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Seriously, I love how they were given powers over a word that was around LONG before "The Games" were.

It would certainly be a rather uncharacteristic or bold move by Cisco as far as their track record of corporate acquisitions go. I touched on this very briefly in my own rejected submission (which imho was slightly more informative than the one posted, however it was probably submitted later, so I'm not complaining).

I'll just post it here too, since it includes a few more links for those interested:

According to today's Sunday Business newspaper, Cisco Systems Inc. is thinking of buying the finnish mobile handset giant Nokia in the aftermath of CEO Jorma Ollila's retirement announcement. In the past Cisco has concentrated more on buying smaller, niche tech companies. But this time its chief is believed to be interested in merging with a wireless infrastructure company, and Nokia would fit this bill. The paper says the merger would help Cisco create "intelligent wireless applications". Convergence is the buzz word of the day and this move would certainly combine the fixed-line and wireless networking capabilities of the companies. Cisco is currently valued at about $123 billion (25.5 times earnings) and Nokia at $71 billion (18.8 times earnings). Neither company has yet commented on the rumour.

Ther merge hasn't been approved by the FCC yet and there are signs that it may not happen at all if some Sprint partners have their way.

I don't think getting to the moon will be as trivial for Japan as many here think. This is a country who's space division is operating at a tenth of NASA's budget and has had trouble just putting satellites in orbit as recently as 2003. Japanese space technology has a long way to go before they go ahead with all this robot moon base business.

Psht, why does alien life have to have the same chirality as Earthly life? NASA or any other space agency could just redo the old Viking experiment. This was covered recently on Slashdot. A little more can be found here.

I wish I only snored... I woke myself up last night laughing in my sleep. Apparantely it's kinda dangerous.

Excerpt from RedNova

Regarding the "Radar Sounder" not being unfurled, please read the following quote:

http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=127822

Referring to the MARSIS antennae on Mars express said

"Just prior to their scheduled release, improved computer simulations carried out by the manufacturer, Astro Aerospace (California), revealed the possibility of a whiplash effect before they locked in their final outstretched positions, so that they might hit the spacecraft."

The "inferior instruments" were made in the US of A. What a surprise ;)

Please prove that you can read beyond a 5th grade level by checking your claims before posting. Fact: 2004 was the 4th warmest year on record, 1998 is the warmest, 2002 second, and 2003 third. Seems rather interesting that the trend is down, exactly the same trend as solar output. (1998 was the strongest ElNino year in recorded history and is considered spurious, even by climatologists.)

So, research your claims, your intellect can only benefit...

First, let's look at the article that CNN stole their story from.

Notice the end of the article, where it says: "But compared to the previous five years, the United States as a whole was quite cool, particularly during the summer."

This is not what you might expect from your presented data...

[tongue in cheek] This is obviously due to Bush and his stepping away from the Kyoto accords and environmentalism. So, it seems that the US is cooling off due to the amount of carbon emissions, which weren't shown in your direct link, from it's citizens. Yay for the USA! [/tongue in cheek]

The scientists at NASA only had to call up the folks at Princeton, since we all now know that random number generators can predict the future. You heard it here first.

Slashdot: Conspiracy for Nerds, Stuff that Matters

As seems to be increasingly the case, I already submitted (rejected) variants of this story twice over the past week. I've pasted one of those variants below, which has links to sources far more information than the freakin' Guardian:

Greenhouse gases could breathe life into Mars

MSNBC, New Scientist and PhysOrg report on research by Margarita Marinova and others on using synthetic greenhouse gases to warm the Martian atmosphere and create the conditions for life to thrive. The study focused on fluorine-based gases (dubbed "super-greenhouse gases"), which would be non-toxic, nearly 10,000 times as effective at capturing heat as CO2, and could be made from Martian resources. The research concluded that adding 300 parts per million of these gases would lead to a feedback effect by unfreezing CO2 and water on the surface. According to Marinova, 'Since warming Mars effectively reverts it to its past, more habitable state, this would give any possibly dormant life on Mars the chance to be revived and develop further.' The feasibility and consequences of such terraforming have been debated in the past.

Also, note that contrary to the accepted submission's title, NASA hasn't done any sort of proposal of actually doing this. This is simply cool research exploring a very interesting "What-if".

Yes, they are new. One can't stock spare tiles since each is tile different. Not only are the tiles not interchangable, the orbiters don't have compatible tile layouts. So they are custom built as needed. Until recently they were manufactured by the original facility in Palmdale, California. This made sense since the shuttles were built there. A couple of decades after they stopped building shuttles, Nasa realised that it would make sense to move the tile manufacturing facility to Florida, right next to the orbiter processing facililties. As soon as they completed this new facility, hurricane Frances swept through Florida and ripped the roof off. So Nasa is currently considering whether to reopen the old Palmdale facility.

Note that "tiles" != "RCC panels". The former are cheap, the latter cost nearly $1m each. Nasa has spares of these (at least they are interchangable between shuttles), but new ones can still be built by Lockeed Martin. Though the staff are starting to look a little old...

