puroresu - Slashdot User

Submission + - Irish Astronomers Investigate Sky Explosion

Submitted by puroresu on Sunday September 06, 2009 @05:53AM

puroresu writes: Astronomers in Ireland have appealed to the public to contact them with eyewitness accounts of a massive explosion in the sky over the country. From the BBC:

Astronomy Ireland chairman David Moore said: "So far, reports have been registered by residents in west Cork, Kerry, Cavan and as far north as Donegal, thus suggesting that this spectacular event may have been witnessed by people all over the country.

"In the past two decades there have been two major explosions in the skies over Ireland.

"When we investigated these, we were able to conclude that one was a Russian military satellite that exploded over the country, and the other was a rock from space

Submission + - Team Aims to Create Pure Evil AI (scientificamerican.com) 1

Submitted by puroresu on Friday August 14, 2009 @09:03AM

puroresu writes: Scientific American reports on the efforts of Selmer Bringsjord and his team at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who have been attempting to develop an AI possessed of an interesting character trait: pure evil.

"To be truly evil, someone must have sought to do harm by planning to commit some morally wrong action with no prompting from others (whether this person successfully executes his or her plan is beside the point). The evil person must have tried to carry out this plan with the hope of "causing considerable harm to others," Bringsjord says. Finally, "and most importantly," he adds, if this evil person were willing to analyze his or her reasons for wanting to commit this morally wrong action, these reasons would either prove to be incoherent, or they would reveal that the evil person knew he or she was doing something wrong and regarded the harm caused as a good thing."

Submission + - Migrating to a Freer Country? 2

Submitted by puroresu on Friday June 26, 2009 @05:47AM

puroresu writes: I currently reside in the UK. In recent years I've seen privacy, free expression and civil liberties steadily eroded, and I can't see anything changing for the better any time soon. With people being banned from the UK for expressing (admittedly reprehensible) opinions, the continuing efforts to implement mandatory ID cards and the prospect of a Conservative government in the near future, I'm seriously considering migrating to a less restrictive country.

Which countries would Slashdotters recommend in terms of freedom and privacy? Distance is not an issue, however a reasonable level of stability and provision of public services would be a bonus.

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