Development agreement takes shape during the Paris Air Show By Anatoly Zak Sun Aug 21 2005 Source It's all but official—Russia and Europe will soon embark on a cooperative effort to build a next-generation manned space shuttle. Speaking at the Paris Air Show, in Le Bourget, France, in June, Russian space officials confirmed earlier reports from Moscow that their partners at the European Spby archive - Archive
From Science Blog Source Light A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for the first time, that it is possible to control the speed of light – both slowing it down and speeding it up – in an optical fiber, using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal environmental conditions. Their results, to be published in the August 22 isby archive - Archive
By Reuters Source Aug 19, 2005 Imagine watching a football game on a TV that not only shows the players in three dimensions but also lets you experience the smells of the stadium and maybe even pat a goal scorer on the back. Japan plans to make this futuristic television a commercial reality by 2020 as part of a broad national project that will bring together researchers from the governby archive - Archive
By Joshua Jaffe Aug 21, 2005 Source "We are seeing widespread acceptance for Linux, Apache, Tomcat, MySQL, Thunderbird, Firefox and OpenOffice in manufacturing, retail and government." --Evan Bauer, principal research fellow, Robert Frances Group Bob Gatewood needed more control. The chief technology officer at Athena Healthcare was sick of multiple databases that contained the sameby archive - Archive
Posted by Jamais Cascio August 19, 2005 Source Unlocking the Code – Science, Systems and Technological Breakthroughs This is likely the biggest technological breakthrough of the year, arguably even of the decade. A team of researcher from the University of Texas, Dallas, and Australia's CSIRO has come up with a way to make strong, stable macroscale sheets and ribbons of multiwall nanotubeby archive - Archive
Posted by Jamais Cascio August 19, 2005 02:18 PM Farnsworth: These are the dark matter engine I invented. They allow my starship to travel between galaxies in mere hours. Cubert: That's impossible. You can't go faster than the speed of light. Farnsworth: Of course not. That's why scientists increased the speed of light in 2208. --Futurama, "A Clone of My Own" We mby archive - Archive
"The issue is whether we will continue to elevate, celebrate, and reward so many executives who, however charismatic, remain indifferent to hurting other people. Babiak says that while the first line of defense against psychopaths in the workplace is screening job candidates, the second line is a "culture of openness and trust, especially when the company is undergoing intense, chaoticby archive - Archive
Super-strong sheets could be used in future screens and surfaces By Kathleen Wren Aug. 18, 2005 Source WASHINGTON - Carbon nanotubes, the wunderkind molecules of the nanoworld, are finally showing strength in numbers. Researchers have now made large nanotube sheets that have many of the same star qualities as the prima donna-like single molecules, bringing the promises of nanotechnology a stepby archive - Archive
By ZDNet Source Having implemented Linux across the company's servers half a decade ago, De Bortoli CIO Bill Robertson is an enthusiastic backer of open-standards technology, most of which happens to also be open source. However, he says without the investment made at the turn of the century by companies such as IBM and Sun, open-source software could not have achieved the success itby archive - Archive
By Michael Perry Tue Aug 16, 2005 Source SYDNEY (Reuters) - Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills the HIV virus. The crocodile's immune system is much more powerful than that of humans, preventing life-threatening infectionsby archive - Archive
By Richard Duncan May 16, 2005 Source What keeps the US and the world economy afloat at a time when US balance of payments and budget deficits have soared to unprecedented levels? As The Economist noted in its September 23, 1999 edition, "Never before in history have central banks wielded so much power." That power has only increased, as central governments continue to withdraw fromby archive - Archive
"...Standard & Poor’s has devised a method for making adjustments to arrive at a company’s core earnings... Those are the earnings from the primary business of the company, and anything reported should be recurring. The adjustments aren’t small. For example, in 2002, E.I. du Pont de Nemours (DuPont) reported earnings of more than $5 billion based on an audited statement and inby archive - Archive
"This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right. Because only if you spend a lot of time looking at a computer screen can you arrive at the complex point where the global warming debate now stands." We also see this 'fascination with computer models' in the financial derivatives market, Tby archive - Archive
By PAUL KRUGMAN August 12, 2005 Source I used to live next door to a Russian émigré. One day he asked me to explain something that puzzled him about his new country. "This place seems very rich," he said, "but I never see anyone making anything. How does the country earn its money?" The answer, these days, is that we make a living by selling each other houses. Since Decemberby archive - Archive
By PAUL KRUGMAN August 8, 2005 Source This is the way the bubble ends: not with a pop, but with a hiss. Housing prices move much more slowly than stock prices. There are no Black Mondays, when prices fall 23 percent in a day. In fact, prices often keep rising for a while even after a housing boom goes bust. So the news that the U.S. housing bubble is over won't come in the form of plunginby archive - Archive