If you do, don't stand too close to the microwave, or the whole room will get sucked back in time, your cat will eat a critical dinosaur, and you'll return to the present with a completely messed up time-line. Trust me, it happens all the time.

Gerry Haddad, Chief of CSIRO Industrial Physics, has made similar noises recently about the lack of interest in Physics in Australia. You can some of his thoughts on the issue. It strikes me that a lot of the lack of interest in physics amongst kids stems from a lack of interest in physics amongst their teachers. I would have thought that inspiring teachers were one of the best ways to enthuse kids. Mind you, finding a bunch of inspiring teachers in any field is no doubt a difficuly task. Cheers, Andrew

Bears? It's wolves you've got to watch out for. There's a good reason they carry a gun on every Soyuz.

Just look at those sources you are suggesting...

Hit #1: 25 April 2002
Hit #2: January 25, 2000
Hit #3: September 27, 2002
Hit #4: November 24, 2003

I'm not even going to go further... Last time I checked, it was Deceber 2004...

What will they think of next?

Actually, Verizon was rumored to be looking into buying Sprint, even as Sprint was in the middle of buying NexTel. That news kinda gets lost in all the Sprint/NexTel noise though.

http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=111230

While this is without a doubt something amazing and even blessed (I use the term loosely since I am atheist) it is only a glimpse into the potential for stem cells. Personally, I am very very moved by this event.

But as one article discusses, the whole point of using embryonic stem cells is that they are undifferentiated. The use of the cells used in the treatment of paralysis were supposedly cord stem cells and are more limited in which ways the body can put them to use. Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, can in theory, be used to create ANY cell type in the human body. That is a tremendous difference.

Ethical debates will persist from now until whenever but the moment people outgrow their need to believe in mythology, we'll make some better progress. I'm hopeful that there should be an ethically acceptable method for collecting embryonic stem cells so that we can make the real medical miracles happen.

So-called "multipotent" stem cells -- those found in cord blood -- are capable of forming a limited number of specialised cell types, unlike the more versatile "undifferentiated" cells that are derived from embroyos.

Additionally, umbilical cord blood stem cells trigger little immune response in the recipient as embryonic stem cells have a tendency to form tumors when injected into animals or human beings.

The only problem with your argument is that non-embryonic stem cells are less adaptable/versatile than embryonic stem cells.

Cord blood stem cells are also less adaptable than embryonic stem cells.

Just wanted to get that out before Karl Rove finished his first draft.

The only problem being that umbilical stem cells are not as versatile as embryonic stem cells:

"So-called "multipotent" stem cells -- those found in cord blood -- are capable of forming a limited number of specialised cell types, unlike the more versatile "undifferentiated" cells that are derived from embroyos." (Source)

From here:

So-called "multipotent" stem cells -- those found in cord blood -- are capable of forming a limited number of specialised cell types, unlike the more versatile "undifferentiated" cells that are derived from embroyos.

No subscription required for the story here, either.

Cost is reason enough to switch. The would-be iPod competitors are not really pricing their products to move. Even your average consumer can tell that 256 mb is not in the same ballpark as 4 gb. Fifty dollars less than the MSRP of an iPod mini ain't gonna get these pretenders anything, no matter how much they spend on marketing!

Just let the device show up as a USB/firewire drive. Don't make me use propriety software! I want Mac compatibility for my iPod clone! The average consumer cares more about MP3s and ripping CDs than they do about buying DRM encumbered songs online. I find it ironic that the player manufactures act like WMV compatibility is a feature rather than a limitation! The iPod interface is nice, but people are willing to put up with a clumsy interface if the price is right.

The market for people willing to purchase encrypted songs is well addressed (by iTMS and the windows-only stores). The only market space left is people holding out for something cheaper, much cheaper, but with comparable features. Sometime after xMas the product I am waiting for (the $99 5 gb MP3 player) will be on the market. (Okay, maybe after xMas 2006.) I think this ties into another post on this sub-thread, the "Fast/Cheap/Good" triangle:
> If you want it Cheap and Good, it's going to take a long time.
I can wait. There are millions of hold outs like me.

Just to add to the referenced article, here is a new player review of a new player that isn't in the five-part series.

Just let the device show up as a USB/firewire drive. Don't make me use propriety software. I want Mac compatibility for my iPod clone! The average consumer cares more about MP3s and ripping CDs than they do about buying DRM encumbered songs online. I find it ironic that the player manufactures act like WMV compatibility is a feature rather than a limitation! The iPod interface is nice, but people are willing to put up with inferiority if the price is right -- or we would all be using OS X instead of Windows.

The market for people willing to purchase encrypted songs is well addressed (by iTMS and the windows-only stores). The only market space left is people holding out for something cheaper, much cheaper.

Here's a picture of the Medion/Aldi mobile jukebox.

from http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=96235:

Verizon to Expand Fiber-Optic Network

Oct. 22--Verizon Communications Inc. is expanding its fiber-optic network -- capable of delivering telephone and super-fast Internet access and eventually television service -- to parts of six more states, including some communities in Bucks and Chester Counties.

The expansion is part of Verizon's nationwide plan to overhaul its old copper-wire systems and gain new customers and sources of revenue.

