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Ancient Star Found, Estimated at 13.2 Billion Years Old 377

raguirre writes "An article on Physorg.org reports that a newly found star may be as old as the universe itself. Recent studies have concluded that the Big Bang occurred somewhere in the neighborhood of 13.7 Billion years ago. The star, a heavy-elements laden fossil labeled HE 1523-0901 on charts was probably born right around the same time; approximately 13.2 Billion years ago. 'Today, astronomer Anna Frebel of the the University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory and her colleagues have deduced the star's age based on the amounts of radioactive elements it contains compared to certain other "anchor" elements, specifically europium, osmium and iridium.'"

Feed Fault-tolerant Web hosting on a shoestring (newsforge.com)

The words "fault-tolerant Web hosting" bring to mind hosting centers with multiple redundant power supplies, complex networking, and big bills. However, by taking advantage of the underlying fault-tolerance of the Internet, you can get a surprising level of reliability for little cost.

Feed MPAA Math: 40% Plus 70% Equals? (techdirt.com)

Ah, the MPAA and its ability to simply make up numbers continues. Last week, we noted that the MPAA was claiming that New York City was where 40% of camcorded movies came from, following earlier claims that 50% came from Canada. However, now that NYC has passed a law with tougher crimes for camcording (note this last passed just last week), apparently, the MPAA can now shift its numerical focus to Canada. Michael Geist points out that along with Warner Brothers' pointless decision to stop promo screenings in Canada, the studio is claiming that 70% of camcorded movies now come from Canada. 70%? Considering they were unwilling to back up earlier reports claiming 30%, 40% and 50% don't expect them to explain the 70% number either. However, we are wondering how the movie industry adds up the 70% coming from Canada with the 40% coming from New York City (not to mention all the camcorded movies from elsewhere) and still come up with 100%. Is there a reason that reporters never bother to ask the MPAA and its studio members to actually back up any of this stuff?
Math

Journal Journal: Antikythera Mechanism

The New Yorker has an article ( http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/14/070514fa_fact_seabrook?printable=true ) on the Antikythera Mechanism, a finely crafted mechicanical device from ancient Greece believed to have been used in astronomy.

Music

Submission + - Linux: A Musician's OS?

lazyeye writes: Keyboard Magazine has an in-depth article about the state of music production on Linux. While it does introduce Linux to the average musician, the article does get into some of the available music applications and music-oriented Linux distributions out there. From the opening paragraph:

You might think there's no way a free operating system written by volunteers could compete when it comes to music production. But in the past couple of years, all the tools you need to make music have arrived on Linux.
The Courts

Submission + - More developments in the Reiser murder case

Fahrvergnuugen writes: "Wired is running a story about how an ex-lover of the missing wife of accused spouse killer Hans Reiser has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case.

Reiser will stand trial for the murder. This development will undoubtedly complicate things."
Microsoft

Journal Journal: MS Propaganda - Linux vs Microsoft 2003 Server - too funny

By now, everyone must be quite familiar with the MS propaganda ads all over the net. Furthermore we've all seen them on /.. These are usually hyperlink driven invitations to compare MS product with the Linux equivalent. They provide bias supporting facts, even quotes that "prove" mICROSOFT products are better made, supported, cheaper and safer to operate. Not only these are paid for ads and most of the time are completely untrue, but this time I found one that's border line hil

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A method of solution is perfect if we can forsee from the start, and even prove, that following that method we shall attain our aim. -- Leibnitz

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