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have you guys seen http://www.sciscoop.com/? are they just a complete knock-off of slashdot or are they affiliated somehow? there's gotta be some kind of copyright infringement or something about the format...

I've written an article at SciScoop titled Facts About the Bird Flu. It discusses flu pandemics in general and the bird flu in particular. It also contains some good links for additional information. Any comments are welcome.

Greedy opportunists are trying to cash in, like the author of this story that somehow got onto Sciscoop. At the bottom is a url to his website, which is nothing more than a giant ad for some extremely over-priced PowerPoint presentations and a respirator.

This article gives the ongoing status of the H5N1 bird flu and includes a short primer on flu pandemics. Disclaimer: I'm the author.

Dear Folks:
I posted this news to Clint Seward of Electron Power Systems Home Page http://www.electronpowersystems.com/
here is his reply:

"Hi Erich,

  There is another method to producing neutrons that fits my lightning model that I have described to you.

  It is well known that electron beams have been used extensively to produce neutrons, above electron energies of 10 MeV, well within the voltages reported in the lightning event. (An Internet search produced several articles that reported this). I do not pretend to have researched this extensively, and do not know the actual target molecules or the process, but it appears plausible from what the papers report, and is consistent with my lightning model.

  The proposed method you sent to me is a lot more complex, and I would have to say I can not agree with the article as written without experimental results.

  Clint "

For a list of other alternative Fusion players and new nano-solar approaches please see my article : A new Manhattan Project for Clean Energy at http://www.sciscoop.com/main/2

Cheers,
Erich J. Knight

Naturally, it woudl ahve to be a left-handed through, given the recent findings about cosmic radiation!
 
.
-shpoffo

Maybe you should become an editor here.

Or maybe you'd enjoy SciScoop more than Slashdot.

-- Terrorism may have turned the United States into a nation of fear and aggression, but it won't succeed in Europe.

It is called Scoop and you can see it at (among other places) SciScoop.com. Everyone gets to vote on stories, not just the moderators. I post several articles a week myself.

This debate me of something I saw over on SciScoop some time ago:

(pasted below)

I recently heard Rick Tumlinson of the Space Frontier Foundation speak on a couple of related issues, and he gave us a very interesting perspective on all this - to paraphrase as best as I can remember:

"There are three distinct philosophies on doing things in space, which we can identify with three individuals: Carl Sagan, Wernher von Braun, and Gerard O'Neill. To the Sagans of the world, space is wondrous, grand, amazing, spectacular, and we should be learning all we can about it - but 'don't touch'! To the von Brauns, space is a proving ground for national grandeur, a place where we show how our engineers are the best, where we build the biggest rockets, the best space stations, and parade our astronaut heros to the world. To the O'Neills, however, space is the new American West: a place of hope and economic opportunity for all people."

Both the Sagans and the von Brauns have strong and traditional representations at NASA - the scientific and robotic missions follow that Sagan philosophy of "explore, but don't touch". Apollo was of course the quintessential von Braunian project, and the manned programs at NASA have attempted to follow in that mode ever since. But the O'Neill vision of space as a place for all people, as a location with resources bringing economic opportunity for the world, has had very little say in NASA up to this point.

Back to the current discussion, on the topic of terraforming Saganites seem to be against it quite often, as they're afraid of humans disturbing the sanctity of space. There's also bioconservatives who tend to see humanity as a virus which they want to keep quarantined to Earth, if not eradicated completely.

Many von Braunians are in favor of terraforming, while O'Neillians are very much in favor of both terraforming and orbital settlements. I personally think of myself as a Saganite that's recently "converted" to being an O'Neillian. There are few things I want to see more than see humanity become a multi-planet, spacefaring species.

Penrose's take on the universe is a pretty amazing one, but a very difficult one to grasp. The main point is: we just don't know enough about the world yet. Not enough mathematics, and our experiments are nowhere near adequate to get final answers.

If you read and post science articles here on Slashdot, I encourage you to visit SciScoop and help us grow the community there. We reported this very TGF story two days ago.

If you read and post science articles here on Slashdot, I encourage you to visit SciScoop and help us grow the community there. We reported this very TGF story two days ago.

There are serious issues with equating redshift with velocity. Some items with significantly different redshifts may be close in space. I've looked through a number of papers myself, some of which indicate that there is an extra redshift that corresponds roughly to the type of object being looked at. Otherwise, we're left in the uncomfortable position of having younger galaxies in clusters facing away from us, and older galaxies facing towards us. Anything that points to us as occupying a special position in the universe is... somewhat suspect :)

As to what the phenomenon actually is that causes the high redshifts, I don't think we know yet.

