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Power

Submission + - New 'Stellarator' Design for Fusion Reactors (physorg.com)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "The holy grail in fusion reactors has always seemed just a few years off for many decades. But a recent design enhancement termed a 'Stellarator' may change all that. The point at which a fusion reactor crashes is when particles begin escaping due to disruptions in the plasma. A NYU team has discovered that coiling specific wires to form a magnetic field to contain the plasma is a viable way to create a plasma body with axial symmetry and far better chance of remaining stable. This, of course, like other forms of containment does require energy but brings us closer to a stable fusion reactor. It may not be cold fusion or 'table top' fusion but it certainly is a step forward. The paper is up for peer review in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Apple plans Nano-based phone (reuters.com)

Submitted by bigkahunafish
bigkahunafish writes: It seems Apple is planning a cheaper version of the iPhone based on the iPod Nano. This phone would be priced below $300 making it more affordable than the $500-600 iPhone. This could bring Apple phone technology into the hands of more users, however it should be noted that this cheaper phone could have "rather limited functionality." I just hope they don't make a phone based on the iPod Shuffle.
The Courts

Submission + - Motorists Sue Over 'Hot' Fuel 5

Submitted by i_like_spam
i_like_spam writes: Motorists in 13 states have filed lawsuits against big oil companies and gas retailers alleging unfair pricing practices related to fuel-pumping temperatures. From an industry standard developed in the 1920's, the price for a gallon of gasoline is based on the density of the fuel at a temperature of 60 degress F. A gallon of gas at higher temperatures is less dense, and therefore contains less energy. The lawsuits claim additional costs of 3 to 9 cents per gallon without temperature adjustments. The fuel industry claims that the costs of installing temerature-adjustment sensors on every pump would be prohibitively high. These sensors are already installed in Canada, however, where the colder temperatures favor consumers.
Education

Submission + - Firstborn Get the Brains

Submitted by
Dekortage
Dekortage writes: "Eldest children have higher IQs than their siblings, according to a recent study by Norwegian researchers. The study focused on men, particularly "on teasing out the biological effects of birth order from the effects of social status," but indicates that the senior boy in a family (either by being firstborn, or if an elder brother died) has an average IQ two or three points higher than younger brothers. As noted in the New York Times coverage, "Experts say it can be a tipping point for some people — the difference between a high B average and a low A, for instance... that could mean the difference between admission to an elite private college and a less exclusive public one.""
Networking

Submission + - China taking on U.S. in cyber arms race (cnn.com)

Submitted by
Pabugs
Pabugs writes: "China has developed information warfare units — China is seeking to unseat the United States as the dominant power in cyberspace, a U.S. Air Force general leading a new push in this area said Wednesday."
United States

Submission + - A field trip to the Creation Museum (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Lillith
Lillith writes: The anti-evolution Creation Museum opened last weekend and there's already an amusing report from a skeptic, complete with lots of pictures. 'There were posters explaining just how coal could be formed in a few weeks as opposed to over millions of years, and how rapidly the biblical flood would cover the earth, drowning all but a handful of living creatures. The flood plays a big part in the museum's attempt to explain away what we see as millions of years of natural processes. There was also an explanation as to why, with only one progenitor family, it wasn't considered incest for Adam and Eve's children to marry each other. ' (I liked the picture of the velociraptor grazing peacefully next to Eve in the Garden of Eden myself.)
Classic Games (Games)

Soviet Video Games from the 70s 66

Posted by Zonk from the really-really-old-skool dept.
vigmeister writes "A group of Russian kids have uncovered and rebuilt some arcade games from the Soviet era. These games apparently offered free play when someone played well, but no list of hi-scores. Roughly 32 of them have been found and although they are based on other arcade games, I hope these games were unique enough to offer playability for the present day arcade game lovers. 'Based largely (and crudely) on early Japanese designs, the games were distributed -- in the words of one military manual -- for the purposes of "entertainment and active leisure, as well as the development of visual-estimation abilities." Production of the games ceased with the collapse of communism, and as Nintendo consoles and PCs flooded the former Soviet states, the old arcade games were either destroyed or disappeared into warehouses and basements. It was mostly out of nostalgia that four friends at Moscow State Technical University began scouring the country to rescue these old games. '"
Classic Games (Games)

Submission + - Soviet Video Games from the 70s

Submitted by
vigmeister
vigmeister writes: "Russian kids have uncovered and rebuilt some arcade games from the Soviet era. These games apparently offered free play when someone played well, but no list of hi-scores. Roughly 32 of them have been found and although they are based on other arcade games, I hope these games were unique enough to offer playability for the present day arcade game lovers. Wonder when they'll be available for download on the Wii though...:))"
Businesses

January Game Sales Explode, Wii Dominates 478

Posted by Zonk from the wii're-in-the-money dept.
njkid1, as he does from time to time, passed us a link to a story on the GameDaily site. Today they're discussing the January NPD numbers for the games industry. In short, they're terrific. Software sales totaled $549 million for the month, up a staggering 53 percent over last year. Hardware sales were brisk as well, with the Wii selling around 436,000 units. Trailing behind were Microsoft and Sony, with 360 hitting 294,000 units sold and the PS3 selling 244,000 units. January had an extra week, which resulted in 'inflated' sales, but even after normalizing the data things were tremendous for the games industry in a month where there's normally a post-holiday slump.
Biotech

Submission + - Burning Ice Drilled from Alaska's Slope

Submitted by bagboy
bagboy writes: As sources of renewable energy are being sought, BP announced a new method of extracting natural gas from ice underneath Alaska's North Slope drilling fields. The release from BP's site, a news story from Anchorage, Alaska's KTUU (Channel 2) and a wikipedia entry for Gas Hydrates.
Power

Fuel Tanks Made of Corncob Waste 176

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the corncob-pipes dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "The National Science Foundation is running a story on how corncob waste can be used to created carbon briquettes with complex nanopores capable of storing natural gas. These methane storage systems may encourage mass-market natural gas cars. In fact, these 'briquettes are the first technology to meet the 180 to 1 storage to volume target set by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2000.' They can lead to flat and compact tanks and have already been installed in a pickup truck used regularly by the Kansas City Office of Environmental Quality. And as the whole natural gas infrastructure exists already, this new technology could be soon adopted by car manufacturers."

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