Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Long term benefits? (Score 2) 55

While this method may be effective in reducing the mosquito population in the short term, does it work in the long term?

I searched for news about the long term effects after the Brazil experiment, but couldn't find anything. I remember reading an article which said that after some years (2?) the mosquito levels were back nearly to what they were before, but I couldn't find that now. Maybe someone else knows of it, or maybe I mis-remember. Or perhaps there's some new information now about how well it works in the long term, although the article didn't mention any.

All other concerns aside, the effectiveness of the method should also be considered. If it doesn't have the impact it claims to have, it's pointless to do it.

Comment The rule was suspended already once before (Score 4, Informative) 119

Highly relevant for this, but nobody has yet mentioned - certainly none of the sources linked (although I feel they should have, for proper reporting).
The same policy/rule was a problem already in 2020, and it was already suspended once, for 4 months. So this is not a "new issue" but a "continuing issue", i.e. "it's still a problem".

https://www.euractiv.com/secti...

Since the suspension has already happened once, I imagine it wouldn't be so big hurdle to have that happen again, if enough pressure and will is there.

Comment Re:Nothing out of the ordinary (Score 1) 204

Here's the original article (in Finnish): https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11423...

YLE offers also news in English, but the content is much limited compared to what they provide in Finnish.
That said, there's one article I found on this topic in English, https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/...
This is different content to the above Finnish text, and with different person offering commentary.

Comment Re:Nothing out of the ordinary (Score 1) 204

Here's the link (it's in Finnish): https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11423...

They have an English news site too but this is not there, only a small part of the content gets translated to English.
They do have an article on the topic in English too, but it's different content than the above, and commentary is from a different person:
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/...

Comment Nothing out of the ordinary (Score 2) 204

An interview in local Finnish news with the head of laboratory in the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority says that releases like this happen usually a few times every year. The statement didn't discuss whether the levels seen this time were also usual, but it does seem to imply it. It was also said that most times the source of the release does not get identified.

So there's no real major news here, stuff like this seems to happen every now and then.

Comment Gravity Waves vs. Gravitational Waves (Score 5, Informative) 45

The difference between the terms of Gravity Waves vs. Gravitational Waves seemed confusing at least to me, so here's an article.
https://medium.com/@GatotSoeda...

"Gravitational waves are waves that vibrate through spacetime itself, as a result of gravitational forces as Einstein predicts in 1916. Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime in accordance with Einstein’s theory of gravity.

Gravity waves are waves driven by gravitational force. Gravity waves are waves in the Earth and atmosphere in accordance with Newton’s theory of gravity."

Comment Re:Easy solution: AI (Score 1) 251

Already being done to some extent by https://zenrobotics.com/ Even if I suspect that Go algorithms are not involved.
The problem is not just algorithmic (or software), looks like developing the suitable hardware is also quite difficult.

There's also a marketing demo video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?... which might be more interesting than the corporate site.

Comment Re:Oh No! (Score 1) 178

My interpretation of promote here is that as long as nuclear technology is used, it's used safely and helping the world become a better place. This is in contrast to using nuclear technology as weapons. But, focusing on just that one word is prone to mis-interpretation so better would be to study their mission a bit more, and more so what they actually do.

It's worth noting that one of their primary goals is nuclear safety, which is something a large part of their efforts are spent on.

I couldn't find a single politician in the membership list. There were 156 member states.

Comment Re:Oh No! (Score 2) 178

North American Society of Homeopaths is an (presumably) an interest group.

International Atomic Energy Agency is a regulatory and study organization, backed by UN.

Spot the difference?

It's a valid viewpoint to be sceptical as to the neutrality or effectiveness of regulatory organizations, but the intent and background is clearly different here.

Education

Submission + - Setting Up a Computer Lab in a Developing Country

levanjm writes: "Hi all, I am looking for some advice. I am a mathematician at a small liberal arts school (Transylvania University) who has dabbled in Linux for a number of years. I have had the chance to teach a few courses and summer camps about Linux to college and high school students. Recently I made a trip to Guatemala and visited a school in Labor de Falla. While there I was talking with people associated with the school about how great it would be to be able to set up a computer lab for the kids. To make a long story short, I approached my school about finding a way to make this happen and to get my students involved in volunteering. I have received notification that my school has given me an in house grant to try to get this project rolling. They have also donated six computers to get things started. While I have been making plans in case the funding came through, I wanted to open this up to as many eyes as possible because I am sure there are plenty of concerns I have not considered. What are your thoughts on how to best implement the lab setting? I am a firm believer in the Open Source philosophy so proprietary software is not on my radar. The PC's donated are a little old (4 or so years old), but would run Edubuntu without any issues. I originally thought about how awesome a Raspberry Pi lab would be to set up. I am also wondering if there are any Kickstarter type of foundations that might be used to help solicit donations to purchase additional equipment and help cover costs of getting the equipment to the school. It would be amazing to get enough funding to give computers to the teachers in addition to a lab. I am sure there are other issues I have not even considered yet, so any thoughts you have to share would be wonderful."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - 2012 Free Software Award Winners Announced (fsf.org)

jrepin writes: "Free Software Foundation president Richard M. Stallman announced the winners of the FSF's annual Free Software Awards at a ceremony held during the LibrePlanet 2013 conference. The Award for the Advancement of Free Software is given annually to an individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software. This year, it was given to Dr. Fernando Perez, the creator of IPython, a rich architecture for interactive computing. The Award for Projects of Social Benefit is presented to the project or team responsible for applying free software, or the ideas of the free software movement, in a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society in other aspects of life. This award stresses the use of free software in the service of humanity. This year, the award went to OpenMRS, a free software medical record system for developing countries."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - GCC 4.8.0 Release Marks Completion of C++ Migration

hypnosec writes: GCC 4.8 has been released and with it the developers of the GNU Compiler Collection have switched to C++ as the implementation language for which the developers have been working for years. Licensed under the GPLv3 or later, version 4.8 of the GCC not only brings with it performance improvements but also adds memory error detector AddressSanitizer; and race condition detection tool the ThreadSanitizer. Developers wanting to build their own version of GCC should have at their disposal a C++ compiler that understands C++ 2003.

Comment Re:The solution to offshoring profits to tax haven (Score 5, Informative) 592

paid Irish taxes of about $4.64 million on its entire non-U.S. profits of $1.344 billion

The problem here is that Ireland offers ridiculously low tax rates to attract investment and employment.

This isn't due to a ridiculously low corporate tax rate in Ireland (it's 10% or more according to wikipedia, depending). The country with ridiculously low corporate tax is Cayman Islands (no corporate tax). Ireland's subsidiary pays licensing fees to the subsidiary in Cayman Islands, so that on paper the Ireland profit becomes miniscule, and thus the tax sums are low too.

Slashdot Top Deals

"It's the best thing since professional golfers on 'ludes." -- Rick Obidiah

Working...