5:20 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/world/asia/21hostage.html
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) developed a small robotic platform designed to accompany ground forces on operations. It can carry up to 200 kilograms, is designed to assist groups of 3-10 ground soldiers on operational and logistical missions for up to 72 hours without refueling, and acts as a robotic "beast of burden" for the modern soldier:
http://www.asdnews.com/news/23979/IAI_Unveils_Robotic_Platform_Designed_for_Ground_Forces.htm
With the controversy over whether or not to get the swine flu vaccine (it even circulated to Lori's parent e-mail list), New Scientist did a study on the issue. It looks like the swine flu kills 1 out of every 200 people who get it. The risk of getting Guillain-Barré from a flu vaccine is almost certainly less than 1 in a million, but the risk of getting Guillain-Barré from the flu itself is more than 40 in a million. During the first wave of swine flu this summer, 1 out of every 20,000 children aged 4 or under in the US ended up in hospital. That number is expected to increase between 50x to 1000x because the flu season doesn't peak until January and February:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/10/get-h1n1-vaccine-when-it-becomes.html
Time Warner cable modem and WiFi router had a security hole that allowed hackers to remotely access the device's administrative menu over the internet, enabling the hacker to change settings to intercept traffic. All the hacker has to do is disable javascript in his browser and he can see things like the administrative password and login in *cleartext*. The person that discovered the flaw told Time Warner *4* week ago and Time Warner said that they knew about the problem but couldn't do anything about the security hole! After the news became public, now Time Warner says that they are working on a fix:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/time-warner-cable/
Here are some photos and information on Verizon's second Android phone, currently called the Motorola Calgary:
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/10/20/motorola-calgary-live-photos-verizons-second-motorola-android-device/
Google is planning to manage 10 million servers and an exabyte of information!
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/10/google-is-planning-for-10-million.html
Google is apparently about to launch a digital music service
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/google-to-partner-with-ilike-and-lala-for-new-music-service/
AT&T and Barnes & Noble have teamed up for a new ereader that is being hyped as a "Kindle killer":
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-teams-barnes-noble-new-ereader/2009-10-20?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
The AT&T/B&N ereader is called "Nook" and uses the Android operating system. I really like the feature that allows users to lend ebooks to other Nook users, and the books are automatically returned after a certain period of time:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=45648&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10#
Maryland and South Carolina will wear uniforms with camouflage designs during their games Nov. 14 to honor military veterans and promote the Wounded Warrior Project. I think that it is great that they will auction some of the uniforms after the game to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project:
http://www.military.com/news/article/college-teams-honor-vets-with-camo-gear.html?wh=wh