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Comment Re:So? (Score 1) 129

In Australia, the seasons are defined by grouping the calendar months.
  • Spring - the three transition months September, October and November.
  • Summer - the three hottest months December, January and February.
  • Autumn - the transition months March, April and May.
  • Winter - the three coldest months June, July and August.

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/...
Government

Ask Slashdot: How Would You Use Computers To Make Elections Better? 498

Posted by BeauHD from the my-way-or-the-high-way dept.
shanen writes: Regarding politics, is there anything that Americans agree on? If so, it's probably something negative like "The system is broken," or "The leading candidates are terrible," or even "Your state is a shithole." With all our fancy technology, what's going wrong? Our computers are creating problems, not solutions. For example, gerrymandering relies on fancy computers to rig the maps. Negative campaigning increasingly relies on computers to target the attacks on specific voters. Even international attacks exploit the internet to intrude into elections around the world. Here are three of my suggested solutions, though I can't imagine any of today's politicians would ever support anything along these lines:

(1) Guest voting: If you hate your district, you could vote in a neighboring district. The more they gerrymander, the less predictable the election results.
(2) Results-based weighting: The winning candidates get more voting power in the legislature, reflecting how many people actually voted for them. If you win a boring and uncontested election where few people vote, then part of your vote in the legislature would be transferred to the winners who also had more real votes.
(3) Negative voting: A voter could use an electronic ballot to make it explicit that the vote is negative, not positive. The candidate with the most positive or fewest negative votes still wins, but if the election has too many negative votes, then that "winner" would be penalized, perhaps with a half term rather than a full term.

What wild and crazy ideas do you have for using computers to make elections better, not worse?

Comment Re:Genius (Score 3, Informative) 291

by TheDayOfMe (#55206147) Attached to: South Park's Season Premier Sets Off Everyone's Amazon Echo
Interestingly, the number of teaspoons to tablespoons is different in in different countries and era of the cookbook.
The standard Australian tablespoon is 20ml, 4 teaspoons, but that we get mostly chinese made stuff now tablespoons are now mostly 15ml. The standard tablespoon in India used by 25ml.
Just a sample: Beware of the Tablespoon
The Military

US Asks Vietnam To Stop Russian Bomber Refueling Flights From Cam Ranh Air Base 273

Posted by timothy from the well-it's-not-a-land-war-in-asia dept.
HughPickens.com writes Reuters reports that the United States has asked Vietnam to stop letting Russia use its former US base at Cam Ranh Bay to refuel nuclear-capable bombers engaged in shows of strength over the Asia-Pacific region. General Vincent Brooks, commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific, says the Russian bombers have conducted "provocative" flights, including around the U.S. Pacific Ocean territory of Guam, home to a major American air base. Brooks said the planes that circled Guam were refueled by Russian tankers flying from the strategic bay, which was transformed by the Americans during the Vietnam War into a massive air and naval base. Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed that the airport at Cam Ranh was first used for staging Il-78 tankers for aerial refueling of Tu-95MS bombers in January 2014. Asked about the Russian flights in the region, the State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Washington respected Hanoi's right to enter agreements with other countries but added that "we have urged Vietnamese officials to ensure that Russia is not able to use its access to Cam Ranh Bay to conduct activities that could raise tensions in the region."

Cam Ranh is considered the finest deepwater shelter in Southeast Asia. North Vietnamese forces captured Cam Ranh Bay and all of its remaining facilities in 1975. Vietnam's dependence on Russia as the main source of military platforms, equipment, and armaments, has now put Hanoi in a difficult spot. Russia has pressed for special access to Cam Ranh Bay ever since it began delivering enhanced Kilo-class submarines to Vietnam. "Hanoi is invariably cautious and risk adverse in its relations with the major powers," says Carl Thayer. "The current issue of Russian tankers staging out of Cam Ranh pits Russia and China on one side and the United States on the other. There is no easy solution for Vietnam."

Comment Re:Ekornes Stressless (Score 1) 154

by TheDayOfMe (#47681509) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Recliner For a Software Developer?

If you have an unlimited budget then you might consider one of these...

http://www.ekornes.com/us/stressless-recliners

Awesome chairs and if you poke around on the site you will find a laptop-specific table.

That's what I'm using right now. There are attachable side tables and laptop stands that go with them.

When we were looking for a replacement lounge setting we spent a few days trying out everything around town. These were the only thing that we both felt comfortable in and had the flexibility for TV watching, being able swivel to face each other and use a laptop. They also great for naps.
NASA

Submission + - Asteroid Vesta Covered in Hydrogen (space.com)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "The protoplanet Vesta, a large space rock in the solar system's asteroid belt, is covered with a surprising amount of hydrogen, and bits of Vesta may have rained down on Earth in the form of meteorites, NASA's Dawn probe has revealed.

Dawn spent more than a year orbiting Vesta, a behemoth 330-mile-wide asteroid that circles the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Earlier this month, on Sept. 5, Dawn took its leave of Vesta to begin trekking to the even-larger space rock Ceres, which is categorized as a dwarf planet.

Meanwhile, though, scientists are still poring over the treasure trove of data on Vesta gathered by the probe, and two new studies are reported on Sept. 20 in the journal Science. In one, researchers report the findings of Dawn's Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRAND), which mapped the elemental composition of Vesta's surface."

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