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Chrome

Submission + - Google Releases Stable Version Of Chrome 10 (techspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has released version 10 of its browser. The update brings hundreds of bug fixes as well as many features that have been available on the Chrome beta and dev channels to users interested in using Chrome's latest builds. Chrome 10 also addresses 23 security vulnerabilities in the WebKit-based browser (easily more than Google has ever fixed before): 15 rated as High, three rated as Medium, and five rated as Low.
Space

Submission + - Non-profit manned space rocket launching in a week (copenhagensuborbitals.com) 2

Submitted by Plammox
Plammox writes: Well not really manned in the first go, as this is the first test of the boosters and space craft in combination with the sea launch platform they built. The catch? All of this is a non-profit project based on voluntary labour and sponsors. How will they get the launch platform out in the middle of the Baltic sea to perform the test? With the founder's home built submarine pushing it, of course. Enjoy the pictures.
Cellphones

Submission + - National Park Service Says Tech Enabling Stupidity 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The National Park Service is finding technology to be a double-edged sword. While new technologies can and do save lives, the NPS is also finding that unseasoned hikers and campers are now boldly going where they never would have gone before, counting on cellphones, GPS, and SPOT devices to bail them out if they get into trouble. Last fall, a group of hikers in the Grand Canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers complained that their water supply tasted salty. 'Because of having that electronic device, people have an expectation that they can do something stupid and be rescued,' said a spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park. 'Every once in a while we get a call from someone who has gone to the top of a peak, the weather has turned and they are confused about how to get down and they want someone to personally escort them. The answer is that you are up there for the night.'

Submission + - Electronic voting machine hacker arrested in India (indianevm.com)

Submitted by whatajoke
whatajoke writes: Hari Prasad, a security researcher in India who had demostrated the vulnerability of Electronic voting machines (EVM) used in all elections in India, was arrested by the Police on charges of stealing an electronic voting machine. The election commission of India has maintained that EVM are non hackeable. The election commission had previously provided access to the device to the security researchers for a day and asked for a hack in only that time.
Power

Submission + - Iran Opens Its First Nuclear Power Plant (voanews.com) 1

Submitted by pickens
pickens writes: VOA reports that Russian and Iranian engineers have begun loading fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant located in the southern city of Bushehr amid international fears that Iran will use the facility to make nuclear weapons, a charge both Tehran and the Kremlin vehemently deny. Officials say it will take about two to three months for the plant to start producing electricity once all of the fuel rods have been moved into the reactor and that the production capacity of the plant will initially be 500 megawatts but will eventually increase to 1,000 megawatts. Earlier this year, Washington criticized Russia for going ahead with the planned opening of the plant amid global disagreement and concern over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. Moscow did however back a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran, which called for Iran to stop uranium enrichment.
Space

Submission + - New spacecraft set for dangerous Jupiter trip

Submitted by solaGratia
solaGratia writes: It's the most heavily armored spacecraft ever launched to another planet. But it isn't headed into battle. Instead, it will be flying in one of the deadliest regions of the solar system: Jupiter's magnetosphere. "It's like sticking your head inside a microwave," he said. That's why the craft has to be armored; exposure to that much radiation without shielding would fry the electronics. The craft is Juno, and it's the first mission to Jupiter since Galileo was launched in 1986. It's one of the more wide-ranging studies of the giant planet.
Earth

Submission + - 100 sq-mile ice sheet breaks off Arctic glacier (cnn.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: The 260 square-kilometer (100 square miles) ice island separated from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland early on Thursday, researchers based at the University of Delaware said.

The ice island, which is about half the height of the Empire State Building, is the biggest piece of ice to break away from the Arctic icecap since 1962 and amounts to a quarter of the Petermann 70-kilometer floating ice shelf, according to research leader Andreas Muenchow.

Environmentalists say ice melt is being caused by global warming with Arctic temperatures in the 1990s reaching their warmest level of any decade in at least 2,000 years, according to a study published in 2009.

Current trends could see the Arctic Ocean become ice free in summer months within decades, researchers predict.

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/08/07/greenland.ice.island/index.html
NASA

Submission + - NASA Creates First Global Forest Map Using Lasers (treehugger.com)

Submitted by
MikeCapone
MikeCapone writes: "Scientists, using three NASA satellites, have created a first-of-its-kind map that details the height of the world's forests. The data was collected from NASA's ICESat, Terra and Aqua satellites. The latter two satellites are responsible for most of NASA's Gulf spill imagery. The data collected will help scientists understand how the world's forests both store and process carbon. While there are many local and regional canopy maps, this is the very first global map using a uniform method for measure."
Idle

Submission + - Man Single-Handedly Builds Underground Subway (treehugger.com)

Submitted by jerryjamesstone
jerryjamesstone writes: Everybody is into rail these days; it is the greenest way to get around next to a bike. Leonid Mulyanchik has been into it for years since before the Berlin Wall fell, since before the first Macintosh, building "his own private underground Metro railway system." English-Russia says that he has been doing it with his pension, that it is all legal and approved and that he is still at it. Gizmodo calls it "inspiring, one man against all odds type of persistence, but more the obsessive, borderline insane persistence."
Google

Submission + - Google Android Headed to the Chevy Volt (treehugger.com) 1

Submitted by jerryjamesstone
jerryjamesstone writes: Earlier this month, General Motors hinted at a partnership with a major tech company to fully overhaul their telematics system OnStar. While OnStar CEO Chris Preuss was tight-lipped about who that partner was, Motor Trend has just reported it's Google. If the rumor's true, GM will make the Chevy Volt the first Android-based vehicle to hit the road.
Science

Submission + - GPS Receiver Noise Can Be Used to Detect Snow Dept (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by
cremeglace
cremeglace writes: "Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder have found a use for GPS besides finding restaurants or the occasional road-that-doesn't-exist: it can be used to measure snow depth. The new technique, which takes advantage of distortions of the GPS signal after it reflects off the snowpack, may potentially improve weather forecasts by allowing meteorologists to track snowfall patterns. ScienceNOW has the story, which one geophysicist describes as "a classical case of one person's noise becoming another person's signal.""
Google

Submission + - Mozilla slams Chrome Frame as 'browser soup' (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Mozilla executives today took shots at Google for pitching its Chrome Frame plug-in as a solution to Internet Explorer's poor performance, with one arguing that Google's move will result in "browser soup." The Mozilla reaction puts the company that builds Firefox on the same side of the debate as rival Microsoft, which has also blasted Google over the plug-in. Mitchell Baker, the former CEO of Mozilla and currently the chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, said in a blog post, "The overall effects of Chrome Frame are undesirable. I predict positive results will not be enduring and — and to the extent it is adopted — Chrome Frame will end in growing fragmentation and loss of control for most of us, including Web developers." Baker says Chrome Frame's browser-in-a-browser will confuse users and render some of their familiar tools useless. "Once your browser has fragmented into multiple rendering engines, it's very hard to manage information across Web sites. Some information will be manageable from the browser you use and some information from Chrome Frame. This defeats one of the most important ways in which a browser can help people manage their [Web] experience.""

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