Comment Re: What about the subsidies? (Score 1) 222
"Hitting the aluminum ore with electricity to get the oxygen out"? Sheesh! Might as well incorporate the cost of igniting supernovas to form the aluminum in the first place!
Comment Re:What a crock of *bleep!* (Score 1) 618
The Taliban pushes opiates, and some of that ends up in Russia. That's where the relation ends -- the Taliban aren't related to Krokodil.
In recent years, Russia has been more successful in limiting drug trafficking, which resulted in dwindling supply and soaring costs. Pair that up with addicts, and you get the perfect target audience for this terrible homebrew drug.
For those prescribing to the libertarian view on this subject -- consider what would happen if there were to be a sudden drop in supply due to, say, natural disaster... addicts will do everything to get their fix.
Pakastani Politician Detained By US Customs Over Opposition To Drone Strikes 560
First time accepted submitter Serious Callers Only writes "According to reports, Imran Khan was detained yesterday by US officials for questioning on his views on United States drone strikes in Pakistan. Glenn Greenwald writing for the guardian: 'On Saturday, Khan boarded a flight from Canada to New York in order to appear at a fundraising lunch and other events. But before the flight could take off, U.S. immigration officials removed him from the plane and detained him for two hours, causing him to miss the flight. On Twitter, Khan reported that he was "interrogated on [his] views on drones" and then added: "My stance is known. Drone attacks must stop." He then defiantly noted: "Missed flight and sad to miss the Fundraising lunch in NY but nothing will change my stance."'"
Ask Slashdot: Best Use For an Old Smartphone? 301
zaba writes "The original iPhone was a dream come true for me. Phone, camera, mp3 player and data all in one device. It had more cpu and memory than my first computer! Several generations of smartphones later, my wife and I have some random smartphones (some iPhone, some Android) lying around. Between privacy concerns, bad batteries, etc. these phones are not worthy of donation. So, I ask you, Slashdot readers, have you done anything fun with an old smartphone? Any suggestions/ideas?"
Next Mars Mission Selected For Funding 61
First time accepted submitter Dr Bip writes "Flush with the good news coming from Mars, NASA has announced that JPL has won funding for the next mission to Mars. It seems that the lander will be carrying a self-driving mole developed by the German space agency (DLR). Commiserations to the two other projects that were also in the selection finale (TiME and CHopper). Note the DLR mole's last attempt to get to Mars was with the Beagle 2 lander, fingers crossed for this second attempt."
Comment Re:Who cares about 2012? (Score 1) 179
converged timeline diagram from popular TV series and films: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/timelines/
Enjoy!
How Much Detail Is Too Much For Games? 201
jones_supa writes "Gamasutra editor Eric Schwarz gives thought to the constantly increasing amount of graphical detail in computer games. He notes how the cues leading the player can be hindered too much if they drown in the surroundings, making it harder for the game to hint whether the player is making progress. Consistent visual language helps to categorize various objects, making their meaning more obvious. Paths through the game world can be difficult to read simply due to dense vegetation. For some cases 'obfuscation through detail' can also actually work really well. Schwarz challenges us to ponder how the amount of detail makes a game either more or less enjoyable."
Comment Re:Article missed something (Score 1) 625
Hell, you could even send through avians carrying optical media. Justifies the "series of tubes" title.
Comment Re:LOL! (Score 1) 289
Irrelevant.
Small nuclear bombs generally impact part of a city -- no need for that city to be Jersualem. Tel Aviv would be just as bad.
That being said -- I think mutually assured destruction is what the next few decades have in store for both countries.
Comment Re:Oh, stop acting surprised, Iran (Score 1) 289
Right, because you would stake your national security on software that was never used in production.
Comment Re:Alan Garner as well (Score 1) 726
+1 on A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin. It is truly profound as a children's book. I assume OP wasn't looking for recommendations for his own sake, so SPOILERS BELOW (also: it's been years since I've read it, I'm sure there are inaccuracies).
One of the first things LeGuin tells us on the world of Earthsea, is that everything has a true name. Being able to name something by it's true name would give you power over it. Magic is not without checks and balances, though -- if a wizard were to bring in rains over the island where he resides, the neighboring island might experience a drought.
