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Space

Submission + - What would REAL space combat look like? 13

Submitted by c0mpliant
c0mpliant writes: Me and two friends of mine were up until the wee hours of the morning at the weekend debating what REAL space combat would look like. I've spent the days looking it up online from a few sources and there doesn't seem to be any general concensus. So I thought I'd ask a community of peers what they think it would look like. Give our current technology and potential future technology, what shape would any future space battlefield look like? Would capital ships rule the day, cruisers, fighters and bombers or would it be a mix of all?
Space

Submission + - Astronomers Find Supermassive Black Hole Gobbling (motherboard.tv)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "It’s no surprise that black holes are basically celestial Cookie Monsters, gobbling anything and everything in sight. But because that appetite includes light itself, it’s incredibly rare for us to actually see a black hole suck back an interstellar treat. Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope have found just that: a mysterious, giant gas cloud that’s rapidly been pulled into the maw of a supermassive black hole.

The researchers, led by Reinhard Genzel of the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, discovered the cloud as part of a now 20-year ESO program tasked with tracking stars as they whirl around the supermassive black hole, known as Sgr A*, at the center of our galaxy."
Science

Submission + - Rats Feel Each Other's Pain (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Empathy lets us feel another person's pain and drives us to help ease it. But is empathy a uniquely human trait? For decades researchers have debated whether nonhuman animals possess this attribute. Now a new study shows that rats will free a trapped cagemate in distress. The results mean that these rodents can be used to help determine the genetic and physiological underpinnings of empathy in people.
Security

Submission + - Anonymous Threatens Robin Hood Attacks Against Ban (informationweek.com) 1

Submitted by
gManZboy
gManZboy writes: "Just in time for the holidays, hacktivist collective Anonymous has announced that it has teamed up with like-minded group TeaMp0isoN to donate to charity. The catch: they're using stolen credit data from big banks to make donations, in a campaign they're calling Operation Robin Hood.

Is the #OpRobinHood campaign for real, or like previous threats against Wall Street and Facebook, just another hoax? Aesthetically, at least, the OpRobinHood video ticks all of the traditional Anonymous aesthetic requirements: a mashed-up "p0isoaNoN" logo (green on black), a liberal dose of swelling choral music (via that movie trailer staple "Europa," by Globus), together with selected clips of Kevin Costner as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."

Submission + - Permafrost loss greater threat than deforestation? (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by Pierre Bezukhov
Pierre Bezukhov writes: Emissions from thawing permafrost may contribute more to global warming than deforestation this century, according to a commentary in the journal Nature.

Arctic warming of 7.5 degrees Celsius (13.5 degrees Fahrenheit) this century may unlock the equivalent of 380 billion tons of carbon dioxide as soils thaw, allowing carbon to escape as CO2 and methane, University of Florida and University of Alaska biologists wrote today in Nature. Two degrees of warming would release a third of that, they said.

The Arctic is an important harbinger of climate change because the United Nations calculates it’s warming at almost twice the average rate for the planet. The study adds to pressure on United Nations climate treaty negotiators from more than 190 countries attending two weeks of talks in Durban, South Africa that began Nov. 28.
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Video game consoles are 'fundamentally doomed' (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: Microsoft just sold nearly one million Xbox 360 consoles last week alone, but we’re nearing the end of the road for video game consoles according to one industry visionary. Richard Garriott, known for having created the fantasy role-playing franchise Ultima and the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Tabula Rasa, says converged devices such as computers, smartphones and tablets will soon render dedicated game consoles obsolete...
Television

Why TV Lost 576

Posted by timothy from the l-for-love dept.
theodp writes "Over the past 20 years, there's been much speculation about what the convergence of computers and TV would ultimately look like. Paul Graham says that we now know the answer: computers. 'Convergence' is turning out to essentially be 'replacement.' Why did TV lose? Graham identifies four forces: 1. The Internet's open platform fosters innovation at hacker speeds instead of big company speeds. 2. Moore's Law worked its magic on Internet bandwidth. 3. Piracy taught a new generation of users it's more convenient to watch shows on a computer screen. 4. Social applications made everybody from grandmas to 14-year-old girls want computers — in a three-word-nutshell, Facebook killed TV."
Portables

