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Biotech

Submission + - Chili Pepper Sauce tested on surgical wounds

Ponca City, We Love You writes: "Bite a hot pepper, and after the burn your tongue goes numb. The Baltimore Sun reports that Capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire, is being dripped directly into open wounds during highly painful operations bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose to numb them for weeks so that patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal. "We wanted to exploit this numbness," says Dr. Eske Aasvang, a pain specialist who is testing the substance. Capsaicin works by binding to C fibers called TRPV1, the nerve endings responsible for long-lasting aching and throbbing pain. Experiments are under way involving several hundred patients undergoing various surgeries, including knee and hip replacements using an ultra-purified version of Capsaicin to avoid infection. Volunteers are under anesthesia so they don't scream at the initial burn."
IBM

Submission + - Recycle Waste CPU Wafers into Solar Panels (statesman.com)

Luyseyal writes: "IBM has developed a process for scrubbing the data clean from waste silicon wafers, allowing the otherwise highly secret waste to be sold. The silicon quality usually necessary for solar production is very high and the cost of solar panels reflects it. Recycling this waste should help bring down the cost in the long run and add a new profit vector for chip manufacturers."
The Internet

Submission + - Liberal Party of Norway Wants Legal File Sharing

dot-magnon writes: "The Liberal Party of Norway (Venstre) passed a unanimous resolution that advocates legal file sharing. The party wants to legalise sharing of any copyrighted material for non-commercial use. It also proposes a ban on DRM technology, free sampling of other artists' material, and shortening the life span of copyright.

The Liberal Party is the first Norwegian political party, and the first European mainstream political party, to advocate file sharing.

From the press release:
— The laws today make a whole generation criminals, while we have yet to protect artists' interests. We've had systems to compensate copyright holders since the photocopier was invented, but new technology has been left behind. The laws must adapt to the citizens and modern technology. I believe in this resolution to create a radical, modern policy on culture and IT, while still protecting the interests of artists, says Trine Skei Grande, Vice Chairwoman of the Liberal Party.

Cultural spokesperson for the Young Liberals of Norway, Jonas Stein Eilertsen, also supports the measures drafted in the resolution. — New opportunities exist. We want to use technology and the possibilities in file sharing. We want to encourage the use and spread of any culture for non-commercial purposes.

The Young Liberals of Norway, the Liberal Party youth wing, proposed the resolution.

The resolution, in Norwegian: Slipp kulturen fri!
The full translation can be read on Young Liberals' website: Culture wants to be free!
Press release from Young Liberals of Norway: Liberal Party Advocates Legal File Sharing"
Google

Google Faces Plagiarism Questions Over Chinese Software 187

yaohua2000 writes "Google's laboratory in China has launched its first product, a Pinyin Input Method Editor. The software allows the romanized characters to be translated to more traditional Chinese symbols , via entering on a QWERTY keyboard. Users soon discovered that the data Google used for the product was unusually similar to the data used by a Chinese rival, Sogou. Google has evaded the question about software similarities, reports PC World. 'The similarities, which included an error involving the name of a celebrity, were noted on a Google Labs discussion board about its Pinyin IME. Users noted that entering the Pinyin pinggong into the Google IME incorrectly produced the name of Feng Gong, an actor and comedian.'"
Education

Submission + - Canadian University students protecting their IP

innocent_white_lamb writes: Graduate students at Carleton University (Ottawa) are taking steps to protect their intellectual property and insuring that they are being properly recognized for their work, according to this article. This is in response to the increased commercialization of research done at universities, and high-profile cases of copyright infringement by professors at the University of Toronto and Indiana University.

Feed Xbox 360 to get keyboard controller attachment (engadget.com)

Filed under: Gaming

That two year old rumor that the Xbox 360 was to get a qwerty keyboard attachment has been resurrected, with the appearance of another Gamespot article (leak?) referring to a 47 key keyboard which snaps onto the Xbox 360 controller and communicates through the headset jack. Gamespot says that the peripheral is to be used in conjunction with the cross-platform instant messaging capabilities to be added to the Spring dashboard update. Apparently it'll be available in the Summer for an as yet unnamed price. Bring on the tired thumbs.

[Thanks, Jack W]

Update: Looks like Gamespot ganked the post. What could it mean?

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