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ABC News.

Nothing to do with the compliant US ABC ... the ABC in Australia does its best in most cases to report fairly and accurately.

In particular, Max Uechtritz - one of Australia's most respected war correspondents - is currently the head of news and current affairs at the ABC.

There are reports that a third air strike in an hour has hit Baghdad.

The new attack is again targeting the south-east of the Iraqi capital sending huge clouds of smoke billowing into the dawn sky as the United States launches its long-threatened war on Iraq.

Meanwhile a report from Baghdad says the main frequency of Iraqi state radio appears to have been taken over by the US military.

The normal Iraqi broadcast went off the air within minutes of US air strikes starting.

Shortly afterwards an announcer said in Arabic "This is the day we have been waiting for".

In any attack against Iraq, people will die. The death of some three thousand people on September the 11th pales in comparison to the over four hundred and fifty thousand military personal now stationed in the gulf region. Iraqi soldiers will die, attacking soldiers will die, and civilians will die. Iraqi young men, people my age and younger, people who do not support Saddam Hussein or want weapons of mass destruction, will pick up a gun and try to defend their home.

The though of these innocent young men and Australian soldiers shooting at each other makes me want to scream with frustration. Neither person could be blamed for their actions, and yet these two innocent people would be trying to kill each other. How can an attack against Iraq be justified when it would lead to this situation?

Had to see what you meant, since I didn't recognize the name.

Here's the link that woulda made milk come out my nose...

http://abc.net.au/arts/fools/essay/img/fp667.jpg

A kilometers-long shaft means the steam would condense again long before it reached the surface, especially since it has to come up the same hole liquid water is coming down (natural geothermal avoids that by feeding water in from the water table). And even if you could solve that problem, you can't use that steam directly, it'd be way too dirty.

I think it's great how you've managed to prove that these things don't work and therefore don't exist. Why don't you spend five minutes with Google before posting next time?

And deserts may be flat and clear, but you're still talking about putting square miles under shade that wouldn't be there otherwise. There will be an environmental impact.

As opposed to the non-impact of coal mines?

There is a radio show in Australia that has been going for 20-30 years called The Science Show. It has covered just about every scientific advance and debate during the period, including surviving an atomic war and creationism.

Streaming from a site near you :)

Most people outside Australia wouldn't have heard Adam and Dr Karl doing their Sleek Geek show. Really entertaining, and accurate stuff. Adam Spencer is a DJ at JJJ, and also holds a PhD in mathematics. Dr Karl is a regular visitor on Thursday mornings since it seems time began. See some of his stuff here. Recently, they got together for a tour called "Sleek Geeks" .. and here's a report on it by New Scientist.

It can be done !

Most people outside Australia wouldn't have heard Adam and Dr Karl doing their Sleek Geek show. Really entertaining, and accurate stuff. Adam Spencer is a DJ at JJJ, and also holds a PhD in mathematics. Dr Karl is a regular visitor on Thursday mornings since it seems time began. See some of his stuff here. Recently, they got together for a tour called "Sleek Geeks" .. and here's a report on it by New Scientist.

It can be done !

Most people outside Australia wouldn't have heard Adam and Dr Karl doing their Sleek Geek show. Really entertaining, and accurate stuff. Adam Spencer is a DJ at JJJ, and also holds a PhD in mathematics. Dr Karl is a regular visitor on Thursday mornings since it seems time began. See some of his stuff here. Recently, they got together for a tour called "Sleek Geeks" .. and here's a report on it by New Scientist.

It can be done !

They don't seem to censor programs much here, I think we'd get to see more than the USA would but maybe not quite as much as some parts of Europe. I've even heard the F-word in daytime TV on our public funded broadcaster the abc

What the networks do (except our dear auntie ABC) is chop random chunks out of programs to make more advertising fit in. This has lead to some really strange broadcasts of things like Farscape and Buffy. And I've noticed one station has started putting "banner ads" directly on the actual programs. Too bad if there were subtitles, you wouldn't see them, and they certainly cover up the credits.

just when I've figured out (thanks to a post on /.) how to stop the banner ads on web sites. Sigh.

