Treemometers: A new scientific scandal

Posted on by
Reply

Turns out that much of the global warming science is based on data from Yamai in Siberia. The Yamai data has never been released, but it turns out that by looking at tree rings, people have been making assumptions about the temperature 2000 years ago. Apparently using tree rings is fraught with danger, as they aren’t very reliable. However, if you use enough trees you should be OK. It turns out that these people have been only using 12 hand picked trees that support the theses they wanted to prove!

Treemometers: A new scientific scandal • The Register.

Melting memory chips in mass production : Nature News

Posted on by
Reply

Samsung Electronics announced this week that it has begun mass production of a new kind of memory chip that stores information by melting and freezing tiny crystals. Known as phase-change memory (PCM)

…

Unlike conventional memory, which involves moving electrons around a chip, PCM data would literally be frozen in place, even when the machine is off. That means these devices could switch on nearly instantaneously.

via Melting memory chips in mass production : Nature News.

Children in the UK – WTF?

Posted on by
Reply

What the fuck is going on in the UK?! It turns out that under new legislation if you leave your kids at another person’s house to mind the child, that other person will have to be vetted by the government. If you want to take care of other people’s children (either as a babysitter or as a reciprocal favour) then you will need to be vetted by government. If you drive kids to sports activities… you guessed it… you need to be vetted!

Vetting not only entails an intrusion to your privacy, but you will receive training and need to make modifications to the area the child(ren) will be staying in.

Which basically means you have no right to decide how to bring up your own child!

Nation’s parents prepare to be vetted • The Register.

ILiad owners must hate DRM

Posted on by
Reply

This is one of the problems with DRM – because different parties are using different DRM systems (ePub and MobiPocket), e-book readers are forced to handle them with 2 different firmwares. IREX, builder of the iLiad e-book reader, only support MobiPocket if you have a Dutch iLiad e-book reader. There will be a firmware update to handle ePub, but not for the Dutch.

ILiad-bezitters door drm-vete in de kou | Webwereld.

Soviet Doomsday Machine

Posted on by
Reply

Apparently the USSR actually went and built a doomsday machine – something that would launch command missles which would transmit coordinates to other ICBMs in the event that the Soviet Union was destroyed. The system, called ‘Perimiter’ and known as ‘Dead Hand’ basically ran through some checks and then delegated launch authority to whoever it could reach.

The Soviets kept this a secret as their principle use for the system was not deterrence towards the US, but to calm hotheads in the Soviet military and to stop them from throwing up independant first strikes when the going got stressy, as the hotheads knew that if the USSR went down, they’d get their revenge.

Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine.

Russian Billionaire Installs Laser Shield on Floating Lair

Posted on by
Reply

Get this,

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has a rather curious new addition built in to his latest oversized yacht. The 557-foot boat Eclipse, the price tag of which has almost doubled since original plans were drawn to almost $1.2 billion, set sail this week with a slew of show-off features, from two helipads, two swimming pools and six-foot movie screens in all guest cabins, to a mini-submarine and missile-proof windows to combat piracy.

[….] Ambramovich has installed an anti-paparazzi “shield”. Lasers sweep the surroundings and when they detect a CCD, they fire a bolt of light right at the camera to obliterate any photograph.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/russian-billionaire-installs-anti-photo-shield-on-giant-yacht/

Dutch government will store fingerprints in central database

Posted on by
Reply

Because we all know how safe centralised government databases are, the Dutch are now preparing to store all fingerprints the get. At first this will happen per region and later all the databases will be linked and centralised.

Dutch privacy organisations have protested at the EU, but they have declined the protest as the European courts feel other avenues had not been exhausted.

Europa wijst protest vingerafdrukdatabase af – UPDATE | Webwereld.

Mapping gravitational corridors

Posted on by
Reply

Between the planets and moons are gravitational corridors, tubes that intersect at lagrange points, which can be used to travel between celestial bodies using hardly any fuel, only for course correctional purposes. These corridors can be likened to ocean currents. The trade-off is now between speed and fuel consumption: you can use almost zero fuel between a planets’ moons because the distance allows it, but should you want to drift to another planet using just the corridors, this would take years.

Scientists unveil plan designed to cut cost of space travel – Telegraph.

Dutch JSF buy based on unreal figures

Posted on by
Reply

The Dutch ministry of defence has apparently known since 2005 that the budget reserved for the JSF buy (to replace the KLu F-16 fleet) was in nowhere near enough for the planned 85 F-35s they needed. The Dutch MOD has answered parliamentary questions about this with the statement that they expected a budget increase and that this is why they’ve never mentioned the budget shortfall.

So basically the Dutch MOD and KLu have been supporting a fighter buy they knew they couldn’t afford and have been throwing sand in the eyes of the parliament and are now scrambling to cover their arse.

Kamervragen betreffende budgettekorten voor vervanging van F-16 | Ministerie van Defensie.