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Space

Submission + - Massive Black Hole Devours Star (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by H3xx
H3xx writes: Astronomers have observed a black hole shredding a star and sending a powerful beam of energy towards Earth. When it was first observed March 28th by the Swift spacecraft, it was thought to be the implosion of an aging star, but is now believed to be the result of a star wandering too close to a black hold, imploding and converting 10% of the star's mass into gamma radiation. The energy burst is still visible by telescope more than two-and-a-half months later, the researchers report in the journal Science.

Submission + - EU Proposes Their Own "Great Firewall" (eweekeurope.co.uk) 1

Submitted by H3xx
H3xx writes: The EU is proposing a region-wide firewall to be erected in order to block "illicit contents" on a continental scale. Critics say that abuses would be more than easy, given the controversies surround the Chinese counterpart. The proponents of such a firewall have been called "clueless" by critic and blogger Glyn Moody, saying, "A big hint of that cluelessness is that these people are still using the term 'cyberspace' *seriously* in 2011, as is the fact that they actually think it’s possible to create a ‘single secure European cyberspace’ with ‘virtual borders’ and ‘virtual access points'."

Comment Re:Tl, dr (Score 1) 294

by H3xx (#35225704) Attached to: Compared and Contrasted: OpenOffice V. LibreOffice

To summarize the summary of the summary: They're the same.

So what if they're the same? Most source forks in the F/OSS world don't fall far from the tree, so to speak. Just look at what happened to Ethereal and Wireshark, or Netscape Navigator and Mozilla (the browser).

Give it time—LibreOffice is still a young'un yet and is still growing into its own. It already hates its parents so it's pretty much already an adolescent.
Earth

Living Earth Simulator Aims To Simulate Everything 241

Posted by timothy from the why-didn't-the-mice-think-of-that? dept.
H3xx writes "An international group of scientists is aiming to create a simulator — nicknamed The Living Earth Simulator — that will collect data from billions of sources and use it to replicate everything happening on Earth, from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on highways. The project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world. Perhaps this is Asimov's concept of Psychohistory come to fruition."
Science

Submission + - Living Earth Simulator Aims to Simulate Everything (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by H3xx
H3xx writes: An international group of scientists are aiming to create a simulator--nicknamed The Living Earth Simulator--that will collect data from billions of sources and use it to replicate everything happening on Earth, from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on highways. The project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world. Perhaps this is Asimov's concept of Psychohistory come to fruition.
Biotech

New Tech Promises Cheap Gene Sequencing In Minutes 121

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-i-want-it-now dept.
Zothecula writes "Sequencing an entire genome is currently a highly complex, time-consuming process – the DNA must be broken down into segments and replicated, utilizing chemicals that destroy the original sample. Scientists from Imperial College London, however, have just announced the development of a prototype device that could lead to technology capable of sequencing a human genome within minutes, at a cost of just a few dollars. By contrast, when sequencing of the genome of Dr. James Watson (co-discoverer of the structure of DNA) was completed in 2007, it had taken two years and cost US$1 million."
Science

Submission + - Cryosat-2 Returns First Map of Arctic Circle (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by H3xx
H3xx writes: The European Space Agency (Esa) satellite Cryosat-2 was launched in April, carrying one of the highest resolution synthetic aperture radars ever put in orbit. Cryosat's primary mission is to measure sea-ice thickness, which has been in sharp decline in recent decades. Its ability also to map the shape of the sea surface will tell scientists if Arctic currents are changing as a result of winds being allowed to blow more easily on ice-free waters.

Today, radar data from the European satellite has been used to make a map of ocean circulation across the Arctic basin.

Comment Re:Just a thought (Score 1) 760

by H3xx (#34597528) Attached to: 'YouCut' Targets National Science Foundation Budget

OK, after we get rid of all the "wasteful" spending at the NSF, can we take a look at the DoD? I have several hundreds of billions of dollars worth of recommendations for spending cuts on that front...

Perhaps it was just an error (or an easter egg) on the part of the server software. Maybe they piped the votes through /bin/tr 'A' 'F' .

Comment History Insurance (Score 1) 488

by H3xx (#34430454) Attached to: WikiLeaks Moves To Swiss Domain After DNS Takedown

I recommend that all of you, your children, your grandmothers and your mothers download the "history insurance" file that was tweeted 3 days ago.

I sense that they will soon give up trying to go about this in a diplomatic fashion and just leak the key for the AES256 encryption. Then BOOM! Thousands of people will have the entire cable archive (or at least a large part of it) on their home computers.

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