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Space

Using Lasers and Water Guns To Clean Space Debris 267

WSJdpatton writes "The collision between two satellites last month has renewed interest in some ideas for cleaning up the cloud of debris circling the earth. Some of the plans being considered: Using aging rockets loaded with water to dislodge the debris from orbit so it will burn up in the atmosphere; junk-zapping lasers; and garbage-collecting rockets."
Power

National Ignition Facility Fires 192-Beam Pulse 438

An anonymous reader writes "The construction and test firing of the National Ignition Facility have been completed. NIF was designed as the first facility ever to achieve self-sustaining nuclear fusion and, in particular, to reach the point of ignition in which more energy is generated from the reaction than went into creating it. While the recent 192-beam pulse only produced 80 kilojoules worth of energy, all signs point to NIF being able to reach an order of magnitude higher (PDF) than that in the coming year."

Comment Re:You know whats ironic? (Score 1) 345

Remember, prices are a component of Wages + Rent + Profit.

In the short run, prices are sticky due to contracts, and as inflation is considered a rise in the price of goods over a period of time, We would not see it in the short run, as you describe.

Instead, what you are describing is deflation harming existing contracts in the medium run. While in the first scenario, the widget would STILL sell for 1.50 in period N, but in period N+1 due to wage and rent restructuring (remember, Price = Wage + Rent + Profits), the price level will fall. In the modern Keynesian approach, the velocity of money has fallen, and because the price level is equal to the money supply, multiplied by the velocity of money divided by the quantity of goods and services purchased, and as V is not constant, the change in V does not have a negligible affect on deflation. (dp/p=dv/dm*dm/m)

Now, these contracts will, now that they can get "more for less", enable businesses to pay a smaller wage to the worker (one part of price) and allow the suppliers of the input to renegotiate their wage contracts, which then allows for a lower price to the final manufacturer.

Now, this is bad NOT because of what you say, but because it truly screws the consumer and any holder of debt. In a deflationary society, even though the price level is falling, the worker will receive a lower wage, as is natural. However, if he holds a significant portion of debt, he is STILL obligated to pay off the debt at the pre-deflationary rate, which, needless to say, is bad as the owner is now shouldered with a significant extra level of debt. Also note, that ALL interest transactions are calculated with the assumption of low, stable inflation, if this was not true, then banks would be forced, in order to protect their money, to charge a much higher real interest in order to protect their money from the risk of unexpected inflation. Therefore, these debts were created with the assumption of approximately a 3-5% inflation rate, and NOT a 1-2% deflation. This is what causes businesses to go under, NOT a change in the price level.

Comment Re:But! (Score 1) 763

Big negative buddy. While the price has dropped, both supply and demand has increased. The magnitude is what has caused this drop in prices. They are making just as much, if not more money than they were in the 80's. Remember Profit = Price*Quantity - Total Costs. In this case Q has increased while P has fallen, but Q has increased by such an amount to more than offset the lack of $85 dollar games (adjusted for inflation). Link for record Nintendo financials POST 1989
Image

Slashdot's Disagree Mail 135

This installment of Disagree Mail highlights a man's concern about illegal cloning in the Hollywood community, a guy who is sick of US imperialism and his low karma, and an example of the kind of people you don't want as roommates in college. Read below to find out just how crazy, angry and irresponsible it gets.
Security

Laser Pointers Classed as Weapons in Australia 491

An anonymous reader was the first to point to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald which says that New South Wales (of which Sydney is the capital) will prohibit the possession of certain types of laser pointers, defining them as weapons, and make it an offense to carry any laser pointer "without a lawful reason." (Similar coverage at news.com.au) Western Australia apparently beat NSW to the punch, and the federal government of Australia announced earlier this month it will treat laser pointers much like firearms, which, in Australia, is really saying something. The restrictions come as a reaction to incidents (not confined to Australia) in which the lasers were trained on planes, distracting pilots.
Technology

China Plans to Surpass the U.S. in Nanotech Development 282

SoyChemist writes "Sociologists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting have reported that China is making major investments in nanotechnology. Their aim is to 'leapfrog' past the United States in technological development by focusing on long-ranging scientific goals. So far, the Chinese government has poured about $400 million into the young field of research. Considering the low cost of equipment and labor over there, that is a very large sum of money, and China's investment is expected to 'rise considerably.'"
Education

