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Comment Re:Screw dioxin (Score 1) 343

Covalently bonded molecules, such as water, use the quantitative prefix in front of both names. Hydrogen does not act as an alkali metal in this case. Also, compounds don't necessarily have one correct name, hydrogen hydroxide and hydroxic or hydroxylic acid are all acceptable, though rarely used.

Comment And I thought it was just me! (Score 1) 274

The Eris is the most disappointing piece of electronic equipment I have ever purchased, and that includes a Dreamcast. It is absurdly slow to respond to input, even in simply dialing a phone number. I have experienced the 'silent bug' many times since the update to 2.1, and since the phone requires 2-3 minutes to boot, I can understand the bug being devastating in an emergency. I would switch back to my ancient Samsung flip phone if I could only find its charger.

Comment Re:Still need cheaper Wi-fi chipsets for this to w (Score 1) 96

I would think that since almost every stationary object we would want to connect to the internet also needs electricity, broadband over power line would be best suited for it. A router and firewall in your breaker panel could handle access to the outside world. I wonder how small and cheap a BPL NIC could be? It would have to be small for things like a light switch, to fit in standard wall boxes. I don't see cost as a huge factor in the light switch example, Lutron already sells plenty of 30 dollar programmable dimming switches, and a typical commercial-grade switch that is used everywhere except homes is about 10 dollars. Only in residential applications do we see 50 cent switches and receptacles.
Math

Tying Knots With Light 125

thedreadedwiccan points out a summary of a recently released physics paper about tying knots with light. A pair of researchers showed that a relatively new solution to Maxwell's equations allows light to be twisted into stable loops. They are designing experiments to test the theory now, and it could have a big impact on fusion technology. The paper's abstract is available at Nature, though a subscription is required to see the rest. Quoting: "In special situations, however, the loops might be stable, such as if light travels through plasma instead of through free space. One of the problems that has plagued experimental nuclear fusion reactors is that the plasma at the heart of them moves faster and faster and tends to escape. That motion can be controlled with magnetic fields, but current methods to generate those fields still don't do the job. If Irvine and Bouwmeester's discovery could be used to generate fields that would send the plasma in closed, non-expanding loops and help contain it, 'that would be extremely spectacular,' Bouwmeester says."

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