Comment Re:Because ... (Score 3, Funny) 212
Daemon Spawn at that.
Comment Re:State is probably best stated by the comics (Score 2, Funny) 138
we need to regulate speech then, exactly the same way we want to regulate firearms.
Only those authorized by the state ought to have speech. Safety First!
(this is largely sarcastic in nature)
Comment Especially since they curate the low relevance. (Score 1) 138
There has never been an explanation of the motive for enshittifying Slashdot. It would be far more profitable with quality moderation.
It's as if Slashdot's owners hate money. While I respect the desire to do less work, even AI would be an improvement. Nerds wanting news and stuff that matters are a very large market.
Comment Re:Umm... what are we talking about? (Score 2) 22
These threads are space filler and have been for decades.
Comment Still rocking their beige Natural keyboard (Score 1) 93
Since 1999. If Redmond built OS and applications as well as their hardware the world would be a better place.
Submission + - First Nuclear Clocks Start Ticking in Vienna and Beijing (phys.org)
necro81 writes: Two groups, one in Vienna and one in Beijing, have successfully demonstrated the world's first nuclear clocks. Standard atomic clocks, like the caesium clocks that define the second, operate by observing the transition of electrons between different orbits about the nucleus. The resulting radiation is usually in the microwave range, and can produce clocks accurate to one second in 100 billion years.
Nuclear clocks go a step further, and probe energy transitions within the nucleus itself. Nuclei can arrange their protons and neutrons into different configurations, called isomers. The isomer with the lowest energy is the one usually found; higher-energy ones are only metastable and decay quickly. Usually it takes serious energy — x-rays and gamma rays — to excite a nucleus into a higher-energy arrangement. It so happens that thorium-229 can be excited using UV light with a wavelength of 148 nm — just within the capabilities of some exotic lasers.
It's still been quite a challenge. For one thing, Th-229 is not found in nature; it must be extracted from the decay chain of uranium-235. The Beijing team used just a microgram mixed in a crystal of calcium fluoride.
Although these prototype nuclear clocks are not yet more accurate than existing atomic clocks (one second in millions, rather than billions, of years), they show the way towards what may be possible. Because the energy transition is in the nucleus, rather than the electron cloud, it is less susceptible to outside disturbances like magnetic fields. And the fundamental frequency is much higher (five orders of magnitude), which should yield more precise timing. This development could lead to smaller and more reliable time standards across the world (and solar system).
Nuclear clocks go a step further, and probe energy transitions within the nucleus itself. Nuclei can arrange their protons and neutrons into different configurations, called isomers. The isomer with the lowest energy is the one usually found; higher-energy ones are only metastable and decay quickly. Usually it takes serious energy — x-rays and gamma rays — to excite a nucleus into a higher-energy arrangement. It so happens that thorium-229 can be excited using UV light with a wavelength of 148 nm — just within the capabilities of some exotic lasers.
It's still been quite a challenge. For one thing, Th-229 is not found in nature; it must be extracted from the decay chain of uranium-235. The Beijing team used just a microgram mixed in a crystal of calcium fluoride.
Although these prototype nuclear clocks are not yet more accurate than existing atomic clocks (one second in millions, rather than billions, of years), they show the way towards what may be possible. Because the energy transition is in the nucleus, rather than the electron cloud, it is less susceptible to outside disturbances like magnetic fields. And the fundamental frequency is much higher (five orders of magnitude), which should yield more precise timing. This development could lead to smaller and more reliable time standards across the world (and solar system).
Comment B.C. resident (Score 1) 281
I live in B.C. and applaud losing the time change, but think the choice of time zones going forward wasn't the best.
I'm expecting major buyer's remorse this winter when people realize that the sun sets at 5 in December and January, and doesn't rise until 9.
...laura
Comment Re:10% EVERY year? (Score 1) 113
That does not seem reasonable or even likely. over 10 years, it would be 100% brighter? Really?
I don't mean to be so pedantic, but that just seems silly.
