Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Image

Genghis Khan, History's Greenest Conqueror 279

Posted by samzenpus from the taking-the-good-with-the-bad dept.
New research suggests that in addition to being one of history's cruelest conquerors, Genghis Khan may have been the greenest. It is estimated that the Mongol leader's invasions unintentionally scrubbed almost 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. From the article: "Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and an estimated 40 million people were slaughtered by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests. In other words, one effect of Genghis Khan's unrelenting invasion was widespread reforestation, and the re-growth of those forests meant that more carbon could be absorbed from the atmosphere." I guess everyone has their good points.
Earth

The Story of My As-Yet-Unverified Impact Crater 250

Posted by Soulskill from the dent-in-the-world dept.
tetrahedrassface writes "When I was very young, my dad took me on a trip to his parents' farm. He wanted to show me 'The Crater.' We walked a long way through second generation hardwoods and finally stood on the rim of a hole that has no equal in this area. As I grew up, I became more interested in The Crater, and would always tell friends about it. It is roughly 1,200 feet across and 120 feet deep, and has a strange vibe about it. When you walk up to it, you feel like something really big happened here. Either the mother of all caves is down there, or a large object smashed into this place a long, long time ago. I bought aerial photos when I was twelve and later sent images from GIS to a geologist at a local university. He pretty much laughed me out of his office, saying that it was a sinkhole. He did wish me luck, however. It may be sinkhole. Who knows? Last week I borrowed a metal detector and went poking around, and have found the strangest shrapnel pieces I have ever seen. They are composed of a metal that reacts strongly to acids. The largest piece so far reacted with tap water and dish-washing detergent. My second trip today yielded lots of strange new pieces of metal, and hopefully, one day the truth will be known. Backyard science is so much fun. And who knows; if it is indeed a cave, maybe Cerberus resides there."
Google

Google Caffeine Drops MapReduce, Adds "Colossus" 65

Posted by samzenpus from the time-to-upgrade dept.
An anonymous reader writes "With its new Caffeine search indexing system, Google has moved away from its MapReduce distributed number crunching platform in favor of a setup that mirrors database programming. The index is stored in Google's BigTable distributed database, and Caffeine allows for incremental changes to the database itself. The system also uses an update to the Google File System codenamed 'Colossus.'"

Comment Re:How is the porn part relevant? (Score 1) 263

by SgtSnorkel (#32283040) Attached to: FTC Takes Out Porn- and Botnet-Spewing ISP

This begs the question of who is more ignorant?

The word beg, when used in this phrase, does not mean "asking for something", instead it means to dodge or avoid.

"Begging the question (or petitio principii, "assuming the initial point") is a logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

What was that you were saying about ignorance?
Biotech

Chemical Cocktail Can Keep a Heart Viable 10 Days, Outside the Body 97

Posted by timothy from the with-very-few-exceptions-not-a-worm dept.
nj_peeps writes "Harvard professor Hemant Thatte has developed a cocktail of 21 chemical compounds that he calls Somah, derived from the Sanskrit for 'ambrosia of rejuvenation.' Using Somah, Thatte and his team have accomplished some amazing feats with pig hearts. They can keep the organ viable for transplant up to 10 days after harvest — far longer than the four-hour limit seen in hospitals today. Not only that, but using low temperatures and Somah, they were able to take a pig heart that was removed post mortem and get it to beat 24 hours later in the lab."
Biotech

"Cyber-Roach" Forces Rethink On Animal Movement 41

Posted by Soulskill from the living-under-your-cyber-fridge dept.
Lanxon writes "A team of researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in London has built a 'cyber-cockroach' (a cockroach wearing an accelerometer in a tiny backpack) to try and better understand the movements of many-legged animals. They found that unlike bipedal creatures, animals with more than two legs don't adjust their movements when walking over a softer surface." The academic paper is available from the Journal of Experimental Biology. This research will be helpful in finding better ways for multi-legged robots to navigate difficult terrain.
Image

Life-size Eva Unit 01 Being Built In Japan 80

Posted by samzenpus from the summon-godzilla dept.
JoshuaInNippon writes "Japan has gone life-size anime model crazy. Last year there was the robotic 1:1 Gundam model that guarded Tokyo for a few months in the summer to mark the series' 30th anniversary, and then there was the giant Gigantor moment that opened in Kobe in the fall in honor of the city's rejuvenation from the devastating 1995 earthquake. Now, an amusement park near Mt. Fuji named Fuji-Q Highland is building an Eva Unit 01 from the popular Neon Genesis Evangelion series, or at least a bust of it, in conjunction with the series' recent movies. The bust will sit in a replica hanger, and reportedly stand around 9 meters tall. Visitors will have the chance, for a little extra money, to have their photo taken in the unit's cockpit, where the series' protagonist-of-sorts Shinji Ikari normally sits. The attraction is set to a cost of over US$1.6 million to build, and open on July 23 of this year. It will also undoubtedly be swamped by crazed fans looking the opportunity to bring their anime dreams to life."

Comment basic misunderstanding of trademark (Score 1) 247

by SgtSnorkel (#27979675) Attached to: Lawsuit Says Google's Sale of Keywords Is Illegal

This is a basic (and common) misunderstanding of trademark law. It is not illegal to make money off of someone else's trademark. You just cannot confuse buyers into thinking your item is a product of the trademark owner.

Now, in practical terms, of the two competing companies, the one with the larger legal budget will likely prevail in court. . . but that's another argument.

Comment Re:Take the opposite approach... but go further (Score 2, Insightful) 751

by SgtSnorkel (#25294663) Attached to: Give Up the Fight For Personal Privacy?

This is the right approach, but not nearly elaborate enough. You must create multiple online personalities. Use them for different things, give them different personalities -- which leads to different screen names, passwords, addresses and phone numbers, etc.

This is not difficult to do, and kinda fun. For example, there are a number of online phone number services -- wouldn't part of you like to have a Las Vegas phone number?

Anyway, it's always a good idea to have a couple bank accounts -- get one that lets you create single-use credit card transaction numbers. Go from there.

Just try to not cross-contaminate your IDs (transferring funds from one to the other, calling on the wrong phone line, etc.)

Slashdot Top Deals

Anything free is worth what you pay for it.

Close