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Comment Re:Math (Score 1) 236

by jdschulteis (#49800209) Attached to: Asteroid Risk Greatly Overestimated By Almost Everyone

Even if the world rallied around the cause instantly and everyone didn't panic (HUGE ifs), do we have the technology to alter the course of a mile wide asteroid in 2 months?

No, but I would not rule out the chance to preserve a nucleus of human specimens. It would be quite easy, at the bottom of some of our deeper mineshafts.

Comment Re:raises hand (Score 1) 66

Is the Maker Bot water-soluble filament safe to digest? I'd google it to find out, but I prefer the human contact of a question answered.

I had the same question and I don't mind googling: It appears water-soluble filament is poly vinyl alcohol, which is reasonably safe to ingest in small amounts. From the linked abstract: " A critical evaluation of the existing information on PVA supports its safety for use as a coating agent for pharmaceutical and dietary supplement products."

Comment Re:$9 Computer is BLAH Android Sticks are Better (Score 1) 180

by jdschulteis (#49649575) Attached to: $9 Open Source Computer Blows Past Crowdfunding Goal

For the use case you have set forth, an Android stick would be a better deal.

If you crack one open though, how easy would it be to wire up additional hardware? The CHIP has 8 GPIOs, SPI, TWI, and UART on headers.

What about using one to create a portable device? The CHIP has a battery power and charging circuit already on board.

OS's that aren't as full featured.

The CHIP runs Debian.
Privacy

Sorority Files Lawsuit After Sacred Secrets Posted On Penny Arcade Forums 257

Posted by samzenpus from the not-so-secret-handshake dept.
Limekiller42 writes: Lawyers for the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority have filed suit in Seattle's King County Superior Court against an unidentified person for "publicizing the sorority's secret handshake, robe colors and other practices." The well-written article is by Levi Pulkkinen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and states that the sorority is seeking a restraining order and financial compensation for damages.

Submission + - Mystery of Ceres' bright spots grows

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: New data from NASA mission suggest varied origins for tantalizing gleams on dwarf planet's surface.

The Dawn science team has released the first global map of Ceres, based on the preliminary images produced during the spacecraft's approach in March.

This map is very preliminary. The global survey produced during Dawn's year long visit will be far more detailed.

Submission + - Tracking the weather on an exoplanet

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Scientists have begun gathering increasingly detailed information about the atmosphere and weather on the exoplanet HD189733B, 63 light years away with an orbit that produces a transit every 2.2 days.

It appears that the temperature rises with increasing altitude, reaching 3,000 degrees at the top of the atmosphere. There are also strong winds blowing from the cold to the hot side of the planet.

Submission + - Acetaminophen reduces both pain and pleasure, study finds (scienceblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers studying the commonly used pain reliever acetaminophen found it has a previously unknown side effect: It blunts positive emotions. Acetaminophen, the main ingredient in the over-the-counter pain reliever Tylenol, has been in use for more than 70 years in the United States, but this is the first time that this side effect has been documented.

Submission + - Briny Water May Pool in Mars' Equatorial Soil (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: Mars may be a frigid desert, but perchlorate salts in the planet’s soil are lowering the freezing temperature of water, setting up conditions for liquid brines to form at equatorial regions, new research from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows. The discovery of subsurface water, even a trickle, around the planets warmer equatorial belt defies current climate models, though spacecraft orbiting Mars have found geologic evidence for transient liquid water, a phenomenon termed “recurring slope lineae.” The findings, published in this week’s Nature Geoscience, are based on nearly two years worth of atmospheric humidity and temperature measurements collected by the roving science laboratory Curiosity, which is exploring an ancient impact basin called Gale Crater near the planet’s equator. The brines, computer models show, form nightly in the upper 2 inches of the planet’s soil as perchlorates absorb atmospheric water vapor. As temperatures rise in the morning, the liquid evaporates. The levels of liquid, however, are too low to support terrestrial-type organisms, the researchers conclude. “It is not just a problem of water, but also temperature. The water activity and temperatures are so low in Mars that they are beyond the limits of cell reproduction and metabolism,” Javier Martin-Torres, with Lulea University of Technology, in Kiruna, Sweden, wrote in an email to Discovery News.

Submission + - What's the point in Sharp's 5.5 inch 4K 806ppi screen? (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: It is a given that whatever technology you see if front of you will be bettered if not next week, then next month or next year. Processors will get faster, hard drives bigger, laptops thinner and... well, you get the idea. In the realm of mobile devices there was a time when size meant everything. Mobile phone screens grew larger and larger, but then focus started to switch.

Size, it turned out, was not everything after all; it’s the number of pixels that matters. We started to see ppi figures quoted everywhere, Apple even came up with its own label for the pixel density at which pixels became indistinguishable — Retina Display. This was just the start of the battle of the pixels, though, and now things are starting to get a bit silly. Sharp has announced a 5.5 inch 4K screen which boasts a pixel density of 806ppi. Say, what?

Comment Re:Anyone else want bigger batteries... (Score 1) 39

by jdschulteis (#49458985) Attached to: LG's Leather-Clad G4 Revealed In Leaked Images

This phone is basically a third of an inch thick. Given that one holds the phone while it's in use by that thin edge, this is getting a little ridiculous. Give me a thicker phone with a much bigger battery. My pockets can handle it, I assure you, and with more edge to hold on to I'm much les likely to drop the damn thing by accident, and they could even build the phone more durably to the point I might not need to buy a third-party case either.

I have a G3 and the thin, slick edge is actually more of a problem for me than battery life. A thicker, textured edge and better battery life would be great improvements and would cost very little.

Comment Re:why is this taking so long? (Score 1) 383

How hard is it to tell them, either end your nuclear program or we will?

47 minutes after Iran announces that they have a nuclear weapon a large mushroom cloud over Tehran will announce the cancelation of said nuclear program.

Send that message.

anything past that is a waste of time.

Hopefully you are being facetious, otherwise what kind of evil bastard are you? Willing to slaughter millions of people to "send that message".

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I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning. -- Plato

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