Ralph Spoilsport - Slashdot User

Submission + - Digg Bans Laughingsquid

Submitted by Ralph Spoilsport on Tuesday August 04, 2009 @12:17AM

Ralph Spoilsport writes: It seems digg has banned laughingsquid. Why this is so is anyone's guess. Digg ain't talkin' and everyone else is puzzled. Is this pernicious? Or some kind of a non-malicious screw up? Or something in between? Any ideas out there?

Submission + - less than $1 per watt Solar Cells

Submitted by Ralph Spoilsport on Wednesday February 25, 2009 @11:18AM

Ralph Spoilsport writes: Major annoucement from First Solar: $1 per watt solar modules. The entire announcement is HERE. This is an extremely important price barrier breakthrough. Inexpensive PV solar is critical to maintaining an industrial society in a postCarbon context, and is a great example of how green tech can and will be central to business plans over the next few decades as we transition out of the age of fossil fuels. Solar has its obvious problems (doesn't work in the dark, etc.) but finally cost is becoming not one of them.

Submission + - Electronic Bank Run Helped Spark Downturn

Submitted by Ralph Spoilsport on Sunday February 22, 2009 @01:03PM

Ralph Spoilsport writes: One of the recurring fears in a digitally linked global economy is the scenario where there is an electronic "run on the bank", a scenario that would make the run on banks of the early 1930s look like a pocketful of change. Even Bill Maher in his broadcast of 20.FEB.09 mused to the effect of "What would happen if the Chinese took all their money out?" Well it seems that Doomsday Scenario passed already, on 15.SEP.09. It seems that in a period of minutes, $550 billion dollars disappeared electronically from the Federal Reserve System in the form of liquidated money market funds. This story was told by Rep. Kanjorski (D-PA). Now, whether this was the Chinese doing a panic withdrawal or the major banks pulling out all stops to cover their bad debts is unknown at this time, but it does show one important thing: technology permitted a panic sell-off of unprecedented proportions that could have been completely catastrophic. What is also distressing is that there has been ZERO media coverage on this.

Submission + - 11,000 year old temple found in SE Turkey (smithsonianmag.com)

Submitted by

Ralph Spoilsport

on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:24PM

Ralph Spoilsport writes: "In Southeast Turkey, the archeologistKlaus Schmidt has discovered an 11,000 year old temple. Normal civilisation theory suggests that agriculture created cities, and cities created monuments. This discovery suggests just the opposite — people got together to build a huge monument to their religion, and in order to sustain it, communities were formed and agriculture (already in development) quickly followed on to sustain the population. Truly a startling find with significant implications."

Submission + - NASA says it will set up polar moon camp

Submitted by

Ralph Spoilsport

on Tuesday December 05, 2006 @12:44AM

Ralph Spoilsport writes: "AP reports: NASA may be going to the same old moon with a ship that looks a lot like a 1960s Apollo capsule, but the space agency said Monday that it's going to do something dramatically different this time: Stay there.

The goal is to have a base at the South Pole permanently staffed by 2024. Why the South Pole? It get more Sun, making solar power more doable. The cost? Expensive. From TFA: "The tooth fairy is not going to drop $500 to $800 billion on NASA," McCurdy said. "Being creative on the moon can sometimes get you confined to the moon."

Can we/should we do it? 800 billion bucks buys a boatload of pretty little probes — how much science can we get out of an $800 billion moon base compared to hundreds of probes of ever increasing sophistication? Is putting a half dozen hairless apes on the moon a good idea? Come on slashdotters! Where are we with this issue?"

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