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Military Develops "Green" Cleaners For Terrorist Attack Sites 97

Posted by samzenpus from the ultra-concentrated dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Chemists with the US military have developed a set of ultra-strength cleaners to be used in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. The formulas are reportedly tough enough to get rid of nerve gas, mustard gas, radioactive isotopes, and anthrax. But they are also non-toxic, based on ingredients found in foods, cosmetics, and other consumer products."

Comment Re:What Chewbacca Really Means (Score 1) 584

by Zebano (#31689594) Attached to: How Smart Are You?
The real problem with the "smarter than average" and "super genius" categories is that they are not mutually exclusive. While that was implied, I was satisfied to choose above average. As an aside, I would be interested in correlating the use of the continue editing button to the chosen intelligence group.

Comment Re:George Carlin (Score 1) 584

by Zebano (#31689260) Attached to: How Smart Are You?
Nice job missing the word "how" but I believe you/George meant to say*:
"Think of how stupid the median guy is, and then realize that 50% of them are stupider than that!"

*I realize that median is a valid method of calculating average, but in common usage average refers to the arithmetic mean.
Businesses

Ideal, and Actual, IT Performance Metrics? 321

Posted by timothy from the spin-the-dial-shake-the-8-ball dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Recently it was revealed that our company measures IT performance by the time it takes to close trouble tickets. I consider IT's primary goal to be as transparent to the user as possible, thus this metric was rather troubling to me. Shouldn't we be focused on reducing calls, rather than simply closing them quickly? My question is: How is your IT performance measured, and how do you think it should be measured?"
Space

Junior-Sized Supernova Discovered By New York Teen 154

Posted by CmdrTaco from the so-many-prodigies dept.
Matt_dk writes "In November 2008, Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old student from upstate New York, discovered a supernova in a nearby galaxy, making her the youngest person ever to do so. Additional observations determined that the object, called SN 2008ha, is a new type of stellar explosion, 1000 times more powerful than a nova but 1000 times less powerful than a supernova. Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen."
The Almighty Buck

$33 Million In Poker Winnings Seized By US Govt 465

Posted by samzenpus from the mine-now-I-take-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A New York Times story reports that, 'Opening a new front in the government's battle against Internet gambling, federal prosecutors have asked four American banks to freeze tens of millions of dollars in payments owed to people who play poker online. ... "It's very aggressive, and I think it's a gamble on the part of the prosecutors," Mr. Rose said. He added that it was not clear what law would cover the seizure of money belonging to poker players, as opposed to the money of the companies involved.' Many players are reporting that their cashout checks have bounced."
Space

One Fifth of World's Population Can't See Milky Way At Night 612

Posted by timothy from the 80-20-rule dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos Magazine: "Light pollution has caused one-fifth of the world's population — mostly in Europe, Britain and the US — to lose their ability to see the Milky Way in the night sky. 'The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark location is part of our planet's natural heritage,' said Connie Walker, and astronomer from the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Yet 'more than one fifth of the world population, two thirds of the US population and one half of the European Union population have already lost naked eye visibility of the Milky Way.'"
PC Games (Games)

The Rise of Originality In MMOs 118

Posted by Soulskill from the there-go-my-chances-for-a-starcon-mmo dept.
Karen Hertzberg writes "Over the last half decade, gamers have been forced to wander through familiar worlds and universes. Studios have been licensing IPs left and right, grabbing everything from the Wheel of Time to Star Trek. Originality seemed to be a lost art, and although these worlds were fun to adventure in, many didn't hold the same sort of magical spell that original titles like EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot once enjoyed. But change is coming. Blizzard Entertainment revealed that their next MMO would be an original IP, and this year's E3 lineup featured more brand new games than titles derived from existing worlds. So, why the sudden shift? To answer that question, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody 'Micajah' Bye sent a number of questions to original IP development teams across the world."

Comment Re:Three options (Score 1) 1032

by Zebano (#26842865) Attached to: How To Keep Rats From Eating My Cables?
Not quite, but I had $9,500 in available credit on one card when I left college (with a balance of $3,200 that took awhile to pay off, ugg). I must say that I wish I only had $500 or so in credit at that time (I was young and stupid) so I couldn't have made the choices I made but that's blaming someone else for my failings.
United States

Submission + - Iowa seeks to remove electoral college (kcrg.com)

Submitted by Zebano
Zebano writes: Since changing the US constitution is too much work, the Iowa senate is considering a bill that would send all 7 of Iowa's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote in a presidential election. This would only go into affect after enough states totaling 270 electoral votes (enough to elect a president) adopted similar resolutions.

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