Comment Just what the world needs (Score 2) 26
It's millionth computer language.
Submission + - Another large Black hole in "our" Galaxy (arxiv.org)
RockDoctor writes: A recent paper on ArXiv reports a novel idea about the central regions of "our" galaxy.
Remember the hoopla a few years ago about radio-astronomical observations producing an "image" of our central black hole — or rather, an image of the accretion disc around the black hole — long designated by astronomers as "Sagittarius A*" (or SGR-A*)? If you remember the image published then, one thing should be striking — it's not very symmetrical. If you think about viewing a spinning object, then you'd expect to see something with a "mirror" symmetry plane where we would see the rotation axis (if someone had marked it). If anything, that published image has three bright spots on a fainter ring. And the spots are not even approximately the same brightness.
This paper suggests that the image we see is the result of the light (radio waves) from SGR-A* being "lensed" by another black hole, near (but not quite on) the line of sight between SGR-A* and us. By various modelling approaches, they then refine this idea to a "best-fit" of a black hole with mass around 1000 times the Sun, orbiting between the distance of the closest-observed star to SGR-A* ("S2" — most imaginative name, ever!), and around 10 times that distance. That's far enough to make a strong interaction with "S2" unlikely within the lifetime of S2 before it's accretion onto SGR-A*.)
The region around SGR-A* is crowded. Within 25 parsecs (~80 light years, the distance to Regulus [in the constellation Leo] or Merak [in the Great Bear]) there is around 4 times more mass in several millions of "normal" stars than in the SGR-A* black hole. Finding a large (not "super massive") black hole in such a concentration of matter shouldn't surprise anyone.
This proposed black hole is larger than anything which has been detected by gravitational waves (yet) ; but not immensely larger — only a factor of 15 or so. (The authors also anticipate the "what about these big black holes spiralling together?" question : quote "and the amplitude of gravitational waves generated by the binary black holes is negligible.")
Being so close to SGR-A*, the proposed black hole is likely to be moving rapidly across our line of sight. At the distance of "S2" it's orbital period would be around 26 years (but the "new" black hole is probably further out than than that). Which might be an explanation for some of the variability and "flickering" reported for SGR-A* ever since it's discovery.
As always, more observations are needed. Which, for SGR-A* are frequently being taken, so improving (or ruling out) this explanation should happen fairly quickly. But it's a very interesting, and fun, idea.
Remember the hoopla a few years ago about radio-astronomical observations producing an "image" of our central black hole — or rather, an image of the accretion disc around the black hole — long designated by astronomers as "Sagittarius A*" (or SGR-A*)? If you remember the image published then, one thing should be striking — it's not very symmetrical. If you think about viewing a spinning object, then you'd expect to see something with a "mirror" symmetry plane where we would see the rotation axis (if someone had marked it). If anything, that published image has three bright spots on a fainter ring. And the spots are not even approximately the same brightness.
This paper suggests that the image we see is the result of the light (radio waves) from SGR-A* being "lensed" by another black hole, near (but not quite on) the line of sight between SGR-A* and us. By various modelling approaches, they then refine this idea to a "best-fit" of a black hole with mass around 1000 times the Sun, orbiting between the distance of the closest-observed star to SGR-A* ("S2" — most imaginative name, ever!), and around 10 times that distance. That's far enough to make a strong interaction with "S2" unlikely within the lifetime of S2 before it's accretion onto SGR-A*.)
The region around SGR-A* is crowded. Within 25 parsecs (~80 light years, the distance to Regulus [in the constellation Leo] or Merak [in the Great Bear]) there is around 4 times more mass in several millions of "normal" stars than in the SGR-A* black hole. Finding a large (not "super massive") black hole in such a concentration of matter shouldn't surprise anyone.
This proposed black hole is larger than anything which has been detected by gravitational waves (yet) ; but not immensely larger — only a factor of 15 or so. (The authors also anticipate the "what about these big black holes spiralling together?" question : quote "and the amplitude of gravitational waves generated by the binary black holes is negligible.")
Being so close to SGR-A*, the proposed black hole is likely to be moving rapidly across our line of sight. At the distance of "S2" it's orbital period would be around 26 years (but the "new" black hole is probably further out than than that). Which might be an explanation for some of the variability and "flickering" reported for SGR-A* ever since it's discovery.
As always, more observations are needed. Which, for SGR-A* are frequently being taken, so improving (or ruling out) this explanation should happen fairly quickly. But it's a very interesting, and fun, idea.