Hint: try google for doubleclick block hosts

Go to http://www.abc.net.au/news/multipoll3/vote/
and vote against the war.
It's not like fucking Howard will listen to us, but at least we can make personal attacks based on his arrogance when we know the number of people against him.

A bunch of left-wing thugs has put up a poll at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/multipoll3/vote/total.h tm
Please show you support for peace.

Due to a reprogramming hiccup, the main system and its backup went down immediately after being switched on

while read f; do newsong = lookuptitlefrom($decade); cp $f $newsong; add($basslevel); add($artistvoiceprint); done;

1. profit!!

Cooperation in competition to win and GT? Check out Tit-for-Tat, as well as a bunch of other things for more examples.

Help, the USA is invading The Netherlands! They're transporting their vehicles trough the country on train cars, and they're heading for Rotterdam, just like the Germans did in 1940! Our government isn't even trying to stop them, it's like they've been bought off with promises of cheap oil or something!

Read about it here!

:-P

Personally I have switched from Windows->Linux-> OSX, so let my bias be known.

Mac OSX is a BETTER desktop than Linux. I'm sorry, but it is. It is a better desktop than Solaris, or AIX or whatever-unix. That is why people talk about switching so much, you get unix an excellent desktop, and conveniences such as Office (yeah I know you hate Office, so do I, but it works), and other programs that aren't coming to Linux any time soon (meanwhile almost any open source favorite can be found on OSX). Thats not to say, of course that an individual might not prefer one of the other OSes to be running on his boxen.

This article should explain why Apple's market share isn't too important. But, that said, I think that Cringely is wrong about an Apple/Sun merger. Sun has the valuable asset of corporate respect and connections. When my father worked on wall street each trader used to have a Windows 2000 based desktop and a Solaris workstation. With a merger, the combined Apple/Sun could offer a G4 to replace both the old Sun and the Win2k machine. OSX is easy enough to use, and as a unix, the sun-specific apps shouldn't be too hard to port over to mac. Not to mention that the apps that ran on the Win2k box (office and netscape) are allready running on the mac platform. Apple could also benefit from Sun's server line.

http://www.abc.net.au/cnnnn/news/s720646.htm

Here is a better collection of stories than the rediff one on kalpana chawla. Incidentally, chawla was the most experienced of the crew, this being her 2nd trip & she is is the 2nd Indian in space after Rakesh sharma did it with the Russians in 1984.
BTW, this is just in: Columbia crew remains found

Although it's nice to see that we are, again, a little closer to slashdot's favorite superpower, Australians did this about six months back.

Beats a meter, though. :)

There's one called Eclipse, featured in an excellent documentary called In Search of a Safer Cigarette. They found that the standard drying process created 99% of the carcinogens in the tobacco.

But burning any organic substance produces lots of carcinogens.

Eclipse contains no tobacco, yet looks, works and supposedly smells & tastes like a cigarette.

For those of you lacking willpower, I've made freely available a method that will make becoming an ex-smoker much easier.

Dave.

I realise this is off-topic but feel the need to point out that considered opinion these days blames the Hindenberg Disaster not on the Hydrogen but rather on the outer skin paint that bore a passing resemblance to the fuel used in the Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters (see here).

(I fear I've posted this much too late for most to see it)

Well for anyone out there looking for an modern alternative music station hit Triple J.

http://triplej.abc.net.au/

Triple J is a national free-to-air FM radio station here in Australia. You can stream it over the web as well.

It has a vast number of truly interesting music programs, its DJs are interesting/knowledgeable, in the mornings you get plenty of good current affairs and, you might want to sit down here, no really pull up a chair, IT has NO commercials. None at all. It's a non-commercial station. The only adds you'll come across are for its own programs and here and there for the mix CD's it puts on the market.

The 'Request Fest' in the evenings (Australian Time) is mainly for the teenagers, but the rest is gold.

