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Apparently the artificial banana flavouring found in candies is much closer to the Gros Michel. I've only ever had the Cavendish. I wonder if any banana connoisseurs here would agree?

a taste test has shown that the Gros Michel does closely resemble the artificial banana flavor: "It's almost like what a Cavendish would taste like but sort of amplified, sweeter and, yeah, somehow artificial. Like how grape flavoured bubble-gum differs from an actual grape," he explains. "When I first tasted it, it made me think of banana flavourings." - http://io9.com/debunking-the-m...

Wernher Von Braun said moon landings were impossible and that it would take a rocket the size of the Empire State Building to get people on the moon.

That's because Von Braun wanted to send huge landers with 5-storey habitats carrying a crew of 50 to the moon, staying there for weeks.

It's not like there's anything stopping you from doing your own calculations on whether the Saturn V was big enough to go to the moon (it was). The main thing NASA did to make it possible was reduce the weight of the payload, and shorten the stay.

They sure do have mandated classes in Qatar for religion though. Texas on the other hand, doesn't.

Yes, Texas has mandated teaching of religion in schools.

http://pandasthumb.org/archive...

http://www.slate.com/articles/...

http://io9.com/a-map-showing-w...

Bill Nye is another anti-Sagan (just like Tyson).

Really. I guess you didn't watch the reboot of Cosmos last year, hosted by Tyson. He spoke at length in one of the episodes about how Sagan was a gracious and welcoming host to the young Tyson when he visited Sagan at Cornell while deciding on an undergraduate university.

As for Nye, he has spoken fondly of his contact with Sagan, as a student in his Astronomy class, and later as a member of the Planetary Society, which Sagan founded. Nye is now the head of that society.

Nye and Tyson are far from being anti-Sagan.

http://io9.com/watch-bill-nye-...

... is that crystal meth is relatively easy to obtain, and it can be converted to Sudafed. Now all we need is for researchers to simplify the process and provide a practical process for the layman.

Well, here's one from Canada. Here's another one from New York. Here's another one from a month ago, though in their defense, there were some criminal acts involved (B&E).

Bad idea. You're making the assumption these things work. The idea is well intentioned, "oh those poor people that have no access to modern western medicine".

Pity the poor Baku in the coastal forest of west Gabon who have a natural immunity and cure for Ebola (There are tribes of Indians in the amazon in Bolivia too. Why? Riddle me this: what does the soil in Bolivia have in common with Senegal? That's the key to Gabon. Wouldn't you rather that than 40 years of trying to make a vaccine that at it's best is 25-75% effective. Note the death rate outside africa. Other than 2 (3?) we didn't hear about, or heard about when their liver had turned to soup, nobody else died of a disease that's up to >99% fatal (WHO).

http://en.ird.fr/the-media-cen...
I think its safe to say it's no longer a "possible" immunity. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and immunization technology from 1720 from the school of homeopathy ("like protects against like"; this remains unacknowledged but unverifiable) is one way but not the only way.

"29 January 2015 Last updated at 00:55 - We've now seen several cases that don't have any symptoms at all, asymptomatic cases," said Anavaj Sakuntabhai who suggested the virus might be mutating.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health...

Giggle. The virus didn't change. People did.

British nurse cured of Ebola credits new drug - and strawberries
"Back in Britain, the decision to try MIL 77 was not difficult. “I said ‘I have Ebola, so, yes, I’d rather have that than high-dose vitamin C,’” she said"
"“I reckon I’ve had 10 punnets,” joked Corporal Anna Cross, who smiled nervously as she talked for the first time after her treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in north London." (10 punnets would be about equal to two 1000mg injections a day)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

April 2015 - semen found infected after 175 days, twice the previous record.
http://io9.com/ebola-survivors...

The Ebola outbreak in Liberia is over
9 May 2015 -- Today marks 42 days since the last confirmed case of Ebola in Liberia was safely buried — the period of time set by WHO to declare an outbreak over. WHO now considers Liberia free of Ebola transmission.
http://apps.who.int/ebola/libe...

Wednesday, May 13, 2015 - Ebola Not Mutating Beyond 'Normal' Rate, Scientists Say
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medline...

28 May 2015 | Did real-time epidemic modeling save lives in West Africa?
http://spectrum.ieee.org/compu...

Ask yourself what might have happened on October 17 2014.

