Dark_Nova - Slashdot User

Spacecraft May Surf Magnetic Fields 98

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @02:03AM from the radioactive-space-stocking dept.

Maggie McKee writes "Future spacecraft may surf the magnetic fields of Earth and other planets, taking previously unfeasible routes around the solar system, according to a proposal funded by NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts. The electrically charged craft would not need rockets or propellant of any kind. To get charged up, the spacecraft could either fire a beam of charged particles into space or simply allow a radioactive isotope to emit charged particles. Because long, thin filaments have large surface areas for holding charge, the spacecraft might look like Einstein's head — with wiry filaments sticking out at all angles — or a weird space 'stocking.'"

Submission + - Google censors user-generated content in Brazil

Submitted by

airshowfan

on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @01:27AM

airshowfan writes: "Imagine that every time you wrote something on Blogger that the Chinese government disagreed with, China's courts could fine Google China and Google had to delete your post and give your IP address to the Chinese police. This is basically how Google runs Orkut, a social-networking site it owns, and by far the most widely-used social-networking site in Brazil, with over twice as many users as Facebook. Not only does Google get rid of any user-generated content on Orkut that Brazil's courts dislike, they have given the Brazilian police admin access, including the ability to censor content and to find your IP address. And this is despite the fact that all of Orkut's data is hosted in the US!"

Submission + - Hit & Run driver caught with internet help

Submitted by Kumba on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @12:29AM

Kumba writes: The collective power of the internets was demonstrated in this thread as one member of an auto enthusiast forum helped another member identify the driver of a hit and run incident against the latter's friend. Since then, it's spread like wildfire. The one photo depicting the driver's face may yet become the most photoshopped image on the planet.

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