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Transportation

Submission + - Ferrari Unveils World's Fastest (and Most Expensive) Hybrid

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Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Fred Meier reports that Ferrari has unveiled its fastest car ever, a nearly 1000 hp. gas-electric hybrid dubbed LaFerrari that does 0-62 mph in less than 3 seconds, 0-124 in less than 7 seconds, 0-186 mph in 15 seconds. "We chose to call this model LaFerrari," says Ferrari's President, Luca di Montezemolo, "because it is the maximum expression of what defines our company – excellence. ...Aimed at our collectors, this is a truly extraordinary car which encompasses advanced solutions that, in the future, will find their way onto the rest of the range." LaFerrari is the company's first hybrid and has a system that incorporates technology developed for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One race car's KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) setup. In LaFerrari, the hybrid (HY-KERS) version uses a 6.26-liter, non-turbo, V-12 gas engine rated at 800 hp coupled with a 163 hp. electric motor for a combined rating of 963 hp. A second, separate electric motor drives the power accessories. The 60 kilogram battery pack in the cabin floor is charged during braking and also when the gas engine is producing more torque than needed to move the car, in which case that torque is converted to energy and stored. The LaFerrari, priced at over $1 million and limited to 499 buyers fits into Ferrari’s strategy of boosting profitability with ever-more-luxurious offerings while limiting its annual output to about 7,000 cars to maintain exclusivity. “After several depressing years, wealthy drivers in Europe think the worst is behind us, and they’ll start spending again on their favorite cars,” says Fabio Barone, the owner of two Ferraris ."
Science

Submission + - The Science of Hugo Chavez's Long Term Embalming

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Discover Magazine reports that Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez will apparently get an embalming job designed to keep him looking alive for decades similar to that of Russia's Vladimir Lenin, whose body still lies in a mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square, nearly 90 years after his death. So how do you preserve a human body for decades without it turning into a pile of melted tissue? First, get to work quickly. Upon death, the human body starts decomposing immediately. The way to stop it is with formaldehyde, a preservative used for the past century, which inhibits the enzyme decomposition as well as killing bacteria. “You pump the chemical in, and as the formaldehyde hits the cells of the body, it firms up the protein of the cell, or fixates it,” says Vernie Fountain, head of the Fountain National Academy of Professional Embalming Skills in Springfield, Mo. “That’s what makes them stiff.” With a body that will have to be on display for years, it’s likely to require a top-shelf, super-strong solution. “If I were doing Hugo Chavez, I would strengthen the solution and use more preservative product,” says Fountain. Next, get a good moisturizer. Formaldehyde preserves, but it also dries out the body. Vaseline or other moisturizers can preserve the look of skin, according to Melissa Johnson Williams, executive director of the American Society of Embalmers. Finally keep cool. Heat decomposes a body so for long term preservation, the body has to be kept at the temperature of a standard kitchen refrigerator, somewhere in the mid-40s. Lastly, if Venezuelans really want to keep Hugo Chavez around forever, like many other world figures, there’s only one solution that works, according to Fountain. “The best form of preservation is mummification.""

Submission + - Bringing neurofeedback gaming to the masses (latimes.com)

Submitted by captioning
captioning writes: The Los Angeles Times reports on Throw Trucks With Your Mind, a multiplayer first-person "gunless shooter" that uses an inexpensive, wireless EEG (electroencephalograph) headset to measure players' brainwaves and move virtual objects on screen. Depending on the strength of players' beta waves (emitted while concentrating), players toss small items like crates or catapult objects like trucks. Players can also draw things toward them by relaxing (and emitting alpha waves). Greater relaxation results in more power as well, so players learn quickly to be careful when attracting trucks. The success of Throw Trucks could lead to stronger demand for neural feedback games worldwide .

Submission + - Why Amazon wants to pay sales tax (slate.com)

Submitted by Maximum Prophet
Maximum Prophet writes: A while ago, Amazon caved on paying individual states sales taxes. Now we know why. Amazon is setting up same day delivery warehouses, *everywhere*. They will put most normal retailers out of business.
Censorship

Submission + - Tor Tests Undetectably Encrypted Connections In Iran (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Ahead of the anniversary of Iran’s revolution, the country’s government has locked down its already-censored Internet, blocking access to many services and in some cases cutting off all encrypted traffic on the Web of the kind used by secure email, social networking and banking sites. In response, the information-freedom-focused Tor Project is testing a new tool it's calling "obfsproxy" or obfuscated proxy, which aims to make SSL or TLS traffic appear to be unencrypted traffic like HTTP or instant messaging data. While the tool currently only disguises SSL as the SOCKS protocol, in future versions it will aim to disguise encrypted traffic as any protocol the user chooses. Tor executive director Andrew Lewman says the idea is to “make your Ferrari look like a Toyota by putting an actual Toyota shell over the Ferrari,”
Communications

UK To Track All Browsing, Email, and Phone Calls 286

Posted by samzenpus from the that-about-covers-it dept.
Sara Chan writes "The UK government plans to introduce legislation that will allow the police to track every phone call, email, text message and website visit made by the public. The information will include who is contacting whom, when and where and which websites are visited, but not the content of the conversations or messages. Every communications provider will be required to store the information for at least a year."
PC Games (Games)

Interview for Mytheon 32

Posted by Soulskill from the wait-for-the-vespene-farmers dept.
Kheldon tips an interview with Petroglyph's Chuck Kroegel about an upcoming MMO called Mytheon, which will be free to play, but also involve micro-transactions. It's an action strategy game with RTS and RPG elements. He says, "The game starts in the Greco-Roman era, as well as Egypt, and as time goes on we'll expand throughout the whole world. Something everyone has in common is they all have their mythologies, these beasts and these stories that have come to us through legends and folklore. All the nations of the world, they all have their own. So in our game Mytheon, we can eventually fill the Earth in terms of being able to explore mythologies of all nations. It's an action/strategy game, with elements of RPG, and elements of RTS that people have to come to appreciate and enjoy."
Update — 4/30 at 17:30 by SS: The summary originally linked to an article stating that Petroglyph was working with Trion World Network on Mytheon. This is not the case; they are working together on a different game, which is the MMORTS previously referenced in the title.

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