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Apple

Submission + - Apple kills Xserve server line (cio.com.au)

Submitted by CapricaStar
CapricaStar writes: Apple has said it will stop selling its Xserve rack servers early next year, killing a product that has traditionally sold in low quantities.
Earth

Submission + - Researchers Race to Recover Radioactive Rabbits

Submitted by
Ponca City
Ponca City writes: "The Tri-City Herald reports that radioactive rabbit droppings were recently found near the old Hanford Nuclear Site in southeast Washington that produced nuclear materials for 40 years and is now being decontaminated. The Department of Health looks for contamination off-site to make sure there is no public hazard and a rabbit trapped at the 300 Area caught the their attention because it was close enough to the site's boundaries to potentially come in contact with the public — such as if it had been caught by a dog or if its droppings were deposited in an area open to the public. Joe Franco, an assistant manager for the Department of Energy, said workers erected fences, removed potential food sources and even sprayed the scent of a predator around the perimeter to prevent any other rabbit contamination and the Department of Energy said only one of 18 rabbits surveyed were deemed contaminated. Researchers narrowed the area of possible contamination to the 327 Building used during the Cold War for testing highly radioactive materials, particularly fuel elements and cladding that were irradiated at Hanford reactors as part of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear weapons program. Because the number of contaminated droppings being discovered on-site has decreased, officials now believe it's possible that just one rabbit might have been contaminated and they now are finding old droppings from it. One theory is that the rabbit might have been sipping water that collected in the building's basement after water was sprayed during demolition to suppress dust. "While this does not pose a worker safety or public health issue, we take our responsibility to prevent the spread of contamination seriously," said Franco. In 2009, personnel at the Hanford site handled 26,000 animal control requests. Records for the same year indicate 33 contaminated animals or animal-related materials were discovered."

Comment The Immaculate Conception isn't Jesus... (Score -1, Redundant) 478

by THE anonymus coward (#34120650) Attached to: Immaculate Conception In a Boa Constrictor

The Immaculate Conception is Mary's (Jesus' mother) conception. Catholics and Orthodox believe that she was conceived in the normal way, but God gave her a special grace to be conceived immaculately, that is without sin. Jesus' conception is known as the Incarnation, since that was God becoming Man. I know that this has nothing to do with the article, but it is so often confused and so rarely clarified, I had to speak up.
Earth

Geocentrists Convene To Discuss How Galileo Was Wrong 1027

Posted by timothy from the when-did-britain-pull-ahead dept.
rollcall writes "'Galileo Was Wrong' is an inaugural conference to discuss the 'detailed and comprehensive treatment of the scientific evidence supporting Geocentrism, the academic belief that the Earth is immobile in the center of the universe.' The geocentrists argue that 'Scientific evidence available to us within the last 100 years that was not available during Galileo's confrontation shows that the [Catholic] Church's position on the immobility of the Earth is not only scientifically supportable, but it is the most stable model of the universe and the one which best answers all the evidence we see in the cosmos.' I, like many of you, am scratching my head wondering how people still think this way. Unfortunately, there is still a significant minority of Western people who believe that the Earth is the center of the universe: 18% of Americans, 16% of Germans, and 19% of Britons." I hope there is live blogging from the conference.
Education

Discovery To Bring "Plug and Play" Micro-Lab To ISS 43

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-isn't-that-special dept.
astroengine writes "In an effort to standardize the way we do microgravity experiments, a Kentucky-based non-profit organization has developed the 'CubeLab' (a modular, miniature laboratory) that can be plugged into a rack of 15 other CubeLabs. The first set of micro-labs will be carried to the space station by the shuttle Discovery on Monday morning's launch. The CubeLab's small design allows it to be easily shipped to and from the space station, providing a faster pace of experimentation. Also, its 'plug and play' interface means installation is a breeze. Even better is the fact the CubeLabs are developed by Kentucky students, university researchers and enthusiasts. Now they've teamed up with the Houston-based NanoRacks LLC; could this be the future of space research collaboration?"
Networking

Nominum Calls Open Source DNS "a Recipe For Problems" 237

Posted by Soulskill from the dem's-fightin'-woids dept.
Raindeer writes "Commercial DNS software provider Nominum, in an effort to promote its new cloud-based DNS service, SKYE, has slandered all open source/freeware DNS packages. It said: 'Given all the nasty things that have happened this year, freeware is a recipe for problems, and it's just going to get worse. ... So, whether it's Eircom in Ireland or a Brazilian ISP that was attacked earlier this year, all of them were using some variant of freeware. Freeware is not akin to malware, but is opening up those customers to problems.' This has the DNS community fuming. Especially when you consider that Nominum was one of the companies affected by the DNS cache poisoning problem of last year, something PowerDNS, MaraDNS and DJBDNS (all open source) weren't vulnerable to."

Comment Re:Was there ever doubt? (Score 2, Insightful) 393

by THE anonymus coward (#23874257) Attached to: Probable Water Ice Sighted On Mars

Just my two cents to add...

Exploration of the next horizon is part of being human. To stop exploring would be to deny something that is fundamental to who we are. The principle of utility is a horrible metric when the objective is poorly understood....

For a long time, art made no sense to me, seemed like a waste of time, but it is an expression of human creativity and a reaching for beauty. Unless you care about seeking beauty, art doesn't make sense. Unless you care about seeking the truth of the universe, space exploration doesn't make sense.

So, the question I would pose to the grandparent is what happened to make you lose interest in exploration? Have you never been curious about what is over the next hill that you haven't seen? Because really, that is what this is all about.

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