No Tolls on The InternetCongress is about to cast a historic vote on the future of the Internet. It will decide whether the Internet remains a free and open technology fostering innovation, economic growth and democratic communication, or instead becomes the property of cable and phone companies that can put toll booths at every on-ramp and exit on the information superhighway.
At the center of the debate is the most important public policy you've probably never heard of: "network neutrality." Net neutra... (more)
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eBay Invites Internet Regulation, Backs Online Gambling BanRep. Bob Goodlatte is in the process of pushing through Congress a bill that would "ban" Internet gambling. I've previously explained why the bill is bad public policy.
But since that column, it has come to light that online auction giant eBay has thrown its support behind Goodlatte's efforts. Why would an Internet company open its arms to congressional regulation of the Internet?
Some speculate that eBay is attempting to win favor with Goodlatte, who also happens t... (more)
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Magnetic field 'can boost brain'Ordinary people could be capable of extraordinary feats of mental agility by turning off part of the brain with magnetic fields, according to Australian scientists.
In the Hollywood film Rain Man, the character played by Dustin Hoffman counts 246 toothpicks at lightning speed when a waitress spills them in a heap on the floor of a diner.
The ability of ordinary people to do this same feat can be boosted with magnetic fields, says Prof Allan Snyder, Director of the C... (more)
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Special forces to use strap-on 'stealth wings'Elite special forces troops being dropped behind enemy lines on covert missions are to ditch their traditional parachutes in favour of strap-on stealth wings.
The lightweight carbon fibre mono-wings will allow them to jump from high altitudes and then glide 120 miles or more before landing - making them almost impossible to spot, as their aircraft can avoid flying anywhere near the target.
The technology was demonstrated in spectacular fashion three years ago when A... (more)
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Climate Control, Beijing-Style: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain, but in China? Well, the government will decide.The rainy season has come to northern China, and it’s a brave new world out there. Actually the natural rainy season doesn’t start until July. But the season of man-made rain is upon us, and Chinese rainmakers have been busy. Over the past month they've mobilized cloud-seeding aircraft, artillery and rockets to enhance rainfall. "We've ordered technicians to try to make it rain again today, but so far they haven’t reported back on the results," says Zhang Qiang, a businesslike ... (more)
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Genetically Altered Mice No Longer Like CocaineRelated: Virus to curb cocaine cravings
COLUMBUS , Ohio – Researchers found that they could eliminate the rewarding effect of cocaine on mice by genetically manipulating a key target of the drug in the animal's brain.
While the researchers aren't suggesting that these genetic modifications be made in humans, the work brings to light the key protein that controls cocaine's effects in the body, which ma... (more)
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Is It Raining Aliens?As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis’s laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens. In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples—water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis’s home state of Kerala in the summ... (more) “I would be most happy to accept a simpler explanation,” he says, “but I cannot find any."
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Dow Chemical and others sprayed dioxins on base, report revealsNine locations at CFB Gagetown have, still today, unacceptable levels of dioxins resulting from chemical spraying that occurred during the last half century, a federal fact-finding investigation has revealed.
That is six more than the federal government had previously acknowledged.
The revelation was included in the first of a series of reports into the history of spraying on the New Brunswick base and the potential health effects of the chemicals on people living n... (more)
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The next big bang: Man meets machineIn science-fiction fantasies, the melding of organic matter and digital technology usually takes human form, from Steve Austin's six-million-dollar bionics to the replicants running amok in "Blade Runner" to the Terminator.
Yet research on multiple fronts in digital technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology may, over the next half century, alter the way we think about computers and information, and our relationship to them. With these changes, bionic body parts won't seem so fa... (more)
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China: Stable long-term oil supply predictedChina can maintain a healthy oil supply with new discoveries in its sea and land-locked western regions, despite growing exploration difficulties, experts claim.
Zhai Guangming, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said China's annual oil output could reach 185 million to 195 million tons.
