1494955
submission
AliasMarlowe writes:
Intel and ASUS have started a web site to collect users' ideas on what kind of PC to develop
http://www.wepc.com/ Although the usual requests such as faster boot or longer battery life can be entered, the Dream page on the site http://www.wepc.com/dream is intended to go beyond mere tweaking of the standard netbook, laptop, desktop, and server configurations.
So far, dream ideas proposed include the "ghetto blaster PC" equipped with powerful speakers, and the "happy PC" to wake you up in the morning http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7704709.stm. Another submitter wants a PC to recognize that he is the user, but from analysis of typing style rather than login/password or a dodgy fingerprint scanner.
Obviously very few ideas will make it, either through technical infeasibility or perceived market size.
1492977
submission
AliasMarlowe writes:
Scottish police in Aberdeen have started a campaign to find drug users and dealers. Anyne wishing to enter a bar in Aberdeen will have to submit to a hand swab for immediate analysis. The analyzer can apparently detect cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, and heroin, even in trace amounts. If drugs are detected, the person will be searched and possibly arrested. This process is "voluntary", but anyone who refuses to allow a swab to be taken and analyzed will not be allowed into the pub. It is not known if refusal will lead to other consequences, but it may be viewed with suspicion. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/7702856.stm
The unintended consequence will probably be to push a significant amount of alcohol use into unmonitored locations, such as private clubs, or completely out of view just like use of other drugs. Bars will likely see a drop in revenues, since it will not be safe to visit one for weeks after consuming certain drugs.
1308787
submission
AliasMarlowe writes:
Stanley Miller performed the famous experiments in the 1950s showing that amino acids and other building blocks for biomolecules could be produced by passing lightning through a mix of simple hydrocarbons, water vapour, and ammonia (thought at the time to approximate the Earth's early atmosphere). Other experiments approximated the environment around volcanic eruptions, but those results were not published. Following his death last year, a colleague discovered the materials from those experiments, in labelled vials http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7675193.stm
Analysis of the contents of the vials indicates that the conditions around volcanic eruptions (still thought to be representative of such events in the early Earth) resulted in a higher yield of amino acids than the simple lightning experiments, and resulted in a greater variety of amino acids.
Yet again, corroborative evidence for the production of prebiotic materials in the very early Earth, on which more complex chemical processes could be built.
464042
submission
AliasMarlowe writes:
Yet another rootkit is being installed on Windows PCs via an Internet Explorer exploit which modifies the MBR to load malicious code on startup. Apparently originating in Russia, it is spreading mostly in Europe. The rootkit can download malware such as keyloggers, and can reinstall the malware if it is deleted by anti-virus programs. Typically, the purpose is to intercept login details for online banking (900 financial institutions), and send the harvested information to its originators.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7183008.stm Windows Vista, XP, 2000, and 2003 may all be vulnerable.
134011
submission
AliasMarlowe writes:
The BBC reports that a creationist organization (Answers in Genesis) is building an alleged museum in Petersberg Kentucky, not far from Cincinnati Ohio.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own _correspondent/6549595.stm
The museum will be replete with animatronic dinosaurs and suchlike, with tyrannosaurs shown peacefully cohabiting with human children in a sort of Garden-of-Eden paradise. Geology, paleontology, and other branches of accepted science are not considered relevant to the "bible-based" twisted storyline. Of course, it's all presented as fact supported by the usual wierd hypotheses of creationists.
The BBC report has overtones of incredulity that such an inane insane fantasy world could really be promoted as fact. Even one of the museum park guides tactfully said he preferred to stick to accepted science. The BBC reporter was accompanied by Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, who castigated the creationist's misuse of facts intertwined with mythology.
Now that Kansas has started cleaning up its school board, is Kentucky stepping forward as the next base for the loony fringe?
