phyzz - Slashdot User

Submission + - Teacher Cannot Be Sued For Denying Creationism (csmonitor.com)

Submitted by gzipped_tar on Saturday August 20, 2011 @03:53AM

gzipped_tar writes: A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that a public high school teacher in Mission Viejo, California may not be sued for making hostile remarks about religion in his classroom. The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by a student charging that the teacher’s hostile remarks about creationism and religious faith violated a First Amendment mandate that the government remain neutral in matters of religion. A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the lawsuit against an advanced placement history teacher must be thrown out of court because the teacher was entitled to immunity.

Submission + - 13-Year-Old Makes Fibonacci Solar Breakthrough (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18, 2011 @06:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: While most 13-year-olds spend their free time playing video games or cruising Facebook, one 7th grader was trekking through the woods uncovering a mystery of science. After studying how trees branch in a very specific way, Aidan Dwyer created a solar cell tree that produces 20-50% more power than a uniform array of photovoltaic panels. His impressive results show that using a specific formula for distributing solar cells can drastically improve energy generation. The study earned Aidan a provisional U.S patent – it’s a rare find in the field of technology and a fantastic example of how biomimicry can drastically improve design.

Submission + - New Marker Could Make Preclinical Diagnosis of Alz (mediconews.com)

Submitted by mediconews123 on Thursday February 17, 2011 @01:53AM

mediconews123 writes: Results of a new study using diffusion tensor imaging point to the possibility of using hippocampal changes as a neuroradiologic marker of future cognitive decline.

Comment Stealth vs. rotors; rotary-wing vs. fixed-wing (Score 1) 276

by phyzz on Thursday January 21, 2010 @11:07AM (#30846020) Attached to: NASA Designs All-Electric Personal Flight Vehicle

I fail to see how this aircraft would be stealthy, even being built with composite material. The huge propellers would shine like hell on a Doppler radar's scope.

Furthermore several two-place fully electric aircraft exists already, they are certified as Light Sports Aircraft, and so have by nature VSTOL capacity by nature...

People tend to forget that the only advantage of the helicopter (or any powered rotary-wing aircraft, excluding autogyros) is the capacity to hover. In all other cases, fixed-wing aircraft are superior in speed, endurance, range, safety, etc. (trade-offs being made to allow either low stall speeds or high dash speeds or high operational altitude or heavy cargo capacity or oversized cargo capacity or CowboyNeal transportation...) You could land some VSTOL aircraft in half a football field, and take off with some restrictions.

Slashdot Top Deals