Slashdot Mirror

canning writes "This article from MSNBC reports the results from a new study that states the world's population will peak in the year 2070. The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, the study's authors, say they have developed "a statistical computer model that considers uncertainties in migration, mortality and birth rates". The story is displayed on their home page.
The article has been discussed in other publications such as New Scientist and National Geographic. Also news agency Reuters, newspapers Washington Post, Guardian, and broadcasting stations BBC and ABC.
The Nature article can be found here."

DigitalRonin writes: "For a (welcome) change, WIPO have ruled against a high-profile company (Armani), and for the legitimate owner of the armani.com domain name - a canadian graphic designer, A. R. Mani. Full details in the article at the BBC's website."

evilandi writes: "Spacewar, the world's first arcade game, is 40 years old this summer. Read this article at the BBC and play Spacewar using a Java emulator- remember, this was a two-player only game, designed in 1961 when programmers had friends who were in the same room! Spacewar, which was similar to Asteroids, later shipped as standard software for the PDP-1." Well, maybe the first electronic arcade game ;) -- or can anyone cite counterexamples?

imipak writes: "The BBC report that a Congressional Report on file sharing software has wheeled in that trusty old warhorse that always seems to turn up in government attempts to restrict freedom: children and pr0n. Apparently, "search for the word 'porn' on BearShare results in more than 25,000 entries, many of them video files." Who'd a'thunk it?" Don't miss the actual report, which makes for amusing reading, especially the carefully blotted-out screenshots.

imipak writes: "The BBC report that a Congressional Report on file sharing software has wheeled in that trusty old warhorse that always seems to turn up in government attempts to restrict freedom: children and pr0n. Apparently, "search for the word 'porn' on BearShare results in more than 25,000 entries, many of them video files." Who'd a'thunk it?" Don't miss the actual report, which makes for amusing reading, especially the carefully blotted-out screenshots.

Darkfox writes "This story from BBC News shows a new Thrustmaster device designed to let you actually carry out physical movements for input into fighting games. Looks like contortionist heaven, and the input mechanism is ... coarse to say the least, but perhaps this is just the start of the evolution of input devices?" An input device that my brother and I can agree on -- except that it only works with Playstation for now. It's nearly guaranteed to be denounced as encouraging violence and lust. Ergo, we need drivers for PCs running Free operating systems.

Darkfox writes "This story from BBC News shows a new Thrustmaster device designed to let you actually carry out physical movements for input into fighting games. Looks like contortionist heaven, and the input mechanism is ... coarse to say the least, but perhaps this is just the start of the evolution of input devices?" An input device that my brother and I can agree on -- except that it only works with Playstation for now. It's nearly guaranteed to be denounced as encouraging violence and lust. Ergo, we need drivers for PCs running Free operating systems.

mkasei writes "SpaceRef has an early press release with image from Brown University which reports evidence of recent liquid water near the surface of mars. What's important about this find is that it is near the equator making it more readily accessable for a mission, be it robotic or manned." Update: 07/25 09:49 PM by M : There's also a BBC story about water on Mars as well, and a brief Nature article about the possibility of water on Callisto.

R3 writes "BBC News is running this story, about SETI's renewed efforts to find ETs who might be flashing us with light, instead of radio-waves:"

Lee writes: "this article on BBC News (& This longer one on New Scientist, with a nice diagram) talks about an 'artificial passenger' being developed by IBM. It's built into the dashboard of your vehicle and will talk to you, tell you jokes, and monitor your responses ... why? To keep you from falling asleep at the wheel,and adding yourself to the 30% of road traffic accidents caused by falling asleep at the wheel. Some of the countermeasures are entertaining, but there's no mention of electrocution. Damn!"

guantamanera writes: "Mutating chickens. The BBC has this story. About cloning chickens, and transforming them into something else."

drbrain writes: "They seem to have succeeded again, their Helios is their first success of a remotely, solar self powered aircraft. Looks kinda weird. They plan to use it for research and the military." Meanwhile, Guppy06 and many others sent in stories about a successful test of the Star Wars missile defense system, which will protect us from all those ballistic missiles that foreign nations don't have and would be silly to use, when you can just drive down from Canada with a suitcase nuke.