By Michael T Klare Jun 29, 2005 Source For those oil enthusiasts who believe that petroleum will remain abundant for decades to come - among them President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and their many friends in the oil industry - any talk of an imminent "peak" in global oil production and an ensuing decline can be easily countered with a simple mantra: "Saudi Arabby archive - Archive
"It does look like the sun has been more active in the last 50 years than it has been for a long time. One estimate is that there has not been this long a time period of high activity in something like 8,000 years." - Dr. David Hathaway, NASA (remark made in 2005) "Historical Solar Activity: Can we count on the sun? Two hundred thousand year old Greenland ice coresby archive - Archive
By Rhonda Ascierto 10th August 2005 Source A common reason why more governments and enterprises around the world are moving to open source software is unhappiness, it was revealed during a panel discussion at the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco yesterday. Google Inc open source programs manager Chris DiBona said the search giant has stuck with Linux throughout the company's life, inby archive - Archive
By Timothy Prickett Morgan 8th August 2005 Source The bi-annual LinuxWorld trade show is under way this week in San Francisco, and once again the major platform makers are swearing their fealty to Linux and trying to figure out any angle they can to use Linux as a lever to wrest sales away from their competition and money out of their customer bases. The Linux market has largely proven itself (by archive - Archive
FOREIGN POLICY Posted July 2005 Source The U.S. military is studying weapons designed for outer space, including metal tubes, or “rods from God,” which can be fired at Earthly targets from the heavens above. President Bush may in the next few weeks move such plans closer to reality. FP turned to Michael Krepon, an expert on weaponizing space, for insights on taking the fight to the outer orbits.by archive - Archive
By Michael Kanellos Source Aug 02 2005 Humans apparently aren't the first species to change the climate of the planet. Bacteria living 2.3 billion years ago could have plunged the planet into deep freeze, researchers at the California Institute of Technology claim in a new report. Several graduate students, along with supervising professor Joe Kirschvink, have released a paper presenting tby archive - Archive
By Kate Bissell BBC Radio 4 7 August 2005 Source For the past 20 years climatologists and ice and atmosphere scientists have been working in Alaska studying climate change. Now they have discovered a rich new source of records extending their knowledge back by decades through the oral history of native Alaskans. Barrow is the most northerly town in the United States, lying 300 miles inside thby archive - Archive
Hurricane caused 'tallest wave' 5 August 2005 BBC Source Hurricane Ivan generated a wave more than 90 feet (27 metres) high - thought to be the tallest and most intense ever measured - scientists have revealed. It would have dwarfed a 10-storey building and had the power to snap a ship in half - but never reached land. The wave was recorded by sensors on the ocean floor as Hurricaneby archive - Archive
You Say You Want a Web Revolution By Ryan Singel Aug. 05, 2005 Source The Netscape threat that led Microsoft to wage the browser war and cross swords with antitrust regulators around the world is -- at long last -- poised to become reality. Software experts say recent innovations in web design are ushering in a new era for internet-based software applications, some of the best of which alreadyby archive - Archive
Design for Confusion By PAUL KRUGMAN August 5, 2005 Source I'd like to nominate Irving Kristol, the neoconservative former editor of The Public Interest, as the father of "intelligent design." No, he didn't play any role in developing the doctrine. But he is the father of the political strategy that lies behind the intelligent design movement - a strategy that has been usedby archive - Archive
Comment This war on terrorism is bogus The 9/11 attacks gave the US an ideal pretext to use force to secure its global domination By Michael Meacher Saturday September 6, 2003 The Guardian Source Massive attention has now been given - and rightly so - to the reasons why Britain went to war against Iraq. But far too little attention has focused on why the US went to war, and thatby archive - Archive
AIDS Too much morality, too little sense From The Economist print edition Jul 28th 2005 Source Politicians must suspend moral judgments if AIDS is to be defeated THE world is not winning the war against AIDS. By the end of this year, 3m poor people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are supposed to be receiving the treatment they need. So far, though, barely 1m are. At present, aby archive - Archive
Triumph of the Machine By PAUL KRUGMAN August 1, 2005 Source The campaign for Social Security privatization has degenerated into farce. The "global war on terrorism" has been downgraded to the "global struggle against violent extremism" (pronounced gee-save), which is just embarrassing. Baghdad is a nightmare, Basra is a militia-run theocracy, and officials are talking aboutby archive - Archive
What Business Can Learn from Open Source August 2005 (This essay is derived from a talk at Oscon 2005.) Source Lately companies have been paying more attention to open source. Ten years ago there seemed a real danger Microsoft would extend its monopoly to servers. It seems safe to say now that open source has prevented that. A recent survey found 52% of companies are replacing Windows serversby archive - Archive
"I find it just odd for all these economists and policy makers to be cheering for all this consumer spending when we're just digging ourselves into a hole," said Brusca. "With all the obligations we have ahead, to retirees and to ourselves, we have all the reasons in the world for people to be saving more and be controlling their spending." The zero-savings problem Somby archive - Archive