Comment Re:The truth slowly comes out (Score 4, Insightful) 647
You mean the CIA has been actively trying to halt the nuclear weapons program of a nation who is opposed to the United States? Surely you jest!
Comment Re:Better Place (Score 1) 378
Except if batteries improve as described in the article you will want to charge at home or charge quickly at any station with access to the electrical grid. Instead you will have a $40,000 investment in a company with a proprietary battery and charging system who you have to pay a monthly service fee to... Brilliant.
Comment Re:What about the US and Solyndra? (Score 1) 232
The US provided a loan guarantee to Solyndra. This does NOT encourage dumping because it does not allow you make panels at below market costs. The effect of a US loan guarantee is to encourage investment in industries which the private sector has determined are not yet sufficiently developed to justify the risk of investment; however, our government has determined is strategically desirable for some reason not directly related to profitability.
There is a third order effect that a loan guarantee drives down borrowing costs thereby slightly decreasing production costs but this is very far and away from the direct subsidy actions being undertaken by China.
Comment Re:Average person rewiring their house? (Score 1) 186
"receives sunlight 24 hours a day" - are you suggesting an orbital platform for your hypothetical off-grid mansion?
Comment Fallout 3 (Score 1) 937
Did anyone else think of Fallout 3 immediately upon reading the summary? I for one would love a nuclear powered 1950 Buick Roadmaster! Inconvenient radioactive explosive behavior aside....
Submission + - NASA finds liquid water on Mars (nasa.gov)
An anonymous reader writes: During a live (web)cast NASA scientists confirmed that thanks to images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter taken over a period of a few years, they have found proof of what they suspect to be "liquid salty" water in some Martian craters. An article will be published today in science magazine...
Submission + - Algorithm solves Rubik's cubes of any size (newscientist.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Only the most hardcore puzzle-solvers ever go beyond the standard 3x3x3 Rubik's cube, attempting much larger ones. Now an algorithm has been developed that can solve a Rubik's cube of any size. It might offer clues to humans trying to deal with these tricky beasts. Erik Demaine, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found that the maximum number of moves that will ever be required for a cube of side n is proportional to n/log n. "It gives me a couple of ideas how to solve this thing faster," says Stewart Clark, a Rubik's cube enthusiast who owns an 11x11x11 cube.
Submission + - Skype Video Calling Comes To Android (muktware.com)
muktware writes: Sykpe pushed an update today which brought this video calling capabilities to Android phones. Android phones already have Google' Gtalk service which offer video calling capabilities on phone running Android 2.3.4.
As expected only select phones, with needed hardware, will be able to make video calls using Skype.
The lucky few include Google Nexus S, HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo and Sony Ericsson Xperia pro. Skype said on its page that support for other phones is coming soon.
As expected only select phones, with needed hardware, will be able to make video calls using Skype.
The lucky few include Google Nexus S, HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo and Sony Ericsson Xperia pro. Skype said on its page that support for other phones is coming soon.
Submission + - Lovotics: the new science of human-robot love (extremetech.com)
An anonymous reader writes: By harnessing a new sphere of science called “lovotics”, Hooman Samani, an artificial intelligence researcher at the Social Robotics Lab at the National University of Singapore, believes it is possible to engineer love between humans and robots. Samani's robots have artificial psychological and biological systems that mimic the human brain and endocrine systems, and use movements, sounds, and lights to show their mood and level of affection for a human.
Submission + - World's Largest Digging Machine Goes to Work (singularityhub.com) 1
kkleiner writes: "Meet the bagger 288, the worlds largest digging machine. It’s 311 feet (95 meters) tall, 705 feet (215 meters) long. That’s almost two football fields (American). It weighs in at 45,500 tons (the Titanic weighed 46,328 tons). Completed in 1978, it took the German steelmaking company Krupp–now ThyssenKrupp–five years to build and carried a manufacturing cost of $100 million."
Submission + - Chinese City Wants To Build a Censorship-Free Hub (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: "The city of Chongqing's proposed Cloud Computing Special Zone would be home to 'a handful of state-of-the-art data centers and is designed to attract investment from multinational companies and boost China's status as a center for cloud computing,' writes the IDG News Service's Michael Kan. The part that's drawing the ire of Chinese Internet users: This censorship-free hub would only be foreign companies."
Submission + - Direct Conversion of Heat to Electricity (wiley.com)
Aldhibah writes: "The journal article discusses the use of a newly discovered multiferroic alloy that undergoes a phase change and becomes magnetic when heated. The articles authors suggest that the mechanism may be used to generate electricity from either waste heat or through ocean or geo thermal energy conversion."
Submission + - TEA Party Publishes Official Space Platform (spaceref.com) 31
BJ_Covert_Action writes: "Spaceref has taken note that the TEA Party has officially published a platform for its political stance on the space industry. It appears that the TEA Party takes itself seriously enough as a viable U.S. political party that it is not content to simply fulfill a niche third party role in the political spectrum. Rather, it has posted its official party platform, and it is encouraging all Americans from all political backgrounds to read the platform. Amongst other issues, the TEA Party is interested in reducing government involvement in the developing space industry, creating tax exemptions for space-related companies, and killing off, in entirety, the controversial NASA heavy lift rocket program (SLS, Constellation, etc.)."
Submission + - Japan's Newest Pop Star Revealed to Be Computer-Ge (gawker.com)
f1vlad writes: A bunch of fans of Aimi Eguchi, the newest member of the Japanese idol group AKB 48, were shocked to discover that she was actually a computer generated composite of the "best features" of other members of the group.
Submission + - Dying Star Betelgeuse Spews Fiery Nebula (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "Betelgeuse is dying a nasty death. The star is in the final, violent stages of its life, shedding vast amounts of stellar material into space as it quickly approaches a supernova demise. But now, with the help of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Array, Betelgeuse's extended nebula has come to light. Comprised of silica and alumina dust, ESO astronomers have been able to image the nebula in infrared wavelengths for the first time. This is the most detailed view we've ever had of the imminent death of a titanic red supergiant star."
