The SL-1 Reactor, part of the short-lived Army nuclear power program, became America's only fatal nuclear accident when it exploded in its warehouse, killing three technicians.
posted on Apr 3, 2006 - View this thread

Not Lost After All Given recent posts proving and disproving various meanings of the ongoing numbers references on the television program Lost, I figured that some of you would be interested that a person over on Flickr seems to have a much better explanation: they're simply geographic coordinates.
posted on Sep 30, 2005 - View this thread

Libya has pledged to dismantle its atomic weapons program. That is obviously good news, in addition to being a victory for George W. Bush's aggressive foreign policy. But what, exactly, is Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi giving up? Not much... Libya may be closing down its nuclear program because it wasn't working anyway. This points to an important reality about nuclear weapons: they are extremely difficult to make. Claims that bomb plans can be downloaded from the Internet, or that fissile material is easily obtained on the black market and slapped together into an ultimate weapon, seem little more than talk-radio jabber. Nations like Libya that have made determined attempts to obtain atomic munitions have not even come close.

If the Bomb Is So Easy to Make, Why Don't More Nations Have It?
posted on Jan 4, 2004 - View this thread

"Vancouver has opened North America's first legal shooting gallery for drug addicts." -for all you poor saps where guns are a part of your everyday vocabulary, NO that's not a place where drug addicts shoot guns.- this is a pilot program supported by all levels of government in BC and in Canada, where addicts can inject drugs in a supervised, clean environment. The purpose of which ultimately I think is to bridge the huge gap between "them" and "us" and possibly shrink the distance addicts have to reach through for help. Does my heart bleed for "them"? Absolutely not. You choose your weapon, you suffer the consequences. But what this could lead to is less addicts and therefore less reason for addicts to commit crimes to support their addictions...
posted on Sep 16, 2003 - View this thread

The genger genie purports to guess the gender of an author by reading a sample of their writing. The program is based on an algorithm describe here, at nature.com. [Via Hit Or Miss.]
posted on Sep 3, 2003 - View this thread

Walking Things is an environment that generates small, walking computational organisms. "Each walking thing is built up from totally random conditions. Appearance, behavior, and walking characteristics are all assigned from a range enabling effective, functional mobility. Click on a walking thing to permutate its characteristics".

Just one of the very many wonderful (open source) creations at levitated.net (more bugs with bling here). Kick off your shoes, fill your coffee cup or wine glass, and dip in.
posted on Jul 2, 2003 - View this thread

Overcome Depression: The New Computer -Cognitive Treatment Overcoming Depression is the world's first self-educative computer program for understanding, dealing with, and preventing depression using a unique dialogue mode that allows you to express yourself freely in your own words and that responds in meaningful every language characteristic of a therapeutic context. So much for the personal therapeutic process. My question is - can this program prescribe meds??!??
posted on May 20, 2002 - View this thread

No more false IDs on Metafilter! Now researchers in Italy have developed a program that can spot enough subtle differences between two authors' works to attribute authorship.
posted on Feb 2, 2002 - View this thread

WE ARE WATCHING YOU. "The FBI added that its research is 'always mindful of constitutional, privacy and commercial equities,' and that its use of new technology can be challenged in court and in Congress." No really, go ahead, try and stop us if you don't like it. That's your (snicker, snicker) right.
posted on Nov 24, 2001 - View this thread

I'm a gadget freak and I've got lights in my house controlled by my computer. But the folks at misterhouse.net have taken it 10 steps further. There's a web interface to all sorts of things, inlcluding the lighting system, the vcr, and reminders of new mail. That's some pretty nifty geek stuff they have going on there.
posted on Nov 16, 1999 - View this thread