harisheldon - Slashdot User

Researchers Pooh-Pooh Algae-Based Biofuel 238

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 21, 2010 @04:56PM from the feed-it-pooh-pooh-undies dept.

Julie188 writes "Researchers from the University of Virginia have found that current algae biofuel production methods consume more energy, have higher greenhouse gas emissions and use more water than other biofuel sources, such as switchgrass, canola and corn. The researchers suggest these problems can be overcome by situating algae production ponds behind wastewater treatment facilities to capture phosphorous and nitrogen — essential algae nutrients that otherwise need to come from petroleum."

Looking Back At Dungeons & Dragons 189

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday January 20, 2010 @04:28AM from the lightning-bolt dept.

An anonymous reader sends in a nostalgic piece about Dungeons & Dragons and the influence it's had on games and gamers for the past 36 years. Quoting: "Maybe there was something in the air during the early '70s. Maybe it was historically inevitable. But it seems way more than convenient coincidence that Gygax and Arneson got their first packet of rules for D&D out the door in 1974, the same year Nolan Bushnell managed to cobble together a little arcade machine called Pong. We've never had fun quite the same way since. Looking back, these two events set today's world of gaming into motion — the Romulus and Remus of modern game civilization. For the rest of forever, we would sit around and argue whether games should let us do more or tell us better stories."

Virtual Currency Becomes Real In South Korea 203

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 19, 2010 @02:29PM from the license-to-print-money dept.

garylian writes "Massively is reporting that the South Korean Supreme Court has stated that virtual currency is the equivalent of real-world money. For those of you who might not be drawing the link, the core there is that selling in-game currency for real money is essentially just an exchange of currency and perfectly legal in South Korea. This could have sweeping implications for RMT operations the world over, not to mention free-to-play games and... well, online games in general. The official story is available online from JoongAng Daily."

One Variety of Sea Slugs Cuts Out the Energy Middleman 232

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 13, 2010 @03:04PM from the would-never-leave-the-house dept.

dragonturtle69 writes with this story, short on details but interesting: "These sea slugs, Elysia chlorotica, have evolved the ability to gain energy via photosynthesis. Forget about genetic modifications for sports enhancements. I want to be able to never need to eat again — or do I?"

Apple Orders 10 Million Tablets? 221

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 04, 2010 @03:11PM from the pricepoint-better-be-right dept.

Arvisp writes "According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. If Lee's blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product's first year."

Comment Re:Voodoo Science (Score 1) 684

by harisheldon on Wednesday January 28, 2009 @09:20PM (#26647977) Attached to: Miscalculation Invalidates LHC Safety Assurances

Actually he is right. If you calculate the probability of being hit by an asteroid in one month to be 1e-20 and the probability of you being wrong is 1:50. Then the *worst* case probability of being hit by an asteroid absent any other information is ~1:50. However, in real life there is always other information. So someone may have shown with absolute certainty that the worst case probability of being hit by an asteroid is no more than 1e-6. In that case the *worst* case probability is ~0.98e-6. For the LCH the other information is that these types of collision have been happening for eons without destroying the universe. So even if the physicists are fallible the probability of destroying the universe is not that great.

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