Slashdot Mirror
Technology Spontaneously Combusts In Sicily
Zacronos writes "According to MSNBC, ever since mid-January, various electronic devices have been spontaneously combusting in the now evacuated town of Canneto di Caronia, Sicily; at this point, the fires are almost daily. The town has been disconnected from the larger electrical grid and was hooked to a generator, but that, too, caught fire. Even unplugged items have succumbed. Nothing seems to have burst into flame except where there is someone present to witness it, but the police no longer suspect a prankster -- after witnessing wires catch fire without cause. Scientists have yet to explain the phenomenon (although unproven theories abound), leading many people to look to supernatural causes."
Can any Sicilian slashdotter confirm this seemingly unlikely story?
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
No, it is not an April Fools joke. For details, see http://www.ebicom.net/~rsf1/canneto.htm that has been covering events for 5 weeks already.
Here is an interesting and recent article that has some further details on the subject.
Phoenix
This is possibly the funniest exchange ever between Principal Skinner and Superintendant Chalmers.
re-Verse, you steam a fine ham.
Sadly, scientists, like most people, are more interested in being right, and tend to look for confirming evidence, sometimes to the detriment of their conclusions.
It seems to me that you are confused about science. It works exactly like you say. Some scientist looks for observation that don't fit the theory, refine it or make up another, then try an experiment to confirm the new theory.
It can happen that some scientist is so convinced of his theory to reject evidence, but that it's how the world works. I could say that IT people should make life easier, not create some obscure software that crashes, get virus, delete data at random, etc. and then they blame the user.
Well, The Register's article is dated February 11, 2004.
And the muscular cyborg German dudes dance with sexy French Canadians
I'm not Sicilian, but I live in ITaly nonetheless. The media covered this issue for quite some time, although at the end, they seemed to blame natural electrical discharges given the zone is a very active sismic area in Sicily, but also it could have been due to the high-powere train lines which run only a few meters from the houses affected by the problems. There is also who blames the widespread illegal electrical connections setup by the local crooks...
// mirr0red
Incorrect. Small enough wires/paths on chips will actually burst into flames if enough current passes through them such as during an EMP. Remember, the passage of current causes heat to be built up from resistance, and when the traces are as thin as they are on a lot of electronics, they can easily pass the explosive heat point of that metal. Example: put some metal in a microwave.
"Stumble before you crawl"
A simple search on everyone's favorite search engine would have lead them to this CNN article dated April First. Of course, one need merely think about it really really hard to realize that spontaneous combustion and April Fools go together like baseball and apple pie. That would be cricket and guiness for our UK friends.
I thought the same thing, "Damn, a week late."
Until I went to CNN.com and did a search on the village and found similar articles from February and March. Plus articles from many different sources.
"It doesn't help that scientists aren't always all that scientific when presented with observations thay cannot explain. Too often, important phrases like "this is just a guess, but" get replaced with "I'm absolutely certain that" whenever coincidence is about to be invoked. The correct pronouncement would be "I have no idea whatsoever", but scientists don't like to say that either."
This is absolutely not true and it seems like you've just made it up to suit your argument that scientists are 'mystical' and dogmatic.
I work around scientists all the time and I hear the phrase "I don't know" ALL THE TIME. Scientists as a whole have no problem admitting they do not fully understand a phenomenon, partly because the activity of scientufic inquiry is itself a humbling one.
"Add on top of that all of the 'scientific' pronouncements like 'eggs are bad for you', 'any wine is bad for you', 'oops, no, some wine is good for you, and so are eggs, but avoid fat at all costs', 'oops, people are getting fatter on low fat diets',....."
One caveat, dieticians are NOT scientists!
"I call it pseudoscience because collectively they have a habit of stating working theory (complete with conflicting evidence) as if it were fact and flatly denying the existance of plainly observable phenomena when the correct answer is clearly "We don't know"."
This is total strawman cunstructing nonsense. Please cite one instance where this has occured among experts in the hard sciences.
Scientists are the most non-superstitious and non-dogmatic group of people in society.
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
Looks like they've taken the "on fire" string out. It's still present in 2.4.18-3 in printer.c, but in 2.4.20-8 it's been replaced with "unknown error". Sad to see the lighter hearted stuff go as development continues, but I guess it's part of the "maturing" process.
You can't ride two horses with one ass
Don't adopt or reject a belief just because someone you admire did. That's what leads to everything that's wrong with religion. I don't believe in calculus just because Newton did. I believe in it because I can prove it to myself that it is true. I don't believe in gods because I can't prove to myself that they are real, not because Dr. So-and-So doesn't believe in gods.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
I was wondering the same thing. There is actually a story on this on CNN today. I'd submit it if the editors didn't seem hell bent on rejecting everything I try to submit.
Story here.
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
There actually is US military close by. There is a navy base in Sigonella which is an airfield as well as stopping point in the Italian docks nearby for some ships.
Hoyty
Now, if you'd said anecdotal evidence rather than empirical, I might agree with you...
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
Sure. Why not? The basic algorithm is:
- Observe something no previously predicted or explained
- Develop a hypothesis to explain the observations
- Make predictions based on the hypothesis
- Develop tests to determine whether the hypothesis is correct or incorrect
- If the hypothesis is incorrect revise it based on the new observations
- Rinse and repeat
Please tell me how this algorithm, given enough time, will not succeed in explaining "everything"?Forgive me if that sounds a little arrogant.
You are forgiven.
Also, what is it that is being explained? Reality, or our perception of reality?
What is reality but what you perceive? If something is completely imperceptible (i.e. makes no observable change in the universe whatsoever) then whether it exists or not is irrelevant - it makes no difference to my life or yours. If it can be perceived, it can be observed. If it can be observed it is amenable to study via the scientific method.
But that's not an important effect as far as the distance to the sun goes. The earth's orbit is slightly elliptical, with the sun at one focus of the ellipse. So there's a time of year when the earth is closest to the sun, and a time six months later when it's more distant. The difference in these distances, due to the shape of the orbit, is much larger than the difference in distance that arises from the earth's tilt. The earth is closest to the sun in January, and farthest in July. The difference is about 3 million miles, which is obviously a lot larger than the earth's diameter, and so clearly much larger than the effect of the tilt. Since the whole earth is closest to the sun in January, but the northern and southern hemispheres are in opposite seasons, clearly it is not the distance that's determining the season.
The tilt determines the season by making the sunlight fall more directly (more nearly vertically) and for a longer time each day during the summer.