As an Australian who has lived in the US for a good 6 years now, I have heard no radio stations in the FM band that compare to our home grown Triple J. It plays a good wide variety of local and international alternative bands, and, the good news, is owned, not by some corporation interested in shoving the same recycled clap-trap down our throats, but the Aussie Government funded broadcasting station.

Give it a try sometime, its worth a listen.

The link to the Age is to a page full of links to news stories. The ABC link, OTOH, has some relevant links, but it's the ABC's main news page, not specific to the fires in itself. Between the pair, you should get most of the current stories.

As terrible and horrific as it's been, I really can't stand that people are labelling it the "worst ever". Not being from the eastern side of Australia probably has something to do with the way I feel about this (yes, people west of Qld, NSW and Vic feel like they're in a different, neglected country), but it seems that people are forgetting that *the* worst fires *ever* were Ash Wednesday in SA and Vic on February 16, 1983:

2545 Buildings destroyed
75 People died
>390,000 Hectares burnt

source: http://sres.anu.edu.au/associated/fire/IUFRO/CONFL AG/ASHWED83/AW83.HTM

Don't get me wrong, the current predicament is terrible and serious, but please don't forget history or act like NSW is the only state that matters.

These are also some pages descibing that day:

http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_tim e/Transcripts/s678221.htm
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~gscfa/ash.htm
http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/4A25676D0022F2EE/BCView/ FAAF080E6756F7904A25679300155B2B?OpenDocument
http://www.historysmiths.com.au/CentFedPlayKit/eve nts/nature/1983_ash%20wednesday%20bushfires.htm

Google will help you find more.

The loss of Mt. Stromlo Observatory facility is very great loss.

A number of the obvious sites related to Stromlo are down, due to the fire or due to the wide spread power outages in the area. I will make links to indirect and cached pages.

Established in 1924, the Commonwealth Observatory at Mount Stromlo, on the outskirts of Canberra. Commonwealth Observatory was recognized for its important research into the origin and future of the universe.

Astronomers at Mount Stromlo made outstanding contributions to astronomy. It would be difficult to list all of the important contributions to Astronomy made by the people working at Mt. Stromlo. Now, a few come to mind:

• Stromlo research in the 1950s provided the first clue that the Magellanic Clouds had evolved differently from our own galaxy. These results gave us important insights into galactic evolution.
• In the 1990's, astronomers from Stromlo and Sliding Springs (many km away from the fire area) showed that about 90% of disc galaxies (such as our own) are greatly influenced by ''dark matter'', in their galaxies' halos.
• They made important observations in the first hours after Supernova 1987A (the first naked eye supernova in several centuries of years) was discovered.
• Then there is the sort of work such as the Stromlo Abell Cluster Supernova Search
• The Massive Compact Halo Objects (Macho project that was the first to record many microlensing events in our Galaxy as well as in the LMC.
• Then there was all of that tedious, but vital work of spectral classification of southern stars.
• Many of the first parallax distances to Southern stars were first made at Stromlo.
• The list goes on and on ... I am sorry that I must leave out so many other significant contributions!

One of the principal instruments at Stromlo was the 74-inch (188-cm) reflecting telescope. The 74-inch telescope was erected in 1953, and until the completion in 1974 of the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring, this was the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. In 1982, it was used to discover the fossil star CD-38245: a star so old that it is made almost purely of gases left over from the big bang.

It also was home scopes such as the robotic 50-inch (127-cm). It was an excellent example of how an older telescope could be outfitted with new controls and instruments to perform innovative work. The MACHO project was conducted on the 50 inch.

Two historical scopes come to mind, the Oddie, and the Yale-Columbia telescope:

The Oddie, was a wonderful 9-inch Newtonian telescope. The Victorian MP, James Oddie, presented this telescope to the Commonwealth government for use in the proposed Commonwealth Observatory. It was installed on the site at "Mt Strom" (as Stromlo was originally known) in September 1911. Over the years the Oddie telescope has made valuable contributions to Southern Hemisphere astronomy; it did some of the first measurements of the brightness, color and spectral classification of southern stars.

