Slashdot Mirror


User: Kentari

Kentari's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
135
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 135

  1. Re:Could the sun be mostly iron? on Oldest Known Star In the Universe Discovered · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hot fusion has been replicated many times on the surface of the Earth in: Hydrogen bombs (uncontrolled), Tokamaks, Stellerators, Z-pinch machines, Farnsworth fusors (in peoples backyard shed) and other devices. We have not managed to extract more energy from it than we put in, but we certainly replicated it.

  2. Re:Oldest star to date, but likely came from anoth on Oldest Known Star In the Universe Discovered · · Score: 2

    It is indeed historical. The ancient Greeks divided the stars in 6 categories or magnitudes, magnitude 1 for the brightest stars to 6 for those barely visible with the naked eye. The mathematical formula only emerged later (1856 by Pogson) who defined the brightness scale by: a magnitude 1 star is 100 times brighter than a magnitude 6 star and Polaris is magnitude 2 which more or less fitted the ancient magnitude scale.

  3. Yelp on Western Australian Sharks Send Tweets To Swimmers · · Score: 1

    Next they start leaving Yelp reviews: "Did not wash feet, will not eat again.", "Food kept kicking me in the face." and "I hate food wrapped in neoprene."

  4. Re:Good! on Illinois Law Grounds PETA Drones Meant To Harass Hunters · · Score: 1

    Just meat with a couple of them

    animal or human?

  5. Re:2700 degC? on How Much of ISON Survived Its Closest Approach To the Sun? · · Score: 1

    I believe this is the estimated surface temperature on the sunlit side of the comet's nucleus. Just like the surface of the Moon and Mercury have a temperature of 390K and 670K despite not having a significant atmosphere.

  6. Re:10 Years of Research & unpressurised on 6TB Helium-Filled Hard Drives Take Flight · · Score: 1

    One atmosphere isn't very hard to contain and if it fails it would just pop, not explode.

  7. Re:Tesla is a toy for the wealthy few. on Tesla Working On Autonomous Cars: Musk Wants Teslas With Auto-Pilot · · Score: 1

    Almost anything you use now started out as a toy for the wealthy.

  8. Re:The Captain has left the building on Ballmer To Retire · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't use the Titanic as example but the Costa Concordia...

  9. Open voting on public elections is a very bad idea and directly undermines democracy. It leads directly to intimidation and bribery. Ever heard of employers forcing employees to vote on 'the right party' or find themselves without a job? That's why secret ballots are considered essential to democracy. Open voting by representatives on the other hand ensures voters can verify their chosen representative at least represents them and can adjust their voting in the next election (whether they actually do that is of course another matter).

  10. Re:Amazing on Nearest Alien Planet Gets New Name · · Score: 1

    Aerospace consultant? Did the shipbuilders also get to name the discoveries of explorers? But I highly doubt he was even involved in building the HARPS instrument or the ESO 3.6m Telescope. So it would be like some random ship builder in England naming Hispaniola "Some bloke's passed away granddad's place" after doing a contest about it and expect it to be accepted. What these Uwingu guys are doing is disrespectful for the discoverers, the IAU and the granddad. I wouldn't like it if people attached my name to a celestial body illegitimately.

  11. Re:Guess he has never heard of VPN and proxies on No Porn From Public WiFi Hotspots In the UK Proposed · · Score: 1

    After surfing around for 15 years I can say: Anyone claiming the porn got there by accident is lying. Certainly if it's 15yo kids.

  12. Re:Not to worry, I will have written the protocols on How To Communicate Faster-Than-Light · · Score: 1

    They were sued into oblivion in 2039 after blue flashes of death on their time machine left users, well, a bit stretched out, from the Big Bang to their "starting point".

  13. No surprise... on Russian Meteor Likely an Apollo Asteroid Chunk · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are only 2 types of Earth crossing asteroids: Apollos with a semi major axis larger than 1AU and perihelion smaller than Earth's aphelion and Atens with a semi major axis smaller than 1AU and aphelion larger than Earth's perihelion. There are 4803 known Apollo asteroids (I don't know where the 5200 number in the summary comes from but IAU's Minor Planet Center knows of only 4803) and 747 known Atens, so there was a very good chance that the meteorite was an Apollo...

