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VIDEO: Fossil fuels 'must go by 2100' - IPCC

BBC World - Sun, 2014-11-02 11:47
The unrestricted use of fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100, if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change, a UN-backed expert panel says.
Categories: News

Egypt jails 8 men for 3 years after same-sex wedding video goes viral

ARS Technica - Sun, 2014-11-02 11:36

Eight men accused of participating in a same-sex wedding on a Nile riverboat in Egypt were handed a three-year prison term Saturday for committing "debauchery," state run media said.

Ahram Online reported that the Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat viewed the one-minute video, said to be filmed in April, and concluded it was of two men getting married.

Eight men who were aboard the riverboat were detained in September after the minute-long video went viral on YouTube and other sites, Ahram Online said. They were jailed for broadcasting footage that "violates public decency," CNN said.

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Categories: Tech

EPIC 2014: recalling a decade-old imagining of the media’s future

ARS Technica - Sun, 2014-11-02 11:00
EPIC 2014

Ten years ago this month, I saw an eight-minute video that I’ve never forgotten. It seared into my brain an imaginary corporate merger between two tech giants that never actually took place: Googlezon.

While the details of "EPIC 2014" were certainly off, its larger message about technology and media still rings true: the algorithms have won.

Back in the fall of 2004, I was a student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Amazingly, hardly anyone was studying so-called "new media" at the time. We were all subdivided into "traditional" groups: newspaper, magazine, television, and radio. I was unusual in that I had an interest in tech reporting, but took classes from both the print and radio sides. While this approach is anathema to the way that journalism is taught today, each discipline was segregated—I never hung out with those weird TV kids.

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Categories: Tech

VIDEO: Tensions mount in Burkina Faso

BBC World - Sun, 2014-11-02 10:10
Tensions are mounting in Burkina Faso after Army chief Gen Honore Traore seized power following the ousting of Blaise Compaore from his 27-year presidency.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Virgin 'astronaut': 'I'm still excited'

BBC World - Sun, 2014-11-02 08:58
Founding astronaut for Virgin Galactic, Per Wimmer , has said that best way to honour the victims of the crash on Friday is to continue with the space mission.
Categories: News

VIDEO: 'Civilian must head Burkina transition'

BBC World - Sun, 2014-11-02 04:00
Opposition parties and civic groups in Burkina Faso have called a mass rally for Sunday in protest at the army takeover after the resignation of President Blaise Compaore.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Virgin crash probe 'may take a year'

BBC World - Sun, 2014-11-02 00:12
The investigation into the Virgin Galactic spacecraft crash in California's Mojave Desert could take about a year, the head of the US transport safety agency has said.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Ukraine separatists to hold polls

BBC World - Sun, 2014-11-02 00:11
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are holding elections denounced by the West as as "illegitimate".
Categories: News

VIDEO: Imran Khan faces decision over protests

BBC World - Sat, 2014-11-01 17:56
Imran Khan talks to Shaimaa Khalil about his calls for political reform in Pakistan.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Virgin crash investigation begins

BBC World - Sat, 2014-11-01 15:51
US officials have started to investigate why a Virgin Galactic space rocket crashed over California's Mojave desert on a test flight.
Categories: News

SpaceShipTwo crash: Virgin Galactic to assess what went wrong

ARS Technica - Sat, 2014-11-01 14:10
Full-size replica of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo shown at Farnborough Airshow.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson said that he plans to move forward with his company's plans to commercialize space travel just one day after SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojave desert on a test flight.

“We’ve always known that the road to space is extremely difficult - and that every new transportation system has to deal with bad days early in their history,” Branson wrote in a blog post on Saturday.

“Space is hard—but worth it,” he added.

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Categories: Tech

Potential planet formation in a triple star system

ARS Technica - Sat, 2014-11-01 14:00
Artist's impression of the GG Tau A system, including the disks of gas and dust. ESO/L. Calçada

When Luke Skywalker stared off somberly toward the twin setting suns of his native planet Tatooine in Star Wars, he left some viewers with somber questions of their own. These questions had nothing to do with joining the rebellion. Instead, they were things like, "Could a planet like Tatooine actually exist? Can planets form in a system with more than one star?"

The formation of planets around their stars is a complicated business, and that’s when there’s only one star in the picture. Add two more stars and it can create problems for anything within their gravitational influence.

New observations of the triple star system GG Tau A addresses this issue, confirming theoretical models of planet formation in the process. The new data demonstrates that the system is capable of forming planets and suggests that planets may already be forming in GG Tau A.

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Categories: Tech

VIDEO: Edible insects create a buzz in Holland

BBC World - Sat, 2014-11-01 10:50
Anna Holligan reports from the Dutch city of Groningen as a Dutch supermarket chain launches a new range of products made from edible insects.
Categories: News

How to manage accidental complexity in software projects?

ARS Technica - Sat, 2014-11-01 10:05
Stack Exchange

This Q&A is part of a weekly series of posts highlighting common questions encountered by technophiles and answered by users at Stack Exchange, a free, community-powered network of 100+ Q&A sites.

davidk01 asks:

When Murray Gell-Mann was asked how Richard Feynman managed to solve so many hard problems Gell-Mann responded that Feynman had an algorithm:

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Categories: Tech

VIDEO: Stadium packed for footballer funeral

BBC World - Sat, 2014-11-01 07:38
Tens of thousands of mourners are expected to attend the funeral of South African football captain Senzo Meyiwa in Durban on Saturday.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Australia bushfire 'out of control'

BBC World - Sat, 2014-11-01 07:05
A bushfire burning out of control in Australia's Blue Mountains has destroyed at least one house and threatens more, according to Australian media.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Kobane living conditions 'dire'

BBC World - Sat, 2014-11-01 06:46
The BBC's Jiyar Gol reports from the Turkey-Syria border, as Peshmerga fighters head for the besieged city of Kobane hoping to defeat Islamic State.
Categories: News

An infinite multiverse: A bad idea or inescapable?

ARS Technica - Sat, 2014-11-01 06:00
Max Tegmark/MIT

Earlier this week, a cultural center in Red Hook, Brooklyn, played host to the sort of debate that's usually reserved for smoke-filled dorm rooms: do we live in a multiverse, and, if so, is there another you out there?

But rather than mind-altered undergrads, the debate took place among three physicists, one of whom happens to have a Nobel Prize sitting back home.

The debate was held at Pioneer Works, a nonprofit center that places artists' studios next to a space for scientists-in-residence, mixing in a high-tech microscopy company and 3D printers for good measure. It's mostly known for the classes it offers, which range from crafts like lock picking and programming to learning how to play a theremin. But Pioneer Works is starting a series on controversial scientific topics, and the multiverse is the first one it chose to tackle.

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Categories: Tech

VIDEO: Sri Lanka mudslide: No survivors left

BBC World - Sat, 2014-11-01 05:08
Dozens of people are still missing after a landslide in Sri Lanka's central Badulla area on Wednesday.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Australia marks Anzac centenary

BBC World - Sat, 2014-11-01 01:49
Thousands of people gathered in the Australian town of Albany to mark the departure of 30,000 Anzac troops 100 years ago during World War One.
Categories: News
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