The Yale-Columbia telescope, 26-inch Grubb long-focus refractor was erected at this site for the determination of parallaxes of southern stars (it was the largest refractor in the southern hemisphere when first installed.

Moreover, there were other scopes as well ... But alas, from what can be seen from the air at this time, most, if not all of those telescopes have been lost. At appears that heat from the burning of the nearby bush /trees was hot enough to melt many of the domes at the observatory.

The Canberra Astronomical Society used the Stromlo lecture hall for their monthly meetings. During public nights, the public had access to a domed C14 scope, the Oddie, and a number of scopes brought to the site by members ... all through the hard work and generous efforts of the Canberra Astronomical Society.

I had the privilege of observing at Mt Stromlo several times and spoke at one of the CAS meetings. I still can recall flying down from the US to a CAS member's home to see SN1987, . I was there only 36 hours after the naked eye supernova was first observed. I still recall seeing the single star, at a distance of over 168,000 light-years, change in color and rightness over the course of an evening. I was one of the most important astronomical events I have had the honor to witness. I recall that every scope up at Mt Stromlo was all pointed at the Large Magellanic Could where SN 1987A was blazing away. The previous observing board schedule was cancelled as people raced to collect as much early critical data as they could in the early hours of the event.

I had the privilege of being with the members of the Canberra Astronomical Society on two of my several total solar eclipses: 1991 in Hawaii, US and most recently the 2001 eclipse in Ceduna, AU.

(Both trips count among my several successful viewings of solar totality. Although the 1991 Hawaii was a close call that was saved because my friend (the one who introduced me to the CAS) broke his arm a very short time before the Eclipse ... which allowed both of us to have a full view of Totality in Hawaii ... but that is another story!)

My best wishes and heart felt sorrow go out to all of those people who worked so hard to make Mt. Stromlo such a wonderful place for the public to visit and who helped the observatory make many important contributions to Astronomy. Much of what was lost cannot be replaced. Still it is my hope that those who are left will be able to rebuild something anew out this tragedy.

Why Read CNN when you can read the real australian news at the ABC site.

And that makes me think that photons can self-gravitate:
They are affected by gravity
They "bend space" like mass, so produce a gravitational field.

You are entirely correct. A photon has energy and momentum, thus it generates a gravitational field, even though it has no rest mass. It is also subject to a gravitational field, as was found to be the case in 1919.

Hell, gravity should self-gravitate, and there was an experiment to try to determine whether it does, and they appear to have found that it does....

There's evidently an australian children's show called "Bananas in Pajamas...

I always thought the Teletubbies were the gay heartthrobs. Oh well. The Bananas hang out with teddy bears, for what it's worth.

...laura

You wouldn't have a link to their site, would you?

Here you go. And apparently, they always cum in pairs.

Today on CNN - Military robots well trained for war

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is offering a $1 million cash prize to the winner of a planned robot vehicle race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas known as DARPA Grand Challange. The course will feature both on-road and off-road portions and will include extremely rugged, challenging terrain and obstacles. The purpose of the race is to stimulate interest in and encourage the accelerated development of autonomous ground vehicle technologies that could be used by the US military. See the DARPA website for Grand Challange Rules and details... For more news, refer to articles on these websites - Forbes, ABC, TOI

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is offering a $1 million cash prize to the winner of a planned robot vehicle race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas known as DARPA Grand Challange. The course will feature both on-road and off-road portions and will include extremely rugged, challenging terrain and obstacles. The purpose of the race is to stimulate interest in and encourage the accelerated development of autonomous ground vehicle technologies that could be used by the US military. See the DARPA website for Grand Challange Rules and details... For more news, refer to articles on these websites - Forbes, ABC, TOI

