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Medicine

Soda Ban May Hit the Big Apple 1081

Posted by timothy
from the big-brother-controls-the-fridge dept.
An anonymous reader writes "NYC residents may soon be unable to buy big gulps. In an effort to curb obesity, New York City's Mayor Bloomberg is seeking a ban on oversized sodas in restaurants, movie theaters and stadiums officials said on Wednesday. 'Obesity is a nationwide problem, and all over the U.S., public health officials are wringing their hands saying, "Oh, this is terrible,"' Mayor Bloomberg said. 'New York City is not about wringing your hands; it's about doing something. I think that's what the public wants the mayor to do.'"

Comment: It's only Net Zero in a bubble (Score 1) 158

by EmagGeek (#40165595) Attached to: Is a "Net Zero" Data Center Possible?

There is no such thing as a net zero anything when you look at the dust-to-dust analysis. Things always cost energy.

In this case, it is only a net zero proposition when observed inside the confined bubble of the datacenter. However, when you look at the total energy expenditure, it is hopeless to try to call this a "green" solution.

Currently, it takes about 30MWh of energy to produce 1kW of full-sun solar capacity. So, their 134kW solar farm cost about 4GWh. Of course, with a 30,000 hour full-sun payback cycle, the solar farm will never produce that in its useful lifespan of 25 years, let alone with most of its energy being consumed by the datacenter.

This is not even to mention the energy cost of building the datacenter, and the things inside the datacenter, maintaining them, and then managing the waste when they are discarded.

So, no, this is not a net zero project - not by a long shot. In fact, I would venture a guess that it is actually more costly from an environmental standpoint than just building a traditional datacenter powered by electricity produced from NatGas or Nuclear, especially when adding the toxic waste emissions from producing silicon solar cells to the tremendous energy required.

Open Source

All Researchers To Be Allocated Unique IDs 164

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the you-are-number-six dept.
ananyo writes with information on a new scheme to help uniquely identify authors in the face of ambiguous names. From the article: "In 2011, Y. Wang was the world's most prolific author of scientific publications, with 3,926 to their name — a rate of more than 10 per day. Never heard of them? That's because they are a mixture of many different Y. Wangs, each indistinguishable in the scholarly record. The launch later this year of the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), an identifier system that will distinguish between authors who share the same name, could soon solve the problem, allowing research papers to be associated correctly with their true author. Instead of filling out personal details on countless electronic forms associated with submitting papers or applying for grants, a researcher could also simply type in his or her ORCID number. Various fields would be completed automatically by pulling in data from other authorized sources, such as databases of papers, citations, grants and contact details. ORCID does not intend to offer such services itself; the idea is that other organizations will use the open-access ORCID database to build their own services."

Comment: Re:Scientific Literacy is Concern over Climate Cha (Score 1) 510

by EmagGeek (#40153477) Attached to: Scientific Literacy vs. Concern Over Climate Change

I burn carbon for heating every winter, from a 100% renewable, scalable, naturally-occurring energy source. TREES.

Yep. Every year I axe a tree or two on my property, chop them, and set the wood out to season for the following year. For every tree I cut down, I plant 10-20 oak saplings in pasture land I am not using. I figure I'll cut down 30-40 trees on my property for heat before I expire, leaving behind a veritable forest in my wake.

I think you need to take a Valium and go seek out some of those fact-based papers you speak of, because you've obviously chosen to guzzle the scaremongering religious koolaid from the climate change FUD camp.

Music

Amanda Palmer raises $1M from fans for her album-> 1

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The music industry will never be the same. Singer Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer on Twitter), has just raised over $1,000,000 directly from her fans, through Twitter and other social media, to mix, promote, and distribute her new album. Armed only with a Kickstarter page, social media accounts, and a lot of friends, she has just liberated a lot of musicians from the tyranny of having to 'sign' with a big studio. I predict music business historians will be writing about this day for years to come. The "big 4" record companies just got a lot smaller."
Link to Original Source
Earth

'Eco-Anarchists' Targeting Nuclear and Nanotech Workers 415

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the ignorance-is-freedom dept.
scibri writes, quoting Nature: "A loose coalition of eco-anarchist groups is increasingly launching violent attacks on scientists. A group calling itself the Olga Cell of the Informal Anarchist Federation International Revolutionary Front has claimed responsibility for the non-fatal shooting of a nuclear-engineering executive on 7 May in Genoa. The same group sent a letter bomb to a Swiss pro-nuclear lobby group in 2011; attempted to bomb IBM's nanotechnology laboratory in Switzerland in 2010; and has ties with a group responsible for at least four bomb attacks on nanotechnology facilities in Mexico. Another branch of the group attacked railway signals in Bristol, UK, last week in an attempt to disrupt employees of nearby defense technology firms (no word on whether anyone noticed the difference between an anarchist attack and a normal Wednesday on the UK's railways). A report by Swiss intelligence says such loosely affiliated groups are increasingly working together."

The Osmonds! You are all Osmonds!! Throwing up on a freeway at dawn!!!