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Space

Submission + - Massive Black Hole Devours Star (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by H3xx
H3xx writes: Astronomers have observed a black hole shredding a star and sending a powerful beam of energy towards Earth. When it was first observed March 28th by the Swift spacecraft, it was thought to be the implosion of an aging star, but is now believed to be the result of a star wandering too close to a black hold, imploding and converting 10% of the star's mass into gamma radiation. The energy burst is still visible by telescope more than two-and-a-half months later, the researchers report in the journal Science.

Comment Re:Tl, dr (Score 1) 294

by H3xx (#35225704) Attached to: Compared and Contrasted: OpenOffice V. LibreOffice

To summarize the summary of the summary: They're the same.

So what if they're the same? Most source forks in the F/OSS world don't fall far from the tree, so to speak. Just look at what happened to Ethereal and Wireshark, or Netscape Navigator and Mozilla (the browser).

Give it time—LibreOffice is still a young'un yet and is still growing into its own. It already hates its parents so it's pretty much already an adolescent.
Earth

Living Earth Simulator Aims To Simulate Everything 241

Posted by timothy from the why-didn't-the-mice-think-of-that? dept.
H3xx writes "An international group of scientists is aiming to create a simulator — nicknamed The Living Earth Simulator — that will collect data from billions of sources and use it to replicate everything happening on Earth, from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on highways. The project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world. Perhaps this is Asimov's concept of Psychohistory come to fruition."
Science

Submission + - Living Earth Simulator Aims to Simulate Everything (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by H3xx
H3xx writes: An international group of scientists are aiming to create a simulator--nicknamed The Living Earth Simulator--that will collect data from billions of sources and use it to replicate everything happening on Earth, from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on highways. The project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world. Perhaps this is Asimov's concept of Psychohistory come to fruition.
Biotech

New Tech Promises Cheap Gene Sequencing In Minutes 121

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-i-want-it-now dept.
Zothecula writes "Sequencing an entire genome is currently a highly complex, time-consuming process – the DNA must be broken down into segments and replicated, utilizing chemicals that destroy the original sample. Scientists from Imperial College London, however, have just announced the development of a prototype device that could lead to technology capable of sequencing a human genome within minutes, at a cost of just a few dollars. By contrast, when sequencing of the genome of Dr. James Watson (co-discoverer of the structure of DNA) was completed in 2007, it had taken two years and cost US$1 million."

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"Card readers? We don't need no stinking card readers." -- Peter da Silva (at the National Academy of Sciencies, 1965, in a particularly vivid fantasy)

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