Thursday, October 7, 2010

Saturn's Rings Formed From Large Moon Destruction

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday October 07, @10:43AM
from the now-its-definitely-no-moon dept.

Matt_dk writes"The formation of Saturn's rings has been one of the classical if not eternal questions in astronomy. But one researcher has provided a provocative new theory to answer that question. Robin Canup from the Southwest Research Institute has uncovered evidence that the rings came from a large, Titan-sized moon that was destroyed as it spiraled into a young Saturn."

Robot Controlled By Rat Brain

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 07, @07:59AM
from the we're-gonna-need-a-smarter-trap dept.

robot

biotech

hardware

kkleiner writes"Kevin Warwick, once a cyborg and still a researcher in cybernetics at the University of Reading, has been working on creating biological neural networks that can control machines. He and his team have taken the brain cells from rats, cultured them, and used them as the guidance control circuit for simple wheeled robots. Electrical impulses from the bot enter the batch of neurons, and responses from the cells are turned into commands for the device. The cells can form new connections, making the system a true learning machine."

Solar Power On the White House

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 07, @02:19AM
from the red-white-and-green dept.

usa

earth

power

CartaNova writes"The Obama administration has announced plans to install Solar Panels and Solar Hot Water on the White House. The Carter administration had previously installed a 32 panel solar system to white house - which was quietly removed during Reagan's tenure in office. Solar Hot Water and PV (Photovoltaic) firms had been campaigning on this issue for some time."

Light Drinking During Pregnancy: Harmful to Child's Behavioral or Intellectual Development?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 5, 2010) — Light drinking during pregnancy does not harm a young child's behavioural or intellectual development, reveals research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Best Buy Unapologetic About Charging For PS3 Firmware Updates

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday October 07, @01:12AM
from the a-fool-and-his-money dept.

donniebaseball23 writes"After discovering that electronics retailer Best Buy was charging ignorant customers $30 for the 'service' of installing updated firmware on PS3s, IndustryGamers got word from the company on its policy. Best Buy sees no problem with charging for this convenience, even though it's something Sony provides to PS3 owners completely free. 'While many gamers can handle firmware upgrades easily on their own, those customers who do want help can get it from Geek Squad, and we continue to evaluate this offering to ensure it meets their needs. The service goes beyond a firmware updates, and includes user account setup, parental control setup and other components,' a representative said."

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Inventor Creates Flotation Device Bazooka

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 06, @01:37PM
from the point-shoot-and-save dept.

Australian inventor Sam Adeloju has won the £20,000 ($32,000) James Dyson Award for inventing the coolest piece of life-saving equipment ever. The Longreach is a modified bazooka which can fire an expanding flotation device up to 150m to a person in distress. From the article: "Mr Adeloju told NEWS.com.au that the Longreach was inspired by a grenade-launch training session with the Army Reserves. Weighing just 3.5kg, it shoots the rescue device 150m in a manner similar to the way the army uses a grenade launcher to deliver flares and aerial observation devices. Hitting the water activates an expanding foam unit in the Longreach rescue unit, which also incorporates LED illumination and a vortex air whistle."

US Military Orders Less Dependence On Fossil Fuel

Posted by timothy on Wednesday October 06, @08:00AM
from the less-blood-for-oil dept.

Hugh Pickens writes"The NY Times reports that it can cost hundreds of dollars to get each gallon of traditional fuel to forward base camps in Afghanistan, so with enemy fighters increasingly attacking American fuel supply convoys crossing the Khyber Pass from Pakistan, the military is pushing aggressively to develop, test and deploy renewable energy to decrease its need to transport fossil fuels. 'Fossil fuel is the No. 1 thing we import to Afghanistan,' says Ray Mabus, the Navy secretary, 'and guarding that fuel is keeping the troops from doing what they were sent there to do, to fight or engage local people.' The 150 Marines of Company I, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, will be the first to take renewable technology into a battle zone, bringing portable solar panels that fold up into boxes; energy-conserving lights; solar tent shields that provide shade and electricity; solar chargers for computers and communications equipment replacing diesel and kerosene-based fuels that would ordinarily generate power to run their encampment."

