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Cloud

Submission + - Are You Ready For the Tech Apocalypse? (foxbusiness.com)

Submitted by rbrandis
rbrandis writes: The convergence of four forces — social, mobile, the cloud and information — is about to turn the world we know topsy-turvy, according to the analysts at Gartner, a technology research company. Gartner calls this the Nexus of Forces. But for business owners and IT professionals, it may look more like the four horseman of the tech apocalypse saddling up.

This mashup, which Gartner says is a byproduct of the consumerization of information technology (IT), is revolutionizing business and society, disrupting old business models and creating new leaders. In fact, it's the basis of the technology platform of the future
Government

Will ACTA Be Found Unconstitutional? 260

Posted by timothy from the but-it's-a-leaving-document dept.
DustyShadow writes "Harvard's Jack Goldsmith and Lawrence Lessig have an interesting op-ed in Friday's Washington Post, arguing that it would be constitutionally dubious for President Obama to adopt the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as an executive agreement. '[T]he Obama administration has suggested it will adopt the pact as a "sole executive agreement" that requires only the president's approval. ... Joining ACTA by sole executive agreement would far exceed these precedents. The president has no independent constitutional authority over intellectual property or communications policy, and there is no long historical practice of making sole executive agreements in this area. To the contrary, the Constitution gives primary authority over these matters to Congress, which is charged with making laws that regulate foreign commerce and intellectual property.'"
Earth

Planned Nuclear Reactors Will Destroy Atomic Waste 344

Posted by Soulskill from the but-where-will-we-get-our-superheroes dept.
separsons writes "A group of French scientists are developing a nuclear reactor that burns up actinides — highly radioactive uranium isotopes. They estimate that 'the volume of high-level nuclear waste produced by all of France’s 58 reactors over the past 40 years could fit in one Olympic-size swimming pool.' And they're not the only ones trying to eliminate atomic waste: Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin are working on a fusion-fission reactor. The reactor destroys waste by firing streams of neutrons at it, reducing atomic waste by up to 99 percent!"
Power

Thorium, the Next Nuclear Fuel? 710

Posted by Soulskill from the plenty-on-the-auction-house dept.
mrshermanoaks writes "When the choices for developing nuclear energy were being made, we went with uranium because it had the byproduct of producing plutonium that could be weaponized. But thorium is safer and easier to work with, and may cause a lot fewer headaches. 'It's abundant — the US has at least 175,000 tons of the stuff — and doesn't require costly processing. It is also extraordinarily efficient as a nuclear fuel. As it decays in a reactor core, its byproducts produce more neutrons per collision than conventional fuel. The more neutrons per collision, the more energy generated, the less total fuel consumed, and the less radioactive nastiness left behind. Even better, Weinberg realized that you could use thorium in an entirely new kind of reactor, one that would have zero risk of meltdown. The design is based on the lab's finding that thorium dissolves in hot liquid fluoride salts. This fission soup is poured into tubes in the core of the reactor, where the nuclear chain reaction — the billiard balls colliding — happens. The system makes the reactor self-regulating: When the soup gets too hot it expands and flows out of the tubes — slowing fission and eliminating the possibility of another Chernobyl. Any actinide can work in this method, but thorium is particularly well suited because it is so efficient at the high temperatures at which fission occurs in the soup.' So why are we not building these reactors?"
Medicine

Submission + - Birth Control Pills May Alter Mating Preferences 1

Submitted by
Pickens
Pickens writes: "An report in Trends in Ecology & Evolution asserts that there is emerging evidence that the use of birth control pills can alter a woman's natural hormonal cycles and also alter their choice of partners. The study suggests that women prefer more masculine and genetically dissimilar men when they are ovulating but when using the pill are more attracted to men that are genetically similar to themselves. "The use of the pill by women, by changing her mate preferences, might induce women to mate with otherwise less-preferred partners, which might have important consequences for mate choice and reproductive outcomes," says Alexandra Alvergne, lead author of a study appearing in Trends in Ecology & Evolution. "One prediction is that offspring of pill users are more homozygous than expected, possibly related to impaired immune function and decreased perceived health and attractiveness." Ovulating women exhibit a preference for more masculine male features, and they are particularly attracted to men showing dominance and male-male competitiveness, according to background information in the study. But some experts think this new revelation on the pill may have been overinterpreted. "I don't think there are many women who change who they would mate with at different times of the month," says Dr. William Hurd, a reproductive endocrinologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. "It might change desires or perceptions but, gee whiz, that's a long stretch to changing who you would date, or even who you would go to dinner with.""
Data Storage

Submission + - Top six hard drives for speed and capacity (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "Computerworld has reviewed the latest in six hard disk drives, from the solid state models to terabyte-size spinning disks. Samsung comes in as the fastest with a 64GB flash drive with a read speed of 100MB/sec and write speed of 80 MB/sec, compared to 59MB/sec and 60MB/sec for a traditional 2.5" hard drive. Seagate's 1TB Barracuda drive had a 85.5MB/sec average read speed, while for power consumption, Western Digital's 1TB RE2-GP use of only 7.4 watts, makes it between 22% and 33% more efficient than its three primary traditional hard drive competitors, but it still can't beat SSD."
Microsoft

Submission + - The setup behind Microsoft.com (technet.com) 1

Submitted by Toreo asesino
Toreo asesino writes: Jeff Alexander gives an insight into how some of the main websites in Microsoft are run (www.microsoft.com and update.microsoft.com). Interesting details include having no firewall, having to manage 650Gb of IIS logs every day, and the use of their yet unreleased Windows Server 2008 in a production environment. http://blogs.technet.com/jeffa36/archive/2007/12/13/microsoft-com-what-s-the-story.aspx
Education

Submission + - Al Gore's 'nine Inconvenient Untruths' 1

Submitted by
Macthorpe
Macthorpe writes: "In a news story carried by Telegraph.co.uk, the High Court in the United Kingdom has ruled that Al Gore's famous feature-length film on global warming is a 'political film' and therefore can only be shown to school children with guidance notes to prevent political indoctrination. He reinforces this with 9 key points in the film where specific points of view are raised with little to no evidence to support them. From the article: "Judge Michael Burton ruled yesterday that errors had arisen "in the context of alarmism and exaggeration" in order to support Mr Gore's thesis on global warming [...] the judge ruled that the "apocalyptic vision" presented in the film was politically partisan and thus not an impartial scientific analysis of climate change."
Power

Submission + - Salt water as a fuel. 3

Submitted by
Quantum Logic
Quantum Logic writes: "Cancer researcher John Kanzius while trying to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer has accidentally discovered a way to burn salt water. The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies."

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It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

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