skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is a good article: Power failure due to turbine shutdown, failure in backup diesel generators due to tsunami means no AC power and loss of instruments & controls. The article states further that:

"... According to technical documents translated by Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action in Japan, if the coolant level dropped to the top of the active fuel rods in the core, damage to the core would begin about 40 minutes later, and damage to the reactor vessel would occur 90 minutes after that. ..."
No. A circle with 2X the radius has 2X the diameter, thus the energy will be cut in half.

Unless you also expect a linear attenuation, due to energy loss through the bedrock.
> "and compare it's impact with other energies"

This is where your argument falls apart. What other energy sources are there?

Let's see... burning fossil fuels is not only environmentally unsustainable but also, as part of its regular operation, releases more radioactive material into the atmosphere than nuclear power plants.

Solar? Workable on small scale, physically impossible to provide the majority of humanity's energy needs. Same goes for tidal, wind, and hydro.

Geothermal? Ditto - only possible in very selective environments, zero chance of being able to provide significant power generation outside of very limited circumstances.

There simply isn't a better technology out there right now. Until fusion comes along, nuclear is the best we've got. Nobody here is claiming it isn't without its risks, but it sure beats the pants off of what we're doing right now.

Even if we completely ignore the environmental angle, the social angle, and the economic angle, and consider these choices purely on how much radiation exposure they will subject people to, nuclear still wins. That's how far apart these options are. You are choosing between an extremely low chance of being exposed to a potentially damaging dose of radiation... or a guarantee of breathing down radiogenic material for your entire lifetime.

Anti-nuclear paranoia has been one of the most insidious and evil things to infect our collective consciousness in the past decades. It has enforced a continued and growing reliance on depleting fossil fuels, which has not only damaged the environment via greenhouse gas emissions, but pumped gigatons of radioactive material into the atmosphere to be inhaled by everyone. It has caused wars and famine and anti-science paranoia (did you know that the MRI was first called the NMRI? Guess why they had to rename it?).
On the same site :D
"The IAEA projections would give nuclear power a 13.5 to 14.6% share in electricity production in 2020, and 12.6 to 15.9% in 2030."
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf17.html

BTW there is currently around as much renewable energy than nuclear worldwide.
Twitter Forcing Google to Display Promoted Tweets with Real-Time Search Results?
I thought we ran out of fossil fuel a few years ago?
Area of a 10km circle is 314 km2

Area of a 20km circle is 1257 km2

Assuming they go to 30km or 50km next:

Area of a 30km circle is 2827 km2

Area of a 50km circle is 7854 km2
In Japanese radio a professor was saying to get 100-200km away.
Still hard to say. Fortunately, the wind is forecast to go out towards the Pacific for the next few days. But if the situation escalates as badly as Chernobyl, enough stuff may get out for everyone to get some.
Death toll from disasters is always low to start. Rescue workers on the ground are more worried about digging out the people who survived (at least for the first 48 hours or so).
Yes, you will likely be death in the next 100 years.

Seriously though the structure that contained the reactor isn't the only thing that protects the reactor (it was at Chernobyl, which is why it went badly) it is also protected by a thick concrete container (which is pretty much what was eventually built around the Soviet reactor) which means that in the event of a meltdown the structure will contain the radioactive stuff.

So in summary: unless you are really close (which you shouldn't be) or have a burning desire to be inside that reactor building you will die of something else entirely (most likely something boring).
Or you could override the default file resource attributes in sites.pp:

File {
owner => root,
group => root,
mode => 644,
}

Then you could override that again in individual file resources. If you need several file resources with the same attributes you can override them within the scope of a class:

class postgresql {
File {
owner => "postgres",
group => "postgres",
mode => 640,
}

$pgsql_root = "/etc/postgresql/8.4/main"
file { "$pgsql_root/postgresql.conf":
content => template("postgresql/postgresql.conf.erb"),
require => Package["postgresql"],
}

file { "$pgsql_root/pg_hba.conf":
content => template("postgresql/pg_hba.conf.erb"),
require => Package["postgresql"],
}
}
Small generators, like the kinds you use for emergency backup power, often run on oil.
Government spokesman says the nuclear reactor container at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant has not been damaged, and the level of radiation has dropped following the explosion earlier on Saturday, AFP reports

but as you put it, can we believe this anymore? Yesterday everything was supposed to be under control.

Would be interesing to hear from communication professionals what they think about this.
Australia is great in regards to cigarettes. On all packets, it shows gruesome images of what happens to you if you smoke, all labels are black with a standardised white text, so no brand recognition. They're all behind a blacked out cabinet too.

