stadium - Slashdot User

Poland decapitated in plane crash 2

Submitted by stadium on Monday April 12 2010, @04:26PM

stadium writes "Two days ago, on April 10, a polish airplane crashed at a small airport in Russia, killing all aboard. Among them were the polish president, the military general, the commander of navy, the commander of airforce, commander of army, commander of special forces, commander of operative forces, head of the National Security Bureau, director of the national bank, ombudsman of department of justice, a former president, deputy minister of foreign affairs, twelve members of parliament, two senators, bishops, the presidential guard, many more military leaders, many more political leaders, many more organizational leaders.... and also many relatives to the deceased people they all were going to commemorate. The crash site, already host to a memorial for the 20.000 people who died there in 1940, will now also host a permanent memorial for the people of the crash — but there's a question of who will erect it, since the minister of national heritage was himself on the airplane. The accident happened at the fifth attempt at landing in dense fog, despite that Russian air traffic control insisted that the airplane used another airport."

Fatal explosion at russian hydroelectric dam 0

Submitted by stadium on Tuesday August 18 2009, @01:45PM

stadium writes "An oil-filled transformer exploded at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant in Siberia, destroying three turbines and bringing down the ceiling of the turbine hall, which then violently flooded. It is unclear how many people were killed, but with 12 confirmed deaths and as many as 64 still missing (all presumed dead) this is a serious incident. The rather huge transformer had enough oil in it to produce a three-mile-long oilspill slowly moving downriver. BBC News reports with three seperate videos. The dam produces a quarter of the total energy of RusHydro (whos stock thus took a steep dive at London Stock Exchange) and also feeds the worlds largest aluminium smelter. The damages will take years to repair."

Saudi customs want your family photos 0

Submitted by

DeusXM

on Tuesday August 18 2009, @06:38AM

DeusXM writes "I received the following information yesterday from the British Consulate as a travel advisory — take a look and see what you think

NEW RULE AT KSA AIRPORTS
We have been advised that airports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia now have in place a new rule regarding carrying electronic devices. This rule applies to both departures and arrivals.

All electronic devices must now be submitted for checking before passengers reach the immigration section.

Electronic devices include:
mobile phones with camera and memory card
flash disks/ USB sticks
external hard drives
laptops and notebooks
iPods, itouch and mp3 players with memory cards

A special USB device will be inserted into the electronic devices that you are carrying. This device will scan the contents of your laptop/ phone etc and take a copy of all videos and picture files (e.g. jpg, bmp, avi files). The copied files will be recorded and stored on a main server at KSA.

All devices containing offensive material will be confiscated immediately. There will be no fines, and refusal will result in jail and deportation.

Laptops with pirated software's will also be confiscated.

This rule is already being applied at Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah Airports in the KSA

Now, I may be reading this wrong, but this sounds like if you ever fly into Saudi Arabia, all your private family photos or whatever end up on some central government server. I understand the rule is probably there to prohibit grumble flicks getting sneaked in but let's face it, given KSA's usual tolerant and rational approach to reality, you'd probably end up in jail for pictures of the missus without a burqa. And is it really strictly necessary to store everything on a central server? Or is this a cunning ruse by customs officials to get their hands on movies without waiting to download them from BitTorrent?"

Zombie Ants Controlled by Fungus-> 1

Submitted by nicwi on Tuesday August 18 2009, @02:06AM

nicwi writes "A fungus in Thailand infects ants and manipulates them to help spreading the fungus. An infected ant travels to a place where the fungus wants to be, and dies there. The fungus continues to grow inside the ant and eventually starts spreading new spores, to infect other ants."
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Is Technology Evil? 0

Submitted by

theodp

on Tuesday August 18 2009, @01:08AM

theodp writes "The question of whether Goldman Sachs is evil prompts Robert X. Cringely to explore the difference between investing, which actually grows the economy, and trading, which simply relies on finding and exploiting inefficiencies in the system. 'Trading is a parasite on investing,' says Cringely, adding that 'technology has enabled outfits like Goldman to be such efficient parasites that they threaten the survival of their hosts.' It's troubling that faster computers and bigger pipes now allow the relentless application of small advantages that eventually suck profit out of the market. But what really frightens Cringely is that Goldman and others not only seem to be driven by unbounded greed, they also appear to be clueless about the implications of their work. It's time, Cringely says, for those who truly understand the complexity of our society to effect some sorely-needed change."

Earthquake-Proof Wood House Survives 7.5 Magnitude-> 0

Submitted by

Mike

on Monday July 20 2009, @11:48AM

Mike writes "Earthquake news abounds as of late — recently a team of researchers from five universities unveiled an seven-story earthquake-proof wooden building that is capable of withstanding severe earthquakes. Featuring a structurally efficient nail distribution and a 63 anchor tie down system, the wooden condominium survived a test using an E-Defense shake table, which simulated a 7.5 magnitude quake (check out the video!)"
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