Kryptonomic writes: "This might be interesting news in the light of the previous Slashdot article on global warming. On Thursday the UN's International Panel on Climate Change released a damning report warming that the global warming is happening at a much faster rate than previously predicted. In this report the world's most distinguished meteorologists also give their unqualified backing not only to the argument that global warming is happening faster, but also that it is definitely due to human activity."

chuckT writes: "After a troubled few months, Psion, makers of the world's finest (if a little long in the tooth) handhelds, have finally withdrawn from the consumer market, and now appear to be concentrating on the corporate market. I switched to a 5mx a while ago, having used Palms, and loved the Psion. A beautifully thought out machine, I particularly liked OPL (the bundled BASIC-like language) and the fold-out keyboard. They had a real opportunity to be as successful as Palm, but somehow, being a British company, managed to cock it up. Bloody typical." Besides the loss of 250 jobs as Psion, this also sounds like a blow to Bluetooth, which Psion's CEO calls "late on the uptake and much smaller than anticipated" in the BBC piece.

webword writes: "BBC News Online is reporting that Dr. Orly Lacham-Kaplan, from Monash University in Melbourne, has developed a technique to use any cell in a body to fertilize an egg. According to the story, theoretically 'lesbian couples could give birth to a baby girl without the need for a father'. In particular, she has been able to fertilise mice eggs in lab cultures using somatic cells. (Aside: Here is a little article on the ethics of cloning using somatic cells.) While this is not quite bokanovskification, it seems to be a step in that direction."

webword writes: "BBC News Online is reporting that Dr. Orly Lacham-Kaplan, from Monash University in Melbourne, has developed a technique to use any cell in a body to fertilize an egg. According to the story, theoretically 'lesbian couples could give birth to a baby girl without the need for a father'. In particular, she has been able to fertilise mice eggs in lab cultures using somatic cells. (Aside: Here is a little article on the ethics of cloning using somatic cells.) While this is not quite bokanovskification, it seems to be a step in that direction."

GreyPoopon writes: "Check out this article on BBC Online regarding a gender divide in brain usage between male and female. Basically, the article talks about how the males and females use the brain differently to execute the same tasks. Differences between males and females are always a subject of controversy, and the article does a good job of presenting facts without trolling." As the article points out, in the case of brain injuries, the treatments appropriate for men and women ought perhaps vary to accomodate these newly discovered usage patterns.

Mutant writes: "BBC News has a story on the latest photos of Mars from Hubble. Because Mars is at one of it's closest positions to Earth, the Hubble has been able to take some beautiful snaps of the red planet, clearly showing "water-ice clouds", dust storms, and more. I can't wait until 2003 when Mars and Earth come closer than they will for the next 300 years."

Kryptonomic writes: "According to "this article, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery and contemplating teaming up for a fourth Indiana Jones movie possibly set in (surprise, surprise) Atlantis. It is rumoured that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg will produce and direct the movie, respectively." Listen? Can you here the music? Can ya?

Your recommended daily dose of insanity. FattyBoeBatty writes "Napster has been sued again, but this time it's by a company that makes meditation music -- and for once it's not about copyrights. They're afraid that without their company's warning labels, unsuspecting Napster users will be lulled to sleep by the tranquil melodies and will fall asleep at inopportune times (i.e. driving, operating heavy machinery, etc.)" A bunch of people submitted this story about Clonaid, a group of people wearing tin-foil hats who want to clone a human (and whose leader will give speeches for a measly $100,000). Finally, Hacky writes: "Security Service MI5 once planned to recruit a team of specially-trained gerbils as a secret weapon to sniff out spies, it has been revealed."

D Anderson n'Swaart writes: "BBC News is reporting that a recent experiment called Project Boomerang, conducted with a super-sensitive telescope suspended 40 km above Antarctica, has provided powerful new evidence to support the current trend in scientific thinking that the fabric of space is essentially flat, and not curved as Einstein postulated. The one billion measurements gathered took three weeks to analyse on a Cray T3E supercomputer, and have provided insights on the creation of the universe, and suggest that it will continue to expand indefinitely without collapsing in a Big Crunch."

