eldavojohn writes"A Swedish startup has acquired funding for beginning scale model trials of underwater kites, which would be secured to a turbine to harness tidal energy for power. The company reports that the kite device allows the attached turbine to harvest energy at 10 times the speed of the actual tidal current. With a 12-meter wingspan on the kite, the company says they could harvest 500 kilowatts while it's operational. This novel new design is one of many in which a startup or university hope to turn the ocean into a renewable energy source."
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Hacker Develops ATM Rootkit
alphadogg writes"One year after his Black Hat talk on automated teller machine security vulnerabilities was yanked by his employer, security researcher Barnaby Jack plans to deliver the talk and disclose a new ATM rootkitat the computer security conference. He plans to give the talk, entitled "Jackpotting Automated Teller Machines," at the Black Hat Las Vegas conference, held July 28 and 29. Jack will demonstrate several ways of attacking ATM machines, including remote, network-based attacks."
Estimating Game Piracy More Accurately
An anonymous reader tips a post up at the Wolfire blog that attempts to pin down a reasonable figure for the amount of sales a game company loses due to piracy. We've commonly heard claims of piracy ratesas high as 80-90%, but that clearly doesn't translate directly into lost sales. The article explains a better metric: going on a per-pirate basis rather than a per-download basis. Quoting:"iPhone game developers have also found that around 80% of their users are running pirated copies of their game (using jailbroken phones). This immediately struck me as odd — I suspected that most iPhone users had never even heard of 'jailbreaking.' I did a bit more research and found that my intuition was correct — only 5% of iPhones in the US are jailbroken. World-wide, the jailbreak statistics are highest in poor countries — but, unsurprisingly, iPhones are also much less common there. The highest estimate I've seen is that 10% of worldwide iPhones are jailbroken. Given that there are so few jailbroken phones, how can we explain that 80% of game copies are pirated? The answer is simple — the average pirate downloads a lot more games than the average customer buys. This means that even though games see that 80% of their copies are pirated, only 10% of their potential customers are pirates, which means they are losing at most 10% of their sales."
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Google Chrome: faster than a flying potato
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 5th 2010 4:36PM
Google's never been shy to make claims that Chrome is the fastest browser on the planet, but it's truly pulled out all the stops to drive that point home for its latest beta. Rather than rely on some simple benchmarks, Google decided to test Chome against some other things that are fast -- namely, a potato cannon, sound waves, and lightning. We won't spoil all the surprise for you, but you can rest assured that Chrome comes out looking pretty good, and that everything else gets a little messy. Head on past the break to check out the speed tests for yourself, as well as the requisite making-of video.
Sociologists Weigh In On Obesity Increasing The Length Of Hospital Stays
January 1, 2009 — Sociologists found a direct relationship between obesity and duration and frequency of hospital stays. Researchers found that, on average, obese persons stayed one and a half days longer than those with normal weight. Sociologists attribute the connection to disease--46 percent of obese adults have high blood pressure. Obesity is also linked to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other illnesses. The researchers also note that the longer a person has been obese, the more likely their hospital stay is lengthened.
Managing the Emotions Behind Eating
ScienceDaily (May 5, 2010) — How many times have you, after a particularly hard day, reached for some chocolate or ice cream? It's common for many people, but for those trying to lose weight, it can be detrimental to their long term success, and most weight-loss programs never even address it.
Storing Green Electricity as Natural Gas
ScienceDaily (May 5, 2010) — Renewable electricity can be transformed into a substitute for natural gas. Until now, electricity was generated from gas. Now, a German-Austrian cooperation wants to go in the opposite direction. In the future, these researchers and entrepreneurs would like to store surplus electricity -- such as from wind power or solar energy -- as climate-neutral methane, and store it in existing gas storage facilities and the natural gas network.
Study Shows Trend of Increasing Obesity in Pregnant Moms Contributing to Higher Body Fat in Newborns
ScienceDaily (May 4, 2010) — A new study has found for the first time that as Americans are gaining more body fat, so are their babies. The research, which reviewed data from more than 74,000 births, found that a key measure of body fat composition in newborns increased significantly over a 15-year period, mirroring similar increases among pregnant mothers.