Dvorak Slams OLPC As 'Naive Fiasco' 740

theodp writes "PC Magazine's John C. Dvorak has a unique take on the cute One Laptop per Child XO-1, deeming the OLPC project a naive fiasco waiting to unfold that sends an insulting 'let them eat cake' message to the world's poor. When it comes down to a choice of providing African kids living in absolute poverty with access to Slashdot or a $200 truckload of rice, Dvorak votes for the latter. Buy ten OLPCs if it assuages your guilt, says Dvorak, but 'I'll donate my money to hunger relief.'"
KDE

KDE 4 to Be Released on January 11th 300

VincenzoRomano writes "It's official! KDE 4.0 will be released on January 11th of next year. The release itself doesn't sound very firm, as 'the developers are confident to be able to release a more polished and better working KDE' and not the long awaited prime-time release. At the very first Alpha release on march 11th, the release date had been forecasted to October 2007, and then shifted to the end of the year with the second Beta. Despite this, the promises for the fourth version are quite interesting and maybe deserve a 'stay tuned'."
Math

A New Theory of Everything? 511

goatherder writes "The Telegraph is running a story about a new Unified Theory of Physics. Garrett Lisi has presented a paper called "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" which unifies the Standard Model with gravity — without using string theory. The trick was to use E8 geometry which you may remember from an earlier Slashdot article. Lisi's theory predicts 20 new particles which he hopes might turn up in the Large Hadron Collider."
Government

Russian Software Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech 175

reporter writes "According to a report recently filed by the Washington Post, the Kremlin has finally begun to crackdown on software piracy ... with a twist. The Russian state agency is targetting political enemies with claims of piracy, including independent news media, political parties, and private advocacy groups. In particular, 'the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, one of the last outposts of critical journalism in Russia, suspended publication of its regional edition in the southern city of Samara on Monday after prosecutors opened a criminal case against its editor, alleging that his publication used unlicensed software.'" This doesn't even take into account our recent discussion of the Kremlin's grip on internet access in that country.
Science

The Rules of the Swarm 166

Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers are starting to discover the simple rules that allow swarms of thousands of relatively simple animals to form a collective brain able to make decisions and move like a single organism. To get a sense of swarms, Dr. Iain Couzin, a mathematical biologist at the Collective Animal Behaviour Laboratory at Princeton University, builds computer models of virtual swarms with thousands of individual agents that he can program to follow a few simple rules. Among the findings are that swarm behavior has patterns common to many different species, that just as liquid water can suddenly begin to boil, swarm behavior can also change abruptly in character, and that just a few leaders can guide a swarm effectively by creating a bias in the swarm's movement that steers it in a particular direction. The rules of the swarm may also apply to the cells inside our bodies and researchers are working with cancer biologists to discover the rules by which cancer cells work together to build tumors or migrate through tissues. Even brain cells may follow the same rules for collective behavior seen in locusts or fish. "How does your brain take this information and come to a collective decision about what you're seeing?" Dr. Couzin says. The answer, he suspects, may lie in our inner swarm."
The Internet

Why Japan Leads the Mobile World 152

Phurge writes "It is no wonder that companies touting m-commerce as the next big web thing tell us Japan is the future blueprint. The Guardian takes a look at the cutting edge and everyday life of cell phone users in Japan. 'By offering the Japanese a multiplicity of services — and, very importantly, some very cool handsets to use them on — the operators have created what every western mobile service provider is dreaming of: a mobile lifestyle culture that keeps millions reaching for the mobile rather than the fixed internet ... What they are less keen on is video calling: in Japan, as in the UK, 90% say "no thanks, never". And as for using the mobile as a modem - to link to the internet - that's very expensive in Japan.'"
Space

Space Debris Narrowly Misses Airliner 297

An anonymous reader writes "An airliner jet traveling from Chile to New Zealand early today was in for an interesting ride. Flaming space debris — the remains of a Russian satellite — came hurtling back to Earth not far from a commercial jet on its way to Auckland, New Zealand. Here's further justification for the growing concern of the increasing amounts of space garbage orbiting our planet. From the article: 'The pilot of a Lan Chile Airbus A340 ... notified air traffic controllers at Auckland Oceanic Centre after seeing flaming space junk hurtling across the sky just five nautical miles in front of and behind his plane...'"

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