SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- True-believers might argue that a capitalist's pursuit of maximized profit is, by its nature, a noble one, and likely to create benefits for the greater social good.
Unfortunately, today, the pursuits of personal, financial rewards and broader, societal betterment are too often mutually exclusive.
The reason, perhaps, is that man is inclined to pursue money -- subconsciously or not -- rather than what is virtuous and just.
That's why the decision by Craig Newmark, Craigslist founder and ace customer service representative, and the San Francisco classified company's president, Jim Buckmaster, to focus less on profit maximization and more on serving their customers is so incredibly refreshing.
Their noble stance gives entrepreneurs from San Francisco a great name. Despite the many unfortunate examples of greed, Internet entrepreneurs aren't all about getting rich quick and cashing out. At an entrepreneur's roots is a vision to provide a service that helps alleviate a pain point. The money thing always muddied the waters down the road.
The attitude at Craigslist is a nice reminder of how entrepreneurs' ideals can still remain intact, no matter how odd they may seem in a world that worships money.
Read Full Article
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Richest tenth own 85% of world's assets
Comment: What an outrage!
The richest 2 per cent of adults own more than half the world’s wealth, according to the most comprehensive study of personal assets.
Among the largest economies, Britain boasted the third-highest average wealth of $126,832 (£64,172) per adult, after the United States and Japan, a United Nations development research institute found.
Those with assets of $500,000 could consider themselves to be among the richest 1 per cent in the world. Those with net assets of $2,200 per adult were in the top half of the wealth distribution.
Although global income was distributed unequally, the spread of wealth was more skewed, according to the study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the UN University.
“Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high-income AsiaPacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 per cent of total world wealth,” the report said.
Researchers defined wealth as the value of physical and financial assets minus debts.
The richest 10 per cent of adults accounted for 85 per cent of assets. The bottom 50 per cent of the world’s adults owned barely 1 per cent of global wealth.
Continued......
The richest 2 per cent of adults own more than half the world’s wealth, according to the most comprehensive study of personal assets.
Among the largest economies, Britain boasted the third-highest average wealth of $126,832 (£64,172) per adult, after the United States and Japan, a United Nations development research institute found.
Those with assets of $500,000 could consider themselves to be among the richest 1 per cent in the world. Those with net assets of $2,200 per adult were in the top half of the wealth distribution.
Although global income was distributed unequally, the spread of wealth was more skewed, according to the study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the UN University.
“Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high-income AsiaPacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 per cent of total world wealth,” the report said.
Researchers defined wealth as the value of physical and financial assets minus debts.
The richest 10 per cent of adults accounted for 85 per cent of assets. The bottom 50 per cent of the world’s adults owned barely 1 per cent of global wealth.
Continued......
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
A wind-powered skyscraper in Paris
PARIS — Developers have selected a design by an award-winning American architect for a bold new building nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower — and powered partly by the wind.
Dubbed the Lighthouse, the 984-foot-high skyscraper will be designed by Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne and erected at La Defense, a complex of office towers in a business district west of Paris where many of France’s major corporations are headquartered.
The Unibail development company announced Monday that Mayne, who works for Santa Monica, Calif.-based firm Morphosis, had bested nine other architects to win the bid. His design shows a building curving asymmetrically upward, topped by a crown of spiky antennae.
More
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Neanderthal DNA secrets unlocked
A genetic breakthrough could help clear up some long-standing mysteries surrounding our closest evolutionary relatives: the Neanderthals.
Scientists have reconstructed a chunk of DNA from the genome of a Neanderthal man who lived 38,000 years ago.
Full article
Scientists have reconstructed a chunk of DNA from the genome of a Neanderthal man who lived 38,000 years ago.
Full article
Friday, November 03, 2006
Vermont poised to elect America's first socialist senator
Amid the furious debate over Iraq and the speculation that George Bush may be a lame duck after next Tuesday's mid-term elections, an extraordinary political milestone is approaching: a cantankerous 65-year-old called Bernie looks set to become the first socialist senator in US history.
Bernie Sanders is so far ahead in the contest for Vermont's vacant seat for the US Senate that it seems only sudden illness or accident could derail his rendezvous with destiny, after eight terms as the state's only congressman. His success flies in the face of all the conventional wisdom about American politics.
He is an unapologetic socialist and proud of it. Even his admirers admit that he lacks social skills, and he tends to speak in tirades. Yet that has not stopped him winning eight consecutive elections to the US House of Representatives.
"Twenty years ago when people here thought about socialism they were thinking about the Soviet Union, about Albania," Mr Sanders told the Guardian in a telephone interview from the campaign trail. "Now they think about Scandinavia. In Vermont people understand I'm talking about democratic socialism."
Democratic socialism, however, has hardly proved to be a vote-winning formula in a country where even the word "liberal" is generally treated as an insult. Until now the best showing in a Senate race by a socialist of any stripe was in 1930 by Emil Seidel, who won 6% of the vote.
John McLaughry, the head of a free-market Vermont thinktank, the Ethan Allen Institute, said Mr Sanders is a throwback to that era. "Bernie Sanders is an unreconstructed 1930s socialist and proud of it. He's a skilful demagogue who casts every issue in that framework, a master practitioner of class warfare."
When Mr Sanders, a penniless but eloquent import from New York, got himself elected mayor of Burlington in 1981, at the height of the cold war, it rang some alarm bells. "I had to persuade the air force base across the lake that Bernie's rise didn't mean there was a communist takeover of Burlington," recalled Garrison Nelson, a politics professor at the University of Vermont who has known him since the 1970s.
"He used to sleep on the couch of a friend of mine, walking about town with no work," Prof Nelson said. "Bernie really is a subject for political anthropology. He has no political party. He has never been called charming. He has no money, and none of the resources we normally associate with success. However, he learned how to speak to a significant part of the disaffected population of Vermont."
Mr Sanders turned out to be a success as mayor, rejuvenating the city government and rehabilitating Burlington's depressed waterfront on Lake Champlain while ensuring that it was not gentrified beyond the reach of ordinary local people. "He stood this town on its ear," said Peter Freyne, a local journalist.
"I tried to make the government work for working people, and not just for corporations, and on that basis I was elected to Congress," Mr Sanders said. He has served 16 years in the House of Representatives, a lonely voice since the Republican takeover in 1994. He has however struck some interesting cross-party deals, siding with libertarian Republicans to oppose a clause in the Patriot Act which allowed the FBI to find out what books Americans borrowed from libraries.
He says his consistent electoral success reflects the widespread discontent with rising inequality, deepening poverty and dwindling access to affordable healthcare in the US. "People realise there is a lot to be learned from the democratic socialist models in northern Europe," Mr Sanders said. "The untold story here is the degree to which the middle class is shrinking and the gap between rich and poor is widening. It is a disgrace that the US has the highest rate of childhood poverty of any industrialised country on earth. Iraq is important, but it's not the only issue."
