Space Power

Two new studies looking at the feasibility of space-based solar power - orbiting satellites that would serve as high-tech space dams - suggest the concept shouldnt be readily dismissed and could generate both Earth-bound and space-based benefits.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/solar_power_sats_011017-1.html

Non-metallic magnet could be dream computer memory

A transparent, flexible magnetic material made from an exotic form of carbon could turn out to be the dream computer memory. The substance, which was discovered accidentally by a Russian physicist hunting for high-temperature superconductors, is the first non-metallic magnet to work at room temperature.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991443

Salons Review of Lynchs Mulholland Drive

"Mulholland Drive" is beautifully and intricately structured: Those who delight in disassembling Lynchs puzzles will have a great time flipping the plot around, tracing its breadcrumb clues back from the end to the beginning. But it also works out perfectly if youre interested only in the interplay between its hypnotically beguiling characters (or even if youre interested only in seeing them go to bed with one another). At the very least, the luxe air of menace that hangs around "Mulholland Drive" like a vapor is evidence of Lynch at his best. If you could put the essence of 3 a.m. in a perfume bottle, it would smell like "Mulholland Drive" looks.
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2001/10/12/mulholland_drive/index.html?x

Long-lasting Martian Duststorm

Scientists dont know why the storm became so gigantic. Richard Zurek, of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said, "We dont understand the details." In June, the storm apparently grew from a smaller duster that appeared in a plain in the Hellas basin. Sequential images show that dust from that basin spread north and east, eventually covering the whole planet in a reddish-orange cloud.
http://www.wired.com/news/photo/0,1860,47511,00.html

Linux Watchpad

The watchmaker and computer giant on Thursday unveiled the WatchPad, the first prototype to come out of their collaboration. IBM researchers have come out with prototypes on their own over the past year and a half. Besides telling time, the WatchPad comes with calendar-scheduling software, a pager-like application for sending and receiving short messages, and a Bluetooth chip for wireless communication with notebooks, handheld computers and cell phones.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-7489545.html?tag=lh

Bitchin Nokia Out

Key features: Digital Music Player and Recorder, Nokia Audio Manager PC software for copying personal CDs, organizing and downloading music files from a compatible PC to the Nokia 5510, FM stereo radio, full keyboard for fast text input, 5 games, WAP, multiple chat, multiple SMS sending...
http://www.nokia.com/phones/5510/index.html

More Terror Attacks to Come

...why was this given the file name of skyfall?...
Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days. The FBI has again alerted all local law enforcement to be on the highest alert and we call on all people to immediately notify the FBI and local law enforcement of any unusual or suspicious activity.
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/skyfall.htm

Slugbot!

The aim of this project is to build a robot with animal-like self-sufficiency in both information and energy. We dont expect to be able to match the speed and performance of a cheetah chasing a zebra, within the time frame of this project, so we decided to chase something slightly slower ... slugs. Apart from their relative ease of capture (compared to zebras), slugs were chosen because they are a major pest, are reasonably plentiful, have no hard shell or skeleton, and are reasonably large. It is also more technologically interesting to catch mobile prey rather than just grazing on plants. Of course, the organic resources, or food (i.e. slugs), will have to be converted to a form of energy that is useful to a robotic system. We propose to convert the organic material to electricity using microbial fuel cells. Agricultural fields of winter wheat offer a suitable test bed for the robots because slugs (Deroceras reticulatum, Arion ater ater and Arion ater rufus) are plentiful, with up to 200 per square metre. Slugs are mainly active at night, especially just after sunset and just before sunrise, so the robots will have to be active at these times, and resting in order to conserve energy during the day when most slugs are underground. Since energy conservation will be of prime importance, and moving heavy items over soft ground will consume large amounts of energy, the fermentation vessel, engine and generator will be stationary. One or more robots will deliver slugs to the stationary charging system and obtain power from it. In order to minimise the amount of movement each of the robots will be equipped with a 1.5m long arm, mounted on a turntable, which will be used both for detecting and collecting slugs which is now working under closed loop computer control...
http://www.ias.uwe.ac.uk/goto.html?slugbot

