41226967
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
It is entirely plausible, says University of Washington physics professor Martin Savage, that our universe and everything in it is one huge computer simulation being run by our descendants. Savage and his colleagues think they've come up with a way to test whether it's true. His paper, "Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation," has kindled a lively international discussion about the simulation argument, which was first put forth in 2003 by University of Oxford philosophy professor Nick Bostrom. In the paper, the physicists propose looking for a "signature," or pattern, in our universe that also occurs in current small-scale computer simulations. One such pattern might be a limitation in the energy of cosmic rays. If our world is a computer simulation, the highest-energy cosmic rays would not travel along the edges of the lattice in the model but would travel diagonally, and they would not interact equally in all directions as they otherwise would be expected to do.
40333205
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
Scientists have discovered a new smell, but you may have to go to a laboratory to experience it yourself. The smell is dubbed "olfactory white," because it is the nasal equivalent of white noise, researchers report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Just as white noise is a mixture of many different sound frequencies and white light is a mixture of many different wavelengths, olfactory white is a mixture of many different smells. In a series of experiments, they exposed participants to hundreds of equally mixed smells, and what they discovered is that our brains treat smells as a single unit, not as a mixture of compounds to break down, analyze and put back together again.. The web site LiveScience talks about it here.
35175305
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
No data storage medium seems to last long before becoming obsolete. This has become an issue for the builders of nuclear waste repositories, who are trying to preserve records of what they've buried and where, not for a few years but for tens of thousands of years. The solution may be a sapphire disk inside which information is engraved using platinum. The prototype costs around $30,493 to make, but Patrick Charton of the French nuclear waste management agency ANDRA says it will survive for a million years. The aim, Charton says, is to provide 'information for future archaeologists.' But, he concedes: 'We have no idea what language to write it in.'
35018941
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
From famed scientist Stephan Wolfram — 'The announcement early yesterday morning of experimental evidence for what’s presumably the Higgs particle brings a certain closure to a story I’ve watched (and sometimes been a part of) for nearly 40 years. In some ways I felt like a teenager again. Hearing about a new particle being discovered. And asking the same questions I would have asked at age 15.' In this article, Wolfram Wolfram describes the Higgs mechanism in more detail than I've seen elsewhere. — Frosty P.
34131577
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
According to Eric Raymond, 'RMS made an early decision to frame his advocacy as a moral crusade rather than a pragmatic argument about engineering practices and outcomes. While he made consequentialist arguments against closed source (and still does) his rhetoric and his thinking became dominated by terms like “evil”, to the point where he repeatedly alienated potential allies both with his absolutism and his demand that anyone cooperating with him share it.' Raymond goes on to say, 'By the late 1990s, after having observed RMS’s behavior for more than a decade, I had long since concluded that the Free Software Foundation’s moralistic rhetoric was serving us badly. The problem with it is the same problem with messianic religions in general; for people who are not flipped into true-believer mode by any given one, it will come off as at best creepy and insular, at worst nutty and potentially dangerous (and this remains true even for people attached to a different messianic religion).'
33632121
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
According to technology journalist Mark Stephens (also known as I, Cringely), 'there is a 90 percent chance of a large earthquake in the minimum three years required to remove just the most unstable part of the fuel load at Fukushima Daiichi. The probability of a large earthquake in the 10+ years required to completely defuel the plant is virtually 100 percent. If a big earthquake happens before that fuel is gone there will be global environmental catastrophe with many deaths.'
29434797
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
The NSA recently declassified some amazing letters that John Nash sent to it in 1955. It seems that around the year 1950 Nash tried to interest some US security organs (the NSA itself was only formally formed only in 1952) in an encryption machine of his design. In the letters, Nash proposes that security of encryption be based on computational hardness, focusing on the distinction between polynomial time and exponential time computation — this is exactly the transformation to modern cryptography made two decades.
29219805
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
The USAF is considering buying up 18,000 iPad tablet computers as electronic flight bags for its air crews. In a notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command office says it is specifically interested in purchasing the iPad 2, but will also consider other brand-name tablet devices. The tablets will be used as electronic flight bags for flight crew members and trainers, replacing manuals and navigation charts currently used by US Air Force aviators that can weigh as much as 40 pounds.
27758114
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
State leaders have ordered that four fluid-injection wells ("fracking") in eastern Ohio will be indefinitely prohibited from opening in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area, an official said. A 4.0-magnitude quake struck Saturday afternoon near several wells that use "fracking" the release oil deposits. It was the 11th in a series of minor earthquakes in the area.
24741406
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
After weeks of waiting, an American researcher who suffered a suspected stroke while working at the Amundsen-Scott research station in Antarctica has arrived in New Zealand for evaluation and treatment, a National Science Foundation official confirmed Monday. Renee-Nicole Douceur, 58, fell ill on August 27. She had been unable to leave to receive treatment because weather and storms prevent planes from landing during the region's winter period. The U.S. Air Force C-17 carrying Douceur landed in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Monday morning, Deborah Wing of the National Science Foundation said. The USAF C-17s are now capable of landing in Antarctica with NVGs, but Amundsen-Scott runway conditions often restrict the flight to C-130's equipped to land in the snow.
23331856
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
In recent years, the NYPD has become one of the country's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. An investigation by The Associated Press has revealed that the NYPD operates with help from the CIA far outside its borders without the knowledge of local authorities or the FBI, targeting ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government, and blurring the bright line between foreign and domestic spying.
23216068
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
HP, once known as an innovative technology company with the highest quality engineering and manufacturing standards, and now known for what? Overpriced printer ink and poorly designed and constructed consumer technology? HP has announced that they are spinning off their PC business and killing off the Web tablet they launched only a month ago. This comes a year after HP spent $1.2 billion buying Palm and its webOS business, so HP could have its own operating system and build its own developer ecosystem, instead of using Windows. But from a distance it looks like more wild directional changes at a storied company that has lurched back and forth in search of a strategy under a series of challenged chief executives.
21829508
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the Tampa Greyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow. The TSA has conducted 8,000 of these security sweeps across the country in the past year alone, TSA chief John Pistole told a Senate committee June 14. They are part of its VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) program, which targets public transit related places. The TSA clearly intends for these out-of-nowhere swarms by its officers at community transit centers, bus stops and public events to become a routine and accepted part of American life. Not entirely unlike Hitler's SA...
21066610
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
Congressional leaders have agreed on a tentative deal that would extend the Patriot Act for four years. The deal to extend the expiring law was sealed today by Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to senior Democratic and Republican sources. The move would largely take the issue off the table for the next election by extending the law well beyond November 2012.
20590168
submission
Frosty Piss writes:
Superman is no longer an American. In Action Comics’ new record-breaking 900th issue, the iconic super hero renounces his U.S citizenship following a clash with the federal government. The Man of Steel, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938, has always been recognized as a devoted American warrior who constantly fought evil, but as of Thursday, he is no longer the country's own to claim. No word yet if Superman will change his red and blue suit, or his longtime motto "truth, justice and the American way" — but the landmark issue is certainly sparking controversy.
