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United States

Feds Want Nuclear Waste Train, But Don't Know Where It Would Go 258

Posted by samzenpus from the put-that-anywhere dept.
mdsolar writes with news of a plan to move radioactive waste from nuclear plants. The U.S. government is looking for trains to haul radioactive waste from nuclear power plants to disposal sites. Too bad those trains have nowhere to go. Putting the cart before the horse, the U.S. Department of Energy recently asked companies for ideas on how the government should get the rail cars needed to haul 150-ton casks filled with used, radioactive nuclear fuel. They won't be moving anytime soon. The latest government plans call for having an interim test storage site in 2021 and a long-term geologic depository in 2048. No one knows where those sites will be, but the Obama administration is already thinking about contracts to develop, test and certify the necessary rail equipment.

Comment Re:Arduino Uno (Score 2) 273

Sounds like you're mixing up 'USB Host' and 'USB Client' terminology. If you connected your ATmega to a PC and have it act as a USB joystick, it's a USB client device, not a host device. As far as I know, no Arduino supports acting as a USB Host in hardware. It can be emulated, or additional hardware (e.g. SparkFun's USB Host Shield) can be used, though.
The Internet

Ron Paul Asks UN For Help Geting Control of RonPaul.com Domain From Fans 611

Posted by samzenpus from the strange-bedfellows dept.
First time accepted submitter thoughtfulbloke writes "Ron Paul has gone to the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization to seize control of the RonPaul.com domain from the fans that built it up, rather than purchase it. From the article: 'The proprietors of RonPaul.com say they reached out to the retired politicain and offered him RonPaul.org as a free gift, but if he "insisted" on owning RonPaul.com then they would sell it to him. There was a catch, though. It would be part of a "liberty package" with the site's 170,000 person mailing list for... wait for it... $250,000. They think the price is totally worth it: '"
Australia

Australian Economists Predictions No Better Than Flipping a Coin 290

Posted by samzenpus from the best-guess dept.
First time accepted submitter ras writes "The Reserve Bank of Australia did some investigation into the accuracy of their economic predictions — the ones they use to run the country — with less than flattering results. '70 per cent of the RBA's forecasts for underlying inflation for the year ahead were close to the mark, but its predictions of economic growth were less accurate, and its unemployment rate estimates no better than [chance] ... The Reserve Bank employs numbers of people on very high pay and what they're admitting now is that their — all of this so-called science — has produced nothing more than what a roll of the dice could produce.'"
Science

Walk or Run: Are We Built To Be Lazy? 189

Posted by samzenpus from the taking-it-easy dept.
sciencehabit writes "A quick visit to Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks shows just how many ways humans (or at least British comedians) can think of to travel from point A to point B. So why don't we high kick our way to the bus stop or skip to the grocery store? New research suggests that there may be a deep biomechanical reason governing the gaits we choose in different situations. In short, people consistently choose to walk when they need to travel slower than 2 m/s to reach their goal in the given time; when they needed to move about 3 m/s or faster, they ran. But in between—in 'the twilight zone between walking and running'—people tended to mix the two gaits, minimizing their energy expenditure. The findings could help scientists design better prosthetic limbs and even build more human-like robots"

Comment Re:but (Score 3, Informative) 71

by Luuseens (#42615783) Attached to: Intel Demos Optical Data Transfer For Servers
You'll find that electrons will need a whole lot of time to 'travel from power supply to the motherboard'. As per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_electricity : "These speeds are on the order of millimeters per hour." It's the pulse (wave) that electron movement creates that is close to lightspeed, not the speed of electrons themselves.

Comment Russian (Score 5, Interesting) 514

by Luuseens (#42334757) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: 2nd Spoken/Written Language For Software Developer?
I would say Russian. It's my 3rd language (English being my second), and it has helped me a lot when searching for some specific info on the net. There is a wealth of information on programming to be found; especially if you are interested in security. This might be less relevant for you if you are looking for information that might be considered 'shady' (e.g. jailbreaking phones, breaking certain security features), but I've found it very helpful.

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