"Pity the tribes in South America and North America who never suffer the effects of influenza.
"Folklore of past civilizations report that for every disease afflicting man there is an herb or its equivalent that will effect a cure. In Puerto Rico the story has long been told "that to have the health tree Acerola in one's back yard would keep colds out of the front door." 1 The ascorbic acid content of this cherry-like fruit is thirty times that found in oranges. In Pennsylvania, U.S.A., it was, and for many still is, Boneset, scientifically called Eupatorium perfoliatum 2. Although it is now rarely prescribed by physicians, Boneset was the most commonly used medicinal plant of eastern United States. Most farmsteads had a bundle of dried Boneset in the attic

For those who have forgotten , or never knew in the first place, a New Mexico state senator

once proposed a law to deal with this, which would probably have been the greatest single reform of the legal system in US History, and still makes me grin. It passed the state senate with a unanimous vote! The timid morons in the state House, however, (probably aided by "campaign contributions" from professionals in the affected fields) killed it. The proposed law said:

"When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a cone-shaped hat that is not less than two feet tall. The surface of the hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightning bolts. Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a white beard that is not less than 18 inches in length, and shall punctuate crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air with a wand. Whenever a psychologist or psychiatrist provides expert testimony regarding a defendant’s competency, the bailiff shall contemporaneously dim the courtroom lights and administer two strikes to a Chinese gong."

Just imagine all the pseudo-scientific clap-trap that this would have destroyed in numerous legal cases where "experts" pretend to know what somebody is thinking, has thought, or will or won't do in the future.

This sums it up pretty well: http://io9.com/how-the-hugo-aw...

"This actually sounds like a compelling argument at first â" but the saboteurs themselves have already disproved it. Their own success shows that their conspiracy theory is absolutely false. If there had been a left-wing conspiracy to stuff the ballot, it would have largely counteracted the efforts of Beale and his friends. The Beale strategem only succeeds if all the other nominations are scattered and disorganized. And that kind of disorganization is exactly what we saw in most nominations. It appears that everybody except Bealeâ(TM)s crew simply nominated whatever stories they happened to enjoy in 2014. Had there been a secret left-wing bloc nominating its own stories in lockstep, then Bealeâ(TM)s strategy would have failed."

> who is gonna clean up all that space junk once the satellites die

Since 1993, all satellites are equipped with an "end of life" plan where they use up their final burst of fuel to deorbit and burn up, or are sent further out into space. Here's one link: http://space.io9.com/where-do-...

As of Disney buying the franchise and announcing the new movies all the extended universe StarWars novels have been declared non-canon. The new canon is listed on this site.

This article was discussed on slashdot a couple of weeks ago. It explains why Dr. Laurence's conclusions are dubious at best.

Linus, what do you think about the recent revival of the original series with Grant Imahara? http://io9.com/5896314/mythbus...

Not that it's really any of your business, my wife was using the birth control pill, and it failed. It happens.

With that said, I'm glad we had our second child so close to the first. They are best friends, partners in crime. They get along very well, and will hopefully continue to be close going into the future.

> space elevator, what's the current progress

I think the current hold-up is the difficulty of getting together a large enough quantity of unobtainium.

Numerous pages, including this one from NASA, say that from an outside perspective it takes an infinite length of time for an object to cross the event horizon. Here's an "Ask a Physicist" column about black holes that says that time distortion reaches infinity at the event horizon. The Wikipedia article on event horizons says the same thing.

From our perspective, nothing ever passes the event horizon and thus the information is never lost.

Sorry, that model is currently out of stock.

People who make money claiming they know what other people are thinking MIGHT be full of crap.

Sadly, this reminds me of my personal favorite bit of proposed legislation which failed to become law.

An entire profession based on non-reproducible results and claims of insight into the minds of others is simply no more reliable and credible than a 1-900 number telephone psychic. The "testimony" of people in this profession is used on courts to make sure some people are kept jailed and others are let go with NO penalty for the professional who is later proven wrong; it's a profession with no true accountability other than by peers and associations of people in the profession (i.e. LESS accountability that the telephone scammers). Oh, and for any psycho who disagrees with me on this...... you're just "in denial" and you probably have "issues" involving you mother....

He pretty much called the pope a moron: http://io9.com/5839933/did-gal...

I found an interesting article about autism. And I'm treating it just like the anti-vaxxers. I found it on Facebook. I'm applying no scientific analysis of the contents. I'm spreading it around without putting any real thought into it, expecting everyone to just mindlessly forward it to as many people as they can find.

Anyone with silly putty and a dremel can duplicate keys, and has been able to for some time. All this does is make it easier if you have an appropriate 3d printer. If it becomes an issue, then keys can easily start featuring retractable covers. Or maybe this lock will finally see its heyday.

No, higher than 8K has no "visual advantage" due to limits of human perception. See "Angular resolution" in this article: http://io9.com/5926643/10-fund.... Basically, if you can see all 4000 pixels across, you can't distinguish the individual pixels, so adding more resolution doesn't improved the perceived image.

