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Luckly Apple just got a patent on such a device. Add in good access to a faster-than-a-modem net connection, automated NSA data mining for the "good stuff" and outsourcing the final analysis to someone that makes less than $.50 USD a hour on the other side of the earth.

Could be a fun project if it was so fucking evil. Welcome to amerika.

"There is NO bullet proof software, though I give a hat nod to the guys that wrote the code for the Mars rovers. "

The Mars Rovers are amazing pieces of equipment, and the software has worked great -- mostly -- but it wasn't bullet-proof code. I can't remember all the details, but the system went bad on one of the rovers within the first few weeks of landing due to a bug (too many files in flash memory), but, as it is supposed to do, it went into "safe" mode and they fixed it by uploading patches. It took them a while to fix because the system was rebooting over and over, many times a day, and they had a narrow window of opportunity to interupt it before the system rebooted again. They then did the same patch for the other rover, which would have been afflicted by the same bug eventually.

The point is, even the Mars Rovers, which can be regarded as a software and hardware success in almost every measure, still had bugs that needed patching. Even "mission critical" software can have problems. As you suggested, the software engineers still deserve alot of credit.

Ah, I did a search and found a few details.

Aspartame is toxic, eh?

Maybe not

You are quite right in saying so, and it was entirely my intention to make that point. As I said, the industry has quite some time before growing beyond its infancy. However, the main point to be made is that people are attempting to be forward thinking and, indeed, pragmatic enough to realize that the requisite infrastructure for the elevator must be established. Only then may genuine progress be made towards making what today remains science fiction into reality.

As for current realities: many promising, potentially useful applications are developed every year.

About 3 years ago, some scientists hooked up a chimpanzee and captured brain signals to control a robotic arm. Their results were quite a bit more impressive I think, because the robotic arm had full motion control, and was physically located several hundred miles away from the chimp. But still, this stuff from Honda is cool, because it's controlled by humans using mri, not wires plugged into your brain like the monkey stuff. I just hope they don't try to put brain controller stuff in their vehicles...

Here's an article from New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4262

Frankly, I cant believe this tech couldnt have been done already, even twenty or thirty years ago. I have to imagine we've had the tech to do adhesiveness on demand based on an external stimuli ( such as electricity ) for many years. We have had the ability when the opposite material is metal since atleast the beginning of the space race, but even sticking to any surface on demand shouldnt be too difficult.

In the future, please submit /. articles which link to the permalink contained in this, and most other blogs. Because after the next big scientific breakthrough hits the presses, the link in this article will take you to the top of the blog, forcing us to scroll around and find the item of interest discussed in this posting.

If you scroll down a bit, You'll find other wonderful DoE inventations.

Like this one

With inventations like that, who needs cars??

Ben

Actually, "we" have evolved since the beginning of the agricultural age. This report (OMIM here and PubMed here) demonstrates a shift in the frequency of an allele of a gene that is expressed in the brain.

evolution is about a hell of a lot more than mutations

Very true, and very unfortunate fo rthe evolution of slashdotters. You have to get a girlfriend before you can evolve.

The dumbass with an IQ of 60 living in a trailer park or a city's slum with his twelve kids will have descendants who rule the world.

Meanwhile, the assburger in his mother's basement with an IQ if 297 will sadly never pass his genes along. Evolutionary dead end, he is.

More on topic, there are Better sources of information that the Boston Herald. Gees, people! This is supposed to be a nerd site!

IBM aren't known for vaporware.

But how dare they violate the valuable IP of patent #6,368,227? Don't bother letting these hardened criminals rot in jail- just shoot them for their crimes against humanity.

In reference to the patent you mention, this text is from a New Scientist article on the patent:

A five-year-old kid from Minnesota has patented a way of swinging on a child's swing...

Peter Olson[, his father,] told New Scientist: "I had told him that if he invented something he could file a patent." His son had not seen sideways swinging because the swings at his school are closely spaced, so he asked his father to file the application.