There are serious issues with equating redshift with velocity. Some items with significantly different redshifts may be close in space. I've looked through a number of papers myself, some of which indicate that there is an extra redshift that corresponds roughly to the type of object being looked at. Otherwise, we're left in the uncomfortable position of having younger galaxies in clusters facing away from us, and older galaxies facing towards us. Anything that points to us as occupying a special position in the universe is... somewhat suspect :)

As to what the phenomenon actually is that causes the high redshifts, I don't think we know yet.

It relies on an assumption that is heretofore unquestioned: redshift is a near-direct measure of velocity. Given that, then you have an 8-12 billion year estimate. If you add in inflationary theory, some cross-checking will get you 13.7 billion years as a best guess. More recent mainstream decelerate-accelerate theories vary the estimate somewhat.

However... what if it's not that simple?

We attempted to elucidate Einstein's miracle year last week, but I have to admit the Economist did a nice job on this article.

here's the poll results... Main site - poll is halfway down on the right.

here's the poll results... Main site - poll is halfway down on the right.

The 'stupid' contrarians aren't necessarily, and it is stupid to think otherwise.

Cases in point:

a) when did the theory of tectonic plates originate although being dismissed despite evidence from the 'fringe' (1912)? When was it accepted (~1965)? ( coincidentally, after the death of its originator.) Here is a more
telling commentary on the acceptance of that theory.

b) how many scientists believed in brontosaurus (they were wrong)? How about the fringe group that believed in the warm-blooded-ness of dinosaurs?

c) how come when Thomas Gold's theories on the deep biosphere and the origins of petroleum come up, the 'concensus' is touted as dismissing him. And yet it is rarely mentioned that Russian and European scientists have accepted and built up considerable evidence that he's right. Now that he's dead you will see a swing to acceptance of his theories (by the North American consensus makers) which has already begun.

You seem to suggest that only the contrarian does not accept the popular 'consensus' or the 'obvious'. In fact, the consensus may be just as polluted by the politics of the field and its journals. The 'obvious' simply is no measure of reality (quantum physics anyone?).

Last night in fact: here.

This is very encouraging news - but just because corals will survive doesn't necessarily mean we will...

Oil is still at record high prices by the way...

See this story over at sciscoop - and thousands more for breaking science news!

Here's the link - yeah it's closer to a blog than slashdot, but it's community edited!

This is an amazingly thorough review - thanks "code_rage"! And you've hit on exactly the point that disturbs me a bit too - if this is all so great, why aren't we planning to spend a lot more money on it, rather than just continuing in the same-old ho-hum manner in space? Perhaps the commissioners felt that was out of their scope, but that seem to be the substance of Kerry's
complaint too - if we're serious about this, lets spend some real money on it!

My thoughts from a couple of days before the report came out are up on sciscoop - I think the report does adopt a lot of the "O'Neill" vision of space. Maybe it's our job to make sure the money really comes through now.

For one thing, it turns out a major problem with nuclear energy is the cost of building plants - nobody in the West seems to have been able to build nuclear power plants for a capital cost that comes close to competing with the fossil fuel plants or even almost all hydro-electric installations. Wind can be installed cheaper than nuclear now. But lots of other issues there too.

I've heard it commmented that the lack of iron is the rate limiting factor for oceanic micro organisms (which are responcible for a majority of the photosynthesis on earth). You could up their population by 'seeding' the oceans with iron.
Or course there is the cost to consider, and the unseen side effects from the population boom in one of the first organisms in the food chain. But considering the fact that we're killing on must of the ocean species any way, giving them more food probably won't hurt to much...

The study was performed by a physicist who didn't know the first thing about microbiology before he started. Other people concluded it was a terrestrial fungus. Check out the discussion on sciscoop. Full disclosure: many of the posts there are mine.

For anyone interested, I wrote a fairly indepth article on this topic, with plenty of links, and posted it here at SciScoop.

We've been debating this here: vote totals so far:

Sedna is:
tenth planet 17 votes - 29 %
the eleventh planet 14 votes - 24 %
the 42nd planet 9 votes - 15 %
not a planet! 17 votes - 29 %

We did have this up earlier last night - along with a poll on exactly that question of replacing the shuttle. Should be interesting...

We did have this up earlier last night - along with a poll on exactly that question of replacing the shuttle. Should be interesting...

See NASA TV.

Also, this was scooped on sciscoop yesterday, with more info than the slashdot story.

Could be worse. My first reaction was, "Actually..."

Check out this pretty detailed article on the ISS leak over on SciScoop.

Check out this pretty detailed article on the ISS leak over on SciScoop.

Hey! You just dipped your supercomputer into my fusion reactor!

(yet).

For anyone interested, this story's author, apsmith, also wrote a longer, more detailed version of this story entitled "Politicians Catch The Space Bug", available here. It's an excellent read.