In a state of just over 600,000 people he also has a significant advantage over his Republican opponent, Rich Tarrant, a businessman who has spent about $7m on his campaign. "Sanders is popular because even if you disagree with him you know where he stands," said Eric Davis, a political scientist at Vermont's Middlebury College. "He pays attention to his political base. He's independent and iconoclastic and Vermonters like that."
Source
Bernie Sanders is so far ahead in the contest for Vermont's vacant seat for the US Senate that it seems only sudden illness or accident could derail his rendezvous with destiny, after eight terms as the state's only congressman. His success flies in the face of all the conventional wisdom about American politics.
He is an unapologetic socialist and proud of it. Even his admirers admit that he lacks social skills, and he tends to speak in tirades. Yet that has not stopped him winning eight consecutive elections to the US House of Representatives.
"Twenty years ago when people here thought about socialism they were thinking about the Soviet Union, about Albania," Mr Sanders told the Guardian in a telephone interview from the campaign trail. "Now they think about Scandinavia. In Vermont people understand I'm talking about democratic socialism."
Democratic socialism, however, has hardly proved to be a vote-winning formula in a country where even the word "liberal" is generally treated as an insult. Until now the best showing in a Senate race by a socialist of any stripe was in 1930 by Emil Seidel, who won 6% of the vote.
John McLaughry, the head of a free-market Vermont thinktank, the Ethan Allen Institute, said Mr Sanders is a throwback to that era. "Bernie Sanders is an unreconstructed 1930s socialist and proud of it. He's a skilful demagogue who casts every issue in that framework, a master practitioner of class warfare."
When Mr Sanders, a penniless but eloquent import from New York, got himself elected mayor of Burlington in 1981, at the height of the cold war, it rang some alarm bells. "I had to persuade the air force base across the lake that Bernie's rise didn't mean there was a communist takeover of Burlington," recalled Garrison Nelson, a politics professor at the University of Vermont who has known him since the 1970s.
"He used to sleep on the couch of a friend of mine, walking about town with no work," Prof Nelson said. "Bernie really is a subject for political anthropology. He has no political party. He has never been called charming. He has no money, and none of the resources we normally associate with success. However, he learned how to speak to a significant part of the disaffected population of Vermont."
Mr Sanders turned out to be a success as mayor, rejuvenating the city government and rehabilitating Burlington's depressed waterfront on Lake Champlain while ensuring that it was not gentrified beyond the reach of ordinary local people. "He stood this town on its ear," said Peter Freyne, a local journalist.
"I tried to make the government work for working people, and not just for corporations, and on that basis I was elected to Congress," Mr Sanders said. He has served 16 years in the House of Representatives, a lonely voice since the Republican takeover in 1994. He has however struck some interesting cross-party deals, siding with libertarian Republicans to oppose a clause in the Patriot Act which allowed the FBI to find out what books Americans borrowed from libraries.
He says his consistent electoral success reflects the widespread discontent with rising inequality, deepening poverty and dwindling access to affordable healthcare in the US. "People realise there is a lot to be learned from the democratic socialist models in northern Europe," Mr Sanders said. "The untold story here is the degree to which the middle class is shrinking and the gap between rich and poor is widening. It is a disgrace that the US has the highest rate of childhood poverty of any industrialised country on earth. Iraq is important, but it's not the only issue."
In a state of just over 600,000 people he also has a significant advantage over his Republican opponent, Rich Tarrant, a businessman who has spent about $7m on his campaign. "Sanders is popular because even if you disagree with him you know where he stands," said Eric Davis, a political scientist at Vermont's Middlebury College. "He pays attention to his political base. He's independent and iconoclastic and Vermonters like that."
Source
Thursday, November 02, 2006
No more seafood by 2050?
There may be no more commercial fish stocks left in the sea by 2050, according to a new study cataloguing the global collapse of marine ecosystems.
It blames not just over-fishing, but also mankind’s wider attack on the health of ocean ecosystems, for instance from pollution. “Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working eco-systems, then this century is the last century of wild food,” says Steve Palumbi at Stanford University in California, US, who carried out the four-year investigation with colleagues.
The study is the biggest and most all-embracing effort yet to understand the productivity of the oceans and predict their future. Uniquely, it combines historical data on fish catches, some of it going back a thousand years, with analysis of marine ecosystems and experiments to bring marine life back to protected areas.
The authors, from five countries, reviewed hundreds of individual studies covering every scale from whole oceans to marine plots of a few square metres. They say the same pattern emerges at every scale. Rich ecosystems with many species can survive over-fishing and other threats well – but once biodiversity is lost, the entire system, including fish stocks, goes into exponential decline.
Read more
It blames not just over-fishing, but also mankind’s wider attack on the health of ocean ecosystems, for instance from pollution. “Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working eco-systems, then this century is the last century of wild food,” says Steve Palumbi at Stanford University in California, US, who carried out the four-year investigation with colleagues.
The study is the biggest and most all-embracing effort yet to understand the productivity of the oceans and predict their future. Uniquely, it combines historical data on fish catches, some of it going back a thousand years, with analysis of marine ecosystems and experiments to bring marine life back to protected areas.
The authors, from five countries, reviewed hundreds of individual studies covering every scale from whole oceans to marine plots of a few square metres. They say the same pattern emerges at every scale. Rich ecosystems with many species can survive over-fishing and other threats well – but once biodiversity is lost, the entire system, including fish stocks, goes into exponential decline.
Read more
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Human like Androids in Japan
Androids which are remarkably like humans, and come complete with silicone 'skin', have been on display in Japan.
The robots are fitted with a supply of compressed air so that they even appear to breathe. Samantha Smith reports.
Full story here.
The robots are fitted with a supply of compressed air so that they even appear to breathe. Samantha Smith reports.
Full story here.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Hackers Zero In on Online Stock Accounts
Hackers have been breaking into customer accounts at large online brokerages in the United States and making unauthorized trades worth millions of dollars as part of a fast-growing new form of online fraud under investigation by federal authorities.
E-Trade Financial Corp., the nation's fourth-largest online broker, said last week that "concerted rings" in Eastern Europe and Thailand caused their customers $18 million in losses in the third quarter alone.
Continue...
E-Trade Financial Corp., the nation's fourth-largest online broker, said last week that "concerted rings" in Eastern Europe and Thailand caused their customers $18 million in losses in the third quarter alone.
Continue...
Friday, October 20, 2006
IE7 unleashed
Microsoft's much-anticipated IE7 browser is finally available for download, 18 months after Bill Gates announced plans to deliver Redmond's first major upgrade to its browser software since the release of IE6 in August 2001.
