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ThinkGeek's Best Ever Cease-and-Desist Letter 264

Posted by kdawson from the good-source-of-sparkle dept.
ThinkGeek, sister company to Slashdot, received a meticulously researched (except on one point) 12-page cease-and-desist letter from the National Pork Board. What had the meat lobbyists up in arms was an April Fools product from the TG catalog: Radiant Farms Canned Unicorn Meat, whose copy included the line "the new white meat." The NPB figured this was confusingly similar to their trademarked "the other white meat" (an advertising slogan the pork industry is considering retiring anyway). Geeknet, parent company of Thinkgeek and Slashdot, issued a press release apologizing for any confusion; you can read it on ThinkGeek's site (PDF), because the newswires refused to distribute it for some reason. Oh, and ThinkGeek has no intention of taking down the protected parody.
Power

Carbon Nanotube Batteries Pack More Punch 163

Posted by CmdrTaco from the coast-to-coast-at-most dept.
cremeglace writes "Researchers at MIT have come up with a new way of making batteries from carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are attractive materials for battery-making because of their high surface area, which can accept more positive ions and potentially last longer than conventional batteries. Instead of this design, the MIT researchers introduced something new — using chemically modified carbon nanotubes as the positive ion source themselves. For now, the new batteries can power only small devices, but if the method can be scaled up, the batteries may provide the power needed for applications like electric cars."
Science

Why Being Wrong Makes Humans So Smart 311

Posted by kdawson from the something-so-right dept.
Hugh Pickens sends in an excerpt in last week's Boston Globe from Kathryn Schulz's book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. "The more scientists understand about cognitive functioning, the more it becomes clear that our capacity to make mistakes is utterly inextricable from what makes the human brain so swift, adaptable, and intelligent. Rather than treating errors like the bedbugs of the intellect — an appalling and embarrassing nuisance we try to pretend out of existence — we need to recognize that human fallibility is part and parcel of human brilliance. Neuroscientists increasingly think that inductive reasoning undergirds virtually all of human cognition. Humans use inductive reasoning to learn language, organize the world into meaningful categories, and grasp the relationship between cause and effect. Thanks to inductive reasoning, we are able to form nearly instantaneous beliefs and take action accordingly. However, Schulz writes, 'The distinctive thing about inductive reasoning is that it generates conclusions that aren't necessarily true. They are, instead, probabilistically true — which means they are possibly false.' Schulz recommends that we respond to the mistakes (or putative mistakes) of those around us with empathy and generosity and demand that our business and political leaders acknowledge and redress their errors rather than ignoring or denying them. 'Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity, or evil intent, we can liberate ourselves from the impossible burden of trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition that we could be in error, without deeming ourselves idiotic or unworthy.'"
Earth

New Air Conditioner Process Cuts Energy Use 50-90% 445

Posted by kdawson from the tortured-backronym dept.
necro81 writes "The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory has announced that it has developed a new method for air conditioning that reduces energy use by 50-90%. The DEVap system (Desiccant-Enhanced eVaporative air conditioner) cools air using evaporative cooling, which is not new, but combines the process with a liquid dessicant for pulling the water vapor out of the cooled air stream. The liquid dessicant, a very strong aqueous solution of lithium chloride or sodium chloride, is separated from the air stream by a permeable hydrophobic membrane. Heat is later used to evaporate water vapor back out — heat that can come from a variety of sources such as solar or natural gas. The dessicants are, compared to typical refrigerants like HCFCs, relatively benign on the environment."

Comment Chiming in.... (Score 3, Insightful) 556

by KharmaWidow (#32635078) Attached to: Utah Attorney General Tweets Execution Order

My sister was brutally murdered and I knew from that point on that killing her killer would not make a difference to how I felt. How I still feel 20 years later... Still, bad deeds must be punished. I only wish her killer was killed by bashing his head in and strangling him like he did my sister. If we did that - kill the killer with the same method they used - it might become a deterrent again.

The main reason why capital punishment is not a deterrent is because we sugar-coat it. We put padded language around it. We get offended by a tweet reporting the go-ahead was made. And then we put them to sleep gently. All because our pussy-ass pacifist socialist education system brainwashes us into discarding any sense of honor, integrity, accountability and responsibility.

Executions should be announced with a media bullhorn and the country should stop everything else while its happening. No, we shouldn't broadcast the actual event. But we should acknowledge and witness when it occurs. We need to make our population instinctively aware that execution is a consequence - that there is a consequence for all our actions and transgressions against others.
Media

Made-For-Torrents Sci-Fi Drama "Pioneer One" Debuts 321

Posted by Soulskill from the it's-tv-jim-but-not-as-we-know-it dept.
QuantumG writes "The first episode of the new science fiction drama Pioneer One has debuted and it looks like a hit. The pilot was shot for just $6,000, raised through the micro-funding platform Kickstarter, and the production is being supported through donations on the show's website. Donations can be made on a sliding scale with 'bonus' rewards for each level, such as an MP3 of the opening theme and deleted scenes. The show is being distributed through file-sharing systems such as BitTorrent and LimeWire thanks to VODO, the group that also helped produce it. Is this the future of television?"
The Media

Digitally Filtering Out the Drone of the World Cup 602

Posted by timothy from the it's-called-an-off-switch-use-it dept.
qubezz writes "World Cup soccer fans may think a hornet's nest has infiltrated their TVs. However the buzz that is the background soundtrack of the South African-hosted games comes from tens of thousands of plastic horns called vuvuzelas, that are South Africa's version of ringing cowbells or throwing rats. It looks like the horns won't be banned anytime soon though. A savvy German hacker, 'Tube,' discovered that the horn sound can be effectively filtered out by applying a couple of digital notch filters to the audio at the frequencies the horn produces (another summary in English). Now it looks like even broadcasters like the the BBC and others are considering using such filters on their broadcasts."
Privacy