Submission + - Surado, formerly Slashdot Japan, is closing at the end of the month. (srad.jp) 1
AmiMoJo writes: Slashdot Japan was launched on May 28, 2001. On 2025/03/31, it will finally close. Since starting the site separated from the main Slashdot one, and eventually rebranded as "Surado", which was it's Japanese nickname.
Last year the site stopped posting new stories, and was subsequently unable to find a buyer. In a final story announcing the end, many users expressed their sadness and gratitude for all the years of service.
Last year the site stopped posting new stories, and was subsequently unable to find a buyer. In a final story announcing the end, many users expressed their sadness and gratitude for all the years of service.
Comment Re:Execute All Billionaires (Score 0, Troll) 183
Its funny how people have utterly forgotten that up until Reagan, the ultra rich were taxed at a roughly 90% above a certain threshold, and the country was doing just fine without excessive prices on things.
Obviously you did not live in the years prior to Reagan. Ever heard of the price gas was going for in the 70s?
Comment Re:UBI (Score 1) 231
So you are such an honest actor you cite no proof of your assertion and then call the person a liar.
Get a life.
Comment Re:So much whining (Score 1) 71
I think you're seeing the result of Plex varying significantly between set top boxes and the telephone app. Having recently attempting to use plex on my phone I discovered at least in my case I can't even find my owned material.
One size does not fit all in this discussion, at least in my experience.
Comment Re:The first step (Score 1) 177
I agree with you about the distraction and do want to see more buttons/sliders/knobs instead of touchscreen menus.
However, I don't removing the display will actually improve reliability that much. Those buttons, sliders, are going to talk to the car's control system, probably not be directly wired to what they're controlling. The CPU is a major point of failure and it's going to be hard to source particular models in the future.
Comment Hackers Diet (Score 3, Interesting) 19
I lost a lot of weight after reading "The Hackers Diet" He was a real help to me.
Comment My car doesn't have disc brakes for the rear wheel (Score 1) 88
It's a popular model internationally, but particularly in India, so I think there's like a billion of them.
Comment They *JUST* bought Cyrus Security (Score 1) 20
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.malwarebytes.com%2Fb...
I don't know what size it is (was?), or how many of its staff are affected, but come on, acquire a new company one week, lay off 100 staff the next? How are people supposed to have a life? Companies that complain of falling staff loyalty have actions like this to blame. It's like trying to make a home and have a family in a video game level where every floor tile you touch falls away a few seconds later.
Comment Gaslighting by the uncomfortable (Score 4, Insightful) 203
This is what happens extroverts and salespeople feel uncomfortable. They create ways for other people to be wrong so they don't have to look inwards.
Comment The two Teams apps were a mess (Score 3, Informative) 60
Trying to do a job interview without accidentally using your work account required black magic. Discovering that no matter what you do, personal Teams can't connect to a business Teams appointment was ludicrous.
Comment Re:Offshore Wind-power farms (Score 2) 141
The earthquake also cracked the spent fuel cooling pools that were located on top of the reactors. Those were leaking and a real fear at the time (I was living in Tokyo when it happened) was that if the pools emptied the spent fuel would self-ignite and we'd get a nice cloud of radioactive dust floating towards Tokyo.
The biggest thing that wasn't handled in the disaster planning was that not only was the nuclear power plant damaged, but all of the surrounding infrastructure was destroyed and a national scale disaster around the plant was happening. Japan had just gone through a massive earthquake, upwards of 20,000 people were reported dead early on and the problems at Fukushima were not the primary concern the first few days after the earthquake. The scenario for dealing with failed diesel generators would have been to truck in new generators which could have been handled before the reactors melted down in normal circumstances except it was impossible to get to the plant. The "Heavy Rescue" unit from the Tokyo fire department headed to Fukushima to help. It took them three days to get there because the roads were blocked in so many places. TEPCO was in "everything's fine, it's OK, it's OK" mode and the Japanese political level of the government was the Democratic Party of Japan who had not held power in decades and none of the political level people knew how to manage a disaster and it showed.
By the time Fukushima started receiving the kind of national level attention that it warranted the reactors were in meltdown.
Comment Re: Democrats (Score 1) 289
3. Many Japanese families own no car, and there is integrated public transportation at both the departure and destination. Few Californians will take the train to LA because they won't have a car when they get there.
I went from SF to LA in August. We flew and rented a car. HSR stations will need car rental to work, but that's a solved problem.
Comment Re:Why Fission? (Score 1) 53
RTGs (Radioisotope Thermal Generators) don't put out that much power - a few hundred watts at most. An actual fission reactor will produce a lot more.
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