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Comment: Re:Because it's valuable, duh. (Score 1) 209

by hinckeljn (#43711303) Attached to: Why Is Science Behind a Paywall?
Actually there is a difference between grocery store goods and publications. Grocery stores goods consumption is rival (if I eat this lettuce you cannot eat the same lettuce). Publications and information goods in general are non-rival. Once provided an indefinite number of individuals can use the information from the a publication without depleting it. The problem with collecting the value of publication is that it is very thinly distributed and very difficult to valuate a priori. So individual producers of the publications don't bother to try to collect on it's value. Publisher houses, working on bulk have the means to collect at least part of the value. It is arguable that the actual value of all the publications is higher than what is collected by the publishers, and if universally and freely available would generate even higher returns for society in general. The problem is in determining a priori what is the value of individual publications. It is also arguable that a the value of a very high percentage of the publications is NULL. We just do not have the means to validate and accredit the value. The best that can be done is open everything and let time and usage determine true value... Still there are no guarantees..

+ - DNA Reveals Common Ancestor for Europeans that Lived 1,000 Years Ago->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists analyzed and compared DNA samples and discovered that Europeans might have a lot more in common than previously believed. Based from the DNA samples from people throughout the continent, scientists unveiled that most of the people shared common ancestors just over 1,000 years ago. This discovery reconfirmed previous mathematical models that suggested a link between Europeans. Despite those previous models, this finding still plays a huge part in understanding how people relate to one another in a region that has been so accustomed to existing as distinctive ethnic groups."
Link to Original Source

+ - Humans Have a Tender Spot for Robots->

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes "New research out of Germany suggests that humans look at robots as being more than just soulless pieces of hardware. In one study, nearly all the 40 (human) participants who watched a violent video of a robotic dinosaur being tortured reacted with distress. In the second study, which employed functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants were shown videos of both robots and humans being treated affectionately and then cruelly. Study subjects had virtually identical neural activation patterns in the limbic brain when robots were treated with affection as when the humans were. They also responded with similar levels of distress to the abuse videos Ultimately, this type of research can teach scientists how to build robots that we can more fully identify with and even deeply trust with tasks such as preparing our food and teaching our children."
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Comment: Fermi's paradox (Score 1) 272

by hinckeljn (#43468333) Attached to: Moore's Law and the Origin of Life
For interstellar or intergalactic migration of life there should be some type of transportation that we cannot presently think of. For all practical means, propulsion based on mechanical momentum exchange is limited to a few tens of kilometers per second. This hold true even if one can unlock energy sources of nuclear fission, fusion or anti-mater. Unless we can find some king of symmetry allowing teleportation, it's gonna be each species with it's own star system.

+ - Extended TeX: past, present, and future-> 1

Submitted by Hamburg
Hamburg writes "Frank Mittelbach, member of the LaTeX Project and LaTeX3 developer, reviews significant issues of TeX raised already 20 years ago. Today he evaluates which issues are solved, and which still remain open and why.
Examples issues are managing consecutive hyphens, rivers of vertical spaces and identical words across lines, grid-based design, weighed hyphenation points, and overcoming the the mouth/stomach separation. Modern engines such as pdfTeX, XeTeX and LuaTeX are considered in regard to solutions of important problems in typesetting."

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Comment: Re:GW solution (Score 1) 264

by hinckeljn (#42794993) Attached to: Updated Model Puts Earth On the Edge of the Habitable Zone
The explosion of an atomic bomb on the Earth surface will not change it's orbit, unless it send large chunks of matter into escape trajectory. Alas, even with the large energy release of an atomic bomb this is unlikely. No evidence of this effect noted on the many test carried out underground or the the surface. Remember that changes the orbit of a body on a gravitational field includes energy and momentum considerations. Further more, were this to happen we would have powerful rockets to send huge payloads into space.

Comment: Re:PC Load letter (Score 1) 113

by hinckeljn (#42761725) Attached to: Architecture Firm and ESA To 3D Print Building On the Moon
Inflatable is inherently leak proof. As for structurally resistant you have to consider that on the vacuum of the moon surface it will be pressurized (for human inhabitants); that makes it very stable. Maybe a better way would be to excavate a an underground cave and seal proof it with an inflatable liner.It should be much easier to excavate than 3D print it. You could use robots to do the excavation. Or look for some natural lunar cave. There are evidences that they do exist on the lunar surface

"I think it is true for all _n. I was just playing it safe with _n >= 3 because I couldn't remember the proof." -- Baker, Pure Math 351a

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