Speaking at this weekend's forum on the nation's energy strategy, he said:"China is able to maintain such an output for some 10 to 15 years."
Chin... (more)
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Laser enrichment could cut cost of nuclear powerNUCLEAR power could become significantly cheaper thanks to world-leading laser technology being developed in Sydney.
A team of about 25 scientists, engineers and technicians at Lucas Heights, home of Australia's only atomic reactor, has succeeded where other nations, with budgets stretching into billions of dollars, have failed.
After a decade of work they have tested a new way to process, or enrich, the uranium needed to drive power plants.
The techn... (more)
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Asimov's First Law: Japan Sets Rules for RobotsJapan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is working on a new set of safety guidelines for next-generation robots. This set of regulations would constitute a first attempt at a formal version of the first of Asimov's science-fictional Laws of Robotics, or at least the portion that states that humans shall not be harmed by robots.
The first law of robotics, as set forth in 1940 by writer Isaac Asimov, states: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a... (more)
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Mysterious glowing clouds targeted by NASAGlowing, silvery blue clouds that have been spreading around the world and brightening mysteriously in recent years will soon be studied in unprecedented detail by a NASA spacecraft.
The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission will be the first satellite dedicated to studying this enigmatic phenomenon. Due to launch in late 2006, it should reveal whether the clouds are caused by global warming, as many scientists believe.
"Noctilucent" clouds, which glow at ... (more) "As yet, it is not clear what the source of the particles that "seed" the clouds is." Gee whiz, I wonder if this cloud seeding might have something to do with it... |
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The TempestAs evidence mounts that humans are causing dangerous changes in Earth's climate, a handful of skeptics are providing some serious blowback
IT SHOULD BE GLORIOUS TO BE BILL GRAY, professor emeritus. He is often called the World's Most Famous Hurricane Expert. He's the guy who, every year, predicts the number of hurricanes that will form during the coming tropical storm season. He works on a country road leading into the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in the atmospheric science... (more)
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US House panel calls for Net neutralityA BILL which will prevent telcos from offering high-speed lanes for video and other services has been approved by the US government House Judiciary Committee.
If the bill ever makes it, telcos will have to abide by strict Net neutrality principles.
The creation of a bill contradicts another called the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act which says the FCC be allowed to decide whether or not telcos can violate Net neutrality principles.
<... (more)
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House panel votes for Net neutralityWASHINGTON--A bill that seeks to prevent broadband providers from offering an exclusive high-speed lane for video and other services has taken a step closer to becoming law.
By a 20-13 vote Thursday that partially followed party lines, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would require broadband providers to abide by strict Net neutrality principles, meaning that their networks must be operated in a "nondiscriminatory" manner.
All 14 Democrats on the c... (more)
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Fusion reactor work gets go-aheadSeven international parties involved in an experimental nuclear fusion reactor project have initialled a 10bn-euro (£6.8bn) agreement on the plan.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) will be the most expensive joint scientific project after the International Space Station.
Wednesday's agreement in Brussels gives the go-ahead for practical work on the project to start.
Fusion taps energy from reactions like those that powe... (more)
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Synthetic biologists reject controversial guidelinesResearchers in the new field of synthetic biology have pledged to develop better tools to identify anyone trying to order the DNA needed to make deadly pathogens. But at the Synthetic Biology 2.0 meeting in Berkeley, California, they decided against adopting a controversial code of conduct intended to prevent their technologies being used to make new bioweapons.
Synthetic biologists – scientists who use biological components such as proteins to build useful devices – a... (more)
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Japanese boffins build breakthrough brain-machine interfaceHonda scientists have created a system that will translate thoughts into electrical signals that can be used to control machinery. The technique doesn't require the user to undergo surgery or extensive training - a major advance over past thought-controlled technologies, the company said.
Researchers at the Honda Research Institute in co-operation with boffins from Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute dub the system the "Brain Machine Interface". Details of the r... (more)
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