DynaSoar - Slashdot User

Submission + - Save The Planet -- Earn Big Bucks (bfi.org)

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DynaSoar

on Saturday August 18, 2007 @04:42AM

DynaSoar writes: "From the Buckminster Fuller Institute: "On the occasion of Bucky's 112th birthday The Buckminster Fuller Institute announces the launch of the first annual BUCKMINSTER FULLER CHALLENGE. http://challenge.bfi.org/ Established to catalyze the vanguard of a global design science revolution, the Challenge will offer a single $100,000 prize annually to support the development and implementation of a solution with significant potential to solve the world's most pressing problems in the shortest possible time while enhancing the Earth's ecological integrity. Entries will be accepted beginning September 4th, 2007 ... After decades of tracking world resources, innovations in science and technology, and human needs, Fuller asserted that options exist to successfully surmount the crises of unprecedented scope and complexity facing humanity. He issued an urgent call for a design science revolution to make the world work for all. The Buckminster Fuller Challenge intends to further this urgent call." For inspiration, and to get an idea of Fuller's style and scope of thinking, one can read many of his books online for free at the BFI site."

Submission + - USAF Switch to Synthetic Fuel: Maybe Chick Fat. (flightglobal.com) 1

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DynaSoar

on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @07:13AM

DynaSoar writes: "According to Flight Global: "The US Air Force intends to certificate its entire aircraft fleet to run on synthetic jet-fuel blend by 2011, and began on 8 August when the Boeing B-52H became the first to be approved. The eight-engined bomber finished testing earlier this year with fuel produced from natural gas using the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process. "Each time the price of fuel goes up $10 a barrel, it costs the USAF $600 million", says air force secretary Michael Wynne. "It causes angst to know that we're faced with a commodity that some might use against us," he says, pointing to the potential of F-T to convert domestic coal and natural gas to jet fuel." The snag in a complete switch-over could be building a plant with the capacity needed for the USAF's needs. It would cost US$1 billion. However, Syntroleum and Tyson Foods have teamed up and claim they could build the plant for only US$100 million, using a simpler, cheaper and cleaner process than the F-T, starting with a major product of Tyson's: chicken fat. If this comes about, there may even be a chicken-burning car in your future."

Submission + - ATT + NSA = Busted? (msn.com)

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DynaSoar

on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @06:26AM

DynaSoar writes: ""In 2003, Room 641A of a large telecommunications building in downtown San Francisco was filled with powerful data-mining equipment for a "special job" by the National Security Agency, according to a former AT&T technician. It was fed by fiber-optic cables that siphoned copies of e-mails and other online traffic from one of the largest Internet hubs in the United States, the former employee says in court filings." The article elaborates on the nature of the system in San Francisco (and others elsewhere) and the whistleblower's part in things. The Justice Department wants the case dismissed because it claims it can't defend itself without revealing state secrets. It also claims that the real issue is whether this was done in accordance with the constitution. Sadly, that may be true."

Submission + - Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship

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DynaSoar

on Wednesday August 01, 2007 @09:12PM

DynaSoar writes: "Tired of being interrupted by useless, annoying and time wasting calls on your cell phone? Had your fill of having to be available for your job regardless of time or location for "emergency"? Ever been ready just to chuck the thing in a lake? You're not alone. In fact, you could do so as part of a competition, and even earn prizes. This year's mobile phone throwing world championship will be held on August 25, at Savonlinna, Finland (http://www.savonlinnafestivals.com/en_index.htm). "Mobile Phone Throwing became a hit when first arranged in year 2000 in Savonlinna. Organizer was a translation and interpretation company Fennolingua. It's multinational personnel and many carneval spirited athletics threw away their frustrations along with the mobile phones. Local recycling center was a partner and they collected all the toxic waste and people could also buy a new mobile phone at the Championships. The first prize was of course a new mobile phone. Throwers and international media were immediately very interested and every year the Championships gather a wide range of nationalities to Savonlinna to throw the mobile phones or to report from the Championships. There are officially two categories in the Mobile Phone Throwing. Traditional style ie. over the shoulder throw, where the length of the throw is crucial. In Freestyle the style is free and the contestant gets points for aesthetics and creative choreographics from 4 to 10. In both categories the contestant with the highest score wins.""

Submission + - Another One Writes The Dust

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DynaSoar

on Friday July 13, 2007 @02:52PM

DynaSoar writes: "Brian May (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May) is awaiting word from his thesis committee at Imperial College in London after turning in his PhD thesis, following a 30 year hiatus to serve as guitar player for Queen and his own band. One of his previous papers, "An Investigation of the Motion of Zodiacal Dust Particles (Part I)" [PDF] (http://cdsads.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_q uery?bibcode=1974MNRAS.166..439H&data_type=PDF_HIG H&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf) has been long considered a major contribution to astronomy, and prompted the headline above by the Hearlad Sun in Australia (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22 061198-2902,00.html). Dr. May, as he has been called since receiving an honorary doctorate from University of Hertfordshire in 2002, is presently at the "first light" ceremony at the new 408 inch telescope in the Canary Islands, Gran Telescopio Canarias, which will be used to scan for exosolar planets. He has remained as active in astronomy as time allowed, co-authoring the book "Bang! — The Complete History of the Universe" with Patrick Moore and Chris Linott, as well as contributing to and appearing on Moore's TV show "The Sky At Night"."

Submission + - Searching for Galactic "Axis of Evil"

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DynaSoar

on Wednesday July 11, 2007 @01:01PM

DynaSoar writes: "New Scientist reports http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12241-publ ic-to-join-search-for-cosmic-axis-of-evil.html that a group of scientists have started a new networked data processing project with a difference. This one based on your brain rather than a software client. People are being asked to classify galaxies from pictures to help determine if they fall into groups that represent very large scale structures, something they are calling a "galactic axis of evil". Users can sign up at Galaxy Zoo http://www.galaxyzoo.org/ take a brief tutorial about types of galaxies and how they appear (frequently too ambiguously for software to judge), and if they pass a test, begin assisting astronomers in classifying over 1 million galaxies. If you've got some time to spare, why not help some cosmologists find out if our present understanding of how the universe evolved is all wrong."

Submission + - Astronomers Explode Virtual Supernova

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DynaSoar

on Thursday March 22, 2007 @08:07PM

DynaSoar writes: "Scientists at the University of Chicago's Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes have created a simulation of a white dwarf exploding into a type 1a supernova http://space.com/scienceastronomy/070322_stellar_e xplosion.html. Using 700 processors and 58,000 hours, they produced a three second movie showing the initial burst that is thought to be the source of much of the iron in the universe. Understanding these supernova is also important to testing current cosmological theories regarding dark matter and dark energy, as their brightness is used as a measurement of distance, and discrepancies found in the brightness of very distant supernovae consistently seem to indicate a change in the speed of expansion of the universe over time."

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