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Submission + - Conway Conjecture Settled after 29-years (hatsya.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Ilkka Törmä and Ville Salo, a pair of researchers at the University of Turku in Finland, have found a finite configuration in Conway’s Game of Life such that, if it occurs within a universe at time T, it must have existed in that same position at time T1 (and therefore, by induction, at time 0).

Submission + - Funky Flying Wing Rotates 90degrees to go Supersonic (space.com)

Submitted by
Big Hairy Ian
Big Hairy Ian writes: "An aircraft that resembles a four-point ninja star could go into supersonic mode by simply turning 90 degrees in midair. The unusual "flying wing" concept has won $100,000 in NASA funding to trying becoming a reality for future passenger jet travel.

The supersonic, bidirectional flying wing idea comes from a team headed by Ge-Chen Zha, an aerospace engineer at Florida State University. He said the fuel-efficient aircraft could reach supersonic speeds without the thunderclap sound produced by a sonic boom — a major factor that previously limited where the supersonic Concorde passenger jet could fly over populated land masses."
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Submission + - Tokyo court deals win for Samsung (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
AmiMoJo
" rel="nofollow">AmiMoJo writes: "A court in Tokyo has ruled that Samsung Electronics did not infringe on a patent was related to transferring media content between devices. Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji dismissed the case filed by Apple in August, finding that Samsung was not in violation of Apple patents related to synchronising music and video data between devices and servers."

Comment Re:Dumb article (Score 1) 299

by jc42 (#38669178) Attached to: Should Science Rethink the Definition of "Life"?

So... fire is alive by your definition and a bumble bee drone isn't.

Huh? A (bumble)bee drone reproduces. Essentially, that's the only thing it does, and then it dies. But its descendants live on, starting from the fertilized eggs inside the drone's mate(s).

Fire does sorta throw water on the definition, though. It definitely "feeds", and reproduces in the sense of expanding. So do crystal formations, which aren't considered alive.

Methinks this definition needs a bit of revision. Maybe some actual biologists could chime in with something with better wording.

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