Xight - Slashdot User

Switchgrass Makes Better Ethanol Than Corn 560

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday January 11 2008, @05:27PM
from the seemingly-easy-choice dept.

statemachine writes to mention that the USDA and farmers took part in a 5-year study of switchgrass, a grass native to North America. The study found that switchgrass ethanol can deliver around 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, as opposed to corn ethanol which can only yield around 24 percent. "But even a native prairie grass needs a helping hand from scientists and farmers to deliver the yields necessary to help ethanol become a viable alternative to petroleum-derived gasoline, Vogel argues. 'To really maximize their yield potential, you need to provide nitrogen fertilization,' he says, as well as improved breeding techniques and genetic strains. 'Low input systems are just not going to be able to get the energy per acre needed to provide feed, fuel and fiber.'"

Is Technology Killing the Porn Industry?-> 0

Submitted by hawks5999 on Friday January 11 2008, @04:47PM

hawks5999 writes "CNBC is reporting that with rampant piracy, Hi-Def duplication costs and a saturated market, the Adult Entertainment Industry is in trouble.

"Once upon a time, the adult film industry led technological trends for the entire entertainment business, but technological advances, rising costs, piracy and a saturated market have in many ways left the porn business adrift in uncertainty."
Could this spell the end for Big Porn? (Hint, 62% of the article readers download or view porn from the Internet)"
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New "Wheel of Time" author chosen-> 0

Submitted by

kdean06

on Monday December 10 2007, @12:39PM

kdean06 writes "Brandon Sanderson has been chosen by Tor Books to finish the best-selling Wheel of Time fantasy series by the late Robert Jordan. Harriet, Jordan's widow, choose him after reading his Mistborn series. An interview and official press release can be found on Dragonmount.com"
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Return of Sony's Robotic Dog 'Aibo' Circulating-> 0

Submitted by

Xight

on Sunday December 09 2007, @11:39PM

Xight writes "There is a rumor going around that Sony's popular robotic dog Aibo will be returning. From Engadget's post "First and foremost, the re-upped model will be tailored to interface wirelessly with your PSP and PS3, will have a built in headcam which utilizes a motion sensor and facial recognition, and can stream its POV video over WiFi to your system. In addition, you'll apparently get to remotely trigger the bot with your handheld and control its movements"."
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Microsoft's naughty chat bot-> 0

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 03 2007, @12:32PM

An anonymous reader writes "According to the Register, a Microsoft chat AI impersonating Santa has been saying some very naughty things to children."
Link to Original Source

Portable Nuclear Reactor to Power Homes-> 1

Submitted by

Xight

on Saturday November 24 2007, @08:14PM

Xight writes "Santa Fe Reporter article about a portable nuclear reactor is the size of a hot tub, but is big enough to power 25,000 homes claims the company Hyperion Power Generation. Thing is they don't want to call it a reactor, but a really big battery since it is self-contained with no moving parts. If all goes according to plan, Hyperion could have a factory in New Mexico by late 2012, and begin producing 4,000 of these reactors."
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creationists violate copyright-> 0

Submitted by The_Rook on Saturday November 24 2007, @07:44PM

The_Rook writes "the discovery institute copied Harvard University's BioVisions video, "The Inner Life of the Cell", stripped out Harvard's copyright notice, credits, and narration, and inserted their own creationist friendly narration and renamed the video "The Cell as an automated city". pretty insidious, as suggesting that a cell is like a city is to suggest that it was designed rather than evolved. it should also be of interest because the discovery institute, really more of a lawyer mill than a scientific institution, engaged in a particularly egregious example of copyright infringement."
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Comment: Re:played online games much? (Score 1) 245

by Xight on Wednesday October 31 2007, @05:40PM (#21189917) Attached to: Today's Gamers, Tomorrow's Leaders?

I have to agree with having the leadership abilities from before the game. Sometimes you get the position handed to you, and you have to step up. Its a lot more common for people having to fill in, and step up to guild master situations in Wow, than it is to have to step up and handle things for the president of a company. Its good life experience to have to step up to take over something, and well it might make you more comfortable in real life if the opportunity arose.

If in doubt you can always use WoW as a job reference too like the guy who got hired for Yahoo's Senior Management in engineering. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/learn.html/

WoW Character Banned After Paying Almost $10,000-> 0

Submitted by

Xight

on Monday October 15 2007, @02:48AM

Xight writes "A character named Zeuzo from a guild called Method on Sylvanas(EU). After getting both pieces to make The Twin Blades of Azzinoth the account was sold to a person by the name of Shaks for roughly 5000pounds(Almost $10,000). The account was banned by blizzard very shortly afterwards. The story made BBC headlines back in September ."
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Journal: Water-activated batteries (NoPoPo) 0

Journal by stefanlasiewski on Sunday October 14 2007, @11:09AM

The Japanese manufacturer Aqua Power Systems Japan is producing Water-activated battery in the AA and AAA sizes, with larger sizes and capacities on the way. As far as I can tell, this is the only commercial offering of these batteries in the AA and AAA form factors.