Dropsafe

Check out todays (march 3rd) APOD: Shining brightly in the east at dawn, Venus dominates the sky in this view over a suburban landscape from Bursa, Turkey. An otherwise familiar scene for astronomer Tunc Tezel, his composite picture of the morning sky recorded on March 2nd also includes a surprise visitor to the inner solar…

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As anchorman of the CBS Evening News, I signed off my nightly broadcasts for nearly two decades with a simple statement: “And that’s the way it is.” To me, that encapsulates the newsman’s highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequences or controversy that may ensue. Sadly, that…

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[news.bbc.co.uk] Online amateurs crack Nazi codes Three German ciphers unsolved since World War II are finally being cracked, helped by thousands of home computers. The codes resisted the best efforts of the celebrated Allied cryptographers based at Bletchley Park during the war. Now one has been solved by running code-breaking software on a “grid” of…

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[www.softworld.co.uk] Understanding the Impact of Blogs, Wikis and RSS Wednesday 17 May 2006, Hilton London Metropole The new Blogs & Social Media Forum is breaking away from the traditional conference format to help maximise interaction and networking. Conferences need to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience ” and the interaction with peers makes this…

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[news.nationalgeographic.com] A Hubble Space Telescope image released yesterday confirms what a fuzzy shot taken last May only hinted at: Two more moons have been found orbiting Pluto, making a total of three. The new picture, captured on February 15, shows S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2-catchier names will come later-faintly glowing in the starlike…

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Chris writes: Been writing some stuff in shell that needs to be able to ensure it doesn’t start itself twice, so a bit of Googling for exclusive locks in shell scripts brought me to this page on “advanced shell scripting” which had something that looked good. Problem is that when you put it into a…

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When wildcat meets flatiron, you get Pallas’ Cats: [community.livejournal.com] [www.csew.com] Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…

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[news.bbc.co.uk] Authorities in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, are to consider banning smoking in cars. A parliamentary inquiry will look at the effects of passive smoking on passengers, particularly children. Supporters of the proposal have admitted, however, that enforcing such a ban would be difficult. Smokers in Australia have already been squeezed out…

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[www.loc.gov] No one knows for sure why a domestic cat purrs, but many people interpret the sound as one of contentment. Our understanding of how a domestic cat purrs is becoming more complete; most scientists agree that the larynx (voice box), laryngeal muscles, and a neural oscillator are involved. … Continues at [www.loc.gov] with cute…

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As heard mentioned on Radio 4: Snottites (SNOT-ites) Snottites or snotties are colonies of single-celled extremophilic bacteria that hang from the walls and ceilings of caves (similar to small stalactites, but with the consistency of “snot”, or mucous). They digest sulfur compounds in warm water in the cave, and slowly drip down from above. Because…

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This stuff rocks: Plaisir Miel – what Nutella does to chocolate-nut-butter this does for honey, and is wonderfully goopey, sweet, rich stuff without dilution by vegetable oils. I just got a small jar tonight from Waitrose. It’s worth it. Now I just need someone with whom to share it. 😎

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[news.bbc.co.uk] Your mobile phone is a beacon – a radio transmitter in a box. Therefore it is possible to trace the signal and work out where it is. There are now several web companies which will track your friends’ and family’s phones for you, so you always know where they are. But just how safe…

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