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Domain: sonoma.edu

Stories and comments across the archive that link to sonoma.edu.

Stories · 4

  1. NASA Satellite Sees Black Hole Belching Out Hundred-Million-Degree X-rays

    Science · Space · · posted by Soulskill · from the TSA-working-on-bringing-them-to-airports dept. · 74 comments
    The Bad Astronomer writes "NASA's NuSTAR satellite, designed to detect cosmic X-rays, detected a flare of high-energy emission coming from the Milky Way galaxy's central supermassive black hole. The X-rays were the dying gasp of a small gas cloud being torn apart, heated to a hundred million degrees, and then falling into the black hole itself. Events like this are relatively uncommon, so it's fortunate NuSTAR happened to be observing the black hole when it flared."

  2. Name the New Gamma-Ray Space Telescope

    Science · Nasa · · posted by kdawson · from the your-name-in-high-frquency-lights dept. · 131 comments
    Ponca City, We Love You writes "NASA announced last week that members of the general public will have a chance to suggest a new name for the cutting edge Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, otherwise known as GLAST, before it launches in mid-2008. NASA wants a name that will capture the excitement of GLAST's mission and call attention to gamma-ray and high-energy astronomy. 'We are looking for something memorable to commemorate this spectacular new astronomy mission,' said Alan Stern, associate administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 'We hope someone will come up with a name that is catchy, easy to say and will help make the satellite and its mission a topic of dinner table and classroom discussion.' The period for submitting names closes on March 31, 2008. Participants must include a statement of 25 words or less about why their suggestion would be a strong name for the mission."

  3. Politics: Harry, The Disastrous & The Unpalatable

    Usa · · posted by ryuzaki0 · from the (them's-the-breaks) dept. · 281 comments
    nd writes: "Harry Browne has agreed to a roundtable discussion with everyone in a Kuro5hin Feature. He'll be responding to messages himself under his own account." It's been going on for a few days now, and is an amazing look at the future of political coverage. Reflecting a sentiment I hope is accurate, Jim Madison writes: "Despite the apathy, I think slashdot's members are actually quite well-informed, politically speaking. Our friends, however, are not. According to this article, 25% of citizens 18-24 cannot name both major party presidential candidates and 70% cannot name their running mates. Wow. This discussion at Quorum.org (disclaimer: a site I co-founded) questions whether online forums (like this one) can help make politics more accessible or whether it's going to take structural change in Washington before it gets any better. What's the point of the $200 mm spent on advertising if they can't even get unaided brand recall?" For whose pathologically opposed to the letter "W," CaptainZ asserts that "This guy [Jamin Raskin] over at MSN has a pretty good article about how Nader and Gore can both 'win.'" Finally, wallstrum writes with word of yet another worthy candidate (still, I'm more of a Quimby man).

  4. Packard Bell to Shut Down US Line, Lay Off 80%

    Money · · posted by ryuzaki0 · from the another-one-goes-down dept. · 163 comments
    Sonoma76 writes " CNet is reporting that Packard Bell is laying off approximately 80% of its 2300 employees... This seems to be a trend as computer makers that were popular in the early and mid 90s (eg Packard Bell, Acer, and even Tandy) have all been replaced by the agressive marketing efforts of Gateway, EMachines, and MicroWorkz. That's right, no more Packard "Hells" to compare your dream machine with." Hopefully it won't be hard for all the laid-off people to find new jobs.