Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Idle

Submission + - Atheists/agnostics know more about religion (latimes.com)

Submitted by CrispyZorro
CrispyZorro writes: If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.

Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith."
Technology

Submission + - The Levytator – escalators go freeform (geek.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Escalators have been allowing us to go up and down between different levels since 1897 without breaking a sweat, but until now they had to be straight. The Levytator aims to fix that by allowing an escalator to twist and turn to fit just about any curve.

It is the world’s first freeform escalator and has been developed by Jack Levy, Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at City University London. The Levytator works by using a continuous loop of curved modules that can bend round any curve. And when we say any curve we mean it can even take on the shape of a DNA-like double helix so in the future you may be travelling around a pillar in a shopping mall, for example.
Privacy

Submission + - Stamps.com takes your info without your say-so (stamps.com)

Submitted by CrispyZorro
CrispyZorro writes: I recently received a call from stamps.com that started with something to the effect of, "This is so-and-so from Stamps.com. We noticed that you started a registration some time back and didn't complete it. I would like to talk to you a little about our website." This followed an email, that was sent a few days after my discontinued registration, bearing the subject "Complete your Stamps.com Account Registration." It seems clear to me that this website should not be holding onto data that was not explicitly submitted. Am I wrong here?
United States

Submission + - 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Ruled Unconstitutional (nytimes.com)

Submitted by pickens
pickens writes: The NY Times reports that Federal District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips has struck down rule passed in 1993 that limits the military’s ability to ask about the sexual orientation of service members, and allows homosexuals to serve, as long as they do not disclose their orientation and do not engage in homosexual acts. "The don't ask, don't tell act infringes the fundamental rights of United States service members in many ways," wrote Phillips. "iIn order to justify the encroachment on these rights, defendants faced the burden at trial of showing the don't ask, don't tell act was necessary to significantly further the government’s important interests in military readiness and unit cohesion. Defendants failed to meet that burden." The case, which was heard in July, involved testimony from six military officers who had been discharged because of the policy. One, Michael Almy, was an Air Force major who was serving his third tour of duty in Iraq when someone using his computer found at least one message to a man discussing homosexual conduct.
Google

Submission + - Google Instant: Anything But a Time-Saver (xconomy.com)

Submitted by waderoush
waderoush writes: This week Google rolled out 'Instant,' an overhaul of its core search engine that brings up results even before you're finished typing. Google claims that the new, AJAX-powered interface saves 2 to 5 seconds per search, or '3.5 billion seconds a day' if everyone were to use it. But some observers suspect Google Instant will have exactly the opposite effect, by design. Google Instant delivers 5 to 7 times more result pages per query, giving users many more unexpected alleys to explore. 'They are making the bet that users are going to be interested in having their question change on them in mid-typing,' search engine optimization expert Ray Grieselhuber says in the article. 'It may speed up each individual search, but it may cause you to spend more time searching in general.' The new interface is also likely to increase competition for common keywords among users of Google's AdWords advertising platform, driving up prices and boosting Google's revenues. All of which makes it easier to understand why Google has more than 50 engineers assigned to the project.

Slashdot Top Deals

Mystics always hope that science will some day overtake them. -- Booth Tarkington

Close