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Comment Re:What was the "huge mistake" by Anand? (Score 2) 131

The players were interviewed after the game. The "blunder" was discussed. My impression was (from what both Anand and Carlsen said in the interview) was that the natural move Bf1 was insufficient, so without much consideration Anand chose the alternative Nf1. Since he did analyze Bf1 as insufficient, and Nf1 was the only alternative, and time on his clock is a factor this IMHO is not a blunder. There were only two moves in the position, Nf1 and Bf1. After Nf1, the game is lost for white, even against a fairly weak player (computer put it at around -7 pawns). After Bf1 it was probably still lost against Carlsen (computer put it at nearly -1 pawn). I think his error was allowing the protected passer at b3. In one of the interviews, Anand said it right, "in a bad position, all moves are bad".

Science

Colliding Particles Can Make Black Holes After All 269

cremeglace writes with this excerpt from ScienceNOW: "You've heard the controversy. Particle physicists predict the world's new highest-energy atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, might create tiny black holes, which they say would be a fantastic discovery. Some doomsayers fear those black holes might gobble up the Earth — physicists say that's impossible — and have petitioned the United Nations to stop the $5.5 billion LHC. Curiously, though, nobody had ever shown that the prevailing theory of gravity, Einstein's theory of general relativity, actually predicts that a black hole can be made this way. Now a computer model shows conclusively for the first time that a particle collision really can make a black hole." That said, they estimate the required energy for creating a black hole this way to be roughly "a quintillion times higher than the LHC's maximum"; though if one of the theories requiring compact extra dimensions is true, the energy could be lower.
Mars

Mars Images Reveal Evidence of Ancient Lakes 128

Matt_dk writes "Spectacular satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface, according to research published today in the journal Geology. Earlier research had suggested that Mars had a warm and wet early history but that between 4 billion and 3.8 billion years ago, before the Hesperian Epoch, the planet lost most of its atmosphere and became cold and dry. In the new study, the researchers analysed detailed images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is currently circling the red planet, and concluded that there were later episodes where Mars experienced warm and wet periods."

Comment Illuminati Alert! (Score 1) 347

Someone needs to watch the back of them antimatter-collecting scientists, we don't need no pope wannabe's trying to blow up The Vatican.
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Recently enjoyed the "Angels and Demons" movie. It had some rocket-takeoff-countdown-esq video sequences of the supposed(realistic???) powerup of CERN. Interesting q&a on antimatter at: http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/Spotlight/SpotlightAandD-en.html

Comment I look forward to upgrading... (Score 2) 408

Don't laugh.

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This is serous. I feel like I'm baring my soul here... Please don't laugh.
. My laptop is a (ne)state-of-the-art Gateway Solo, original price $6500.00 with a 14.4" monitor, video/aux, and dual batteries long dead. It boots fast to either Windows 98, OS/2 Warp, or Linux. It is about 12 years old now. Its main limiting factor is the relatively slow speed of my typing and it's lack of battery power.
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My home desktop is a Dell P4 running XP at 2.66GhZ, 1G ram, $800 from the outlet store, only 7 or 8 years years old. It's main limiting factor is the relatively slow speed of it's cable internet connection. Its relatively small (low GiGage) hard drive 30G, and 17" CRT are Screaming to be replaced and for the cost to replace them all, might as well replace the whole ball and get Windows 7.
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My work desktop, about a year old, with dual CPU's, often responds slower than both my Ancient Ones. Its main limiting factor is virus scanners and other enterprise required molassesware.
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My work laptop is a screaming fast Dell whose main limitation is me having to log into it with about 3 passwords and a fingerscan. Reminds me of all the walls in the old Get Smart series. Oh yeah, If I don't type on it for a minute, I get to reauthenticate fingerscan and 3 password challenges.
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If I were to pick an upgrade that would improve my experience the most hardware-wise it would 1st be more resolution plus bigger monitors and faster input devices as yet un-invented or un-unveiled.
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I think my next PC will be either a Mac or some kind of as yet un-unveiled super phone.... Soon as my Gateway Solo dies or I hit the lottery!

Comment Just walk away. (Score 1) 221

The problem as I see it is that the Earth is going around the sun carrying a bunch of space junk with it. This space junk make it miserable for people who want to shoot more stuff into space. Therefore, all we have to do is get all our buddies together ( the moon and other satellites we want to keep), then just stop orbitting the sun for about 4 hours (distance to the moon/helocentric velocity). Then we should be in a nice clean portion of the orbit. Usually, it is heck of alot easier to litter and walk away than it is to pick it up and put it in the trash bin. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+to+moon+%2F+speed+of+earth+orbit

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