5:49 PM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8417510.stm
Large scale production of genetically modified rice (insect-resistant) will occur in China in 2011:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/01/large-scale-production-of-genetically.html
Federal law allows nearly 20% of the chemicals used commercially in the US to remain a secret. The 33-year-old law was made to allow companies to protect trade secrets, but critics say that it is being overused to the point that it is impossible for regulators to control potential dangers and consumers cannot find out which toxic substances they might be exposed to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/03/AR2010010302110.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
A moon rock collected during the Apollo 11 mission will be brought to the Space Station with a piece of Mt. Everest:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.rss.html?pid=29933
NASA announced today that the Kepler telescope has found 5 exoplanets:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/01/kepler-telescope-has-found-5-exoplanets.html
AT&T told the FCC that they want to end their land-line service. The FCC and Congress may not be happy with this because nearly 20% of the people in our country rely exclusively on land-line service for their voice service now:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/ATandT-Tells-FCC-It-Wants-to-Ditch-LandLine-Services/
Like AT&T in the US, O2 has the exclusive iPhone contract for the UK...and they just had to apologize for their dropped calls and other problems due to their overloaded systems, probably due to iPhone data demands. Two other wireless carriers will be offering the iPhone in the UK soon, so that might reduce the load of O2's network. It would be nice if 3 carriers had the iPhone in the US!
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222100228
Google will apparently unveil its Nexus One smartphone tomorrow, the day before CES begins. It appears that the device will cost $530 unlocked and $179.99 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/google-set-unveil-nexus-one-press-event/2010-01-04?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
Bay Area homes have a problem with WiFi signals because thousands of homes in the Bay area were built with chicken wire inside the plaster walls. It turns out that chicken wire creates a "Faraday cage", a metal structure that impedes electricity and waves because chicken wire is the perfect size to catch waves generated by 2.4 GHz WiFi networks:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126221116097210861.html
The Chairman of the FCC apparently had his Facebook page hacked on New Year's Eve:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/whoops-fcc-chairman-spams-facebook-friends/
Firefighters who responded to a trailer fire in Southern Utah had to deal with the 19 pet pythons that were in the trailer--they actually were able to save 11 of them:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/01/ap/national/main6045092.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesSecondary
Interview with the woman who was paid $25k by the National Enquirer to reveal the Tiger Woods/Rachel Uchitel affair (the first mistress the media found out about). Uchitel denied the affair and publicly trashed the woman who revealed it...and now the woman says that she should have taken the $200k that Tiger's people offered her to keep quiet instead of taking the $25k from the Enquirer:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/01/02/2010-01-02_tiger_woods_affair_ashley_samson_paid_heavy_price_for_outing_rachel_uchitel.html
This article contains a lot of interesting information on howconferences qualify for BCS AQ status and automatic NCAA bids and how that might influence the coming realignment in college conferences:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/319467-is-smu-going-to-fundamentally-change-college-football-as-we-know-it