Mab_Mass - Slashdot User

Anonymous Targets Koch Brothers', Gets Involved in-> 0

Submitted by Mab_Mass on Monday February 28 2011, @01:25PM

Mab_Mass writes "Switched reports:

Anonymous has already targeted authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, the Westboro Baptist Church, and one particularly outspoken snitch. Now, the group of tireless hacktivists has apparently turned its attention to David and Charles Koch — the billionaire brothers who, according to Anonymous, are manipulating Wisconsin politics to their own corporate advantage."
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Do scientists understand the public?-> 0

Submitted by Mab_Mass on Thursday July 01 2010, @12:03PM

Mab_Mass writes "The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has an interesting article on the relationship between scientists and the public. Rather than point the finger at an "ignorant" public, this article chastises the scientists for a poor understanding of how to communicate with non-technical people. With a look at the issues of climate change, nuclear waste disposal, genetics, and the future of the internet, the article provides examples of how the experts in these fields are failing to present their message in a way that encourages public discussion and support. Well worth a read, especially for the tech-savvy slashdot crowd."
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Location chosen for European Extremely Large Teles-> 0

Submitted by Mab_Mass on Monday April 26 2010, @10:30PM

Mab_Mass writes "The BBC reports:
Europe has chosen the place it wants to build the world's biggest telescope. The observatory will be constructed on Cerro Armazones, a 3,000m-high mountain in Chile's Atacama Desert. The E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) will have a primary mirror 42m in diameter — about five times the width of today's best telescopes. Astronomers say the next-generation observatory will be so powerful it will be able to image directly rocky planets beyond our Solar System. It should also be able to provide major insights into the nature of black holes, galaxy formation, the mysterious "dark matter" that pervades the Universe, and the even more mysterious "dark energy" which appears to be pushing the cosmos apart at an accelerating rate."
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Toxic seaweed clogs French coast-> 0

Submitted by Mab_Mass on Tuesday August 11 2009, @11:56AM

Mab_Mass writes "The BBC reports: 'Ulva Lactuca — more commonly known as sea lettuce — is harmless while living, but when it decays on land it forms a crust under which a deadly gas forms. This year has seen unprecedented levels of the algae being washed ashore on Brittany's expanse of beaches, heightening concerns along a coastline that is visited annually by an estimated 9m tourists — 700,000 of whom come from the UK. "When you walk into the crust of such accumulation, you make a hole in a reservoir of hydrogen sulphide, and this gas is very toxic," said Alain Menesguen, director of research at the French Institute for Sea Research and Exploitation (Ifremer). "It can make animals or people unable to breathe, so you can die in less than a minute," he told the BBC.'"
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The impact of video cameras on policing-> 0

Submitted by Mab_Mass on Tuesday April 21 2009, @10:54AM

Mab_Mass writes "The BBC has an interesting article about the impacts on policing from the widespread availability of video cameras:

"Footage of police officers hitting out at the G20 protests has dominated the news for the past fortnight. But what impact has the proliferation of cameras had on policing? If there is one recurrent theme in the images of the recent G20 protests, it is what's held in the hands raised in the air. Hundreds of cameras rise out of every sea of protests. In the foreground are the digital SLRs and full-size video cameras of the professional media. But in the background there is a profusion of smaller devices. They are in the background of shots of Nicola Fisher, struck in the leg with a baton, and of Alex Kinnane, hit in the face with a riot shield. In a time of complaints about the surveillance society, cameras are being used by ordinary people to monitor the activities of those in authority. And the kernel of the idea goes back some years.""
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Java vs. C for analytical code 0

Submitted by Mab_Mass on Thursday March 27 2008, @01:37PM

Mab_Mass writes "I manage a small software team, and we are about to start a large project to rewrite one of our major software applications. Right now it is in about 45K lines of C code doing some heavy calculations that can take 2-48 hours to run, depending on the size of the dataset. If we take it as a given that we need to rewrite this application, how do I pick the best choice of language? I can find a number of places on the web where someone "proves" that one is better than another, but a lot of it seems to boil down exactly what any given block of code is trying to do.

At this point, I'm tempted to try to write the whole thing in Java, with the plan of writing some key components in C++ if needed. With the risk of raising a flame war, does anybody have an opinion? Any suggestions about how to go about picking the best choice of language for my application?"

Space planes to meet 'big demand' 0

Submitted by Mab_Mass on Monday March 17 2008, @11:00AM

Mab_Mass writes "Space tourism is getting closer to reality. From the article:

Aerospace giant EADS says it will need a production line of rocket planes to satisfy the space tourism market. The European company's Astrium division, makers of the Ariane rocket, has plans for a commercial vehicle to take ticketed passengers above 100km. Its market assessment suggests there would be 15,000 people a year prepared to part with some 200,000 euros (£160,000) for the ride of a lifetime. Astrium anticipates it be will be producing about 10 planes a year.

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