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Comment Re:Unearthed Plague (Score 1) 77

I thought that Yersinia Pestis has been known to be the organism responsible for the plague for a long time, this confirms it. From memory the theory was that the black plague was caused by a strain that was much more virulent than the one normally found now.

The article states that they have found bacterial DNA in 5 samples and are still looking for more to reassemble the genome of the plague bacterium so they can compare it to the current genome.

Music

What Happens To Our Musical Taste As We Age? 361

An anonymous reader writes: New research from Spotify and Echo Nest reveals that people start off listening to chart-topping pop music and branch off into all kinds of territory in their teens and early 20s, before their musical tastes start to calcify and become more rigid by their mid-30s. "Men, it turns out, give up popular music much more quickly than women. Men and women have similar musical listening tendencies through their teens, but men start shunning mainstream artists much sooner than women and to a greater degree."

Comment Re:Can someone explain how multinationals work? (Score 1) 132

Bludger: Australian slang for someone who lives off government handouts, and who refuses to work.

Wrong, its got nothing to do with handouts, there are plenty of bludgers who are "fully" employed.

A better definition:

Bludger: Someone who deliberately avoids work.

I've known bludgers who will spend more effort avoiding a job than it would have taken to complete it.

Comment Re:Delays destabilize the system (Score 2) 212

Bullshit!

This would be credible if the HFT guys bought everything and waited for a buyer to come along, then sold at a modest profit. This would add liquidity.

But they are not, they only buy when they know there is a real buyer in the market already, so they can get in and out quickly with their profit. As the buyer is already in the market they are not adding any liquidity that is not already there, they are just skimming.

I'm an electronics engineer and have had postgraduate courses on this. Any delay introduced in the feedback loop will tend to destabilize the system. HFT works fine, it provides liquidity to the market, it benefits everyone.

Patents

Submission + - Letter to abolish software patents in Australia (softwarefreedom.com.au)

Ben Sturmfels writes: "400 members of the Australian software industry have have signed an open letter, urging their government to abolish software patents. Signatories include free software luminaries Andrew Tridgell and Jonathan Oxer. In 2008 the Australian government began a Review of Patentable Subject Matter. While we missed the 2009 public consultation period, we hope to influence the government's response to the Review, due in February 2011. The letter will be presented to Minister Kim Carr in early August."

Comment Re:quit spreading FUD - try reading the GPL (Score 1) 266

Actually, it CAN be a heavy burden. For a company that is starting to use GPL code, and DOES wish to comply with the GPL, but has not historically distributed source, to their clients, much less, anyone who asks, this can be a significant burden because it lacks the distribution channels to do this professionally.

But by doing what you have done you acknowledge that the heavy burden of GPL compliance was more cost effective than rewriting the code you wanted.

You also now have the benefit of the ongoing GPL improvements to the code you are using, as well, by now having a GPL compliance mechanism in place you can use other GPLed code at no extra cost.

Idle

Submission + - Cutting steel with flaming bacon weapons

Ed Pegg writes: "For Popular Science , Theo Gray demonstrates the Bacon Lance, a flaming meatsword that can cut through steel. Yes, with some ordinary bacon, and some pure oxygen, it's possible to cut through security doors. This comes out right after his profusely illustrated book of science experiments, Mad Science . When he's not working on experiments or his periodic table, Theo's alter-ego is a mild-mannered programmer for Mathematica ."

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