Here is the story submitted to /. but was ignored:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is offering a $1 million cash prize to the winner of a planned robot vehicle race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas known as DARPA Grand Challange. The course will feature both on-road and off-road portions and will include extremely rugged, challenging terrain and obstacles. The purpose of the race is to stimulate interest in and encourage the accelerated development of autonomous ground vehicle technologies that could be used by the US military. See the DARPA website for Grand Challange Rules and details... For more news, refer to articles on these websites - Forbes, ABC, TOI

Here are some links:

http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2003/01/10 /rtr844270.html

http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s761479.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/co mp/articleshow?artid=34101659

Since /. won't accept this submission, I am putting it in here [this is about information, right ? If modded (-1, offtopic), some people might lose the chance to read it]. Here it goes -

US offers $1m prize to boost robot warfare

REUTERS[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2003 12:12:08 AM ]

WASHINGTON: The US Defence Department says it is offering a $1 million cash prize to the winner of a planned robot vehicle race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The "Grand Challenge," scheduled to take place on February 28, 2004, is intended to spur development of technologies that could be used by the US military.
The contest was the brainchild of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon's cradle for revolutionary technologies.
"The race is intended to spur the accelerated development of autonomous robotic vehicle technologies for military applications," said Jan Walker, a DARPA spokeswoman, on Friday. It offered a unique chance to help shape "this promising new dimension of our national defence," she added.
Robots are already playing a growing role in the US arsenal, including devices that scout enemy positions, sniff for chemical and biological warfare agents and slither down sewers or under doors to collect intelligence.
In a separate category are remotely piloted aircraft such as the RQ-1 Predator, being used for surveillance and as armed attack drones in the US-declared war on terror.
Among those encouraged to attend were futurists, inventors, robotic engineers, software designers, technology companies, universities and "trail-blazers," the Pentagon agency said.

To find out details and more news about it, search http://news.google.com/ Some of the links are:
http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2003/01/10 /rtr844270.html
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s761479.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/co mp/articleshow?artid=34101659

Since /. won't accept this submission, I am putting it in here [this is about information, right ? If modded (-1, offtopic), some people might lose the chance to read it]. Here it goes -

US offers $1m prize to boost robot warfare

REUTERS[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2003 12:12:08 AM ]

WASHINGTON: The US Defence Department says it is offering a $1 million cash prize to the winner of a planned robot vehicle race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The "Grand Challenge," scheduled to take place on February 28, 2004, is intended to spur development of technologies that could be used by the US military.
The contest was the brainchild of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon's cradle for revolutionary technologies.
"The race is intended to spur the accelerated development of autonomous robotic vehicle technologies for military applications," said Jan Walker, a DARPA spokeswoman, on Friday. It offered a unique chance to help shape "this promising new dimension of our national defence," she added.
Robots are already playing a growing role in the US arsenal, including devices that scout enemy positions, sniff for chemical and biological warfare agents and slither down sewers or under doors to collect intelligence.
In a separate category are remotely piloted aircraft such as the RQ-1 Predator, being used for surveillance and as armed attack drones in the US-declared war on terror.
Among those encouraged to attend were futurists, inventors, robotic engineers, software designers, technology companies, universities and "trail-blazers," the Pentagon agency said.

To find out details and more news about it, search http://news.google.com/ Some of the links are:
http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2003/01/10 /rtr844270.html
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s761479.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/co mp/articleshow?artid=34101659

...maybe because they are serial killers?

Why Some Doctors Kill

Demon Doctors - Physicians as Serial Killers

Medical Serial Killers

Britain plans wide probe of serial killer doctor

It's not even as if no-one has used an organic brain to control a robot before either. Personally I prefer the idea of a piece of fishbrain suddenly finding itself trundling about on dry ground on a little trolley, as it's expanding its horizons by a fair amount, and letting it travel where no Lamprey has gone before; a piece of ratbrain in a robot will just be laughed at by all the real rats until the Blue Fairy comes along to turn him into a real rat (unless it ends up under the sea for ages upon ages, by which point robots will be the only intelligence on the planet, and they'll have the techology to... oops; sorry; I was a little traumatised by the last half-hour of A.I. (okay, I spelt "traumatised with an S, but I am British, dash it)).

