Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory At South Pole 78
Scryer writes "Construction of the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory was completed on 18 Dec at the South Pole. It's now the world's largest neutrino detector, with 5,160 optical sensors on 86 strings embedded two kilometers below the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It has been gathering data since construction started, and will be fully operational after the last strings freeze in March 2011."
TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:5, Funny)
First he was just an MC/Rapper...
Then and Actor,
Now? He's a scientific observatory!
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:3)
Then and Actor,
I think you are being more generous than when people said Schwarzenegger was an Actor.
Which was a surprise to Arnie, because all throughout his 'acting career' people basically bashed him for not really acting, just having enough muscles to hold up big guns. Then he runs for Governor and everyone goes "Ha! An Actor running for California Governor!" - greatest compliment he ever received.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
Yes. I really believed his part in "Twins", it almost seemed like a documentary.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
Oh, and Junior? The sheer depth of his portrayal... He was like a real live pregnant man!
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
If 'believable' is your criteria for a good movie then you're in for one hell of a disappointment. My main criteria are "interesting" and/or "entertaining", and Arnie made that happen in most of his movies, assuming you like that genre. I'm sure there are bunch of other genre's he'd really suck at, but to his credit he's stayed well clear of them.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:1)
Oh come on !! I've had a LOT of fun with arnie's movies, some of the are pretty much classics
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
I was actually saying pretty much the same thing. I enjoyed most of his movies immensely, but not because they were or weren't believable.
I think it you put him into gone with the wind or bridges of maddison county or some such classic he might not be quite so much fun though (or if he was, it would be for different reasons :)
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
gone with the wind or bridges of maddison county or some such classic
By "classic" I assume you just mean "a film that is more than one year old"?
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
By "classic" I assume you just mean "a film that is more than one year old"?
I'm sure there is a specific definition somewhere, but a film would need to have been rammed down the throats of at least one generation of school kids to be considered a classic so yes, more than a year old.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
Vagrant coatimundi and fire hydrant licker with fulminating diarrhoea (note British spelling)!
How dare you insult with faint praise a fine actor and California's greatest ever governor?
I piss trenchantly into your broken orange cardboard clown shoes, and consign you to the scrap heap of history!
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
He was great in this film.
http://eeuauaughhhuauaahh.ytmnd.com/ [ytmnd.com]
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
haha, no.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
Ice Cube was great in Boyz n the Hood, and nobody can ever take that away from him. Not even himself, despite trying with pretty much every acting role he's taken since.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
No.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
One word: Friday. Good thing they never made any shitty sequels to that classic.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
One word: Friday. Good thing they never made any shitty sequels to that classic.
Damn straight. If they ever did, I bet Chris Tucker would have nothing to do with it.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
Also he was good in Three Kings (awesome movie by the way, see it). He was so good in fact, the thought "oh look there's a rapper in my movie" never came up while watching it.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
Then and Actor,
I think you are being more generous than when people said Schwarzenegger was an Actor.
Which was a surprise to Arnie, because all throughout his 'acting career' people basically bashed him for not really acting, just having enough muscles to hold up big guns. Then he runs for Governor and everyone goes "Ha! An Actor running for California Governor!" - greatest compliment he ever received.
The same went for Ronald Reagan -- bad actor to worse governor. I won't speak of his tenure as President.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:1)
I guess F*** the police, Friday, and Barbershop helped pay for his scientific observatory transformation.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
IceCube and Black Hos? Now that's what I call a Big Bang.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
so this observatory is controlled by gamma light?
i think kool keith got his phd there.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
Ice Cube is one of the earliest examples of Weakly Interacting Gamma Ray Sensors.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
ICE T is a bullet train [wikipedia.org]. Beat that.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
According to that link ICE T is a DBAG.
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:0)
He's really an ICE T DBAG R
Unfortunate choice of a name (Score:5, Interesting)
There was a time when project names were chosen to be cute acronyms. I work with digital signal processing where there are algorithms named MUSIC, for "MUltiple SIgnal Classification", and ESPRIT, for "Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Techniques".
Today it's better to have Google-friendly names, i.e. names that are unique. Every time when I start a new project name now I first google the name, if it gets any results I change the name. This is priceless for little-known projects, because any extra words you have to add to a search limit the results you get.
In the two examples I cited above, adding the word "algorithm" will return what you want, but how many pages are there in the web that mention MUSIC and ESPRIT without the word "algorithm"? Those pages are lost in the Google noise.
Re:Unfortunate choice of a name (Score:2)
What are you talking about? ICNOASP is a cool acronym. See, it means "I see no asp". 'Cause there are no snakes in Antarctica. Get it?