Hilarious Salon Comic

http://www.salon.com/comics/boll/2001/10/11/boll/index.html

New Glass-Eating Microbes Found

From small things come great hope. Glass-eating microbes discovered 300 meters below the Earths ocean floors have given scientists further evidence that life on Mars and Europa is a possibility.The newly found microbes are literally at the rock bottom of the food chain. And they survive on a bare minimum: water, heat, and nutrients they digest from volcanic glass in the ocean floor. These lithoautotrophs, as they are called, are so bare bones they could easily exist on other less hospitable worlds.
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/mars_glass_011005.html

Good Pic of Afghanistan Damage

Residents look at damage caused by U.S.-British airstrikes to an alleged United Nations building in Kabul, Afghanistan Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2001. The U.S. hit targets in Afghanistan and key installations of the Taliban regime with cruise missiles for the second night for harboring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. Officials at the scene said the victims of the Monday night bombing raid were U.N. workers who cleared anti-personnel mines in Kabul. Photo by Amir Shah.
http://news.excite.ca/photo/img/ap/afghanistan/attacks/20011009/kab101?r=/photo/ap/011009/08/news-attacks-rdp

Astronomers Find Galactic Building Block in Early Universe

Gravitational lensing, a feature of Einsteins theory of General Relativity, offers a unique short cut to viewing the earliest light in the universe while scientists wait for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), a 6.5 meter telescope to be launched in 2009. Exploiting gravitational lensing, an international team of astrophysicists has detected a very small, faint stellar system in the process of its formation during the first half billion years or so of the universes existence.
http://www.cosmiverse.com/space10050102.html

Its Christmastime on Io

The volcanic material reached the spacecraft no more than a few minutes after rushing out of the source vent on the ground. The particles are apparently snowflakes made of sulfur-dioxide molecules with as many as 15 to 20 molecules clumped together in each flake.
http://unisci.com/stories/20014/1005012.htm

Good Bono Commentary/Quotes

At 41, Bono is at an age when many rock musicians start exploiting bygone successes to keep feeding at the trough of fame. But with Bono, its more than a rock n roll career. Behind the black leather togs and wraparound shades, there has always been an earnest social crusader. Embarrassingly earnest? Perhaps. But, oddly, thats part of his charm. In a business where people sell their souls for success, he has constantly risked celebrity-cause cliché -- and he knows it. "The only thing worse than a rock star," he told the starry-eyed Harvard grads, "is a rock star with a conscience. Ive seen great minds and prolific imaginations disappear up their own ass, strung out on their own self-importance. Im one of them."
http://www.salon.com/people/bc/2001/10/02/bono/index.html?CP=RDF&DN=310

Black Deaths Genome Sequenced

Normally, a gene map for an all-but-vanquished disease would interest only microbiologists and medical historians. But fears of biological warfare have increased since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The U.S. government grounded crop-dusting airplanes for several days after the attacks. Spreading plague bacteria in the air could mimic the effects of the inhaled version of the disease.
http://news.excite.ca/news/ap/011003/14/plague-gene-map

Nother Great Onion!

http://www.theonion.com/

Toddler Fed By Bear?

A mother bear appears to have cared for a missing 16-month-old Iranian toddler who was found safe and sound three days later in the animals den, the Kayhan newspaper said Tuesday.The childs parents, from a nomadic tribe in western Lorestan province, returned to their tent after working in the fields to find him missing, Kayhan said.Three days later, a search party found the baby, who they said had probably been breast fed by a mother bear, in a den some six miles away from the nomadic settlement. A medical examination showed the baby was in good health, the daily said.
http://news.excite.ca/news/r/011002/11/odd-toddler-dc

Fusion Power Within Reach?

To make nuclear fusion occur, atoms must first be broken down into electrons and atomic nuclei. This produces an electrically charged gas called plasma. The bare nuclei must then be forced together so that they merge. Because like charges repel, this is difficult. At the heart of our Sun, fusion takes place at a temperature of 15 million degrees and a pressure of 100,000 atmospheres. Because it is not possible to reproduce these conditions on Earth, terrestrial fusion reactors must operate at lower pressures and higher temperatures - about 100 million degrees.
http://www.cosmiverse.com/space10020103.html