Key enhancements to IE 7 over IE 6 include anti-phishing features and improved ActiveX controls among several security improvements. The browser also promises enhancements to support web standards (such as HTML 4.01/CSS 2), the long-awaited introduction of tabbed browsing, and an integrated RSS feed reader. Many of these features are already included in Opera, and improved anti-phishing features will debut with the imminent (if delayed) arrival of Firefox 2.0, so to some extent market-leader Microsoft could be described as playing catch-up with its smaller rivals.
More
Key enhancements to IE 7 over IE 6 include anti-phishing features and improved ActiveX controls among several security improvements. The browser also promises enhancements to support web standards (such as HTML 4.01/CSS 2), the long-awaited introduction of tabbed browsing, and an integrated RSS feed reader. Many of these features are already included in Opera, and improved anti-phishing features will debut with the imminent (if delayed) arrival of Firefox 2.0, so to some extent market-leader Microsoft could be described as playing catch-up with its smaller rivals.
More
Monday, October 09, 2006
Red Planet Double Team
NASA’s newest Mars orbiter has spied the plucky rover Opportunity perched at the rim of the red planet’s massive Victoria Crater as both vehicles explore the fourth planet from the Sun.
Appearing almost as a shiny boulder, Opportunity’s lumpy outline and its camera mast shadow can easily be seen in a high-resolution image of Victoria Crater taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and released by the space agency on Friday.
See More Large Photos...
Sunday, October 01, 2006
The American Economy Dethroned By the Swiss ...
Switzerland was the most competitive country in the world in 2006, according to the yearly rankings published by the World Economic Forum . Yesterday, the people responsible for the rankings said the Confederation's public institutions and scientific research programs were the best in the world.
Our Swiss neighbors, who were number four last year, have thus managed to nose out the usual champions, Finland and Denmark, with the United States now dropping to number six in the rankings, two thirds of which are based on the results of a survey carried out of 11.000 of the planet's business executives.
"Switzerland has a well developed infrastructure in terms of scientific research," says Augusto Lopez-Claros, the chief author of this Global Competitiveness Report . "Good institutions and competent macroeconomic management, coupled with world-class educational attainment and a focus on technology and innovation, are a successful strategy for boosting competitiveness in an increasingly complex global economy," he added.
In addition to its infrastructure, Switzerland received good grades on its institutional framework, characterized by a "respect for the rule of law, an efficiently working judicial system, and high levels of transparency and accountability within public institutions." In this domain, the United States, very well noted for its technological innovation, has been outdone again this year: it has dropped five places in rankings because of the increasing mistrust on the part of economists of the burgeoning deficits and debt of the country. Washington is therefore number 69 of 125 in terms of "macroeconomic environment."
More...
Our Swiss neighbors, who were number four last year, have thus managed to nose out the usual champions, Finland and Denmark, with the United States now dropping to number six in the rankings, two thirds of which are based on the results of a survey carried out of 11.000 of the planet's business executives.
"Switzerland has a well developed infrastructure in terms of scientific research," says Augusto Lopez-Claros, the chief author of this Global Competitiveness Report . "Good institutions and competent macroeconomic management, coupled with world-class educational attainment and a focus on technology and innovation, are a successful strategy for boosting competitiveness in an increasingly complex global economy," he added.
In addition to its infrastructure, Switzerland received good grades on its institutional framework, characterized by a "respect for the rule of law, an efficiently working judicial system, and high levels of transparency and accountability within public institutions." In this domain, the United States, very well noted for its technological innovation, has been outdone again this year: it has dropped five places in rankings because of the increasing mistrust on the part of economists of the burgeoning deficits and debt of the country. Washington is therefore number 69 of 125 in terms of "macroeconomic environment."
More...
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Did Americans Build First Plane ... or was it a Brazilian?
[Editor's Note: According to the Brazilians, no one saw the flight of the Wright Brother's first flight, The Flyer, in 1903, and the flight in 1905 was not officially ratified. But the 1906 flight by Santos Dumont in his 14 BIS in Paris was ratified and registered].
Independently of who flew first and which flight proved more, the fact is that Santos-Dumont's Demoiselle surpassed all other in popularity and innovation as soon as it appeared. With his extraordinary capacity to understand the significance of these new aeronautical concepts, the Brazilian inventor executed great technological leaps in a very small number of steps, enormously speeding the evolution of aviation in its early years.
And unlike the Wright Brothers, Santos-Dumont made it a point not to patent his inventions. He freely distributed the blueprints for the Demoiselle to anyone who requested them. They were published in 1910 by the American magazine "Popular Mechanics" and made the tiny "dragonfly" the most popular plane in the United States and Europe. "The first airplane factory was for the Demoiselle," said Botelho.
And despite the long-standing dispute, the two aeronautical traditions will fly together, side by side, in the demonstration in Dayton, showing the world that there is room in the world for more than one father of aviation.
Read article here.
Independently of who flew first and which flight proved more, the fact is that Santos-Dumont's Demoiselle surpassed all other in popularity and innovation as soon as it appeared. With his extraordinary capacity to understand the significance of these new aeronautical concepts, the Brazilian inventor executed great technological leaps in a very small number of steps, enormously speeding the evolution of aviation in its early years.
And unlike the Wright Brothers, Santos-Dumont made it a point not to patent his inventions. He freely distributed the blueprints for the Demoiselle to anyone who requested them. They were published in 1910 by the American magazine "Popular Mechanics" and made the tiny "dragonfly" the most popular plane in the United States and Europe. "The first airplane factory was for the Demoiselle," said Botelho.
And despite the long-standing dispute, the two aeronautical traditions will fly together, side by side, in the demonstration in Dayton, showing the world that there is room in the world for more than one father of aviation.
Read article here.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
NASA's Orion Capsule Will Fly in Seven Years
NASA has announced that Lockheed Martin will build America's new space capsule, called Orion. Expected to orbit Earth by 2014, Orion is expected to reach the moon by 2020. Although the capsule design has not been deemed to be especially exciting, unlike earlier capsules, Orion will be reusable. Melissa Block talks with U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist Mark Lewis about the spacecraft.
More info
Europe's first lunar mission reaches moon
BERLIN (AP) — Europe's first spacecraft to the moon ended its three-year mission Sunday by crashing into the lunar surface in a volcanic plane called the Lake of Excellence, to a round of applause in the mission control room in Germany.
Hitting at 1 1/4 miles per second, the impact of the SMART-1 spacecraft was expected to leave a 3-yard-by-10-yard crater and send dust miles above the surface. Observatories watched the event from Earth and scientists hoped the cloud of dust and debris would provide clues to the geologic composition of the site.
"That's it — we are in the Lake of Excellence," said spacecraft operations chief Octavio Camino as applause broke out in mission control in Darmstadt, Germany. "We have landed."
Read more...
