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Science

Evidence of strange quark matter striking Earth? 36

sifi writes "A group of researchers have identified two seismic events that they think provide the first evidence of a previously undetected form of matter passing through the Earth. The BBC has the full story [bbc.co.uk]. The so-called strange quark matter is so dense that a piece the size of a human cell would weigh a tonne. I kind of like the idea that the whole Earth can be used as a sort of 'particle detector' - I just hope that I'm not in the way when another one passes through!"
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Evidence of strange quark matter striking Earth?

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  • three-peat (Score:1, Redundant)

    Wow. It's not like I didn't read this story the first *two* times that slashdot posted it. I think I'll go for THREE.
  • And then (Score:5, Funny)

    by Konster ( 252488 ) on Monday November 25, 2002 @08:40AM (#4750406)
    Wow. It's not like I didn't read this story the first *two* times that slashdot posted it. I think I'll go for THREE. This was posted a week ago? Ugh. Please be a little more careful with the news postings.
  • Familiar (Score:3, Informative)

    by Sandman1971 ( 516283 ) on Monday November 25, 2002 @08:40AM (#4750407) Homepage Journal
    Hmm, oh yeah, I know why it seems familiar!

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/22/195207 &mode=thread&tid=99 (posted Friday November 22, @04:58PM)

    Maybe Slashdot 'editors' should be required to use the Slashdot search before submitting articles?
    • Anyone who actually reads /. immediately recognizes these duplicate postings.

      Wouldn't the editors of /. be expected to READ it as well?

      Why weren't there so many duplicates three years ago? What's changed?

      Okay, griping done -- now, what is a constructive way of dealing with this?

      How about a policy: Post more than three duplicates (previous story 1 year old) and you lose your story-posting priveleges? And CowboyNeal will beat you silly with a nerfbat.

      It's getting downright silly.

      How about the ability for moderators to mark a story redundant? Give the story itself a Karma of, say, 1000, so it would take a lot of such moderations. Keep the Karma hidden, to help prevent abuse. :(

      - Peter
  • by Anonymous Coward
    What is this one? "Tripe"?
  • > The so-called strange quark matter is so dense that a piece the size of a human cell would weigh a tonne.

    What kind of human cell would that be, exactly? A large one or a small one? (Well I guess even large human cells are pretty small, right?)

    ---
    Why tell a story once if you can tell it twice and still get lame response?
  • Double and Triple (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    After posting a dup of the Spam King article, Hermos decided to try a triple! It's time to let the readers moderate stories, clearly it's become to much work for the editors.
  • Occam's Razor requires that all simpler possible explanations be eliminated first.

    There are only two events. Is it a coincidence that they were both (based on the article) grazing incidences?

    Unfortunately, scientists may not be able to find any more events that suggest the passage of strange quark matter through the Earth. In 1993 the US Geological Survey stopped collecting data from "unassociated events."

    Is that a coincidence, or was a new weapon being tested?

    • Re:Doubtful [OT] (Score:2, Informative)

      by Mathness ( 145187 )
      Occam's Razor requires that all simpler possible explanations be eliminated first.

      Nope, quite the reverse. The principle states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed.

      Take a look here [skepdic.com] or here [vub.ac.be] or do a search on Google.
      • Re:Doubtful [OT] (Score:4, Informative)

        by Catskul ( 323619 ) on Monday November 25, 2002 @04:39PM (#4753718) Homepage
        Actually he correctly used it. His wording was just weird.

        More clearly what he said was:
        If you want to accept a theory, you must first eliminate the possiblilty that all simpler possible explanations are correct. If you dont eliminate all simpler explanations then by Occams Razor, one of those simpler explanations is the correct explanation

        He's offering that his explanation is simpler and has not been eliminated as possible, so therefor by Occams must be correct.
        Earn your title Mathness.
  • by Froze ( 398171 ) on Monday November 25, 2002 @10:13AM (#4750876)
    Two dupes within a half hour of each other. Your last excuse was you hadn't had your coffee. I suggest you move to something a bit stronger ;-)
  • Which, as we all already know, is a failure in The Matrix.

    Or is it that it's just ANOTHER dupe story?

    lol
  • It's astounding;
    Time is fleeting;
    Madness takes its toll.
    But listen closely...
    Not for very much longer.
    I've got to keep control.

    I remember doing the time-warp
    Drinking those moments when
    The Blackness would hit me
    And the void would be calling...

    Let's do the time-warp again.

  • It's been only 22 minutes since the last duplicate story!

    Some get Hemos some coffee, please!

  • by MarkusQ ( 450076 ) on Monday November 25, 2002 @10:54AM (#4751153) Journal

    A group of researchers have identified three postings that they think provide the first evidence of a previously undetected form of morning fog passing through slashdot. Slashdot has the full story [slashdot.org]. The so-called strange quark fog can only be detected indirectly, when it causes duplicate duplicate postings on popular web sites. I kind of like the idea that slashdot can be used as a sort of 'particle detector' - I just hope that I'm not in the way when another one passes through!

    -- MarkusQ

  • Usual cliches:

    Information wants to be in triplicate.

    There is strength in crowds.

    Third time lucky?

    Slashdot: Putting the repeat in "lather, rinse, repeat".

    If you do not know what I am taling about:
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/2 2/195207 &mode=nested&tid=99

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