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Transportation

Can the Auto Industry Retool Itself To Build Rails? 897

Posted by Soulskill from the cross-training dept.
knapper_tech writes "The scope of the auto industry troubles continues to increase in magnitude. The call to retool and develop new vehicles has been made several times already, but with all of the challenges from labor prices and foreign competition, how exactly can the industry retool itself to be more competitive? In light of superior competition facing losses, there doesn't seem to be enough room in the industry moving forward. In the context of finding a new place in the auto industry, the future isn't bright. Calls for no disorderly collapse of the cash-strapped big three and a reluctant congress can only point to an underlying lack of direction. However, consider two other standing economic challenges. The airlines have continued to struggle due to fuel prices and heightened security. Consumers backed off of SUV's due to high fuel prices, and while those prices have eased in the face of global recession, the trend will pick up again with growth in China and India leading the fight for resources. In short, things are moving less, and the industries that support the movement are in need of developing new products while consumers are in need of a cheaper method of transportation." Read on for the rest of knapper_tech's thoughts.

Comment Re:It's too much to discourage anyone. (Score 1) 128

by Varun Soundararajan (#25882577) Attached to: Facebook Wins $873 Million Lawsuit Against Spammer

I hate spammers. I think the punishment should be really cruel..!

We should force the spammers to read each and every character/mail of all the spams that they ever mailed. Hopefully, with all the spelling mistakes they make, they will really get frustrated with themselves and commit suicide.

Comment Re:Unadultered Alterations (Score 1) 622

by Varun Soundararajan (#25853063) Attached to: AP Suspends DoD Over Altered US Army Photo

The alterations of of images transposed from within the confines of allocated semiconductor memory is a travesty of trustworthiness that makes on think of the simpler days of the chemical process for capturing images and storage on layered flexible devices. Those recollections also recoup melancholy days of sipping the Tranya amidst the family on late autumn holidays. One weeps for what this has become.

one possible reason for the above post: Weekend hangover even before weekend started :-)

Comment Re:The future of Computing is in... (Score 1) 124

by Varun Soundararajan (#25757723) Attached to: AMD Banks On Flood of Stream Apps

Low cost, low power CPUs. Already, 99% of people don't use 99% of the power of their CPUs 99% of the time.

I can see you havent kept upgrading Microsoft Operating systems. Everything that used to run well on my XP machine after a fateful Vista upgrade crawls. Why should the machine take 1GB of RAM just to boot up and start operating, when all I do is just check mail.

--
talking about Windows in Slashdot; whining about it. I'm not new here.
Government

Fidel Castro Resigns 728

Posted by samzenpus from the end-of-an-era dept.
Smordnys s'regrepsA writes "Fidel Castro, the leader of the island nation of Cuba has declined the possibility of keeping his seat as President, after the February 24th National Assembly election. "I neither will aspire to nor will I accept — I repeat — I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," Castro wrote almost 19 months after a severe illness caused him to hand power temporarily to his brother Raul."
Wireless Networking

Wi-Fi Piggybacking Widespread 459

Posted by CowboyNeal from the five-finger-discounts dept.
BaCa sent in this article about stealing network access that opens, "Sophos has revealed new research into the use of other people's Wi-Fi networks to piggyback onto the internet without payment. The research shows that 54 percent of computer users have admitted breaking the law, by using someone else's wireless internet access without permission." Of course, online polls being what they are, the results are hardly a plank for a full investigation, but a good share of the answerers did 'fess up to it as well.
Role Playing (Games)

World of Warcraft Hits 9.3 Million Players 117

Posted by Zonk from the azeroth-needs-its-own-zipcode dept.
Gamasutra is reporting that, along with Vivendi's ever-increasing earnings, recent information has been released updating the current player stats for World of Warcraft. Despite suspicions of falling numbers due to the long wait between now and Rise of the Lich King, Blizzard's Massive title is larger than ever, with some 9.3 million players. "Vivendi has chalked up the increase not only to its WoW subscriber base, but the release of its The Burning Crusade expansion, which saw release in China in the latter part of the third quarter ... The company also noted that its subscriber base has continued to grow from the 9 million mark it celebrated in July to more than 9.3 million, which it says is up more than one million subscribers since December 31 of last year."
Science

Evidence Found for Earliest Modern Humans 417

Posted by samzenpus from the flintstones-the-early-years dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers at Arizona State University report that they have pushed back the date for the earliest modern humans to 164,000 years ago, far earlier than previously documented. Paleoanthropologists now say that genetic and fossil evidence suggests that modern human species — Homo sapiens — evolved in Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago and in seeking the "perfect site" to explore for remains of the earliest populations, researchers analyzed ocean currents, climate data, geological formations and other data to pin down a location. "The world was in a glacial stage 125,000 to 195,000 years ago, and much of Africa was dry to mostly desert; in many areas food would have been difficult to acquire. The paleoenvironmental data indicate there are only five or six places in all of Africa where humans could have survived these harsh conditions," said Curtis Marean, a professor in ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Photos from the cave at Pinnacle Point in South Africa show where the team found ochre, bladelets and evidence of shellfish — findings that reveal the earliest dated evidence of modern humans."
Science

Compound From Olive-Pomace Oil Inhibits HIV Spread 266

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the internal-tar-pits dept.
Researchers in Madrid are claiming that they have discovered that a type of wax found in olive skin can help to slow the spread of HIV. "Their work shows that maslinic acid - a natural product extracted from dry olive-pomace oil in oil mills - inhibits serin-protease, an enzyme used by HIV to release itself from the infected cell into the extracellular environment and, consequently, to spread the infection into the whole body. These scientists from Granada determined that the use of olive-pomace oil can produce an 80% slowing down in AIDS spreading in the body."
Sci-Fi

Roswell UFO Festival 133

Posted by CmdrTaco from the take-us-to-your-beer-tent dept.
jmcharry writes "From the Washington Post: 'Attention, all aliens. Come on down. Because, seriously, this is your crowd. About 50,000 of your closest admirers are expected this weekend for the Roswell UFO Festival, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the nearby crash landing of a flying saucer — and, naturally, the ensuing government cover-up.'"
Enlightenment

Submission + - A Wife's Fight against Corruption in India (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
cryant
cryant writes: "Fearing for her husband's life, an IAS officer's wife in India does the un-obvious — she "Blogs" in an attempt to create a human shield through awareness over the Internet. (IAS: Indian Administrative Service — a highly coveted genre of candidates serving the highest Civil Service position's in India, something akin to the Secretary positions in the USA) From the NY Times story: "As her husband made powerful enemies, Ms. Jayashree began to fear for his life. And so she devised an unusual ploy to protect him: she blogged. In the YouTube era, she reasoned, it is harder to kill a man who has a bit of Internet renown." "In a 2005 study, it concluded that Indians pay more than $5 billion a year in bribes.""
Power

Submission + - India Joins ITER Fusion Reactor Project

Submitted by cagrin
cagrin writes: India joins the ITER project and will invest close to $600 million in US dollars. According to the article the reactor, based in France, should be operational by 2040.

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