Hitting at 1 1/4 miles per second, the impact of the SMART-1 spacecraft was expected to leave a 3-yard-by-10-yard crater and send dust miles above the surface. Observatories watched the event from Earth and scientists hoped the cloud of dust and debris would provide clues to the geologic composition of the site.
"That's it — we are in the Lake of Excellence," said spacecraft operations chief Octavio Camino as applause broke out in mission control in Darmstadt, Germany. "We have landed."
Read more...
Thursday, August 31, 2006
A Vote to Quit the Electoral College
SACRAMENTO — Lawmakers sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill Wednesday that would make California the first state to jump aboard a national movement to elect the president by popular vote.
Under the legislation, California would grant its electoral votes to the nominee who gets the most votes nationwide — not the most votes in California. Get enough other states to do the same, backers of the bill say, and soon presidential candidates will have to campaign across the nation, not just in a few key "battleground" states such as Ohio and Michigan that can sway the Electoral College vote.
Read more...
Under the legislation, California would grant its electoral votes to the nominee who gets the most votes nationwide — not the most votes in California. Get enough other states to do the same, backers of the bill say, and soon presidential candidates will have to campaign across the nation, not just in a few key "battleground" states such as Ohio and Michigan that can sway the Electoral College vote.
Read more...
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Pluto loses status as a planet
Astronomers meeting in the Czech capital have voted to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.
About 2,500 experts were in Prague for the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) general assembly.
Astronomers rejected a proposal that would have retained Pluto as a planet and brought three other objects into the cosmic club.
Pluto has been considered a planet since its discovery in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh.
The ninth planet will now effectively be airbrushed out of school and university textbooks.
read more
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The New Solar System
A controversial new proposal by the International Astronomical Union would reclassify an asteroid and a moon as planets, plus add one far-out object. Here's the whole mix. Continue to see each of the 12 "planets." Click to enlarge.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Scientists flock to test 'free energy' discovery
A man who claims to have developed a free energy technology which could power everything from mobile phones to cars has received more than 400 applications from scientists to test it.
Sean McCarthy says that no one was more sceptical than he when Steorn, his small hi-tech firm in Dublin, hit upon a way of generating clean, free and constant energy from the interaction of magnetic fields. 'It wasn't so much a Eureka moment as a get-back-in-there-and-check-your-instruments moment, although in far more colourful language,' said McCarthy. But when he attempted to share his findings, he says, scientists either put the phone down on him or refused to endorse him publicly in case they damaged their academic reputations. So last week he took out a full-page advert in the Economist magazine, challenging the scientific community to examine his technology.
McCarthy claims it provides five times the amount of energy a mobile phone battery generates for the same size, and does not have to be recharged. Within 36 hours of his advert appearing he had been contacted by 420 scientists in Europe, America and Australia, and a further 4,606 people had registered to receive the results.
See
Sean McCarthy says that no one was more sceptical than he when Steorn, his small hi-tech firm in Dublin, hit upon a way of generating clean, free and constant energy from the interaction of magnetic fields. 'It wasn't so much a Eureka moment as a get-back-in-there-and-check-your-instruments moment, although in far more colourful language,' said McCarthy. But when he attempted to share his findings, he says, scientists either put the phone down on him or refused to endorse him publicly in case they damaged their academic reputations. So last week he took out a full-page advert in the Economist magazine, challenging the scientific community to examine his technology.
McCarthy claims it provides five times the amount of energy a mobile phone battery generates for the same size, and does not have to be recharged. Within 36 hours of his advert appearing he had been contacted by 420 scientists in Europe, America and Australia, and a further 4,606 people had registered to receive the results.
See
Sunday, August 13, 2006
PC celebrates 25th anniversary
IT was no more powerful than a modern calculator, but the arrival of the original IBM personal computer 25 years ago was an epoch-making event in the evolution of modern life.
The PC has redefined modern life – from the way people work to the way they look for love, chat with friends and even shop.
The IBM 5150 PC was released on August 12, 1981, the product of a year's feverish development by a close-knit team of computer engineers working in Florida.
"Designed for business, school and home, the easy-to-use system sells for as little as $US1565," IBM's original press statement said back then.
That price is worth more than $US4000 ($5000) in today's money. But if you wanted colour graphics, two floppy disk drives and a printer, it would set you back triple the amount of the base model.
The PC weighed 11.5kg with one floppy disk drive fitted, over a third more than a present-day computer. The keyboard alone weighed 2.7 kg.
At 16 kilobytes, its memory was 50,000 times less powerful than modern PCs.
It offered VisiCalc, a breakthrough spreadsheet program, and EasyWriter, which IBM promised "will store letters, manuscripts and other text for editing or rapid reproduction on the printer".
And there was Microsoft Adventure, which "brings players into a fantasy world of caves and treasures".
second half of piece
Also see The 25 Greatest PCs of All Time.
Monday, August 07, 2006
After 10 Years, Few Believe Life on Mars: NASA Struggling
It was a science fiction fantasy come true: Ten years ago this summer, NASA announced the discovery of life on Mars.
At a Washington, D.C., news conference, scientists showed magnified pictures of a four-pound Martian meteorite riddled with wormy blobs that looked like bacterial colonies. The researchers explained how they had pried numerous clues from the rock, all strongly supporting their contention that microscopic creatures once occupied its nooks and crannies.
It was arguably the space agency's most imagination-gripping moment since Apollo. Space buffs and NASA officials said that it just might be the scientific discovery of the century.
Read on...
At a Washington, D.C., news conference, scientists showed magnified pictures of a four-pound Martian meteorite riddled with wormy blobs that looked like bacterial colonies. The researchers explained how they had pried numerous clues from the rock, all strongly supporting their contention that microscopic creatures once occupied its nooks and crannies.
It was arguably the space agency's most imagination-gripping moment since Apollo. Space buffs and NASA officials said that it just might be the scientific discovery of the century.
Read on...
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Scientists Say They’ve Found a Code Beyond Genetics in DNA
Researchers believe they have found a second code in DNA in addition to the genetic code.
Loren Williams/Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology
In a living cell, the DNA double helix wraps around a nucleosome, above center, and binds to some of its proteins, known as histones.
The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself.
The discovery, if confirmed, could open new insights into the higher order control of the genes, like the critical but still mysterious process by which each type of human cell is allowed to activate the genes it needs but cannot access the genes used by other types of cell.
...
Loren Williams/Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology
In a living cell, the DNA double helix wraps around a nucleosome, above center, and binds to some of its proteins, known as histones.
The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself.
The discovery, if confirmed, could open new insights into the higher order control of the genes, like the critical but still mysterious process by which each type of human cell is allowed to activate the genes it needs but cannot access the genes used by other types of cell.
...
China to test its 'artificial sun'
BEIJING, July 24 (UPI) -- The first plasma discharge from China's experimental advanced superconducting research center -- the so-called "artificial sun" -- is set to occur next month.