  14. Re:It goes the other way, too on Possible Habitable Planet Just 12 Light Years Away · · Score: 1

    You need Tau Ceti's ecliptic coordinates to know it position relative to the orbit of Earth around the Sun. Those are -24.8159 degrees latitude and 17.8186 degrees longtiude. So Tau Ceti is almost 25 degrees below the ecliptic, not 15 above.

  15. Re:It goes the other way, too on Possible Habitable Planet Just 12 Light Years Away · · Score: 1

    It certainly can be done and in fact has been done. Ulysses has a highly inclinded orbit around the sun with an inclination of 80.2 degrees. They did use Jupiter though.

  16. Re:Kudos on Anonymous Hacks Westboro Baptist Church · · Score: 1

    Westboro (I refuse to align them with a church or religious denomination, and I wish the media would as well)

    You mean religions are better? You think crusades, genocides, jihads, dead sentences, stoning, human sacrifices etc., suppression of entire classes/genders..., you know, the stuff religions tend to do is better? Or worse? They might not be violent yet, but the hate they preach makes them fit in the religious nut job box quite well.

  17. Re:Smart but not too smart on UK Students Protest Biometric Scanner Move · · Score: 1

    You intend to fight zombies with passports? To give them papercuts? Bundle them together and make a brick out of it?

  18. During a gold rush many people became rich, but most of them were those selling supplies or services to the poor sods trying to find gold.

  19. Re:Ooooh, paper cuts behind my ears! on Flexible Phones 'Out By 2013' · · Score: 1

    You're holding it wrong...

  20. Re:The we're all wizards on Apple Acknowledges iPhone 5 Camera Flaw · · Score: 1

    I don't see why it would be impossible to have an octarine camera (based on some special kind of imp) in Discworld like we have IR, UV and X-ray camera's in our universe.

  21. Octarine on Apple Acknowledges iPhone 5 Camera Flaw · · Score: 4, Funny

    The camera is capturing octarine glow! If you don't like it buy an inferior camera uncapable of this magnificent feat!

  22. Re:Karel De Gucht received bribe on EU Commissioner Reveals He Will Ignore Any Rejection of ACTA · · Score: 2

    I'm from Belgium and still there (quite happy about it and not planning to leave). The royal palaces are property of the state and managed by an entity called the 'Koninklijke Stichting', they have not been sold. There has been a spate of sale and lease back crap by the previous government, though. De Gucht is not unbespoken (tried for insider trading and tax evasion) but corruption is not on the list. How much I dislike Sabam and wouldn't be suprised if they actually would try that, this is nothing more than a rumour and this is the first time I heard it. It certainly did not pop up in the belgian media and it sure would if they got air of it, they don't like De Gucht either.

    Btw According to the 'Corruption Perceptions Index' Sweden is the 4th least corrupt country in the world, Belgium 19th. Columbia 80th, but being a 'rich' Belgian there helps I guess? The USA comes in at the 24th place.

  23. Re:Corporate tax... not sure. on Taxes Lead Angry Birds Maker Rovio To Consider Move To Ireland · · Score: 1

    Because it is nice to live in a country with good infrastructure, proper education and healthcare? Where you know that when someone comes of age he'll be taken care off, regardless of how lucky he got during his life? When you fall ill you won't be bankrupt?

    Is it really that bad to pay 33% tax when the regular employee has to pay 50%? Sure 1 year of that 33% may be more than an employee pays his whole life, but that's not the fucking point. Everyone does his share and if you strike it big, it means you end up paying more but you still end up with a whole lot more.

  24. Re:Maybe you need a longer time sample on Ask Slashdot: How Have You Handled Illegal Interview Topics? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't forget 50 years of communist economic mismanagment on quite a large chunck of Germany (and Europe).

  25. Re:How can that even happen? on European Parliament Blocks Copyright Reform With 113% Voter Turnout · · Score: 1

    No, they don't. Come back when the US elects their secretaries directly as well.