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Note to Russia: returning to the Soviet Way nyet likely to work
posted by GJ on June 5, 2009 @ 3:48PM
Now, I'm familiar with revisionist history, and well aware that the winners write history. However, Russia's neo-Soviet government is toying with Soviet-era tactics, like, oh, I dunno, rewriting history. Nyet so fast, Boris! I think the Poles would like a word with you.
| Tags: politics, news
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Ghostbusters is rising from the grave!
posted by GJ on May 28, 2009 @ 12:14PM
Those of you who grew up in the 1980s know the Ghostbusters franchise well--it was pretty much everywhere in the mid-80s, and continued on into the early 1990s with the second movie and animated series. It's coming back as a top-notch video game, which should form the launchpad for a third movie, handing the torch to a new set of young Ghostbusters. The New York Times did a good interview with Dan Akroyd which you may wish to read, if nothing else, to rekindle old memories and learn some fun facts. You might want to check it out!
| Tags: games, news, entertainment, movie
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Is Government Regulation the Answer for This?
posted by GJ on May 13, 2009 @ 12:54PM
By now, you've probably see the stories of the moron who crashed that commuter jet near Buffalo NY in mid-February 2009, killing 50 people in the plane and on the ground in Clarence Center. This doofus, who couldn't pass pretty much every evaluation he took, apparently lied on his app to the airline back in 2005 to hide these failures. He wasn't qualified to even fly the plane he crashed. Finally, in a move that anyone who has played any semi-realistic flight simulator who not do, decided to pull back the stick and climb when the plane warned him that he was approaching stall speed--ignorant of the fact that speed drastically decreasing when climbing altitude in a plane. Duhhhh. I'm not certain of the rules and regs that are enforced here by the government. Obviously, something broke down--either, there wasn't enough regulation and (as has been shown many times in the past) the company chose profits over safety, or the regulation was there, but not enforced properly. It's obvious some kind of oversight is needed--but at the same time, you have to ensure that you don't suffocate the company in the process. Boy, the world would be a simpler place if, I dunno, people took responsibility for themselves and those in their care. What would you recommend?
| Tags: politics, news
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Big Science News (tm)
posted by GJ on October 21, 2008 @ 8:02AM
Researchers at Ohio State University have made a startling discovery with solar cell efficiency. Before I get into the specifics of this research, let me give you a few facts regarding why solar power hasn't had much of an impact on our energy problems to date: It comes down to poor efficiency: solar cells absorb very little light in terms of the total wavelength of light (remember that colors are shifts in the wavelength of light, and there are wavelengths that are not visible to humans, too). They also work by having this light jettison a free electron from the substrate material--that's how we generate electricity. However, that electron is only free for a few zillionths of a second, making it hard to capture it (charge separation). The combination of these two issues meant the net efficiency by the late 80s was only 17%...today, some high end cells manufactured for NASA can hit up to 30%, but they're super expensive. Fossil fuels, as a comparison, are 98%. These are also not that cheap to produce, and take a lot of surface area to produce any amount of measurable power. What's the use of solar cells to power your house if you need a solar array the size of your properly to power 50% of your needs? So, what did these researchers come up with? A new combination of material that now absorbs the full wavelength of light. That's pretty cool--a lot of energy was lost in the wavelengths the old materials would miss. Even better, however, they managed to drop the cost of charge separation, as this material now emits two forms of free electrons and one of them stays ejected in the microsecond range--while that sounds super fast, it's several orders of magnitude in time longer than normal free electrons from the original solar cell design. See this article for some more technical detail, if you'd like it. If that's too high-level for you, try the abstract for the paper instead. :) Just kidding, here's another less-technical summary. So, what does this do in terms of efficiency? Word is, this approach could bring us right on the doorstep of fossil fuels, and do it in a much smaller footprint. You could conceivably power your house's needs from a few panels on the roof of your house, and it could power ALL your needs. That would be awesome, wouldn't it? Practical application is years away obviously, and right now we don't know if they'll come up with a cost-effective manufacturing method, which of course is critical for deployment and competition with existing power sources. But hey, this is the first really big news in solar cells since the early 90s, when they managed to up the efficiency to 20% using gallium-arsenide (this eventually tapped out to the 30% they have today). Exciting stuff, indeed!
| Tags: news, science
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What Hath Internet Profanity Filters Wrought?
posted by GJ on September 3, 2008 @ 9:13AM
If you spend any time on FARK, you'll notice that they don't let you use bad words like f**k and sh*t, and a whole bunch of others. Instead, they get "transformed" to things like "fark" and "shiat." Now, the f-word and s-word aren't usually part of other normal, non-cuss-words. The alternate name for donkey, however, is not so lucky. Check out this article for an amusing analysis of this problem on the web.
| Tags: funny, news
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Pepper Spray, anyone?
posted by Kristen on July 11, 2008 @ 9:53AM
check out this news story: http://video.nbc4.com/player/?id=274663 (sorry, the add link button isn't working, at least on this mac laptop I borrowed from school. Heck, I can't even figure out how to left click without a mouse) Happened yesterday morning right near where I jog all the time, including the morning before at the exact same time (7:30 am). Luckily I had decided to take a day off! But another woman came forward saying she was almost attacked near the site July 1st. Checked my ipod, and yup, I was out running at the same time that morning. Gee, I must have scared him off with my speedy 10 minute miles. On second thought, I wasn't wearing any make-up, so that could have done it! I went in search of pepper spray yesterday and found some at Gander Mountain. I had been meaning for some time to buy it, mostly due to the fact that I've had some close encounters with scary dogs. I also ordered one of those road id's that you can strap to your ankle. (that way after I get kidnapped he can then steal my identity!) Went out this morning with my cell strapped to my arm instead of my ipod and pepper spray in hand (with the safety off..LOL). Stayed on busy streets. I got hardly 100 feet from my house before a lady walking her dog reminded me that a gunman was on the loose attacking joggers. What a relaxing run... sucks to be a girl!
| Tags: news
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