The discharge, expected about Aug. 15, will be conducted at Science Island in Hefei, in east China's Anhui Province, the Peoples Daily reported Monday.
Scientists told the newspaper a successful test will mean the world's first nuclear fusion device of its kind will be ready to go into actual operation, the newspaper said.
The plasma discharge will draw international attention since some scientists are concerned with risks involved in such a process. But Chinese researchers involved in the project say any radiation will cease once the test is completed.
The experiment will take place in a structure made of reinforced concrete, with five-foot-thick walls and a three-foot-thick roof.
Source
The discharge, expected about Aug. 15, will be conducted at Science Island in Hefei, in east China's Anhui Province, the Peoples Daily reported Monday.
Scientists told the newspaper a successful test will mean the world's first nuclear fusion device of its kind will be ready to go into actual operation, the newspaper said.
The plasma discharge will draw international attention since some scientists are concerned with risks involved in such a process. But Chinese researchers involved in the project say any radiation will cease once the test is completed.
The experiment will take place in a structure made of reinforced concrete, with five-foot-thick walls and a three-foot-thick roof.
Source
Chinese Cars Gain Foothold in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela — Chinese automobile manufacturers are seeking a share of Venezuela's car market, which has grown with the help of an oil-fueled consumption boom.
President Hugo Chavez has long been trying to foster greater economic ties with the Asian giant. On top of greater energy and mining sector cooperation, Chavez has also pursued Chinese development of a computer assembly line in the Andean nation.
Two Chinese car dealers have recently set up showrooms across Venezuela to try to compete with more established brands.
Great Wall Motors, China's largest car maker, is offering large utility vehicles.
cont.
President Hugo Chavez has long been trying to foster greater economic ties with the Asian giant. On top of greater energy and mining sector cooperation, Chavez has also pursued Chinese development of a computer assembly line in the Andean nation.
Two Chinese car dealers have recently set up showrooms across Venezuela to try to compete with more established brands.
Great Wall Motors, China's largest car maker, is offering large utility vehicles.
cont.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Linux-powered robots from France? Oui!
A French start-up created to build autonomous, easily programmable, affordable humanoid robots has emerged from stealth mode. Aldebaran Robotics, of Paris, expects to ship its first product -- a humanoid household service robot running Linux -- in early 2007.
Aldebaran says its "Nao" household robot will compete with robotic research prototypes in terms of functionality. The walking, talking, WiFi-enabled bot will stand 21.6 inches tall, and will feature 23 "degrees of freedom" of motion -- three more than the 14-inch tall "Choromet" android announced earlier this week by four Japanese companies. Nao's extra degrees of freedom appear to come in the form of gripping hands.
See article
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Study of human brain yields intelligent robots
Robot cars drive themselves across the desert, electronic eyes perform lifeguard duty in swimming pools and virtual enemies with human-like behavior battle video game players.
These are some of the fruits of the research field known as artificial intelligence. A half-century after the term was coined, both scientists and engineers say they are making rapid progress in simulating the human brain, and their work is finding its way into a new wave of real-world products.
Read full article
One other related article
These are some of the fruits of the research field known as artificial intelligence. A half-century after the term was coined, both scientists and engineers say they are making rapid progress in simulating the human brain, and their work is finding its way into a new wave of real-world products.
Read full article
One other related article
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Spacecraft carrying commercial space station launches
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A Russian rocket blasted off Wednesday carrying an experimental inflatable spacecraft for an American entrepreneur who dreams of some day building a commercial space station, officials said.
The Genesis I spacecraft lifted off from the southern Ural Mountains at 6:53 p.m. Moscow time aboard a converted Cold War ballistic missile, according to the Russian Strategic Missile Forces.
It reached its designated orbit about 320 miles above Earth minutes after liftoff.
The launch was a first for Bigelow Aerospace, founded by Las Vegas real estate mogul Robert Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain.
Bigelow envisions building a private orbiting space complex by 2015 that would be made up of several expandable Genesis-like modules linked together and could be used as a hotel, or perhaps a science lab or college. He has committed $500 million toward the project.
cont.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
U.S. minorities are becoming the majority
By Robert Pear The New York Times
WASHINGTON The United States as a whole is moving in the direction of its two most populous states, California and Texas, where members of racial and ethnic minorities account for more than half the population, according to the Census Bureau.
Non-Hispanic whites now make up two-thirds of the total U.S. population, the bureau said, but that proportion will dip to one-half by 2050, according to the agency's latest projections.
In a new report, estimating population levels as of July 1, 2004, the Census Bureau said Texas had a minority population of 11.3 million, accounting for 50.2 percent of its total population of 22.5 million. Texas is the fourth state in which minority groups, taken together, account for a majority of the population. But no one racial or ethnic group by itself accounts for a majority of the total population there.
Steven Murdock, the state demographer for Texas, said, "In some sense, Texas is a preview of what the nation will become in the long run."
Full article
WASHINGTON The United States as a whole is moving in the direction of its two most populous states, California and Texas, where members of racial and ethnic minorities account for more than half the population, according to the Census Bureau.
Non-Hispanic whites now make up two-thirds of the total U.S. population, the bureau said, but that proportion will dip to one-half by 2050, according to the agency's latest projections.
In a new report, estimating population levels as of July 1, 2004, the Census Bureau said Texas had a minority population of 11.3 million, accounting for 50.2 percent of its total population of 22.5 million. Texas is the fourth state in which minority groups, taken together, account for a majority of the population. But no one racial or ethnic group by itself accounts for a majority of the total population there.
Steven Murdock, the state demographer for Texas, said, "In some sense, Texas is a preview of what the nation will become in the long run."
Full article
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Discovery flips out before docking with space station
CAPE CANAVERAL — With smiles all around, the seven astronauts of the space shuttle Discovery entered the international space station Thursday, with one of them planning to stay behind when the shuttle returns to Earth in 10 days. Flight director Tony Ceccacci called the rendezvous perfect.
"We achieved one of our, of course, major goals of this flight," he said.
The two men aboard the space station snapped 350 photos of the approaching shuttle to document any damage to the thermal skin, Ceccacci said. There was no immediate word on whether any problems were noted in the 125 pictures beamed to Mission Control as of early afternoon.
Even though the mission was going smoothly, the control center had not returned to a sense of normalcy, Ceccacci said. "It's more of a sense of, 'Hey, the things we've done to make the ... tank better are working,'" he said.
The European Space Agency's Thomas Reiter of Germany brings the space station to a three-member crew for the first time in three years. Reiter, who will stay for six months, is the first European to live on the space station.
After hatches opened at 12:30 p.m. ET, the shuttle crew was greeted by American astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. The astronaut reunion occurred about 100 minutes after the station and shuttle docked in a delicate dance at 17,500 miles per hour, about 220 miles above Earth.
read more...
