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Comment Not there yet! (Score 4, Informative) 118

by FoolishBluntman (#45097689) Attached to: Fusion "Breakthrough" At National Ignition Facility? Not So Fast
The headline states, "the amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel".

This is not enough, they must be able to capture that energy and use it to produce the next laser implosion of the fuel.
That will be a milestone.

Also, since this is using a Deuterium-Tritium Fuel it produces very high energy neutrons which will help destroy the reactor much faster than in conventional fission reactions.

Submission + - The Prisoners (youtube.com)

Submitted by stevegugun
stevegugun writes: How far would you go to protect your family? Keller Dover is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki arrests its driver, Alex Jones, but a lack of evidence forces his release. As the police pursue multiple leads and pressure mounts, knowing his child's life is at stake the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this....

Submission + - Harrison Ford Discusses Involvment in Blade Runner Sequel (bladerunner-2.com) 2

Submitted by DevotedDomains
DevotedDomains writes: In a recent interview, Harrison Ford discussed his possible involvement in the Ridley Scott directed sequel to Blade Runner. For the first time Ford actually confirmed that he had been in discussions about the Blade Runner sequel. Ford was asked if he would be interested in participating in the sequel if the script was right? To which he replied "Ummm yeah, we've been chatting about it yeah."

Submission + - TEPCO workers remove wrong pipe, splashed with highly radioactive water. (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A day after TEPCO workers mistakenly turned off cooling pumps serving the spent pool at reactor #4 at the crippled nuclear plant comes a new accident — 6 workers apparently removed the wrong pipe *(Huffpo) from a primary filtration system and were doused with highly radioactive water.

They were wearing protection yet such continuing mishaps and "small mistakes" are becoming a pattern at the facility. Some suggest the mistakes are a result of low morale among workers and with potential consequences for such mistakes in the extreme, at what threshold must the Japanese government step in to ensure safe operations? Are larger disasters*(RT news) still quite possible at Fukushima?

Submission + - Two-laser boron fusion lights the way to radiation-free energy (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Fusion unleashes vast amounts of energy that might one day be used to power giant electrical grids. But the laboratory systems that seem most promising produce radiation in the form of fast-moving neutrons, and these present a health hazard that requires heavy shielding and even degrades the walls of the fusion reactor. Physicists have now produced fusion at an accelerated rate in the laboratory without generating harmful neutrons. A team led by Christine Labaune, research director of the CNRS Laboratory for the Use of Intense Lasers at the Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France, used a two-laser system to fuse protons and boron-11 nuclei. One laser created a short-lived plasma, or highly ionized gas of boron nuclei, by heating boron atoms; the other laser generated a beam of protons that smashed into the boron nuclei, releasing slow-moving helium particles but no neutrons. Previous laser experiments that generated boron fusion aimed the laser at a boron target to initiate the reaction. In the new experiment, the laser-generated proton beam produces a tenfold increase of boron fusion because protons and boron nuclei are instead collided together directly.

Submission + - Honda Pulls a Steve Jobs: Ships Car With No Transmission (greencarreports.com)

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Steve Jobs simply removed features he thought users didn't need in the name of efficiency. But those removed features better be non-essential right? Can a car work with no transmission? Turns out, the answer is yes—if it's a new kind of hybrid. Honda's 2014 Accord Hybrid has no conventional automatic transmission, no automated dual-clutch system, and no belt-and-pulley continuously variable transmission either. There's also no torque converter or even a drive clutch to slip the engine from a standing start. Okay, so how does the thing drive? Four gearsets sit between the electric and gas power sources and the front wheels, but all those drive ratios are fixed. Add in some sophisticated controls and a small clutch pack to engage the engine and the powertrain provides three propulsion modes: electric, gas, and and blended — all without shifting any gears. The main reason for all the effort? Efficiency. Honda claims its direct-driver has 46 to 80 percent less friction than a conventional automatic, depending on the drive mode. As for the name – "Two-motor Sport Hybrid Intelligent Multi Mode Drive/Plug-in" – well, that's one thing we don't think Steve Jobs would have approved of.

Submission + - 5 ridiculous tech fees you're still paying

Submitted by Esther Schindler
Esther Schindler writes: None of us like to spend money (except on shiny new toys). But even we curmudgeons can understand that companies need to charge for things that cost them money; and profit-making is at the heart of our economy.

Still, several charges appear on our bills that can drive even the most complacent techie into a screaming fit. How did this advertised price turn into that much on the final bill? Why are they charging for it in the first place? Herewith, five fees that make no sense at all — and yet we still fork over money for them.

For example: "While Internet access is free in coffee shops, some public transit, and even campsites, as of 2009 15% of hotels charged guests for the privilege of checking their e-mail and catching up on watching cat videos. Oddly, budget and midscale hotel chains are more likely to offer free Wi-Fi, while luxurious hotels — already costing the traveler more — regularly ding us."

Submission + - Valve announces their Steam Machine Prototype Specs (steamcommunity.com)

Submitted by M0USER
M0USER writes: Here are the specifications for Valve's 300 prototypes.

The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high

Submission + - SteamBox Prototypes Use Intel CPU, NVIDIA GPUs (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Valve has revealed their first Steam Machines prototype details. The first 300 Steam Machine prototypes to ship will use various high-end Intel CPus and NVIDIA GPUs while running their custom SteamOS Linux operating system. The Intel Haswell CPU + NVIDIA GPU combination should work well on Linux with the binary drivers and using a range of CPU/GPUs in the prototypes will allow them to better gauge the performance and effectiveness. Valve also stated they will be releasing the CAD design files to their custom living room console enclosure for those to reproduce.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Time to Regulate Domestic Drones? (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Earlier this week, a small helicopter drone tumbled out of the sky over midtown Manhattan, crashing to the sidewalk near Grand Central Station. On the way down it almost hit a businessman, who plucked out the video card from the wreckage and handed it over to a local television-news station. In the video, the drone (a Phantom Quadcopter) lifts off from what looks like an apartment terrace and buzzes its merry way toward some nearby skyscrapers, pausing for a few panoramic surveys of the Manhattan skyline. But the operator is clearly inexperienced, crashing the vehicle against the side of a building, and the flight lasts a mere three minutes before a final collision sends it to the street. Drone enthusiasts and engineers blamed the Quadcopter’s poor performance on the pilot’s possible reliance on GPS mode; when flying in an area crowded with tall buildings (and they don’t get much taller or more crowded than in Manhattan) that block GPS signals, a vehicle can quickly think it’s off-target and attempt to correct, leading to crashes. In theory, the FAA forbids the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles over crowded areas such as Manhattan, but that hasn’t stopped any number of hobbyists from launching drones. And hobbyists aside, the industry for commercial drones is picking up: over the summer, the FAA approved a pair of small, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for flight, and Airware (which builds autopilot computers for drones) recently accepted funding from Google Ventures. That's led legislators to begin exploring ways to regulate domestic drone use (particularly with regard to use by law enforcement), and it begs the question: should drones be regulated? And if so, how?

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