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Submission + - Debut of the First Practical 'Artificial Leaf' (ispyce.com) 1

Submitted by autospa
autospa writes: Scientists today claimed one of the milestones in the drive for sustainable energy — development of the first practical artificial leaf. Speaking here at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they described an advanced solar cell the size of a poker card that mimics the process, called photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert sunlight and water into energy. "A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of science for decades," said Daniel Nocera, Ph.D., who led the research team. "We believe we have done it. The artificial leaf shows particular promise as an inexpensive source of electricity for homes of the poor in developing countries. Our goal is to make each home its own power station," he said. "One can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology."
United States

Submission + - Meet 'Future You.' Like What You See?

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The WSJ reports that computer scientists, economists, neuroscientists and psychologists are teaming up to find innovative ways of turning impulsive spenders into patient savers and one way to shock Americans into saving more for their retirement is software that lets users stare into a camera in a virtual-reality laboratory and see an image staring back of how they will look in the year 2057. By enabling the young to see themselves as they will be when they are old, virtual-reality technology can transform their urge to spend for today into a willingness to save for tomorrow because to the extent that people can more vividly imagine how badly they will feel in the future with little to no retirement savings, they can be motivated to save more money now. In one test experimental subjects who saw a persuasive visual analog of a 70-year old version of themselves by morphing the shape and texture of his avatar to simulate the aging process reported they would save twice as much as those who didn't (PDF). "An employee's ID photo could be age-morphed and placed on the benefits section of the company's website," says Dan Goldstein of London Business School. "From there, we're just a few clicks and a few minutes away from someone making a lasting decision that can be worth thousands [of dollars].""
Space

Submission + - Record asteroid flyby - 0.85 Earth radii (nasa.gov) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday (February the 4th), a small 4.5M space rock called 2011 CQ1 passed within a record-breaking 5480KM of Earth — that's 0.85 times the radius of our planet! The rock skimmed above the pacific, and was visible to large amateur telescopes. The asteroid passed so close, that Earth's gravity altered its course by a massive 60 degrees, flinging it out of its original path. This is scary, considering the fact that the near-impactor was only discovered on the same day of the flyby — February the 4th, and its original pass distance was expected to be much further, at around 28,000KM. More info can be found here: http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/css/

I also have some links on the homepage of my site at http://gkastro.tk/.
Space

Submission + - European Space Agency's Big Decision (esa.int)

Submitted by arisvega
arisvega writes: Leading space scientists gathered in Paris this week to discuss how to spend more than a billion euros. The options? Well, try to choose between these three:
(1) a 20m-long telescope called IXO that could see the very "edge" of a black hole; or (2) a trio of satellites collectively known as LISA which might be able to detect the ripples in space-time left by the moment of creation itself; or (3) a pair of spacecraft that would visit two of the most promising locations for life beyond Earth in our Solar System.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please place your bets now.

Submission + - UnXis Group Acquires SCO (h-online.com)

Submitted by Evil-G
Evil-G writes: In an email, SCO yesterday (Friday) informed its partners that UnXis Inc. was chosen as the successful bidder for SCO's Unix software business on 26 January. The slightly convoluted phrasing is probably due to SCO's current reorganisation under Chapter 11. On 16 February, the transaction is to be submitted for approval to the bankruptcy court where SCO's case is pending. There is a press release on the SCO website.
Businesses

Submission + - Cell Phone Industry's Six Biggest Failed Schemes

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: The tech world is for dreamers, schemers, and sometimes, scammers. Which is why it's no surprise that the cell phone industry isn't any different. In wake of the recent news about the Israeli mobile-phone firm Modu shutting its doors, mobile analyst Sascha Segan revisits six major failures in the cell phone industry, from using phones to create a peer-to-peer that would eliminate the need for wireless carriers to a company with a $225,000 phone.

Submission + - MasterCard hit by WikiLeaks payback attacks (netcraft.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: MasterCard's website has been hit by a distributed denial of service attack. Netcraft describes how the attack uses a voluntary botnet of LOIC (low orbit ion cannon) users to swamp sites with traffic. PostFinance, the PayPal blog and Swedish prosecutors have been targetted previously.
Space

Submission + - Japanese space craft misses Venus (telegraph.co.uk) 1

Submitted by hcs_$reboot
hcs_$reboot writes: "A Japanese space probe on a £190 million mission to orbit Venus has missed the planet completely – but could be more successful when it next passes by in six years' time, scientists said."

While the reason of the failure is not confirmed, it is likely the probe didn't slow down enough when approaching Venus.