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Tourism Update: Jeff Bezos’ Spaceship Plans Revealed
The public space travel business is picking up suborbital speed thanks to a variety of private rocket groups and their dream machines.
Joining the mix is Blue Origin's New Shepard Reusable Launch System. It is financially fueled by an outflow of dollars from the deep pockets of billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com.
The Bezos-backed Blue Origin, LLC commercial space outfit has recently turned in a draft environmental assessment (EA) for their West Texas launch site to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) in Washington, D.C.
The document is the best glimpse yet of what Blue Origin is scoping out to develop "safe, inexpensive and reliable human access to space."
Privately-owned property...
Joining the mix is Blue Origin's New Shepard Reusable Launch System. It is financially fueled by an outflow of dollars from the deep pockets of billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com.
The Bezos-backed Blue Origin, LLC commercial space outfit has recently turned in a draft environmental assessment (EA) for their West Texas launch site to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) in Washington, D.C.
The document is the best glimpse yet of what Blue Origin is scoping out to develop "safe, inexpensive and reliable human access to space."
Privately-owned property...
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Via Web, talk gets a lot cheaper
Competition in the phone business, intensifying this year as Internet-based calling has taken root, has reached the point where many industry experts are expecting an era of remarkably cheap and even free calls.
That era would be built on a vast migration of phone service from traditional networks to the Internet, where the calls become just another way to use Internet connections that consumers are paying for anyway.
"People are going to look at voice communications as something they expect to get for free," said Henry Gomez, general manager of Skype, which eBay bought last year for $2.6 billion. The company usually charges a few cents a minute for calls from computers to regular phones, but in May it scrapped those fees through the end of the year for users in the United States and Canada.
New competitors, including the major cable companies and start-ups like Vonage and SunRocket, are putting intense pressure on traditional phone companies like AT&T and Verizon that have built multibillion-dollar empires by selling phone service over copper wires. On the defensive, AT&T and Verizon are discounting heavily and pushing customers toward packages of more advanced services.
Online services like Skype that offer free calls from computer to computer for users with headset have attracted the tech-savvy and are trying to push into the mainstream. In the process, they are dragging down everyone else's prices and pointing the way toward a time when it will be harder for companies to charge anything for a basic home phone line on its own.
Continue reading
Monday, July 03, 2006
Britons see US as vulgar empire builder
By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 03/07/2006)
Britons have never had such a low opinion of the leadership of the United States, a YouGov poll shows.
As Americans prepare to celebrate the 230th anniversary of their independence tomorrow, the poll found that only 12 per cent of Britons trust them to act wisely on the global stage. This is half the number who had faith in the Vietnam-scarred White House of 1975.
Most Britons see America as a cruel, vulgar, arrogant society, riven by class and racism, crime-ridden, obsessed with money and led by an incompetent hypocrite.
More at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news
(Filed: 03/07/2006)
Britons have never had such a low opinion of the leadership of the United States, a YouGov poll shows.
As Americans prepare to celebrate the 230th anniversary of their independence tomorrow, the poll found that only 12 per cent of Britons trust them to act wisely on the global stage. This is half the number who had faith in the Vietnam-scarred White House of 1975.
Most Britons see America as a cruel, vulgar, arrogant society, riven by class and racism, crime-ridden, obsessed with money and led by an incompetent hypocrite.
More at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news
Monday, June 19, 2006
No sex please, robot, just clean the floor
THE race is on to keep humans one step ahead of robots: an international team of scientists and academics is to publish a “code of ethics” for machines as they become more and more sophisticated.
Although the nightmare vision of a Terminator world controlled by machines may seem fanciful, scientists believe the boundaries for human-robot interaction must be set now — before super-intelligent robots develop beyond our control.
“There are two levels of priority,” said Gianmarco Verruggio, a roboticist at the Institute of Intelligent Systems for Automation in Genoa, northern Italy, and chief architect of the guide, to be published next month. “We have to manage the ethics of the scientists making the robots and the artificial ethics inside the robots.”
Verruggio and his colleagues have identified key areas that include: ensuring human control of robots; preventing illegal use; protecting data acquired by robots; and establishing clear identification and traceability of the machines.
Full article
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Hawking says space colonies needed
By SYLVIA HUI, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 13, 1:42 PM ET
HONG KONG - The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday.
Humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years, the British scientist told a news conference.
"We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, who arrived in Hong Kong to a rock star's welcome Monday. Tickets for his lecture planned for Wednesday were sold out.
He added that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.
"It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."
The 64-year-old scientist — author of the global best seller "A Brief History of Time" — is wheelchair-bound and communicates with the help of a computer because he suffers from a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Hawking said he's teaming up with his daughter to write a children's book about the universe, aimed at the same age group as the Harry Potter books.
"It is a story for children, which explains the wonders of the universe," said his daughter, Lucy, a journalist and novelist. They didn't provide other details.
source
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Is being a good dad ruining your career?
Fifteen years after women first tried to have it all, men now want the same. But is it possible both to impress the boss and be an attentive father? New dad Rafael Behr on the struggle to juggle career with fatherhood
Sunday June 11, 2006
The Observer
Read on...
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Vista Beta 2, up close and personal
Up in Redmond, Microsoft developers proudly talk of dogfooding the software they write. Running beta software is the only way to learn what works and what doesn’t. A copy of Windows Vista running on a test machine in the corner isn’t likely to get a serious workout. To find the pain points – another popular Microsoft expression – you have to run that beta code on the machine you use every day.
In that same spirit, I’ve spent the last three months running beta versions of Windows Vista on the PCs I use for everyday work. February and March were exasperating. April’s release was noticeably better, and the Beta 2 preview – Build 5381, released to testers in early May – has been running flawlessly on my notebook for nearly three weeks.
Read more and see a screenshot slideshow of the new OS...
In that same spirit, I’ve spent the last three months running beta versions of Windows Vista on the PCs I use for everyday work. February and March were exasperating. April’s release was noticeably better, and the Beta 2 preview – Build 5381, released to testers in early May – has been running flawlessly on my notebook for nearly three weeks.
Read more and see a screenshot slideshow of the new OS...
Plan for cloaking device unveiled
So far, cloaking has been confined to science fiction; in Star Trek it is used to render spacecraft invisible.
Professor Sir John Pendry says a simple demonstration model that could work for radar might be possible within 18 months' time.
Two separate teams, including Professor Pendry's, have outlined ways to cloak objects in the journal Science.
See
Professor Sir John Pendry says a simple demonstration model that could work for radar might be possible within 18 months' time.
Two separate teams, including Professor Pendry's, have outlined ways to cloak objects in the journal Science.
