mauritzhansen - 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."

Comment Re:No alternative motive I am sure... (Score 1) 100

by mauritzhansen on Friday January 15, 2010 @12:52PM (#30780234) Attached to: Tech NGOs Working In Haiti

Hmm... Cellphone companies rushing to get infrastructure back up Hmm... Cellphone companies rushing to get infrastructure back up. They might be publicly saying "Lets get some help in there so that families can communicate and get the help they need". I am sure internally it is more like... "We are loosing a ton of money every day that the cellphone infrastructure is down. We need that up ASAP!"

This organization does not address general telecom infrastructure. Rather it establishes emergency telecommunications centers to serve UN, government, and NGO humanitarian workers.

Mexico Wants Payment For Aztec Images 325

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday January 07, 2010 @11:44PM from the montezuma's-latest-revenge dept.

innocent_white_lamb writes "Starbucks brought out a line of cups with prehistoric Aztec images on them. Now the government of Mexico wants them to pay for the use of the images. Does the copyright on an image last hundreds of years?"

Games Workshop Goes After Fan Site 174

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @05:03AM from the don't-anger-your-base dept.

mark.leaman writes "BoingBoing has a recent post regarding Games Workshop's aggressive posturing against fan sites featuring derivative work of their game products. 'Game publisher and miniature manufacturer Games Workshop just sent a cease and desist letter to boardgamegeek.com, telling them to remove all fan-made players' aids. This includes scenarios, rules summaries, inventory manifests, scans to help replace worn pieces — many of these created for long out of print, well-loved games...' As a lifelong hobby gamer of table, board, card and miniature games, I view this as pure heresy. It made me reject the idea of buying any Games Workshop (read Warhammer) products for my son this Christmas. Their fate was sealed, in terms of my wallet, after I Googled their shenanigans. In 2007 they forbid Warhammer fan films, this year they shut down Vassal Modules, and a while back they went after retailers as well. What ever happened to fair use?"

Nintendo Upset Over Nokia Game Emulation Video 189

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @02:45AM from the super-mario-takedown dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Nintendo is investigating potential copyright infringement by Nokia during some video demos of their N900 phone, which can be seen emulating Nintendo games. Nintendo spokesman Robert Saunders says: 'We take rigorous steps to protect our IP and our legal team will examine this to determine if any infringement has taken place.' In the video, Nokia says, 'Most publishers allow individual title usage, provided that the user is in possession of the original title.'"

China Launches First Willing Manned Mission Into Space 46

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 02, 2008 @02:18PM from the willing-participant dept.

Their program now includes helmets and food.

Submission + - South Africa appeals against ISO decision on OOXML (digistan.org)

Submitted by mauritzhansen on Friday May 23, 2008 @09:19AM

mauritzhansen writes: From http://www.digistan.org/
Steve Pepper (chairman of the Norwegian standards committee responsible for evaluating OOXML) reports that:

"The South African national standards body, SABS, has appealed against the result of the OOXML DIS 29500 ballot in ISO. In a letter sent to the General Secretary of the IEC (co-sponsor with ISO of JTC1), the SABS expresses its "deep concern over the increasing tendency of international organizations to use the JTC 1 process to circumvent the consensus-building process that is the cornerstone to the success and international acceptance of ISO and IEC standards."

Steve writes, "having resigned as Chairman of the Norwegian committee responsible for considering OOXML for exactly this reason, I congratulate South Africa on its willingness to stand up for the principles on which standardization work should be based."

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