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Comment Re:What gave them the idea? -BATSE (Score 1) 153

by GammaRay Rob (#34838090) Attached to: Thunderstorms Proven To Create Antimatter

The Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on board the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory made many observations of TGFs from low-Earth orbit between 1991 and 2000. In fact, our second event after turning on the instrument was located to the Earth; very surprising, in view of the fact that we didn't expect *any*! The ironic part is that our main objects of study, gamma-ray bursts, were discovered by a series of satellites (Vela) that were monitoring the Earth (and the far side of the Moon) for gamma-rays indicating violations of the nuclear test ban treaty with the (then) Soviet Union. Seeing nothing from the Earth, the Los Alamos scientists looked for any other signal...

Comment Re:What gave them the idea? (Score 4, Informative) 153

by GammaRay Rob (#34835584) Attached to: Thunderstorms Proven To Create Antimatter

Terrestrial Gamma Flashes have been detected by orbiting instruments for some time; at least since 1991,iirc. What's new here is the definite signature of positron annihilation; this can only be done with a sufficiently large detector looking at the right energy. The Burst Monitor on Fermi was designed to catch the medium energies of gamma-ray bursts (as well as low- and high energies), so this was a nice add-on to the main science.
Image

English DJ Claims Wi-Fi Allergy 515

Posted by samzenpus from the TV-gives-me-hives dept.
path0$ writes "British Ex-DJ Steve Miller claims that his Wi-Fi allergy is making his life one big misery , forcing him to live in an iron-clad home far from any neighbors. According to the article, more and more people are suffering from an allergy like his. The only positive side to this is that at least Miller didn't think of suing anybody yet, like these people did, who claim to suffer from the same condition and were mentioned in a Slashdot article in 2008."
Earth

Natural Gas "Cleaning" Extracts Valuable Waste Carbon 73

Posted by timothy from the i'll-take-it-black dept.
Al writes "There's been a lot of focus on "clean coal" lately, but a Canadian start-up called Atlantic Hydrogen is developing a way to make natural gas more environmentally friendly. The process involves using a plasma reactor to separate hydrogen and methane in the gas. The procedure also turns carbon emissions into high-purity carbon black, a substance that is used to make inks, plastics and reinforced rubber products. Utility companies could potentially sell the carbon black, making the process more financially attractive."
Image

South Park Creators Given Signed Photo of Saddam Hussein 1297

Posted by samzenpus from the respect-my-authority dept.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, were given a very special gift by US marines: a signed photo of Saddam Hussein. During his captivity, the marines forced Saddam to repeatedly watch the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as the boyfriend of Satan. Stone said, "We're very proud of our signed Saddam picture and what it means. It's one of our biggest highlights."
PC Games (Games)

Crayon Physics Combines Science and Puzzles 78

Posted by Soulskill from the and-nobody-can-tell-how-bad-you-are-at-drawing dept.
IamAHack writes "NPR covered a new game that seems like it would have great appeal to Slashdot readers: Crayon Physics. Quoting: 'A new computer game went on sale this week. It's not a blockbuster like Halo or World of Warcraft. There's no first-person shooting, no sports, no guitar, no microphone. Instead, there's a crayon. The game is Crayon Physics Deluxe. It's a simple, mesmerizing game created by a 25-year-old independent games designer from Finland named Petri Purho. "It's a game where your crayon drawings come to life,' Purho tells NPR's Melissa Block. 'You draw stuff and your drawings behave physically correctly. As soon as you release the last button, the laws of physics are applied to your drawing."' A demo is available, and Opposable Thumbs has a review of the game."
Space

Black Holes Lead Galaxy Growth 50

Posted by kdawson from the why-did-the-galaxy-cross-the-road dept.
The AAS meeting in San Diego is producing lots of news on the astronomy front. Studying galaxies that were forming in the universe's first billion years, astronomers have solved a longstanding cosmic chicken-and-egg problem: which forms first, galaxies or the black holes at their cores? "'We finally have been able to measure black-hole and bulge masses in several galaxies seen as they were in the first billion years after the Big Bang, and the evidence suggests that the constant ratio seen nearby may not hold in the early Universe. The black holes in these young galaxies are much more massive compared to the bulges than those seen in the nearby Universe,"' said Fabian Walter of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Germany. 'The implication is that the black holes started growing first.'"
Linux Business

