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Submission + - Yellow vests knock out 60% of all speed cameras in France (bbc.com)

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes: embers of the "yellow vests" protest movement have vandalised almost 60% of France's entire speed camera network, the interior minister has said.

Christophe Castaner said the wilful damage was a threat to road safety and put lives in danger.

The protest movement began over fuel tax increases, and saw motorists block roads and motorway toll booths.

Some protesters feel speed cameras are solely a revenue-generating measure which takes money from the poor.

Submission + - Software Defined Satellite Soon To Be Launched (bbc.com)

Submitted by kbahey
kbahey writes: Traditionally, large satellites are configured on the ground for specific tasks that cannot be changed after launch, even if market demands evolve.

A new satellite scheduled to be launched soon, will change all that: its coverage, bandwidth, power and frequency can all be altered in orbit.

The 3.5 tonne spacecraft will be operated by Paris-based telecom operator Eutelsat, in a R&D partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), with manufacturer Airbus acting as the prime contractor.

A company official stated that the satellite "will bring unprecedented flexibility to our customers, allowing for in-orbit payload re-configuration and taking customisation to a new level, while also opening the way to a paradigm shift in the manufacture of telecommunications satellites".

Submission + - SPAM: What can old bones tell us? Women were scolars.

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: The jaw bone of a woman who died around 1000-1200AD has specks of precious lapis lazuli (mineral) in the plaque of her teeth. This indicates that this woman would have licked the brush used in preparing precious illuminated manuscripts at the women's monastery in Dalheim in western Germany. The study by researchers from German-based Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Britain's University of York showed that women, as well as men, were part of the production of the valuable manuscripts.

Submission + - Earth's core is solid, but squishier than previously thought

Submitted by brindafella
brindafella writes: Earthquakes are telling scientists more about the core of the Earth, specifically that it is squishier than previously thought (by about 2.5%.) Associate Professor Hrvoje Tkali & Thanh-Son Phm of the Australian National University have made sense of data collected by seismographs around the world, to put new numbers on the density and pressure of the core. In Science magazine, they show that the pressure is 167.4 ± 1.6 GPa in Earth’s center. For reference, standard atmospheric pressure us 101,325Pa so the centre of the Earth is around 61million times this pressure, but still 2.5% lower than expected.

Comment "... hominims..." -- Not so much. (Score 2) 245

Sorry, but, "... hominims..." is wrong.

However, "hominin" (or at a stretch "hominid") would be correct. See the diagram at https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F... and see the original article that uses "hominin" liberally: http://science.sciencemag.org/...

Comment Troubles at the Top (Score 3, Insightful) 45

> Facebook's chief information security officer, Alex Stamos, will leave the company after internal disagreements over how the social network should deal with its role in spreading disinformation.

Let's hope that Facebook can weather the storm of seeming growth-spurt induced moral troubles; Russian meddling, data mining, etc.

The moral compass like a magnetic compass has to be checked for angular deviation, due to the near presence of great attractors nearby.

Similarly, the lines of the Earth's magnetism are misalligned with true north; an underlying social/societal moral misallignment may have a similar effect on an organisation.

Comment Quiz? Who doesn't like a simple quiz? (Score 1) 154

> ... would a quiz-for-commenting-privileges be a good addition to Slashdot?

YES.

I also Moderate SlashDot, and I seriously thin that a quiz would be a good way to weed out the "dottard", "dullard" and "dolt" comments.

It need not weed out autonomous commenting. Sometimes, we need the blow-ins, sleepers, surprisers, and leakers.

;-)

Comment Re:Hour and forty seven minute videos (Score 4, Informative) 302

I agree with your 'alone' point.

For all practical purposes, this is the case. Even if 'they' were at the nearest star (and they are not), any conversation by electromagnetic means is a round trip of around 9 years.

There is no tolling bell; at least, not yet. And, we as a collective civilisation have travelled just beyond the Moon, and as electromagnetic beings have radiated, very weakly, for only around 120 years so our bubble of influence is small in stellar distances. As John Donne said....

"No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee." https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F...

Comment No, no, no... NO! (Score 4, Informative) 101

Have a read of the story, that is WRONG AS WRITTEN.

> While the Meteor-M launched last month from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East, it was reportedly programmed with take-off coordinates for the Baikonur cosmodrome, which is located in southern Kazakhstan.

No, no, no... NO! The word "it" refers to the Meteor-M satellite. The satellite was NOT programmed incorrectly; it was the launcher that was mis-programmed, as the following sentence clarifies.

> "The rocket was really programmed as if it was taking off from Baikonur," ....

Comment Re:Very userful (Score 1) 133

by brindafella (#55456619) Attached to: How Data Science Powered the Search for MH370
I have attended three long-form talks by Dr Neil Gordon, and some others involved. He is always the most compelling speaker. I have followed up in one-on-one discussions, at least twice. This effort has been a hugely consuming effort for most, and there is an 'answer' to where MH370 is: It is MOST likely to be in the next-most-probable statistical area, currently to the north-east of the last-most-likely area. Read the 'Full' report and get the picture. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.atsb.gov.au%2Fpublic...

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