Comment Bronto and Hella are better than Ronna and Quetta (Score 3, Funny) 81
Too bad they didn't adopt bronto- and hella-. Absurdly large numbers deserve colorful and memorable names.
Submission + - Corporate FOSS Users seek to tell developers what to do.
jralls writes: OK, maybe the headline is a tiny bit inflammatory. The New York Times broke a story today (paywalled if you look at more than 10 stories a month) about ToDo, "an open group of companies who run open source programs" who are seeking to "committed to working together in order to overcome" the challenges of using FOSS, "including ensuring high-quality and frequent releases, engaging with developer communities, and using and contributing back to other projects effectively".
The more militant among us will read that as "It's not enough getting a free ride off of developers building great software, we want to shove our roadmap down their throats and get them to work harder for us — without having to pay for it, of course." That might be a bit harsh, but none of the companies on the page are exactly well known for cooperating with the projects they use, with Google being one of the worst offenders by forking both Linux and WebKit.
Comment Doesn't sound like fusion to me (Score 1) 140
So a proton plus B11 yields one or more s (aka He), and if it's one, the remaining nucleus would be Be, but that likes to be Be10 (which decays by a to B10). That requires a couple of extra neutrons, so seems unlikely. ISTM then that 3 s is more likely; can't get just 2, 'cause what's left is another. Sounds more like fission than fusion. Since the binding energy curve goes the wrong way at small atomic mass (less binding energy is required per unit mass for larger nuclei than for smaller ones), this seems unlikely to ever be a net energy producer.
Comment 'Hey, I know what you like.' (Score 1) 70
Does that mean that when I walk into a room with a suitably equipped TV, it will turn off?
Comment Re:Another Slashverisement for HighGear Media? (Score 1) 595
And that article points to another article which cites (without a URL, unfortunately) a NOAA study. The number in that article is a bit different:
"The study was conducted last summer and its findings released in February. Lead researcher Daniel Lack of Noaa's Earth System Research Laboratory at the University of Colorado determined that the 51,000-odd commercial vessels now plying the world's oceans spew almost as much air pollution as half the total number of automobiles on the planet.
"'It was definitely a surprise for me when we pulled those numbers out,' Lack said in an interview. 'These ships are emitting as much [pollution] as 300m cars. It's a hidden giant.'"
So the average is one shiip = 6000 cars. Obviously, some ships will be much worse. But for the article that started this to be right, all of the maritime pollution is down to 6 ships. Seems really unlikely.
Comment Gee, just like an OSX bundle (Score 1) 385
You can even do it with a Gtk app.
2012 Mayan Calendar 'Doomsday' Date Might Be Wrong 144
astroengine writes "A UC Santa Barbara associate professor is disputing the accuracy of the mesoamerican 'Long Count' calendar after highlighting several astronomical flaws in a correlation factor used to synchronize the ancient Mayan calendar with our modern Gregorian calendar. If proven to be correct, Gerardo Aldana may have nudged the infamous December 21, 2012 'End of the World' date out by at least 60 days. Unfortunately, even if the apocalypse is rescheduled, doomsday theorists will unlikely take note."
Oxford Expands Library With 153 Miles of Shelves 130
Oxford University's Bodleian Library has purchased a huge £26m warehouse to give a proper home to over 6 million books and 1.2 million maps. The Library has been housing the collection in a salt mine, and plans on transferring the manuscripts over the next year. "The BSF will prove a long-awaited solution to the space problem that has long challenged the Bodleian," said its head librarian Dr Sarah Thomas. "We have been running out of space since the 1970s and the situation has become increasingly desperate in the last few years." The 153 miles of new shelf space will only be enough for the next 20 years however because of the library's historic entitlement to a copy of every volume published in the UK.
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