See
Encyclopedia > Moller Skycar
The Moller Skycar is a prototype personal VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft — a "flying car" — called a "volantor" by its inventor Paul Moller, who has been attempting to develop such vehicles for many years.1 The Skycar demonstrated limited tethered flight capability in 2003. More tethered flight tests are now scheduled for an undisclosed date sometime after mid 2006. Moller is currently upgrading the Skycar's engines, and the improved prototype is now called the "M400X". Download high resolution version (400x616, 66 KB)Poster for Skycar Illustration by me --Terrible Tim 15:35, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (400x616, 66 KB)Poster for Skycar Illustration by me --Terrible Tim 15:35, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Moller_M400_hover_test. ... Image File history File links Moller_M400_hover_test. ... Prototypes or prototypical instances combine the most representative attributes of a category. ... Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) describes airplanes that can lift off vertically. ... Airbus A380 An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ... The Waterman Aerobile at the Smithsonian. ... Paul S. Moller (b. ...
More...
More...
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Last chromosome in human genome sequenced
Scientists have reached a landmark point in one of the world's most important scientific projects by sequencing the last chromosome in the Human Genome, the so-called "book of life".
Chromosome 1 contains nearly twice as many genes as the average chromosome and makes up eight percent of the human genetic code.
It is packed with 3,141 genes and linked to 350 illnesses including cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
"This achievement effectively closes the book on an important volume of the Human Genome Project," said Dr Simon Gregory who headed the sequencing project at the Sanger Institute in England.
The project was started in 1990 to identify the genes and DNA sequences that provide a blueprint for human beings.
Chromosome 1 is the biggest and contains, per chromosome, the greatest number of genes.
"Therefore it is the region of the genome to which the greatest number of diseases have been localized," added Gregory, from Duke University in the United States.
The sequence of chromosome 1, which is published online by the journal Nature, took a team of 150 British and American scientists 10 years to complete. Continued...
Chromosome 1 contains nearly twice as many genes as the average chromosome and makes up eight percent of the human genetic code.
It is packed with 3,141 genes and linked to 350 illnesses including cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
"This achievement effectively closes the book on an important volume of the Human Genome Project," said Dr Simon Gregory who headed the sequencing project at the Sanger Institute in England.
The project was started in 1990 to identify the genes and DNA sequences that provide a blueprint for human beings.
Chromosome 1 is the biggest and contains, per chromosome, the greatest number of genes.
"Therefore it is the region of the genome to which the greatest number of diseases have been localized," added Gregory, from Duke University in the United States.
The sequence of chromosome 1, which is published online by the journal Nature, took a team of 150 British and American scientists 10 years to complete. Continued...
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Trio of Neptune-size planets discovered
European astronomers reported the smallest planet yet spotted in the "habitable zone" of a nearby sun-like star on Wednesday.
About the size of Neptune, the planet circles the star HD 69830, some 41 light-years away in the southern sky (one light-year equals about 5.9 trillion miles.)
Two other slightly smaller planets orbit closer to the star, reports the discovery team led by Christophe Lovis of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory.
Detections of the planets "suggest that the search for habitable planets might be easier than assumed," says Harvard astronomer David Charbonneau, in a commentary accompanying the report in Thursday's Nature magazine. The habitable zone planet is not Earth-like, says Lovis, likely cloaked in a high-pressure hydrogen atmosphere.
more:
About the size of Neptune, the planet circles the star HD 69830, some 41 light-years away in the southern sky (one light-year equals about 5.9 trillion miles.)
Two other slightly smaller planets orbit closer to the star, reports the discovery team led by Christophe Lovis of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory.
Detections of the planets "suggest that the search for habitable planets might be easier than assumed," says Harvard astronomer David Charbonneau, in a commentary accompanying the report in Thursday's Nature magazine. The habitable zone planet is not Earth-like, says Lovis, likely cloaked in a high-pressure hydrogen atmosphere.
more:
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Natural light 'to reinvent bulbs'
A light source that could put the traditional light bulb in the shade has been invented by US scientists.
The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) emits a brilliant white light when attached to an electricity supply.
The material, described in the journal Nature, can be printed in wafer thin sheets that could transform walls, ceilings or even furniture into lights.
The OLEDs do not heat up like today's light bulbs and so are far more energy efficient and should last longer.
They also produce a light that is more akin to natural daylight than traditional bulbs.
"We're hoping that this will lead to significantly longer device lifetimes in addition to higher efficiency," said Professor Mark Thompson of the University of Southern California, one of the authors of the paper.
cont.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Proving How the Universe Was Born
Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.
The discovery -- which involves an analysis of variations in the brightness of microwave radiation -- is the first direct evidence to support the two-decade-old theory that the universe went through what is called inflation.
It also helps explain how matter eventually clumped together into planets, stars and galaxies in a universe that began as a remarkably smooth, super-hot soup.
"It's giving us our first clues about how inflation took place," said Michael Turner, assistant director for mathematics and physical sciences at the National Science Foundation. "This is absolutely amazing."
Brian Greene, a Columbia University physicist, said: "The observations are spectacular and the conclusions are stunning."
Researchers found the evidence for inflation by looking at a faint glow that permeates the universe. That glow, known as the cosmic microwave background, was produced when the universe was about 300,000 years old -- long after inflation had done its work.
The discovery -- which involves an analysis of variations in the brightness of microwave radiation -- is the first direct evidence to support the two-decade-old theory that the universe went through what is called inflation.
It also helps explain how matter eventually clumped together into planets, stars and galaxies in a universe that began as a remarkably smooth, super-hot soup.
"It's giving us our first clues about how inflation took place," said Michael Turner, assistant director for mathematics and physical sciences at the National Science Foundation. "This is absolutely amazing."
Brian Greene, a Columbia University physicist, said: "The observations are spectacular and the conclusions are stunning."
Researchers found the evidence for inflation by looking at a faint glow that permeates the universe. That glow, known as the cosmic microwave background, was produced when the universe was about 300,000 years old -- long after inflation had done its work.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Honda Accord ADAS auto-pilot system takes the reins
Posted Jan 30th 2006 4:35PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Transportation
We've heard of radar assisted cruise control, that has certain luxury cars running at set speeds on the highway, but slows them down or speeds them up when they get too close to a car in front or behind. Well now Honda UK is taking it to another level with their Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) that not only regulates your speed, but manages the turning, allowing you a full auto-pilot system for your Accord when you're out on the freeway. The Adaptive Cruise Control is your regular radar variety, but the Lane Keep Assist System keeps you headed in the right direction by using a camera on the rear-view mirror to watch the white lines and turn accordingly. Honda was quick to point out that their system isn't exactly set up for you to take a nap, since the ADAS system will beep every 10 seconds to make sure you're paying attention, requiring you to touch the steering wheel to inform the car you're still in charge, but we're sure someone is going manage an accident and an ensuing lawsuit or three out of this "convenience".
