5:48 PM
The US will no longer be using colors to describe the terrorism threat level by April:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/us-ditching-terror-color-warning-system
BYU chemists found that a common protein could harvest the sun's energy just like what chlorophyll does during photosynthesis, coming up with a technique that could make more efficient solar power systems. They turned gold powder purple by mixing it with the protein and citric acid from oranges and putting the mixture in direct sunlight:
http://news.byu.edu/archive11-jan-purplegold.aspx
Half of the reservoirs in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County) cannot be filled to their full capacity due to concerns about earthquakes--engineering tests showed that a major earthquake could make the dam send a a deadly tidal wave across the densely populated area. The lost capacity could provide water for 280,000 people for a year and the reduced capacity means that Silicon Valley area cannot store more water to prepare for future droughts:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/california-dams-plagued-seismic-concerns
Mexican drug smugglers came up with an interesting way to get pot across the border--they made a catapult to launch packets of pot over the border fence:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/mexican-drug-cartels-use-catapult-launch-drug-packages-across-border
Chinese company that built a 15-story building in 6 days says that they will complete a 200-story skyscraper in 6 months this year:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/01/45-more-buildings-to-follow-15-story.html
The FCC gave LightSquared a waiver that allows LightSquared's customers to provide either terrestrial-only devices or satellite/terrestrial dual-mode devices:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/fcc-grants-lightsquared-satellite-waiver/2011-01-27
The FCC mandated LTE for public safety use in the 700 MHz band:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/462941-FCC_Launches_Framework_For_Emergency_Communications_Net.php
AT&T is responding to Verizon's unlimited data offer for iPhone users by quietly allowing some AT&T iPhone subscribers to switch to unlimited data plans. Some subscribers that AT&T refused to give unlimited data plans to were able to force AT&T to let them get an unlimited data plan by threatening to go to Verizon:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/01/26/technology/AP-US-TEC-TechBit-ATT-Unlimited.html
Motorola forecast a steep drop in their smartphone sales because they noticed their Android phone sales dropped significantly once Verizon announced they were getting the iPhone:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Motorola-smartphones-rb-483360551.html?x=0
Sony is going after the Android game market by bringing Playstation games to Android:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/sony-targeting-android-gamers-playstation-suite/2011-01-27
I wish that I had taken my family on a 7-night cruise to Mexico before the violence started in that country...a recent assault of a cruise ship passenger right outside the cruise terminal and a recent robbery attempt has forced a number of cruise lines to cancel their stops in Mazatlan:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jan/26/cruise-lines-cancel-stops-in-mazatlan/
My girls loved this photo of the baby hippo that was born at the San Diego Zoo yesterday!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jan/26/baby-hippo-born-at-the-san-diego-zoo/
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/us-ditching-terror-color-warning-system
BYU chemists found that a common protein could harvest the sun's energy just like what chlorophyll does during photosynthesis, coming up with a technique that could make more efficient solar power systems. They turned gold powder purple by mixing it with the protein and citric acid from oranges and putting the mixture in direct sunlight:
http://news.byu.edu/archive11-jan-purplegold.aspx
Half of the reservoirs in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County) cannot be filled to their full capacity due to concerns about earthquakes--engineering tests showed that a major earthquake could make the dam send a a deadly tidal wave across the densely populated area. The lost capacity could provide water for 280,000 people for a year and the reduced capacity means that Silicon Valley area cannot store more water to prepare for future droughts:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/california-dams-plagued-seismic-concerns
Mexican drug smugglers came up with an interesting way to get pot across the border--they made a catapult to launch packets of pot over the border fence:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/mexican-drug-cartels-use-catapult-launch-drug-packages-across-border
Chinese company that built a 15-story building in 6 days says that they will complete a 200-story skyscraper in 6 months this year:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/01/45-more-buildings-to-follow-15-story.html
The FCC gave LightSquared a waiver that allows LightSquared's customers to provide either terrestrial-only devices or satellite/terrestrial dual-mode devices:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/fcc-grants-lightsquared-satellite-waiver/2011-01-27
The FCC mandated LTE for public safety use in the 700 MHz band:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/462941-FCC_Launches_Framework_For_Emergency_Communications_Net.php
AT&T is responding to Verizon's unlimited data offer for iPhone users by quietly allowing some AT&T iPhone subscribers to switch to unlimited data plans. Some subscribers that AT&T refused to give unlimited data plans to were able to force AT&T to let them get an unlimited data plan by threatening to go to Verizon:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/01/26/technology/AP-US-TEC-TechBit-ATT-Unlimited.html
Motorola forecast a steep drop in their smartphone sales because they noticed their Android phone sales dropped significantly once Verizon announced they were getting the iPhone:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Motorola-smartphones-rb-483360551.html?x=0
Sony is going after the Android game market by bringing Playstation games to Android:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/sony-targeting-android-gamers-playstation-suite/2011-01-27
I wish that I had taken my family on a 7-night cruise to Mexico before the violence started in that country...a recent assault of a cruise ship passenger right outside the cruise terminal and a recent robbery attempt has forced a number of cruise lines to cancel their stops in Mazatlan:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jan/26/cruise-lines-cancel-stops-in-mazatlan/
My girls loved this photo of the baby hippo that was born at the San Diego Zoo yesterday!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jan/26/baby-hippo-born-at-the-san-diego-zoo/