Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - Amazon Proposes Dedicated Airspace For Drones (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon has published two new position papers which lay out its vision for future drone regulation. Under Amazon's plan, altitudes under 200ft would be reserved for basic hobbyist drones and those used for things like videography and inspection. Altitudes between 200ft and 400ft would be designated for "well-equipped vehicles" capable of operating autonomously out of line of sight. They would need sophisticated GPS tracking, a stable data uplink, communications capabilities with other drones, and sensors to avoid collisions. This, of course, is where Amazon would want to operate its drone delivery fleet. From 400ft to 500ft would be a no-fly zone buffer between the drone airspace and integrated airspace. Amazon's plan also makes room for "predefined low-risk areas," where hobbyists and other low-tech drones can fly higher than the 200ft ceiling. "Additionally, it is Amazon's view that air traffic management operations should follow a 'managed by exception' approach. This means operators are always aware of what the fleet is doing, yet they only intervene in significant off-nominal cases."

Submission + - Newfound Bacteria Expands Tree of Life (quantamagazine.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It used to be that to find new forms of life, all you had to do was take a walk in the woods. Now it’s not so simple. The most conspicuous organisms have long since been cataloged and fixed on the tree of life, and the ones that remain undiscovered don’t give themselves up easily. You could spend all day by the same watering hole with the best scientific instruments and come up with nothing.

Maybe it’s not surprising, then, that when discoveries do occur, they sometimes come in torrents. Find a different way of looking, and novel forms of life appear everywhere.

A team of microbiologists based at the University of California, Berkeley, recently figured out one such new way of detecting life. At a stroke, their work expanded the number of known types — or phyla — of bacteria by nearly 50 percent, a dramatic change that indicates just how many forms of life on earth have escaped our notice so far.

Submission + - Two Years Later, White House Responds To 'Pardon Edward Snowden' Petition (whitehouse.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In June of 2013, a petition was posted to Whitehouse.gov demanding that Edward Snowden receive a full pardon for his leaks about the NSA and U.S. surveillance practices. The petition swiftly passed 100,000 signatures — the point at which the White House said it would respond to such petitions. For two years, the administration was silent, but now they've finally responded. In short: No, Edward Snowden won't be receiving a pardon. Lisa Monaco, the President's Advisor on Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, said, "Mr. Snowden's dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it. If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: Challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and — importantly — accept the consequences of his actions. He should come home to the United States, and be judged by a jury of his peers — not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime. Right now, he's running away from the consequences of his actions."

Comment Work only as long as you feel productive (Score 1) 311

by kandelar (#44907731) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Does Your Work Schedule Make You Unproductive?
If I have a clear understanding of what I am building and it is a fun project, I can code continuously for 12 hours a day. The rest of my life typically gets upset if I actually do that for too long but I do enjoy long coding sessions like that. However, if I don't have clear goals or the coding is boring, I have a lot less stamina and sometimes I don't have anything to show at the end of the day. Also, I notice that my diet very much affects my stamina now that I am older so I try to reduce carbs and sugars for lunch so that I don't go into a daze afterwards. All of this is true with design meetings as well. I guess at the end of the day - if I'm feeling productive, I can be productive. If I'm not, I won't. And... if I don't feel like I'm being productive, I have no compulsion on leaving, getting some fresh air, going home, or whatever is needed to re-energize, including taking off the rest of the day if need be. I complete my work and give my best so my manager trusts me to manage my time as needed.

Submission + - Snowden Nominated for Freedom of Thought Prize (en.rian.ru)

Submitted by DigitalKhaos23
DigitalKhaos23 writes: "Snowden is a candidate for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, which honors people or organizations for their work in the defense of human rights and freedom of thought." says the article. adding “Edward Snowden risked his life to confirm what we had long suspected regarding mass online surveillance, a major scandal of our times. He revealed details of violations of EU data protection law and fundamental rights.”

Submission + - Scientists silence extra chromosome in Down syndrome cells (scienceblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have silenced the extra copy of a chromosome that causes Down syndrome in laboratory stem cells, offering the first evidence that it may be possible to correct the genes responsible for the disorder. The discovery provides the first evidence that the underlying genetic defect responsible for Down syndrome can be suppressed in cells in culture.

