kas - Slashdot User

Immaculate Conception In a Boa Constrictor 478

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 03, 2010 @11:33PM from the gold-frankincense-and-mice dept.

crudmonkey writes "Researchers have discovered a biological shocker: female boa constrictors are capable of giving birth asexually. But the surprise doesn't end there. The study in Biology Letters found that boa babies produced through this asexual reproduction — also known as parthenogenesis — sport a chromosomal oddity that researchers thought was impossible in reptiles. While researchers admit that the female in the study may have been a genetic freak, they say the findings should press researchers to re-think reptile reproduction. Virgin birth among reptiles, especially primitive ones like boas, they argue may be far commoner than ever expected."

The Rise of Small Nuclear Plants 490

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 20, 2010 @06:03PM from the small-neutrons-a-specialty dept.

ColdWetDog writes "The Oil Drum (one of the best sites to discuss the technical details of the Macondo Blowout) is typically focused on ramifications of petroleum use, and in particular the Peak Oil theory. They run short guest articles from time to time on various aspects of energy use and policies. Today they have an interesting article on small nuclear reactors with a refreshing amount of technical detail concerning their construction, use, and fueling. The author's major thesis: 'Pick up almost any book about nuclear energy and you will find that the prevailing wisdom is that nuclear plants must be very large in order to be competitive. This assumption is widely accepted, but, if its roots are understood, it can be effectively challenged. Recently, however, a growing body of plant designers, utility companies, government agencies, and financial players are recognizing that smaller plants can take advantage of greater opportunities to apply lessons learned, take advantage of the engineering and tooling savings possible with higher numbers of units, and better meet customer needs in terms of capacity additions and financing. The resulting systems are a welcome addition to the nuclear power plant menu, which has previously been limited to one size — extra large.'"

Google Launches a Data Prediction API 70

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 20, 2010 @10:00AM from the i-predict-they-launch-something-else-too dept.

databuff writes "Google has released a data prediction API. The service helps users leverage historical data to make predictions that can guide real-time decisions. According to Google, the API can be used for prediction tasks ranging from product recommendations to churn analysis (predicting which customers are likely to switch to another provider). The API involves three simple steps: upload the data, train the model, then generate predictions. The API is currently available on an invitation-only basis." Google also recently announced several other API additions, including Buzz, Fonts, and Storage.

Second Android-Based Phone Announced 204

Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 17, 2009 @09:59AM from the just-call-me dept.

Rob Lazzurs writes "The second 'Google phone' has been announced. While this does from the first look seem like a nice device, I know I would miss the keyboard. However, I would expect given the issues with the first device, the question on most G1 users lips will be 'Is the battery life any better?'" Update: 02/17 14:06 GMT by T : Reader Andrew Lim adds a link to CNet UK's hands-on pictures of HTC Magic including pictures of it next to a G1. Also on the upcoming cell phone front, reader Jack Spine writes "Dell is to launch a smartphone, according to AT&T chief Ralph de la Vega. Speaking at a Mobile World Congress panel discussion with Steve Ballmer, de la Vega said 'Dell announced they're entering the smartphone market,' — a bit of a slip, because Dell hasn't, yet." Update: 02/17 16:07 GMT by T : Now, according to Engadget, de la Vega says he was misquoted.

Comment Re:you're asking the wrong question (Score 1) 918

by kas on Tuesday July 29, 2008 @11:45AM (#24386487) Attached to: Modern LaTeX Replacement?

The fundamental "correctness" of TeX/LaTeX is beyond question, as there are no alternatives for scientific work that comes even close in quality and performance (except for variants found on CTAN of course). In particular, your underlying assumption that a "modern application" is bound to be better is nonsense.

That's not entirely true. A lot of TeX/LaTeX is "correct", but the fact that a TeX file can change the behaviour of the TeX parser is now widely considered to be bad design (in Knuth's defense, there were of course plenty of good reasons for this back when TeX got written). It is one of the reasons why it is so hard to make a TeX-compatible system without essentially being identical to TeX. Moreover, despite the small size of the TeX source code, reimplementing it in something more maintainable is a very tough job; the various "modules" are incredibly tightly coupled together.
However, if you are a good LaTeX citizen, and don't attempt to write complicated style files yourself, this of course hardly ever matters.

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