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+ - Wright Brothers Grounded: German Gustav Weißkopf Lift Off 1901->

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+ - SpaceX's Musk Gives Minute-by-Minute of Saving Dragon Spacecraft->

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MatthewVD writes "SpaceX CEO Elon Musk replayed the minute-by-minute maneuvers controllers took to save the tumbling Dragon capsule for a crowd at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin on Saturday.
“We had this spacecraft just going through free drift in space, like just tumbling,” Musk said.
So SpaceX borrowed a U.S. Air Force antenna array, hastily rewrote code and made the risky call to unfurl the solar panels before they froze. It wasn't quite Apollo 13, but it was terrifying nonetheless."

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+ - The Science of Hugo Chavez's Long Term Embalming

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Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Discover Magazine reports that Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez will apparently get an embalming job designed to keep him looking alive for decades similar to that of Russia's Vladimir Lenin, whose body still lies in a mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square, nearly 90 years after his death. So how do you preserve a human body for decades without it turning into a pile of melted tissue? First, get to work quickly. Upon death, the human body starts decomposing immediately. The way to stop it is with formaldehyde, a preservative used for the past century, which inhibits the enzyme decomposition as well as killing bacteria. “You pump the chemical in, and as the formaldehyde hits the cells of the body, it firms up the protein of the cell, or fixates it,” says Vernie Fountain, head of the Fountain National Academy of Professional Embalming Skills in Springfield, Mo. “That’s what makes them stiff.” With a body that will have to be on display for years, it’s likely to require a top-shelf, super-strong solution. “If I were doing Hugo Chavez, I would strengthen the solution and use more preservative product,” says Fountain. Next, get a good moisturizer. Formaldehyde preserves, but it also dries out the body. Vaseline or other moisturizers can preserve the look of skin, according to Melissa Johnson Williams, executive director of the American Society of Embalmers. Finally keep cool. Heat decomposes a body so for long term preservation, the body has to be kept at the temperature of a standard kitchen refrigerator, somewhere in the mid-40s. Lastly, if Venezuelans really want to keep Hugo Chavez around forever, like many other world figures, there’s only one solution that works, according to Fountain. “The best form of preservation is mummification.""


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+ - Google Glass Banned From Seattle Pub->

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supertall writes "Google Glass is sure to prompt a wave of innovative new hands-free applications, but privacy concerns have led to the 5-Point Cafe in Seattle banning the wearable technology. The issues comes down to being photographed/recorded without knowledge or consent. Some people just don't like it, as demonstrated by Steve Mann's assault at a Paris McDonald's. The misuse of such technologies may have deeper implications. Imagine with a single innocuous glance facial recognition technology doing a web search and pulling up someone's personal information such as their home address. Would you be comfortable in a world full of this tech?"
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+ - SXSW: How Mobile Devices Are Changing Africa->

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Nerval's Lobster
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Comment: Re:Oy (Score 1) 307

by IVI V K (#40688743) Attached to: AT&amp;T Introducing Verizon-Style Shared Data Plans

I think the difference is that ATT is allowing new subscribers to get the current individual phone plans with limited minutes and no texting as an alternate to Share Everything.

Verizon now requires all new account go prepaid or Share Everything, which is a big cost increase for people who don't use many minutes or text.

Comment: Re:Oy (Score 3, Insightful) 307

by IVI V K (#40687041) Attached to: AT&amp;T Introducing Verizon-Style Shared Data Plans








Comment: Re:for poor people (Score 1) 650

by IVI V K (#40643015) Attached to: Will Speed Limits Inhibit Autonomous Car Adoption?

I'm not convinced the auto industry will want to implement self driving cars for this very reason. Why is Google leading the research rather than GM or Ford.

When self driving cars become available, car sharing services and self driving taxis will flourish. These cars will be able to provide cheap and convenient direct service without having to pay drivers. Since most private cars remain unused and parked for over 95% of the time, one self driving car can provide the utility 20 or more cars allowing a huge return on investment.

With cheap and on demand taxi service, the convenience of owning a car will be much less and dramatically fewer cars will be sold.

Comment: Separate ISP's from Media (Score 4, Interesting) 430

by IVI V K (#40542917) Attached to: Verizon Claims Net Neutrality Violates Their Free Speech Rights





Comment: LIablity (Score 2) 709

by IVI V K (#40428729) Attached to: Fires Sparked By Utah Target Shooters Prompt Evacuations

If you accidentally start a fire, you are liable. Why are these people who accidentally start fires with fire arms not just as liable as someone who crashes a car into your house?

I think they are being provided extra protection since they were using firearms. If you are start a fire intentionally or not, you should be investigated and held responsible for the resulting costs and damages.

If there is a pattern of gunfire causing fires (20 appears to be a precedent), then tax firearms and ammunition the amount needed to cover all costs. The tax payers and property owners should not have to cover these costs.

If anything gun ownership should require extra responsibility, but the NRA has pushed gun freedom so far that governments believe freedom is the absence of responsibility.

Whether used for personal defense or recreation, any damage done with a firearm (killing, destroying property) must at least suffer the same consequences as doing the same damage without a firearm. I personally believe punishment should be harsher for damage resulting from firearms because they are inherently destructive instruments which should necessitate high levels of training and responsibility to insure the least amount of damage results from their use.

But again, in the US, "a well regulated militia", is interpreted as freedom from gun licences, monitoring, education and responsibility.

Comment: No Evidence of an Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program (Score 0) 289

Iran is openly admits to enriching uranium for the development of their nuclear power industry. Iran realizes its oil resources are limited and too precious to use for domestic energy production. This is a difficult concept for the US to understand.

The US and Israeli governments believe that Iran is developing weapons, but have no evidence there is any nuclear weapons program in Iran.

This is eerily similar to the flagrant misinformation, innuendo and propaganda disseminated before the Iraq war. Even then, official government agencies would confirm no evidence of WMD programs in Iraq, but the politicians and media were more interested in what they believed must be true rather than any facts.

Globally, we should pressure on all countries including US, Israel and Iran to end all nuclear weapon development, and find better ways to ensure these devices are never used again by any group. There must be global consensus that any use of nuclear weapons (offensive or defensive) is a not an attack on a state, but war on humanity justifying global retaliation against any group that uses WMD's.


+ - Thunderbolt on Windows: Hardware and Performance Explored->

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