See: http://www.google.com.au/images?q=australian+cigarette+packa...
If the rotation speed of earth changed (and this is definitely possible), then by a really, really tiny amount (something like a day getting a thousandth of a second longer or shorter)
Renewable energies are almost making the same output as nuclear power, so this should be possible to get off nuclear without flooding the world under CO2
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Nuclear_power

You may also look at that http://energypriorities.com/entries/2010/12/renewables_nucle...
Smartphone Device Detects Cancer In an Hour
This guy from that thread seems to know his stuff:

http://slashdot.org/~TopSpin

But who knows...
The average radioactive dose a person gets per year is about 3,6 to 5 milliSievert a year (for Belgium) of which 2,6 mSv from natural sources, 0,95mSv from medical examinations and 0,05mSv from industry (of which 0,01mSv due to nuclear power)

So when they say around the reactor the dose in an hour is about the same as you get a year, then this is about equivalent to two scans in a hospital.

Note: this is talking about low levels where the only influence radiation has is increasing the chance of cancer. If there are very high doses >100mSv involved, there will be direct radiological damage which can be strongly compared to damage from burning.
http://twitter.com/#!/martyn_williams/status/465371589153914...

The reactor DID NOT explode. HN is becoming a bit sensationalist today.

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_Water_Reactor_Safety_Sy...

Basically, this bit:

The reactor building (the shield wall/missile shield) is also made of steel-reinforced, pre-stressed concrete 0.3 m to 1 m (1–3 feet) thick.

The concrete surrounding the building is now gone (due to excess pressure).

Second edit:

[6:54 a.m. ET, 8:54 p.m. Tokyo] The explosion at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant was not caused by the nuclear reactor but by "water vapor that was part of the cooling process," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday. He said no harmful gases had been emitted by the explosion.

[6:44 a.m. ET, 8:44 p.m. Tokyo] Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan confirms that the evacuation area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been increased to 20 kilometers. But no one has been harmed by radiation, he says.

Third edit (from the BBC):

1218: It seems clear now from Mr Edano's comments that the nuclear plant building that was blown apart earlier did house a reactor, but the reactor was protected by its metal casing.

1216: Government spokesman Yukio Edano says the pressure as well as the radiation at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant has fallen following this afternoon's explosion.

So the "explosion" has actually helped the situation.

Fourth edit: Looking like Sendai just got hit with another earthquake. I hope that hasn't caused any more damage to the reactor. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us...

Fifth edit: From http://twitter.com/#!/norishikata

"Blast was caused by accumulated hydrogen combined with oxygen in the space between container and outer structure. No damage to container."

"Trend of μ Sv/h of Unit 1 this afternoon. 1,015(at 15:29), blast (15:36), 860(15:40), 70.5 (18:58). After blast, radioactive level lowered."

"TEPCO's efforts to depressurize the container was successful. Additional measures are now taken tonight using sea water and boric acid."

Things are looking up.
Of cheap oil, yes. Dirty oil is still to be found, I don't know of a consensus yet on peak oil.
I'd say it's a very pleasant visual (disclaimer: I'm not much of a design-beauty guy), but here's one heads-up:

Cmd(cntl)+(+key) cannot be used to enlarge text for the visually impaired (or just those with high pixel density screens) - not without breaking the bounds of they graphics they're placed over.

EDIT:

Second thought... Why just say, "experience our comprehensive privacy measures instated for your peace of mind"? How about a link to a page describing those measures? I suggest this because I'm the wary type: I don't spend time 'experiencing' without major reassurance in advance. That's also why I don't provide an email address 'for notification' unless the landing page (or at least additional pages linked thereon) powerfully sells me on "wow, this promises to be really cool (or really solve a problem that's been bugging my life)" )

Hope that some help.
The article states that the regulation changes that allowed unlimited commodity speculation only started in 1991 and then only for 16 institutions who were given exemption.
Nice to see ben goldacre's writings up on here. He is a clinical epistemologist by training but he has rapidly moved into the world of science journalism (or perhaps meta-journalism) due to his popularity as a writer and speaker.
Nuclear plant issues in Japan are the least of their worries
Some reports[1] indicate radioactive iodine and cesium are being detected at monitoring stations. How could that happen if confinement hadn't failed? (fuel rods melting, containment failure of the reactor vessel and/or primary coolant loop, and the obvious lack of a containment building at this point)

Based on the description of two-stage containment for BWRs at wikipedia[2], and the video, if that's the containment strategy at Fukushima, it seems the drywell containment structure blew up, since steam being vented into a pool of water shouldn't cause a visible breach.

[1] http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110312D12JF520.htm

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containment_building#Boiling_wa...
He also has a secondary blog where he posts "things that are too long to post on twitter and not clever enough to post on his main blog": http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/
According to http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_51.html the exposure level measured outside the plant is 1.015 mSv / hr. Exposure to about 1000 times that hourly level in a short time period is needed for life-threatening acute radiation poisoning.

