kog777 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Japan to Launch Magnetic Trains in 2025

Submitted by SpeedyTrain on Friday April 27, 2007 @03:02PM

SpeedyTrain writes: Magnetic trains zooming at a landscape-blurring 310 miles an hour will connect Tokyo and Nagoya by 2025, one of Japan's biggest railway operators said Friday. The new magnetically levitated, or "maglev," trains would slash the 100-minute travel time down the country's busiest transportation corridor and are envisioned as a successor for Japan's iconic bullet trains, or shinkansen, first introduced to the world in 1964.

Submission + - New Japanese Mobile Phones Detect Motion

Submitted by GreenTea on Friday April 27, 2007 @02:55PM

GreenTea writes: Some of the latest mobile phones in Japan come with motion sensors that let users detect motion or play action games like those on the Nintendo Wii console. The D904i from NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile carrier, contains a tiny motion sensor that detects shaking and tilting, company spokesman Nobuyuki Hatanaka said.

Feed Genetic Discrimination Ban Clears House; Senate OK Expected (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Thursday April 26, 2007 @12:32PM

A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would forbid genetic discrimination.

Submission + - Researchers Break Internet Speed Records

Submitted by MosiMosi on Thursday April 26, 2007 @12:31PM

MosiMosi writes: A group of researchers led by the University of Tokyo has broken Internet speed records — twice in two days. Operators of the high-speed Internet2 network announced Tuesday that the researchers on Dec. 30 sent data at 7.67 gigabits per second, using standard communications protocols.

Submission + - IBM Adds Video-Game Chips to Mainframes

Submitted by GoIBMPS3 on Thursday April 26, 2007 @12:24PM

GoIBMPS3 writes: The powerful "'Cell"' microprocessor that fuels Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 video game console will be available in IBM mainframe computers so those high-performance machines can run complex online games and virtual worlds.

Submission + - Time Warner Customers Get Wi-Fi Hotspots

Submitted by Hotspots on Monday April 23, 2007 @04:46PM

Hotspots writes: In a big win for a little Wi-Fi startup called Fon, Time Warner Cable Inc. will let its home broadband customers turn their connections into public wireless hotspots, a practice shunned by most U.S. Internet service providers. For Fon, which has forged similar agreements with ISPs across Europe, the deal will boost its credibility with U.S. consumers. For Time Warner Cable, which has 6.6 million broadband subscribers, the move could help protect the company from an exodus as free or cheap municipal wireless becomes more readily available.

Submission + - Microsoft Finds Home for Barcode

Submitted by MicroBarcode on Thursday April 19, 2007 @08:49PM

MicroBarcode writes: Microsoft Corp. has finally found a taker for a colorful barcode technology the company shelved two years ago because it failed to catch on Microsoft said this week that the small square symbols, filled with red, green, yellow and black triangles, will appear on DVD and video game cases later this year, thanks to a licensing deal with the ISAN International Agency. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Submission + - Space Race Heats Up in Asia

Submitted by SushiVSYamcha on Thursday April 19, 2007 @02:21PM

SushiVSYamcha writes: Japan is set to launch its first lunar orbiter this summer, but exploring the moon is just part of the mission. The other goal is to catch up with China, the new leader in Asia's space race. Japan's space agency JAXA announced last week that the much-delayed SELENE probe will be launched in August aboard an H-2A rocket, the mainstay of Japan's space program.

Submission + - Bill Would Require Labels on Cloned Food

Submitted by ComeBack on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @05:09PM

ComeBack writes: Steaks, pork chops, milk and other products from cloned livestock would have to be clearly labeled on grocers' shelves under a bill pending in the California Legislature. If passed, the requirement could be more stringent than federal rules. The Food and Drug Administration is poised to give final approval to meat and milk from cloned animals without any special labeling, though a bill introduced in Congress would require it.

Submission + - NY Gov Targets Violent Video Games

Submitted by NoMoreGuns on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @12:26AM

NoMoreGuns writes: Gov. Eliot Spitzer will take a shot at violent videos and video games as part his remaining 2007 legislative agenda that includes campaign finance reform, streamlining the courts, and energy development. Spitzer said he will soon provide a bill that would target the ratings of video movies and video games "that are often violent and degrading" and can hurt children who repeatedly use and view them.

Should Schools Block Sites Like Wikipedia? 545

Posted by Cliff on Friday April 13, 2007 @05:25PM from the concerned-about-its-accuracy dept.

Londovir asks: "Recently, our school board made the decision to block Wikipedia from our school district's WAN system. This was a complete block — there aren't even provisions in place for teachers or administrators to input a password to bypass the restriction. The reason given was that Wikipedia (being user created and edited) did not represent a credible or reliable source of information for schools. Should we block sites such as Wikipedia because students may be exposed to misinformation, or should we encourage sites such as Wikipedia as an outlet for students to investigate and determine the validity of the information?"

Submission + - Scientists Map DNA of Research Monkeys

Submitted by KingKong on Friday April 13, 2007 @12:52AM

KingKong writes: Scientists have unraveled the DNA of another of our primate relatives, this time a monkey named the rhesus macaque — and the work has far more immediate impact than just to study evolution. These fuzzy animals are key to testing the safety of many medicines, and understanding such diseases as AIDS, and the new research will help scientists finally be sure when they're a good stand-in for humans

Submission + - New Solar Panel Design Traps More Light

Submitted by GoSun on Wednesday April 11, 2007 @08:42PM

GoSun writes: Sunlight has never really caught fire as a power source, mostly because generating electricity with solar cells is more expensive and less efficient than some conventional sources. But a new solar panel unveiled this month by the Georgia Tech Research Institute hopes to brighten the future of the energy source.

Submission + - `.eu' Domain Names Top 2.5M in Year One

Submitted by VictoryDone on Wednesday April 11, 2007 @08:26PM

VictoryDone writes: More than 2.5 million ".eu" Internet addresses have been registered since the European domain name launched just over a year ago, the European Commission said Wednesday. Many worldwide brands — from companies like Air France and Versace to environmental campaigners Greenpeace — now have a ".eu" address, officials said, singling out non-European brands Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus for also choosing an ".eu" address in ad campaigns.

Sunspots Reach 1000-Year Peak 695

Posted by CowboyNeal on Monday April 09, 2007 @11:16PM from the radio-signals-cringing dept.

rlp writes "Researchers at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich are reporting that solar sunspot activity is at a 1000-year peak. Records of sunspots have been kept since 1610. The period between 1645 and 1715 (known as the Maunder Minimum) was a period of very few sunspots. Researchers extended the record by measuring isotopes of beryllium (created by cosmic rays) in Greenland ice cores. Based on both observations and ice core records, we are now at a sunspot peak exceeding solar activity for any time in the past thousand years."

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