See this sciscoop article on a new proposal for the future of US human spaceflight - I'm told this was prepared at the request of the White House, so both the administration and Congress are looking seriously at what to do next.

Just a little plug - over at sciscoop we had this up last night.

Just a little plug - over at sciscoop we had this up last night.

is found in new techniques involving brain scans. A brain wave pattern called P300 ( "positive wave" 300 ms after onset ) has been discovered to be activated when a person looks at a familiar object ( the P300 hypothesis has gained very solid evidence since a few years ). So you can display some pictures to the accused person and embed in these actual crime scenes pictures, and then tell if the accusee is familiar with crime scene pictures ( like what the place looked like, weapons involved, etc. ). Of course, you have to display pictures that has not been released to the media and whatnot, but the uniqueness of the combinations needed to figure out that someone is involved in the crime is pretty high. Links here, here and here.

This polygraph stuff got to be thrown away at some point anyway, since it's based on reaction patterns that many people just don't have so its accuracy isn't high enough for the important task it has to do.

Sciscoop has a link to the original New Zealand article with a link to the source code of the voting machines.

Sciscoop has a link to the original New Zealand article with a link to the source code of the voting machines.

- So it is up to Uncle Sam, to government or the Coke company to teach you self-fucking control. I buy lots of super sized shit at Costco and I dot eat it in one fucking day..

- I would think that the desire to watch TV was even greater when TV was an unexplored, new fangled medium. You have no clue what TV watching habits were or are today. You are just talking out your ass. In fact, since you appear to be a mental midget, go ask any one from this golden era anything about a sitcom from the era. Their knowledge may astound you.

- So we should go back to Punishing rural peoples with lack of television because? Their money is good? What point are you trying to make

- Candy ?? flavings ?? You mean flavorings? You telling me that the recipes for Godiva chocolate, Heath bars and Twix have changed? For someone who has never tasted candy from the 70s, you seem a bit authoritative on the subject. I don't believe the chemical formulas have changed much in the entire existence of the universe. Methyl salycilate is "Oil of Wintergreen". It was then, it is now.

- Moronic reference to leaded gas. GM, not the holiest of companies, discovered tetra ethyl lead's anti knock properties in 1921, they also suggested that we phase it out (so they could sell new, unleaded cars) in the 1970s. Leaded gasoline is gone. How the fuck are people supposed to predict the future? I'm sure your trash has something in it that will seem really taboo for the environment. You don't mind sucking up electricity on that computer that is generated from fossil fuels. At least the lead is gone here, think, China and India are using two stroke motors most of the time when they burn petrol.

- Sugar back before Castro took over Cuba used to make Cuba a fairly nice place to live. The only slaves are the slaves of Castro under his crushing brutal regime. So your sugar argument is bizarre. Sugar more addictive than heroine? How about sex? Is fucking more addictive? Maybe people enjoy eating, shitstick. Maybe it's worth a spare tire to eat like a king. For some people it isn't. I "like" how you are fucking imposing Mr. Slim Goodbody on everyone. TV from that era didn't suck; try watching some re-runs once in a while. In fact, because it wasn't so ridiculous or lewd, they had to be more creative when constructing humor. The Vietnam reference is just trolling. Morons like you ignore the existence of China and Russia, and other large nations. Unilateralism is how all countries act when they can afford it. Drugs were used by just about everyone under the age of 30 at the time. So that's complete fucking bull.

Your cynicism can no longer be parsed. You're betting against the USA, against the world. The trend here suggests you are wrong. Inflation adjusted, gasoline is cheaper at the pump now than in 1970. Life expectancies are going up or are stabilizing. The life expectancy of everyone on earth averaged together is going up, and less people by percent of population are starving to death than ever before on the history of Earth. Technology is getting more and more interesting, making things cheaper and more accessible, and biotech is making progress at an astonishing rate. I like how these great "thinkers" can sit on the sidelines and armchair direct the world. Do something, prick. Why don't you take a piece of the problem and solve it, rather than bitch about the whole fucking thing. How about this? Just buy a place to live, pay it off, don't get into debt and set aside some money for retirement? Oh, boohoo, would that require discipline? Armchair idiot is what you are.

Life expectancy to soar
Genes that affect lifespan identified
Colonies of Immortals May Appear In Next 50 Years

Why do I point the long life articles? Because living to a nice old age is something I hope I get the opportunity to do. You want to kno

I think something like the system that powers http://www.sciscoop.com/ would be usefull.

Provide a forum for both discussion of instructor posted "articles" as well as a way for students to post their own writting samples, which can be reviewed/critiqued/commented-on by other students, in such a way that the "cream" rises to the top, and is more visible by all students.