Link Collection

It is a BAD sign for the future competitiveness of the US when professors notice that students have increasingly become less prepared for engineering over the years (note: I noticed this as an EE professor and I taught for less than a decade). Even worse, Washington State's Universities only can supply less than half of the engineers needed by industry, with the supply problem only getting worse because the work force is about to have a BIG percentage retire in the next decade. Washington has 240 aeronautics students...Beihang Unversity in China has 26,000 aeronautical and astronautical engineering students!
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2010/05/manufacturing-too-few-engineers-to-meet-boeings-need/

Study of DoD spending found that much of the money set aside for basic research ($1.9 billion of the DoD's science and technology budget is supposed to be for 6.1, basic research projects) is being used instead to fund short-term, applied research projects. By definition, basic research (6.1) projects are *not* supposed to be geared toward short-term goals, and the study found that many 6.1 projects do not fit the DoD's definition of basic research:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/05/pentagon-directs-basic-research-.html

Article about how terrorism could be a threat to the World Cup, in addition to the already known problems of South Africa having the highest violent crime rate in the world, 10% of its citizens having HIV, now it has been discovered that an al Qaeda cell in Iraq was planning terror attacks on Danish and Dutch supporters and their soccer teams. The South African government has been saying that their non-aligned status and lack of local support for militant groups should keep them safe:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/terrorism-could-be-threat-world-cup

Cow poop might end up powering the Internet's data centers! Study found that US dairy cows produce 54 billion pounds of manure each year, with each cow pooping more than 120 pounds of manure each day. Each cow generates 26 gallons of methane, with methane 21x more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide. Instead of bulldozing the poop into holding ponds (those who drive down the 5 freeway can smell the result of that), farmers can sell their manure to a specialized biogas plant, with biogas powering servers. HP released a study that found that a dairy farmer count rent out land and power to tech companies and get a return on investment in less than 2 years:
http://news.discovery.com/tech/cow-poop-could-power-the-internet.html

The US will have nearly 1,000 full-body scanners in airports by the end of next year, but a group of experts in biochemistry biophysics, imaging, cancer, and crystals are raising new concerns about the safety of the technology. They say that the scanners may expose the skin to high doses of X-rays that could increase the risk of cancer and other health problems, especially among older travelers, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-travel-briefcase-20100524,0,2671066,full.story

Honeycombed particles filled with cancer drug act like time-release capsules at a skin cancer tumor site, with studies showing that it helps anti-cancer antibodies and prevents tumor growth and prolongs the lives of mice:
http://www.pnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=796

New technique can use stem cells to grow new teeth in as little as 9 weeks. People who lose some or all of their adult teeth typically have to get dentures or dental implants, but current dental implants can fail:
http://cumc.columbia.edu/news/press_releases/MAOtooth.html

Charles Goodyear is credited with having vulcanization to convert rubber into more durable materials...but it turns how that more than 3,000 years before Goodyear made his discoveries, the Aztecs, Olmecs and Maya were skilled at making rubber, changing the properties of rubber depending on the needs of the application:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/mayaball-0524

Earlier-than-expected market turnaround is driving demand for flash memory and pressing suppliers:
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=055&ACCT=0000100&ISSUE=1005&RELTYPE=IN&PRODCODE=00000&PRODLETT=AL&CommonCount=0

Russian company Yota is one of the biggest WiMAX providers in the world, with over 500,000 WiMAX clients. It planned to launch WiMAX in 15 more cities...but just announced that they will spend up to $2 billion to deploy *LTE* instead of WiMAX. Yota runs networks in Russia, Belarus, Peru, and Nicaragua:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE64K1E820100521

Analysis about how the timing of Yota's announcement is really bad for WiMAX because of India's broadband wireless auction. India delayed the auction process many times and the head start WiMAX had over LTE has been been reduced significantly. The analysis says that if India does not use WiMAX (India and Russia were considered the perfect target markets for WiMAX to get economies of scale to be adopted everywhere else), WiMAX could be in big trouble with Yota and Clearwire already seeing LTE as the future:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/wimaxs-momentum-hits-big-bump/2010-05-24

Review of the HTC EVO 4G said that its WiMAX speeds were the fastest the reviewer has ever seen on a cellular network. However, he found that the data speeds he got in 2 WiMAX cities is not anywhere close to the typical maximum that Sprint claims and that the battery drains *quickly* when using WiMAX. In fact, Sprint is thinking of telling EVO users to *manually turn off* the 4G network access until they have a need for it in order to save battery life. Turning 4G access on and off like that could make using that phone slower than a 3G phone!
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20100519/sprint-4g-phone-hits-new-speeds-but-battery-lags/

Apple is expected to unveil the next version of its iPhone on June 7, with the event expected to highlight its advantages over Android. It is interesting to note that 17% of Verizon subscribers aer "very likely* to buy an iPhone if it is offered on Verizon, which is higher than the 14.6% of AT&T subscribers showing interest in the current iPhone
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/possible-june-7-launch-apple-raises-iphone-expectations/2010-05-24

AT&T is raising its early termination fee for smartphones from $175 to $325, effective right before the expected launch of the next iPhone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-hiking-smartphone-etf-375/2010-05-21

Photos and specs are leaking for the Motorola Droid Shadow, Motorola's successor to their Droid smartphone. It is expected to be available in July, with its huge touchscreen, no physical keyboard, 8 MP camera, etc.:
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=16582&news=Google+Android+OS+2.2+Verizon+Motorola+Droid+Shadow

Nokia and Yahoo announced a worldwide strategic alliance where Nokia is the exclusive provider of maps and navigation services for Yahoo and Yahoo is the exclusive provider of mail and chat services for Nokia's Ovi platform:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/nokia-and-yahoo-bring-integrated-web-services-millions-consumers-around-world

18-year-old girl found a good use of her winnings from years of showing hogs in 4-H competitions...she bought a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom *house*. She paid in cash and is renting the house out to a great aunt and uncle. Thank you to Lori for the link!
http://static.dispatch.com/www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/05/17/hog-wildnot-this-girl.html

Salt Lake City police were able to track down a carjacking suspect quickly...because he left his wallet and ID in the victim's car:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/20/ap/strange/main6503907.shtml