But that's coo, Slashdot. Mock away. That's what you do best.

Hmm:

"India cant afford a space program when there is still poor"

This is rather stupid, it is akin to saying:

"India cant afford to develop the IT sector when there is still poor"

Only a retard who dosent know anything about economics would say the ISRO is a waste of money. The benefits to industry, job creation, technology expertise, etc, all pay for a space program tenfold. Except in the case of the cash cow programs of the old superpowers.

That wiki said it best:

"Some critical opinion is sometimes aired questioning the relevance of the ISRO in light of the low per capita income of the average Indian citizen, usually from foreign observers. In response to this, defenders of the Indian space programme point to the fact that it isn't considered a waste in other countries, all of which have some measure of homelessness or poverty. Also it is pointed out that the ISRO is unique amongst space programmes for its focus on developmental applications such as educational broadcasting and remote sensing. In addition, the ISRO is arguably the most financially successful space programme, with very cheap development and launch capabilities, and a budget of which 45% spent goes to Indian industry - it is arguable that the ISRO has paid for itself several times over already, not just in terms of success, but also in terms of commercial return. Finally, it seems obious to many that a country the size of India needs independent launch capabilities, and a full spectrum of scientific institutions and industry. [Ref: New Scientist]"

Ref Link: http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg185248 71.000

I know you were being sarcastic, but now that you mention it...

Don't forget about the accident and the grounding - these didn't help much. IIRC they had to do work on the engines while it was grounded to get their airworthiness certificate back as it was possible that the 2 engines on each wing weren't protected well enough from each other during failure.

Controls with opposite effects should not be right next to each other.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2986

Reminds me of skateboarding on brick roads!

Not only are they sick, they are rather fat too!

Here's the article: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16622425.000 .html, although I'm afraid you can't read much of it unless you're a subscriber.

It's called Bug Me Not

I read in New Scientist a long time ago an article about violent video games and whether or not they actually affect children, and they seemed to suggest that it really doesn't affect them at all. Here's the article: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16622425.000 .html, although I'm afraid you can't read much of it unless you're a subscriber.

Here's a New Scientist article on the subject.

It's all about how much effect of greenhouse gasses is in play at a given point in time. Yes, methane stays in the atmosphere for less time than CO2, but even when methane gets broken down, you're still left with CO2. Just like methane, CO2 (whether it's from fossil or fresh sources) also gets removed from the atmosphere in time.

Well, this New Scientist article from 2002 is also about Victor Petrenko, and goes into a little more depth.
 
Apparently, it is is the protons which are the majority charge carrier. If you remember your high school chemistry, there exists a small amount of hydrogen and hydroxl ions even in water with a pH of 7. Presumably, ice, which is a crystalline version of water, also has a small concentration of hydrogen and hydroxyl ions. According to the article, the free hydrogen ions (a.k.a. protons) travel between the crystalline structure of the ice, carrying current. I would guess that the hydroxyl ions don't do the same thing simply because they are much larger than hydrogen ions, and are effectively immobile in the lattice.

A few operational systems listed here: http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/maglevq. htm The first one ever to go into service was apparently on 1 January 2003 in Shanghai, China. For $6.25 you get to go 30km @ 400km/h. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3153

The technology is only expensive cause it isn't being mass produced yet, like everything else before it. As soon as it's adopted, the construction prices of them will drop considerably. As for efficiency of them, I'd have to do some searching locally for links to articles I've read previously, but this might interest you for now, http://www.llnl.gov/str/Post.html . One article I've read showed only a minimal (less than 1% iirc) increase in overall drag when the vehicle's weight was doubled. They're also mentioned on the wikipedia maglev page as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation_t rain

I highly doubt the energy required for these systems would be anywhere near the same for a jet, but then again the speeds would likely be only about 1/3 to 1/2 for the next few decades.

