Forgot your password?

Comment: Incorrect (Score 4, Informative) 615

You might want to recheck that. The average nuclear warhead in the US arsenal is approximated to be 33,500 kilotons (slightly larger than the well known B41). For comparison, the nukes used in/on Japan were 15 and 21 kilotons. 33,500 kilotons is large enough to destroy/kill everything in a 55-60 mile diameter. It would take about 1000 of these to DIRECTLY kill everything in the United States. Factor in the indirect damage (nuclear poisoning, fallout, etc etc), and you could kill everyone in the United States with far far fewer. India (for example only), has 1/3rd the area of the United States. It would take probably 100 33.5 megaton nuclear bombs to kill everyone in an area equal to the size of India, and it would likely kill a couple hundred million of people not in that area.

That's completely false, most modern missile-based nukes are in the hundreds of kilotons, like 100-500 kt. 33.5 megatons is larger than the largest bomb we've ever had in service, the B53 at 9 megatons.

Comment: Re: education vs. learning (Score 3, Informative) 385

by riker1384 (#41710917) Attached to: How Do You Spot a Genius?

I've heard numerous variations of this by parents trying to justify why their precious snowflake doesn't do well in school. Usually it is the teacher's fault, and their child is just so much smarter than the other students. BS. If your child is so super intelligent that ordinary schoolwork bores them, they should be smart enough to breeze through the tests. They should just "play the game" while at school and do their own learning at home, or in additional enrichment programs (most are free for low income).

You aren't allowed to just breeze through the tests. You are also required to do hours and hours of repetitive, mind-numbing homework that is below your level and serves no useful purpose if you're smart enough to just listen to the lecture and then ace the test. If you don't do the busy-work, you receive a failing grade regardless of how well you do on the tests.


Wicked Lasers Introduces Handheld One-Watt Green Laser 404

Posted by timothy
from the I-want-a-dozen-mounted-on-my-car dept.

Interpol Wants a Global Identity Card System 349

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the yeah-good-luck-with-that dept.
Orome1 writes "The head of INTERPOL has emphasized the need for a globally verifiable electronic identity card (e-ID) system for migrant workers at an international forum on citizen ID projects, e-passports, and border control management. INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said: "At a time when global migration is reaching record levels, there is a need for governments to put in place systems at the national level that would permit the identity of migrants and their documents to be verified internationally via INTERPOL." Issuing migrant workers e-ID cards in a globally verifiable format will also reduce corruption and enable cardholders to be eligible for electronic remittance schemes that will foster greater economic development and prosperity in INTERPOL member countries."

Comment: Re:I KNOW! Ebert's point! It is bulshit. (Score 3, Informative) 436

by riker1384 (#35002772) Attached to: 3D Cinema Doesn't Work and Never Will

Most use stereo because we have 2 ears... and therefore only 2 channels are necessary for 3D sound. 5.1 is a gimmick. Stereo forever.

That's false. We only have 2 ears, but each of those ears can distinguish sound coming from many different directions because your head and earlobes alter the sound differently depending on where it comes from. You can only try to generate realistic soundfields with 2 channels if you use headphones. You can record sounds with microphones in the ears of a dummy head (binaural recording), or you can try to simulate these effects through headphones. Both of those methods have problems, including the fact that the sound stays the same when you turn your head.

By your reasoning, we should only need 2 pixels on a TV since we only have 2 eyes.


Radiation Detection Goes Digital 58

Posted by Soulskill
from the hope-it-has-sound-effects dept.

Scientists Attach Bar Codes To Embryos 69

Posted by samzenpus
from the I-got-the-number-when-I-was-young dept.
Zothecula writes "Fans of the film Blade Runner may remember a scene in which the maker of an artificial snake is identified by a microscopic serial number on one of its scales. Well, in a rare case of present-day technology actually surpassing that predicted in a movie, we've now gone one better — bar codes on embryos. Scientists from Spain's Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), along with colleagues from the Spanish National Research Council, have successfully developed an identification system in which mouse embryos and oocytes (egg cells) are physically tagged with microscopic silicon bar code labels. They expect to try it out on human embryos and oocytes soon."
