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Earth

Submission + - NASA Data Reveals China's Industrial Air Pollution (wsj.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: China's skyrocketing industrialism comes at a price to the environment according to Canadian scientists who used NASA data to publish a report on worldwide air pollution (PDF) in the journal of Environmental Health Perspectives. The biggest problem appears to be a bright red mass in Northeastern China around the Yangtze River Delta — a rapidly developing piece of China's explosive economy. There doesn't seem to be a lot of acknowledgment from the state media but blogs are picking it up as one of the few sources of data on air pollution for the area. The sad fact is that particulate matter in the air that is less than 2.5 micrometers is not classified as pollution by the Chinese government so they have no official measurements to provide. If you're in Shanghai and looking for a breath of fresh air, you've got quite the journey ahead of you.
Security

Submission + - Iran Admits Stuxnet Infected PCs at Nuke Reactor (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Although some computers at Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor were infected by the Stuxnet worm, none of the facility's crucial control systems were affected, Iranian officials claimed Sunday. The news followed Saturday's admission by Iran that Stuxnet had infected at least 30,000 computers in the country. The worm, which researchers have dubbed the most sophisticated malware ever, targets Windows PCs that manage large-scale industrial-control systems in manufacturing and utility companies. Those control systems, called SCADA, manage and monitor machinery in power plants, factories, pipelines and military installations. 'The studies show that few PCs of Bushehr nuclear power plant workers are infected with the virus,' Mahmoud Jafari, the facility's project manager, told Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Sunday. Some have speculated that the worm was developed by a state-sponsored team of programmers and designed to cripple the reactor.
Idle

Submission + - ATM's That Dispense Gold Bars Coming To America. (cnbc.com) 1

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: As the U.S. economic woes continue unabated, a German company is bringing gold bearing ATM'S to bear on Mainstreet America. The machines accept credit cards, and will dispense 1 gram, 5 gram, 10 gram and 1 ounce units, as well as various gold coins. The company hopes to install 35 bullion machines in the United States this year, hopefully have several hundred up and running by next year. The machines will be decorated like giant gold ingots and be over two meters tall. Physical gold has both pros and cons, but mainly from a safety standpoint would it be safe to have a couple of ounces in your pocket while walking around the mall? The giant gold dispensing ATM's will monitor the market conditions for gold every 10 minutes in order to reflect spot price changes as they occur.
Google

Schools, Filtering Companies Blocking Google SSL 308

Posted by kdawson from the right-to-look-over-your-shoulder dept.
An anonymous reader in the UK writes "Over the past several weeks we've discussed the rolling out of Google SSL search. Now an obstacle to the rollout has arisen, much to the frustration of school students and teachers alike. Content filter vendors have decided to block all Google SSL traffic — which also blocks access to Google Apps for Education. Google is working to appease these vendors. The questions at the heart of this situation are: Does a company (school, government) have a right to restrict SSL traffic so it can snoop your data, or does an individual have a right to encrypted Internet facilities? And, is the search data you create your data, or is it your employer's (school's)? IANAL but blocking SSL search seems at odds with the UK Data Protection Act, because some local governments here may be using the very same filtering service for their employees. It would also seem to go against the spirit of FIPS in the US (though I appreciate that federal standards are separate from schools in the States)."
Robotics

Submission + - Stanford Robot Car Nails Amazing Parking Maneuver (singularityhub.com) 1

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: Stanford’s Junior, the robot car that took second place at DARPA’s Grand Challenge in 2007, has learned how to perform a tire squealing 180 degree spin into a skin-tight parking space. Similar to a James Bond action scene, the maneuver is impressive and would be extremely difficult for a human to pull off. We won't be handing the keys over to robot cars anytime soon, but Stanford shows us that at least for some driving tasks robot cars can already meet or even exceed human ability.

Comment Being myself a teacher (Score 1) 256

by simonbas (#29607273) Attached to: What To Cover In a Short "DIY Tech" Course?

I teach a class about PID control loops at 18-19 year old students in a technical degree in building mechanics and I'm looking into showing them more than the cursus objectives. I'll be showing them soldering, arduinos, basic PC repair and upgrade, potato gun construction, and thermal engine basics. Any other ideas? suggestions?
Google

Submission + - Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists (wikileaks.org) 2

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A California court has issued a subpoena demanding Google reveal the IP addresses of journalists writing for a corruption busting journal from the Caribbean.

The August 28 subpoena, issued by the Superior Court, County of Santa Clara, as part of a "libel tourism" action taken by non-US property developers, demands detailed information about the operators of "tcijournal@gmail.com". The account is the main email address of the TCI Journal, the most influential journal covering the Turks & Caicos Islands. The Islands are a tourist mecca and tax haven in the Caribbean sea, and until August 14 were an independent British protectorate.
Games

Submission + - Nintendo Releases Free Wii Browser, Updates Flash

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Nintendo has released an update for the Wii Internet Channel (the Opera browser). It is now a free download (if you already paid for it you get a free NES game), and finally supports Flash 9 content, after being limited to Flash 7 ever since it was launched in late 2006.
Netscape

Submission + - eBay sells Skype to Netscape founder

Submitted by
Julefrokost
Julefrokost writes: "Computerworld has a story about eBay selling Skype. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape along with a group of investors, are reported to have paid $2 Billion for Skype. According to New York Times, Google was also a potential buyer. Also the original founders of Skype are said to have placed a bid, but Marc Andressen & Co was the highest bidder."

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