Why test what you can not do. Lets start testing a mass produced date rape drug that can be applied with skin contact (there is one already but it is hugely dangerous to everyone). No, well why not, 'er' because it would be illegal. So why allow testing of something that would be banned, the whole idea makes no sense at all. Other reason to enforce bans. High unpredictability of wind at low altitude in built up areas and of course power lines.

Want easy delivery, build an city within a building http://io9.com/these-futuristi... and everything will be delivered to your door 24/7/365 and your job will be down the hall, down the lift and up another hall, as will all the other services you need.

The main reason that distribution became a monopoly was due to the over crowding of spaces with dozens of companies running their lines - take a look at the following link for an example:

http://io9.com/photos-from-the...

To stop the over crowding, power companies were forced to merge and de-clutter the streets.

Don't we already know that these exist?

From TFA:

His most popular book, "The Three-Body Problem," has just been translated into English by the American sci-fi writer Ken Liu.

It turns out Ken Liu (no relation) wrote "Paper Menagerie," the first work of fiction to win all three of SF's major awards (the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award) a few years ago.

So I expect the translation to be excellent.

There is no necessary correlation between being a great writer and being a great translator. Really good writers tend to colour the works they are translating in their own image too much. For example, Ted Hughes's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses is a great Ted Hughes work, but not a very faithful translation.

His most popular book, "The Three-Body Problem," has just been translated into English by the American sci-fi writer Ken Liu.

It turns out Ken Liu (no relation) wrote "Paper Menagerie," the first work of fiction to win all three of SF's major awards (the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award) a few years ago.

So I expect the translation to be excellent.

There's also a drug that can turn blue eyes brown:
http://io9.com/why-does-this-e...

Peer-reviews on everything I write below are greatly appreciated. I want to make sure I understand this equation.

io9 has a pretty down-to-earth explanation of the equation:

FIT Treadmill Score = %MPHR + 12(METS) - 4(age) + 43(if female)

You can get your MPHR for your age here. I found a chart of METS here for various exercises.

So, if I'm understanding this correctly. If I reach a 160 heart rate out of 179.0 MPHR predicted for my 41 years of age while running 12 minute miles worth 8.5 METS. My score would be:

83.7 + 12(8.5) - 4(41) = 21.7

The same heart rate for my age running 8 minute miles:

83.7 + 12(8.5) - 4(41) = 69.7

If I am understanding this correctly, it really looks like you could easily improve your score with a few lifestyle choices (push yourself harder when you work out, eat healthier). This equation could be a great metric for people concerned about their health

relevant link http://io9.com/the-truth-behin...

The eye pupil is known to exhibit interesting behaviour at times,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
one notable being photic reflex (which also affects a quarter of a population)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

IMHO, human vision is still incompletely understood at whole population (global) level,
with all sorts of exceptions and special trade-off cases being documented:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
http://discovermagazine.com/20... ### check this one!

Finally, let's not forget, that it is well known that manly colour vocabulary is 4-bit, while females have true colour sets ;-O
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/...
http://io9.com/5919311/some-wo...
https://www.google.be/search?r...

Last but not least: make sure you see the image of the OP in fractional ways (say, top 10th of the image),
along with another person that sees it in the alternative mode. You may come up with surprises. ;-)

You were trying to claim that people either can be in support of monopolies or that they cannot be in support of any monopoly. That is obviously a black and white situation and entirely untrue. And there are multiple reasons that there are monopolies on running wires through neighborhoods. The number one reason is safety. Do you realize that there used to be almost free reign in running electric wires in the US? Take a look at these photos of NYC. You can see thousands of wires all over the neighborhoods. It was dangerous and an eye sore. Having unlicensed and under insured Uber drivers is potentially harmful to unknowing and unsuspecting customers. This is the reason that taxi licensing exists. Are you proposing that we no longer require any sort of licensing for anyone to drive on the open roads? What is the justification for Uber to be allowed to run an unlicensed taxi service? If its okay for them to operate without licensing, can my 95 year old grandmother drive unlicensed through your neighborhood?

Clearly it is Ragnarogk, the end of days and doom of the gods!

Too late, it's already come & gone.

The Cane Toad was also a "good idea" with a "proven background" and...well...we all know how that went

"The cane toad is native to South and Central America, but when its introduction to regions of Hawaii, the Caribbean, and the Philippines to fight pests in sugarcane fields yielded impressive results, it was quickly imported to various other regions worldwide.

