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Comment Re:I use Zim plus Dropbox (Score 2) 133

Unfortunately, there is no smartphone version of Zim, but I have little need for a smartpone app of this sort. I do email myself info as needed to integrate into Zim later.

Actually, Zim exists for the N900 -- in fact, I first heard about it that way. Or is it not considered a smartphone if it doesn't run Android or iOS? :P

Science

Submission + - Comet Pan-STARRS Is Closest to Sun Today: Visible to the Naked Eye (?) (space.com)

dovf writes: NASA, via Space.com, reports that comet Pan-STARRS "makes its closest approach to the sun and will be at its brightest at sunset tonight, but the glare of twilight may make it tricky to see." The Bad Astronomer, who also reported on this a few days ago, has this warning to give: "I don’t want to discourage anyone from trying to find it; I’m just trying to be honest here...you really will need binoculars to see it"; but goes on to say that he himself, of course, "will be out every sunset looking for it."

Submission + - Flabbergasting quantum refrigerator like 'window A/C for Lincoln Memorial' (scienceblog.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a solid-state refrigerator that uses quantum physics in micro- and nanostructures to cool an object a million times heavier than itself to extremely low temperatures. What’s more, the gadget, which measures a few inches in outer dimensions, lets researchers place any object in the cooling zone and later remove and replace it, similar to an all-purpose kitchen refrigerator. “It’s one of the most flabbergasting results I’ve seen,” project leader Joel Ullom says.

Submission + - SXSW: How Mobile Devices Are Changing Africa (slashdot.org)

Nerval's Lobster writes: "Mobile phones are kicking off a revolution in Africa, with everyone from farmers to villagers relying on apps to make electronic payments, check on expiration dates for medicine, and predict future storms or the best prices for produce. In a SXSW session titled “The $100bn Mobile Bullet Train Called Africa” (which would also be a pretty good name for one of the indie films playing at this massive convention), Tech4Africa founder Gareth Knight explained the contours of this revolution. According to Shapshak, more kids in Africa have access to the Internet than consistent electricity. Nobody owns a PC or can access a fixed-line telephone, so mobile phones are a conduit for everything from email to news to making payments via SMS. Many people on the continent also own phones equipped with flashlights and radios—“Radios are the killer app in Africa,” Shapshak said—and the percentage of the population equipped with mobile devices is primed to explode over the next few years. Many of the mobile devices used in Africa aren’t cutting-edge, and SMS-based platforms are a necessity when it comes to sharing information. “SMS is so fantastic because it gets to every device everywhere,” Shapshak said. “SMS has a 100 percent read rate; you read every SMS you get.” Here’s how a typical SMS platform might work: someone purchasing a box of malaria medicine could send the barcode information to a text number, which would send back an SMS message identifying the drug as real or counterfeit. Famers and other food-producers can receive SMS messages about the best ways to handle pests, for example, or take care of their cows."
Science

Submission + - Huge Meteor Blazes Across Sky Over Russia; Sonic Boom Shatters Windows (slate.com) 1

dovf writes: The Bad Astronomer analyzes incoming reports about the aparent meteoric explosion over Russia: "Apparently, at about 09:30 local time, a very big meteor burned up over Chelyabinsk, a city in Russia just east of the Ural mountains, and about 1500 kilometers east of Moscow. The fireball was incredibly bright, rivaling the Sun! There was a pretty big sonic boom from the fireball, which set off car alarms and shattered windows. I’m seeing some reports of many people injured (by shattered glass blown out by the shock wave). I’m also seeing reports that some pieces have fallen to the ground, but again as I write this those are unconfirmed." This is the best summary I've found so far, and links to lots of videos and images. He also clarifies something I've been wondering about: "This is almost certainly unrelated to the asteroid 2012 DA14 that will pass on Friday. See below for details."

Comment Would this have been visible without Night Vision? (Score 2) 116

Anyone who's ever gone looking for meteors knows the feeling: the people you're with see a great one just as you were looking the other way --- it's almost part of the fun ;) --- so I agree that I don't find this very newsworthy... However, I'm also wondering how much the fact that this was being shot with a Night Vision camera (as the caption on the bottom left seems to imply?) would have affected the visibility of the meteor; in other words, even if the reporter had been looking straight at the meteor, would he have seen it with the naked eye?

Comment Re:32 years? (Score 1) 198

Off the top of my hand, a Git feature for which I don't know a Mercurial equivalent -- git-cherry-pick. Want to rewrite history a bit? Create a new branch from sometime before the commits you want to change, then cherry-pick (point-and-click simple in gitk) the commits you want, in the order you want, ignoring the ones you don't. When you're ready, clobber master with your new branch.

hg transplant

I mean, quilt (hg mq) is cool and all, but how easy is it to rewrite history if you weren't in a quilt to begin with?

hg qimport has a '-r' option which allows you to "place existing revisions under mq control" (from hg help qimport)

Comment Re:One state solution (Score 1) 644

> Why is evacuation of Israeli colonies in the West Bank unrealistic? Israel evacuated their colonies in Gaza,

Because what Israel got in return for its withdrawal from Gaza is that the evacuated area (the entire Gaza strip) was used as a base for increased terrorism against it; because through the border between Egypt and Gaza, from which Israel also withdrew, hundreds of rockets were smuggled into Gaza and then fired at Israeli cities; because after having gradually withdrawn much of its military from the West Bank after the Oslo accords in the 1990s, Israel was finally forced to return its military there in order to halt rampant Palestinian terrorism which resulted in 1000 Israeli *civilian* deaths, in Israeli cities, after September 2000.

So now tell me, if *you* were Israeli, would you support the withdrawal from more area?

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