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Japan

Submission + - S&P cuts TEPCO rating by 5 notches to junk sta (mainichi.jp)

Submitted by
mdsolar
mdsolar writes: "

Standard & Poor's downgraded its long-term credit rating for Tokyo Electric Power Co. by five notches to junk status Monday, saying it remains uncertain whether the operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant would be smoothly bailed out by the Japanese government.

The downgrading of the utility's long-term debt rating to B-plus from BBB came as the company, known as TEPCO, is struggling to come up with funds to cover compensation payments over the crisis at the nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, which has been crippled since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

This is happening as Japan's own credit outlook is cut by Fitch. http://hken.ibtimes.com/articles/154072/20110530/japan-credit-outlook-cut-on-fears-about-fukushima.htm

Which other countries could risk default just by having a nuclear accident?"

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Being an Electrical Engineer? 3

Submitted by sandman83
sandman83 writes: I will be going back to a local college this Fall to prepare myself for the Electrical Engineering program at Idaho State University. I am planning on concentrating on motherboard design and trace layout for my junior and senior years, and the University uses the Cadence Allegro software for their PCb and IC design classes.

My question is. What should any future student expect and experience through an EE program, and how best should those students prepare themselves before and during? And what are your experiences with PCB design, and the importance of math during the design phase, and how fun can it be once someone gets used to the complex software? Also, if anyone can recommend any additional classes that I, or any prospective student might want to take outside of the regular course work, and explain the benefits of taking that course; for example, additional computer programming classes.

Oh, what is the best way to prepare for Calculus?
Businesses

Comcast Awarded the Golden Poo Award 286

Posted by samzenpus from the you-will-receive-your-award-between-8-and-12 dept.
ISoldat53 writes "The Consumerist has awarded Comcast the Golden Poo award for the worst company in America. From the article: 'After four rounds of bloody battle against some of the most publicly reviled businesses in America, Comcast can now run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and hold its hands high in victory — it has bested everyone else to earn the title of Worst Company In America for 2010.'"
Wii

Wii Hardware Upgrade Won't Happen Soon 325

Posted by Soulskill from the can't-show-ugly-mario-in-hd dept.
As high-definition graphics become more and more entrenched in this generation of game consoles, Nintendo has had to deal with constant speculation about a new version of the Wii that would increase its capabilities. Today, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime bluntly denied that a hardware revision was imminent, saying, "We are confident the Wii home entertainment console has a very long life in front of it." He added, "In terms of what the future holds, we've gone on record to say that the next step for Nintendo in home consoles will not be to simply make it HD, but to add more and more capability, and we'll do that when we've totally tapped out all of the experiences for the existing Wii. And we're nowhere near doing that yet."
Space

Two Earth-Sized Bodies With Oxygen-Rich Atmospheres 111

Posted by kdawson from the mission-of-gravity dept.
tugfoigel writes "Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two bodies the size of earth with oxygen-rich atmospheres — however, there is a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves. These are not planets, but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars." The objects, 220 and 400 light-years distant, are believed to be remnants of stars between 7 and 10 solar masses. Such stars, the largest that evolve to white dwarves, have been sought for years. If the stars were a little more massive they would collapse to neutron stars, or so the theory goes. Here is the paper on the arXiv.
Patents

Touchpad Patent Holder Tsera Sues Just About Everyone 168

Posted by timothy from the how-about-a-first-known-infringement-filing-deadline-link dept.
eldavojohn writes "Okay, well, maybe not everyone but more than twenty companies (including Apple, Qualcomm, Motorola and Microsoft) are being sued for a generic patent that reads: 'Apparatus and methods for controlling a portable electronic device, such as an MP3 player; portable radio, voice recorder, or portable CD player are disclosed. A touchpad is mounted on the housing of the device, and a user enters commands by tracing patterns with his finger on a surface of the touchpad. No immediate visual feedback is provided as a command pattern is traced, and the user does not need to view the device to enter commands.' Sounds like their may be a few companies using that technology. The suit was filed on July 15th in the favoritest place ever to file patent claim lawsuits: Texas Eastern District Court. It's a pretty classic patent troll; they've been holding this patent since 2003 and they just noticed now that everyone and his dog are using touchpads to control portable electronic devices."
Image

Even Faster Web Sites 171

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
Michael J. Ross writes "Slow Web page loading can discourage visitors to a site more than any other problem, regardless of how attractive or feature-rich the given site might be. Consequently, many Web developers hope to achieve faster response times using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), since only portion(s) of an AJAX page need to be reloaded. But for many rich Internet applications (RIAs), such potential performance gains can be lost as a result of non-optimized JavaScript, graphics, and CSS files. Steve Souders — a Web performance expert previously at Yahoo and now with Google — addresses these topics in his second book, Even Faster Web Sites: Performance Best Practices for Web Developers." Read on for the rest of Michael's review.
Biotech

Fluorescent Monkeys Cast Light On Human Disease 174

Posted by samzenpus from the grape-ape-version-2.0 dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that a team of Japanese scientists has integrated a new gene for green fluorescent protein into the common marmoset, causing them to glow green under ultraviolet light, creating second-generation, glow-in-the-dark monkeys in what could be a powerful new tool in human disease research. Though primates modified to generate a glowing protein have been created before, these are the first to keep the change in their bloodlines. If a fluorescent protein gene can be introduced into the monkey genome and passed onto future generations, other genes could be too opening up a world of possibilities for medical research, such as the generation of specific monkey colonies containing genetic defects that mirror human diseases aiding efforts to cure such diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. However many people are likely to find the routine use of monkeys in medical research far less acceptable than that of rodents, drawing action from animal rights activists. 'I'm worried that these steps are being taken without any overall public discussion about whether we want to go down that road. We may find ourselves gradually drifting towards the genetic engineering of human beings,' says Dr David King, from the group Human Genetics Alert. '"Slippery slope" is a quite inadequate description of the process, because it doesn't happen passively. People push it forward.'"

Comment Potassium and Hypocalcemia (Score 4, Interesting) 420

by sandman83 (#28035831) Attached to: Cola Consumption Can Lead To Muscle Problems
Just as the article states that the excessive drinking of cola drinks can cause problems with low potassium. What it doesn't tell you is that the phosphoric acid found in these drinks can also lead to being hypocalcemic. As the acid usually displaces the calcium that's found in the blood stream, and raises the phosphoric levels. The side affects of hypocalcemia can range from numbing/tingling of the extremities, tetany(seizing of the muscle), all the way to seizures and even death in most extreme cases. To those who have a rare condition called Hypoparathyroidism, it can become life threatening withing minutes of we call a "crash". We use the term "crash" to signify that the blood calcium to have suddenly dropped to low levels and start become symptomatic. When that happens and the person can't get bring the levels back up. The next course of action would to get the person to emergency room as fast as possible. The thing is anyone can become hypocalcemic at anytime. Especially when they are on really poor diet.
United States

Submission + - ISP Disconnects Internet With One Offense.

Submitted by sandman83
sandman83 writes: Yesterday evening my ISP "Cableone" disconnected my internet without any warning. I did managed to get it restored. They claimed that I downloaded a fansubbed anime called Queen's Blade (a one time offense) and that it's copyrighted in the US with no proof that it is. What I want to know is, is what they did completely legal within US laws, if it isn't? What do I need to do so this can be stopped?

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