Submission + - World's Smallest Projector Set for Launch (pcmag.com)

Submitted by
SkinnyGuy
SkinnyGuy writes: "Mixed into all of PCMag's CES preview coverage is an interesting story about a projector that's no bigger than an iPod. An early version showed up at last year's CES, but some of the guts weren't inside the small body. Now they are. It uses, I think, lasers to project the image. Really fascinating, futuristic stuff."
United States

Submission + - Japanese Stealth Fighter: Return of the Zero (inventorspot.com)

Submitted by
reporter
reporter writes: "According to a news article by the Associated Press, Tokyo has begun developing an indigenous stealth jet-fighter that will be deployed in 2016. Mitsubishi, the prime contractor, has already developed a full-scale model, of which several pictures have been accidentally leaked to the press. The model is named "Mitsubishi ATD-X". A laboratory of the French government has evaluated the "stealthy-ness" of ATD-X.

Will ATD-X achieve air superiority over the F-22, which Washington refuses to sell to Tokyo?"
Movies

Videogames Make Better Horror Than Movies? 225

Posted by Zonk from the i-scream-you-scream-we-all-scream dept.
Wired author Clive Thompson has up an article stating that, with today's jaded audiences, videogames are more effective horror-conveyances than movies. Thompson argues that the removal of the fourth wall, placing the player directly into the story, overcomes the obstacles movie-makers face when telling a scary story. "I'll start down a corridor, hear something freaky up ahead, then freeze in panic. Maybe if I stay quiet the monster will go away? S^!t, maybe it's already headed this way, and I should move! But if I move the monster will hear me ... so maybe I should stay quiet ... gaaaaah! Games already seem like dream states. You're wandering around a strange new world, where you simultaneously are and aren't yourself. This is already an inherently uncanny experience. That's why a well-made horror game feels so claustrophobically like being locked inside a really bad -- by which I mean a really good -- nightmare." Do you agree? Is your favorite scary tale a movie ... or a game? (Silent Hill, I'm looking at you.)
Space

Submission + - Borexino, the Sun neutrino hunter

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "An international team of more than 100 researchers has used the huge Borexino detector to detect low-energy solar neutrinos for the first time. These results confirm recent 'theories about the nature of neutrinos and the inner workings of the sun and other stars.' In particular, it's now almost certain that neutrinos oscillate between three types, namely electron, muon and tau neutrinos. The Borexino detector used for these discoveries is located near L'Aquila, Italy. It is a 18-meter-diameter dome shielded by 2,400 tonnes of purified water and lying more than a kilometer underground to block interferences with cosmic rays. Read more for additional references and a diagram showing the various components of the Borexino detector, one of the deepest laboratories in the world."
Portables

Submission + - Dell laptops still exploding (consumeraffairs.com)

Submitted by
bl8n8r
bl8n8r writes: "It "looked like fireworks which would have been cool had it not been in my house." said Doug Brown of Columbus, Ohio. Brown, a Network Administrator, called 911 last week when the Dell 9200 laptop burst into flames in his house. Emergency response units included two pumpers, a ladder truck, a bamalance, the HAZMAT unit, and a battalion chief. When Doug phoned Dell to inquire about liability, he was asked if he had insurance. It's not clear if Doug's laptop is one of the earlier models recalled by Dell; a Macbook is cited in TFA for allegedly burning down a house in Australia as well as another instance of a suspect Dell laptop burning down a pickup truck in Nevada. If the burning battery issues are going to continue to be a problem, who's going to be responsible for losses? Insurance companies, Laptop makers, Battery vendors, and consumer negligence could presumably be cited in all cases."
Data Storage

Submission + - Seagate to offer solid state drives in 2008 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "Seagate will introduce drives based on flash memory in various storage capacities across its range of products including desktop and notebook PCs, according to Sumner Lemon at IDG News Service. The drives are expected to consume less power (longer battery life), offer faster data transfer rates and be more rugged than spinning disk, which has moving parts that can be damaged from an impact."

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