Those were my thoughts, but then I thought "How are they measuring 'brightness'?" I could certainly believe that if the pre-industrial night sky was measured at x lux, that we could be at tens or even hundreds of that now. The full moon provides about 500 times the light of all the stars, so adding just 1/100 of the light of the moon to an otherwise moonless night increases the light by a factor of five.
Comment Re:Change business/school/etc. hours (Score 1) 281
Time zones are needed anyway. There is no one time of day for the whole planet.
Maybe adding more adjustments is order though.
True, a single clock for the whole planet would have some big drawbacks, mostly because it is very convenient to have the date change while most people are sleeping rather than while most people are awake, but we could probably work quite well with less than a half dozen time zones to set our clocks to. One for the Americas, one for Europe and Africa, and one for East Asia, and one for West Asia would probably do it. With five or six sun-hours between the East and West of these new time zones, midnight can be kept well within most people's sleep time, and locals could decide what clock-time is best for whatever activities are taking place. In the middle of the zone people might tend to have their lunches around 12:00, while in the East they eat at 09:00 and in the West they eat at 15:00h.
I suppose a downside is that national Television schedules would not be able to be printed for the whole country. "The 5 O'Clock News" would need to change their branding. Canada has done this to a minor extent since forever, as Newfoundland and Labrador being half an hour off has makes it common to hear "Watch the new episode of Hip New Show! 9pm on Mondays, 9:30 in Newfoundland."
Comment Re:Change business/school/etc. hours (Score 1) 281
Yes this is what they do in China. The entire country spans several time zones, but the CCP declared that everyone is on Beijing time. So in some parts of the country a business might be open at 8 am, but in other parts it might be 10 or 11. So in the end having one time zone has all the same problems of time zones (have to track what effective time it is in different regions) and no advantage whatsoever.
I wouldn't say it has NO advantages - yes, in both cases when you plan a meeting you need to make sure everyone is available (which is also true if you live in the same house with everyone!), but if everyone is in the same time zone, you only need to check to see if everyone is available at the proposed time which can be done by asking them "Are you free at 11?"
This is MUCH easier than: "Are you free at 11?" - "Your time or my time?" - "My time." - "What time is that for me?" - "What time zone are you in?" - "I'm in Paris" - "How much different is Paris from New York?" - "Six hours" - "Which way?" - "Paris is later than New York" - "Are you free?" - "Yes, I am free" - "Oh crap, what date is this for?" - "Why?" - "Because Summer Time ends in Paris before DST ends in New York, so in late October there is only a five hour difference." - "What date exactly?" - "October 25, 2026 is when Paris goes off Summer Time, and November 1 is when New York changes." - "So is everyone free at 11, New York time on October 26?" - "I have no idea, I can't even remember which of us is in New York and who is in Paris".
Comment Re:Change business/school/etc. hours (Score 1) 281
Stop changing the clocks twice per year, but if there are reasons to set opening or closing times earlier or later, I am all for it. Sunlight at whatever-oclock isn't bright enough? Then start school at whatever-thirty or other appropriate time.
Sure, you could just change the time that school starts for the few months of winter. And the parents who need to get their kids ready for school and/or drop them off at school can change what time they show up for work. And since the workers are showing up at a different time, businesses can change what hours they're open. And since these changes all have to happen on the same day, you'll need someone to decide what days the time changes should happen.
Congratulations, you've just invented Daylight Saving Time, just with everyone needing to remember new start times instead of changing the clocks.
But would we make all those changes though? In every town? Twice per year? I doubt it very much - the reasons for making each of those changes is relatively weak, and the reasons for making them twice per year even weaker. If it makes sense in the winter to run school hours from 8:15 to 2:45, then do that ALL YEAR, and if it makes MORE sense to do it from 10:30 to 5:00 then do that, again all year. School start times in one of the local school boards already range from 8:15 to 9:30 in different schools - this is at 44.3N so significant sun shifting happens - clearly there is AT least 75 minutes of flexibility in the system already. The yearly time changes are NOT needed for these schools as demonstrated by the fact that there are students already starting one hour earlier or one hour later than other students, at all times of the year. Yeah, the people in Anchorage have less daylight to play with, but shifting the clock twice per year doesn't change that.
