This morning on CNBC we were arguing about the blame to be accorded web traffic service Comscore in investors collectively leaning the wrong way on Google's earnings last night. After all, Comscore had... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 4:45 pm
Bibek Paudel writes "Over the past few weeks Chinese bloggers and people on Internet forums have been reacting to events in Tibet and the protests disrupting the torch relay. The BBC and Global Voices have interesting insights on the recent happenings on the Net. A western commentator says, 'Lots of Chinese people now view the Western media, human rights groups, and Western leaders' criticisms of their country as part of the Racist Western Conspiracy to Stop China From Being Successful.' One of the most vocal appeals by the Chinese blogs, forums, and text-messages has been to boycott French goods in response to the protests that accompanied the torch relay in Paris. One response post reads, 'Who is abusing human rights? Who is bringing violence to this world?' There also are two versions of music video of the song Don't Be Too CNN, and its lyric has assumed the status of a cult catch-phrase. Sina.com has a popular page: 'Don't be too CNN, fire to the Western media.' Many analysts believe that the protests over Tibet have only served to strengthen Chinese nationalism rather than evoke sympathy for the Tibetan cause. Sina.com has a petition against the Western media which has reportedly accumulated millions of signatures. There is also Mutant Palm, a blog by an expatriate in China who has been watching and commenting on the fallout from Tibet and torch protests online."
The RIAA's file-sharing lawsuit against a homeless man has run into some snags:
In Warner v. Berry, where the RIAA was suing a man who lives in a homeless shelter, the Magistrate Judge -- Hon. Kevin Nathaniel Fox -- recommended that the plaintiffs' application for a default judgment be denied, and that the plaintiffs be ordered to show cause why they should not be sanctioned under Rule 11. The Judge agreed that the default judgment should be denied, but chose not to sanction plaintiffs' attorneys...
The Magistrate Judge found that "[b]y affixing the summons on April 9, 2007, the
plaintiffs demonstrated they never intended to conduct 'a thorough address
investigation ...' because they employed the 'affix and mail' method of service
without exercising due diligence to effect personal service pursuant to CPLR s
308(1) and (2)." Magistrate Judge Fox concluded that Plaintiffs' representation
to this Court to the effect that they intended to conduct an investigation to
locate Defendant's current address implicated Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(b) because it was
made for the improper purpose of unnecessary delay.
We can only hope that this won't prejudice the court in the matter of Warner, Electra et al Versus Charitable Hospice for Dying, Helpless, Starving Children Who Rescue Puppies From Burning Buildings and Volunteer at the Old Folks Home.
Link
(via Slashdot)
Scott Jaschik writes "While some individual professors have banned laptops from classes at various colleges, the University of Chicago law school is going further, cutting off wireless and wired access in its classrooms to confront what officials see as out-of-control Web surfing. The story was first reported in the Above The Law 'legal tabloid' late last month. Students and the university's CIO question the strategy." Things will get interesting when Sprint WiMax service lights up in Chicago later this year.
When a tiny, quantum-scale, hypothetical balloon is popped in a vacuum, do the particles inside spread out all over the place as predicted by classical mechanics?The question is deceptively complex, since quantum particles do not look or act like air molecules in a real balloon. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 1:10 pm
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In a Manhattan case, Warner v. Berry, the RIAA sued a man who lives in a homeless shelter, leaving a copy of the summons and complaint not at the homeless shelter, but at an apartment the man had occupied in better times, and had long since vacated. The RIAA's lawyers were threatened with sanctions by the Magistrate Judge in the case, for making misleading representations to the Court which the Magistrate felt were intentional. The District Judge, however, disagreed with imposing sanctions, giving the RIAA's lawyers 'as officers of the Court the benefit of the doubt,' and instead concluded — in his 6-page opinion (PDF) — that the RIAA's lawyers were just being 'sloppy' and had not made the misstatements for an improper purpose.'"
