Comment Re:Wait, what? - The next step (Score 2, Informative) 542
The next step is to run more tests with more hives, and more test groups (with - as suggested elsewhere in the discussion - graduated exposure levels)
Not to run around like a headless chook claiming the preliminary test actually means anything.
1. Do limited unscientific test.
2. Profit!
3. ???
Submission + - Topi Antelopes Trick Partners Into Mating
Hugh Pickens writes: "Animals use trickery of all sorts in the wild—for instance, some birds fake injuries to lure attackers away from their young but the deception is usually aimed at rivals or threats, not potential mates. Now the NY Times reports that on the wild plains of Kenya a male topi antelope will try to keep females from leaving his territory by pretending that a predator might be in the area. When a female appears to be leaving, the male will run in front of her, freeze in place, stare in the direction that she is going and snort loudly. Typically, that snort means that a predatory lion or cheetah was spotted, but in this case the male is faking it. “He doesn’t look at the female. He takes a rigid stance exactly as if there were a predator there,” says Jakob Bro-Jorgensen who studied the behavior of hundreds of topi antelopes in the Masai Mara National Reserve and observed the males acting this way time after time. Tricking a female into sticking around for a few extra minutes gives the buck more chances for sex and denies other males the opportunity. The female antelope generally retreats back into the male’s territory and although it would seem that they might catch on after a while, getting fooled does not have much of a downside, while ignoring what might be a real warning could be deadly. “It’s too dangerous to take the chance,” says Bro-Jorgensen."
Comment Re:Silly question - Couchdb (Score 1) 45
Try couchdb if you want to select ranges.
Its keys are stored in a heap, so selecting ranges of values is a core use case.
The view system also uses the same mechanism, so by having a cached view you can emit any key you like per record, and grab individual or ranges of values.
Nifty.
Submission + - SPAM: NanoArt online competition of 2008
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Like last year, the NanoArt International Online Competition has started. In case you don't remember, NanoArt is 'a new art discipline related to micro/nanosculptures created by artists/scientists through chemical/physical processes and/or natural micro/nanostructures that are visualized with powerful research tools like Scanning Electron Microscope and Atomic Force Microscope.' You can vote until March 31, 2008 for your preferred NanoArt works. You can choose from 121 pictures sent by 37 nanoartists from 13 countries and 4 continents. But read more for additional details and to discover my favorite and fantastic NanoArt works."
Submission + - A Giant Step toward Infinitesimal Machinery (physorg.com)
msaleem1 writes: "PhysOrg asks some great questions and attempts to explore potential answers: What are the ultimate limits to miniaturization? How small can machinery — with internal workings that move, turn, and vibrate — be produced? What is the smallest scale on which computers can be built?"
Submission + - Japan to fingerprint all foreign visitors (bbc.co.uk)
azuredrake writes: According to the BBC, Japan's government is planning to fingerprint and photograph all visiting foreigners beginning on November 20th of this year. As support for the controversial programs, the country's justice minister has said "a friend of a friend" was a member of al-Qaeda who had visited the country illegally several times and had been involved in one of the bombings in Bali. While this seems more like political suicide than a convincing argument to violate the privacy of all visiting foreigners, the program itself is interesting. If it succeeds, other countries would surely follow suit, leading to a vast national database of fingerprints and photographs of travelers.
Submission + - Poll Finds Support for Internet Regulation (techliberation.com) 1
Brian Gordon writes: Digital rights activist Adam Thierer has a blog post giving his insights on a recent poll from 463 Communications finding that more than half of Americans believe that Internet content such as video should be controlled in some way by the government. From the poll, "Twenty-nine percent said it should be regulated just like television content while 24% said government should institute an online rating system similar to the one used by the movie industry. In contrast, only 36% said the blocking of Internet video would be unconstitutional."
Submission + - Found Adulterous Material On Bosses Machine 2
An anonymous reader writes: Help me out slashdot:
I took my bosses machine to my work bench to repair it. Little did I know that he left a cdrom from a "Glamour Erotic Potography" studio. I.E. erotic pictures someone took for somebody else, (Not comercial PRON). I did not open the cd, but explorer listed the title.. the name of a female ex employee (He is married)! Not sure what to do now. He does not know I have the machine, his secretary does. However,he knows I was working on it, just not that i took it. So do I play dumb? Tell him that he left a bit something and try to play it off? Hand him the disk and remind him that IT guys are like preists?!!
