Category: Stories
-
Physics hoaxers discover Quantum Bogosity?
by
Andrew Orlowski
–
The physics establishment appears to be unable to decide whether papers submitted by two former French TV presenters are a scientific breakthrough or an elaborate hoax. The debunking to date has been done on Usenet groups and informally, over the Internet.
The pranksters evaded the rigorous peer review process employed by scientific journals, and have succeeded in publishing four physics papers. The pair even won themselves PhDs into the bargain.
Grichka and Igor Bogdanov succeeded in having Topological field theory … Read More
-
Ex ICANN chief spotted in Low Earth Orbit
by
Andrew Orlowski
–
Esther Dyson has made one of her occasional swings past Earth, with Salon.com’s Farhad Manjoo making radio contact as her low earth orbit took her over San Francisco.
The former ICANN chief has lost none of eccentricity on her on her voyage through the galaxy.
“Let’s get real!,” she proclaims – an alert for regular readers to take cover, to avoid being hit by a flock of birds flying backwards.
“I want to fix it.”
Esther weighs in on the … Read More
-
Miracle cures Berkeley man of Itanic wickedness
by
Andrew Orlowski
–
Praise the Lord! A miracle has taken place in nearby Berkeley.
A fortnight ago UCB grad student Nick Weaver explained to us in some detail the deficiencies of the IA-64 architecture. He’s teaching some classes, and one caught our eye: entitled “Voyage of the Itanic”.
“Itanic describes the architecture very well,” he told us. The class, which is scheduled for next week, was going to describe how a bright idea went horribly wrong.
Only Nick has had undergone a conversion. … Read More