Link Collection

Toxic sand is another enemy that our troops are facing in Afghanistan. The dust kicked up in Afghan sandstorms contains manganese and other metals that can damage the nervous system or the brain:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/25/toxic-sand-another-enemy-in-afghanistan/print/

Italian prosecutor has indicted 6 of Italy's top seismologists for manslaughter charges because they failed to predict the deadly earthquake that struck the central Italian city of L'Aquila on April 6, 2009. Experts around the world are outraged and say that earthquakes cannot be predicted and that the Italian government failed to enforced building codes that would have saved lives:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100622/full/465992a.html

MIT report about how a new network design that avoids the need to convert optical signals into electrical signals could boost Internet capacity by 100x while reducing power consumption:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/100x-internet-0628.html

MIT released a major report on the future of natural gas, which they say will play a leading role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by replacing older, inefficient coal plants with highly efficient combined-cycle gas generation:
http://web.mit.edu/press/2010/natural-gas

Scientists have succeeded in growing new lungs using stem cells. This could be a major development because people with severe, incurable lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis can only survive with a lung transplant...but many people die while waiting for a matching donor lung:
http://www.utmb.edu/newsroom/article5930.aspx

Taiwan is scheduled to sign its first trade treaty with China tomorrow, forming closer commercial ties between the two countries...I never would have imagined China and Taiwan signing a treaty even just a few years ago:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-28/trade-deal-draws-taiwan-closer-into-china-s-embrace.html

Three managers at a Spanish software company have been arrested over charges that they planted "logic bombs" in software that were sold to over 1,000 companies. The built-in errors were guaranteed to fail at a predetermined date, paralyzing the businesses and forcing them to pay their supplier for repair fees and extended support. While making *those* repairs, the developer programmed systems to fail again at a future date!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/25/spanish_logic_bomb_probe/

Article about how Intel's huge money-losing bet on WiMAX was a big boon for TD-LTE:
http://gigaom.com/2010/06/25/intels-bad-bet-on-wimax-pays-off-for-td-lte/

I'm really impressed how Samsung succeeded in getting its Android-based Galaxy S smartphone on *all* 4 major US carriers (and even US Cellular)! The version for Sprint was the last to be announced and is the most notable because it will be Sprint's second WiMAX smartphone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/samsung-unleashes-slew-galaxy-s-android-phones/2010-06-28?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Offering free Skype-to-Skype calls has really paid off for UK carrier 3. They found that their Skype users spent 20% more, had 14% lower churn, and provided 60% more voice revenue in the year since they have offered Skype:
http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Mobile_Exec/3_Skype_deal_lowers_churn_and_ups_revenue.aspx

Steve Jobs said that Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in its first 3 days on the market and they could have sold more if they hadn't run out of supply. He says that was the most successful product launch in Apple's history, nearly double the number sold during the launch of the 3Gs. To put the numbers in perspective, it took Apple 72 days to sell the first 1 million iPhones:
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100628/apple-sells-1-7-million-iphone-4s-in-3-days/

77% of iPhone 4 sales have been to current iPhone owners. The study found that most people willing to leave their wireless carrier to get the iPhone have already done so, so to maximize iPhone sales Apple needs another carrier such as Verizon:
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100625/43560/

Article about how a group of left-handed people are upset with Apple over their iPhone 4 flaw. It appears that just holding the iPhone 4 with a left hand causes a loss in reception and Apple's solution is for people to hold their phones differently...which is not a solution that satisfies these left-handed people:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20008950-71.html

It appears that Best Buy may be launching a new mobile broadband service coming next month, with data going over Sprint's network:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/28/best-buy-connect-mobile-broadband-service-launching-soon/

Minnesota man was indicted for hacking into his neighbor's WiFi network and impersonating his neighbor to send child porn and terrorist threats to his neighbor's co-workers, supervisor, and even a terrorist threat to VP Joe Biden:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225701522