Come slashdot, be my conciense!
Submission + - What's the best way to teach myself math? 4
An anonymous reader writes: I have a secret. In high school I failed two out of three years of math classes and eventually dropped out of school completely. Although dropping out was the most foolish thing I have ever done, I am not dumb. I earned my general equivalency diploma as soon as was legally possible and from there went on to college and beyond. That was many years ago and my most basic algebra, trigonometry, and geometry skills are slipping away at an alarming rate. I'm looking for a self-guided course covering the equivalent of 4 years of high school mathematics including calculus. My math skills are holding me back. How can I turn this around?
Submission + - Redhat sued for Patent Infringement
tqft writes: "http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071011205044141
"The first ever patent infringement litigation regarding Linux. Here's the patent, for those who can look at it without risk. If in doubt, don't. "
For those who can without fear read a patent:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=3tUkAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,072,412
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/202417-recent-copyrightpatent-infringement-cases-filed-in-u.s.-district-courts
"Plaintiffs IP Innovation and Technology Licensing Corp. claim to have the rights to U.S. Patent No. 5,072,412 for a User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects issued Dec. 10, 1991 along with two other similar patents.
"
Get your game faces on. Party Time."
"The first ever patent infringement litigation regarding Linux. Here's the patent, for those who can look at it without risk. If in doubt, don't. "
For those who can without fear read a patent:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=3tUkAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,072,412
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/202417-recent-copyrightpatent-infringement-cases-filed-in-u.s.-district-courts
"Plaintiffs IP Innovation and Technology Licensing Corp. claim to have the rights to U.S. Patent No. 5,072,412 for a User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects issued Dec. 10, 1991 along with two other similar patents.
"
Get your game faces on. Party Time."
Submission + - Hillary Clinton Declares War on Space Exploration (associatedcontent.com)
MarkWhittington writes: "Recently, Senator Hillary Clinton revealed her science agenda. Of great interest to people involved in making and debating space policy were the three bullets concerning the space program. To be brief and to the point, Hillary's agenda would be terrible news for anyone who supports space exploration and space commerce."
Submission + - Possession of the Anarchist's Cookbook==Terrorist
Anonymous Terrorist writes: Back in the midsts of time, when I was a lad and gopher was the height of information retrieval I read The Anarchist's Cookbook in one huge text file. Now it appears the UK government considers possession of the book an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000 and is prosecuting a 17 year old boy, in part, for having a copy of the book.
Submission + - Do Content Provider Executives Read Online Forums? (networkhardware.com)
Dax writes: "I've been reading slashdot for nearly a decade now, and I've found it both useful and occasionally comical in many areas of life (especially when I implemented the Win2k ban on UCSB's ResNet...the /. comments made for hilarious reading that week). Throughout college and my career, I've relied on online forums such as these for feedback, and to get a vague sense of how it is for folks "in the trenches", so to speak.
Given the hundreds — if not thousands — of submissions to slashdot, digg, techdirt, et al regarding DRM and all of its catastrophic failures (let's use Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as the main example), do the decision makers and visionaries at these companies put any stock into the horribly negative feedback all over the web concerning these topics?
If so, why haven't we (consumers) seen shifts away from defective by design technologies? If not, why not? In my current position, I sell Cisco equipment...and my reputation can be made or slayed by what goes on in these forums, so I keep a serious eye open to constructive criticisms, or (hopefully more often), positive feedback. Why don't other executives?"
Given the hundreds — if not thousands — of submissions to slashdot, digg, techdirt, et al regarding DRM and all of its catastrophic failures (let's use Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as the main example), do the decision makers and visionaries at these companies put any stock into the horribly negative feedback all over the web concerning these topics?
If so, why haven't we (consumers) seen shifts away from defective by design technologies? If not, why not? In my current position, I sell Cisco equipment...and my reputation can be made or slayed by what goes on in these forums, so I keep a serious eye open to constructive criticisms, or (hopefully more often), positive feedback. Why don't other executives?"
Submission + - Transparent Metal Walls from Star Trek are REAL (physorg.com)
justanotheradmin writes: In Star Trek IV, transparent aluminum was theorized. See the following link for background — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_aluminum — Now, apparently transparent steel is REAL...