AJAX start page provider Pageflakes officially announced today that it has been acquired by LiveUniverse. The deal is a combination of cash and stock, but the size of the acquisition was not disclosed... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 1:00 pm
What would Sir Alan Sugar make of the elusive folks who announced recently that they were producing Mac clones? Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 12:43 pm
The Ben Stein anti-Darwinist film, "Expelled," opens today in 1,100 Theaters. We've posted before on it (look back HERE and HERE), so we thought we'd give you a sampling of what others have to say so far:... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 12:35 pm
Devices Inc., investors were relieved the slumping chip maker posted a first-quarter loss no worse than Wall Street had expected. The company said Thursday it was hurt during the first... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 12:35 pm
By Evan Ackerman Post-It notes are one of those things that I didn't think could be improved by technology. Turns out I'm wrong, as the MIT Media Lab has invented a system called Quickies, which take ordinary... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 12:23 pm
Bibek Paudel points out a story about the latest step forward in the development of nano-scale circuits. Researchers from the University of Manchester have created some of the smallest transistors ever, measuring only one atom by 10 atoms. The transistors are made out of graphene, which has the potential to replace silicon in the never-ending hunt for smaller computer technology. From NewScientist: "There are other kinds of prototype transistors in this size range. But they usually need supercooling using liquid gas, says Novoselov. The new graphene devices work at room temperature. Such prototypes are typically made by building one atom at a time, or wiring up individual molecules. Those approaches are complex and impractical, Novoselov says. By contrast, the graphene transistors were made in the same way that silicon devices are, by etching them out of larger pieces of material. 'That's their big advantage,' he says."
"Sharon Sarmiento knew it was time to unplug when she realised she was blogging in her dreams and hearing imaginary instant messages. For Ariel Meadow Stallings, it was the hours lost while surfing the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 12:10 pm
Midwest residents awoke early Friday morning by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake that rivals the strongest ever recorded in that region. People up to 450 miles away felt the quake, which occurred just before 4:37a.m. this morning. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 12:10 pm
In 1961 a young radio astronomer named Frank Drake came up with a formula to estimate how many planets in our galaxy may be home to intelligent life. It became known as the Drake Equation, and when its... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 12:05 pm
The personalized start page is dead. Long live the personalized start page. Pageflakes, a nice-looking but perennial also-ran in the world of start-page startups, has been officially acquired by Brad... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:58 am
By Evan Ackerman This week on BotJunkie, we started off by watching some video of a new robotics kit modeled after a canine rather than a humanoid, realized that turning robots on and off can be a huge... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:50 am
By Evan Ackerman Unlike most home fish tanks, this "refrigerator-aquarium" is designed to produce food that you can eat. Yum. The bottom of the Local River fish tank contains freshwater fish, and the top... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:27 am
Here's a great in-depth build report from a steampunk mouse project in Custom PC:
I'd decided to use mahogany for the mouse body to give it a satisfyingly rich colour that would go well with the brass I'd be adding later. I bought a 1/4-in sheet of wood (picture 3), measuring 3in wide by 36in from a Hobbies shop. Using what was left of the mouse base and PCB as a template, I cut a hole in the wood with a fretsaw, and then sanded it for a snug fit.
Sorting out the scroll wheel came next. It was constructed from clear plastic and illuminated by a blue LED (picture 4), which wasn't exactly appropriate for a Steampunk-themed design. I desoldered the LED and used 22mm copper heating pipe to fashion a new wheel. I cut a very short length of the pipe (around 7mm) and carefully smoothed the edges using emery cloth on a flat surface. The 'wheel' had to be gradually reduced in diameter until it was a snug fit, before using Araldite to glue the two parts together. I used a Dremel for most of this work, before sandpapering it to finish it off.
