7:00 PM
The Navy is looking for companies to build them swarms of semi-autonomous robots that can work together to manufacture complex objects such as more robots. This program is looking to advance the technology so that we could have swarms of intelligent robots that can mimic the shape and appearance of a particular *person* in real time. This seems way too close to the Terminator movies--intelligent robots that can take the shape of any object or person in real time, changing shape and appearance at will:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/navy-robot-apocalypse/
China may impose a carbon tax in 2013, with one of their leading experts pushing for the tax to start next year. China plans to reduce its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 40% to 45% by 2020 and to reduce its emissions of lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium and arsenic by 15% from 2007 levels over the next 5 years. China discharged 900 tons of the highly toxic metals in 2007, and it will cost China $11.4 bil over the next 5 years to clean up the problem. China has had an increasing number of toxic metal-based poisoning cases since 2009, with 28 children rushed to the hospital last month in one province due to poisoning caused by a battery factory. Up to 10% of rice grown in China is tainted with heavy metals and 12 million tons of grain are polluted by heavy metals each year, causing economic losses of $3 bil.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/chinas-energy-plan-and-discussion-of.html
Article about air pollution and fossil fuel damage, with amazingly disturbing photos. It shows problems in the US and China today, with the toxins and pollution from coal mining really playing havok with the Chinese province discussed here, with more than 10 million people in Guizhou Province and surrounding areas suffer from various forms of fluorosis (13 other areas in China also have people suffering from coal combustion induced fluorosis):
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/air-pollution-and-fossil-fuel-damage-in.html
Researchers developed early detection technology that can identify breast cancer *2.5 years* before current methods such as Mammograms. The magnetic measurement of nanoparticles specifically targets cancer cells to enable cancer detection far earlier than anything used today...detecting tumors with only 50,000 cancer cells while mammograms cannot detect tumors until after it has 100 million malignant cells. Detecting cancer 2.5 years earlier would save countless lives every year!
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=055&ACCT=0000100&ISSUE=1103&RELTYPE=IN&PRODCODE=00000&PRODLETT=X&CommonCount=0
Clearwire is desperate for funding and is in bad shape because Sprint refused this time. Now Sprint says that it will dump the Clearwire service completely unless Clearwire meets their pricing demands. Sprint says that they have other options (cough, LTE, cough), so Clearwire may have to take a big cut in revenue:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/hesse-sprint-will-walk-away-clearwire-if-wholesale-pricing-dispute-isnt-res/2011-03-03
A different Sprint executive said yesterday that they will have a live LTE network this year and could have nationwide LTE service by 2013:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/sprints-recent-comments-reflect-irritation-clearwire/2011-03-03
It looks like Sam's Club will be selling the WiFi-only Xoom for $539, much less than the $599 price previously discussed. However, that is still more than the WiFi-only iPad 2 (the Xoom has a bigger hard drive, but SD card expansion mitigates that advantage):
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/03/03/wifi-only-motorola-xoom-headed-to-sams-club-possibly-priced-at-539/
It is bad enough when someone forgets to turn off their cell phone ringer, but 100x worse that the cell phone rang during a *funeral* and the ringtone was the song *Staying Alive* by the Bee Gees:
http://www.techeye.net/mobile/bee-gees-stayin-alive-ringtone-interrupts-funeral
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/navy-robot-apocalypse/
China may impose a carbon tax in 2013, with one of their leading experts pushing for the tax to start next year. China plans to reduce its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 40% to 45% by 2020 and to reduce its emissions of lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium and arsenic by 15% from 2007 levels over the next 5 years. China discharged 900 tons of the highly toxic metals in 2007, and it will cost China $11.4 bil over the next 5 years to clean up the problem. China has had an increasing number of toxic metal-based poisoning cases since 2009, with 28 children rushed to the hospital last month in one province due to poisoning caused by a battery factory. Up to 10% of rice grown in China is tainted with heavy metals and 12 million tons of grain are polluted by heavy metals each year, causing economic losses of $3 bil.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/chinas-energy-plan-and-discussion-of.html
Article about air pollution and fossil fuel damage, with amazingly disturbing photos. It shows problems in the US and China today, with the toxins and pollution from coal mining really playing havok with the Chinese province discussed here, with more than 10 million people in Guizhou Province and surrounding areas suffer from various forms of fluorosis (13 other areas in China also have people suffering from coal combustion induced fluorosis):
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/air-pollution-and-fossil-fuel-damage-in.html
Researchers developed early detection technology that can identify breast cancer *2.5 years* before current methods such as Mammograms. The magnetic measurement of nanoparticles specifically targets cancer cells to enable cancer detection far earlier than anything used today...detecting tumors with only 50,000 cancer cells while mammograms cannot detect tumors until after it has 100 million malignant cells. Detecting cancer 2.5 years earlier would save countless lives every year!
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=055&ACCT=0000100&ISSUE=1103&RELTYPE=IN&PRODCODE=00000&PRODLETT=X&CommonCount=0
Clearwire is desperate for funding and is in bad shape because Sprint refused this time. Now Sprint says that it will dump the Clearwire service completely unless Clearwire meets their pricing demands. Sprint says that they have other options (cough, LTE, cough), so Clearwire may have to take a big cut in revenue:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/hesse-sprint-will-walk-away-clearwire-if-wholesale-pricing-dispute-isnt-res/2011-03-03
A different Sprint executive said yesterday that they will have a live LTE network this year and could have nationwide LTE service by 2013:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/sprints-recent-comments-reflect-irritation-clearwire/2011-03-03
It looks like Sam's Club will be selling the WiFi-only Xoom for $539, much less than the $599 price previously discussed. However, that is still more than the WiFi-only iPad 2 (the Xoom has a bigger hard drive, but SD card expansion mitigates that advantage):
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/03/03/wifi-only-motorola-xoom-headed-to-sams-club-possibly-priced-at-539/
It is bad enough when someone forgets to turn off their cell phone ringer, but 100x worse that the cell phone rang during a *funeral* and the ringtone was the song *Staying Alive* by the Bee Gees:
http://www.techeye.net/mobile/bee-gees-stayin-alive-ringtone-interrupts-funeral