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Space

Jupiter Is Missing a Belt 187

Posted by CmdrTaco from the what-holds-up-its-pants dept.
mbone writes "Jupiter just went through Superior Conjunction (i.e., went behind the Sun as seen from the Earth), so it has been out of view for a while. Now that it has returned, it is different — the South Equatorial Belt (SEB) is missing. The SEB has about 10 times the surface area of the Earth, so this is not a small change. Here are a series of photos of Jupiter's new look. The Great Red Spot typically inhabits the southern border of the SEB, but it doesn't seem to be affected by the change. It's a pity that this happened at Superior Conjunction, and that there is no satellite in Jupiter orbit, so details of the change are largely missing. The SEB has previously gone missing in 1973 and 1990. Since no one really knows what makes the Jovian belts, no one knows why they disappear either. If the belts are really just material from deeper layers coming to the surface, it is possible that the convection has stopped for some reason, or that high-altitude clouds have covered it over."
Games

Whatever Happened To Second Life? 209

Posted by Soulskill from the i-blame-ralph dept.
Barence writes "It's desolate, dirty, and sex is outcast to a separate island. In this article, PC Pro's Barry Collins returns to Second Life to find out what went wrong, and why it's raking in more cash than ever before. It's a follow-up to a feature written three years ago, in which Collins spent a week living inside Second Life to see what the huge fuss at the time was all about. The difference three years can make is eye-opening."

Comment Candy is a gateway drug (Score 1) 205

by gogebic (#29690819) Attached to: Candy Linked To Violence In Study
Sonny: Man this yoo-hoo is good. You know what else is good? Smoking dope. I ain't gonna rat you out. You know. Puff a cheeba, go by the seesaw, smoke a jay, you know what I'm talking about. Kid 1: I have a bellybutton. Sonny: You have a bellybutton, we all have belly buttons. And we all love yoo-hoo. Especially yoo-hoo with a little rum. Kid 2: What's rum? Sonny: You don't know what rum is? Kid 2: Rumplestiltskin? Sonny: Rumplestiltskin....Rumplestiltskin was a good man. You're good kids. Stay clean, stay focused, stay strong. Have fun with your friends, Frankenstein. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Daddy_%28film%29)
Privacy

In UK, 12M Taxpayers Lost With USB Stick 258

Posted by kdawson from the and-your-little-data-too dept.
An anonymous reader tips a piece from the UK's Daily Mail that recounts another sad tale of the careless loss of massive amounts of private user data. "Ministers have been forced to order an emergency shutdown of a key Government computer system to protect millions of people's private details. The action was taken after a memory stick was found in a pub car park containing confidential passcodes to the online Government Gateway system, which covers everything from tax returns to parking tickets. An urgent investigation is now under way into how the stick, belonging to the company which runs the flagship system, came to be lost."

Comment If I were Dr Evil ... (Score 1) 129

by gogebic (#23947657) Attached to: Scandinavian Scientists Designing Robotic Snakes
If I were Dr Evil (gratuitous wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Evil), I would immediately invest 50% of my net worth into robotic snake research.

I would not rest until every man, woman, and child were at constant risk from robot-snake-carried explosives, lasers, poisons, and clenching razor-sharp titanium jaws.

Robotic snakes not just on *a* plane, but on *every* plane.

What an indescribably beautiful day for technology.

They'll never top this, never.

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