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+ - Happy 50th Doctor Who!->

Submitted by beaverdownunder
beaverdownunder writes "To commemorate 50 years of the Tardis, today the BBC is airing a 75 minute special finally revealing the secrets of the Time War.

What did you think off the special? And what's your fondest memory of Who? And what about that Capaldi guy?
 "
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+ - The Strong Goldbach Conjecture Proved ?->

Submitted by morto
morto writes ""The Strong Goldbach conjecture dates back to 1742. It states that every even integer greater than four can be written as the sum of two prime numbers. Since then, no one has been able to prove the conjecture. ...Additionally, the conjecture has been verified to be true for all even integers up to 4.10^18. In this paper, we prove that the conjecture is true for all even integers greater than 362."

It seems then it is finally proved, right ?"
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Mars

Mars One Has 78,000 Applicants 355

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the send-me-to-space dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Mars One reports that 78,000 people have volunteered for a one-way ticket to Mars. A quick calculation shows that this means people lined up coast-to-coast in a line with only 40cm per person! (As Robert Zubrin already predicted). If you want, you can still go and sign up (or sign up your worst enemy). Or you can just look at some videos of the would-be travelers."
Earth

How To Safeguard Loose Nukes 167

Posted by samzenpus
from the in-the-wrong-hands dept.
Lasrick writes "The Bulletin has an interesting article about the likelihood of terrorists obtaining nuclear material. 'Since 1993, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has logged roughly 2,000 cases of illicit or unauthorized trafficking of nuclear and radioactive material. Thirty illicit radioactive trafficking incidents were reported in the former Soviet region alone from 2009 to 2011. As Obama said in December, "Make no mistake, if [terrorists] get [nuclear material], they will use it."'"
Bug

Japanese Probe Finds Miswiring of Boeing 787 Battery 201

Posted by samzenpus
from the who's-to-blame dept.
NeverVotedBush writes in with the latest installment of the Dreamliner: Boeing 787 saga. "A probe into the overheating of a lithium ion battery in an All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 that made an emergency landing found it was improperly wired, Japan's Transport Ministry said Wednesday. The Transport Safety Board said in a report that the battery for the aircraft's auxiliary power unit was incorrectly connected to the main battery that overheated, although a protective valve would have prevented power from the auxiliary unit from causing damage. Flickering of the plane's tail and wing lights after it landed and the fact the main battery was switched off led the investigators to conclude there was an abnormal current traveling from the auxiliary power unit due to miswiring."

Comment: We do not know enough. (Score 1) 421

by morto (#42950831) Attached to: Does the Higgs Boson Reveal Our Universe's Doomsday?
In addition to the fact that precise numbers needed by the calculation are not available yet we do not know A LOT about the physical reality of the universe. A huge part of it we attribute to dark energy that is basically stuff we have no idea about. Not to mention the possibility of all of this be a simulation which would bring the possibility of changing the parameters of it.
Patents

+ - Why USPTO awards so many outrageously stupid patents ?->

Submitted by
morto
morto writes "Why USPTO awards so many outrageously stupid patents?

I am always amazed by the ever-growing stupidity of software patents. Why is that so? Is it dumbness, corruption or something else?

Please illuminate me because it is looking pretty crazy from outside (and take into account that I am Brazilian, meaning I should be at this point well desensitized by government agencies stupidity and corruption)."
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Robotics

+ - Soft-bodied robot leaps 30 times its height->

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes "Most robots are built out of rigid materials, but a DARPA initiative to build soft-bodied robots that can squeeze into hard-to-reach places has led to the development of new types of the mechanical marvels. Harvard's Whitesides Research Group is working on a soft-bodied solution and has produced a squishy three-legged bot that can jump 30 times its height using the power of internal explosions. Embedded pneumatic networks in the robot – channels that course like veins throughout the robot's elastomer body – were fed a mixture of oxygen and methane which – when ignited with an electrical spark – results in an explosion that sends the robot flying into the air. By actuating all three legs simultaneously the team succeeded in getting the robot to leap more than 30 times its height."
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Censorship

Egyptian Court Wants To Block YouTube For a Month 188

Posted by timothy
from the new-regime-of-youthful-exuberance dept.
First time accepted submitter rogue-girl writes that a "Cairo Administrative Court announced earlier on Feb. 9 that a ruling has been issued to block YouTube within the country for 30 days. This decision comes after a lawsuit was filed back in September 2012 during the turmoil caused by the infamous trailer 'The Innocence of Muslims' spread through the popular video platform. The Court has also asked for all websites having published parts or the entire trailer to be banned for 30 days."

Comment: Thank God pearls like these have been preserved ! (Score 1) 414

by morto (#41657291) Attached to: Einstein Letter Critical of Religion To Be Auctioned On EBay
Exodus 21
20: “If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. "
21: “If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property."

Thanks to this scrutiny I can learn from Exodus 21 that it is okay to beat the crap out of my slave as long as I do not kill him and Leviticus 12 teaches me that baby girls leave their mothers twice as dirty as baby boys do. In Leviticus 21 I see that no hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles can approach the altar.

Where would civilization be without these priceless advices!

Comment: Re:Lack of tolerance to other religions (Score 1) 412

by morto (#41456293) Attached to: Man Arrested In Greece For "Blasphemous" Facebook Page
What you have described is Aristocracy, the government of the elite. The problem is who decides who is best ? Who decides how the tests should be ? The big thing about democracy is not the election of the best but the ability to avoid the perpetuation of the worst. But I know what your mean. Here in Brazil our Democracy is a mix of Kleptocracy (government by burglars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy) and Kakistocracy (government of the worst - http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kakistocracy). But at least we are free to criticize and change the gang every four years.

Comment: FYI: It is ~80K years not 180K. (Score 2) 342

"Studies suggest that anatomically modern humans arose in Africa approximately 150 thousand years ago (kya), expanded throughout Africa ~60–80 kya, and to most parts of Europe and Asia ~40 kya[1]–[6]. Numerous mitochondrial DNA studies support what Foster and Matsumera [5] describe as a ‘remarkable expansion’ from a small geographic region dating broadly to ~60–80 kya." see http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0044926

It's not an optical illusion, it just looks like one. -- Phil White

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