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Biotech

Pope Denounces Some Biotech as Affront to 'Human Dignity' 1158

Posted by Zonk
from the weighing-in dept.
eldavojohn writes "Today in a speech the pope denounced human cloning, embryonic stem cell research and artificial insemination, citing them as a violation of 'human dignity.' That said, the pope did 'appreciate and encourage' research on stem cells from non-embryonic cells in the human body. The pope encouraged the Vatican to be a leading voice in the philosophy and discussion of bioethics. 'Church teaching certainly cannot and must not weigh in on every novelty of science, but it has the task to reiterate the great values which are on the line and to propose to faithful and all men of good will ethical-moral principles and direction for new, important questions,' Benedict said."
The Internet

Bees Can Optimize Internet Bottlenecks 128

Posted by ScuttleMonkey
from the bee-all-that-you-can-bee dept.
prostoalex writes "Georgia Tech and University of Oxford scientists claim bees can help up develop a better Internet traffic algorithms. By observing bees, the researchers noticed that bees pass back information on route quality. 'On a basic level, the honeybee's dilemma is a tale of two flower patches. If one patch is yielding better nectar than the other, how can the hive use its workforce most efficiently to retrieve the best supply at the moment? The solution, which earned Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch a Nobel Prize, is a communication system called the waggle dance.' Any practical applications of that? Well, apparently ad servers, serving banners across a variety of servers, can report back on the time it took to generate the page."
Wii

Wii owners get the shaft on Guitar Hero 3 1

Submitted by
Jeezus Kriist
Jeezus Kriist writes "The Wii version of Guitar Hero 3 seems to suffer from a lack of effort. The most pressing problem being the sound. There is a distinct lack of surround sound from the game, and more than that there seems to be only monorail sound available. If you set the game to surround, only the center channel works, and if you set it to stereo it plays the same sound out of both channels. Who puts out a music game without testing the audio configuration?! Add to that the poor graphics which seem to have been ported straight over from the PS2 version. There are no star power animation effects, which kinda take the fun out of star power. I don't think it would have been that difficult to build the "low-res" (as in not the high-res 360 and PS3 graphics) graphics for the Wii version and then port them down to the PS2. ...and why can't I buy a Wii guitar controller without the game?! I've seen several complaints on several message boards, http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2007/10/30/rockers-report-guitar-hero-iii-dolby-pro-logic-ii-is-missing/ but I've yet to see anything from a source that can get some mass attention drawn to this problem, and I really think it needs it. I know that I feel pretty ripped off, and I doubt I'm the only one. Activision needs to fix this, or suffer the wrath of the next-gen system with the (currently) largest user base, which also just happens to be built around casual games like guitar hero. I've noticed some problems with the timing of the notes as well... You can tell me I just suck, but set the Wii version to easy, and then get back back to me about how many times notes you hit just didn't register. :P I don't care if you post this or not, I just want enough attention brought up about this that ACtivision can't ignore it."
Enlightenment

Which Console? 1

Submitted by
tomandlu
tomandlu writes "My 8 year old son has been left some money by his grandfather with strict instructions to spend it on something for himself. So he wants to buy a new games console (we have a PS2). And he wants my advice as to whether he should get an XBox, a Wii or a PS3 — and I have no idea what to tell him...

Between the three choices, we have the underpowered but well-liked Wii, the fault-prone XBox, and the great-hardware-shame-about-the-games-and-backwards-compatibility PS3.

Is the last accusation valid? How does the XBox compare? In fact, how does the range of quality games compare across the different consoles altogether? If it's the best short-term choice, can the Wii sustain long-term interest from both gamers and developers? What, above all, do I tell my son, and what damn console should we get?

I await your collective wisdom..."

Robotic Cannon Loses Control, Kills 9 580

Posted by Zonk
from the keep-quiet-on-the-terminator-jokes dept.
TJ_Phazerhacki writes "A new high tech weapon system demonstrated one of the prime concerns circling smarter and smarter methods of defense last week — an Oerlikon GDF-005 cannon went wildly out of control during live fire test exercises in South Africa, killing 9. Scarily enough, this is far from the first instance of a smart weapon 'turning' on its handlers. 'Electronics engineer and defence company CEO Richard Young says he can't believe the incident was purely a mechanical fault. He says his company, C2I2, in the mid 1990s, was involved in two air defence artillery upgrade programmes, dubbed Projects Catchy and Dart. During the shooting trials at Armscor's Alkantpan shooting range, "I personally saw a gun go out of control several times," Young says. "They made a temporary rig consisting of two steel poles on each side of the weapon, with a rope in between to keep the weapon from swinging. The weapon eventually knocked the pol[e]s down."' The biggest concern seems to be finding the glitches in the system instead of reconsidering automated arms altogether."
Power

Pentagon Urges Space-Based Solar Power 552

Posted by kdawson
from the let-the-beam-me-down-jokes-begin dept.
eldavojohn writes "The Pentagon issued a report indicating that space-based solar power 'has the potential to help the United States stave off climate change and avoid future conflicts over oil by harnessing the Sun's power to provide an essentially inexhaustible supply of clean energy.' The report, from the Pentagon's National Security Space Office, calls for funding the development of space-based solar power culminating in 'a platform in geosynchronous orbit bigger than the international space station and capable of beaming 5-10 megawatts of power to a receiving station on the ground.' The Pentagon's interest in such an effort stems from the need to acquire energy on the battlefield, which today often comes at a painful premium."
The Internet

FCC Weighs Net Access Charge Decision 86

Posted by Zonk
from the i-suggest-you-decide-no dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The FCC is considering a request from AT&T to lift restrictions on the types of charges they can level against competitors that use their infrastructure. The organization had previously allowed that for Verizon by virtue of a deadlock, and Ma Bell now hopes to see similar treatment. 'All the requests have been strongly opposed by smaller rivals such as Sprint Nextel, Time Warner Telecommunications and XO Communications. These competitors argue that they have few alternatives to get access to the high-speed lines they need, and are being charged more and more by the dominant carriers.'"
Space

Powerful Blast Confuses Astronomers 330

Posted by Zonk
from the somehow-i-think-this-bodes-ill-for-earth dept.
eldavojohn writes "Astronomers are still speculating as to what could have caused an abnormally strong five millisecond burst to be detected six years ago when it completely saturated their recording equipment. From the article: 'The burst was so bright that at the time it was first recorded it was dismissed as man-made radio interference. It put out a huge amount of power (10exp33 Joules), equivalent to a large (2000MW) power station running for two billion billion years.'"

"And they told us, what they wanted... Was a sound that could kill some-one, from a distance." -- Kate Bush