Verizon will add 3,000 to 5,000 jobs as it brings fiber-optic cable to homes and businesses in parts of Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. It already has fiber networks in parts of California, Texas and Florida, and is expanding in those states, too.

"This is just the beginning," Verizon retail markets president Bob Ingalls said in a conference call yesterday. "Next year, we plan to announce video services on this platform."

Verizon did not say where the jobs would be created. But it said the fiber network was coming to Doylestown, Yardley and Newtown in Bucks County, as well as Chester Springs, Downingtown and Exton in Chester County.

Upper Makefield Township in Bucks County said Verizon was building a fiber network there as well, although the company would not confirm that.

Verizon said its fiber expansion would be focused on the suburbs for now.

Doylestown Township Manager Stephanie Mason said Verizon started installing fiber lines there a few months ago and planned on selling new services to Doylestown residents and businesses early next year.

"Verizon said we were one of the pilot areas," Mason said. "The end result for residents is going to be exciting -- they'll be offering new services."

For instance, Verizon said its new fiber system would allow customers to add or drop lines more quickly.

"If you need to add capacity because your broadband-hungry son or daughter is home from college, we can do that quickly," Verizon network services group president Paul Lacouture said.

The fiber network will allow for Internet access speeds that are much faster than Verizon's digital subscriber line service, the company says.

The company expects to complete its "fiber-to-the-premises" network in about five years, which will allow it to phase out its DSL service.

In areas in which the fiber network has already been built, the monthly charge for five-megabits-per-second Internet service -- faster than the top speeds offered by most cable-modem services -- starts at $34.95.

Verizon has said it would spend $2.5 billion by the end of next year on the new fiber system.

Verizon and other local-phone companies are working to revamp their businesses so they can compete more broadly with cable operators such as Comcast Corp., which are expanding into telephone service over their cable lines. Earlier this year, SBC Communications Inc. said it would invest $6 billion on a video-capable system over the next five years.

The ability of Verizon's fiber system to carry video service has prompted Upper Makefield Township to craft an agreement that would allow it to collect franchise fees from Verizon when the company starts offering television services. The township receives about $90,000 annually in franchise fees from Comcast.

"We negotiated for two months," said Township Manager Rich Gestrich. "We're very concerned that they weren't back-dooring us on that issue."

-----

To see more of The Philadelphia Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com.

(c) 2004, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

It's called directed sound. There was also a big deal made about it for the Republican convention (e.g., here and here). as a crowd control measure.

red nova article on AU compressed air car

(ok it's closer to a tractor or golf cart but still novel idea)

I hear if you get 5 friends to sign up at the article's site you get a free hybrid electric car =)

e.

The Soyuz design is a good one because it is proven, and very very simple. No fiddly bits. You could probably launch in a hurricane if you absolutely had to: little short of a thunderstorm over the pad will stop the launch. This is no space shuttle, and weather-related scrubs are almost unheard of here.

On the other hand, the Arianes have fiddly bits and can't launch in bad weather. So where does this thing fall, somewhere in between? Even more fiddly than Ariane? Less complex than Soyuz?

Exactly, I wonder what the Slashdot crowd thinks should happen?

NASA won.

Picture of Number 6 from New Show and I beg the question, why is there a light coming out of her ass?

Radiation Helps Doctors See Through the Body

Technology/IT|Posted by michael on 09:45 PM December 3rd, 2003
from the radiation dept.

Clinton man10 writes "RedNova is reporting about a new kind of radiation that can pass through some parts of the body, like skin and organs, and be absorbed by other harder structures. Using a sofisticated receiver on the other end, the doctor can take a picture of your inner body. Doctors are using it to detect broken bones. This is a much better alternative than the old fashioned method of pressing the bone to see if the patient cries. They are going to name this fantastic radiation as X-rays."

Radiation Helps Doctors See Through the Body

Technology/IT|Posted by michael on 09:45 PM December 3rd, 2003
from the radiation dept.

Clinton man10 writes "RedNova is reporting about a new kind of radiation that can pass through some parts of the body, like skin and organs, and be absorbed by other harder structures. Using a sofisticated receiver on the other end, the doctor can take a picture of your inner body. Doctors are using it to detect broken bones. This is a much better alternative than the old fashioned method of pressing the bone to see if the patient cries. They are going to name this fantastic radiation as X-rays."

of note

looks kinda cool to me.

Here's the RedNova article on it.

You have it all backwards though it seems.

Their goal is to lighten the load soldiers carry

When dressing for battle in the so-called "Scorpion ensemble," soldiers will don no more than 50 pounds, making them much more mobile than today's troops, who carry up to 120 pounds of gear, Birch said.

Don't know how well all of the ideas they have will actually work, but finding a way to halve the weight a soldier packs is certainly appealling.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm starting to see scenes from 'Spaceballs'...

Is it just me being paranoid, or does the "soldier of the future" in this picture look like an Imperial stormtrooper?

What's next, Dick Cheney on a respirator with a black helmet?

Hmm, seems FARK had slashdot scooped here. This story has a picture and some more information:
http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/3/2003/06/01/s tory001.html