12:48 PM
Scientists have discovered a rocky, Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" (region around its host star with the right conditions for water to be liquid):
Article link
Computer spies (they think from China) broke into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project (the more expensive DoD weapons program ever), downloading several terabytes of sensitive data!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027491029837401.html
The sad thing is that the Pentagon's Inspector General issued a report in May 2008 that warned that BAE wasn't properly safeguarding the Joint Strike Fighter data. BAE strongly defended its security policies and the Inspector General actually took back its report. Sadly, it appears that the Inspector General was right last year:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/back-in-may-of.html
South Korea will increase its R&D spending by 10% each year in an attempt to help them become a science-technology powerhouse. Their R&D investment will reach an amazing 5% of their GDP by 2012. Not only will this provide well-paying jobs and stability in their tech industry, I'm guessing this R&D spending will result in huge advances for their tech industry...especially when R&D spending is declining elsewhere due to the tough global economy. Just yesterday I got a contacted with an amazing offer if I would relocate to Korea...which I turned down of course:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/04/113_43582.html
Very positive review of a drive test of the Aptera 3-wheel electric car:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/we-drive-the-ap.html
Remember the report yesterday that showed that tungsten in the ammo of our military can cause cancerous tumors? Unfortunately, tungsten is used in all kinds of military weapons--and the alternative is depleted uranium, which is also allegedly toxic:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/toxic-tungste-1.html
Startup company is developing nuclear reactors that run primarily on natural or depleted uranium instead of enriched uranium...this way, the reactors could be loaded up with fuel and sealed for 30-60 years, and nuclear waste would be reduced since depleted uranium is a waste product in the enrichment process:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/ex-microsoft-scientist-crafts-nuclear-reactor-startup-5627.html
The US Military is issuing the iTouch to soldiers--it is much cheaper than similar devices built for the military by defense contractors and have tons of applications including language translators:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/194623
UAV helicopter sniper system is controlled with an adapted xBox 360 controller:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4313331.html
Researchers found a way to use RF technology to tune nanoscale antennas:
Article link
High-level tutorial over the antenna designs and considerations for WiMAX systems:
http://mobiledevdesign.com/tutorials/antenna-designs-considerations-wimax-0417/
Vehicles are being built to try to exceed 800 mph on land:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/science/21speed.html?ref=science
Two FBI agents have been charged with videotaping high school girls trying on prom dresses:
http://www.timeswv.com/todaystopnews/local_story_109022613.html
Scientists claim that overweight people are partially to blame for global warming. Fat people are responsible for a ton more carbon dioxide emissions each year than skinny people. Food production accounts for 20% of greenhouse gasses and fat people eat more. Given the World Health Organization's estimates of overweight people, an estimated billion tons of CO2 are generated each year because so much of the world's population is overweight:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2387203.ece
Friendships and social networks are important for our health--for example, a 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22% less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/21well.html?8dpc
It amazes me that more Americans make their primary income from blogging than work as computer programmers or firefighters. There are 20 million people with blogs in the US, with 1.7 million profiting from their blog and 452,000 bloggers make their primary income from their blogs (compared to 555,700 lawyers and 394,710):
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB124026415808636575-lMyQjAxMDI5NDIwMTIyNjE0Wj.html
Google released to developers the early-look SDK of the Android OS 1.5:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2009/04/getting-ready-for-android-15.html
Vodafone will release the Android-based HTC Magic on May 5:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/5188369/Vodafone-to-launch-HTC-Magic-Google-phone-on-May-5.html
Minnesota Elementary school is teaching skateboarding during PE:
http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/skateboard.curriculum.Fridley.2.988220.html
Man pretended to be a waiter at 2 New Jersey restaurants and got away with $186:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30282481/
Article link
Computer spies (they think from China) broke into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project (the more expensive DoD weapons program ever), downloading several terabytes of sensitive data!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027491029837401.html
The sad thing is that the Pentagon's Inspector General issued a report in May 2008 that warned that BAE wasn't properly safeguarding the Joint Strike Fighter data. BAE strongly defended its security policies and the Inspector General actually took back its report. Sadly, it appears that the Inspector General was right last year:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/back-in-may-of.html
South Korea will increase its R&D spending by 10% each year in an attempt to help them become a science-technology powerhouse. Their R&D investment will reach an amazing 5% of their GDP by 2012. Not only will this provide well-paying jobs and stability in their tech industry, I'm guessing this R&D spending will result in huge advances for their tech industry...especially when R&D spending is declining elsewhere due to the tough global economy. Just yesterday I got a contacted with an amazing offer if I would relocate to Korea...which I turned down of course:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/04/113_43582.html
Very positive review of a drive test of the Aptera 3-wheel electric car:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/we-drive-the-ap.html
Remember the report yesterday that showed that tungsten in the ammo of our military can cause cancerous tumors? Unfortunately, tungsten is used in all kinds of military weapons--and the alternative is depleted uranium, which is also allegedly toxic:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/toxic-tungste-1.html
Startup company is developing nuclear reactors that run primarily on natural or depleted uranium instead of enriched uranium...this way, the reactors could be loaded up with fuel and sealed for 30-60 years, and nuclear waste would be reduced since depleted uranium is a waste product in the enrichment process:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/ex-microsoft-scientist-crafts-nuclear-reactor-startup-5627.html
The US Military is issuing the iTouch to soldiers--it is much cheaper than similar devices built for the military by defense contractors and have tons of applications including language translators:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/194623
UAV helicopter sniper system is controlled with an adapted xBox 360 controller:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4313331.html
Researchers found a way to use RF technology to tune nanoscale antennas:
Article link
High-level tutorial over the antenna designs and considerations for WiMAX systems:
http://mobiledevdesign.com/tutorials/antenna-designs-considerations-wimax-0417/
Vehicles are being built to try to exceed 800 mph on land:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/science/21speed.html?ref=science
Two FBI agents have been charged with videotaping high school girls trying on prom dresses:
http://www.timeswv.com/todaystopnews/local_story_109022613.html
Scientists claim that overweight people are partially to blame for global warming. Fat people are responsible for a ton more carbon dioxide emissions each year than skinny people. Food production accounts for 20% of greenhouse gasses and fat people eat more. Given the World Health Organization's estimates of overweight people, an estimated billion tons of CO2 are generated each year because so much of the world's population is overweight:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2387203.ece
Friendships and social networks are important for our health--for example, a 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22% less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/21well.html?8dpc
It amazes me that more Americans make their primary income from blogging than work as computer programmers or firefighters. There are 20 million people with blogs in the US, with 1.7 million profiting from their blog and 452,000 bloggers make their primary income from their blogs (compared to 555,700 lawyers and 394,710):
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB124026415808636575-lMyQjAxMDI5NDIwMTIyNjE0Wj.html
Google released to developers the early-look SDK of the Android OS 1.5:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2009/04/getting-ready-for-android-15.html
Vodafone will release the Android-based HTC Magic on May 5:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/5188369/Vodafone-to-launch-HTC-Magic-Google-phone-on-May-5.html
Minnesota Elementary school is teaching skateboarding during PE:
http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/skateboard.curriculum.Fridley.2.988220.html
Man pretended to be a waiter at 2 New Jersey restaurants and got away with $186:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30282481/