When you listen to the radio, you are supporting the RIAA via advertisers

Unless you listen to this, which is a non-commercial radio station, which also happens to play the best music...

There's lots to argue with here, but here's some highlights:

Gandalf ascends from being "grey" to being "white". That's stretching things a little, white vs. black (the colours) are long-standing symbols for good vs. evil.

Purity of blood = purity of spirit? The point of the trilogy was that Frodo (a hobbit, one of the lowest races) rose above all adversity and saved everyone else - and was able to resist the evil in the ring because his spirit was so pure!

Race = personality? Yeah, for pretty much every race except for humans. Humans were the only race that really had a personality. Humans could be good or evil (or indifferent), unlike the other races who all got stuck in a cast. Notice that some particular groups of humans were "evil" - they were still Human!!

I found this on the net, posted by "anna", and it sums up everything I'm trying to say perfectly:

When Sam meets the Southron who has died, there is a detailed and moving description of the Southron: "he came to rest in the fern a few feet away, face downward, green arrow feathers sticking from his neck below a golden collar. His scarlet robes were tattered, his corslet of overlapping brazen plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched with blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword.". Sams thoughts then follow: "It was Sams first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it very much. He was glad he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the mans name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lie or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace.".

When being seen through Sams eyes, the Southron is given humanity and beauty.

And here we come to an essential aspect of Tolkiens "non-racism". It is Sam who is able to give humanity and beauty to this person. And it is Sam and Frodo alone who are able to defeat the Dark Lord by destroying the ring (requiring Gollums help of course). All the might and beauty of the Elvish kingdoms, the lineage of the Numenoreans - Gondor and Aragorn, all the beauty of Galadriel and Arwen - none of it is able to defeat Sauron. This is clearly depicted in the two chapters "The Black Gate Opens" and "Mount Doom". The only people which can defeat Sauron are Frodo and Sam. Tolkien clearly portrays that "superior racial heritage" is of no use. It is only humility, compassion and love - best portrayed by the characters of Sam and Frodo - which can defeat evil.

This story is where I got that idea from.
And I don't know where you come from, but 500mhz is NOT typical any more. After all why should it be when you can get a 1+ ghz barebones kit for under $300. At that price its not worth it _not_ to upgrade.
And mods... Give me a break, my original post was in no way trolling. I was stating a fact which the editors of slashdot failed to notice and then making a joke about it. Grow a sense of humor.

Here's a photo

The original source even says it cannot run.
It was the hairbrained TheInquirer article writer who somehow got the impression that it was still running.

" Sadly, it's not an option to make CSIRAC operational again today. Time has taken a toll on this fragile dinosaur.

So what exactly would happen if anyone tried to relive the magic by switching it on?

"A lot of its components would not stand having voltages applied to them again," says Thorne. "I think it would probably catch fire."

" Sadly, it's not an option to make CSIRAC operational again today. Time has taken a toll on this fragile dinosaur.

So what exactly would happen if anyone tried to relive the magic by switching it on?

"A lot of its components would not stand having voltages applied to them again," says Thorne. "I think it would probably catch fire."

Sadly, it's not an option to make CSIRAC operational again today. Time has taken a toll on this fragile dinosaur.

So what exactly would happen if anyone tried to relive the magic by switching it on?

"A lot of its components would not stand having voltages applied to them again," says Thorne. "I think it would probably catch fire."

Not bad for a living dinosaur. Listen to it yourself :)

Not bad for a living dinosaur. Listen to it yourself :)

Oh yeah, and the US softwood lumber tarriffs just rock.

We've lost over 30,000 jobs in BC because of this, and you say we're whiney, look at the bush administration. At least our Prime Minister can spell, and knows the names of other country leaders.

Oh, and Bush IS a moron.

Maybe you should actually pay attention to what happens outside your country, the United States aren't exactly the world ya know?