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Earth

New Research Forecasts Global 6C Increase By End of Century 746

Posted by Soulskill
from the yelling-match-begins-now dept.
jamie writes with this snippet from the UK's Independent: "The world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C by the end of the century, leading scientists said yesterday. ... [The study] found that there has been a 29 per cent increase in global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel between 2000 and 2008, the last year for which figures are available. On average, the researchers found, there was an annual increase in emissions of just over 3 per cent during the period, compared with an annual increase of 1 per cent between 1990 and 2000. Almost all of the increase this decade occurred after 2000 and resulted from the boom in the Chinese economy. The researchers predict a small decrease this year due to the recession, but further increases from 2010."
Space

+ - SpaceX Announces Dragon as First Falcon 9 Payload->

Submitted by
BJ_Covert_Action
BJ_Covert_Action writes "SpaceX announced yesterday that it would be integrating a stripped down test version of its own Dragon cargo capsule as the payload for its first Falcon 9 test launch. The Falcon 9 rocket is currently scheduled to launch on November 29 of this year if everything goes according to plan. However, Elon Musk admits that launch day will likely slip to sometime early next year. The Falcon 9 is the heavy launch vehicle designed by SpaceX to be used as a cheap, commercial alternative to existing United States launch platforms. Having launched a few successful light missions with the Falcon 1 rocket, SpaceX is going to launch the Falcon 9 as its next milestone in commercializing the space industry.

Utilizing its own cargo capsule as the first Falcon 9 payload will effectively give SpaceX twice the tests for one launch slot on the Cape Canaveral range. The capsule that will be used is a test version of the full Dragon capsule that encompasses primarily the structure and a few components of the full version. It served originally as a ground test platform for the Dragon design team and now will double as an orbital testbed. If nothing else, the announcement, which was detailed by Spaceflightnow.com upped the ante in the commercial space market by showing the SpaceX is capable and willing to push the envelop on its development schedules. It should serve as a proper motivator for other commercial competitors such as Orbital Sciences with their Cygnus capsule which is also under development."
Link to Original Source

+ - Ice Satellite Maps Profound Polar Thinning->

Submitted by
xp65
xp65 writes "Researchers have used NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite to compose the most comprehensive picture of changing glaciers along the coast of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The new elevation maps show that all latitudes of the Greenland ice sheet are affected by dynamic thinning — the loss of ice due to accelerated ice flow to the ocean. The maps also show surprising, extensive thinning in Antarctica, affecting the ice sheet far inland. The study, led by Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England, was published September 24 in Nature."
Link to Original Source
Operating Systems

+ - Anatomy of the Linux virtual file system switch

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "With the Linux virtual file system switch (VFS), you can create file systems on a variety of devices, from traditional disk, USB flash drives, memory, and other storage devices. You can even embed a file system within the context of another file system. Discover what makes the VFS so powerful, and learn its major interfaces and processes."
United States

+ - Forensics Expert says Al-Qaeda Images Altered

Submitted by WerewolfOfVulcan
WerewolfOfVulcan writes "Wired reports that researcher Neal Krawetz revealed some veeeeeery interesting things about the Al-Qaeda images that our government loves to show off.

From the article: "Krawetz was also able to determine that the writing on the banner behind al-Zawahiri's head was added to the image afterward. In the second picture above showing the results of the error level analysis, the light clusters on the image indicate areas of the image that were added or changed. The subtitles and logos in the upper right and lower left corners (IntelCenter is an organization that monitors terrorist activity and As-Sahab is the video production branch of al Qaeda) were all added at the same time, while the banner writing was added at a different time, likely around the same time that al-Zawahiri was added, Krawetz says." Why would Al-Qaeda add an IntelCenter logo to their video? Why would IntelCenter add an Al-Qaeda logo? Methinks we have bigger fish to fry than Gonzo and his fired attorneys... }:-) The article contains links to Krawetz's presentation and the source code he used to analyze the photos."
Networking

+ - SuprNova.org Transferred to The Pirate Bay->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Andrej Preston, ex-administrator of legendary BitTorrent SuprNova.org, has turned over the keys to The Pirate Bay.

"My deal with [The Pirate Bay] was that the role of SuprNova can't change much," he tells Slyck.com. "It needs to be community orientated, but I hope they make some updates the SuprNova was sooo missing. But what they will do, it's not my thing to decide anymore. But I know they will do [well] and will try to keep the community spirit running.""
Link to Original Source
Programming

+ - Plans for the Rich Web Application Backplane 2

Submitted by IndioMan
IndioMan writes "Both mashups and Ajax are now firmly entrenched in the Web landscape. Put them together and you have the makings for Rich Web applications. This article explains the Rich Web Application Backplane, currently a W3C Note, which is designed to bring standardization to the field, proving a set of common building blocks, or components, these applications tend to use."
Media

+ - Guide: How to shop for your first HDTV

Submitted by
Olin Coles
Olin Coles writes "The end is near. I realize this is an overly dramatic if not vague introduction for a how-to guide, but there is some truth to it. For those of us who have not been keeping tabs on the network television industry, there is a very important date to mark on the calendar: 17 February 2009. D-Day. All network television stations will stop broadcasting all analog signals on this date and complete the transition to digital broadcast. Analog television will be a relic of the past, and the digital age will complete its global presence. How will you save yourself, your family, and loved ones? What you do to prepare for the future will depend solely on what you know about it. Benchmark Reviews has created this guide to infuse months of research into a very easy to understand article, all for the purpose of preparing you for D-Day.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_c ontent&task=view&id=18&Itemid=1"
Hardware Hacking

+ - Bootable IDE ports disappearing- why & how to

Submitted by
wattsup
wattsup writes "It seems that bootable IDE ports are disappearing on newer motherboards.

I recently purchased an MSI G965M-FI motherboard for a system upgrade. Overall the board is pretty good with lots of features, but it had one "unexpected feature" that I didn't know about when I bought it. The PATA100 IDE port won't allow you to install an operating system from a CD-ROM attached to it.

While its on their website, MSI doesn't tell you this on the retail packaging, until you break the seal on the static wrap and look at the motherboard. There, with a tiny label placed over the IDE connector they inform you "This IDE does not support OS installation in hard drive".

This made my out-of-box experience rather maddening, as I had to get a USB based CD-ROM to install a fresh copy of XP. This seems like a pretty lame way to save money, disabling functionality on an IDE port that's included. Some research shows me that other manufacturers are doing the same thing. Why?

My question is; Does anybody know if this is an issue that can be fixed by upgrading the BIOS, or is this hard-wired in the IDE controller?"

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