alkon:
Do Traffic Signs And Signals Make The Roads More Dangerous?
Stossel writes at reason:
It ... turns out that government roads often run more smoothly when drivers have more, not less, freedom.
This sounds paradoxical. Politicians often sneer at libertarians, saying, "You want to get rid of traffic lights?!" Well, yes, actually. In some cases, traffic moves better and more safely when government removes traffic lights, stop signs, even curbs.
It's Friedrich Hayek's "spontaneous" order in action: Instead of sitting at a mechanized light waiting to be told when to go, drivers meet in an intersection and negotiate their way through by making eye contact and gesturing. The secret is that drivers must pay attention to their surroundings--to pedestrians and other cars--rather than just to signs and signals. It demonstrates the "Peltzman Effect" (named after retired University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman): People tend to behave more recklessly when their sense of safety is increased. By removing signs, lights and barriers, drivers feel less safe, so they drive more carefully. They pay more attention.
Do Traffic Signs And Signals Make The Roads More Dangerous?
Stossel writes at reason:
It
It's Friedrich Hayek's "spontaneous" order in action: Instead of sitting at a mechanized light waiting to be told when to go, drivers meet in an intersection and negotiate their way through by making eye contact and gesturing. The secret is that drivers must pay attention to their surroundings--to pedestrians and other cars--rather than just to signs and signals. It demonstrates the "Peltzman Effect" (named after retired University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman): People tend to behave more recklessly when their sense of safety is increased. By removing signs, lights and barriers, drivers feel less safe, so they drive more carefully. They pay more attention.
Submission + - Mad Rush For Enterprise 2.0 Patents (informationweek.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The issue of whether the U.S. Patent Office is clueless on software patents comes to light again in InfoWeek's story, Mad Rush For Enterprise 2.0 Patents. Many of the Web 2.0-like collboration patents cite, from Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, OpenText , and SAP, as newcomers Vyew and Resilent, seem obvious from prior art. Take Microsoft's patent number 7,747,719, "Methods, tools, and interfaces for the dynamic assignment of people to groups to enable enhanced communication and collaboration," where a groupwise communications manager sets policies for how often, and under what conditions, they receive update messages. More like this in the story's accompanying slideshow.
Submission + - New York to get free Wi-Fi network via livery cabs (ny1.com)
AndyAndyAndyAndy writes: "NYC may finally have a viable plan for free, ad-supported public Wi-Fi service. By next year, company LimoRes Car & Limo plans to roll out 20,000 vehicles with transmitters, providing in-car Wi-Fi with a radius of 200 feet. Each car will be able to support up to 16 separate connections. It may be a longshot to say this will provide complete coverage in Manhattan, but if each cab company in New York got onboard..."
Submission + - Genetically Modified Canola Spreads to Wild Plants (npr.org) 1
eldavojohn writes: A research team conducting a survey has found that about 86% of wild canola plants in North Dakota have genetically modified genes in them and 'two samples contained multiple genes from different species of genetically modified plants.' Canola usually has little competition when cultivated but does not fare well in the wild. The Roundup Ready and Liberty Link strains of genetically modified canola appear to be crossing over to wild plants and helping it survive. The University of Arkansas team claims that the ease in which genetically modified canola has 'escaped' into the wild should be noted by seed makers like Mansanto because this is proof that it will happen.
Submission + - Man arrested for expressing opinion. (google.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "Connecticut police say they arrested a man at a management company after he mentioned the shooting rampage across the state that killed nine people and said he understood the killer's mindset."
Thoughtcrime, anybody?
Thoughtcrime, anybody?
Submission + - Is AOL finally crashing and burning? (marketwatch.com)
An anonymous reader writes: AOL's disastrous quarterly report showed cash from continuing operations was down 44% from a year ago (while "adjusted operating income" was down 37%), as it continues a rocky transition from monthly subscription fees into advertising. (Their quarterly report also notes "the cessation of large-scale access subscriber acquisition campaigns" — investor-speak for the fact that AOL will finally stop mass mailings of free trial accounts.) Unfortunately, AOL's advertising business "did even worse. Its revenues declined by $110 million...every single segment is down." AOL has already lost 86% of the 30 million subscribers it reported in 2001 — down to just 4.3 million — but advertising hasn't yet filled the gap (possibly because many AOL ads had been displayed to the users AOL no longer has). But at least, as one technology blogger notes, AOL has finally released a mobile application, "In the new definition of 'late to the party'."
Submission + - NASA Launches Google Phones Into Space as Cheap Sa (treehugger.com)
Jaymi writes: Called the NexusOne PhoneSat project — a group comprised of NASA Ames students, Google employees and two NASA contractors — they are determining if low-cost mobile phone components withstand space travel. The parts must reach orbit without shaking apart, function within a vacuum and operate at extremely high and low temperatures. So they shot two Nexus One phones 28,000 feet up and recorded 2.5 hours of video doing so.
Submission + - New spacecraft set for dangerous Jupiter trip
solaGratia writes: It's the most heavily armored spacecraft ever launched to another planet. But it isn't headed into battle. Instead, it will be flying in one of the deadliest regions of the solar system: Jupiter's magnetosphere. "It's like sticking your head inside a microwave," he said. That's why the craft has to be armored; exposure to that much radiation without shielding would fry the electronics. The craft is Juno, and it's the first mission to Jupiter since Galileo was launched in 1986. It's one of the more wide-ranging studies of the giant planet.