Unfortunately, cane toads have a nasty habit of not just eating crop pests and insects, but also just about any terrestrial animal that they can fit their grotesquely huge mouths around — which is saying something, given that they can grow to over 30 cm in length. They also secrete toxins capable of killing just about any animal they come in contact with (humans have died after ingesting their eggs), meaning that they tend to be seriously lacking in the natural predator department."
Source here

This is approximately the same arrangement "our" astronauts use at the moment.

Pardon me, I thought they were going to be using trampolins in the near future?

http://io9.com/11-of-the-weird...

But yes, there could be all sorts of hazards out in space we are unaware of and have been very luck to avoid. Including "Galactic Superwaves":
http://starburstfound.org/gala...

Star Trek now has freedom to have any future the writers can come up with

No, they're stuck with the universe Abrams left them. A universe which makes no sense, where starships are irrelevant because transporters can move people over interstellar distances (from Earth to the Klingon homeworld), and where a cure for death has been found in Khan's blood. Not to mention the absurd political situation, with a corrupt Starfleet operating accord to some bizarre system of personal prerogative of individual commanders rather than any rational chain of command.

The stories I've been reading today put the nearest habitable planet outside our solar system at 1,100 light years away. Maybe there is something closer, but that's not what I understand these articles are discussing.

So you did not even read the linked article this /. story is about :D ?

http://io9.com/the-closest-kno...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

Radiation always comes from suns, so if you are far enough away you get no radiation except the occasionally gamma burst.

As one of the YouTube comments say it is a little known phenomenon called a coronal cavity .

At high temperatures the protons and electrons in hydrogen move so fast they aren't bound to each other any more and form a plasma. Both have charges (negative for the electron and positive for the proton) and any moving charge will create a part of a magnetic field. Magnetic fields in turn deflect other moving charges and when you have so many particles flying around fast in all directions that are bound together in a loose sphere shape by gravity on the edge there will be some interesting effects.

I don't think coronal cavities are well understood, but are thought to have a connection to coronal mass ejections, which are pretty much what the name suggests. More computing power would be helpful in studying models of the sun with so many particles and better mass distributions and magnetic field geometry from satellites. Maybe then we could really understand what these things really are in detail.

The rest of the country should just build a wall around it, and put all the politicians and lawyers there.

Finally! I've been waiting for the reboot for a while.

Thanks for the link. I've been watching coverage on the launch, but it's hard to know when things will happen. A link of the page that you posted has the schedule:

What To Expect During the First Orion Test Flight

Here is a blog reporting lift to the second orbit: http://space.io9.com/will-orio...

No, the space trampoline comes before that.

Not only /., but the rest of (male) science as well:

Lady parts.

Any reported locations on comets yet?

                          http://io9.com/xkcd-animates-t...

post apocalyptic much? wait, the one in Orlando's still going...

And if God wants a themepark, why does he need tax incentives from Caesar ?

Sorry, but nobody wants your miniature space shuttle, Sierra Nevada. Probably should have thought a little harder before copying one of the most expensive and unreliable space systems used in recent times. Heat-shield > Everything. Now SpaceX/Boeing have to bite the bullet and stop work? Something very wrong with this way of doing things.

Actually, the Dream Chaser is 900 million cheaper than Boeing's system, with equal or more features, and Sierra Nevada also argues compellingly that their delivery track record is at least as good as Boeings (anyone remember Boeing's Dreamliner delays)? Since the selection was supposed to be based on three factors: price, suitability and track record, with price weighted as heavily as the other two metrics combined, it seems very odd that Boeing was selected. Both competitors are far, far cheaper, so unless Boeing is massively better on the other metrics (and again, there isn't much evidence of that), it doesn't look fair that they were awarded the contract.

Personally, I hope they reverse the decision, because I think it will save the taxpayer a lot of money over Boeing, and it would be nice to have a refined version of the landable spaceplane that can improve on the shuttle. I still don't think the shuttle was a totally bad idea (ie - an idea that can never work)... it just needed improvements. Capsules aren't the only way to go, despite what people in some circles say.

Re sunglasses
Fashion that will hide you from face-recognition technology ( 1/06/14)
http://io9.com/how-fashion-can...
"For example, if you are wearing sunglasses, the system will recognize the sunglasses and then ignore that part of your face. The program will then simply analyze whatever is left behind. "... "that it's possible to recognize faces with 30% and in some cases 50% occlusion."

Not just research... EVERYTHING is totally risk averse. This is why every new song sounds and looks the same. Why we keep getting remakes, reboots, and blatent copies of the same old story over and over in the movies. There is a "patch" for this with the indie film community and the indie music scene. An indie research community would be cool, but they keep arresting people trying to do basic chemistry at home. http://io9.com/5119166/teen-wi...

Couple of links that all of you should study

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03...

http://io9.com/5908290/during-...