You don't get much more suppressed than the views of NASA:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate- change/mg18925403.900-us-agencies-accused-of-muzzl ing-climate-experts.html

But as long as I have to de-plane whenever there is the slightest threat of a terrorist attack on a plane or someone misses a security checkpoint, I'm going to demand that we "de-plane" when there is any indication whatsoever that life on Earth could end. It sort of makes sense that we error on the side of safety since there are tipping points in this debate- meaning that everyone acknowledges that should the whistleblowers be correct, there is a point of no return.

It's surprising this is suddenly receiving attention in the mainstream. Does anyone recall the report about 5 years ago, about how carbon fullerenes (and possibly nanotubes) proved fatal to fish?

Ah, just googled it, here's one of the many hits:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4825

Cheers,
-l

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn1003

oh the despair ;)

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg185248 61.400.html

What IS surprising, is that there is no image - not even the obligatory 100-pixel-across thumbnail, which links to a lame-ass 200-pixel-across "Large Picture". I am very interested in seeing this thing - so where the bloody hell is it?

Picture courtesy of New Scientist.

about as effective as giving fish credit for plate tectonics.

Yeah - everyone knows it wasn't fish, it was microbes... :)

"Scientists have discovered that some bacteria propel themselves along using tiny jets of slime".

No - that has been known for a long time. This research mearly elucidates the mechanism. Which is nice. But, in addition to the slime nozzles at the back end, .

Did you know that at the front end Myxo bacteria have "grappling hooks" which that can extend and then retract? Search for pilus retraction...

Or that they are pack hunters? Or that they will commits suicide to save their buddies?

Myxobacteria - they're great!

I'm sure she is lurking here and taking it all in stride. An accomplished journalist, she writes about techno-sexuality herself all the time--just take a look at some of her published pieces:

• Why We All Need Pornography
• On the Go Porn: What the Cellphone Porn Industry Didn't Learn from ASCII Pr0n
• If Code is Free, Then Why Not Me? Some open-source geeks are as open-minded about sex as they are about hacking.
• More Bang for Your Buck: The Ins and Outs of Great Group Sex Web Sites

Following orgasm, the hormone prolactin is released into the bloodstream in both men and women. The hormone makes us feel satiated by countering the effect of dopamine, which is released during sexual arousal.

Stuart Brody of the University of Paisley, UK, and Tillmann Krüger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, measured blood prolactin levels in male and female volunteers who watched erotic films before engaging in masturbation or sexual intercourse to orgasm in the laboratory.

Surprisingly, after orgasm from sexual intercourse, the increase in blood prolactin levels is 400 per cent higher in both sexes compared with after orgasm from masturbation (Biological Psychology, vol 71, p 312).

You reduce your chance of getting prostate problems by ejeculating regularly, so do it for your health.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3942
Its not good to keep stuff in, you need to regularly clear out those pipes, 5 times a week or more is good.

Or do you abstain for religious reasons in which case why trot out a series of repeated non religious sounding reasons.

biologically engineer boneless chickens

they have already done it .

And with the complete lack of atmo, what about the cosmic ray issue. Are not cosmic rays still cancerous and devilishly difficult to filter out. It seems like that more than anything else would put the brakes on long term space vacationing. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7753

The speed of gravity has been measured. Pretty sure I heard about it here three years ago.

They need to perfect NAND or NOR gates, but once they have one of those, they can replicate them a billion times, and either of those gate types will be able to emulate every other logic gate, when placed in the right order.

I believe one of the big problems is the replication that you're speaking of. From my understanding they don't really have a great idea of how to mass produce predictably shaped nanotubes yet. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8888 has a little bit of info on this too.

There is an article in the latest issue of New Scientist: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18925434.300 .html

Probably they didn't actually die off until they came in contact with Europeans.

