Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Mars

Curiosity Detects Mysterious Methane Spikes On Mars 68

Posted by Soulskill from the and-still-hasn't-killed-any-cats dept.
astroengine writes: A gas strongly associated with life on Earth has been detected again in the Martian atmosphere, opening a new chapter in a decade-old mystery about the on-again, off-again appearance of methane on Mars. The latest discovery comes from NASA's Curiosity rover, which in addition to analyzing rocks and soil samples, is sniffing the air at its Gale Crater landing site. A year ago, scientists reported that Curiosity had come up empty-handed after an eight-month search for methane in the atmosphere, leaving earlier detections by ground-based telescopes and Mars-orbiting spacecraft an unexplained anomaly. "We thought we had closed the book on methane. It was disappointing to a lot of people that there wasn't significant methane on Mars, but that's where we were," Curiosity scientist Christopher Webster with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Discovery News.

Comment Re:Overstated or misrepresented? (Score 1) 403

by yabos (#48091147) Attached to: Fuel Efficiency Numbers Overstate MPG More For Cars With Small Engines
I drive a Mazdaspeed 3 and it's the same. 2.3L turbo, I can easily get to over the speed limit before I'm even on the highway and I average 22-24 mpg with lots of city driving. The little econobox engines rated at 40mpg can barely get to highway speed on the on ramp so you're having to floor it. The mpg rating is a bit over optimistic based on the fact that people don't like accelerating at the speed of a snail so no one drives under the conditions to get the rated mpg figures.

Comment Re:No (Score 2) 189

by yabos (#47992015) Attached to: BlackBerry Launches Square-Screened Passport Phone
I personally don't "get it" how bb is better at those 3 things. Perhaps you can enlighten us?
iPhone, Android, BB: All can send emails. You can argue whether the physical keyboard is better etc. but that's personal preference.
iPhone, Android, BB: All can sync contacts. Not sure why one is better than the other.
iPhone, Android(never used it but I believe?), BB: Can work with Exchange if you use that, calendars seamlessly sync between devices, computers, etc.
All I have ever heard is BB is "better" at it, but no one says *why*.
Biotech

Designer Seeds Thought To Be Latest Target By Chinese 164

Posted by samzenpus from the nice-seeds dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Economic espionage is nothing new but one of the biggest areas being targeted now is agriculture. Here's a story about a FBI investigation to track down theft of seeds from research farms. 'The case of the missing corn seeds first broke in May 2011 when a manager at a DuPont research farm in east-central Iowa noticed a man on his knees, digging up the field. When confronted, the man, Mo Hailong, who was with his colleague Wang Lei, appeared flushed. Mr. Mo told the manager that he worked for the University of Iowa and was traveling to a conference nearby. When the manager paused to answered his cellphone, the two men sped off in a car, racing through a ditch to get away, federal authorities said.'"
The Media

Ask Slashdot: What Online News Is Worth Paying For? 361

Posted by Soulskill from the pennies-on-the-page dept.
schnell writes "The increasing prevalence of online news paywalls and 'nag walls' (e.g. you can only read so many articles per month) has forced me to divide those websites into two categories: those that offer content that is unique or good enough to pay for vs. those that don't. Examples of the former for me included The Economist and Foreign Policy, while other previous favorite sites The New York Times and even my hometown Seattle Times have lost my online readership entirely. I also have a secret third category — sites that don't currently pay/nag wall, but I would pay for if I had to — Ars Technica and Long Form come to mind. What news/aggregation sites are other Slashdotters out there willing to pay for, and why? What sites that don't charge today would you pay for if you had to? Or, knowing this crowd, are the majority just opposed to paying for any web news content on principle?"

Comment Re:Fuck the TSA (Score 1) 337

by yabos (#45434753) Attached to: TSA Screening Barely Working Better Than Chance
Actually you can't get signal up that high(~35,000 feet). Around here when I fly my plane you lose data service above 3000 feet or so and at 10,000' you have no signal whatsoever. Now I'm not sure what altitude these calls were supposedly made at but I have first hand knowledge of when my phone will and won't work.
Twitter

Twitter Seeking To Go Public 56

Posted by samzenpus from the own-a-piece dept.
awarrenfells writes "While Dell Inc. is announcing its desire to go private, Twitter seems to be heading in the opposite direction with its recent tweet that it seeks to go public. From the article: 'Twitter has announced that it has filed for its IPO. Since Twitter was able to submit confidentially, this indicated that it had annual revenue of less than $1 billion in its most recent fiscal year. The JOBS Act allows for “emerging growth” companies with less than $1 billion in annual gross revenue to file in secret. Goldman Sachs is believed to be the lead underwriter for the deal, and Twitter will reportedly list on the NYSE.'"

Comment Re:Cost Per Lumen? BS! (Score 1) 308

by yabos (#43538913) Attached to: Cause of LED Efficiency Droop Finally Revealed
Nice to see that we get ripped off in Canada on these bulbs too compared to the USA...
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/95-watt-60w-warm-white-led-light-bulb-1-pack/827146
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/6-watt-40w-warm-white-led-light-bulb-1-pack/827152
I bought 2 of the 60w equivalents and they look pretty good. I'm not a fan of the bluish ones, but the yellowish ones looks great. I like that they rate it to a comparable incandescent. Most LEDs seem to give you a lumens output value but for most people, that requires some research into what that is in equivalent incandescent bulb.

Slashdot Top Deals

On the eighth day, God created FORTRAN.

Close