Canadian Spammer Fined Over $1 Billion

Posted by timothy on Tuesday October 05, @11:11PM
from the get-poor-quick-scheme dept.

spam

money

court

innocent_white_lamb writes"A man has been fined ONE BEELYUN DOLLARS (yes, really) for sending 4,366,386 spam messages that were posted on Facebook. He was fined $100 for each message, and including punitive damages he now owes $1,068,928,721.46. A ruling by by a US District Court judge in San Jose, California has now been upheld by the Quebec Superior Court (the defendant lives in Montreal)."

New Type of Liquid Crystal Promises to Improve Performance of Digital Displays

ScienceDaily (Oct. 5, 2010) — Chemists at Vanderbilt University have created a new class of liquid crystals with unique electrical properties that could improve the performance of digital displays used on everything from digital watches to flat panel televisions.

Canadian Spammer Fined Over $1 Billion

Posted by timothy on Tuesday October 05, @11:11PM
from the get-poor-quick-scheme dept.

spam

money

court

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

ADHD More Common in Offspring of Mothers With Genetic Serotonin Deficiencies

ScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2010) — Children whose mothers are genetically predisposed to have impaired production of serotonin appear more likely to develop attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) later in life, according to a report in the October issue ofArchives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

West Virginia Is Geothermically Active

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday October 05, @05:09AM
from the time-to-sell-some-volcano-insurance dept.

earth

power

science

sciencehabit writes"Researchers have uncovered the largest geothermal hot spot in the eastern United States. According to a unique collaboration between Google and academic geologists, West Virginia sits atop several hot patches of Earth, some as warm as 200C and as shallow as 5 kilometers. If engineers are able to tap the heat, the state could become a producer of green energy for the region."

TheSpaceGame — Design Your Route To Jupiter

Posted by Soulskill on Monday October 04, @10:51PM
from the try-the-clarke-kubrick-corridor dept.

space

games

An anonymous reader writes"The Advanced Concepts Team of the European Space Agency is celebrating World Space Week (4-10 October 2010) with the release of 'The Space Game,' an online game for interplanetary trajectory design. The Space Game is an online crowdsourcing experiment where you are given the role of a mission designer to seek the best path to travel through space. The interactive game, coded in HTML5, challenges the players to devise fuel-efficient trajectories to various bodies of the Solar System via a user-friendly interface. The aim of the experiment is get people from all ages and backgrounds to come up with better strategies that can help improve the effectiveness of the current computer algorithms. As part of the events organized worldwide for Space Week, the first problem of the game is to reach Jupiter with the lowest amount of propellant. The best scores by 10 October will be displayed on the Advanced Concepts Team website and the three best designs will also receive some ESA prizes."

Monday, October 4, 2010

Wooden DIY quadrocopter gets no respect from Minnesota State Fair

By Tim Stevens posted Oct 4th 2010 10:25AM

DIY quadrocopter is made of wood, gets disrespected by Minnesota State Fair

The Parrot AR.Drone may be the hot quadrocopter of the moment, but not everyone has $299 add one to their scale-sized hangar. We're not sure if it was financial reasons or a simple desire to get creative that drove Greg "Grease" Lehman of St. Paul, Minnesota to built his own, but build it he did, and out of wood. Using plans for a kit called the Roswell Quadrocopter, Greg hewed this from ash, oak, walnut, and paduak via CNC and a Sherline Mini mill. Thanks to its MikroKopter electronics the thing can hover and automatically fly to coordinates via GPS, or you can switch to a first-person view and do ityour way. Most importantly you can build it your way using the instructions at the source link, and then enter it into your own local state fair. Greg entered his into the Minnesota State Fair's "airplane flying model, scratch built" class and came in second. Yes, second. Sadly the Fair's results sheet doesn't describe what came in first, but it damn well better have had lasers and some degree of sentience to have beaten this.

FW: U.S. Acts to Quiet Blaring TV Ads

The days of leaping for your TV remote to lower the volume when an ad blares decibels louder than the show you're watching may be coming to an end — just in time to be utterly irrelevant.

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/TIZk76IOsa0/

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Matt Watson
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FW: Solar System's Shield Could Leak Cosmic Rays

The bubble that separates our sun from the galaxy is surprisingly active. The second global map from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, shows that the edge of the solar system changes more quickly and drastically than scientists expected.

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/oxAq1OIReKc/

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