chazR - Slashdot User

Submission + - Arctic sea ice at tipping point?

Submitted by

Aryabhata

on Tuesday December 12, 2006 @02:28AM

Aryabhata writes: ""The Arctic may be close to a tipping point that sees all-year-round ice disappear very rapidly in the next few decades." BBC reports based on the latest data presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. The report suggests the ice is no longer showing a robust recovery from the summer melt. As per one of the simulation models, by 2040 only a small amount of perennial sea ice will remain along the north coasts of Greenland and Canada."

Feed So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Tuesday December 12, 2006 @02:12AM

In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by FCC regulations as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the Dec. 4 installment of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien."

Submission + - How Craigslist is keeping up Internet ideals

Submitted by

prostoalex

on Tuesday December 12, 2006 @02:11AM

prostoalex writes: "CBS MarketWatch discusses whether Craig Newmark and CraigsList.org are missing out by not "monetizing" their traffic or selling out to large corporations: "Their noble stance gives entrepreneurs from San Francisco a great name. Despite the many unfortunate examples of greed, Internet entrepreneurs aren't all about getting rich quick and cashing out. At an entrepreneur's roots is a vision to provide a service that helps alleviate a pain point. The money thing always muddied the waters down the road. The attitude at Craigslist is a nice reminder of how entrepreneurs' ideals can still remain intact, no matter how odd they may seem in a world that worships money." CraigsList is currently #7 e-commerce site on the Internet with 13 mln unique visitors monthly, and only charges for real estate listings by professional brokers. No word on whether that income is enough to pay 24 salaries and data center fees for hosting a major Internet site."

Submission + - The World's First Independent Mouse Benchmark

Submitted by

Steve Kerrison

on Monday December 11, 2006 @05:53AM

Steve Kerrison writes: "Pro gaming website ESReality has devised and performed a unique benchmarking system for mice. Doing away with the subjective opinions of 'mouse x feels more responsive than mouse y', part of the testing shows how a mouse responds to varying speeds of movement from the user, and the point at which wildly moving the mouse will result in shooting a rocket at your own feet. In the first outing for this new benchmark, seventeen mice have been reviewed, with a few surprise results."

Submission + - VW Touareg tows a 747

Submitted by

lovek9s

on Monday December 11, 2006 @05:22AM

lovek9s writes: "With the V10 TDI clean enough now for California and on sale, VW is rolling out the heavy iron for their marketing spin. See:

http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/news/tugging-the-heav y-stuff-more-on-the-touareg-747-tow-219232.php"

Submission + - Map of the Internet

Submitted by

Wellington Grey

on Monday December 11, 2006 @03:43AM

Wellington Grey writes: "Author of the popular webcomic xkcd has put up a hand made map of the internet as today's comic. He also has an interesting blog entry detailing some of the work that went into it, such a pinging servers and creating a method of fractal mapping to display related regions as contiguous sections on the grid."

Telescope Spots Solar Tsunami 76

Posted by Zonk on Monday December 11, 2006 @02:47AM from the could-even-silver-surfer-have-ridden-that-wave dept.

scdeimos writes "The prototype of a new solar patrol telescope in New Mexico recorded a tsunami-like shock wave rolling across the visible face of the Sun following a major flare event on Wednesday, Dec. 6. The shock wave, known as a Moreton wave, also destroyed or compressed two filaments of cool gas at opposite sides of the solar hemisphere." From the article: "'These large scale 'blast' waves occur infrequently, however, are very powerful. They quickly propagate in a matter of minutes covering the whole Sun, sweeping away filamentary material,' said Dr. K. S. Balasubramaniam. 'It is unusual to see such powerful waves encompassing the whole sun from ground based observatories. Its significance comes from the fact that these waves are occurring near solar minimum, when intense activity is yet to pick up.'"

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