Ubuntu 8.10 Outperforms Windows Vista 689

Posted by timothy from the windows-probably-runs-more-windows-apps dept.
Anonymous writes "By now a lot has been reported on the new features and improvements in Ubuntu 8.10; it also looks like the OS is outperforming Vista in early benchmarking (Geekbench, boot times, etc.) At what point does this start to make a difference in the market place?" (And though there are lot of ways to benchmark computers, Ubuntu 8.10 with Compiz Fusion is certainly prettier on my Eee than the Windows XP that it came with.)

Comment Re:NASA-style journalism (Score 1) 134

by GammaRay Rob (#23810947) Attached to: Groundbreaking Solar Mission Faces Chilly Death

You can always tell when a story is based on a NASA press release. If the spacecraft exceeded its mission expectations, it's a "NASA spacecraft." But if it failed, it's a "Lockheed-built spacecraft" (or whichever contractor they decide to blame).

For a change it would be nice to see NASA give kudos to whatever contractor built the successful spacecraft for them.
Umm. some of NASA's spacecraft are delivered to the agency in-orbit, after checkout. Until then, they remain the property of the contractor. This is the case with GLAST, which was just launched, but will remain with General Dynamics until L+60 days.
Supercomputing

Submission + - Canadian Company Builds First Quantum Computer

Submitted by StarvingSE
StarvingSE writes: D-Wave Systems, Inc., based near Vancouver, claims to have built the world's first computer based on quantum physics. Its machine is described as a computer that can perform 64,000 calculations at once.

From the article: "There are certain classes of problems that can't be solved with digital computers," said Herb Martin, the firm's CEO, over a decidedly-noisy digital cell phone. "Digital computers are good at running programs; quantum computers are good at handling massive sets of variables."

Perhaps we are finally at the brink of a major breakthrough in supercomputing technology.
Security

Federal Panel [not NIST] Rejects Paper Trail For E-Voting 191

Posted by Zonk from the democracy-costs-too-much dept.
emil10001 writes "The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has rejected a proposal suggesting that electronic voting have a paper trail. The draft recommendation was developed by NIST scientists, who called out electronic voting machines as being 'impossible' to secure." From the article: "Committee member Brit Williams, who opposed the measure, said, 'You are talking about basically a reinstallation of the entire voting system hardware.' The proposal failed to obtain the 8 of 15 votes needed to pass. Five states — Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland and South Carolina — use machines without a paper record exclusively. Eleven states and the District either use them in some jurisdictions or allow voters to chose whether to use them or some other voting system." So ... accountability in voting will be a joke for the foreseeable future because it costs too much?
Update: 12/11 03:20 GMT by KD : Correction: It was not NIST that rejected NIST's recommendations, it was a federal panel chartered by Congress, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee.
The Courts

Judge To SCO — Quit Whining 156

Posted by kdawson from the and-wipe-your-nose dept.
chiark writes, "Back in June, the magistrate judge presiding over SCO vs IBM gutted SCO's claims, as discussed on Slashdot. SCO cried 'foul,' appealed to the District Judge, and today that judge has ruled against SCO, succinctly and concisely affirming every point of the original damning judgement. Also included in this ruling is the news that the Novell vs. SCO trial will go first: 'After deciding the pending dispositive motions in this case, and after deciding the dispositive motions in Novell, which should be fully briefed in May 2007, the court will set a trial date for any remaining claims in this action.' It's notable that the judge conducted the review using a more exhaustive standard than required out of an 'abundance of caution,' and still found against SCO." As Groklaw asks and answers: "What does it mean? It means SCO is toast."

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