Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror

Comment: Cernan and Schmitt covered that distance in 22 hrs (Score 3, Interesting) 92

by Ellis D. Tripp (#43751223) Attached to: Opportunity Breaks NASA's 40-Year Roving Record

, spread over 3 separate EVAs in 3 days. All of the unmanned US and Russian rovers took a lot longer to set their distance records.

If the Apollo program was allowed to continue past 17, there were plans for even longer distance surface excursions. There were even preliminary studies done for a small flying vehicle to allow the astronauts to cover even longer distances from their landing site.

Open Source

Why Is Science Behind a Paywall? 210

Posted by Soulskill
from the because-we-are-not-a-smart-species dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Priceonomics blog has a post that looks into how so much of our scientific knowledge came to be gated by current publishing models. 'The most famous of these providers is Elsevier. It is a behemoth. Every year it publishes 250,000 articles in 2,000 journals. Its 2012 revenues reached $2.7 billion. Its profits of over $1 billion account for 45% of the Reed Elsevier Group — its parent company which is the 495th largest company in the world in terms of market capitalization. Companies like Elsevier developed in the 1960s and 1970s. They bought academic journals from the non-profits and academic societies that ran them, successfully betting that they could raise prices without losing customers. Today just three publishers, Elsevier, Springer and Wiley, account for roughly 42% of all articles published in the $19 billion plus academic publishing market for science, technology, engineering, and medical topics. University libraries account for 80% of their customers.' The article also explain how moving to open access journals would help, but says it's just one step in a more significant transformation scientific research needs to undergo. It points to the open source software community as a place from which researchers should take their cues."
News

Interview: Ask John McAfee What You Will 194

Posted by samzenpus
from the straight-from-the-source dept.
John McAfee was best known as a software designer and founder of the computer anti-virus company McAfee Associates until his saga in Belize began. McAfee's works on producing natural antibiotics commercially in Belize was quickly overshadowed by police raids, murder allegations, and a month of evading Belizean authorities while maintaining his innocence. He was eventually captured and deported back to the United States in December 2012 without being charged with any crime. "Boston George" Jung (a man who has lived quite an unusual life himself) has been tapped to write McAfee's biography titled, No Domain. Now that things have mostly settled down, John has agreed to answer your questions. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.

+ - SCOTUS: Warrant Needed To Take Blood In DUI Cases ->

Submitted by Ellis D. Tripp
Ellis D. Tripp writes "In a case that could have nationwide implications in the enforcement of marijuana impaired “drugged driving” laws, the United States Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states can not routinely compel drivers to submit to a blood test in drunk driving cases without consent and without a warrant.

The ruling comes in the case of Missouri v. McNeely, originated by an arrest in October 2010 in the rural county of Cape Girardeau, Missouri."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Slashdot--several weeks behind the curve again.... (Score 1) 117

by Ellis D. Tripp (#43347159) Attached to: The RFP and IT Logistics For Washington's "Pot Czar"

Comment: "Atomic" clocks don't use radioactive decay.... (Score 3, Informative) 84

by Ellis D. Tripp (#43329645) Attached to: First Petaflop Supercomputer To Shut Down

They rely on the resonant frequency of atoms in metal vapors (Cesium or Rubidium), or the output of a hydrogen maser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_clock

Radioactive decay is a chaotic process. So chaotic that it can be used as the basis for a random number generator. Just what you DON'T want in a precise time/frequency reference.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/

Censorship

Cubans Evade Censorship By Exchanging Flash Drives 171

Posted by Soulskill
from the sneakernet-or-sneakynet dept.
concealment sends this quote from an article about evading internet censorship with the sneakernet: "Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez on Saturday told newspaper publishers from around the Western Hemisphere that 'nothing is changing' in Cuba’s ossified political system and that 'the situation of press freedom in my country is calamitous.' But Sanchez said underground blogs, digital portals and illicit e-magazines proliferate, passed around on removable computer drives known as memory sticks. The small computer memories, also known as flash drives or thumb drives, are dropped into friendly hands on buses and along street corners, offering a surprising number of Cubans access to information. 'Information circulates hand to hand through this wonderful gadget known as the memory stick,' Sanchez said, 'and it is difficult for the government to intercept them. I can't imagine that they can put a police officer on every corner to see who has a flash drive and who doesn't.'"

My pants just went to high school in the Carlsbad Caverns!!!

Close