By Generic Last week, Eloisa Tamez, 73, lost the latest round in her ongoing fight with the U.S. government. A judge ordered her to let Washington survey her land near Brownsville, Texas. It lies in the path of a proposed border fence. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Groovy Gecko, the award-winning specialist streaming media company, today announced the formal launch of their specialist Streaming Media Consulting Service. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c89206) has announced the addition of "Sweden - Broadband Market - Overview, Statistics & Forecasts" to their offering. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
PALO ALTO, Calif., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Targeting the more than 10 million iPhone users expected by the end of 2008, Terabitz today announced an iPhone home search application that enables consumers to access property listings, photos, local neighborhood information, recent sales and driving directions on the go. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
IT services company EDB Business Partner has said operating revenue rose 16% to NOK 1.84bn ($370m) in the first quarter of 2008. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Nokia has posted strong first-quarter results. It said net profit rose 25% to 1.22bn euros ($1.9bn) on revenue up 28% at 12.7bn euros ($20.2bn). Operating profit rose 20% to 1.53bn euros ($2.4bn). Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Steve Lohr IBM owes much of its recent success to the business it does outside of the United States, but even while Americans tighten their belts, the company is continuing to prove remarkably successful in its home market. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Fujitsu has expanded its PrimeQuest server line with the addition of two new high-end models offering up to 2TB of memory and supporting up to 64 sockets and 128 PCI slots. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Steve Lohr Microsoft's pursuit of Yahoo, if successful, will leave it with more than one bill due. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
IBM reported strong quarterly profits that easily surpassed Wall Street's estimates, as its reach across global markets and its healthy services and software businesses left it unscathed so far by the weakness of the U.S. economy. The performance was helped by the decline of the dollar. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday told the world's biggest carbon polluters that global warming was becoming a driver of hunger, unrest and conflict, with the war in Darfur a... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 10:55 am
Andy Baio's been slipped a hard drive containing the whole network share from Infocom, creators of the legendary text-adventure game Zork and The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy; he's mining the drive's many treasures and today he's published a long account of the abortivr Milliways game, a sequel to H2G2 set in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe:
1. It seems natural to include a scene in the restaurant, Milliways. Could be a bit of fun: strange parties, unctuous compere, self-introducing food. Perhaps there's an object there that you need to get. (It could be a SPORK, a spoon with sort of forky tines on the end. Or would that be a FOON?) It could be a vehicle from the car park -- Marvin has the keys. If you manage to re-enter Milliways at another time (oops! on another occasion), you will not meet yourself, "because of the embarrassment that usually causes." What about a visit to the Big Bang Burger Bar?
2. Given point 1, you must have a means (or several meanses) of time travel. In fact time travel instead of space travel could be the primary method of changing scene. In the original, the party got to Milliways by accident: in the radio version, a "hyperspatial field generator" overheated; in the book version, Zaphod's great-granddaddy screwed up the works of Eddie, the Heart of Gold computer. Maybe your trip to Milliways would require info from an anti-piracy device in the game package. Once at the restaurant, you can steal a timeship and go anywhen you want.
3. Given point 2, it seems natural for the "best ending" of the game to be your arrival on Earth before it's destroyed, which is the ending of both the first radio series and the second (namesake) book. The original route to this ending was an accidental landing on Golgafrincham Ark B, with its cargo of telephone sanitizers, marketing consultants, etc. (the ancestors of Earth's humans!). I rather like this bit, and hope we can work it into the game.
4. Okay, so what about the beginning of the game? The easy answer: take up the story where the "Hitchhiker's" game left off, namely the arrival on Magrathea. But in the original this arrival is followed by a travelogue of Magrathea and a flashback to the Deep Thought v. philosophers' union story (including the introduction of the "42" joke) and the joke about the true nature of mice. All funny bits, but I have a hard time envisioning how they can be made into interesting interactive versions. Perhaps you could time-travel to Deep Thought and interact with it yourself. The Magrathean catalog of planets on Sens-O-Tape could be useful.
