Comment First snake on a plane (Score 4, Funny) 70
Was it discovered at Amelia Earhart's crash site?
Comment Zango spyware comapany's CEO edited Wikipedia (Score 1) 369
Look through the history of the article and its talk page and you find the CEO's mark and those of Zango employees all over it.
Comment Re:Time to buy a Playstation 3? (Score 1) 78
Sony releases games, or remakes of games with better graphics and extended crap, for the PSP only. Why would I want a PSP if I have a PlayStation 2 or 3, just to play only one or two games that would have worked just as well on the console? Final Fantasy XIII is the only game on the PlayStation 3 I think would be worth playing, but I think hardly anyone would shell out $430 just for that.
The PlayStation 2 was by far the most popular console of the previous generation. When switch to another brand when buying a console from the current generation, like an Xbox 360 or a Wii, you get access to Xbox and Gamecube games because of backward compatibility, so it's like the game libraries are twice as large. This makes the PlayStation 3 library look even more minuscule by comparison.
Rather than get a PlayStation 3 to play FFXIII and whatever else is out there, I would just wait until 2019 when the PlayStation 4 or whatever they call it has been out for a few years and its price has dropped.
Submission + - Spookfish uses mirrors for eyes (bbc.co.uk)
Kligat writes: The brownsnout spookfish in the Pacific is the first known vertebrate to use mirrors to focus light into its eyes. Despite being a species known for 120 years, this was not known until a live specimen was caught between New Zealand and Samoa last year. The fish lives over 1,000 meters below the ocean's surface, so the light focused by the mirrors' perfectly curved surfaces provides a major advantage over other fish.
I didn't see a category for biology or general science, so I submitted this to "upgrades" because the fish has better hardware? Sorry.
I didn't see a category for biology or general science, so I submitted this to "upgrades" because the fish has better hardware? Sorry.
Comment Re:"Propaganda" (Score 1) 1486
What Obama said during the general elections was that high school students could get scholarship benefits for college through community service --- you help make America great, America helps you. Now he's making it mandatory? Here we have the first post-election broken campaign promise.
Optical Fiber With a Silicon Core 60
Roland Piquepaille writes "According to the Optical Society of America, U.S. researchers have been able to create a practical optical fiber with a silicon core. As they were able to use the same commercial methods that are used to develop all-glass fibers, this might pave the way for future silicon fibers as viable alternatives to glass fibers. The scientists note that this should help increase efficiency and decrease power consumption in computers and other systems that integrate photonic and electronic devices. Here is a good summary by the lead researcher: 'In the past, we've needed one structure to process light and another to carry it. With a silicon fiber, for the first time, we have the ability to greatly enhance the functionality in one fiber.'"
Submission + - Multiple asteroid belts found orbiting nearby star (space.com)
Kligat writes: Two asteroid belts have been found around the star Epislon Eridani, the ninth closest star to our solar system. Epsilon Eridani also possesses an icy outer ring similar in composition to our Kuiper belt, but with 100 times more material, and a Jovian mass planet near the edge of the innermost belt. Researchers believe that two other planets must orbit the 850 million year old star near the other two belts. Terrestrial planets are possible, but not yet indicated.
Australian Government Censorship 'Worse Than Iran' 516
An anonymous reader writes "The Australian Government's plan to Censor the Internet is producing problems for ISPs, with filters causing speeds to drop by up to 86% and falsely blocking 10% of safe sites. The Government Minister in charge of the censorship plan, Conservative Stephen Conroy, has been accused of bullying ISP employees critical of his plan: 'If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd Labor Government is going to disagree.'" Read on for more, including an interesting approach to demonstrating the inevitable collision of automated censorship with common sense.
Submission + - McCain Campaign Asks YouTube for Fair Use Rights (wired.com)
DeadManCoding writes:
After seeings its videos repeatedly removed from YouTube, John McCain's campaign on Monday told the Google-owned video site that its copyright infringement policies are stringent to the point of stifling free speech, and that its lawyers need to revamp the way they evaluate copyright infringement claims.
The original letter to YouTube and Google is available on Wired's site, but it is PDF format.
Submission + - IAU names fifth dwarf planet Haumea
Kligat writes: The International Astronomical Union has renamed the dwarf planet Haumea and its two moons Hi'iaka and Namaka, after the Hawaiian fertility goddess, the patron goddess of Hawaii, and a water spirit. The cigar-shaped body is speculated to have resulted from its short rotational period of only four hours. Holding up the reclassification of the body as a dwarf planet was a dispute over its discovery between the groups of José Luis Ortiz Moreno and Michael E. Brown.
Maybe it's time to split off the dwarf planets into their own mnemonic.
Maybe it's time to split off the dwarf planets into their own mnemonic.
