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Science

Modeling a White Hole With Your Kitchen Sink 104

Posted by Soulskill
from the fancy-equipment-is-for-wimps dept.
jamie passes along this excerpt from Wired: "That ring of water in your kitchen sink is actually a model white hole. For the first time, scientists have shown experimentally that liquid flowing from a tap embodies the same physics as the time-reversed equivalent of black holes. When a stream of tap water hits the flat surface of the sink, it spreads out into a thin disc bounded by a raised lip, called the hydraulic jump. Physicists’ puzzlement with this jump dates back to Lord Rayleigh in 1914. More recently, physicists have suggested that, if the water waves inside the disc move faster than the waves outside, the jump could serve as an analogue event horizon. Water can approach the ring from outside, but it can’t get in."

Comment: Re:Without any evidence? (Score 1) 457

by Raynor (#33213636) Attached to: Online Forum Speeding Boast Leads To Conviction

See I disagree.

Like many other people, my computer remembers and automatically logs me into almost all of my internet identities. Anyone sitting in front of my laptop can assume my identity online and pretty much the only thing they won't have access to is my bank account.

"I left my computer on downloading X while I went to the mart. I failed to lock my computer before leaving. Anyone with physical access to the premises (i.e. my roommates) could have easily posted whatever it is I am accused of posting."

While I personally would never leave my computer unlocked during a prolonged absence, it is not inconceivable to forget, let alone those who just leave everything on and logged in (like both of my roommates do... daily.)

IP ties it to a computer and a physical location. It's like saying "We saw your Rideshare speeding and since it was your turn to be driving we're ticketing you."

Comment: Another I'll have to avoid... (Score 4, Insightful) 266

by Raynor (#31623842) Attached to: EA Editor Criticizes <em>Command &amp; Conquer 4</em> DRM

Some people can just pay for a better connection; living in the middle of the desert in a Marine Corps barracks leaves me with fewer options.

While I'm more than willing to shell out the cash for a game like C&C4, my internet is horrible (one of the main reasons I like playing SP games so much now) and to make SP games reliant on a constant internet connection means one less sale for them. Ubisoft has already lost my sale on AC2 and now it looks like EA is going to follow in their footsteps.

A shame too because I loved AC and the C&C series.

Science

MIT scientists change polythene into heatsink->

Submitted by arcticstoat
arcticstoat writes "Polythene might be better known as the world's most widespread plastic, but scientists at MIT have found a way of altering the material to create heat-conducting fibres that could be used to help cool computer chips. As well as being effective heat conductors and electrical insulators, the fibres also only conduct heat in one direction, giving them an immediate advantage over metals when it comes to moving heat way from a chip. According to MIT, the transformation of the material mainly involved getting all the polymer molecules to line up the same way, rather than forming the jumbled mess of molecules that they usually form. The work is detailed in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology this month."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:I only hope (Score 1) 300

by Raynor (#30750146) Attached to: Google.cn Has Already Lifted Censorship

The idea is that previously had you searched for TS on google.cn you would not have found any results related to the protests. The image supplied shows that a very famous and previously censored image does now show up on the .cn version of google. As mentioned page rank will still rank those pages very low, however, they are no longer censored.

Comment: Re:Ok for MMOs, perhaps... (Score 1) 190

by MBGMorden (#30750096) Attached to: Game Endings Going Out of Style?

Chuck had a good ending - and it came back!

Largely the reason why Babylon 5's 5th season sucked so bad (or rather, was well below the standards set by the previous 4). JMS thought that the show was getting cancelled after the 4th season, so he wrapped everything up and had the ending filmed at that season. Then they get approved for another season and he had to try and make a show with completely new plotlines since all the previous ones were wrapped up.

I must say though, I'd really, really favor a system of financing for shows that sets aside budget in escrow for 3 episodes. At such time as the series is canceled without warning that money is to fund development of 3 episodes with which to close out and end the show. While it might be a little rushy, most good crews can do that with 3 episodes. If the network wants the timeslot back then show the finish up episodes late at night on a weekend where the die hard fans can at least catch them or DVR them. Naturally digital distribution of shows (which I definately see as on the way - the iTunes model of subscribing to a TV show is the future of episodic content IMHO) would render even that unnecessary since there's no concept of channels or timeslots any longer.

Either way, something needs to be done. It really ticks me off to get invested in TV shows that get canceled without warning and never wrapped up. Babylon 5 Crusade was a good example. Show ended right in the middle with no resolution. It's embarrassing to admit, but I also got into a show called "Wolf Lake" years ago that was just canceled mid run with no conclusion. Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles basically did the same. They made it to the end of the second season and the director claimed that that episode was good enough to end the series on, but realistically it just left the entire storyline in disarray.

Farscape and Firefly were the lucky exceptions. Those two were cut off unexpectedly (and Farscape in particular ended on what absolutely should NOT have finished off that series), but they at least got movies to tie them up.

Comment: Re:Free trade of ideas, anyone? (Score 1) 687

by drinkypoo (#30750072) Attached to: Google Hacked, May Pull Out of China

Not me, with China I know exactly what I'm dealing with. A giant who doesn't pretend to be nice but is quite open about it's policies and it's agenda.

That is a stupid comment and you are a stupid person for making it. China has for many years preached about how great it would be to do business with them, how they are turning their IP law around, blah blah blah. It's all been lies. Now, show us the lie Google told.

This opposed to google who tries really REALLY hard to be seen as the world's nicest and biggest friend but of which I have no idea of the hidden agenda behind it.

Companies don't have agendas; people do. That should scare you more than anything else about google; it's possible for them to be destroyed by a government who then takes over their operation (or hands it to a sympathetic party.) But that's not so much a problem with Google as with corporatism.

In google's case. Put your money where your mouth is and gtfo of China, then we'll talk again.

You're not very well-acquainted with diplomacy, are you? It probably went like this: "Stop attacking our servers or we'll pull out. You're forcing us to censor searches which makes us look bad anyway." "Yeah, you'll pull out of your mom maybe, I'd like to see you do it." So now Google is proving that they are serious by going public. Odds are, China will change nothing, and Google will really have to withdraw. But "have to" is a relative term. If they can't make money there, then there's no point in being there. If the government is attacking Google (they probably are) then Google really has no choice but to give up and go home, because ultimately you can't defend against any such attack without the assistance of the government.

Comment: Re:Riddle me this (Score 2, Insightful) 766

by cartzworth (#30749878) Attached to: Organ Damage In Rats From Monsanto GMO Corn
Correct. The free market assumes perfect access to information (information wants to be free, no?). We just got more information on this product. Thus we can make decisions based on this new information (it gets "priced in"). We then return to an equilibrium after the use of this GM corn falls in disfavor. Of course, I'd also like to see more studies confirming this before any conclusions are drawn. How about a simple comparison of how widespread this GM corn is, when it was released, and national rates of organ failure over a long period of time?

Say something you'll be sorry for, I love receiving apologies.

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