Comment Re:Umm... what are we talking about? (Score 1) 21
These threads are space filler and have been for decades.
Comment Still rocking their beige Natural keyboard (Score 1) 63
Since 1999. If Redmond built OS and applications as well as their hardware the world would be a better place.
Submission + - First Nuclear Clocks Start Ticking in Vienna and Beijing (phys.org)
necro81 writes: Two groups, one in Vienna and one in Beijing, have successfully demonstrated the world's first nuclear clocks. Standard atomic clocks, like the caesium clocks that define the second, operate by observing the transition of electrons between different orbits about the nucleus. The resulting radiation is usually in the microwave range, and can produce clocks accurate to one second in 100 billion years.
Nuclear clocks go a step further, and probe energy transitions within the nucleus itself. Nuclei can arrange their protons and neutrons into different configurations, called isomers. The isomer with the lowest energy is the one usually found; higher-energy ones are only metastable and decay quickly. Usually it takes serious energy — x-rays and gamma rays — to excite a nucleus into a higher-energy arrangement. It so happens that thorium-229 can be excited using UV light with a wavelength of 148 nm — just within the capabilities of some exotic lasers.
It's still been quite a challenge. For one thing, Th-229 is not found in nature; it must be extracted from the decay chain of uranium-235. The Beijing team used just a microgram mixed in a crystal of calcium fluoride.
Although these prototype nuclear clocks are not yet more accurate than existing atomic clocks (one second in millions, rather than billions, of years), they show the way towards what may be possible. Because the energy transition is in the nucleus, rather than the electron cloud, it is less susceptible to outside disturbances like magnetic fields. And the fundamental frequency is much higher (five orders of magnitude), which should yield more precise timing. This development could lead to smaller and more reliable time standards across the world (and solar system).
Nuclear clocks go a step further, and probe energy transitions within the nucleus itself. Nuclei can arrange their protons and neutrons into different configurations, called isomers. The isomer with the lowest energy is the one usually found; higher-energy ones are only metastable and decay quickly. Usually it takes serious energy — x-rays and gamma rays — to excite a nucleus into a higher-energy arrangement. It so happens that thorium-229 can be excited using UV light with a wavelength of 148 nm — just within the capabilities of some exotic lasers.
It's still been quite a challenge. For one thing, Th-229 is not found in nature; it must be extracted from the decay chain of uranium-235. The Beijing team used just a microgram mixed in a crystal of calcium fluoride.
Although these prototype nuclear clocks are not yet more accurate than existing atomic clocks (one second in millions, rather than billions, of years), they show the way towards what may be possible. Because the energy transition is in the nucleus, rather than the electron cloud, it is less susceptible to outside disturbances like magnetic fields. And the fundamental frequency is much higher (five orders of magnitude), which should yield more precise timing. This development could lead to smaller and more reliable time standards across the world (and solar system).
Comment Re:The Ultimate Bike Shed (Score 1) 257
So...there's really a shed that people build to store bicycles?
Again, is this a European thing? I've never heard of a shed dedicated to storing bikes....I can see this is brewing used as an analogy for something else, but the shed/bike concept itself is foreign to me.
Comment Re:What is left to change besides oven and microwa (Score 2) 257
Most people rarely ever change a time zone....a good number never leave the one they are born into....
Comment Re:Depends (Score 1) 257
Like many stories...the answer is:
"Well...it seemed like a good idea at the time...."
Comment Re:The Ultimate Bike Shed (Score 1) 257
What the fuck is a bike shed?
Never heard of one or seen one before...is this a European thing?
Comment Re:What is left to change besides oven and microwa (Score 2, Insightful) 257
What is left to change besides oven and microwave times?
One...the most IMPORTANT one....my internal clock....
That really takes close to a week to get fixed every time.....it throws all of us humans off to some degree.
Oh...and my dog....I have to adjust her schedule twice a year too....
Comment Re:Summary ... (Score 1) 257
It probably makes more sense for ST....but as far as I'm concerned....
JUST PICK ONE AND STICK WITH IT....
I want to quit the damned changing in my lifetime.
Comment Re:Aux port - how could it even technically pause? (Score 1) 42
I don't know the protocol but old phone headsets had a 2.5 or 3.5mm jack with an extra ring that got you play/pause/hook/next/last.