D Anderson n'Swaart writes: "BBC News is reporting that a recent experiment called Project Boomerang, conducted with a super-sensitive telescope suspended 40 km above Antarctica, has provided powerful new evidence to support the current trend in scientific thinking that the fabric of space is essentially flat, and not curved as Einstein postulated. The one billion measurements gathered took three weeks to analyse on a Cray T3E supercomputer, and have provided insights on the creation of the universe, and suggest that it will continue to expand indefinitely without collapsing in a Big Crunch."

rleyton writes: "The BBC is reporting here that UK Rocket enthusiast Steve Bennett of Starchaser Industries is planning on launching himself into space soon. He's unveiling a rocket at a London exhibition. Other Rocket enthusiasts here in the UK are claiming it's "Suicide", but perhaps the momentum for a manned Private Space exploration is building?" First step: buy more D engines.

rleyton writes: "The BBC is reporting here that UK Rocket enthusiast Steve Bennett of Starchaser Industries is planning on launching himself into space soon. He's unveiling a rocket at a London exhibition. Other Rocket enthusiasts here in the UK are claiming it's "Suicide", but perhaps the momentum for a manned Private Space exploration is building?" First step: buy more D engines.

Johan Jonasson writes "Scientists have found the "switch" that allows a firefly to light up its body. The beetle flashes the "lantern" on its abdomen to attract a mate. Researchers have long understood how the light is generated but the control mechanism used by the insect has been a mystery. Now, a US team has been able to show that the simple molecule nitric oxide acts as the on-off "button"."

Everyone and their brother sent in this unsurprising news: the Appeals Court handling the Microsoft anti-trust case has overturned the break-up decision. A few story URLs: CNet, BBC, ABC, AP, Reuters, MSNBC. The decision is available in .pdf format. A brief summary: the Findings of Fact (Microsoft's conduct, etc.) are still in place, but Judge Jackson's evaluation of those facts and the penalty he imposed are thrown out. A new District Judge will examine the case, starting from the Findings of Fact. Update 2h later by J : Dan Gillmor's analysis is good. So is this Washington Post column, which is insightful except it doesn't go far enough. It also shows MS CEO Steve Ballmer's attitude even before today's ruling: "Is there any limit to what you think you can put into the operating system at all?" "...as a matter of law, no, I don't think so..."

More inspiration tonight for anyone planning a low-key entry to space, eyeball feed to celebrate Quake's semi-decennial, and a bit more on Scott McCloud's comic arguments.

Alternate title: Natural Born Fraggers JamesColburn writes: "I just noticed your article on the 5th anniversary of Quake. I spent much of last year with a couple of friends making a 40 min documentary on the game, the gamers and pro game playing ... Broke my bank. But it was worth it."

Are there prizes for other letters, too? gagganator writes: "If you thought that American aiming for space was headed for the darwin awards, check out this brit who seems destined to beat him (to the darwin awards, that is)."

The ten-million dollar X-prize is a pretty good incentive for early adopters, but I might wait until Boeing has done a few test flights, introduced frequent flyer miles, etc, rather than just sit among four strapped-together rocket engines.

If you must draw conclusions, draw them like this. Sudderth writes: "Scott McCloud has posted a reaction to the 'backlash' against his online comic about micropayments."

McCloud wrote and drew what is probably the best explanation of and argument for micropayments as applied to comics (in two parts -- here are the slashdot posts about the first and second parts) that I've ever seen. Seems like not everyone agrees.

jeffsenter writes: "NASA is about to test a solar powered and solar orienting wheeled robot known as Hyperion on arctic Devos Island, Canada. The Carnegie Mellon designed robot is a prototype for future robots to explore the polar regions of Mars, the Moon, and other moons. Here is the BBC article and here is the NYTimes (free reg. req.)."