Submission + - Indian $35 tablet marches forward.. (medianama.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: HCL Infosystems has won a contract to manufacture 100,000 of the Indian governments $35 tablets, to be rolled out before the 10th of January 2011, reports livemint.com. The Indian government is allocating Rs. 30 crore (around $6.4 million) for the project. IIT Rajasthan will test the device. (Watch: demo of the $35 Tablet, with the Android OS). The Indian government has already announced plans to distribute 1 million of these units in 2011, to university students.

Bonus: Nicholas Negroponte whines about it.

Submission + - Court: ITunes Songs Aren't Purchased but Licensed (wsj.com)

Submitted by Tootech
Tootech writes: In a decision that could affect the financial relationships between record labels and performers, a federal appeals court in San Francisco on Friday ruled that songs downloaded from Apple’s iTunes store are not actually purchased, but are rather “licensed” by the ostensible buyer.

The distinction is hardly academic. Under most recording contracts, artists are entitled to 50% of revenue from licensed uses of their music. That usually means soundtracks for movies, TV shows and ads. Sales, on the other hand generate royalties for the artist at a much lower rate—generally in the low teens, and rarely more than 20%.

But in reviewing a decision in a suit brought against Universal Music Group by producers affiliated with rapper Eminem, the Ninth Circuit held that iTunes downloads (even the DRM-free variety) are encumbered by enough restrictions that they can’t be considered sales at all.
The Internet

Submission + - Fidel Castro Loves the World Wide Web (latimes.com)

Submitted by pickens
pickens writes: The LA Times reports that 84-year-old Cuban ex-President Fidel Castro consumes 200 to 300 news items a day on the World Wide Web and in a recent interview called web communication "the most powerful weapon that has existed" and extolled its power to break a stranglehold on the media by "the empire" and "ambitious private groups that have abused it" adding that the Internet "has put an end to secrets.... We are seeing a high level of investigative journalism, as the New York Times calls it, that is within reach of the whole world." Well, not the whole world. Cuba has the lowest level of Internet penetration in the Western Hemisphere (lower than Haiti), plus severe government restrictions and censorship affecting those who do have access. In addition Cuban law bans using the Internet to spread information that is against what the government considers to be the social interest, norms of good behavior, the integrity of the people or national security. Most Cubans who do have computers have access only to a Cuban intranet, a national e-mail system with approved websites and journals while on the World Wide Web, Cubans encounter filters and blocks on any information coming or going that might be construed as unfriendly to the Cuban government.

Submission + - Amateurs Aim to Rocket Into Space (copenhagensuborbitals.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sunday, the non-profit organization "Copenhagen Suborbitals" will conduct a test launch of HEAT-1X-Tycho Brahe. Aim is to reach 30km. Their mission is to bring one of the constructors into space in a $50.000 rocket.
Government

Submission + - DoD Takes Shots from Security Experts on Cyberwar (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Undersecretary of Defense William J. Lynn is being questioned by IT security experts who find it hard to believe that the incident which led to the Pentagon’s recognizing cyberspace as a new “domain of warfare” could have really happened as described.

In his essay, “Defending a New Domain,” Lynn recounts a widely-reported 2008 hack that was initiated when, according to Lynn, an infected flash drive was inserted into a military laptop by “a foreign intelligence agency.”

Critics such as IT security firm Sophos’ Chief Security Adviser Chester Wisniewski argue that this James Bond-like scenario doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. The primary issue is that the malware involved, known as agent.btz, is neither sophisticated nor particularly dangerous. A variant of the SillyFDC worm, agent.btz can be easily defeated by disabling the Windows “autorun” feature (which automatically starts a program on a drive upon insertion) or by simply banning thumb drives. In 2007, Silly FDC was rated as Risk Level 1: Very Low, by security firm Symantec.
Businesses

Submission + - Leaders Aren't Being Made at Tech Firms

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In Tech Industry Managers: Little Men in Big Shoes?, Vivek Wadhwa laments that short shrift is paid to management training these days at many high-tech firms. You can't be born with the skills needed to plan projects, adhere to EEOC guidelines, and prepare budgets and manage finances, or to know the intricacies of business and IP law, says Wadhwa. All this has to be learned. Stepping up to address the problems of 'engineering without leadership', which may include morale problems, missed deadlines, customer-support disasters, and high turnover, are programs like UC Berkeley's Engineering Leadership Program and Duke's Masters of Engineering Management Program, which aim to teach product management, entrepreneurial thinking, leadership, finance, team building, business management, and motivation to techies.
The Internet

Submission + - Chile miners will get a fiber optic connection (google.com)

Submitted by s122604
s122604 writes: From the story "Chile miners soon to 'see' loved ones over video link". It sounds just like a local connection to the surface. If you can get a functional fiber link down there, why not provide full internet connectivity? Should that happen, it brings up a lot of interesting considerations. The filtering of information that they receive would essentially be impossible. Also, celebrity status, and all the good and bad that brings, would find them even before they left the hole. It would be one heck of a time killer though...

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