Comment Re:In need of perspective? (Score 1) 138
I'm no astronomer, but I believe you can triangulate objects based on the earth's position around the sun.
Dead Parrot Sketch Is 1,600 Years Old 276
laejoh writes "Monty Python's 'Dead Parrot sketch' — which featured John Cleese — is some 1,600 years old.
A classic scholar has proved the point, by unearthing a Greek version of the world-famous piece.
A comedy duo called Hierocles and Philagrius told the original version, only rather than a parrot they used a slave.
It concerns a man who complains to his friend that he was sold a slave who dies in his service.
His companion replies: 'When he was with me, he never did any such thing!'
The joke was discovered in a collection of 265 jokes called Philogelos: The Laugh Addict, which dates from the fourth century AD.
Hierocles had gone to meet his maker, and Philagrius had certainly ceased to be, long before John Cleese and Michael Palin reinvented the yarn in 1969."
Engineers Use Laser Pointers To Guide Household Robots 28
The New York Times is running a story about a recently developed technique for directing the actions of household robots. Engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a robot that will fetch items for you by simply shining a laser on the desired object. Quoting:
"'The pointer gives the robot just enough context and guidance to solve the really hard problem of figuring out which object among many lying around in a room to pick up,' Professor Sukhatme said. 'People in artificial intelligence have been working on this problem for a long time.' Just pointing to an object with natural gestures usually isn't enough to direct a robot, and even when robots navigate to the right spot, it's hard for them to grasp a particular object unless, for instance, they have a three-dimensional computer model of it, Professor Kemp said. Guided by the laser pointer, though, El-E can fetch objects as varied as towels, wallets or coffee mugs with no need for elaborate computer modeling."
Submission + - First Evidence of Another Universe? 2
blamanj writes: Three months ago, astronomers announced the discovery of a large hole at the edge of our universe. Now, Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton thinks she knows what that means. (Subscription req'd at New Scientist site, there's also an overview here.) According to string theory, there are many universes besides our own. Her team says that smaller universes are positioned at the edge of our universe, and because of gravitational interactions, they can be observed, and they're willing to make a prediction. The recently discovered void is in the northern hemisphere. They contend another one will be found in the southern hemisphere.
Submission + - Russian hackers conned by job offer
An anonymous reader writes: Russian hackers are conned into a FBI interview. Suspects were lured by a job offer, but when they arrived in the USA, FBI agents were waiting to conduct an interrogation about the stolen credit card numbers of thousands.
Submission + - THE Army is testing secret technology which makes (fliiby.com)
Tamantako writes: "THE Army is testing secret technology which makes tanks and troops INVISIBLE.
The Ministry of Defence revealed yesterday that they had made a vehicle seem to completely disappear in trials last week.
Military might ... but is Land Rover alone on Salisbury Plain?
Military experts predict that vanishing tanks will be used on the battlefield by 2012.
A soldier present at the trials said last night: "This technology is absolutely incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it.
"I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees — but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."
READ more and SEE PHOTO at http://fliiby.com/file/10464/ye681vc9ur.html"
Submission + - Behind The Scenes - EMI Sues MP3tunes (michaelrobertson.com)
GuNgA-DiN writes: "From Michael Robertson's blog: "On Friday, November 9, 2007 EMI sued MP3tunes ... The legal scuffle between EMI and MP3tunes began in September 2007 when, in a letter that accused MP3tunes of a wide range of illicit actions ... The attorney didn't want to discuss [anything], and instead quickly demanded a "substantial sum for past infringement" be paid to EMI ... While the lawsuit says "EMI" I think the RIAA is advocating this legal fight as much as any individual label or entity ... By attacking the Music Locker, EMI is attacking the right to personal ownership of digital property. I believe people should be able to listen to their music anywhere they want, and on any device that suits them — this is why we buy it.""
Submission + - Print-On Solar Panels: Innovation of the Year (nanosolar.com)
nweaver writes: "Popular Science Magazine has announced its Innovation of the year, which are Nano Solar's Print on Solar Cells. Unlike conventional solar cells, these are printed onto sheets of flexible aluminum, with the company claiming a cost of $.30/W for solar cells. Nano Solar's Factory for producing mile long rolls of solar cells is almost online. The potential is staggering. Even assuming that the completed cells, in a household system, cost $2000/kW to produce, this will easily undercut electricity as even at just $.10/kwh and producing for just 8 hours per day and 300 days in a year, a solar installation with such cells would have a 12%/year return on investment. We may be only a few years away from the Solar Age."
Submission + - A new, simple unifying theory of the universe (telegraph.co.uk)
aalobode writes: In an article titled "Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything" the Times of London evaluates an article from New Scientist and reports that one Garret Lisi, a 39 year old physicist with a doctorate but no affiliation has come up with a testable theory that shows great promise. The theory's simplicity is also highlighted: needing 1 dimension of time and 3 of space as opposed to eight or more for competing theories. The theory is still being developed, and the crucial tests will be to make predictions that can be tested. String theory, one of the competing ideas, has failed to produce viable predictions. Fortunately, the Large Hadron Collider is due to come on line in Geneva in the near future and he can test his predictions there. It's always possible that beauty hides in simplicity — but the long shadow of cold fusion reminds us to take every new theory with a generous pinch of salt.
Submission + - CO2 DB - Learn How Much Your Power Plant Pollutes (ap.org)
CircleDot311 writes: "A new interactive online database unveiled Wednesday provides maps, color-coded categories and detailed information about who is putting 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually from power plants around the world — about a fourth of it from the United States.
The Web site, which includes information from 4,000 utilities and 50,000 plants, shows not only the biggest CO2 emitters, but also the facilities and companies that are most green, releasing little if any carbon.
Using an array of information filters, a user can find out how much CO2 comes from electricity plants in a particular city or county, in a congressional district, from a specific company, or an individual plant.
Dubbed the Carbon Monitoring for Action database, or CARMA (http://www.carma.org ), it proclaims itself as "the world's best place for power-plant voyeurism.""
The Web site, which includes information from 4,000 utilities and 50,000 plants, shows not only the biggest CO2 emitters, but also the facilities and companies that are most green, releasing little if any carbon.
Using an array of information filters, a user can find out how much CO2 comes from electricity plants in a particular city or county, in a congressional district, from a specific company, or an individual plant.
Dubbed the Carbon Monitoring for Action database, or CARMA (http://www.carma.org ), it proclaims itself as "the world's best place for power-plant voyeurism.""
