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Space

Submission + - Chinese Moon Photo Doctored, Craters Moved (msn.com) 1

mytrip writes: "A controversy over last week's photo of the lunar surface, allegedly from China's lunar spacecraft Chang'e, appears to be resolved. It's real but it isn't. An expert says the photo's resolution shows that it is of recent origin. However, for some inexplicable reason, someone on Earth edited the photo and moved a crater to a different location.

Some dogged sleuthing by a fellow space blogger has tracked down the truth behind the controversial first photo from China's moon orbiter.

In the week since the picture was released amid much fanfare in Beijing, there have been widespread rumors that the photo was a fake, copied from an old picture collected by a U.S. space probe.

The photo from China's Chang'e 1 orbiter is clearly a higher-resolution view, with sunlight streaming from the northwest rather than the north.

The mission's chief scientist, Ouyang Ziyuan, told the Beijing News that a new crater had been spotted on the Chang'e imagery — a crater that didn't appear on the U.S. imagery. Lakdawalla determined that crater in question it wasn't exactly new — instead, it appeared to be a crater that had been moved from one spot on the picture to another spot slightly south."

Robotics

Submission + - Insect spies being used to spy on protesters?

krou writes: The Washington Post has an interesting article looking at miniaturized robotic surveillance on the back of eyewitnesses at anti-war and political rallies claiming to have seen miniaturized surveillance drones that "looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters". Regardless of the truth of the claims, there is some nice info on attempts to create ever smaller surveillance drones.
Communications

Submission + - Aging telecommunications network

Jake Platt writes: I am a network consultant working on Long Island, NY and help support about a dozen small to mid-size companies mainly located in a huge industrial park originally built in the 1950's. In the past 60 days, the Verizon data and voice networks have experienced huge spikes in failures, as many as, 2 — 3 local loop/central office equipment and line failures per week for each of my clients!!! Verizon has been taking 2-3 days to respond, effectively leaving these companies in the dark (no internet, no email, no voice). I've never seen anything like this. Privately, the Verizon tech support guys have told me that the copper lines in the ground are so old that they are letting the system go into decline and do not want to spend any $$$ to improve it until they have no choice. Are parts of the US telecommunications network reaching its age limit? Jake Platt Long Island, NY
The Internet

Submission + - Man arrested for speeding after posting on YouTube (yahoo.com) 1

bluce writes: A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of having posted a video of himself on YouTube driving at speeds of more than 140 mph, police said Thursday. Sergeant Scott McLachlan, from the Roads Policing Unit at Dumfries and Galloway police, described it as "completely foolish behavior." "Not only did he endanger his own life, but that of other road-users. It is unacceptable, and to post a recording of such driving on the Internet is entirely stupid."

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