Exposure to 1.015 mSv / hour for a year would give a dose equivalent of 8.9 Sv - the excess relative risk of cancer for low dose chronic radiation exposure is about 0.97 per Sv - so the exposure to that level for a year would drastically increase cancer risk.

Obviously, people won't be allowed into the areas where radiation levels were that high.

I saw a report of a worker acutely exposed to >100 mSv; that single event would be enough to increase that worker's lifetime risk of cancer by about 10%.
Guess I mis-read the parent's question last night. You're right.
Life has just returned. And at least in my city, there were particularly no financial damage. Nothing has really changed, except now that we have better police and prosecution. We have got our freedom, and yes, you can criticize the government in public! You can get in here and have full press coverage of any topic. Internet is uncensored, even Wikileaks works.

Politically, we are heading toward democracy, I hope. There will be a constitution of a "Constituent assembly" whose members are elected by the people. This assembly will put the rule of the country, as well as, a temporary government that will prepare for the presidential elections. The election will take place in July, this summer. The delegation rules will be set by the people who made the sit-in of the Kasbah. Aljazeera seems to be following the event: http://english.aljazeera.net/category/organisation/kasbah-go...
Facebook is so much younger than Google so it's a bit unfair to compare them this way. Facebook is still in such a crazy growth so they simply focus on their core business.

Google started launching their great non-search products (maps, mail) around 2004-2005 when it was at the same age as Facebook is today. And these products were or turned out to be supportive to their core search business as well. There were another couple of years before we've seen some great technologies from Google which weren't supposed to support their search business. So please, give Facebook couple more years before you judge.

Technical problems that Facebook solves in building and scaling their platform are enough challenging to require and attract the best minds in the industry. Let's see what these people will do when the dust settles a bit.

That said, I'm across the globe from the action and know nothing about these companies culture or attitude. But I still wouldn't judge Facebook yet.
>That's where it gets crazy/wrong - since Goldman
>is "buying" regardless of whether prices go up or down,...

That's not how futures markets work though. If someone else said, you can only go long in a contract if someone else goes short. You can put in a BUY order, but until it matches someone else's SELL it just sits there in the market.

This is because futures don't work like stocks or shares, or even actually buying a commodity now and sitting on it. This is why some banks rent supertankers full of oil - they can't achieve the same hoarding effect on a futures exchange.
It's almost becoming taboo to talk about the FED's activities, as though it's some kind of conspiracy but in my opinion this is a very valid point.

It's hard to call it a bubble when all asset classes are inflating.

Edit: Just to be clear i'm not arguing the premise of the article, just that such extreme speculation would not be possible without the enormous concessions made for these banks.
I know there are exceptions. Places where there isn't enough water for example. But let's get a closer look, most of the famine is in Africa. Yet, they have enough lands and water to produce what they need.

So the problem isn't in the price; but in the economy and policy of these countries. If the USA wants to do something about these countries, they just need to stop supporting dictatorial systems.
No you get to have people like me who rarely have cash (because my income is automatically put into my bank) as customers.

And there are a lot more of us than you would think.
Man, you would think that almost ghoulish imagery in the URL you posted would keep people from buying cigarettes, but I imagine people still buy them in droves nonetheless. I like that at least the Australian government doesn't cave to the Tobacco companies.
I am sincere. I think you could have handled this better by making the point you made and educating the person about your understanding of what a "rock star" developer is vs what you understood he needed in a less high handed manner.
Articles medical
articles medical
While damage to internal containment structures are possible, the building is likely to be resistant to these kinds of explosions.

A (what I guess) is a similar explosion happened in the reactor building in TMI, and the risk of an explosion such as this seems to be well known. The reactor building was probably prepared to absorb the explosion away from the containment structures, making it look much worse than it is.
Ask HN: Do you sell your software to everyone?
Many of the great products the HN community puts out really help businesses be more productive, increase sales etc.

But do you just allow your software to benefit anyone who signs up or would you restrict certain types of people or businesses.

I know we would all remove spammers, or businesses doing illegal things but what about say a Tobacco company?

We know their product kills and is detrimental to society. Would you want your product to help them create better sales or increased profits?

