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+ - How the size of West Virginia compares to the Universe->

Submitted by Sam_In_The_Hills
Sam_In_The_Hills writes "A 14 year old California student with the help of his twin brother has created a flash animation that zooms from the Planck Length out to the known universe. Simply amazing to watch and contemplate.
OK it's really about the scale of everything in the universe but since I live in West Virginia and it makes an appearance I had to mention it."

Link to Original Source

Comment: Working in the worlds tallest smokestack. (Score 2) 407

by Sam_In_The_Hills (#36875228) Attached to: Massive Solar Tower Planned For Arizona
A few years ago I worked at a power plant that had at one time the worlds tallest smokestack (now fifth) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Power_Plant.

It's about half the height of the proposed tower. The smokestack had a massively wicked updraft at the ground level without any additional heat gathering skirting. There were signs on the doors into the stack warning you to not put you hands near the edges of the doors. The suction made the heavy metal doors slam shut and would take your fingers off if you weren't careful.

Overhead view: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cresap,+3,+Marshall,+West+Virginia+26041&hl=en&ll=39.829961,-80.815859&spn=0.010596,0.016029&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.52365,65.654297&geocode=FVD2XwIdi9Uu-w&t=h&z=16

When the power plant was built the answer to air pollution concerns was to build giant smoke stacks so you sent the smoke so high into the atmosphere it would be someone else's problem.

Comment: "The Long Walk" Fraud? (Score 1) 76

by Sam_In_The_Hills (#34481720) Attached to: Tour of the Closet Sized Living Quarters On ISS
Don't anyone tell him but the book he's reading is probably a fraud.
BBC - Walking the talk?

"From the start, a ferocious controversy has raged about whether anyone really could achieve this superhuman feat. Critics particularly questioned one chapter in the book where the walkers apparently see a pair of yetis."

Comment: How to protect yourself from Righthaven (Score 1) 253

by Sam_In_The_Hills (#33488726) Attached to: Senate Candidate Sued By Copyright Troll
At least according to this web site: Before It's News

"We've been wondering how they can get away with that legally and it turns out an obscure section of the DMCA concerning the "safe harbor" noticing proceeders requires that in order for a website to qualify for "safe harbor" and thus require a copyright complainant to first give the webmaster notice and time to take down the material before suing them, requires (amongst other things) that each website register their contact information with the United States Copyright office.."

Comment: Publish it on Slashdot like I did (Score 5, Interesting) 171

by Sam_In_The_Hills (#31889968) Attached to: Newspaper Death Notices May Be a Dying Business
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/09/29/193234/A-Geek-Funeral Then 1/4 million views later... http://www.flickr.com/photos/26445696@N04/3961372594/ everyone knows he passed away. As an added benefit this gives you geek street cred in the afterlife since he's now the top Google response for searchs like "computer urn" or "Geek Funeral" and will probably hold that position for some time.
Image

How To Find Bad Programmers 359

Posted by samzenpus
from the how-little-work-can-you-do-in-a-day dept.
AmberShah writes "The job post is your potential programmer's first impression of your company, so make it count with these offputting features. There are plenty of articles about recruiting great developers, but what if you are only interested in the crappy ones?" I think much of the industry is already following these guidelines.
Space

Geomagnetic Storm In Progress 110

Posted by Soulskill
from the sky-is-falling dept.
shogun writes "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports a strong geomagnetic storm is in progress. The shuttle, ISS and GPS systems may be affected." They think this storm was caused by a weak solar flare on April 3rd. As you may expect, this has caused some unusually impressive northern lights since it started. What you may not expect is a photograph from Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard the International Space Station showing the aurora from orbit. He apparently tweets a lot of pictures from space. He and his crewmates have taken over 100,000 pictures since coming aboard the ISS.

Someone is speaking well of you. How unusual!

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