A reader:"The BBC News site has a story about Napster signing a deal with 150 record companies to distrube their music over the net." Interesting to note this piece though that the usage has totally dropped off the face of the earth.

A reader:"The BBC News site has a story about Napster signing a deal with 150 record companies to distrube their music over the net." Interesting to note this piece though that the usage has totally dropped off the face of the earth.

Rich Jones writes "According to this story over at the BBC every geek's favorite search engine is contemplating an IPO. " Hopefully this wouldn't effect the lean mean searching that I've come to love from the unquestioned king of search engines. Now that the hype surrounding IPOs has fizzled, its nice to see a company that looks as good as Google thinking about it.

Rich Jones writes "According to this story over at the BBC every geek's favorite search engine is contemplating an IPO. " Hopefully this wouldn't effect the lean mean searching that I've come to love from the unquestioned king of search engines. Now that the hype surrounding IPOs has fizzled, its nice to see a company that looks as good as Google thinking about it.

Peterpan writes: "ZDNet reports that Infogrames is going to port their classic Atari games to J2ME-enabled mobile devices. The Japanese still are far beyond the rest of the world regarding such devices. BTW Infogrames also wants to become Atari! I have heard that the company has established ties with Amiga Inc, so we may see Atari games for Amiga powered devices!? I would love to see Turrican on a Zaurus PDA, Rainbow Arts where are you?! :)" There's also a BBC story.

mvw writes: " This article is about yet unidentified species of poisonous spiders .. found by British Telecom technicians beneath Queen Elisabeth's Windsor castle!"

chewy_fruit_loop writes "The humorous situation Microsoft found itself in a few months ago regarding the X-Box name already belonging to someone, has been settled. The BBC are reporting it here ,and XBox Technologies have this press release. I wonder how much that cost Microsoft ;-)" Apparently The corporation formerly known as XBox is located like a half hour from here. Congrats guys! I expect to see you in shiny ferarris sometime soon.

SmasKenS writes "So, not only did they get to make the CPU for Nintendo's GameCube, now they work for Sony too. Saw this on voodooextreme first, they also got a link to BBC News." Now, granted, this is several years away from actually happening, (projected date of 2004) but the costs (and profits) that are involved are staggering.

traffosky writes: "At this address, the BBC says that the EU's competition commissioner, Mario Monti, is about to lauch an investigation into DVD pricing policies on the European side of the Atlantic. He is unhappy with the fact that EU consumers pay about 25% more than their US counterparts. He will also be asking Hollywood about the regional coding system. I'm not sure if the BBC 'get it' yet, though: they filed this story under "Entertainment: Film"." Perhaps this zoning thing will draw even more deserved scrutiny -- as it already has from a UK supermarket chain and from the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) down under.

traffosky writes: "At this address, the BBC says that the EU's competition commissioner, Mario Monti, is about to lauch an investigation into DVD pricing policies on the European side of the Atlantic. He is unhappy with the fact that EU consumers pay about 25% more than their US counterparts. He will also be asking Hollywood about the regional coding system. I'm not sure if the BBC 'get it' yet, though: they filed this story under "Entertainment: Film"." Perhaps this zoning thing will draw even more deserved scrutiny -- as it already has from a UK supermarket chain and from the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) down under.

-douggy writes: "According to the BBC news site, the world's best-loved time traveller, Doctor Who, is returning to the BBC -- this time to battle evil aliens in cyberspace. This is along with an audio stream of a special 30 min. ep later in the year. It looks like there will be an air of interactivity in the show as well."

