Comment Re:Underwater breathing (Score 2) 103
Obviously the answer is that Jedi are cold blooded...
Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 91
The emperor's new laptop? I'll sell you one right now!
Submission + - Fastest State for Downloads in US: Rhode Island (industrygamers.com)
donniebaseball23 writes: Fast, reliable broadband internet is still not as prevalent in the U.S. as it needs to be. That's clearly evident from a new study conducted by content delivery specialist Pando Networks, which is the provider for popular free-to-play and online games such as League of Legends, Lord of the Rings Online and MapleStory. Pando monitored downloads by 4 million gamers across the country and discovered some states averaging connectivity speeds as much as ten times faster than those in other cities. The fastest state for downloads was determined to be Rhode Island at an average of 894 KBps, which was almost three times faster than the slowest, Idaho, which had an average speed of just 318KBps. In terms of regional trends, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region contained eight of the ten fastest states.
Comment Re:Underwater breathing (Score 1) 103
Two issues:
1) Moving water takes more muscle power than moving air
2) Mammals (such as us) are warm blooded so our oxygen requirements are high. Fish and other gilled creatures are cold blooded and thus can actually survive on the amount of oxygen dissolved in water. We cannot.
Submission + - What Happens After the Super-Hero Movie Bubble? (esquire.com)
mattnyc99 writes: In the wake of a not-that-exciting Comic-Con come some (perhaps premature) reports on the so-called "Death of Superheroes" — what one financial group calls "the top of the (comic book) character remonetization cycle." In response, Esquire.com's Paul Schrodt has an interesting look down Hollywood geek road. From the article: "What happens after The Avengers, or Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman movie — after we've seen all there is to see of the best comic-book blockbusters ever made?"
Submission + - Climate unit releases virtually all remaining data (bbc.co.uk)
mutube writes: "The BBC is reporting that the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, target of "ClimateGate", has released nearly all its remaining data on temperature measurements following a freedom of information bid.
Most temperature data was already available, but critics of climate science want everything public. Following the latest release, raw data from virtually all of the world's 5,000-plus weather stations is freely available.
Release of this dataset required The Met Office to secure approval from more than 1,500 weather stations around the world. The article notes that while Trinidad and Tobago refused permission but the Information Commissioner ruled that public interest in disclosure outweighed those considerations."
Most temperature data was already available, but critics of climate science want everything public. Following the latest release, raw data from virtually all of the world's 5,000-plus weather stations is freely available.
Release of this dataset required The Met Office to secure approval from more than 1,500 weather stations around the world. The article notes that while Trinidad and Tobago refused permission but the Information Commissioner ruled that public interest in disclosure outweighed those considerations."
Comment Re:Wow, that sounds painful (Score 1) 217
Sorry, if you were born within the last 20 years, that definitely counts as recent.
Comment Re:Wow, that sounds painful (Score 1) 217
Apparently you didn't get the joke.
Of course if running DOS games at their appropriate speed is your goal, then DOSBox is obviously the solution...
Comment Re:Wow, that sounds painful (Score 1) 217
lol! Obviously DosBox is perfect for that!
I was making a facetious comment with regards to running Windows XP in a JVM.
Comment Re:Wow, that sounds painful (Score 3, Interesting) 217
It'll come in handy to run those old DOS games that aren't properly clocked and run *way* too fast on modern machines....
Submission + - Smart Sunglasses Block Glare Using LCD Tech (ecouterre.com) 3
An anonymous reader writes: The sunglasses of the future are right around the corner — Physicist Chris Mullin has developed a new LCD technology that could lead to “smart” eyewear that detects bright spots of light and darkens them accordingly. Working with electrical engineer Albert Titus, Mullin has created a working “Dynamic Eyes” prototype that shield sensitive eyes and makes it easier for drivers to monitor oncoming traffic. The lenses are actually LCD screens, with pixels that can be turned on and off to black out certain areas. (A light-detecting sensor at the nose bridge works with a microprocessor to “tell” certain pixels where the glare is.) So far the project has attracted the interest of the U.S. Air Force, along with the automotive, recreational, and healthcare industries.
Submission + - False YouTube DMCA Takedown Grabs Track For Eminem (torrentfreak.com) 2
esocid writes: A couple of weeks ago a track was uploaded to YouTube by the artist Skepta, igniting a somewhat unusual chain of events which now links him to one of the world’s biggest music labels and one of their biggest stars.
The track in question “Dare to Dream” was put up on YouTube last week but inexplicably disappeared, only to be replaced by a copyright complaint notice courtesy of Universal Records.
Jimmy Iovine, founder of Interscope records, with help from parent company Universal, had YouTube remove the song on copyright grounds using a false DMCA takedown.
Although Universal are taking them down quickly, copies of Skepta's original track are springing up on YouTube and being shared on file-sharing sites.
“So if you’ve already radio ripped my version of ‘Dare To Dream’ this will be the first time I say ‘WELL DONE’,” Skepta concludes.
The track in question “Dare to Dream” was put up on YouTube last week but inexplicably disappeared, only to be replaced by a copyright complaint notice courtesy of Universal Records.
Jimmy Iovine, founder of Interscope records, with help from parent company Universal, had YouTube remove the song on copyright grounds using a false DMCA takedown.
Although Universal are taking them down quickly, copies of Skepta's original track are springing up on YouTube and being shared on file-sharing sites.
“So if you’ve already radio ripped my version of ‘Dare To Dream’ this will be the first time I say ‘WELL DONE’,” Skepta concludes.
Submission + - Harvard Prez calls Winklevoss twins "assholes" (edibleapple.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Talking about the Winklevoss twins, former Harvard President Larry Summers didn't mince words.
“One of the things you learn as a college president,” Summers explained, “is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an a**hole. This was the latter case."
“One of the things you learn as a college president,” Summers explained, “is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an a**hole. This was the latter case."
Comment Re:Get rich quick scheme (Score 1) 240
Physically, teenagers are adults (biologically able to procreate)...
Sure, physically teenagers are adults, but there's abundant evidence that the frontal cortex is not fully wired until your mid-twenties.
This means that teenagers have empirically measurable cognitive deficits in things like: organizational thinking, executive functioning, empathy, attentional control, judgment of consequences... and a whole host of other mental capacities associated with adult frontal lobe functioning and decision making.
So, no, the laws aren't arbitrary. Sure, maybe the people making them didn't have this research at the time - but they were definitely intuitively aware that teenagers as a group did not display the same kind of mature and responsible thinking as actual adults.
Submission + - Can Science Survive the Coming Age of Austerity?
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Alexis Madrigal writes that everyone agrees you need science and technology R&D, but when budgets get tight, research into quantum dots or the fundamental forces that cause earthquakes has a hard time holding the line against health care or tax cuts for the richest Americans. Different countries are taking different approaches. Japan is focusing on its most elite researchers, giving up to $50 million to 30 different people. Other countries are just giving up on some areas of research to focus on others; for example, take US particle physicists, who will spend their careers trying to drive from the backseat as our European counterparts run the Large Hadron Collider. A third approach might be to reduce redundancies in research. "An idea to provide funding in a larger number of key areas that would avoid duplication is to create dedicated research centers where several investigators can work in parallel on complementary topics," writes Joerg Heber. "If we do less research we need to do it right. And using this crisis to think about our research infrastructure needn’t be a bad thing. It should be seen as an opportunity to reform the academic research system in a more comprehensive and fundamental way than the academic community and the politicians normally dare to think about.""