Pick a time, any time, and stick with it. Adjust your start and stop time for events as appropriate to your local conditions. There are already SIGNIFICANT number of people who live in places that do not change their clocks twice per year - most of Saskatchewan for example is effectively on Mountain Daylight Time all year long even through geographically it is closest to the Mountain Standard Time zone. Those people seem to have made it work, since 1966.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Anyone south of Saskatchewan needs to be able to point to significant existing problems in SK to justify changing their clocks twice per year.
Comment Re:Change business/school/etc. hours (Score 1) 281
Exactly. Base the time zones on GMT and adjust your daily schedule accordingly.
All of China does use one time zone, so that kind of thing is certainly possible. GMT has a lot going for it, but it feels kind of inconvenient for the date to change during daylight hours. GMT for Europe and Africa seems like it could work, maybe Alaska time for North America, giving midnight at 11 pm local for Hawaii, with the date changing happening in the wee hours for the rest of the continent.
Submission + - UK vegetables 20-50% less nutritious than in the 1960s (telegraph.co.uk)
Bruce66423 writes: 'The nutritional value of fruit and vegetables has fallen by up to 50pc since the Sixties because of declining soil quality, according to a new study.
'The study found that many crops had lost 20pc to 50pc of several key nutrients.
'Will Summers, a senior associate at the firm, said: “For 60 years we’ve measured food security in calories and tonnes per hectare.
'“On those measures we’ve done remarkably well. But we’ve been quietly hollowing out what’s inside our food.”
'The decrease in nutrient and vitamin value is thought to be down to declining soil quality and crops being selectively bred for their ability to grow quickly, rather than there being any focus on their health benefits.'
'The study found that many crops had lost 20pc to 50pc of several key nutrients.
'Will Summers, a senior associate at the firm, said: “For 60 years we’ve measured food security in calories and tonnes per hectare.
'“On those measures we’ve done remarkably well. But we’ve been quietly hollowing out what’s inside our food.”
'The decrease in nutrient and vitamin value is thought to be down to declining soil quality and crops being selectively bred for their ability to grow quickly, rather than there being any focus on their health benefits.'
Comment Change business/school/etc. hours (Score 1) 281
Stop changing the clocks twice per year, but if there are reasons to set opening or closing times earlier or later, I am all for it. Sunlight at whatever-oclock isn't bright enough? Then start school at whatever-thirty or other appropriate time.
The study could have been framed "it would be best to wake up later in the day" rather than "we should make the clocks read different numbers so that waking up at this particular number is better for us".
The problem is not that specific number correspond to particular positions of the sun, but rather than problem is that particular activities are tied to particular numbers on the clock. Framed this way, the solution is obvious, change the activities so they occur at other numbers on the clock.
Submission + - Wisconsin U–Madison Prof Francis Halzen named 2026 Nobel laureate in physi (wisc.edu)
schwit1 writes: Halzen is the principal investigator of the NSF IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the world’s largest — and perhaps strangest — telescope. The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded observatory is operated by an international collaboration of scientists led by the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center based at UW–Madison.
Embedded in a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice, IceCube uses thousands of light sensors to survey the universe for neutrinos, nearly massless particles that rarely interact with other matter. Neutrinos provide information about the workings of black holes, galaxies and other objects in the cosmos.
“IceCube is like no other telescope in the world,” says UW–Madison interim Chancellor Eric M. Wilcots. “And there is no other scientist quite like Francis Halzen, whose idea to create a neutrino detector under almost a mile of ice has led to a remarkable multinational and multi-institutional scientific collaboration and a fundamental shift in how we think about the universe.”
Embedded in a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice, IceCube uses thousands of light sensors to survey the universe for neutrinos, nearly massless particles that rarely interact with other matter. Neutrinos provide information about the workings of black holes, galaxies and other objects in the cosmos.
“IceCube is like no other telescope in the world,” says UW–Madison interim Chancellor Eric M. Wilcots. “And there is no other scientist quite like Francis Halzen, whose idea to create a neutrino detector under almost a mile of ice has led to a remarkable multinational and multi-institutional scientific collaboration and a fundamental shift in how we think about the universe.”
