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Earth

Electronics-Loving 'Crazy Ants' Invading Southern US 249

Posted by timothy
from the but-ants-are-nice dept.
From an article at the Houston Chronicle (not The Onion) comes a report of concern to anyone in a warm climate with, well, electronics. From the article: "According to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, invasive 'crazy ants' are slowly displacing fire ants in the southeastern United States. These 'Tawny Crazy Ants' have a peculiar predilection toward electronics as well. 'They nest in electronics and create short circuits, as they create a contact bridge between two points when they get electrocuted they release an alarm pheromone,' says UT research assistant Edward LeBrun. 'The other ants are attracted to the chemicals that other ants give off,' he adds. At this point, more ants arrive and create a larger nest." The L.A. Times also has a report, which says "Thus far, the crazy ants are not falling for the traditional poisons used to eliminate fire ant mounds. And when local mounds are destroyed manually, they are quickly regenerated. 'They don't sting like fire ants do, but aside from that they are much bigger pests,' LeBrun said. 'There are videos on YouTube of people sweeping out dustpans full of these ants from their bathroom. You have to call pest control operators every three or four months just to keep the infestation under control. It's very expensive.'"

Comment: Confusing processor names/Bad Linux GPU support (Score 1) 56

by JoeCommodore (#43740663) Attached to: AMD Announces Radeon HD 8970M High-End Mobile GPU

I stopped buying AMD laptops firstly because the new processor naming scheme does not give me any clear picture whether one processor has better abilities than another. Intel's i# scheme does a better job. Secondly, AMD graphics chips suck on Linux a high percentage you need to do some command line work to get thengs right. (folks bash Nvidia too, from my experiences, it's just install and go, and have great performance.)

Previously I sought out AMD laptops with nVidia graphics chipsets.

Medicine

Peppers Seem To Protect Against Parkinson's 161

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the mmm-tomacco dept.
DavidHumus writes "A recent study indicates that consuming vegetables from the Solanaceae family, which includes tomatoes and peppers (as well as tobacco), decreases the risk of contracting Parkinson's disease. Earlier studies had shown that smoking tobacco seems to provide protection against the disease and the newer one seems to confirm that the key ingredient is nicotine, which is present in some vegetables like peppers."
Science

Does Antimatter Fall Up? 255

Posted by Soulskill
from the where's-scotty-when-you-need-him dept.
New submitter Doug Otto sends word that researchers working on the ALPHA experiment at CERN are trying to figure out whether antimatter interacts with gravity in the same way that normal matter does. The ALPHA experiment wasn't designed to test for this, but they realized part of it — an antihydrogen trap — is suitable to collect some data. Their preliminary results: uncertain, but they can't rule it out. From the article: "Antihydrogen provides a particularly useful means of testing gravitational effects on antimatter, as it's electrically neutral. Gravity is by far the weakest force in nature, so it's very easy for its effects to be swamped by other interactions. Even with neutral particles or atoms, the antimatter must be moving slowly enough to perform measurements. And slow rates of motion increase the likelihood of encountering matter particles, leading to mutual annihilation and an end to the experiment. However, it's a challenge to maintain any antihydrogen long enough to perform meaningful experiments on it, regardless of its speed. ... The authors of the current study realized that [antiatoms trapped in ALPHA] eventually escaped or were released from this magnetic trap. At that point, they were momentarily in free-fall, experiencing no force other than gravity. The detectors on the outside of ALPHA could then determine if the antihydrogen was rising or falling under gravity's influence, and whether the magnitude of the force was equivalent to the effect on matter."

Comment: Depends on what they want (Score 2) 629

by JoeCommodore (#43560087) Attached to: Why We'll Never Meet Aliens

Earth has more than a bunch of rocks minerals and elements. there are surely unique organisms here not only that there is your culture and inventions. There's many ways to do things or to express ourselves, I don't think any advanced civilization has already thought of all those things. Most likely they are just as screwed up as we are and pick the first idea that works... not always the best.... so they would be in the market for different stuff, styles and ways of thinking that can be easily exported.

Comment: So we just accept the 'can't be done' route... (Score 1) 235

Not really a fan of this technology - but my thought is this would be a good place to work on fine-tuning the system to increase the effectiveness. You have several RL image sources/raw footage and know what the result should be... time to work on debugging.

Comment: The person who wrote the current version first (Score 1) 262

by JoeCommodore (#43472013) Attached to: Who should have the most input into software redesigns?

On the programs I built and then later rebuilt (was fortunate enough to work in a place where I was able to build and maintain systems over a long period), I probably put a lot more time and research in improving systems than the users had.

If it was left up to the users they would prefer the same thing with maybe a few new entries and features, because that's all they are accustomed to, not that is bad, but its not basis for good innovation.

As the developer I knew what limitations I had when I first developed it (and maintained it) as well as a list of 'if I was able to rewrite it' pet peeves. Also I knew intimately how the system works so I also knew what processes can be expanded with new technologies and have learned better ways to solve problems I had in the past.

So user input is important - but it should be tied in with expert developer knowledge. Marketing is also a good minor factor, the first early databases I built were called Foxbase. because that what name the users saw on the DB engine startup. The later one was named WANDA, it gave it more an identity, a personality, which I think helped adoption - probably better than just calling it the "Web Database" which would probably had become its name without branding.

Image

IRS Spent $60,000 Producing Star Trek Parody 280 Screenshot-sm

Posted by timothy
from the but-they're-stimulating-the-economy dept.
An anonymous reader writes According to the AP, the IRS is being "scolded for spending $60,000 dollars on an elaborate parody video that played at a 2010 conference. 'The video features an elaborate set depicting the control room, or bridge, of the spaceship featured in the hit TV show. IRS workers portray the characters, including one who plays Mr. Spock, complete with fake hair and pointed ears. The production value is high even though the acting is what one might expect from a bunch of tax collectors. In the video, the spaceship is approaching the planet 'Notax,' where alien identity theft appears to be a problem.' You can find the hilarious and/or nausea-inducing video on YouTube."

I've got a very bad feeling about this. -- Han Solo

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