Google Inc.'s 30 percent higher first-quarter profit, which topped Wall Street expectations may move shares of the Internet search icon on Friday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 10:10 am
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc's top executive said on Thursday the company was excited to be testing out a partnership to run at least some of rival Yahoo Inc's Web search... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 10:10 am
Da Massive writes "Mark Dowd's paper "Application-Specific Attacks: Leveraging the ActionScript Virtual Machine" has alarmed researchers. It points out techniques that promise to open up a class of exploits and vulnerability research previously thought to be prohibitively difficult. Already, the small but growing group of Information Security experts who have had the chance to read and digest the contents of the paper are expressing an excited concern depending on how they are interpreting it. While the Flash vulnerability described in the paper[PDF] has been patched by Adobe, the presentation of a reliable exploit for NULL pointer dereferencing has the researchers who have read the paper fascinated. Thomas Ptacek has an explanation of Dowd's work, and Nathan McFeters at ZDNet is 'stunned by the technical details.'"
GameCamp 2008 is taking place on Saturday May 3rd in London. We've got more details and maps if you want them Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 8:52 am
SAN FRANCISCO The American economy may be weakening, but Google said once again that the slowdown has not affected its business. Easing concerns that its growth would stall, the Internet search giant... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 8:36 am
In October, 1939, Popular Science covered a Michigan gas-station owner's friendly "waiting rooms for hitchhikers."
Performing the role of the good Samaritan to the nation-wide fraternity of automobile hitch-hikers, the owner of a service station in Albion, Mich., recently established a hitchhikers’ depot hard by his row of gasoline pumps. Nailed to a tree, a large sign visible to approaching motorists at a good distance, identifies the spot, while a painted hand, with the thumb outstretched in the traditional manner, does the spade work for tired hikers.
WAILUKU, Hawaii, April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- There are countless books and web pages that TRY to explain how to acquire high search engine rankings. A business owner,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 8:15 am
By Doug Oakley Fire retardants, mercury and stain-proof coatings are just some of the chemicals found in the bodies of live dogs and cats in a new study by an environmental group pushing for more regulation. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Jay Conley jay.conley@roanoke.com 981-3114 A private trash collection company is suing Botetourt County in the latest flap over the locality's decision to take its garbage to Salem. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
ST. PAUL, Minn., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Java training and .NET training company, Intertech, whose expansive national client list includes Target, Thomson, and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
ATLANTA, April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitam, a Software 500 Company and global provider of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions, including Business Intelligence... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ShoreTel(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: SHOR), a leading provider of Pure IP Unified Communications solutions, announced today... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
SALT LAKE CITY, April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overstock.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTK) today reported financial results for the quarterly period ending March 31, 2008. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 7:59 am
Saying that the existing weapons program undermines national security, the group of 95 also wants the government to renounce first use of the bombs. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
The sophisticated technology may prove to be a more effective way to check passengers for dangerous materials, officials say. But critics say it's extraordinarily invasive and amounts to a virtual str... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
A study finds a high rate of depression and stress disorders, and many are not getting proper treatment. The latest... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
Officials want time to review protections. Critics smell oil issues. The Interior Department wants 10 more weeks... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
The FTC is seeking further information on the proposed hostile deal involving the video game publishers. Federal... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 18 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
David Byrne and Brian Eno have completed a new album (of "electric gospel") for released before 2009 and have booked a North American tour on which they're planning to play at least 40 percent old Talking Heads material. Holy moly, this is as good as life gets!
Byrne told us he’s collaborating with their mutual friend Brian Eno “for the first time in 20 years. Brian had written a lot of music, but needed some words, which I know how to do. What’s it sound like? Electronic gospel. That’s all I’m saying.”
dingalig writes "It looks as though the MPAA's fight against The Pirate Bay and other BitTorrent sites isn't going very well. Ars Technica reports that BitTorrent traffic is up by 24% since before the holidays. 'BitTorrent traffic spiked over the December holidays. After a peaking at almost 12.5 million downloaders on the 200 most popular files, traffic dropped at the beginning of January — about the time that school started up again. But one figure that will prove alarming to the content creation industry is that the numbers are higher now than they used to be. "The baseline has been elevated," notes [BigChampagne CEO Eric] Garland. "Not only did the spike happen, but the bar was raised."'"