Hypothetically that could have been implemented. I had a collection of Alexas that got binned as soon as they got caught spying for police so I never got that far. ESP32 is better for nerds anyway.
One thing Australia does right is a statute naming removal of features as a violation of contract requiring full refunds in these circumstances.
Submission + - UK vegetables 20-50% less nutritious than in the 1960s (telegraph.co.uk)
Bruce66423 writes: 'The nutritional value of fruit and vegetables has fallen by up to 50pc since the Sixties because of declining soil quality, according to a new study.
'The study found that many crops had lost 20pc to 50pc of several key nutrients.
'Will Summers, a senior associate at the firm, said: “For 60 years we’ve measured food security in calories and tonnes per hectare.
'“On those measures we’ve done remarkably well. But we’ve been quietly hollowing out what’s inside our food.”
'The decrease in nutrient and vitamin value is thought to be down to declining soil quality and crops being selectively bred for their ability to grow quickly, rather than there being any focus on their health benefits.'
'The study found that many crops had lost 20pc to 50pc of several key nutrients.
'Will Summers, a senior associate at the firm, said: “For 60 years we’ve measured food security in calories and tonnes per hectare.
'“On those measures we’ve done remarkably well. But we’ve been quietly hollowing out what’s inside our food.”
'The decrease in nutrient and vitamin value is thought to be down to declining soil quality and crops being selectively bred for their ability to grow quickly, rather than there being any focus on their health benefits.'
Submission + - Wisconsin U–Madison Prof Francis Halzen named 2026 Nobel laureate in physi (wisc.edu)
schwit1 writes: Halzen is the principal investigator of the NSF IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the world’s largest — and perhaps strangest — telescope. The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded observatory is operated by an international collaboration of scientists led by the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center based at UW–Madison.
Embedded in a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice, IceCube uses thousands of light sensors to survey the universe for neutrinos, nearly massless particles that rarely interact with other matter. Neutrinos provide information about the workings of black holes, galaxies and other objects in the cosmos.
“IceCube is like no other telescope in the world,” says UW–Madison interim Chancellor Eric M. Wilcots. “And there is no other scientist quite like Francis Halzen, whose idea to create a neutrino detector under almost a mile of ice has led to a remarkable multinational and multi-institutional scientific collaboration and a fundamental shift in how we think about the universe.”
Embedded in a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice, IceCube uses thousands of light sensors to survey the universe for neutrinos, nearly massless particles that rarely interact with other matter. Neutrinos provide information about the workings of black holes, galaxies and other objects in the cosmos.
“IceCube is like no other telescope in the world,” says UW–Madison interim Chancellor Eric M. Wilcots. “And there is no other scientist quite like Francis Halzen, whose idea to create a neutrino detector under almost a mile of ice has led to a remarkable multinational and multi-institutional scientific collaboration and a fundamental shift in how we think about the universe.”
Comment Good idea! (Score 1) 59
Many Rust Belt cities need investment. They've vast disused smokestack industrial areas with power, water and sewer. They have millions of obsolete structures begging for the wrecking ball.
Data center operators could be incentivized to demolish toxic eyesores and replace them with clean data centers. The low population impact from data centers won't overcrowd Rust Belt areas while contributing to their development.
Development deals could be generous while requiring demolition of areas not yet planned for development. The closer they become to greenfield sites the better. Obsolete cities whose reason for being evaporated still retain road, rail and power.
Adaptive reuse beats developing rural farmland etc.
Comment Electronic searches are not human labor. (Score 1) 51
This isn't like manually digging through dead tree archives in some musty basement.
Comment "Great" for frightened, not for the species. (Score 1) 64
Old people lingering longer instead of passing away has no benefits for the species, only emotional benefits (which will vary according to circumstance!) for the old (most of) who instinctively fear death.
The species thrives because individual lives expire. Most lives contribute nothing so prolonging them does nothing useful for our species. Death really IS natures change agent.
Fear of death does not in any way make death somehow wrong.
Turnover replaces intellectually ossified old minds with new minds in new bodies. Most people are alive because we instinctively fear death. (Much of that fear fades over time.)
