Comment Re:Yeah... (Score 1) 1105
LALALALALA
FTFY.
Twitter Says Americans Are Happier In the Morning 88
DWF3046 writes "There are lots of things you can infer from Twitter. But while we're learning what we're eating or where we're flying, we haven't been able to use Twitter to determine how we're feeling. Researchers at Harvard and Northwestern have created a video that shows the mood in the US, as inferred using over 300 million tweets, over the course of the day. The results? The early morning and late evening appear to provide the highest levels of happiness. Geographically, the data points to a significantly happier west coast, which is consistently three hours behind the east coast."
Aral Sea May Recover; Dead Sea Needs a Lifeline 131
An anonymous reader writes "It's a tale of two seas. The drying up of the Aral Sea is considered one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in history, but the northern sector of the sea, at least, is showing signs of life. A dam completed in 2005 has increased the North Aral's span by 20 percent, and birds, fish, and people are all returning to the area. Meanwhile, the Dead Sea is still in the midst of precipitous decline, since too much water is being drawn out of the Jordan River for thirsty populations and crops. To keep the sea from shrinking more, scientists are pushing an ambitious scheme called the 'Red-Dead conduit,' which would channel huge amounts of water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. However, the environmental consequences of such a project may be troubling."
Man Put On "No-Fly List" While In Air To NYC 300
An unnamed man flying from Nigeria to New York City found out he was added to a no-fly list somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean, when the plane stopped to refuel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Officials won't say what he did or why he was added to the list after he had already boarded a flight. He was not immediately charged with a crime and Customs and Border Protection will only say that he is a "potential person of interest." From the article: "The man, a citizen of Gambia, was not on the no-fly list when he boarded the aircraft in Dakar, Senegal, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly."
Astronomer Offers Theory Into 400-Year-Old Lunar Mystery 66
webdoodle writes "An astronomer at Columbia University thinks he has solved a 400-year-old mystery: the origin of strange optical flashes seen on the moon's surface. These spots, called 'Transient Lunar Phenomenon' (TLP) by the astronomy community, have confused moon-gazers since the time of ancient scientists. Arlin Crotts now thinks that TLPs are something called 'outgassing', a process where trapped gasses escape to the lunar atmosphere. 'To arrive at his theory, Crotts correlated TLPs with known gas outbursts from the lunar surface as seen by several spacecraft, particularly NASA's Apollo 15 mission in 1971 and the robotic Lunar Prospector in 1998. What he discovered was a remarkable similarity in the pattern of outgassing event locations recorded by spacecraft across the face of the moon and reported TLP sites.'"
E-Voting Reform Bill Gaining Adherants 161
JeremyDuffy sends us to Ars Technica for a look at an e-voting bill making its way through Congress that is gaining the support of the likes of Ed Felten and the EFF. Quoting: "HR 811 features several requirements that will warm the hearts of geek activists. It bans the use of computerized voting machines that lack a voter-verified paper trail. It mandates that the paper records be the authoritative source in any recounts, and requires prominent notices reminding voters to double-check the paper record before leaving the polling place. It mandates automatic audits of at least three percent of all votes cast to detect discrepancies between the paper and electronic records. It bans voting machines that contain wireless networking hardware and prohibits connecting voting machines to the Internet. Finally, it requires that the source code for e-voting machines be made publicly available."
Apple, the New Microsoft? 703
VE3OGG writes "Apple, the ultimate source of cool. The marketers of slick. The next 'evil empire'? While it might sound goofy at first, Rolling Stone magazine is running an article that summarizes some very interesting points that detail how Apple could become the next technology bad guy. Among the reasons given: Apple's call to be rid of DRM (while continuing to use it in iTunes); Apple's perceived arrogance when they warned consumers not to upgrade to Vista, while not rushing to fix the problem themselves; and Apple's seemingly unstoppable market dominance in the form of the iPod. The iPhone featured heavily as well, a product that is months from release but steals the press from more competitive products. What do you think, could Apple eventually take the place of Microsoft?"
Governments, Beyond the Open Source Hype 180
An anonymous reader writes "ForeignPolicy.com takes a look at Open Source as it applies to governments and some of the reasons that a governing body may or may not like OSS. From the article: 'Governments around the world are enchanted by open-source software. Unlike proprietary software, for which the code is kept secret, the open-source variety can be copied, modified, and shared. [...] Trouble is, the benefits of open source are not always so clear-cut. Software is too complicated a creation to be captured in rhetoric, and assertions about some of the technical benefits of open source fail to tell the whole story.'"
Google: The Missing Manual, Second Edition 155
Graeme Williams writes "In thinking about Google:
The Missing Manual, Second Edition it occurred to me that the Google search
box is like the Tardis -- there's a lot more inside that little box
than you expect. Writing a manual for Google must have felt a little bit like
writing a Manual of Everything, and I'm not sure I'm qualified to review Everything. However, I did read the book, and found a lot I
didn't know about Google and using it. You will too." Read the rest of Graeme's review.
Comment Re:Geek explanation required. (Score 1) 224
When you heat a substance, it radiates, of course. This occurs due to electrons changing energy levels.
I beg your pardon, but you're wrong on this point.
Check out the Wikipedia article on blackbody radiation.
Blackbody radiation, also called thermal radiation, is not an electronic process. Rather, it is radiation emitted by any substance with a nonzero energy density.
You hinted earlier that the material around a blackbody might be stripped of electrons (i.e., ionized). This must certainly be the case, since the temperature of infalling material around a blackbody is much higher than the ionization temperature of hydrogen. Given that all the energy levels are empty, shouldn't an electronic emission from this material be impossible anyway?
The remarkable thing about thermal emission is that the spectrum doesn't depend on what kind of material is emitting. Check out this equation for the wavelength of peak emission of a blackbody spectrum:
T lambda_max = 0.002898 Kelvin meters
This equation suggests that getting X-rays from thermal emission is just a matter of getting the temperature high enough. To get 100 eV emission, for example, you need a temperature of about 250,000 Kelvin.
Slashdot Top Deals
The trouble with being punctual is that people think you have nothing more important to do.
