5:45 PM
New report reveals that the nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant was so close to getting out of control that senior officials considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo. Senior government officials, the manager of Fukushima nuclear plant, and Tokyo Electric Power (the plant's operator) had sever communication breakdowns and did not trust each other, bickering over what needed to be done to prevent a catastrophic spread of the disaster:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20120229-new-report-paints-dire-picture-of-japanese-fukushima-response
Russian billionaire has been funding (paying 100 scientists, etc.) a massive futuristic effort to figure out how to build robots that, within 10 years, will be able to store a human's mind and keep that consciousness working *forever*. His "Avatar" project hopes to enable people to become essentially immortal:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/02/dmitry-itskov/
Armies of robots could be used to climb up towers and skyscrapers to make repairs so that humans do not need to, making construction zones safer for humans. The robots could also be useful in space, as robots could repair a damaged truss at the Space Station instead of having to send astronauts out on dangerous spacewalks:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20120228-robots-to-climb-and-assemble-structures-making-construction-safer
Clearwire says that its abundant LTE spectrum will help it attract new customers, especially with LightSquared not launching its LTE network as had been planned. Clearwire says that they could sign a large carrier (in addition to its current customer, Sprint) fairly soon, and it should be noted that T-Mobile considered a partnership with Clearwire in 2010 and T-Mobile doesn't have a LTE network running like Verizon and AT&T. It apparently would cost AT&T and T-Mobile only an extra $3 to $4 to add Clearwire's 2.5 GHz spectrum to a handset, so wholesale deals with Clearwire could provide additional LTE capacity quite cheaply:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-could-sign-large-carrier-reasonably-soon-pines-lte-iphone/2012-02-29
Samsung will "significantly" increase its spending on its Bada operating system to try to position it as an alternative to Android. Samsung has been using Bada for devices cheaper than its Android products, but they now say that they want Bada to run on high-end devices also:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/samsung-to-spend-more-on-own-software-offer-android-alternative.html
Security loophole in iOS (iPhone/iPad) gives apps the ability to copy the user's entire photo and video library without ANY notification or warning! This loophole also lets app developers get the location information for all of the photos and videos. Apple has been giving apps full access to photos/videos since the 2010 release of iOS 4.0--it was intended to make photo apps more efficient, but any app can get the photo/video/location information without letting the user know:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/report-apple-loophole-gives-ios-developers-access-user-photos/2012-02-29
14-year-old girl Oregon was at a party and did not want to inhale helium like the others had been doing (to make them laugh and talk funny), but peer pressure made her do it...and she died:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/teenage-girl-dies-inhaling-helium-party-15769174#.T044kfHy8aF
North Carolina man lost his $49k of poisonous lizards and snakes after he was bitten by an exotic venomous snake and was rushed to a hospital. Police found that his mobile home was packed with snakes in plastic containers and he pleaded guilty to 30 charges of possessing endangered animals and failing to properly label containers of poisonous snakes:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/watercooler/article/241075/58/Man-loses-49K-collection-of-poison-snakes
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20120229-new-report-paints-dire-picture-of-japanese-fukushima-response
Russian billionaire has been funding (paying 100 scientists, etc.) a massive futuristic effort to figure out how to build robots that, within 10 years, will be able to store a human's mind and keep that consciousness working *forever*. His "Avatar" project hopes to enable people to become essentially immortal:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/02/dmitry-itskov/
Armies of robots could be used to climb up towers and skyscrapers to make repairs so that humans do not need to, making construction zones safer for humans. The robots could also be useful in space, as robots could repair a damaged truss at the Space Station instead of having to send astronauts out on dangerous spacewalks:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20120228-robots-to-climb-and-assemble-structures-making-construction-safer
Clearwire says that its abundant LTE spectrum will help it attract new customers, especially with LightSquared not launching its LTE network as had been planned. Clearwire says that they could sign a large carrier (in addition to its current customer, Sprint) fairly soon, and it should be noted that T-Mobile considered a partnership with Clearwire in 2010 and T-Mobile doesn't have a LTE network running like Verizon and AT&T. It apparently would cost AT&T and T-Mobile only an extra $3 to $4 to add Clearwire's 2.5 GHz spectrum to a handset, so wholesale deals with Clearwire could provide additional LTE capacity quite cheaply:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-could-sign-large-carrier-reasonably-soon-pines-lte-iphone/2012-02-29
Samsung will "significantly" increase its spending on its Bada operating system to try to position it as an alternative to Android. Samsung has been using Bada for devices cheaper than its Android products, but they now say that they want Bada to run on high-end devices also:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/samsung-to-spend-more-on-own-software-offer-android-alternative.html
Security loophole in iOS (iPhone/iPad) gives apps the ability to copy the user's entire photo and video library without ANY notification or warning! This loophole also lets app developers get the location information for all of the photos and videos. Apple has been giving apps full access to photos/videos since the 2010 release of iOS 4.0--it was intended to make photo apps more efficient, but any app can get the photo/video/location information without letting the user know:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/report-apple-loophole-gives-ios-developers-access-user-photos/2012-02-29
14-year-old girl Oregon was at a party and did not want to inhale helium like the others had been doing (to make them laugh and talk funny), but peer pressure made her do it...and she died:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/teenage-girl-dies-inhaling-helium-party-15769174#.T044kfHy8aF
North Carolina man lost his $49k of poisonous lizards and snakes after he was bitten by an exotic venomous snake and was rushed to a hospital. Police found that his mobile home was packed with snakes in plastic containers and he pleaded guilty to 30 charges of possessing endangered animals and failing to properly label containers of poisonous snakes:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/watercooler/article/241075/58/Man-loses-49K-collection-of-poison-snakes