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Authored by: bugstomper on Sunday, August 12 2012 @ 10:06 AM EDT |
I guess this is off topic, but I find it interesting. This is the abstract from
Mark Yeh-Kai Tung's PhD thesis Ion acceleration and
transport mechanisms in the Earth's magnetosphere in case you were
wondering if the case might get too technical for him
:)
Abstract
This thesis examines the role of ion
transport and acceleration in the earth's magnetosphere in two important areas:
(1) the entry of solar wind ions in the cusp region on the dayside, and (2) the
outflow of ions in the form of ion conics from the pre-midnight aurora. On
November 15, 1996, the Polar and FAST satellites were in magnetic conjunction in
the cusp region near magnetic local noon. The ion data show that the solar wind
plasma injections were bursty in time, but were spatially coherent for 5 hours
of magnetic local time. Ion sensors on the two satellites measured particle
populations of different energies, but a time-of-flight analysis indicated that
Polar and FAST were observing the same bursts of plasma injections from the
reconnection region. A convection model was used to estimate the size of the
plasma bursts observed. A plasma width of 2412 km was mapped out to the
magnetopause to obtain a reconnection injection region latitudinal width of 1.4
to 1.5 RE. On the nightside, the FAST satellite has observed large ion outflow
fluxes (>108 cm-2 s-1) in the form of auroral ion conics adjacent to the
polar cap boundary. A statistical study was performed to quantify the occurrence
of the ion conics in magnetic local time, the relation of the ion conics to
substorms, and the total contribution of the ion conics to the plasma sheet. The
ion conics occur near magnetic midnight and are associated with substorm
expansion phase but not exclusively. Furthermore, using Polar UVI images to
estimate the width of the ion conics in local time and FAST ion data to
determine the outflow fluxes and latitudinal extent, an estimate of 1022 to 1024
ions/sec is calculated for the outflow. When this outflow is assumed to persist
over the duration of a 1000 sec substorm, the total contribution of 1025 to 1027
ions is only 0.01% to 0.1% of the plasma sheet ion number 1030 ions. (Abstract
shortened by
UMI .)
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Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Sunday, August 12 2012 @ 07:21 PM EDT |
Link
Nathan Myhrvold, CEO of Intellectual
Ventures, took issue with GigaOM this week after we expressed skepticism about
his company’s plans to hire a "VP of Global Good."
In an interview with tech
site Geekwire, Myhrvold said, "I think we do a whole lot more good for the world
than GigaOm does. How big is their malaria research project? How much effort do
they put into polio?"
[ Talk to Bill Gates much Nathan? ]
He goes on to
suggest that companies, and Silicon Valley in particular, spend too much effort
on making new gadgets for people who don’t need really them. We should focus
instead, he says, on developing technology for the world’s poor and points to
Intellectual Venture’s "laser device that shoots mosquitos out of the
sky."
[ Speaking of gadgets.... How about helping the bats? ]
What to
make of all this? Well, the sentiment is certainly a noble one. The problem,
though, is that Myhrvold is utterly unfit to espouse it. As we’ve stated before,
no amount of philanthropy can undo the incredible ruin his company has unleashed
on innovation through unfettered patent trolling. Lest you doubt, consider the
following:
New
research shows that Intellectual Ventures is tied to at
least 1,300 shell companies whose sole purpose is to coerce real companies into
buying patent license that they don’t want or need. Those who resist the "patent
trolls" are dragged into nightmarish lawsuits.
---
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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- con-troll - Authored by: reiisi on Sunday, August 12 2012 @ 07:56 PM EDT
- con-troll - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, August 12 2012 @ 08:49 PM EDT
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, August 13 2012 @ 12:46 PM EDT |
allegedly did nothing to verify security of applications it was paid tens of
thousands of dollars to review
Facebook "took no steps to
verify either the security of a verified application's website or the security
the application provided for the user information it collected, beyond such
steps as it may have taken regarding any other platform application," the FTC
said.
Facebook accepted a settlement with the FTC on Friday. Under its terms
Facebook must allow an independent watchdog to make regular privacy inspections
for the next 20 years.
Josh Halliday, The Guardian[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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