Another Step Towards Graphene Semiconductors

Posted by samzenpus on Monday October 31, @08:10AM 

from the next-step dept.

derGoldstein writes"Ars has an article up about the two latest 'papers demonstrating that, if you change the way the graphene stacks, you obtain a voltage-controlled bandgap ... Between these two papers, a fairly complete understanding of the bandgap behavior in three-layer graphene has been obtained, leaving only the challenge of making the stuff.'"

Student Loans In America: the Next Big Credit Bubble

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 30, @08:50PM 

from the bursting-education dept.

PolygamousRanchKid writes"In late 1965, President Lyndon Johnson stood in the modest gymnasium of what had once been the tiny teaching college he attended and announced a program to promote education. Almost a half-century later these modest steps have metastasized into a huge, federally guaranteed student-loan industry. On October 25th the Obama administration added indebted students to the list of banks, car companies, homeowners, solar manufacturers and others that have benefited from a federal handout. In response to students burying their obligations in court during the 1970s, anti-default provisions were imposed to make it almost impossible to shed student loans in bankruptcy. There are increasingly loud calls for reform of the system, with demands that range from a full-fledged bail-out of borrowers to a phased curtailment of government lending. The changes announced this week are designed to ease the pressure on struggling graduates. Borrowers who qualify will get payment relief, not debt relief. The administration says these changes will have no cost to taxpayers."

55% of Real-Time Entertainment is Consumed on TV, Mobile Device or Tablet

By Richard MacManus / October 26, 2011 8:15 PM / 0 Comments

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Real-time entertainment traffic dominates the Web now; and over half of it happens on devices other than a PC or laptop computer. This according to a new report by research company Sandvine. The report states that "by volume, 55% of Real-Time Entertainment traffic is destined for the television (either directly to a smart TV or via an intermediary like a game console or set-top device), a mobile device or tablet." Those statistics, along with data from Mary Meeker's Web 2.0 Summit presentation last week, emphasize just how far we've come in the post-PC era.

UK Police Buy Covert Cellphone Surveillance System

Posted by samzenpus on Monday October 31, @05:22AM 

from the getting-a-better-net dept.

digitig writes"UK Metropolitan Police have purchased a 'covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network, transmitting a signal that allows authorities to shut off phones remotely, intercept communications and gather data about thousands of users in a targeted area.' Other customers apparently include 'the U.S. Secret Service, the Ministry of Defence and regimes in the Middle East.'"

The Weight of an e-Book

Posted by samzenpus on Monday October 31, @02:21AM 

from the because-he-can dept.

whoever57 writes"According to Prof Kubiatowicz from Berkeley, each time an additional book is downloaded to an e-reader, the mass of the e-reader increases. The effect doesn't really make the devices more difficult to carry: the professor calculates that 4GB of books would increase its weight by a billionth of a billionth of a gram— about the mass of a single virus or DNA molecule."

Drink the juice

Apparently the juice is better than the pill.

Interesting chart about phone OSs

Interesting chart about phone OS support.  Does not speak well to Android.

David passed on some decent science jokes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7DkeQ0roAM&feature=player_embedded