FBI's Facebook Monitoring Leads To Arrest In England 329

Posted by timothy from the bomb-president-motorcade-rutabaga dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The BBC reports that armed police were called to a UK school earlier today after being advised of a potential threat by the FBI. The school stated that the FBI 'raised the alarm after Internet scanning software picked up a suspicious combination of words,' strongly implying that they are carrying out routine, automated surveillance of social networking sites. While in this case it does appear that there may have been a genuine threat, the story nonetheless raises significant privacy concerns."
Earth

Airplanes Unexpectedly Modify Weather 223

Posted by timothy from the send-me-some-snow-planes dept.
reillymj writes "Commercial airliners have a strange ability to create rain and snow when they fly through certain clouds. Scientists have known for some time that planes can make outlandish 'hole-punch' and 'canal' features in clouds. A new study has found that these odd formations are in fact evidence that planes are seeding clouds and changing local weather patterns as they fly through. In one case, researchers noted that a plane triggered several inches of snowfall directly beneath its flight path."
It's funny. Laugh.

Newsweek Easter Egg Reports Zombie Invasion 93

Posted by kdawson from the it-takes-braaains dept.
danielkennedy74 writes "Newsweek.com becomes the latest in a long list of sites that will reveal an Easter egg if you enter the Konami code correctly (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, enter). This is a cheat code that appeared in many of Konami's video games, starting around 1986 — my favorite places to use it were Contra and Life Force, 30 lives FTW. The Easter egg was probably included by a developer unbeknownst to the Newsweek powers that be. It's reminiscent of an incident that happened at ESPN last year, involving unicorns."
Education

MA High School Forces All Students To Buy MacBooks 1217

Posted by Soulskill from the at-least-it's-not-ipads dept.
An anonymous reader sends in this excerpt from the Salem News: "A new program at Beverly High will equip every student with a new laptop computer to prepare kids for a high-tech future. But there's a catch. The money for the $900 Apple MacBooks will come out of parents' pockets. 'You're kidding me,' parent Jenn Parisella said when she found out she'd have to buy her sophomore daughter, Sky, a new computer. 'She has a laptop. Why would I buy her another laptop?' Sky has a Dell. Come September 2011, every student will need an Apple. They'll bring it to class and use it for homework. Superintendent James Hayes sees the technology as an essential move to prepare kids for the future. The School Committee approved the move last year, and Hayes said he's getting the news out now so families can prepare. 'We have one platform,' Hayes said. 'And that's going to be the Mac.'"

Comment We purchase fuel by gallons, not miles. (Score 1) 1042

by KharmaWidow (#32516294) Attached to: 2 In 3 Misunderstand Gas Mileage; Here's Why

fuel/distance is useless for the driver. A driver says to himself when he is at the gas station, "My trip is x miles and my tank holds y gallons. How many gallons does it take to get to x?" ie mpg. x, the distance, is the constant - and desired goal. Not the available fuel.

No one gets in their car and says well, we can only go to Knotts Berry Farm because we don't have enough gas to get to Disneyland.

All you guys are doing is inverting the ratio and changing the units. Gallons versus liters is irrelevant because gal (u) = L is simply gal = (1/u)L

You have to understand the US ratio x distance per 1 fuel-unit. You guys are saying y fuel-units/100 distance. We literally say "more miles to the gallon" as a perfomance ratio. Its an encouraging statement.

Saying "less liters to the 100km" is psychologically depressing. Everyone wants "more", not "less."

How big would Billy Idol be if he sang, "In the midnight hour, I want less, less, less..."

Comment Re: The unit is linear, easy to understand!? (Score 1) 1042

by KharmaWidow (#32515752) Attached to: 2 In 3 Misunderstand Gas Mileage; Here's Why

How is mlpm easier to understand when auto efficiency and roads in the USA are measured in gallons and miles?

Wanna know a secret? MPG and miles are also linear!

"mlpm helps put the idea that gasoline is a great resource ... unlike 7-Eleven slurpees"
WTF? You think that if you sliced the unit to 1000th of a greater unit it makes it more sacred? LOL. Have you ever looked at the psychology of currency? The smaller the unit, the less people care about it. People throw pennies in the trash! I would wager that the opposite is true. If I had only 1 of something, I would treasure it more than 1000 littler somethings. I could afford to lose a few hundred of the littler somethings because if I round up I still have 1 something.

A slurpee is ~1/4 a gallon ... using your logic, we should measure fuel in "slurpees" because its a smaller unit!

YOUR ENTIRE ARGUMENT IS SUBJECTIVE to the units you are comfortable with. A liter is about 34 ounces (~1/4 gal) - or about 1 Big Gulp Slurpee and an extra sip! LOL. Europeans are already using the slurpee-unit!

If you want to make something sacred, make it expensive and harder to obtain. Like the diamond industry does. Oh, that's right they are ripping us off when it isn't necessary!

*
Regardless, the real solution to the perception problem in the post is to upgrade from a 10mpg car to a 50mpg car. Arguing that the 10-20 path saves more will only encourage people to drive 20mpg cars rather than 50 mpg cars.

These upgrade paths measure % improvement, not actual savings. A 33mpg saves more than the 20mpg car - without upgrading at all!

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