Submission + - Disney's titling problem with its Star Wars movies (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When George Lucas produced his Star Wars movies, he subtitled them "Episode I", "Episode IV" etc. But that style will become inappropriate and confusing with Disney producing a new Star Wars movie each year, observes blogger Christopher Knight. "Those were individual chapters of one story in an epic fantasy setting. And it suffices for that one multi-generational epic on film. Except now, there is the intent to produce several stories in that same setting. And they aren't necessarily going to pertain to the tale of the Skywalker family from Anakin to Luke to whoever it will be in the next trilogy." Knight's solution is to retroactively amend the titles of Episodes I through IX to reflect it being the Skywalkers' saga, just as Lucas retroactively subtitled the first movie to be Episode IV.

Submission + - Hacker exposes evidence of widespread grade tampering in India (hackaday.com)

Submitted by Okian Warrior
Okian Warrior writes: Hackaday has a fascinating story about Indian college student Debarghya Das:

The ISC national examination, taken by 65,000 12th graders in India, is vitally important for each student’s future: a few points determines which university will accept you and which will reject you. One of [Debraghya]‘s friends asked if it was possible to see ISC grades before they were posted. [Debraghya] was able to download the exam records of nearly every student that took the test. Looking at the data, he also found evidence these grades were changed on a massive scale.
Science

Biological Computer Created at Stanford 89

Posted by samzenpus from the meat-machine dept.
sciencehabit writes "For the first time, synthetic biologists have created a genetic device that mimics one of the widgets on which all of modern electronics is based, the three-terminal transistor. Like standard electronic transistors, the new biological transistor is expected to work in many different biological circuit designs. This should make it easier for scientists to program cells to do everything from monitor pollutants and the progression of disease to turning on the output of medicines and biofuels."
The Internet

Submission + - Ship Anchor, Not Sabotaging Divers, Possibly Responsible for Outage (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "This week, Egypt caught three men in the process of severing an undersea fiber-optic cable. But Telecom Egypt executive manager Mohammed el-Nawawi told the private TV network CBC that the reason for the region’s slowdowns was not the alleged saboteurs — it was damage previously caused by a ship. On March 22, cable provider Seacom reported a cut in its Mediterranean cable connecting Southern and Eastern Africa, the Middle East and Asia to Europe; it later suggested that the most likely cause of the incident was a ship anchor, and that traffic was being routed around the cut, through other providers. But repairs to the cable took longer than expected, with the Seacom CEO announcing March 23 that the physical capability to connect additional capacity to services in Europe was “neither adequate nor stable enough,” and that it was competing with other providers. The repairs continued through March 27, after faults were found on the restoration system; that same day, Seacom denied that the outage could have been the work of the Egyptian divers, but said that the true cause won’t be known for weeks. “We think it is unlikely that the damage to our system was caused by sabotage,” the CEO wrote in a statement. “The reasons for this are the specific location, distance from shore, much greater depth, the presence of a large anchored vessel on the fault site which appears to be the cause of the damage and other characteristics of the event.”"
Games

Submission + - Bioshock: Infinite Released

Submitted by kandelar
kandelar writes: Bioshock: Infinite has finally been released many gamers (including myself) are rejoicing. The game is getting rave reviews and appears to be nothing less than perfect. Kudos to Ken Levine and the Irrational team.

Submission + - Hair: A Traveling Tape Recorder (pbs.org) 1

Submitted by kandelar
kandelar writes: PBS recently ran a story about how some scientists are using human hair to trace where a person has been. The combinations of different isotopes in water make for somewhat unique signatures from place to place. These isotopes get placed in growing hair strands which can then be traced back to identify where a person has been.
Image

University Offers Class In Zombie Studies 118

Posted by samzenpus from the brains-for-brains dept.
Young people at The University of Baltimore will be able to study the zombie condition thanks to the newly available English 333. Students in the class will watch 16 classic zombie films and read zombie comics. Instead of writing a final research paper they may write a script or draw storyboards for their own zombie movie. Unfortunately the class doesn't seems to cover brain appreciation.
Math

First Self-Replicating Creature Spawned In Conway's Game of Life 241

Posted by Soulskill from the emergent-gameplay dept.
Calopteryx writes "New Scientist has a story on a self-replicating entity which inhabits the mathematical universe known as the Game of Life. 'Dubbed Gemini, [Andrew Wade's] creature is made of two sets of identical structures, which sit at either end of the instruction tape. Each is a fraction of the size of the tape's length but, made up of two constructor arms and one "destructor," play a key role. Gemini's initial state contains three of these structures, plus a fourth that is incomplete. As the simulation progresses the incomplete structure begins to grow, while the structure at the start of the tape is demolished. The original Gemini continues to disassemble as the new one emerges, until after nearly 34 million generations, new life is born.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

Real Users find the one combination of bizarre input values that shuts down the system for days.

Close