Comment Umm (Score 1) 233
California statutes don't apply in Canada, sorry.
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!"
New Super Mario Bros. Wii Tops 10 Million Sales 164
According to a report from Japanese publication Nikkei Net, Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii has now sold 10 million copies worldwide. The game needed only 45 days to pass the already impressive sales numbers of Super Mario Galaxy. Quoting Gamasutra:
"NSMB Wii has sold 3 million units in Japan, where it launched on December 3; 3 million copies in Europe, where it launched November 20, and 4.5 million units in North America, where it launched November 15. Super Mario Galaxy has sold 4.1 million units in North America since 2007. The game's design hearkens back to the two-dimensional, side-scrolling style of earlier Mario titles ... The numbers would seem to suggest that these traits successfully generated more mass appeal for NSMB Wii than for the three-dimensional and far less familiar Super Mario Galaxy, which sent the plumber navigating more innovative spherical space environments."
Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242
likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."
Canadian Blood Services Promotes Pseudoscience 219
trianglecat writes "The not-for-profit agency Canadian Blood Services has a section of their website based on the Japanese cultural belief of ketsueki-gata, which claims that a person's blood group determines or predicts their personality type. Disappointing for a self-proclaimed 'science-based' organization. The Ottawa Skeptics, based in the nation's capital, appear to be taking some action."
Comment Bottom of the barrel (Score 1) 514
This 10% is what... the idiots who inadvertently installed the Bing toolbar, set their homepage to Bing.com and don't know how to change it back? I've already reverted my Grandmother's homepage back to Google.
Geist On Copyright As Canada Consult Nears End 38
An anonymous reader writes "Canadian law professor Michael Geist, who has been leading the charge on the national copyright consultation with his SpeakOutOnCopyright.ca site, has posted his own submission to the consultation. Geist focuses on issues like fair use and circumvention, and warns against a Canadian DMCA, copyright term extension, and three-strikes program. 'If copyright veers too far toward specific technologies by mandating new protection for specific business models or technological innovations, those rules risk being overtaken as the technologies and marketplace evolve. ... It should only be a violation of the law to circumvent a technological protection measure if the underlying purpose is to infringe copyright.' He also pointed out a few days ago that Bell Canada seems to be advising content owners to sue its own customers. The public consultation ends on September 13th."
Comment Re:Model (Score 1) 265
The Pirate Bay is a drop in the bucket. There's hundreds of sites out there that will continue to offer their services for free while torrents still dominate. The only thing that will continue to bring in revenue will be advertisements and unintentional banner clicks from the 'confused' crowd.
Comment Re:Beware of namechanges (Score 1) 629
Comment Re:Beware of namechanges (Score 5, Informative) 629
They were forced to because Circuit City swallowed up all of RadioShack's assets in Canada. They were no longer allowed to use the name as they are two competing companies. I believe the official name is "The Source by Circuit City". Instead of carrying the RadioShack brand of products in their stores, you'll find mostly Nexxtech stamped all over everything now.
Comment Canada (Score 1) 257
Our cable company here in Canada is currently upgrading for 100mbit connections in the near future. The bandwidth potential on cable in enormous.
Comment Re:Define human (Score 1) 262
With our population as big as it is, and natural selection not working like it used to, don't count on us naturally evolving anymore than this. If anything, we'll devolve.
Comment Alberta has done this already... (Score 4, Interesting) 105
The government of Alberta actually completed a multibillion dollar network called the Alberta Supernet and it has worked out quite well so far. It was designed to link public buildings (schools, police, hospitals, etc) directly with fiber (I worked on the project for a while), with fiber feeds/media converters directly to the server rooms of these buildings. They also lease bandwidth to the private sector. It currently links to 429 communities and thousands of facilities.
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