And where do you draw the line?
What Middlemen Dream Of
Aside from the 'new' way of multiplication (which doesn't strike me as too bad), I think asking kids to make a stem-and-leaf plot of the birthdays in their class is actually really cool. It shows them how the things they learn can be applied to real things and it could open the way for interesting discussions as well (though the birthday paradox might be a bit much for 5th graders perhaps).
Geek Survival Guide from the streets of earthquake-hit Japan
Being anonymous just got sweeter.
Diamond Necklace
Finally, the last important feature of buying a gift is to make sure that what you buy will suits her personality well or not and also that whether the design keep a special meaning to her or not. There is endless options available when it comes choosing a diamond necklace. You can choose the designs like a star, horseshoes, journey or heart shaped diamond necklaces. Other than this, lots of other designs exist to choose from. Choose what your beloved lady loves to wear and what makes her smile when you present her gift.
3 Things

1. I asked why is it revolutionary?
2. It needs pictures.
3. More emotional copy. How does it solve the person's problem (which is obviously finding that person a partner) but are you targeting a specific niche within that niche? Some people want love, others want fun, others want things that can't be described in public :)

So how is this different from every other dating site. (and they are a LOT of them)
Go for the win-win situations
On all packets, it shows gruesome images of what happens to you if you smoke

Which I believe does more harm than good. I know plenty of smokers who get through a pack a day; do you think this is more likely to inform smokers about health risks that they're not already aware of, or is it more likely to desensitise them to these risks?

I'm also curious to know who behind this plan doesn't remember being a 10-year-old and being fascinated by everything disgusting.
somewhere in Japan, someone has hardcoded GPS locations into their autonomous dishwashing robot, and is now wondering why it can't find the sink...

(btw, another version of the story with citations, attributed quotes is here: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthq...)
But what do you do when you want a question answered that you can't google?

Isn't that the idea that all the Q&A sites stem from?

I feel roughly the same as you. But I have actually asked questions both at StackExchange sites and Quora (and answered others in return for the help I received). And it certainly has it's uses to me.
The trick my father has used to succeed in various limited duration markets is to a) realize when you're in one and b) get out before it's too late. Both, especially the latter, are difficult and perhaps impossibly so in today's very well connected world, but he did it for e.g. 8 track tapes in the '70s (for a long window the law didn't require giving the RIAA a cut, just the artists) and C band satellite home video in the '80s (what the pros use(d) for distribution, now replaced by K band DirecTV and Dish Network).

A lot of people also made money in these areas but clung to their companies' obsolete business models for so long their net gain was modest or negative by the end as they rode them down to the crash.
I've seen so many people insist that Javascript code should be Semicolon free recently. It always felt wrong to me, mainly because I code in several languages and getting into the habit of not using semicolons felt dangerous. It's nice to know there's a genuine reason to continue using them.
Just because you're sitting in a gentlemen's club in the midst of erudite conversation doesn't mean you're not going to point out that the place across the road is currently on fire.

Absolutes are silly.
The problem has nothing to do with whether these commodities are traded on exchanges, it's whether an individual or organization is allowed to buy so much of one commodity that it dominates the market and can permanently drive the price up when normal market forces would otherwise gradually and continually bring the price down.
Pinboard - A Case Study For Simple Systems
"We've confirmed that the reactor container was not damaged. The explosion didn't occur inside the reactor container. As such there was no large amount of radiation leakage outside," [Japan Chief Cabinet Minister Yukio Edano] said.

"At this point, there has been no major change to the level of radiation leakage outside (from before and after the explosion), so we'd like everyone to respond calmly," Edano said."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/japan-quake-reacto...

Now they are going to flood the reactor container with seawater.
What are the top 5 apps I should get for my iPad 2?
That report is here (106.3 mSv measured):

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031219-e....
Addiction’s a bitch. I don’t smoke but I tend to eat too much with predictable consequences I know full well about. It is possible for me to keep my eating in control (I have for nearly six months now and am very proud of that) but that demands tons of strong, strong, strong willpower. It’s exhausting and I will have to keep that will strong for the rest of my life.
Great to see a Harmonix employee on HN! I still break out Amplitude from time to time, which I'm guessing you worked on?
I almost bust a nut loling out loud at that.
Okay make it simpler, your posting as directly as a for profit company and not under your own name you pay, doesn't have to be a large amount. I think it's better model than advertising, if your reaching a customer base through the service and see value in it for your business you pay. I personally like it a lot better than ads.
Thanks for Signing Up | The Hello Bar
To your edit... No problem :) My karma is getting slammed on this discussion anyway :D

To your precedent point about computers and home electricity consumption: most energy actually goes into heating/cooling, that's where passive improvements can do most - better isolation, passive air cooling etc. They are huge possible gains with that. And implementing these improvements makes local small companies thrive, rather than multinational energy companies.
I don't smoke, but I don't think that imagery would stop me buying cigarettes if I did. I know how horrific the potential consequences of riding a motorcycle or driving a car look, but I still do that. The insides of even a relatively healthy old person won't look particularly pleasant either.

The fact is, people will be aware that not everyone who smokes ends up looking like those images, which will help them ignore them; "It'll never happen to me", regardless of how likely it actually is.
Take Your Subject into Account as You Think of Your Research Paper Titles
There is a process involved when writing a research paper. The title is an important part which needs great consideration. The title of the research paper should only be formulated once the entire paper is written. Then taking the topic into account students should select a title.
Are Super Moon and Japan tsunami related?