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Submission + - Ewe've been conned ladies

Submitted by Runestaff
Runestaff writes: Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles. Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each. The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food. Japanese police believe there could be 2,000 people affected by the scam, which operated in Sapporo and capitalised on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007190295,00 .html http://news.syd.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=263 297
IBM

Submission + - IBM researchers push MRI imaging to nanoscale

Submitted by
TheCybernator
TheCybernator writes: "Researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center have developed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to visualize nanoscale objects. The new techniques are a major milestone in the quest to build a microscope that could "see" individual atoms in three dimensions. Using Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM), IBM researchers have captured two-dimensional images of objects as small as 90 nanometers. (A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers in diameter.) "Our ultimate goal is to perform three-dimensional imaging of complex structures such as molecules with atomic resolution," said Dan Rugar, manager, Nanoscale Studies, IBM Research. "This would allow scientists to study the atomic structures of molecules — such as proteins — which would represent a huge breakthrough in structural molecular biology." MRFM offers imaging 60,000 times more sensitive than current MRI technology. MRFM uses what is known as force detection to extend the limits of conventional MRI and view structures that would otherwise be too small to be detected. The imaging breakthrough could eventually have major impact on the study of materials ranging from proteins and pharmaceuticals to integrated circuits — that required detailed understanding of the atomic structure. Knowing the exact location of specific atoms within tiny nanoelectronic structures, for example, would improve designers' insight into manufacture and performance. The ability to directly image the detailed atomic structure of proteins would aid the development of new drugs."
Robotics

DARPA's Artificial Arm Comes With VR Training 71

Posted by CowboyNeal from the right-to-bare-arms dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The first prototype of an artificial limb commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency can reportedly be controlled naturally, provide sensory feedback and allows for eight degrees of freedom — way beyond the current state of the art for prosthetic limbs. Oh yeah, it also has its own VR environment to learn how to use it."
Windows

Submission + - U of Kansas recommends against Vista, Office 2007

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: In an email to all faculty and staff, the University of Kansas IT recommended against installing either Microsoft Vista or Office 2007. Vista is deemed problematic because of hardware requirements and incompatibility with widely used software such as statistical packages, Blackboard and PeopleSoft; Office is zinged because "The radical redesign has moved and/or renamed virtually every feature." Individuals purchasing machines with Vista are asked to "roll back" to XP. Obligatory evolution and Wizard of Oz jokes aside, KU is probably typical of a large organization that has apparently decided after a few weeks of consideration that Microsoft's latest offerings just aren't worth the trouble. How general is this trend?
Operating Systems

Submission + - macbookinux: the first Mac specialized penguin

Submitted by
aiop631
aiop631 writes: "A new project is under way to develop a Linux distribution designed especially for Macbooks: MacBook Linux. This distributions will have advanced Linux technologies built-in like Compiz, OpenOffice and KOffice for office tools, development tools like GCC and Java, and server technologies like Apache and Bind to turn your machine into a server. A powerful package management system similar to that of OS X will be available (yes, no dependency hell). The first stable release date is aimed for later this summer. This is part of a broader project to develop a Linux distribution family for Intel-powered Macs — that is, 3 Linux distributions specialized for MacBooks, MacBook Pros and Mac Pros."

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