HairyNevus - Slashdot User

Submission + - Emperor Penguins Counted From Space (bbc.co.uk)

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HairyNevus

on Saturday April 14, 2012 @04:34PM

HairyNevus writes: "An international team of scientists used satellite technology to conduct a census of emperor penguin populations from outer space. Honing in on their colonies by looking for the brown patches of penguin guano that stand out in the snowy antarctic, high resolution images were taken and used to count the total number of emperor penguin species on the continent. The result was a census of 595,000 penguins, almost double the previous estimates of 270,000-350,000 emperors. This includes seven new colonies which had not been previously identified. Although this is uplifting data, computer modeling still shows that loss of ice flows in the northern reaches could result in problems for the penguins."

Submission + - Massive diamond found orbiting pulsar (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

HairyNevus

on Thursday August 25, 2011 @04:26PM

HairyNevus writes: "A recent survey of pulsars has revealed a fascinating discovery of a millisecond pulsar in system PSR J17191438 that has stripped a nearby white dwarf star down to its very core. Although no longer visible, is still has the mass of Jupiter. The remaining core rotates its neutron star companion with a period of just under 2 hours, indicating extremely close proximity. Given this distance, scientists have calculated that the substance of the core must be very compact, and, without building up the point, they conclude it is made of diamond.

One thing I found misleading about the article is that it refers to the core as having "the size of Jupiter" and "the mass of Jupiter". Given their different densities (diamond vs. mostly helium), it would seem clear that their size (i.e. volume) differs."

Submission + - Google Calls for Privacy Standards

Submitted by

HairyNevus

on Saturday September 15, 2007 @03:39PM

HairyNevus writes: "The Washington Post has an article detailing Google's request for international privacy standards. Apparently, Google is taking this matter up with the U.N. arguing that a multitude of privacy laws is only burdening Internet companies without protecting the consumers. Although Google is currently under investigation by the EU for its privacy practices, Google claims it has been a crusader for protecting consumer privacy. For example, they were the first search engine to strip identifying information from its search logs after 18 months. Google's privacy counsel Peter Fleischer called America's pricavy laws being "too complex and too much of a patchwork," and the European Union's laws being "too bureaucratic and inflexible." The alternative? Something closer to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's framework which "balances very carefully information privacy with business needs and commercial interests", according to Fleischer."

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