Meteorologist Edward Lorenz, credited for having founded the field of chaos theory, died Wednesday of cancer in Massachusetts. He was 90 years old.
He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he came up with the scientific concept that small effects lead to big changes, something that was explained in a simple example known as the "butterfly effect." He explained how something as minuscule as a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil changes the constantly moving atmosphere in ways that could later trigger tornadoes in Texas.
His discovery of "deterministic chaos" brought about "one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton," said the committee that awarded Lorenz the 1991 Kyoto Prize for basic sciences. It was one of many scientific awards that Lorenz won. There is no Nobel Prize for his specific field of expertise, meteorology.
Jerry Mahlman, a longtime friend, noted that the man who pioneered chaos theory was "the most organized person I ever knew."
ExxonMobil Chemical Company today at Chinaplas 2008 showcased a new product, Enable™ mPE, with the potential to significantly reduce waste and energy consumption across a broad spectrum of film applications. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 5:00 am
By Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay Man's lone saviour from pollution is no less a victim of the toxic gases. Trees and plants in Kolkata are suffering the brunt of automobile emission. They are emitting less oxygen and absorbing less carbon dioxide, eventually shrivelling and dying early. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 5:00 am
By Matt Assad, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa. Apr. 17--Even as flames overwhelmed the kitchen of Wendy Schantz's second-floor Bethlehem apartment Wednesday, the story of the deadly fire on Mechanic Street last month flashed into her mind. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 5:00 am
By Tom Coombe, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa. Apr. 17--New York City will release up to 8 billion gallons of water from its reservoirs over the next few weeks to reduce the threat of flooding on the Delaware River. Gov. Ed Rendell requested the releases earlier this month. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 5:00 am
By James Burger, The Bakersfield Californian Apr. 17--Kern County Supervisors have taken up the fight against several Union Avenue hotels which house registered sex offenders near Casa Loma Park. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 5:00 am
By Amanda Pinto By Amanda Pinto Register Staff MADISON -- Last week's hearing before the state Department of Environmental Protection commissioner was the latest step in the ongoing tug-of-war over Madison Landing, but it certainly won't be the last. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2008 | 5:00 am
Last July, a research team from the University of Washington released an online tool to analyze whether web pages were being altered during the transit from web server to user. On Wednesday, the team released a paper at the Usenix conference analyzing the data collected from the tool. The found, unsurprisingly, that ISPs were indeed injecting ads into web pages viewed by a small number of users. The paper is available at the Usenix site. From PCWorld: "To get their data, the team wrote software that would test whether or not someone visiting a test page on the University of Washington's Web site was viewing HTML that had been altered in transit. In 16 instances ads were injected into the Web page by the visitor's Internet Service provider. The service providers named by the researchers are generally small ISPs such as RedMoon, Mesa Networks and MetroFi, but the paper also named one of the largest ISPs in the U.S., XO Communications, as an ad injector."
The leading city on the West Coast is destroyed by an enormous earthquake and the fire that follows it. We learn a lot of lessons from this disaster. Or do we?
Alternative Details brings news that PayPal is developing a plan to stop users from accessing its financial services if they aren't using browsers with anti-phishing protection. PayPal is recommending the use of blacklists, anti-fraud warning pages, and EV SSL certificates. Browsers without anti-phishing features will be considered "unsafe." It seems likely Safari will be included in this category given PayPal's warning about the Apple browser last month. "'At PayPal, we are in the process of reimplementing controls which will first warn our customers when logging in to PayPal of those browsers that we consider unsafe. Later, we plan on blocking customers from accessing the site from the most unsafe--usually the oldest--browsers,' he declared. Barrett only mentioned old, out-of-support versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer among this group of 'unsafe browsers,' but it's clear his warning extends to Apple's Safari browser, which offers no anti-phishing protection and does not support the use of EV SSL certificates."
A new exhaustive study called "Access Denied" tells the whole story of Internet censorship around the world:
Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information--often about politics, but also relating to sexuality, culture, or religion--that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in over three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of this accelerating trend.
