Comment Re:There are only three sports (Score 1) 602
Poor old Ernesto. He was the Earnest of all the Hemingways. Too bad he's dead now.
Comment Re:Cool thing is... (Score 1) 107
I think his taste isn't affected much. The electro shocks are inadequate signal for the taste buds, which are chemoreceptors. The cells reacting to the shocks may be mechanoreceptors, like the cells responsible for the sense of touch in skin. The shocks are inadequate signals for them as well, but still closer. The brain just started to "see" meaningful information in those shocks. It's similar to the guy (link lost, lazy to google) who made himself a kind of belt with vibrating motors around it coupled to a compass. The motor oriented north vibrated, giving the man a new, previously unknown "sense of north".
Comment Re:Too much time on their hands (Score 1) 502
Oh, we live in such enlightened times. Now you only get tagged flamebait instead of being set aflame.
Submission + - Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video (nycaviation.com) 1
longacre writes: An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available.
Comment Re:I am scared. I am intrigued. (Score 1) 820
What is this "real meat" everybody keeps talking about? Is it the product we buy in supermarkets, the lumps of chicken that grew in 4 weeks stuffed with growth hormones and antibiotics? The only difference between this lab grown meat and the stuff we eat today is that the new product has no head. An improvement, if you ask me.
Submission + - Success in 'space elevator' competition (denverpost.com)
reifman writes: LaserMotive's robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators. Earlier out on the lakebed, team member Nick Burrows had pointed out how it grips the cable with modified skateboard wheels and the laser is aimed with an X Box game controller.
Comment Re:Put the damn thing in neutral! (Score 1) 1146
I actually had thought that breaking in a regular car would disengage the engine... until I tried it.
Not a good idea. Disengaging the engine means lower control over the car, as the engine in lower gear actually helps you with braking. The injection system cuts the fuel flow, the engine is decompressing warm air, which slows the car down. Very convenient when going downhill. With the engine disengaged, the only thing that's slowing the car down are the brakes. Leaving the gear in saves fuel, brakes and the engine health as well. Additionally, in critical situations you can hit the gas pedal and accelerate immediately.
Submission + - How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA (technologyreview.com)
KentuckyFC writes: Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and "frisk" people at distance. That's not to mention the great potential they have in medical imaging. Because terahertz photons are not energetic enough to break chemical bonds or ionise electrons, it's easy to dismiss fears over their health effects. And yet the evidence is mixed: some studies have reported significant genetic damage while others, although similar, have reported none. Now a team led by Los Alamos National Labs thinks it knows why. They say that although the forces that terahertz waves exert on double-stranded DNA are tiny, in certain circumstances resonant effects can unzip the DNA strands, tearing them apart. This creates bubbles in the strands that can significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. With terahertz scanners already appearing in airports and hospitals, the question that now urgently needs answering is what level of exposure is safe.
Comment Re:On grey goo (Score 1) 119
The use of things like rotating bearings and electric current (for transmission of energy) might enable a self replicating machine to operate much more efficiently than life.
I'm not so sure about this. Bacteria use something like a rotating bearing for anchoring the flagellum to the cell membrane. For some reason, this evolutionary feature is absent from eukaryotic organisms (their flagella are undulating, not rotating structures). Maybe they are not so much more effective.
Comment Re:At the Risk of Sounding Like an Apologist (Score 1) 832
I see you didn't react to the Sarlaac part:
A monstrous yet immobile creature who lives in an exposed pit in the middle of a lifeless desert, waiting for large animals to apparently feel suicidal and trek out to throw themselves in? Yeah, not so much. Not every Sarlaac can count on an intergalactic mob boss to feed it tidbits.
Has this guy never heard of the Antlion and it's sand-pits? (no, not the hl2 creature)
Submission + - Defcon, Black Hat attendee finds more dodgy ATMs (computerworlduk.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: As if it weren't enough that one bogus ATM was discovered collecting card details at the Riviera in Las Vegas where Black Hat and Defcon attendees were staying, one presenter suspects that ATMs at the Rio were compromised as well. Chris Paget tried to take out $200 and the machine never gave him the money despite debiting his account. At least five other people were affected. The hotel staff allowed the machines to keep running and threatened that Paget could be prosecuted for vandalism if he unplugged them. The Secret Service confirmed on Monday that they're investigating. It could be an inside job, or the machines may be infected with malware, as was found earlier this year in Eastern Europe.
Comment Re:Suuure, trust me (Score 1) 325
No, that is called advertisement.
Submission + - California fires up laser fusion machine (tgdaily.com)
viyh writes: "A fusion ignition facility which uses the power of lasers to turn tiny hydrogen pellets into thermonuclear energy is to open in California today.
The device is expected to be the first to create more energy than it uses, releasing ten to 100 times more energy than the amount of laser energy required to initiate the fusion reaction.
It is hoped that the $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility (NIF) will pave the way for commercial laser fusion power stations — potentially providing clean, almost limitless energy.
The NIF's laser — the most powerful in the world — will aim 192 beams of light at an area half a millimeter square in a burst lasting five billionths of a second. The beams produce a shock wave that slams into a tiny pellet of frozen hydrogen. This generates a temperature of tens of millions degrees C and a pressure of many billions of atmospheres, replicating the conditions found within a star. The hydrogen atoms fuse, producing helium and energy."
The device is expected to be the first to create more energy than it uses, releasing ten to 100 times more energy than the amount of laser energy required to initiate the fusion reaction.
It is hoped that the $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility (NIF) will pave the way for commercial laser fusion power stations — potentially providing clean, almost limitless energy.
The NIF's laser — the most powerful in the world — will aim 192 beams of light at an area half a millimeter square in a burst lasting five billionths of a second. The beams produce a shock wave that slams into a tiny pellet of frozen hydrogen. This generates a temperature of tens of millions degrees C and a pressure of many billions of atmospheres, replicating the conditions found within a star. The hydrogen atoms fuse, producing helium and energy."
Submission + - 7Million UK Broadband Users Download Illegal Files (ispreview.co.uk) 3
MJackson writes: "An advisor to the UK government, the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy (SABIP), has published the results of two recently commissioned literature reviews into intellectual property and the behaviours of Digital Consumers in the online world. The studies reveal that approximately 7 million people in the UK are involved with illegal file sharing, accounting for over half of the country's total Internet traffic. The governments Lord Carter is expected to outline his plans for tackling this problem when, sometime over the next few weeks, he reveals the final Digital Britain report. Disconnecting users from their ISP is unlikely to be an option but could still appear."
Submission + - Only 7 swine flu deaths, not 152, says WHO (smh.com.au)
Philip K Dickhead writes: "A member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed claims that more than 150 people have died from swine flu, saying it has officially recorded only seven deaths around the world. Vivienne Allan said in an interview with Australian Broadcasting, that the body had confirmed worldwide there had been just seven deaths — all in Mexico — and 79 confirmed cases of the disease. Ms. Allen, of WHO's patient safety program stated "Unfortunately that [150-plus deaths] is incorrect information and it does happen, but that's not information that's come from the World Health Organisation. That figure is not a figure that's come from the World Health Organisation and, I repeat, the death toll is seven and they are all from Mexico."
Ms Allan said WHO had confirmed 40 cases of swine flu in the Americas, 26 in Mexico, six in Canada, two in Spain, two in Britain and three in New Zealand."
