TSA Pats Down 3-Year-Old 1135

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 17, 2010 @02:09PM from the security-theater dept.

3-year-old Mandy Simon started crying when her teddy bear had to go through the X-ray machine at airport security in Chattanooga, Tenn. She was so upset that she refused to go calmly through the metal detector, setting it off twice. Agents then informed her parents that she "must be hand-searched." The subsequent TSA employee pat down of the screaming child was captured by her father, who happens to be a reporter, on his cell phone. The video have left some questioning why better procedures for children aren't in place. I, for one, feel much safer knowing the TSA is protecting us from impressionable minds warped by too much Dora the Explorer.

Sound As the New Illegal Narcotic? 561

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday July 15, 2010 @12:46PM from the you-ever-see-the-back-of-a-$20-bill-on-sound? dept.

ehrichweiss writes "The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics is warning parents and teachers of a new threat to our children: sounds. Apparently kids are now discovering binaural beats and using them to get 'physiological effects.' The report goes on with everyone suggesting that such aural experiences will act as a gateway to drug usage and even has one student claiming there are 'demons' involved. Anyone who has used one of those light/sound machines knows all about the effects that these sounds will give and to state that they will lead kids to do drugs is nonsense at best. It seems the trend in scaring the citizens with a made-up problem has gone to the next level."

Google Street View Shoots the Same Woman 43 Times 106

Posted by samzenpus on Monday April 26, 2010 @03:22PM from the get-your-face-out-there dept.

Geoffrey.landis writes "Terry Southgate discovered that his wife Wendy appears on the Google Street View of his neighborhood not once or twice but a whopping 43 times. From the article: 'It seems as if the Street View car simply followed the same route as Wendy and Trixie. However, Wendy was a little suspicious that the car was doing something on the "tricksie" side. Several of the Street View shots show Wendy looking with some concern towards the car that was, well, to put it politely, crawling along the curb. "I didn't know what it was doing. It was just driving round very, very slowly," Wendy told the Sun.' The next best thing to being a movie star — a Street View star!"

Simple Device Claimed To Boost Fuel Efficiency By Up To 20% 674

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 27, 2008 @05:02AM from the innovation-is-a-real-gas dept.

Ponca City, We love you writes "Temple University physics professor Rongjia Tao has developed a simple device that could dramatically improve fuel efficiency in automobiles by as much as 20 percent. The device, attached to the fuel line of a car's engine near the fuel injector, creates an electric field that thins fuel, reducing its viscosity so that smaller droplets are injected into the engine. Because combustion starts at the droplet surface, smaller droplets lead to cleaner and more efficient combustion. Six months of road testing in a diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz automobile showed an increase from 32 miles per gallon to 38 mpg, a 20 percent boost, and a 12-15 percent gain in city driving. 'We expect the device will have wide applications on all types of internal combustion engines, present ones and future ones,' Tao wrote in the study published in Energy & Fuels. 'This discovery promises to significantly improve fuel efficiency in all types of internal combustion engine powered vehicles and at the same time will have far-reaching effects in reducing pollution of our environment,' says Larry F. Lemanski, Senior Vice President for Research and Strategic Initiatives at Temple."

Orbiter Reveals Rock Fracture Plumbing On Mars 61

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 27, 2008 @01:57AM from the more-evidence-for-hydrogen-hydroxide dept.

Riding with Robots writes "Mars researchers report that a robotic spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet has revealed hundreds of small fractures exposed on the Martian surface that once directed flows of water through underground Martian sandstone. 'This study provides a picture of not just surface water erosion, but true groundwater effects widely distributed over the planet,' said one of the mission scientists for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been regularly returning terabytes of high-resolution images and other kinds of data from Mars."

Comment Buy them out (Score 1) 173

by sebastiencharland on Thursday September 16, 2004 @07:53AM (#10264487) Attached to: Tech Team Traditions?

I've been in IT for a while now and there's nothing better for morale than having the chance to play around with leading edge technology.

Also, size up your employee. They all have strenght and weaknesses. Assigned them long term project that involve new technology in there field of expertise to keep them busy. There's nothing worse than to be waiting for a call while doing ziltch.

Upgrade there machine. Most geek in IT loves to have the latest and greatest HW. Dual monitor might be a start ;-)

Most of all, pick up the blame for anything your team does. If anything goes wrong, you and nobody else is repsonsible for it. That will reinforce you as a leader. Also, make sure there is no competition between your guys.

In this economic climate, you might want to reassure them that their jobs are safe. Make sure they know what is coming up down the road.

You might also want to write a monthly reports that would be sent to the whole compagny, telling everyone what good thing came out from your department. People in IT never get the recognition that they deserve. You only see them when thing goes wrong. Make sure everyone knows that they bring value to the compagny.

I could probably go on for hours, but you get the idea.

Cheers,

Seb
PS: English is a second language, so I appologize in advance to all you grammar freek out there. :-)