Re:Unfortunate choice of a name (Score:0)
My personal favourites are BEER (Boot Engineering Extension Record) and PARTIES (Protected Area Run-Time Interface Extension Services).
CAPTCHA: parties O_o
Re:Unfortunate choice of a name (Score:2)
That hasn't really changed, how about: Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array - AMANDA?
That's what IceCube was formely known as, or rather, the IceCube array is an extension of the original AMANDA detector array.
Re:Unfortunate choice of a name (Score:2)
I thought MUSIC was the McGill University System for Interactive Computing.
Anyone else remember that system?
Re:Unfortunate choice of a name (Score:2)
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm just waiting for Xzibit to Pimp My Particle Accelerator.
NEGOT? (Score:2)
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.. . Now Nobel?
DAAAMN SON!!!
Re:TRIPLE THREAT! (Score:2)
I'm surprised they didn't put it in Compton.
frozen balls... (Score:0)
...deep in the ice. Phenomenal.
yet another biological 'breakthrough' (Score:0)
That would be home made Kombucha, which can be served 'on the rocks' for that sub-arctic effect.
And they're hiring. (Score:4, Informative)
Want to spend a winter in Antarctica as the BOFH for a scientific supercomputer watching for neutrinos in a 2-km^3 ice cube?
Recruitment for the 2011-2012 season will begin in early 2011 [wisc.edu]
Re:And they're hiring. (Score:5, Funny)
sysadmins uniquely qualified (Score:2)
Re:sysadmins uniquely qualified (Score:2)
The latency on the sat link will kill your reaction time in online FPS's.
Re:sysadmins uniquely qualified (Score:2)
So will the lack of satellite connectivity for over 12 hrs per day.
Re:And they're hiring. (Score:2)
Been there, done that, loved it.
Wrong Link (Score:5, Informative)
The actual story is here
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-icecube-world-largest-neutrino-observatory.html [physorg.com]
The key bits is this (should have been in the summary):
Under construction since 2004, IceCube encloses a cubic kilometer of clear ice, beginning one and a half kilometers beneath the surface and extending downward another kilometer. The telescope has to be this big because neutrino collisions with matter are exceedingly rare: out of uncounted trillions of neutrinos constantly passing through the ice, IceCube will observe just a few hundred a day.
Seeing them at all is only possible because when neutrinos collide with the nuclei of oxygen atoms in the ice, they turn into energetic charged particles called muons, moving in the same direction. Because these muons (and other debris from the collision) are moving faster than light can travel through ice, they radiate a shock wave of blue Cherenkov radiation visible to IceCube’s photodetectors.
Re:Wrong Link (Score:1)
Wrong Link? Wrong. (Score:3)
How is the official home page of the observatory [wisc.edu], which includes that story and more in the "News" column right smack-dab in the middle of the home page the "wrong link"?
Sure, maybe the summary could have included more information, or a link to a summarizing news story, but linking to the observatory's official presence on the internet is hardly the "wrong link".
Re:Wrong Link? Wrong. (Score:2)
They linked to a page which had a link to the actual story.
How many levels of indirection are you prepared to accept?
Re:Wrong Link? Wrong. (Score:2)
The linked text was "Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory". The text linked to the official page of the observatory. The summary is about the observatory being complete. No indirection here.
Nothing implied that the link should be to an article. You assume that they "should" have linked to a news article, instead of the observatory itself. There is no such requirement of slashdot summaries, either implicit or explicit, and there is plenty of information about IceCube on the IceCube site [wisc.edu]. If the linked text implied that there was a news article behind it, you would have a point.
As for the content of slashdot summaries being bad or needing more informaton, I believe that is a perennial issue that transcends what submitters choose to link to.
Re:Wrong Link? Wrong. (Score:2)
Nothing implied that the link should be to an article. You assume that they "should" have linked to a news article, instead of the observatory itself. There is no such requirement of slashdot summaries, either implicit or explicit, and there is plenty of information about IceCube on the IceCube site [wisc.edu]. If the linked text implied that there was a news article behind it, you would have a point.
Er, maybe there's no requirement as such.
But it does make a rather large amount of sense to have a link to an article describing the news that the story is about, if such a news article exists, and it does. And it makes sense to also have a link to the main website of the subject of the news story, if such a website exists, which it does. "Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory" should be linked to the main Ice Cube website, and "completed Dec. 18th" should be linked to the actual story.
And of course I mean "should" in the sense of "would be better", not "should" as in "to do otherwise is wrong". Still.
