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Robotics

Submission + - Robotic Telescope Installed on Antarctica Plateau

Submitted by
Reservoir Hill
Reservoir Hill writes: "Antarctica claims some of the best astronomical sky conditions in the world — devoid of clouds with steady air that makes for clear viewing — that unfortunately lie deep in the interior on a high-altitude plateau called Dome A with an elevation up to 4,093m known as the most unapproachable point in the earth's southernmost region. Now astronomers in a Chinese scientific expedition have set up an experimental observatory at Dome A after lugging their equipment across Antarctica with the help of Australia and the US. The observatory will hunt for alien planets, while also measuring the observing conditions at the site to see if it is worth trying to build bigger observatories there. The observatory is automated, pointing its telescopes on its own while astronomers monitor its progress from other locations around the world via satellite link. PLATO is powered by a gas generator, and has a 4000-litre tank of jet fuel to keep it running through the winter. The observatory will search for planets around other stars using an array of four 14.5-centimetre telescopes called the Chinese Small Telescope Array (CSTAR). Astronomers hope to return in 2009 with new instruments, including the Antarctica Schmidt Telescopes (AST-3), a trio of telescopes with 0.5-metre mirrors, which will be more sensitive to planets than CSTAR."
Robotics

Dutch Unveil Robot Gas Station Attendant 287

Posted by kdawson from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
Lucas123 writes "According to a Reuters' story, Dutch inventors today took the wraps off a $110,000 car-fueling robot they say is the first of its kind. (It was inspired by a cow milking robot.) After registering the car as it pulls up to the pump, the machine matches your fuel cap design with those in a database and your car's fuel type, and then a robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular gas pump, 'opens the car's flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it towards the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.' Wait till Hollywood gets hold of this scenario."
Medicine

Submission + - Male Video Game Addiction Is Neural (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by
Dave Knott
Dave Knott writes: "According a new study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, Stanford researchers have found that men are more rewarded by video games than women on a neural level. Participants were hooked up to an MRI machine and activity was measured in the brain's mesocorticolimbic centre, the region typically associated with reward and addiction. From the article: "Researchers discovered that, when playing video games, the part of the brain that generates feelings of reward is more stimulated in men than in women. That helps explain why they're more likely to get hooked.""
Transportation

Submission + - France unveils TGV's successor (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by maudefan
maudefan writes: French engineering giant Alstom unveiled a new super-fast train on Tuesday. The AGV train will travel at speeds up to 360km/h and, just like the TGV, can use standard rail tracks for traveling at lower speeds. Key design change of AGV is that motors are placed under each car which provides more space for the passengers, as there are no separate power cars, and higher energy efficiency.

This is great news as high speed railway combined with nuclear power is the only sensible alternative for transport in 1000 km range that does not release massive amounts of CO2.
The Internet

Submission + - Ebay to remove negative feedback for buyers (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC is reporting that Ebay is to remove the option for sellers to leave negative feedback for their customers. This surely significantly shifts the balance of power in the transaction towards the buyer. Have you ever wanted to leave negative feedback, but been afraid of the same being given back to you? Will this make sellers more honest?
The Courts

Submission + - EFF goes to bat for BU students against RIAA (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the motion by Boston University students, named as John Does, who have moved to quash an RIAA subpoena seeking their identities. In its 24-page brief (pdf), EFF argues, among other things, that the RIAA had failed to meet its burden of "produc[ing] sufficient evidence supporting each element of its cause of action", and that the RIAA's legal theory — that merely 'making files available' is a violation of the distribution right — is defective. The students themselves have filed a supplemental brief in connection with the motion which, among other things, notifies the Court that the Massachusetts state police have directed Media Sentry, the RIAA's unlicensed investigator, to cease and desist from conducting any more investigations in Massachusetts."
Censorship

Submission + - IFPI plans to block Piratebay in Finland too

Submitted by
icsx
icsx writes: "Finnish IFPI follows Denmarks example and is planning to block the infamous Piratebay with courts order in civil case. The block would be done in same way as the recently introduced child porn website filtering — visitors would get a blocked site warning instead of the site itself. Now that blocking is there, it is easy to add more websites and this seems to be just the beginning. Original story in Finnish here."
Medicine

Submission + - Mother's cancer kicked out by unborn twins (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Atomic Fro
Atomic Fro writes: A mother, fearing she is having a miscarriage of her unborn twins, is shocked to discover she as cervical cancer. Deciding not to terminate pregnancy, and given very low doses of chemo-therapy, her unborn children's kicking eventually dislodge the tumor saving the three's lives.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft's Yahoo Bid Gets Congressional Hearing (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "The House Judiciary Committee will meet this week to consider the anti-trust implications of Microsoft's $44.6 billion hostile takeover bid for Yahoo. According to the article, the merger would give Microsoft 25.5% of the display advertising market online, ahead of Fox Interactive which has 16.3% and Google which serves up just 1%. In search, however, the two together would have 32.7% of the market — well behind Google's 58.4%."
Intel

Submission + - Details of Intel Tukwila, Silverthorne, etc. (techarp.com)

Submitted by
crazyeyes
crazyeyes writes: "Intel is presenting 15 papers at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco. Amongst them are the first details of their upcoming Silverthorne and Tukwila processors. The Tukwila is the world's first 2-billion transistor processor while Silverthorne will deliver Pentium M performance at just 1-2W.

Intel will also be revealing the world's first demonstrable multi-level cell device built using the new phase change memory technology, as well as an exciting new 2T gain-cell on-die memory technology. The first is a very fast alternative to flash memory, and the second is smaller, cheaper cache memory.

Here's a quote from the article :-

"To increase the amount of on-die memory, a cheaper memory technology (in terms of chip real estate) was needed. To this end, Intel developed a new category of DRAM memory, called 2T Gain-Cell Memory. Unlike commodity DRAM, this type of DRAM is built using standard microprocessor technology and is designed to provide a new choice of fast on-chip memory."
"
The Internet

Submission + - IPv6 glue in the root (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous
Anonymous writes: ICANN has finally allowed IPv6 addresses for root DNS servers to be added to the root zone, paving the way for IPv6-only networks. H-root IPv6 traffic jumped after the update today. You can check if your own domain registrar allows IPv6 glue at SixXS. Does your ISP support IPv6? If so, enable it and try IPv6 content, if not, free access via 6to4 or tunnel brokers such as SixXS is available.
Wii

Submission + - Half Million SSB Brawl Games Sold in a Day (tgdaily.com)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "A number worthy of note is the 500000 copies of Super Smash Bros. Brawl that Nintendo sold in Japan within 24 hours. This surpasses any other title on any other third generation console. The American market is clamoring for the game as some eBay auctions of the Japanese release are over $200. Last month, the game received the hallowed perfect score from Famitsu."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Online crime doesn't pay--but enabling it does (harvard.edu)

Submitted by
Siobhan from Harvard
Siobhan from Harvard writes: "Harvard Business Review envisions a full-blown service economy created by entrepreneurial online hackers who use their talents to help others steal. From the article: "Enabling online crime pays better than being a direct perpetrator....For those with the technical skills, opportunities for exploitation are richer than ever before. But something else is happening, too. Those gifted hackers are now enabling the far larger market of wannabes whose deficient skills would otherwise shut them out of the cybercriminal enterprise system. By creating services for those people, hackers can generate huge profits without actually committing fraud.""

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