Bell Canada has formally announced that its commercial customers -- other ISPs -- will henceforth have all their traffic throttled and filtered by Bell, who will be degrading some connections based on the protocol they use.
Bell's bizarre argument for this? We're screwing our retail customers with throttling. If we let our wholesale customers offer a better connection to their retail customers, our customers will be upset that they're not getting as good a deal.
"Granting CHIP's request would actually have the perverse effect of providing an unreasonable preference to wholesale ISP customers and their end users who will be able to continue to use a disproportionate amount of available bandwidth during peak periods, creating an unreasonable disadvantage for Sympatico retail and business customers," Bell writes in its response.
The Disney Experience's papercraft replica of the dear departed Disney skybucket ride is fantastic -- so cool to have a replica of this notorious widowmaker from the Happiest Place(s) on Earth.
Link
(Thanks, Mike!)
Scientists find that genes obey orders from a complicated chain of command, but now they need to figure out why genes function just fine -- and sometimes even better -- when the network is disrupted. Commentary by Carl Zimmer.
Bibek Paudel brings us a BBC report on the development and testing of an new ion engine by a security firm named Qinetiq. The engine will be used in an ESA spacecraft tasked with mapping the Earth's gravitational field from orbit. Only a handful of ion drives have been used for space missions before, some of which we have discussed. Quoting: "Cryogenic pumps can be heard in the background, whistling away like tiny steam engines. Using helium gas as a coolant, they can bring down the temperature in the vacuum chamber to an incredibly chilly 20 Kelvin (-253C). The pressure, meanwhile, can drop to a millionth of an atmosphere. Ion engines ... make use of the fact that a current flowing across a magnetic field creates an electric field directed sideways to the current. This is used to accelerate a beam of ions (charged atoms) of xenon away from the spacecraft, thereby providing thrust."
Wizards of the Coast has announced plans for a brand-new system license for the fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons . As with the d20 STL for Third Edition, this is a royalty-free license that will allow third parties to publish products using the rules developed by WotC. The new system reference document will be made available early in June (just after the release of the new edition). That license only covers fantasy gaming, but a second license (the d20 GSL) will be released allowing for any type of gaming product to be developed. For analysis and follow-up on the announcement, the ENWorld boards have full details.
Wife's drumming getting on your nerves? Imagine how your neighbors feel. Learn some techniques to dampen the bad vibes and restore a little peace and quiet in Wired.com's How-to Wiki.
Cambridge University has put the complete works of Charles Darwin online. The originator of one scientific revolution is paid tribute by the fruits of another.
1. It seems natural to include a scene in the restaurant, Milliways. Could be a bit of fun: strange parties, unctuous compere, self-introducing food. Perhaps there's an object there that you need to get. (It could be a SPORK, a spoon with sort of forky tines on the end. Or would that be a FOON?) It could be a vehicle from the car park -- Marvin has the keys. If you manage to re-enter Milliways at another time (oops! on another occasion), you will not meet yourself, "because of the embarrassment that usually causes." What about a visit to the Big Bang Burger Bar?
Performing the role of the good Samaritan to the nation-wide fraternity of automobile hitch-hikers, the owner of a service station in Albion, Mich., recently established a hitchhikers’ depot hard by his row of gasoline pumps. Nailed to a tree, a large sign visible to approaching motorists at a good distance, identifies the spot, while a painted hand, with the thumb outstretched in the traditional manner, does the spade work for tired hikers.
Byrne told us he’s collaborating with their mutual friend Brian Eno “for the first time in 20 years. Brian had written a lot of music, but needed some words, which I know how to do. What’s it sound like? Electronic gospel. That’s all I’m saying.”
He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he came up with the scientific concept that small effects lead to big changes, something that was explained in a simple example known as the "butterfly effect." He explained how something as minuscule as a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil changes the constantly moving atmosphere in ways that could later trigger tornadoes in Texas.