I stand corrected, I should have said that water vapor plays a MUCH larger role than CO2. Water vapor accounts for anywhere between 65% and 95%, but probably not the low 50% that you give. The budget analysis is debatable and prone to error, and at least one of the authors of that paper is known for his scientific activism. Peer review these days leaves a lot to be desired:

"
IPCC proponents place great emphasis on the merit of articles that have been "peer reviewed." However, peer review for climate publications, even by eminent journals such as Nature or Science, is typically a quick, unpaid read by two or three knowledgeable persons, usually close colleagues of the author. It is unheard of for a peer reviewer to actually check the data and calculations.

In 2004, I was asked by a journal (Climatic Change) to peer review an article. I asked to see the source code and supporting calculations. The editor said no one had ever asked for such things in 28 years of his editing the journal. There is nothing at the journal peer review stage in climate publications that is remotely like an audit.

Although the IPCC and similar agencies have many committees and meetings (usually in nice places), they do not carry out any audit or verification activities.

While insiders have long known this, it was recently admitted in written answers by the author of the hockey stick study (Michael Mann) to the U.S. Senate in the fall of 2003. "It is distinctly against the mission of the IPCC to 'carry out independent programs,'" Mann wrote. Thus, if a paper has passed the cursory journal peer review process, there may not be any subsequent hurdles prior to adoption by the IPCC.
"

From "Climate Alarmists Playing Shell Game with Data": http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=16812

There is also a new finding that living plants give off methane, a greenhouse gas:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg189253 43.900

The earth may be warming, but are humans to blame? The earth has had several periods of "Global Warming" before humans ever existed, followed by ice ages.

There are other possible earlier ones as well.

anyone for a kebab? http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg1862500 5.600.html/

that's just so last week...

In this case, it may be the gene that's the poison. It appears that a gene called CYP1A2 determines how fast you metabolize caffeine, depending on which of two variants you have. People with two copies of the variant CYP1A2*1A metabolize caffeine about 4X faster than those with two copies of the other variant, CYP1A2*1F. The study found that more than 2 or 3 cups of coffee a day increases the risk of cardiovascular disease for the slow metabolizers, but may actually reduce it for those carrying CYP1A2*1A.

That could be why studies on the health effects of coffee have been all over the map. The trick is to know your genotype with regard to CYP1A2, and of course very few of us do (or can)...

See http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/dn8816. html

Getting purchasing to buy it is a different story on the other hand.

It turns out that dropping things into the subduction zones doesn't work out very well. The problems are mainly due to instability, as it doesn't simply suck what's there into the earth's core, but rather spews it around as well. There's some better solutions that involve burying it in the deep clays in more geologically stable areas.

Of course, many countries have banned dumping radioactive waste into the sea under the London Convention. The United States signed it in 1998, but it hasn't been ratified yet.

Oh, thats right, we're in the middle of Global Warming. That is the threat WHICH WE ARE ACTUALLY FACING. Not a new ice age.

Well, according to these folks and number of others, there's a significant risk that slight increases in ocean temperatures will trigger an ice age, first in Europe, then spreading over much of the northern hemisphere as the increased snow coverage significantly reduces solar heating. So, it might be a new ice age, it might not.

That is why people call it 'climate change'...

Personally, I think people who get worked up about the semantics should rather spend their effort trying to educate others about the situation, and the potential consequences of humanity's actions over the past few centuries. Oh, and stocking up on Sunblock 2000 while they're learning how to build igloos... ;-)

Actually, they did...or at least they think so...

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2219

I am confused... in what way would "structure of learning that allows ID" require astrology to be accepted?

Astrology was one of the specific things mentioned by Behe during the Dover trial.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8178

Behe said he had come up with his own "broader" definition of a theory, claiming that this more accurately describes the way theories are actually used by scientists. "The word is used a lot more loosely than the NAS defined it," he says.

Rothschild suggested that Behe's definition was so loose that astrology would come under this definition as well. He also pointed out that Behe's definition of theory was almost identical to the NAS's definition of a hypothesis. Behe agreed with both assertions.

The exchange prompted laughter from the court, which was packed with local members of the public and the school board.