Comment Re:Torrents (Score 1) 302
Lots and lots of torrents from the empornium.
I'll DL and have a look!
Comment Re:flicker crashes (Score 3, Interesting) 303
In SoCal, we have LED traffic lights everywhere.
In Québec we have them pretty much everywhere too. Sometimes when the snow is just the right consistency and falls in the right direction, it sticks to the traffic lights lenses, obscuring them. In the past, the heat generated by the incandescent bulbs would melt the snow, but the new LED lights don't produce enough heat. A city worker has to remove the snow with a kind of small broom attached to a long pole.
Two steps forward, one step back...
Nobel Winner Says Internet Might Have Stopped Hitler 290
There can be little doubt that the internet has changed everyday life for the better, but Nobel literature prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio has upped the ante by saying an earlier introduction of information technology could even have prevented World War II. "Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler's criminal plot would not have succeeded — ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day," he said. I have to agree with him. If England had been able to send a "Stop Hitler Now!" petition to 10 friendly countries, those countries could have each sent it to 10 more friendly countries before the invasion of Poland, and one of history's greatest tragedies might have been averted.
Linux Kernel Booting On the iPhone 115
mhm was one of many readers to note that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to the iPhone.
"Planetbeing, one of the iPhone devteam members, has been working on porting Linux to the iPhone (along with a custom bootloader called OpeniBoot). Today they managed to boot the kernel! Video showing the boot process has been posted. Instructions and binaries are available on the project blog."
14-Year-Old Turns Tram System Into Personal Train Set 380
F-3582 writes "By modifying a TV remote a 14-year-old boy from Lodz, Poland, managed to gain control over the junctions of the tracks. According to The Register the boy had 'trespassed in tram depots to gather information needed to build the device. [...] Transport command and control systems are commonly designed by engineers with little exposure or knowledge about security using commodity electronics and a little native wit.' Four trams derailed in the process injuring a number of passengers. The boy is now looking at 'charges at a special juvenile court of endangering public safety.'"
Submission + - Porn Industry Warms Up to Blu-ray
An anonymous reader writes: Just when you thought it was safe to buy an HD DVD player, the adult video industry has capitulated to Blu-ray. Digital Playground (DP), a technology trend-setter in the porn business, will ship its first Blu-ray title in a couple of weeks. The move augurs well for the high-def DVD format, which seemed all but dead in the influential porn world just one year ago. That's when DP dropped Blu-ray in favor of HD DVD. Having first embraced Blu-ray for its superior capacity and alleged content security, DP decided at the last hour to go with HD DVD instead and released its first four titles early this year. So why go with Blu-ray? DP founder Joone explains, "A lot of people were emailing that bought a PlayStation and they were basically saying, 'When are you guys going to release Blu-ray?'"
Submission + - Time Travel to a Parallel Universe: A Reality, Acc (associatedcontent.com)
greasyguide writes: "According to Oxford Scientists, parallel universes really do exist. Many scientists argue that time travel undermines the idea of cause and effect to create paradoxes. According to David Deutsch at Oxford, the existence of parallel worlds offers a way around these paradoxes. In a recent article in New Scientist, parallel universe make quantum sense to many modern day physicists. Andy Albrecht at the University of California at Davis, calls this as one of the most important works in scientific history.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/458816/time_travel_to_a_parallel_universe.html"
Submission + - Chernobyl Mushrooms Feeding on Radiation
cowtamer writes: According to a National Geographic Article certain fungi can use ionizing radiation to perform "radiosynthesis" using the pigment melanin (the same one in our skin that protects us from UV radiation). It is speculated that this might be useful on long space voyages where energy from the Sun is not readily available.
Smarter Teens Have Less Sex 1285
Tech.Luver writes "Gene Expression reports,
"Tyler Cowen quotes from a new study testing the relationship between grades and delayed sexual activity.
Last December I passed a paper along to Razib showing that high-school age adolescents with higher IQs and extremely low IQs were less likely to have had first intercourse than those with average to below average intelligence. (i.e. for males with IQs under 70, 63.3% were still virgins, for those with IQs between 70-90 only 50.2% were virgin, 58.6% were virgins with IQs between 90-110, and 70.3% with IQs over 110 were virgins)
In fact, a more detailed study from 2000 is devoted strictly to this topic, and finds the same thing: Smart Teens Don't Have Sex (or Kiss Much Either). ""
Submission + - Reprieve for Internet Radio (wired.com)
Bourbon Man writes: At today's Congressional hearing about the new rates for online radio that would essentially destroy it, SoundExchange, which was scheduled to receive the new royalty payments on Monday morning made a startling statement.
The SoundExchange executive [Jon Simson, executive director] promised — in front of Congress — that SoundExchange will not enforce the new royalty rates. Webcasters will stay online, as new rates are hammered out.
The SoundExchange executive [Jon Simson, executive director] promised — in front of Congress — that SoundExchange will not enforce the new royalty rates. Webcasters will stay online, as new rates are hammered out.
Submission + - Ginormous is officially a word (fresnobee.com)
oatec writes: It's no longer slang, along with a list of 100 other words being added to Merriam-Webster. Can you hear a news anchor using "Ginormous" in a sentence and not being laughed off the set?
Submission + - Ipod + Lightning = bad combination (citynews.ca)
billmcc writes: Canadian Media is warning the masses that using an iPod in a lightning storm may be hazardous to your health...if you are struck. FTA: "Once electricity contacts the iPod, then the metal will conduct the electricity and can cause secondary burns as this gentleman had to his chest underneath where the iPod was and up where the wires went up into his ears and possibly even cause enough muscle contraction that either caused the jaw fracture or perhaps he fell forward onto his jaw," she said.
Submission + - US Temperature measurement errors? (norcalblogs.com)
Natros writes: "A data set is only as reliable as the instrumentation used to collect the data. One of the important data sets in the climate change field is the system of NOAA/NWS climate monitoring stations. The cumulative data from these stations shows warming trends nationwide. But what if the data from these stations is suspect? This blog has been documenting problems with weather station placement and maintenance that makes the data collected from some of these stations quite questionable. Among the most egregious errors: placing the station in the midst of A/C exhausts, and stations surrounded by asphalt parking lots.
Whatever your position on the question of climate change, I think we can all agree that accurate measurement and reporting should be a priority of good science."
Submission + - Self-Centered Cultures Narrow Your Viewpoint (eurekalert.org)
InvisblePinkUnicorn writes: "NewScientist reports on research indicating that people from Western cultures such as the US are particularly challenged in their ability to understand someone else's point of view because they are part of a culture that encourages individualism. In the experiment, Chinese students outperformed their US counterparts when ask to infer another person's perspective. Volunteers had to follow the instructions of a director and move named objects from one compartment to another. But sometimes the researchers placed two objects of the same kind (eg, "wooden block") in the grid. 95% of Chinese students would immediately understand which object to move — the one visible to both them and the director. Their US counterparts, however, did not always catch on — only 35% understood what to do."
Submission + - Canadian Piracy Claims Debunked (michaelgeist.ca)
Steve writes: "Law professor Michael Geist and filmmaker Daniel Albahary have just released an excellent film called "Putting Canadian 'Piracy' in Perspective." It does a great job of debunking the claims that piracy is rampant in Canada, and demonstrates that these claims are little more than scare tactics and straw-man arguments from corporate and government interests looking to change Canadian law to their benefit."
