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Comment Re:Headline is a little misleading (Score 0) 529

by philcheesesteak (#41645449) Attached to: Physicists Devise Test For Whether the Universe Is a Simulation
Couldn't they just reduce the clock speed for the entire simulation if we did that? We wouldn't notice because everything would be equally slower, and they could use the extra cycles to give us the proper factors. Whether they'd be willing to do that, though, could be the real test.
NASA

Submission + - Curious NASA Pre-Announcement (nasa.gov) 2

Submitted by CrtxReavr
CrtxReavr writes: 'NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.'
Idle

Submission + - Disguised Asian Male Caught At Canadian Airport (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A young male of Asian appearance was caught in disguise during a flight from Hong Kong to Canada. The disguise consisted of a molded silicone face and neck mask, hat, glasses and cardigan. An intelligence alert (PDF) from Canada Border Services Agency contains photos of the man with and without the disguise as well as further details of the incident. Suspicions were raised at the start of the flight when the subject was noted as having an elderly appearance that didn't match his hands of youthful appearance. Later in the flight the subject entered an aircraft washroom to remove the disguise and was caught emerging as an early 20's Asian male. This disguise is more elaborate than those used by the suspected perpetrators of the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai, January 2010. Will the continued introduction of biometric passport security deprecate the use of disguises or will disguises simply become more sophisticated?
Science

Submission + - SPAM: Golden ratio discovered in a quantum world

Submitted by
FiReaNGeL
FiReaNGeL writes: "Scientist have for the first time observed a nanoscale symmetry hidden in solid state matter. By artificially introducing more quantum uncertainty the researchers observed that the chain of atoms of cobalt niobate acts like a nanoscale guitar string. The first two notes show a perfect relationship with each other. Their frequencies (pitch) are in the ratio of 1.618, which is the golden ratio famous from art and architecture. The observed resonant states in cobalt niobate are a dramatic laboratory illustration of the way in which mathematical theories developed for particle physics may find application in nanoscale science and ultimately in future technology."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - TSA: Keep Your Hands Where We Can See Them (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Courtesy of Yahoo News: Some airlines were telling passengers on Saturday that new government security regulations prohibit them from leaving their seats beginning an hour before landing The regulations are a response to a suspected terrorism incident on Christmas Day. Air Canada said in a statement that new rules imposed by the Transportation Security Administration limit on-board activities by passengers and crew in U.S. airspace...Flight attendants on some domestic flights are informing passengers of similar rules. Passengers on a flight from New York to Tampa Saturday morning were also told they must remain in their seats and couldn't have items in their laps, including laptops and pillows.

I seriously thought this was an Onion article at first.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Star Trek Synthehol beta goes into development (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Ada_Rules
Ada_Rules writes: Researchers at the Imperial College London have announced development of an alcohol substitute that has many of the same properties as the Sythehol from the series Star Trek in that one will get a buzz from it but will not end up with a hangover. In addition you will have the option of getting immediately sober if you so desire it.

Let's hope this is not the typical vaporware. It is not that I really want a drink of Synthehol but with its release I assume Romulan Ale won't be far behind.
Math

Submission + - Grigory Perelman and the Poincare Conjecture (failuremag.com) 1

Submitted by EagleHasLanded
EagleHasLanded writes: Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman doesn't talk to journalists. Actually, he doesn't talk to anyone anymore. So we'll have to settle for insights via his biographer, Masha Gessen, who, strangely enough, has never talked to him either. But she has spoken with just about everyone who has ever had any significant interaction with Perelman, and the result is the book 'Perfect Rigor,' which more than adequately explains why Perelman has gone into self-imposed exile, and why he hasn't collected the million dollars owed him for solving the Poincare Conjecture.
Google

Submission + - 'Nexus One' Is First Google's Android Phone (wiseandroid.com)

Submitted by xchg
xchg writes: It's still not called the "Google Phone", but the Nexus One — to be made by HTC — is as close as I think we're going to get. The WSJ cites sources familiar with Google's plans and says that Google has designed this handset and plans to sell it directly to consumers, unlocked.

Comment Re:Bad news (Score 1) 77

by philcheesesteak (#30418474) Attached to: Open Source Hardware Projects, 2009
I'm also a firm believer in the free market, but unfortunately software (operating systems in particular) does not seem to follow that model. The most versatile, powerful, and reliable operating system has been available free of charge for nearly 20 years - but most users are fairly entrenched in the "mindshare" of the major OS makers.

Mind_share

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"Nature is very un-American. Nature never hurries." -- William George Jordan

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