Spider-Man Foils Comic Book Thief
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 05, @01:33PM
from the is-that-the-spidey-sense-or-indegestion dept.
from the is-that-the-spidey-sense-or-indegestion dept.
chebucto writes"The BBC reports that 'A comic book shop owner in Australia became a real-life superhero when he caught a robber red-handed. Michael Baulderstone, who was dressed as Spider-Man for a promotional event, spied a customer behaving suspiciously during an International Free Comic Day celebration. CCTV footage shows him "leap" into action and confront the would-be shoplifter who had slipped a AU$160 (£97) X-Men book into his bag. ... He said a group of Jedi knights blocked the door to prevent the thief from escaping, as The Flash looked on.'"
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
US Air Force Launches Secret Flying Twinkie
Spectrummag writes"One of the most secretive US Air Force spaceflights in decades, launched this month, is keeping aficionados guessing as to the nature of the secret. The 6000-kilogram, 8-meter X-37B, nicknamed the flying Twinkie because of its stubby-winged shape, is supposed to orbit Earth for several weeks, maneuver in orbit, then glide home. What's it for? Space expert James Oberg tracks the possibilities."
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Canadians Lead Longer, Healthier Lives Than Americans
ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2010) — Compared to their neighbours south of the border, Canadians live longer, healthier lives. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Population Health Metrics has found this disparity between the two countries, suggesting that America's lack of universal health care and lower levels of social and economic equality are to blame.
NASA's Space Balloon Smashes Car In Australia
"Of more worldly issues, NASA's latest multimillion-dollar stratosphere-bound balloon launch has gone horribly wrong and crashed into a car, turning it over and narrowly missing two elderly people who were observing the launch. The payload fared worse, reportedly being smashed into a 'thousand pieces.'"
FAA Setting Up Commercial Spaceflight Center
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 28, @08:34PM
from the to-the-moon-with-you dept.
from the to-the-moon-with-you dept.
coondoggie writes"The FAA this week took a step closer to setting up a central hub for the development of key commercial space transportation technologies such as space launch and traffic management applications and setting orbital safety standards. The hub, known as the Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation, would have a $1 million yearly budget and tie together universities, industry players, and the government for cost-sharing research and development. The FAA expects the center to be up and running this year."
Cub Scouts To Offer Merit Pin For Video Gaming
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday April 29, @03:40AM
from the be-prepared-to-play dept.
from the be-prepared-to-play dept.
Hugh Pickens writes"Fox News reports that the Boy Scouts of America — a group founded on the principles of building character and improving physical fitness — have introduced merit pins for academic achievement in video gaming, a move that has child health experts atwitter. 'It could be quite visionary and exciting or it could be a complete sellout,' says Dr. Vic Strasburger. 'I don't see anything wrong with that as long as they're not playing first-person shooter games, violent games, games with a lot of sexual or drug content. The question is, who's going to supervise the scouts?' Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, and Webelos Scouts can earn their pins by spending an hour a day playing games, teaching others how to play better, and researching the best price for games they'd like to buy."
Nanodots Breakthrough May Lead to 'a Library on One Chip'
ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2010) — A researcher at North Carolina State University has developed a computer chip that can store an unprecedented amount of data -- enough to hold an entire library's worth of information on a single chip. The new chip stems from a breakthrough in the use of nanodots, or nanoscale magnets, and represents a significant advance in computer-memory technology.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The future of US Army helicopters: pilots optional
By Sean Hollister posted Apr 28th 2010 7:13AM
Alzheimer's Memory Problems Originate With Protein Clumps Floating in the Brain, Not Amyloid Plaques
ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2010) — Using a new mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that Alzheimer's pathology originates in amyloid-beta (Abeta) oligomers in the brain, rather than the amyloid plaques previously thought by many researchers to cause the disease.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Google Street View Shoots the Same Woman 43 Times
Posted by samzenpus on Monday April 26, @03:22PM
from the get-your-face-out-there dept.
from the get-your-face-out-there dept.
