jimmux - Slashdot User

Submission + - Stallman missing in Peru quake area (wikinews.org)

Submitted by

Titoxd

on Friday August 17, 2007 @01:44AM

Titoxd writes: "The Wikinews front page reports that Richard Stallman was in the area of the 8.0-magnitude quake that struck Perú yesterday. While he was expected to arrive at his destination on August 20 (yes, in the future), anyone that hears from him would help quell a lot of rumors in the near future."

Submission + - Physicists Discover Interstellar Dust 'Alive' (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by reezle on Wednesday August 15, 2007 @06:36PM

reezle writes: An international team has discovered that under the right conditions, particles of inorganic dust can become organised into helical structures. These structures can then interact with each other in ways that are usually associated with organic compounds and life itself.
Quite bizarrely, not only do these helical strands interact in a counterintuitive way in which like can attract like, but they also undergo changes that are normally associated with biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, say the researchers. They can, for instance, divide, or bifurcate, to form two copies of the original structure. These new structures can also interact to induce changes in their neighbours and they can even evolve into yet more structures as less stable ones break down, leaving behind only the fittest structures in the plasma.
"These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter," says Tsytovich, "they are autonomous, they reproduce and they evolve."

Submission + - Bubble Bobble: Physics in Microfluidics Chips

Submitted by SoyChemist on Wednesday August 15, 2007 @06:05PM

SoyChemist writes: The physics of moving droplets of water around in the channels of a microfluidics chip is tricky. Even simple tasks, like merging two drops, required a lot of problem solving. At the International Conference on Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the Biopolis in Singapore, Professor David Wietz explained how his research group at Harvard tackled those problems. Prototype devices can sort, combine, and split drops so fast that they are rated in kilohertz. In that sense, the rapid evolution of microfluidics technology feels like the dawn of personal computing all over again. It kinda looks like it too. The many videos that he showed during his presentation bore a funny resemblance to classic video games like Pac Man and Bubble Bobble.

Submission + - Girlfriend Stabs Boyfriend Over Game System (olgn.net)

Submitted by on Wednesday August 15, 2007 @04:23PM

An anonymous reader writes: As seen on OLGn

A Warren woman is in jail and the father of one of her children is in critical condition after a stabbing early Monday morning at a Buckeye Avenue N.W. home. Police say an argument that started over a missing video game system led to the arrest of 30-year-old Tara Wheatley and a flight to Cleveland MetroHealth Medical Center for her boyfriend, Andrew P. McMichael, who had stab wounds to his back, neck and left arm.

Submission + - Man Has Thumb Surgery to Enable Better iPhone Use

Submitted by

iamdrscience

on Thursday August 09, 2007 @04:48PM

iamdrscience writes: "ZDNet is reporting that 28 year old Thomas Martel has undergone "whittling" thumb surgery to enable better use of the iPhone. The procedure involved making a small incision into both thumbs and shaving down the bones, followed by careful muscular alteration and modification of the fingernails. Were turning plastic surgery from something that people use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace efficiency says Dr. Robert Fox Spars, who worked on developing the procedure."

Submission + - MidnightBSD 0.1-RELEASE Available (midnightbsd.org)

Submitted by on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @09:09PM

An anonymous reader writes: MidnightBSD 0.1 is now available. It includes several software packages such as ksh, sudo, OpenNTPD, gcc 3.4.4, BIND 9.3.4 (plus patch), and others in the base system.

"MidnightBSD is a desktop operating system for x86 compatible, and soon amd64 compatible architectures. It was originally based on FreeBSD 6.1 Beta. The goal of the project is to create a BSD with ease of use and simplicity in mind."

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