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Comment Re:All-Male Cast? (Score 1) 201

Consequences of pregnancy. It is highly likely that any long term space mission would be single sex. A pregnant astronaut is just as much of an issue as a dead astronaut on a mission to Mars. Sure there are contraceptives/surgery, but life has found a way in past, and it simply wouldn't be worth the risk. In addition going beyond the phsyical having a mixed crew for such a long duration introduces even more potential psychological factors that can result in failure of the mission.
Image

DSL Installation Fail 371

An anonymous reader writes "Here's an example of fine Qwest workmanship. In our business park, they just installed a DSL connection for our neighbors, for which we share an exterior utility space. They left: a DSL modem stuffed in a cardboard box, wrapped in a Wal-Mart bag, sitting outside in what will be below-zero (F) temps, on top of a bank of ten natural gas meters in some of the driest air of the year. They also left it plugged into an exposed exterior power outlet above a snowbank, with network cables running around the building, through snowbanks, coupled and protected by zip-lock baggies, and into our neighbors office. Not to mention the hack-job of patching the phone cable directly into the demarcation box. And if you're wondering — I was told upon calling them that this is not their problem, and I need to contact my primary phone service provider."
Cellphones

BlackBerry Services To Be Halted In UAE 134

WrongSizeGlass writes "Bloomberg is reporting RIM's BlackBerry Messenger, e-mail and Web browsing services will be suspended in the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East's business hub, starting October 11th due to security concerns. RIM faces similar restrictions in India. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement on state-run Emirates News Agency, 'In their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE.' A senior Indian government official said, 'Though RIM has been fully cooperating ever since the matter was taken up with it in 2008, reports of the company's move to set up a server in China forced us to look at it in a different way.'"
Idle

ThinkGeek's Best Ever Cease-and-Desist Letter 264

ThinkGeek, sister company to Slashdot, received a meticulously researched (except on one point) 12-page cease-and-desist letter from the National Pork Board. What had the meat lobbyists up in arms was an April Fools product from the TG catalog: Radiant Farms Canned Unicorn Meat, whose copy included the line "the new white meat." The NPB figured this was confusingly similar to their trademarked "the other white meat" (an advertising slogan the pork industry is considering retiring anyway). Geeknet, parent company of Thinkgeek and Slashdot, issued a press release apologizing for any confusion; you can read it on ThinkGeek's site (PDF), because the newswires refused to distribute it for some reason. Oh, and ThinkGeek has no intention of taking down the protected parody.

Comment Re:Maybe I'm a little unique.. (Score 2, Insightful) 572

Damn I wish I could mod you, as that is exactly what I do. I download almost exclusively TV shows as they air as "scheduled" TV simply doesn't work for me at all (nor paying hundreds of dollars a month in cable costs appeal to me for the few shows I watch) However after the fact I often purchase those seasons on DvD. Movies I don't bother with so much anymore, and games/software have bloated to such a massive size (often 10's of gigabytes) that it's more convenient just to go buy it!
Books

Neuromancer Movie In Your Future? 239

An anonymous reader pointed out a link talking about how Vincenzo Natali, writer/director of Splice, has written a screenplay for Neuromancer. The article says he even ran it by Gibson. No studio is attached to the project, but at least Natali promised "No Keanu."
NASA

Atlantis Blasts Off On Final Mission 143

shuz writes "Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off today on its STS-132 mission to the International Space Station — the final flight for the venerable vehicle. The mission involves three spacewalks over 12 days (PDF), during which the team will replace six batteries on the port truss which store energy from solar panels on that truss, bolt on a spare space-to-ground Ku-band antenna, and attach a new tool platform to Canada's Dextre robotic arm." NASA has video of the historic launch and reader janek78 adds this quote from the mission summary: "Atlantis lifted off on its maiden voyage on Oct. 3, 1985, on mission 51-J. Later missions included the launch of the Magellan probe to Venus on STS-30 in May 1989, Galileo interplanetary probe to Jupiter on STS-34 in October 1989, the first shuttle docking to the Mir Space Station on STS-71 in June1995, and the final Hubble servicing mission on STS-125 in May 2009."

Comment Re:Cocaine (Score 3, Informative) 103

Well I posted this as a joke, as I think that while you can find cocaine/drug residue on a large percentage of money in circulation, the actual amount is so low there is no way it could have an actual effect. Kinda like smoking Hemp to get high. You'd die of smoke inhalation before you even got a buzz.

Comment Re:Not surprising (Score 1) 394

No, but stem cells to the the average joe have achieved a similar status as nuclear power. AKA while there is are perfectly safe(nuclear) and morally fine (stem cells) way, they both suffer from their earlier associates. After all, ask yourself whats the first thing that comes to mind when you say stem cells? Usually it's the embryo controversy.
It's funny.  Laugh.

Southwest Declares Kevin Smith Too Fat To Fly 940

theodp writes "Kevin Smith is not a happy Southwest customer. The director was thrown off a flight from Oakland to Burbank, after being deemed too fat to fly. He later wound up on another Southwest flight, but has declared It's On and taken his rants to Twitter. 'Dear @SouthwestAir — I know I'm fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?' he began. He also let the airline know he'd made it to his destination. 'Hey @SouthwestAir! I've landed in Burbank. Don't worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.'"
Idle

Directed Energy Weapon Downs Mosquitos 428

wisebabo writes "Nathan Myhrvol demonstrated at TED a laser, built from parts scrounged from eBay, capable of shooting down not one but 50 to 100 mosquitos a second. The system is 'so precise that it can specify the species, and even the gender, of the mosquito being targeted.' Currently, for the sake of efficiency, it leaves the males alone because only females are bloodsuckers. Best of all the system could cost as little as $50. Maybe that's too expensive for use in preventing malaria in Africa but I'd buy one in a second!" We ran a story about this last year. It looks like the company has added a bit more polish, and burning mosquito footage to their marketing.

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