Geoffrey.landis writes"Terry Southgate discovered that his wife Wendy appears on the Google Street View of his neighborhood not once or twice but a whopping 43 times. From the article: 'It seems as if the Street View car simply followed the same route as Wendy and Trixie. However, Wendy was a little suspicious that the car was doing something on the "tricksie" side. Several of the Street View shots show Wendy looking with some concern towards the car that was, well, to put it politely, crawling along the curb. "I didn't know what it was doing. It was just driving round very, very slowly," Wendy told the Sun.' The next best thing to being a movie star-- a Street View star!"
To Learn Better, Take a Nap (and Don't Forget to Dream)
ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2010) — It is by now well established that sleep can be an important tool when it comes to enhancing memory and learning skills. And now, a new study sheds light on the role that dreams play in this important process.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Seattle Hacker Catches Cops Who Hid Arrest Tapes
An anonymous reader writes"In 2008, the Seattle Police illegally arrested security consultant Eric Rachner for refusing to show ID. After Rachner filed a formal complaint, he was prosecuted for obstructing, and the police claimed that videos of the arrest were unavailable — until Rachner's research uncovered proof that the police had the videos all along."It's an interesting story of how he figured out how the system in use by Seattle police automatically tracks deletion, copying, or other uses of the recorded stream.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
'Ancestral Eve' Crystal May Explain Origin of Life's Left-Handedness
ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2010) — Scientists are reporting discovery of what may be the "ancestral Eve" crystal that billions of years ago gave life on Earth its curious and exclusive preference for so-called left-handed amino acids. Those building blocks of proteins come in two forms -- left- and right-handed -- that mirror each other like a pair of hands.
New Speed Cameras Catch You From Space
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 21, @10:11AM
from the no-place-to-run-or-speed dept.
space
A new kind of speed camera that uses satellites to measure average speed over long distances is being tested in Britain. The "Speedspike" system combines plate reading technology with a global positioning satellite receiver to calculate average speed between any two points in the area being monitored. From the article: "Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled 'number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day.' It also referred to the system's 'low cost' and ease of installation." I can't wait to see the episode of MythBusters where they try to avoid getting a speeding ticket from a satellite.
from the no-place-to-run-or-speed dept.
space
A new kind of speed camera that uses satellites to measure average speed over long distances is being tested in Britain. The "Speedspike" system combines plate reading technology with a global positioning satellite receiver to calculate average speed between any two points in the area being monitored. From the article: "Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled 'number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day.' It also referred to the system's 'low cost' and ease of installation." I can't wait to see the episode of MythBusters where they try to avoid getting a speeding ticket from a satellite.
Being Naughty or Nice May Boost Willpower, Physical Endurance
ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2010) — New research from Harvard University suggests that moral actions may increase our capacity for willpower and physical endurance. Study participants who did good deeds -- or even just imagined themselves helping others -- were better able to perform a subsequent task of physical endurance.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Environmental Engineers Use Algae To Capture Carbon Dioxide
April 1, 2007 — Engineers have designed a simple, sustainable and natural carbon sequestration solution using algae. A team at Ohio University created a photo bioreactor that uses photosynthesis to grow algae, passing carbon dioxide over large membranes, placed vertically to save space. The carbon dioxide produced by the algae is harvested by dissolving into the surrounding water. The algae can be harvested and made into biodiesel fuel and feed for animals. A reactor with 1.25 million square meters of algae screens could be up and running by 2010.
US House Passes Ban On Caller ID Spoofing
smarek writes"The 'Truth in Caller ID Act' passed the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. The legislation is trying to outlaw caller ID spoofing. In some cases, this spoofing has led to individuals giving out information that has led to identity theft. Last year the NYPD discovered over 6,000 victims of caller ID spoofing, who together lost a total of $15 million. A companion bill has already been passed by the Senate, and the two are on their way to 'informal conference to reconcile any differences.' The bill that results will most likely pass."PCWorld's coverage notes that callers will still be able to block their information entirely, and that the bill may have negative consequences for legitimate phone-related services, like Google Voice.
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