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Salad Spinner Made Into Life-Saving Centrifuge 87

lucidkoan writes "Two Rice University students have transformed a simple salad spinner into an electricity-free centrifuge that can be used to diagnose diseases on the cheap. Created by Lauren Theis and Lila Kerr, the ingenious DIY centrifuge is cobbled together using a salad spinner, some plastic lids, combs, yogurt containers, and a hot glue gun. The simple and easily-replicated design could be an invaluable tool for clinics in the developing world, enabling them to separate blood to detect diseases like anemia without electricity."
Role Playing (Games)

The Gamebook Writers Who Nearly Invented the MMO 72

mr_sifter writes "In the 1980s, gamebooks were all the rage, and most geeks have read through a Fighting Fantasy novel or two. You might even have heard of Fabled Lands, arguably the most ambitious gamebooks ever — it was planned as a series of 12 books, each representing a different area of the world, and players could roam freely from book to book. It was completely non-linear, and unless you died, there was no way to finish. In 1996, the authors, Dave Morris and Jamie Thompson, hooked up with game developer Eidos and started work on what would have been a ground-breaking computer game version of their books — an MMO, in other words. Unfortunately, development hell awaited. This article tells the story of the game that could have been WoW before Warcraft."

Comment Re:Maybe off topic, but I've just got to say... (Score 1) 175

I feel there is a big difference here. (granted I'm a Mormon so we can consider that bias) But the people who really oppose Scientology don't do it because the beliefs seem crazy they do it because the church (if you can call it a church) commits human rights violations, forces children to work in dangerous settings (asbestos), only allows the wealthy to progress in the church, and attacks anyone who tries to criticize the church. It doesn't have to do with the religion it has to do with the business. As for the Mormon beliefs there are some that I can understand people thinking are kind of out there but at the time of Christ the concept of someone dying and coming back to life was pretty out there as well. It's a matter of faith. Also whether you agree or disagree with Mormonism I would be interesting as to why you call it a mythology instead of a religion unless you feel that way towards all Christianity.

Comment Re:Maybe off topic, but I've just got to say... (Score 1) 175

Since your name is Orange Catholic I assume you're Catholic. So the Catholic church promotes Pre-marital sex? Interesting. Also I have honestly never heard about 14-year-old girls marrying elders of the church but I have heard about Catholic Priests and little boys. Didn't Jesus say something regarding beams, motes, and eyes? Now I'm not trying to slam the Catholic church just saying that the media fuels whichever story sells news and bigotry never lets truth or reason be an inconvenience.

Comment Re:Don't you want target ads? (Score 1) 175

Well while no ads is ideal I think we have to be realistic. For sites where I'm buying something anyways I agree there shouldn't be any ads because they're going to be making money from me but for free services like Hulu or Gmail I think we have to accept ads as the cost of free services. Now I also think that they should offer a way to pay to opt out of the ads but considering that if I watch a tv show on cable which I'm paying for that I get 15-20 min of ads per show and that on Hulu I don't think I've ever gotten more than 3 min of ads for an hour show I think that's a pretty fair trade off.

Comment Don't you want target ads? (Score 1) 175

So I guess my question on the ad portion of this topic is do you guys really care? I would rather see ads for products I'm interested in than things I'm not. On Hulu if it would let me choose between Best Buy and Tampax ads I'm gonna choose Best Buy every time. So I don't really mind that. The thing is that there is obviously a line somewhere along the way. For me that point was when I had emails about church meetings (I'm a Mormon and not ashamed of it) and the ads were for sites attacking my religion. For me that personally crossed a line but I really don't mind seeing ads for sports or tech instead of makeup and pads. Thoughts?

Comment Re:What do you expect? (Score 1) 1006

Think about it. When was the last time a well-known artist or author said "hey, I've made enough money on this work already, I'm going to release it into the public domain"?

Search Wikipedia for "Steal This Album!" Make sure to include the exclamation point or it points to a different article. That's the reason I didn't link to it because the ! gets cut off in the link and it points to the wrong page. To be clear I don't like the way that copyright laws are going but System of a Down proves that not all content creators are evil greedy monsters. Just 99% of them.

Comment Mormons are covered (Score 1) 721

I would like to point out that the Mormon religion already takes into account the existence of extra-terrestrial life. They believe that Christ under the direction of God the Father created many worlds and that Christ is the Savior of all of God's worlds and all the inhabitants therein. As to why Christ came to this world it's because it was the only world so wicked that it would crucify it's Savior. While you may disagree with this doctrine it is interesting that the church already has doctrines in place that allow for any eventual discovery of extra-terrestrial life.

Comment Re:I'm surprised nobody has said this yet, but.. (Score 1) 622

I am a practicing Mormon and really appreciate you speaking up on this. I don't know why people think we just suddenly decide to treat poorly anyone who has chosen to believe differently after having been a member. It's just an attempt by bigots to project their bigotry on the church to hide themselves.

Comment Re:I'm surprised nobody has said this yet, but.. (Score 1) 622

Look at Mormons. They shun their own family if they don't buy into their crap. Threatening to make you effectively dead to your whole (brainwashed) family - that's not extortion?

I've been a member of the "Mormon" church as you call it for over 20 years and I have a large number of family members who aren't members of my church and NEVER have I ever heard in church, from leaders or from just regular members, that we should do anything but show them the same love that Christ showed everyone when he was here. I get that bagging on Mormons is what all the cool kids have been doing since they're embittered about Prop 8 but try to get your facts at least reasonably straight. If we Mormons hate non-mormons so much why do we send millions of dollars of disaster relief and humanitarian aid to people who aren't members of our church? And we send it freely without forcing them to listen to a message or anything like that to get it. But no no you're right all the cool kids are pissing on Mormons so go feel included and popular and secure in your bigotry.

Comment Re:As I've said before. (Score 2, Insightful) 455

So if in some country, say India, it's illegal to eat beef I can come throw your ass in jail next time you're coming out of McDonalds? That's what we're talking about here. It's not even right or wrong it's a lack of jurisdiction. "Officer I swear it's a McChicken. Look in the bag. Look in the F'ing bag!"

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