As for the content of slashdot summaries being bad or needing more informaton, I believe that is a perennial issue that transcends what submitters choose to link to.
Er, yes, but most of the time they at least have a link to a news item that's about the news that the story is trying to inform us about. Ones that don't are complained about even louder than usual, and for good reason I think.
Re:Wrong Link? Wrong. (Score:1)
There are lots of news stories about the completion of the neutrino observatory. I could have linked any of them, but I preferred to go to the source of the information rather than filtering it through a reporter -- especially when the source has perfectly accessible text that doesn't need a scientist to explain for us. If you want to see many news articles about it, Google News [slashdot.org] will find them quickly.
That was my first try at a submission -- next time I'll put more in the summary.
Re:Wrong Link? Wrong. (Score:2)
I preferred to go to the source of the information rather than filtering it through a reporter -- especially when the source has perfectly accessible text that doesn't need a scientist to explain for us.
You should link directly to said text [wisc.edu] then. :)
If you want to see many news articles about it, Google News [slashdot.org] will find them quickly.
True, but you could say the same about the main Ice Cube project page.
That was my first try at a submission -- next time I'll put more in the summary.
It was fine, it just needed a direct link to something talking specifically about this news item.
Encouragement (Score:2)
Please do submit again. A thick skin is sometimes needed at first, but you'll get the customs down soon enough, and a high-quality submission like yours is always appreciated.
Re:Wrong Link (Score:5, Informative)
I think one of the neatest things about Ice Cube is that it is essentially using the entire freaking planet earth as a filter for muon sources other than neutrino interactions. It can detect what direction a source of Cherenkov radiation came from, and if it came from the direction of the sky then it's vastly more likely to have been caused by some other form of cosmic ray and neutrino interactions would be completely lost in the noise. Neutrinos can pass through the whole planet with ease, though, so by subtracting out the sky-originating muons, they are left with the probable neutrinos.
In fact I remember a Slashdot article from a while back where they took the data that they usually subtract out as non-neutrino noise and analyzed it, and were able to make some interesting discoveries about cosmic rays. Oh hey, found the article: http://www.physorg.com/news199468476.html [physorg.com]
Re:Wrong Link (Score:1)
Re:Wrong Link (Score:1)
A clarification: when a high-energy neutrino interacts to produce a muon, that muon can travel for several kilometres through rock/ice before it decays. So a neutrino could interact to produce a muon in the bedrock below the Antarctic icecap, and the muon could still travel up into the ice and be observed by IceCube.
(I don't work on IceCube, but I do work on neutrino physics.)
Re:Wrong Link (Score:2)
Quick! (Score:1)
Observatory Is Cover For U.F.O. Search (Score:0)
in Antarctica [youtube.com].
Yours In Pahrump, Nevada,
Kilgore T.
Re:Observatory Is Cover For U.F.O. Search (Score:2)
String Freeze (Score:2)
That's certainly a new turn on a familiar development phrase.
Cheers,
South Pole, eh? (Score:2)
(obligatory)
I think we're talking about an organism... that could imitate other life forms... perfectly... It could have gone on and on... It could have become one dog... It could have become as many dogs as it wanted to -- and without losing any of its original mass...
You're all wrong (Score:-1)
You're all wrong......Ice Cube is the system on the Zorg ZF-1....."It's light; handle's adjustable for easy carrying; good for righties and lefties; breaks down into four parts; undetectable by X-ray; ideal for quick discreet interventions. A word on firepower. Titanium recharger; 3000-round clip with bursts of 3 to 300. With the replay button, another Zorg invention, it's even easier." 8D
What they've actually done (Score:0)
They may say they've finished construction of a neutrino observatory, but what they've actually done is gotten the Ancient outpost fully operational. Earth is now completely safe from any potential alien attack.
Obligatory Ice Cube parody (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Ice Cube parody (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory Ice Cube parody (Score:2)
Ice cube station?! (Score:1)
Woah!!! (Score:1)
Fully Operational (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, I'm afraid the Observatory will be quite operational when your neutrino friends arrive
Re:Fully Operational (Score:2)
Oh, I'm afraid the Observatory will be quite operational when your neutrino friends arrive
Yes.... I feel it. Give in to your dark matter.
It has to be said... (Score:2)
Big tip... (Score:2)
A link to the project home page: excellent. (Score:2)
Much better than the usual snarky blog referencing an error-filled news article.
Straight Outta Cosmos (Score:1)
String freeze (Score:2)
will be fully operational after the last strings freeze in March 2011
Translation efforts are under way. It is expected that a Chinese version of the project will be available soon after President Hu visits the facility in late 2011.