Comment Re:Hand me that rock. (Score 1) 118
If only they had opposable fins... they could pick up tools. And serve us, we could enslave them... they would revolt and enslave us.. Planet of the Fish... I have to stop, this is too scary.
Comment Re:money (Score 1) 190
Ahhhh....... I would definitely have chipped in to sue.
Hey that's an interesting idea, Open Source litigation, or open source patent trolling..... We can have tyranny of the masses!
Comment Re:Is this the elusive Step 2? (Score 1) 167
You forgot
Goto Phase 1.
"Farming" Amoebas Discovered 49
Researchers from Rice University have found a type of amoeba that practices a sort of "primitive farming behavior." When their bacteria food become scarce, the Dictyostelium discoideum will group together and form a "fruiting body" that will disperse bacteria spores to a new area. From the article: "The behavior falls short of the kind of 'farming' that more advanced animals do; ants, for example, nurture a single fungus species that no longer exists in the wild. But the idea that an amoeba that spends much of its life as a single-celled organism could hold short of consuming a food supply before decamping is an astonishing one. More than just a snack for the journey of dispersal, the idea is that the bacteria that travel with the spores can 'seed' a new bacterial colony, and thus a food source in case the new locale should be lacking in bacteria." It's good to know that even a single celled creature is not immune to the pull of Farmville.
US Army Develops Tooth Cleaning Gum 160
pryoplasm writes "To help deal with some of the hygiene issues on the battlefield, the US Army worked on a gum to take the place of brushing your teeth. This might be eventually released and marketed to the public. While there are many gums out there that aren't so detrimental to your teeth, this one promises actually to help them out."
Gamma Ray Mystery Reestablished By Fermi Telescope 95
eldavojohn writes "New observations from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveal that our assumptions about the 'fog' of gamma rays in our universe are not entirely explained by black hole-powered jets emanating from active galaxies — as we previously hypothesized. For now, the researchers are representing the source of unaccounted gamma rays with a dragon (as in 'here be') symbol. A researcher explained that they are certain about this, given Fermi's observations: 'Active galaxies can explain less than 30 percent of the extragalactic gamma-ray background Fermi sees. That leaves a lot of room for scientific discovery as we puzzle out what else may be responsible.' And so we reopen the chapter on background gamma-rays in the science textbooks and hope this eventually sheds even more light on other mysteries of space — like star formation and dark matter."
Dinosaur Feather Color Discovered 219
anzha writes "Do you remember being a kid and told we'd never know what colors the dinosaurs were? For at least some, that's no longer true. Scientists working in the UK and China have closely examined the fossils of multiple theropods and actually found the colors and patterns that were present in the fossilized proto-feathers. So far, the answer is orange, black and white in banded and other patterns. The work also thoroughly thrashes the idea that fossils might not be feathers, but collagen fibers instead. If this holds up, Birds Are Dinosaurs. Period. And colorful!"
A Hyper-Velocity Impact In the Asteroid Belt? 114
astroengine writes "Astronomers have spotted something rather odd in the asteroid belt. It looks like a comet, but it's got a circular orbit, similar to an asteroid. Whether it's an asteroid or a comet, it has a long, comet-like tail, suggesting something is being vented into space. Some experts think it could be a very rare comet/asteroid hybrid being heated by the sun, but there's an even more exciting possibility: It could be the first ever observation of two asteroids colliding in the asteroid belt."
Comment Manager's Schedule should be based on doers's (Score 1) 1
Ideally, the manager's schedule should be based on a subject matter expect (SME) 's estimate of the work. Good project manager usually have the team give estimates of doing the activity, to create the project schedule. Problems that prevent this are, the people doing the work are not with the project at the start and are not able to give their input.
More commonly, I find that people are overly optimistic on the amount of time to do the work, or do not know enough about the problems, or risk, with the development to give themselves leeway.
I've found that the best way to estimate the amount of time needed for a task is to use historical information, how much time did it take to do it last time. You'd be surprised at how much longer tasks take compared to estimates.
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