23020138
submission
s31523 writes:
When the residents of the Alaskan village of Kivalina woke up last week, the unexpected sight of an orange goo covering the surface of the water was quite alarming. Suspecting a oil spill or some other man-made disaster, the residents worried about the toxicity of the substance. After NOAA investigated, it was found the that goo is an unknown species of microscopic eggs. According to NOAA scientist Keep Rice, "We now think these are some sort of small crustacean egg or embryo, with a lipid oil droplet in the middle causing the orange color". More work is needed to identify what the eggs are and what caused them to show up.
22906256
submission
s31523 writes:
With China having 97% of the market share of rare earth elements, many countries are nervous about being able to get supplies of key elements needed for high tech gear. Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. has reported they have discovered a potential huge source of rare earth elements, right in the middle of the U.S. While the USGS reports that the U.S. has an estimated 13 million metric tonnes available for mining (about 1/3 of China's reserves), finding another regular source is crucial to global stability. The potential yield of the deposit, found in Nebraska, could be the world's largest source for Niobium and other rare earth elements. Could this be the next gold rush?
12623582
submission
s31523 writes:
The Mars rover Opportunity has beaten the original record of six years and 116 days operating on the surface of Mars, originally set by the Viking 1 Lander. While the Spirit rover has been on the surface even longer than the Opportunity by 3 weeks, it has been out of communication since March 22. If Spirit comes back online it will attain the new Martian surface longevity record. This feat, right on the heels of another longevity feat (Voyager 2 and twin on the verge of entering inter-stellar space and still kicking!) is healing some of NASA's past black-eyes. It is quite remarkable given the original spec of 90 days for the mission, and with the passing of the solstice warmer temperatures and more sun will likely mean the rover will continue on. God speed little rover, god speed.
6205855
submission
s31523 writes:
I love my current laptop, unfortunately, my last travel trip has caused the primary LCD display on the laptop to go bonkers.. It is an older Gateway (2Gigs Ram, Itel Pentium M 2.0Ghz, ATI M7). There are a handful of features I love about it:
1.) Hot-swappable drive bay. The drive bay has several components that can go in: CD/DVD R/W, Extra Battery, Floppy Drive, Extra Hard Drive, etc. Memory Card Reader. I especially dig the extra battery option (I can go 4-5 hours on battery power).
2.) Docking Station/Port Replicator. I like having my home setup with keyboard, network and DUAL screens. The dual monitor setup is absolutely needed.
3.) It runs Linux. OK, I am a wus, I actually have GRUB command 3 different OS's: Windows 98 (yes, I said Win 98; I have really old embedded software compilers that only run on 98, and yes I have tried every trick in the book to run them on Linux), Windows XP Pro, and Ubuntu.
I am trying to find a replacement setup that offers the same flexibility (i.e. I love the hot-swappable drive bay for battery versus CD/DVD R/W) and a little better performance. I am open to change as well, so, I ask the Slashdotters: "What is the Slashdotter's pick for best developers laptop under $1200, considering some of the features I mentioned?"
