Comment Re:Scariest costume ever (Score 1) 709
Alternative idea, obligatory for the occasion.
http://www.xkcd.com/647/
Comment Re:Great fun (Score 1) 709
Of course, we're drinking beer the whole time (it's hard to wreck at 3 mph).
Just great. The last thing I want is a trailer load of drunken kids on my lawn...
Comment Re:100 years from now... (Score 3, Funny) 432
Damn, having seen this same joke on 2 other sites that posted this story days ago... it just proves that no one can come up with an original thought anymore.
It just goes to show, this joke is circular.
Comment Re:But is this person the same as that person? (Score 1) 432
Thats more to do with the way the Private/Public key Infrastructure is based.
Comment Re:That's because security warnings are stupid. (Score 2, Insightful) 432
Certs never guarantee who you're talking to, they only provide encrypted communication.
Actually, certificates do guarentee that the person you are talking to is the same as the time the certificate was first issued.
Artificial Brain '10 Years Away' 539
SpuriousLogic writes "A detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years, a leading scientist has claimed.
Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, has already built elements of a rat brain.
He told the TED global conference in Oxford that a synthetic human brain would be of particular use finding treatments for mental illnesses.
Around two billion people are thought to suffer some kind of brain impairment, he said.
'It is not impossible to build a human brain and we can do it in 10 years,' he said."
Submission + - The Real Buzz Aldrin (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "Irene Klotz has a no-holds barred interview with Buzz Aldrin on Discovery Space:
Forty years ago, two astronauts landed on the surface of the moon, captivating the people on Earth. One of those men was Buzz Aldrin, author of a new memoir titled "Magnificent Desolation," in which he chronicles battles with alcoholism and depression after his famed foray on the moon. In an interview with Discovery News space correspondent Irene Klotz, Aldrin talks about the legacy of Apollo and his vision for the future."
Forty years ago, two astronauts landed on the surface of the moon, captivating the people on Earth. One of those men was Buzz Aldrin, author of a new memoir titled "Magnificent Desolation," in which he chronicles battles with alcoholism and depression after his famed foray on the moon. In an interview with Discovery News space correspondent Irene Klotz, Aldrin talks about the legacy of Apollo and his vision for the future."
Submission + - Scientists discover potential Silicon replacement (yahoo.com)
Marnhinn writes: "McClatchy News has an interesting article on Graphene, a potential silicon replacement. Graphene is a pure carbon material that is one atom thick, stronger than diamond and can conduct electricity 100 times faster than silicon can in computer chips. While a replacement for silicon is a ways off still, heavy research into Graphene is being done (funded by DARPA)."
Comment Re:Way Cool (Score 1) 313
moreso the car itself.. Humans are actually quite efficient in comparison...
Comment Re:Are these options... (Score 5, Funny) 490
Since /. is going to have some trouble with the prerequisites (partners).
"the pulley" will be a popular choice
"the pulley" will be a popular choice
Comment Missing Option... (Score 1) 828
Cowboy Neal takes the advice of Macaulay Culkin when setting traps in his home.
Submission + - The Medical Consequences of Waterboarding
Hugh Pickens writes: "Scientific American reports that waterboarding can not only cause emotional trauma, but that can also threaten a person's physical health according to Allen Keller, an associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine. During waterboarding, some of the water can flow through the nostrils and into the lungs, Keller explains and once in the lungs can cause potentially deadly pneumonia or pleuritis, an inflammation of the lung lining. Waterboarding can also cause hypoxia, a condition in which the body is not getting enough oxygen, potentially leading to deadly organ failure. Since it mimics the terrifying sensation of drowning, waterboarding triggers the release of stress hormones called catecholamines that can cause heart rate and blood pressure to soar, potentially setting the stage for heart attack in a person with underlying heart disease, Keller says. Finally even healthy people can die from sheer terror as the sudden outpouring of stress hormones can cause the heart to beat abnormally, hampering its ability to deliver blood to the body. "Make no mistake about it, [waterboarding] is a profoundly traumatic event," Keller says. "The physical and psychological and social aspects are all interdependent and feed off one another.""
Submission + - Nuclear Testing helps Identify Fake Vintage Whisky
Hugh Pickens writes: "Industry experts claim the market for vintage whisky has been flooded with fakes that purport to be several hundred years old but instead contain worthless spirit made just a few years ago. Now researchers at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit have developed a method that can pinpoint the date a whisky was made by detecting traces of radioactive particles created by nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s. "It is easy to tell if whisky is fake as if it has been produced since the middle of the twentieth century, it has a very distinctive signature," says Dr Tom Higham, deputy director of the facility. Nuclear bomb testing in the 1950s saw levels of carbon 14 in the atmosphere rise around the world so the amount of isotope absorbed by living organisms since this time has been artificially elevated. Whisky extracted from antique bottles is sent to the laboratory where scientists burn the liquid and bombard the resulting gas with electrically charged particles so they can measure the carbon 14 in the sample. In one recent case, a bottle of 1856 Macallan Rare Reserve was withdrawn from auction at Christies, where it was expected to sell for up to £20,000, after the scientists found it had actually been produced in 1950. "So far there have probably been more fakes among the samples we've tested than real examples of old whisky," says Higham."
Submission + - Night owls can work longer than early birds... (telegraph.co.uk)
Submission + - NASA Researchers Worried About Huge Sun Flares (wired.com) 1
resistant writes: Wired reported recently that a group of researchers assembled by NASA issued a "chilling" report expressing great concern about the potential for solar flares in 2012 to coincide with "the presence of an unusually large hole in Earth's geomagnetic shield", potentially virtually collapsing national power grids. Complicating the matter is the lack of current plans to replace the sole early warning satellite on which power grid operators rely, and the poor state of readiness in general. Full recovery from such a catastrophe might take four to ten years, and cost trillions of dollars.
The report was largely ignored at first because of the unfortunate overlap with an ancient Mayan prediction of a major "turning point" in the year 2012 (by the Western calendar).
The report was largely ignored at first because of the unfortunate overlap with an ancient Mayan prediction of a major "turning point" in the year 2012 (by the Western calendar).
