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Paleontologists Discover World's Horniest Dinosaur 109

Posted by samzenpus from the overcompensatesaurus dept.
Ponca City, We love you writes "The Guardian reports that paleontologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient beast called Kosmoceratops richardsoni that stood 16 feet tall with a 6-foot skull equipped with 15 horns and lived 76 million years ago in the warm, wet swamps of what is now southern Utah. 'These animals are basically over-sized rhinos with a whole lot more horns on their heads. They had huge heads relative to their body size,' says Scott Sampson, a researcher at the Utah Museum of Natural History."
Space

Black Hole Emits a 1,000-Light-Year-Wide Gas Bubble 145

Posted by Soulskill from the reminds-me-of-a-buddy-of-mine dept.
PhrostyMcByte writes "12 million light-years away, in the outer spiral of galaxy NGC 7793, a bubble of hot gas approximately 1,000 light-years in diameter can be found shooting out of a black hole — one of the most powerful jets of energy ever seen. (Abstract available at Nature.) The bubble has been growing for approximately 200,000 years, and is expanding at around 1,000,000 kilometers per hour."
Image

Verizon Charged Marine's Widow an Early Termination Fee 489

Posted by samzenpus from the literal-charges dept.
In a decision that was reversed as soon as someone with half a brain in their PR department learned about it, Verizon charged a widow a $350 early termination fee. After the death of her marine husband, Michaela Brummund decided to move back to her home town to be with her family. Verizon doesn't offer any coverage in the small town so Michaela tried to cancel her contract, only to be hit with an early termination fee. From the article: "'I called them to cancel. I told them the situation with my husband. I even said I would provide a death certificate,' Michaela said."
Image

Facebook Leads To Increase In STDs in Britain 270

Posted by samzenpus from the friends-and-really-good-friends dept.
ectotherm writes "According to Professor Peter Kelly, a director of Public Health in Great Britain: 'There has been a four-fold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected, with more young women being affected.' Why the increase? People meeting up for casual sex through Facebook. According to the article, 'Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex. There is a rise in syphilis because people are having more sexual partners than 20 years ago and often do not use condoms.'"

Comment Re:Uhhh, Duh? (Score 1) 171

by heritage727 (#31453084) Attached to: On Social Networks, You Are Who You Know

Hasn't this been known since the beginning of time?

Since just after the beginning of time, actually. You'll notice that some of the researchers were from the Max Planck Institute. The next paper in the series is "Social Networking Among Bosons During the Inflationary Epoch."

Comment Outsourcing (Score 1) 439

by heritage727 (#31129536) Attached to: Yale Switching To Gmail, Not Without Opposition

I'd pretty much agree with this. The trend of University outsourcing is the result of symptoms caused by bad management. As you describe, the management will have become bloated and influenced by consultants with deep conflicts of interest.

At the university where I work, they outsource our Web paystubs. They outsource our W-2s. I mean, how hard is it to write an application that generates W-2s from payroll information? For that matter, why can't the ERP system they paid hundreds of millions of dollars for do those simple things? Such things are incomprehensible and very frustrating to technical professionals.
Image

Seinfeld's Good Samaritan Law Now Reality? 735

Posted by samzenpus from the not-that-there-is-anything-wrong-with-that dept.
e3m4n writes "The fictitious 'good samaritan' law from the final episode of Seinfeld (the one that landed them in jail for a year) appears to be headed toward reality for California residents after the house passed this bill. There are some differences, such as direct action is not required, but the concept of guilt by association for not doing the right thing is still on the face of the bill."

Comment Re:As a long-time contributor (Score 1) 632

by heritage727 (#30228322) Attached to: Contributors Leaving Wikipedia In Record Numbers

(my kid's teachers won't allow citing it, for example)

Good. It's real simple. Encyclopedias are not sources. They are where you go to get an introduction on a topic and leads to sources.

It's not quite so simple. For elementary and middle-school students, encyclopedias are sources. A 4th grader writing a 2-page report on Leonard Bernstein isn't going to read an entire biography. The previous poster's point--and the same rule has been true for my children as well--is that Wikipedia in particular cannot be cited, while Britannica, etc. can be.

Comment Re:No doubt. (Score 5, Funny) 127

by heritage727 (#30017106) Attached to: Comic Books Improve Early Childhood Literacy

There's an art to reading graphic novels, and knowing how to read them. To analyze the frames for relative action to the story and so on. I for one have never been as good at understanding comics as I have traditional literature.

I agree. My 13 year-old son can read a graphic novel and tell me the story in great detail. When I look at one of his books it's just a bunch of random explosions and women with bizarrely large breasts.

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