Cabby writes "The BBC and the Independant on Sunday have the news that all the remaining Douglas Adams material is going to be published later on this year, including the unfinished novel 'The Salmon of Doubt' and the proposed screenplay for the Hitchhikers Guide movie"

Sunthorn writes: "After much hype NASA was forced to destroy the X-43 prototype seconds into the flight after the launch rocket went out of control." The BBC has another story with some pre-flight pictures. Anybody have actual flight photos? Update: 06/02 8:28 PM by michael : Emperor writes "The official NASA take on the X-43 destruction." Update: 06/03 10:18 AM by michael : And someone else sent in this photo gallery, with some really nice close-ups.

andres32a writes: "AOL-Time Warner and Microsoft talks over including AOL in the upcoming Windows XP have broke down. Get the scoop here." There's also a similar BBC article - this is a follow-up to this previous slashdot story, which reported that AOL and Microsoft had reached a deal. My guess: they're still going to reach a deal. AOL has too much to lose if their software isn't pre-installed, it was their key to success in the first place. And Microsoft has too much to lose if AOL moves over to a Netscape-based client.

Reefa writes: "The first 3G phone trial has started in Japan. Of the 147000 that applied, 3300 lucky users have been given 3G phones (they have to pay for data access) to test out so that bugs can be fixed before a general release. Example of bugs could be screens freezing up, to which a re-boot (switch off/on) of the phone is the only solution. Kinda reminds me of Windows. Anyway, I am sure that it would be fun to actually test drive one of these FOMA phones. What I would really like to see is real figures of data rates on these phone during peak usage hours." There's also a Reuters story.

We've been deluged with Echelon stories today, although as far as I can tell, there was no real news about it whatsoever. The committee examining Echelon met today, and that was apparently enough of an excuse for news agencies to report stories based on the draft report that was leaked last week. (The final report isn't due to be presented until September - it doesn't appear that today's committee meeting actually released anything.) News stories from here and there: CNN, BBC, Computerworld... well, I'll skip the non-English ones. And if you're wondering what this "Echelon" thing is, there's a handy guide.

Soft writes: "The BBC has a story on several kinds of fungus proliferating among the dust inside computers. Not quite Dust Puppies, but hospitals are worried about the computers they use, especially in intensive care units." So besides monitor burn, eyestrain, electrical shock, carpal tunnel syndrome, short attention span and lifting-related injuries, now you can worry about Aspergillus fumigatus, too. (Or occasionally disinfect.)

temuchin writes: "Looks like AT&T officially announced their version of the Internet Payphone - the PP2000i. Slashdot ran a story about BT introducing a version of their own back in the summer of '99 (as reported by the BBC), but this seems to be a bit more ambitious to me, as many of them are already installed and in use. You can find more stats on the phones themselves here. I guess we'll see how it goes."

tedtarg writes "What will those clever Germans think of next? The BBC has a story on a cool device called a gekkomat. Basically a set of suction cups that let u crawl up the side of buildings... Definitely a good tool for Batman to emulate Spiderman." Scaling walls is a good super power. Now lets get on scaling buildings in a single bound.

Joel Rowbottom writes: "The Council of the European Union (the 15 EU governments) is about to back the demands of EU "law enforcement agencies" for full access to all telecommunications data to be written into all Community legislation in the future, and for existing laws to be re-examined - a move that is even more far-reaching than the decision to sign up to the FBI plan for the interception of telecommunications. At the centre is the issue of a seven-year period of data retention. There's a lot more about it at statewatch.org including an up-to-date store of relevant documents." The BBC and the Register have articles about this. Both news articles mention this seven-year data retention period, but I don't see it in any of the recent documents, which only discuss general "requirements" for law enforcement, such as tapping and access to calling records. From what I'm reading, law enforcement seems to be concerned about getting rid of the requirements to erase data about communications traffic (under the EU privacy laws) rather than creating affirmative requirements to store such data.

imipak writes: "The BBC reports that after exchaustive investigations, NASA scientists have run out of possible explanations for the mysterious tiny course deflections experienced by the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft as they head out of the solar system towards the heliopause. Could it be that there's something wrong with our theory of gravity? (Well, yes, we already know that...) or could it be Oort Cloud objects? The tenth planet? Informed comment, please!"

actiondan writes: "The BBC has a story about scientists uncovering one of "natures best kept secrets" Apparently, they have discovered the "secret of matter" which allows the universe to exist." Yes, you can go home now -- because "the tiny difference in the decay rates of neutral K mesons and their antiparticles has been determined with a precision of one part in a million."