Source
Filed under: Transportation
We've heard of radar assisted cruise control, that has certain luxury cars running at set speeds on the highway, but slows them down or speeds them up when they get too close to a car in front or behind. Well now Honda UK is taking it to another level with their Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) that not only regulates your speed, but manages the turning, allowing you a full auto-pilot system for your Accord when you're out on the freeway. The Adaptive Cruise Control is your regular radar variety, but the Lane Keep Assist System keeps you headed in the right direction by using a camera on the rear-view mirror to watch the white lines and turn accordingly. Honda was quick to point out that their system isn't exactly set up for you to take a nap, since the ADAS system will beep every 10 seconds to make sure you're paying attention, requiring you to touch the steering wheel to inform the car you're still in charge, but we're sure someone is going manage an accident and an ensuing lawsuit or three out of this "convenience".
Source
Sunday, January 22, 2006
China to build world`s first "artificial sun" experimental device
HEFEI, 01/21 - A full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, which aims to generate infinite, clean nuclear-fusion-based energy, will be built in March or April in Hefei, capital city of east China`s Anhui Province.
Experiments with the advanced new device will start in July or August. If the experiments prove successful, China will become the first country in the world to build a full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, nicknamed "artificial sun", experts here said.
The project, dubbed EAST (experimental advanced superconducting Tokamak), is being undertaken by the Hefei-based Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It will require a total investment of nearly 300 million yuan (37 million U.S. dollars), only one fifteenth to one twentieth the cost of similar devices being developed in the other parts of the world.
The new device will be an upgrade of China`s first superconducting Tokamak device, dubbed HT-7, which was also built by the plasma physics institute, in partnership with Russia, in the early 1990s. HT-7 made China the fourth country in the world, after Russia, France and Japan, to have such a device.
Full article
Experiments with the advanced new device will start in July or August. If the experiments prove successful, China will become the first country in the world to build a full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, nicknamed "artificial sun", experts here said.
The project, dubbed EAST (experimental advanced superconducting Tokamak), is being undertaken by the Hefei-based Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It will require a total investment of nearly 300 million yuan (37 million U.S. dollars), only one fifteenth to one twentieth the cost of similar devices being developed in the other parts of the world.
The new device will be an upgrade of China`s first superconducting Tokamak device, dubbed HT-7, which was also built by the plasma physics institute, in partnership with Russia, in the early 1990s. HT-7 made China the fourth country in the world, after Russia, France and Japan, to have such a device.
Full article
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
New Horizons will study Pluto and Kuiper Belt
CAPE CANAVERAL — A piano-sized space probe neared the end of its countdown Tuesday for a mission to Pluto, the solar system's last unexplored planet, and to study a mysterious zone of icy objects at the outer edges of the planetary system.
Even though the scheduled afternoon liftoff was intended to make New Horizons the fastest spacecraft ever launched, the distance involved means scientists won't be able to receive data on Pluto until at least July 2015, the earliest date the mission is expected to arrive.
"To make a decision to work in the field of space science is almost the ultimate in delayed gratification," NASA administrator Michael Griffin said at a news conference Tuesday.
A successful journey to Pluto would complete an exploration of the planets started by NASA in the early 1960s with unmanned missions to observe Mars, Mercury and Venus.
"What we know about Pluto today could fit on the back of a postage stamp," Colleen Hartman, a deputy associate administrator at NASA, said earlier. "The textbooks will be rewritten after this mission is completed."
Full article
Even though the scheduled afternoon liftoff was intended to make New Horizons the fastest spacecraft ever launched, the distance involved means scientists won't be able to receive data on Pluto until at least July 2015, the earliest date the mission is expected to arrive.
"To make a decision to work in the field of space science is almost the ultimate in delayed gratification," NASA administrator Michael Griffin said at a news conference Tuesday.
A successful journey to Pluto would complete an exploration of the planets started by NASA in the early 1960s with unmanned missions to observe Mars, Mercury and Venus.
"What we know about Pluto today could fit on the back of a postage stamp," Colleen Hartman, a deputy associate administrator at NASA, said earlier. "The textbooks will be rewritten after this mission is completed."
Full article
Friday, January 06, 2006
Google and Yahoo tune into television
Two ascending Internet giants, Google and Yahoo, were planning to make plain Friday that they intend to move aggressively beyond the Internet browser and onto the television screen.
The two companies, already the most popular services for searching and organizing the vast information on the Web, want to perform the same function for television, which will increasingly be delivered over the Internet.
Indeed, much of the innovation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where top executives of both companies were to speak late Friday, revolves around video gadgets of all sizes that connect online to new programming services.
Both Yahoo and Google have emerged as potent threats to television networks because they are drawing ad dollars to their existing sites.
cont. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/06/business/google.php
The two companies, already the most popular services for searching and organizing the vast information on the Web, want to perform the same function for television, which will increasingly be delivered over the Internet.
Indeed, much of the innovation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where top executives of both companies were to speak late Friday, revolves around video gadgets of all sizes that connect online to new programming services.
Both Yahoo and Google have emerged as potent threats to television networks because they are drawing ad dollars to their existing sites.
cont. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/06/business/google.php
Monday, January 02, 2006
Vote for seven wonders
The Acropolis in Athens made it, as did Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, China's Great Wall, the Colosseum in Rome, the Inca temple of Machu Picchu in Peru, Stonehenge and the Moai - the Easter Island statues.
Less immediately obvious choices in a final shortlist of 21 contenders for the New Seven Wonders of the World, announced in Switzerland yesterday, included the Kremlin in Moscow, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
Cont.
Less immediately obvious choices in a final shortlist of 21 contenders for the New Seven Wonders of the World, announced in Switzerland yesterday, included the Kremlin in Moscow, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
Cont.
New Space Race: Make Extraterrestrial Travel Cheap And Safe For Ordinary People…
A plan to build the world’s first airport for launching commercial spacecraft in New Mexico is the latest development in the new space race, a race among private companies and billionaire entrepreneurs to carry paying passengers into space and to kick-start a new industry, astro tourism.
The man who is leading the race may not be familiar to you, but to astronauts, pilots, and aeronautical engineers – basically to anyone who knows anything about aircraft design – Burt Rutan is a legend, an aeronautical engineer whose latest aircraft is the world’s first private spaceship. As he told 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley when he first met him a little over a year ago, if his idea flies, someday space travel may be cheap enough and safe enough for ordinary people to go where only astronauts have gone before.
Read more and post comments
The man who is leading the race may not be familiar to you, but to astronauts, pilots, and aeronautical engineers – basically to anyone who knows anything about aircraft design – Burt Rutan is a legend, an aeronautical engineer whose latest aircraft is the world’s first private spaceship. As he told 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley when he first met him a little over a year ago, if his idea flies, someday space travel may be cheap enough and safe enough for ordinary people to go where only astronauts have gone before.
Read more and post comments
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)