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Submission + - Carl Sagan papers donated by 'Family Guy' creator (sfgate.com)

dsinc writes: Seth MacFarlane once included a gag on his animated TV comedy "Family Guy" about an "edited for rednecks" version of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos," featuring an animated Sagan dubbed over to say that the earth is "hundreds and hundreds" of years old.
Jokes aside, his admiration for Sagan runs deep.
The Library of Congress announced Wednesday that, thanks to MacFarlane's generosity, it has acquired the personal papers of the late scientist and astronomer, who spoke to mass audiences about the mysteries of the universe and the origins of life. While MacFarlane never owned Sagan's papers, he covered the undisclosed costs of donating them to the library.

Comment Re:When I make Taco breathe hard... (Score 1) 963

* What effects will that cause (good and bad)?
* What can we do to affect the rate of change?
* What can we do to mitigate the bad effects?
* What can we do to benefit from the good effects?

Hmmm.

I think that between 2 and 3, I'd ask how bad is the bad, and how good the good, and then, assuming that they don't balance, ask what will it cost to fix the bad, and then ask if the cost is best deployed fixing the bad, or doing other better things that produce a greater overall 'improvement'.

For example, should 'fix money' be spent on carbon reduction or flood defences ?

Comment Re:Bigger Problems Than That (Score 1) 241

Having done 4 wells onshore-UK

... two of those wells having been drilled in a Nature Reserve, but not the one at Wytch Farm.

Not quite. Wytch Farm field has/had 104 wells drilled across 8 well sites. And the field lies beneath a combination of National Nature Reserve, National Trust, and SSSI land. Its true that not all the 8 sites are on that land, but some are, and others are adjacent, so the impact could have been significant, but wasn't.

Comment Re:Bigger Problems Than That (Score 1) 241

In the UK, our (minute) onshore drilling industry has an admirable environmental record; the flagship field at Wytch Farm in Dorset is almost invisble (you really have to search for it), and even though its situated in a envornmentally sensitive protected area, it has won awards for its low impact. Onshore can be done well.
Censorship

Submission + - Argentina Censors Millions Of Websites 3

bs0d3 writes: A judge in Argentina ordered ISPs to block two websites--leakymails.com and leakymails.blogspot.com . According to google many isps have simply blocked the ip 216.239.32.2 instead of a targeted dns filter. Several million blogspot blogs are hosted at this ip.

Freedom of speech advocate Jillian York writes:

IP blocking is a blunt method of filtering content that can erase from view large swaths of innocuous sites by virtue of the fact that they are hosted on the same IP address as the site that was intended to be censored. One such example of overblocking by IP address can be found in India, where the IP blocking of a Hindu Unity website (blocked by an order from Mumbai police) resulted in the blocking of several other, unrelated sites. As Andrade points out, "There are other less restrictive technical procedures than the one used, which allow ISPs to comply with court orders fully, while affecting only the sites involved."

Robotics

Submission + - Robot Jet Fighter Takes First Flight (singularityhub.com)

lysdexia writes: The X-47B is a Tailless Flying Robotic Overlord, which requires neither puny human pilot, nor extraneous remote control. First flight was 29 minutes, climbing to a height of 5000 ft. Next step: landing on aircraft carrier.

Comment Re:Ololololo (Score 1) 414

...was there somebody that tried to recover planes that went down in Greenland known as the Lost Squadron and they were expecting the ice to be 10 feet thick or less (according to scientists' best estimates). When they got there, they found that the planes were 268 feet deep.

This was between 1942 and 1992. .....

Umm, don't objects placed on the surface tend to 'sink' into ice caps ? Gear and huts built on the surface slowly descend into the ice as the years pass. So the P-38s sank down, as well as each years snow/ice deposit being layered on top of them. IIRC isn't the sink faster than the accertion of ice ?

Comment Re:The people who criticise Richard Stallman... (Score 1) 578

Of course, the automotive analogy might be bad as well. Just ask any "Shade Tree" or "Back Yard" mechanic. Most curse the day they decided to computerize the engine, thus locking them away from manual adjustments.

Actually its worse than that. Its locked for a reason ; the automotive industry needs to (or is forced to) meet ever more stringent emmissions requirements, while delivering better economy with the same level of power in order to compete effectively. At the same time warranty and service interval timescales continue to rise/extend as manufacturers use them as a USP (or one of many).

That is why under the hood are 'no user serviceable parts', and why letting anyone apart from an authorised servicer touch it invalidates everything .... gotta control the emissions and the 'reliability'.

Hang on ... thats what it is like with certain Liunx distros from the commercial players - roll your own kernel, and sorry.... thats unsupported.

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