Friday, February 26, 2016

DRM defeaters defeated? SlySoft ceases operations | Ars Technica

DRM defeaters defeated? SlySoft ceases operations | Ars Technica: "In a cryptic message posted on its website, SlySoft, a company that made several applications devoted to defeating DRM schemes, announced that it has shut down. “Due to recent regulatory requirements we have had to cease all activities relating to SlySoft Inc.,” reads the brief message. “We wish to thank our loyal customers/clients for their patronage over the years.”"

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Monday, February 22, 2016

The Drink of Viking Warlords Could Help Fight Disease

The Drink of Viking Warlords Could Help Fight Disease: "The post-antibiotic future sounds terrifying, but here’s one upside you didn’t imagine: swilling Viking crunk juice to stay alive. New research suggests that mead, the vitality drink of gods and berserkers alike, was a potent medicine in ancient times. And with science, we can make it even better."

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Thursday, February 11, 2016

Breakthrough: Scientists detect Einstein-predicted ripples - FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, Social

Breakthrough: Scientists detect Einstein-predicted ripples - FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, Social: " In an announcement that electrified the world of astronomy, scientists said Thursday that they have finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago. MORE Scientists in Louisiana detect gravitational waves, 100 years after Einstein's prediction Scientists have made the first-ever detection of ripples in space, known as gravitational waves, from the collision of two black holes in the distant universe, officials announced Thursday morning.   The waves were first detected at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, LIGO, in Livingston, Louisiana.   The waves were detected on Sept. 14, 2015 by both LIGO Observatories in Livingston and Washington state. According to a news release, the detection of the gravitational waves confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, 100 years after that theory was published.   Based on their detections, LIGO scientists estimate the two black holes were 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun and the collision took place 1.3 billion years ago.  According to scientists, the collision of the black holes form a single black hole, converting a portion of the hole's mass into energy.  That energy is emitted as a final burst of gravitational radiation.  Some scientists likened the breakthrough to the moment Galileo took up a telescope to look at the planets. The discovery of these waves, created by violent collisions in the universe, excites astronomers because it opens the door to a new way of observing the cosmos. For them, it's like turning a silent movie into a talkie because these waves are the soundtrack of the cosmos. "Until this moment we had our eyes on the sky and we couldn't hear the music," said Columbia University astrophysicist Szabolcs Marka, a member of the discovery team. "The skies will never be the same." An all-star international team of astrophysicists used a newly upgraded and excruciatingly sensitive $1.1 billion instrument known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, to detect a gravitational wave from the distant crash of two black holes, one of the ways these ripples are created."

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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Halliburton Said to Plan Sale of Baker's Offshore Fluids Unit - Bloomberg Business

Halliburton Said to Plan Sale of Baker's Offshore Fluids Unit - Bloomberg Business: "Almost 16 months after announcing its takeover of oilfield services rival Baker Hughes Inc., Halliburton Co. is adding yet more assets to the list of businesses it plans to sell to appease antitrust regulators who’ve been stalling the deal. Halliburton plans to divest Baker’s offshore drilling-and-completions fluids division and the bulk of Baker’s completion systems, according to people familiar with the matter. The units join two other batches of overlapping business lines that Halliburton has said it will sell to assuage the U.S. Department of Justice’s concerns that the deal will hurt competition."

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Monday, February 1, 2016

Houma Residents React To Brown Water | THE PUSH POLE

The PushPole is hilarious...Especially the latest post! They even end it with the No BS Truth about the situation.

Here are a couple of my favorite parts:






Houma Residents React To Brown Water | THE PUSH POLE: "The Truth: When installing new lines, water flows around the distribution system at velocities and directions it normally didn’t in the past. This causes lots of sediment (which has already been disinfected) to break free and get into circulation. Now, that gunk is coming to a faucet near you, and there isn’t much you can do about it. It has to make its way out of the system somehow, and hopefully it will be out soon.  The good news is that Terrebonne Parish has got some new water lines, and judging by the amount of gunk in the old ones, we really needed them. You can read more about what’s going on here."

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