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Submission + - Munich students smashed the world record for EV distance on a single charge (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by FrankOVD
FrankOVD writes: At 103 miles/kWh, the car is 25 times more efficient than any EV on sale.

It must be the season for student-set world records. Earlier this week, we learned that a Swiss team of student engineers set a new world record for the fastest electric vehicle 0–62 mph (0–100 km/h) time. Today's story features another EV designed and built by students, this time from the Technical University of Munich, and they took a lot longer to set the record.

The car, called muc22, looks more conventional than the Swiss speedster, if only a little. The diminutive coupe in this case was built for efficiency, and in a six-day test at Munich airport, it set a new distance record on a single charge (for a non-solar EV): 1,599 miles (2,574 km), with less battery capacity than many plug-in hybrids—just 15.5 kWh.

Submission + - World's Largest Fusion Project Is in Big Trouble, New Documents Reveal (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It could be a new world record, although no one involved wants to talk about it. In the south of France, a collaboration among 35 countries has been birthing one of the largest and most ambitious scientific experiments ever conceived: the giant fusion power machine known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). But the only record ITER seems certain to set doesn’t involve “burning” plasma at temperatures 10 times higher than that of the sun’s core, keeping this “artificial star” ablaze and generating net energy for seconds at a time or any of fusion energy’s other spectacular and myriad prerequisites. Instead ITER is on the verge of a record-setting disaster as accumulated schedule slips and budget overruns threaten to make it the most delayed—and most cost-inflated—science project in history.

The ITER project formally began in 2006, when its international partners agreed to fund an estimated [$6.3 billion], 10-year plan that would have seen ITER come online in 2016. The most recent official cost estimate stands at more than [$22 billion], with ITER nominally turning on scarcely two years from now. Documents recently obtained via a lawsuit, however, imply that these figures are woefully outdated: ITER is not just facing several years’ worth of additional delays but also a growing internal recognition that the project’s remaining technical challenges are poised to send budgets spiraling even further out of control and successful operation ever further into the future.

The documents, drafted a year ago for a private meeting of the ITER Council, ITER’s governing body, show that at the time, the project was bracing for a three-year delay—a doubling of internal estimates prepared just six months earlier. And in the year since those documents were written, the already grim news out of ITER has unfortunately only gotten worse. Yet no one within the ITER Organization has been able to provide estimates of the additional delays, much less the extra expenses expected to result from them. Nor has anyone at the U.S. Department of Energy, which is in charge of the nation’s contributions to ITER, been able to do so. When contacted for this story, DOE officials did not respond to any questions by the time of publication.

Comment Re:Impressive. (Score 4, Insightful) 104

by phoenixwade (#63595554) Attached to: Pizza Startup Shuts Down After Raising $445 Million
it would depend on the Pizza, but my understandiong of the concept was that it was substantiall more than 'cooked frozen pizza' or 'Vending Machine' - I gathered that it was a set up designed to automate the prep and cooking of a ;lie as the truck was en-route to the delivery location, so that it was as close to a 'Hot out of the oven' pie as you could get at your office... with only a couple of minutes from oven to your desk. I rememebr the first time I heard about it, and thought 'They are going to get sued by Neal Stephenson' since driving a truck like that was the job Hiro was doing in 'Snow Crash'

Comment Re:Words, Not Communication (Score 1) 225

by phoenixwade (#37420936) Attached to: Wild Parrots Learning To Talk From Escaped Pet Birds

Parrots and other birds are trained very poorly via Pavlovian conditioning. That isn't the only type of training, and Model-Rival training works much more effectively on birds (which isn't to say anything about how it works on other animals).

I agree - and, although Alex was trained with Model Rival techniques, I prefer operant conditioning with my Macaws and Greys because of speed, each of our guys seem to get the idea faster with a target and click. Considering that I seem to be able to teach the physical behaviors better than verbal ones, I have to admit that I'm missing part of the puzzle.

Comment Re:Words, Not Communication (Score 1) 225

by phoenixwade (#37420836) Attached to: Wild Parrots Learning To Talk From Escaped Pet Birds

Alex was a special case. He had received decades of organized schooling from scientists, who I'd like to think make better teachers than birds.

You can be sure that the birds in this article are just mimicking sounds.

Alex was not a special case, excepting that he was the first to demonstrate that what we were wrong in what we thought the limits were. Dismissing Alex because he got years of education that other birds didn't get avoids the reality of what he represents. That education produces better results in communication and thinking skills isn't really all that surprising, in humans. What Alex demonstrated was that the abilities of non-humans can reach significantly higher levels than we ever thought was possible. Dr. Pepperburg is still working with Alexs flock mates, and produces similar results from them without the "decades" of training. This is not unlike humans, there is certainly a variation in what each individual is ultimately capable of, but if you don't know that a human is capable of math, you don't try to teach them, once know that the bar is higher then you strive for it, and, like human education, as you understand how to communicate with the student more, you can educate them faster. The systematic approach to teaching Parrots, particularly Greys, produces faster results, I'm sure, but that doesn't mean that the birds don't teach each other, they most assuredly do.

Comment Re:Most people don't travel or do business so glob (Score 1) 990

by phoenixwade (#37230202) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Could We Deal With the End of Time Zones?

...but if you want to buy a single drink, it's easier to say "a pint" or even "a 12-ounce cup" rather than "400 milliliters."

What's wrong with saying 4 deciliters?

Because people, as a whole, gravitate to simplicity. They want "a cup", "A pint" or some other simple group label when they do something repeatedly (like order a beer).. and if the simple thing doesn't exist, one will, inevitably evolve. and thus, the reference to "Folk" volumes appearing alongside the rigid measurements.
Security

Submission + - Security consultants warn about PROTECT-IP Act (nationaljournal.com)

Submitted by epee1221
epee1221 writes: Several security professionals released a paper (PDF) raising objections to the DNS filtering mandated by the proposed PROTECT-IP Act. The measure allows courts to require Internet service providers to redirect or block queries for a domain deemed to be infringing on IP laws. ISPs will not be able to improve DNS security using DNSSEC, a system for cryptographically signing DNS records to ensure their authenticity, as the sort of manipulation mandated by PROTECT-IP is the type of interference DNSSEC is meant to prevent. The paper notes that a DNS server which has been compromised by a cracker would be indistinguishable from one operating under a court order to alter its DNS responses. The measure also points to a possible fragmenting of the DNS system, effectively making domain names non-universal, and the DNS manipulation may lead to collateral damage (i.e. filtering an infringing domain may block access to non-infringing content). It is also pointed out that DNS filtering does not actually keep determined users from accessing content, as they can still access non-filtered DNS servers or directly enter the blocked site's IP address if it is known.

A statement by the MPAA disputes these claims, arguing that typical users lack the expertise to select a different DNS server and that the Internet must not be allowed to "decay into a lawless Wild West."

Paul Vixie, a coauthor of the paper, elaborates in his blog.

Comment Re:Are we assuming (Score 1) 492

by phoenixwade (#36589904) Attached to: Are Fake Geeks Dooming Real Ones?

I actually didn't even think about that. I just automatically assumed that she in fact is a history geek. I have no idea what that says about me.

It says you are a fan of at least one Kevin Costner movie..... "Who would claim to be that?" Here endeth the lesson... heh

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