Submission + - McCain says funding planetariums is 'foolishness'
Kligat writes: Today while defending running mate Gov. Sarah Palin over requesting $200 million in earmarks in 2009, Sen. John McCain attacked Sen. Barack Obama over requesting $900 million in earmarks of his own. "That's nearly a million every day, every working day he's been in Congress," McCain said. "And when you look at some of the planetariums and other foolishness that he asked for, he shouldn't be saying anything about Governor Palin."
Submission + - Many exoplanets may be two in disguise
Kligat writes: A new study published this month in Astrophysics finds that some exoplanets discovered using the Doppler effect to find variances in the radial motion of a star may actually be two smaller bodies instead of one. Instead of two exoplanets where one makes two orbits for every orbit the other makes, with both being nearly circular, what is misinterpreted is a single exoplanet in an eccentric orbit.
The study concludes that half of known exoplanets may fall under this category, and "hot Neptune" exoplanets may be the most probable for yielding bodies only several times the size of Earth. Coincidentally, another study published this month in Astrophysics finds two exoplanets with eccentric orbits of 0.61 and 0.27. The Exoplanet Encyclopedia manages to keep an up-to-date count and catalog (we're at 309 now).
The study concludes that half of known exoplanets may fall under this category, and "hot Neptune" exoplanets may be the most probable for yielding bodies only several times the size of Earth. Coincidentally, another study published this month in Astrophysics finds two exoplanets with eccentric orbits of 0.61 and 0.27. The Exoplanet Encyclopedia manages to keep an up-to-date count and catalog (we're at 309 now).
Submission + - Senator John Sununu had ties to convicted lobbyist (wikinews.org)
DragonFire1024 writes: "Wikinews.org — On October 24, 2001, convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and four Alexander Strategies Group associates donated $1,000 each to the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund. This political action committee in turn donated $3,000 to Republican Representative John Sununu's primary campaign in New Hampshire on the same day, through the political action committee Team Sununu. The Greenberg Traurig lobbying company, which also employed Abramoff, gave $1000 to Team Sununu on December 16, 2002 for purposes of 'debt retirement.'
According to a report by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Jack Abramoff commonly told Native American tribal clients to divert their funds through the Alexander Strategies Group. Earlier that October, Jack Abramoff had met with the legislative director of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe in Michigan. Representative John Sununu, now a sitting senator from New Hampshire, had served on the Appropriations Committee that helped draft the Department of Interior funding bill. In the section on Native American water claims, land claims, and miscellaneous payments, over $6,000,000 in funding was given to Michigan fishing in the Great Lakes.
The event occurred a day before the presentation of a Department of Interior funding bill to President George W. Bush for signing, and a week after the conference report settling differences between the House and the Senate. Abramoff wrote to fellow lobbyist Michael Scanlon on October 4, 2001 via e-mail, "I had dinner tonight with Chris Petras of Sag Chip. He was salivating at the $4-5 million program I described to him (is that enough? Probably not).""
According to a report by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Jack Abramoff commonly told Native American tribal clients to divert their funds through the Alexander Strategies Group. Earlier that October, Jack Abramoff had met with the legislative director of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe in Michigan. Representative John Sununu, now a sitting senator from New Hampshire, had served on the Appropriations Committee that helped draft the Department of Interior funding bill. In the section on Native American water claims, land claims, and miscellaneous payments, over $6,000,000 in funding was given to Michigan fishing in the Great Lakes.
The event occurred a day before the presentation of a Department of Interior funding bill to President George W. Bush for signing, and a week after the conference report settling differences between the House and the Senate. Abramoff wrote to fellow lobbyist Michael Scanlon on October 4, 2001 via e-mail, "I had dinner tonight with Chris Petras of Sag Chip. He was salivating at the $4-5 million program I described to him (is that enough? Probably not).""
Submission + - ISS dodges space junk for first time in five years
Kligat writes: For the first time in five years, the International Space Station has utilized the rockets on the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle to dodge leftover remnants of a defunct satellite. The Russian Cosmos-2421 was launched in June 2006 to track Western Navy vessels and is believed by NASA to have exploded, leaving 500 pieces of space debris.
Usually, the rockets on the ATV are used to take the ISS away from Earth's atmosphere and reduce drag. In this case, it had to take it downward because the ISS was already near the top of the acceptable range. Estimated probability of impact was 1 in 72, and an avoidance maneuver is called for if probability is greater than 1 in 10,000. It was predicted to pass the ISS within just a mile.
Usually, the rockets on the ATV are used to take the ISS away from Earth's atmosphere and reduce drag. In this case, it had to take it downward because the ISS was already near the top of the acceptable range. Estimated probability of impact was 1 in 72, and an avoidance maneuver is called for if probability is greater than 1 in 10,000. It was predicted to pass the ISS within just a mile.
Submission + - Cows Have Sixth Sense For Earth's Magnetism
Kligat writes: A study by the published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that cattle tend to face magnetic south or magnetic north, with some exceptions for days with strong wind or cold, sunny days. 8,510 cows were examined in 310 locations using satellite imagery from Google Earth, and 2,974 deer were examined using direct ground observations and photos.