As an ambitious student of wizardry, Ged, the hero of the book, overreaches and summons a shadow from the netherworld. In the chaos that ensues, the shadow is banished from the academy, at the cost of the headmaster's life.
The hero of the story spends his early youth in the academy, atoning for his hubris, haunted by the evil he unleashed into the world, knowing that the shadow lies waiting outside its walls. When he graduates, he goes to a remote island. Not long after, the shadow (describes as a dark headless figure with the vague physic of a bear. I remember being scared shitless of it when I was 10) catches up with him, and he is forced to flee.
After migrating from island to island several times, trying to keep ahead of the shadow, Ged arrives at a realization (but LeGuin doesn't share that realization with us yet), and turns the tables on the shadow, chasing it instead (I remember asking myself if he'd gone insane). Surprisingly, the shadow flees, drifting over water towards the horizon.
Ged gives pursuit, and sails after him towards the horizon -- going far far away from land, until he finally catches up with the shadow at edge of the world, where the sky and the ocean finally meet, and the shadow can run no further.
Ged then addresses the shadow by it's true name -- Ged, his own name -- and he and the shadow merge together.
The moral of the story is: don't be afraid of your own shadow, don't run away from dealing with your problems -- especially those that come from within, and that coming to terms with your "shadow" is part of growing up. I was only able to have an intelligent discussion about the book after reading it as an adult, but I remember that reading it as a child was able to reach me through my guts, rather than my head -- the message came across without any need to verbalize it.
I remember when Harry Potter was at the peak of its hype, people mentioning Harry Potter to me would send me into sputtering tirades, comparing and contrasting with my reading experience of A Wizard of Earthsea as a kid. I think Harry Potter is a decent book series with an immense marketing machine -- I've got nothing against it, but I think it's not an exemplary children's literature. I think A Wizard of Earthsea is.
They don't make 'em like that no more.
Flesh-eating Bacteria Inspires Highly Selective Instant Adhesive 52
cylonlover writes "A strong and highly selective instant adhesive inspired by the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes has been developed by Oxford University researchers. S. pyogenes is a common resident of human throats that is normally kept in check by the body's defenses, but when it gets out of control it can cause diseases ranging from strep throat to toxic shock syndrome or flesh-eating disease. By engineering a protein that is central to S. pyogenes' infectious arsenal, the researchers have developed a new superglue that can't be matched for sticking molecules together and not letting go."
Why Can't We Put a BASIC On the Phone? 783
theodp writes "In the Sixties, we could put a man on the moon. Nowadays, laments jocastette, America's tech giants can't even put a BASIC on the phone. Woz managed to crank out a BASIC interpreter for the 6502 in the '70s. As did Bill Gates and Paul Allen. So, why — at a time when development has never been easier — can't Google, Apple, and Microsoft manage to support a free BASIC or other programming-for-the-masses development environment on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones?"
My limited experience with Android development showed using Java to be obtuse and downright obnoxious to do anything (at least without Eclipse, and even with it doing anything non-standard required digging through horrendous ant buildfiles). And, of course, without a REPL things were even more obnoxious. There is the android-scripting project, but it doesn't provide particularly exhaustive access to the platform.
Sand Dunes On Mars In Motion 55
TheNextCorner writes with news that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected ripples and shifts in the sand dunes on Mars, which means the surface of the planet is more dynamic than previously thought. Planetary scientist Nathan Bridges said, "Mars either has more gusts of wind than we knew about before, or the winds are capable of transporting more sand. We used to think of the sand on Mars as relatively immobile, so these new observations are changing our whole perspective." The article explains, "The air on Mars is thin, so stronger gusts of wind are needed to push a grain of sand. Wind-tunnel experiments have shown that a patch of sand would take winds of about 80 mph to move on Mars compared with only 10 mph on Earth. Measurements from the meteorology experiments on NASA's Viking landers in the 1970s and early 1980s, in addition to climate models, showed such winds should be rare on Mars."
MS Buying Yahoo? Bad Idea, Even At a Discount 141
jfruhlinger writes "Nearly four years ago, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo, but eventually withdrew the offer in the face of resistance from Yahoo's leadership. This week rumors resurfaced that Microsoft was once again bidding on the struggling Internet pioneer, this time for significantly less money. But even at a discount, it might be a pretty bad idea for Microsoft to get involved in the unfocused, money-losing Yahoo."
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