More assorted articles to clear the backlog

Whales 2, Bush 1 - In the latest fight between the courts and the Navy over sonar testing, a federal judge in Hawaii order the Navy to suspending testing of their high-powered sonar when whales are within 500 feet of the ship. Just to recap, California courts issued an order to stop sonar tests off Southern California, in response to which Bush signed a decree declaring the Navy except from having to be concerned about how tests affect whales, which a judge promptly ruled as being worth crap-all.

The end is nigh! - Our days are numbered. The sun will expand, then swallow our planet whole.... in 7.6 billion years. Those of you who plan to be around then may start panicking now. The rest of us will sit back and enjoy a cold one.

The robots wars are coming - According to this New Scientist article, there is now a rush among governments to develop robot soldiers, able to kill autonomously without concern for morals or ethics. Countries developing robotic soldiers include the U.S., several European nations, Canada, Singapore, and Israel. Currently-deployed systems (such as those used by the U.S.) have a human in the loop, but research is now being devoted to autonomously identifying threats.

Help in sight for Newfoundlanders - For nine generations, some Newfoundlanders have been dropping dead in the prime of their lives, but recent research has identified a genetic marker to  identify those at risk. The gene causes a condition known as Type 5 Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) in which heart cells in the right ventricle are replaced with fatty, fibrous tissue. Men carrying this gene have a life expectancy of 41, women of 71. If detected, the person can be monitored until it is certain whether or not the condition has manifest itself, and those with the condition can be treated with defibrillator implants.

Bush finally agrees to binding emission limits - After refusing to sign onto Kyoto (unlike Canada that signed but refuses to do anything), the U.S. is finally ready to sign an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In response, Europe is complaining that the agreement lacks any time frame within which to meet the emission limits.

This is your brain on video games - A recent study has concluded that playing video games stimulates parts of the brain associated with reward and addiction more in men than in women.

Rubber heal thyself - French researchers have developed a material made from urine and vegetable oil that retains a strong self-adhesion when cut, allowing it to stitch itself back together after being cut. Unlike normal rubber, which is made up of long strands linked by covalent bonds, the new material uses shorter strands linked by hydrogen bonds. The inventors are now looking commercializing the product.

More cleanup articles

Canadian hacking scam cracked - This story, found on Slashdot, discusses a bust in which 16 people from around Qubec were arrested for hacking as many as 1 million computers around the world, using them to generate fake websites that netted the ring as much as $45 million(Can) before they were caught.

Netscape is no more - Those of you who, like me, are old enough to have watched the internet grow from inception will remember the first release of Netscape more than 14 years ago. AOL, the browser's owner, has announced that upgrades and support will end with version 9.0.0.6 after which the application will be orphaned. Found on Slashdot.

The government is still watching you.. for now - It was announced last week that, despite the wiretapping bill being rejected by the House of Representatives, telecommunications companies have agreed to cooperate with spy agencies and allow wiretaps without warrants. The proposed bill was intended to shield these companies from lawsuits involving their participation in wiretapping. Found on Slashdot.

Solar energy results in trees being cut down - A couple in California were ordered to cut down their redwood trees because they blocked the sunlight to their neighbours' recently-installed solar panels. The order came because the couple suddenly found themselves in violation of California's Solar Shade Control Act that requires homeowners to ensure that their trees do not block more than 10% of the sunlight going to a neighbour's solar panels between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Pentagon investigates putting voices in your head - A recently-released declassified document describes experiments funded by the pentagon that include using short pulses of RF energy to generate what is referred to as "microwave hearing". The pulses cause thermoelastic expansion which manifests as sounds that appear to originate within the person's head. Experiments demonstrated that is was possible to  generate "speech modulated microwave transmissions" that could be used to communicate with people or to cause "psychologically devastating" effects according to the report. The full report can be found here (PDF).

Conspiracy theories about the cable cuts - are even coming from the UN who have not closed the door on the possibility that at least some of the cables may have been cut as a result of opportunistic sabotage. The cause of only one of the five broken cables has been discovered to be a sea anchor.

The buck stops here - Techdirt reports that musicians are asking the RIAA why they have seen none of the millions of dollars they have collected ostensibly on their behalf. The response thus far has been that either they haven't figured out how, or that there is nothing left after all the legal fees have been paid.

The little spy satellite that couldn't

Last week's news was filled with the lead-up and fall-out to the U.S.'s $60 million  duck-shoot of it's own failed spy satellite, but there is more to this story according to Wired magazine. Specifically, the satellite, known as USA-193, is believed to be part of the doomed Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) program. Boeing was originally contracted back in 1999 to build the first of a constellation of small satellites to gather information on enemy activities.  Six years and $10 billion (US) later, the FIA was nowhere in sight and the program was $4 billion over-budget. Lockheed took over in 2005, costing the Pentagon another $500 million in termination fees, and by 2006 the USA-193 was launched but died soon after when its on-board computer failed repeated attempts to reboot.

This brings us to 2008 with a satellite-turned-space-debris worth $10.5 billion(US) has finally decided to come back to roost. The White House deemed the satellite a danger, at least officially, and decided to put another $60 million(US) into shooting it down. At 10:26 p.m. EST on February 20th, the satellite, now travelling at 17,000 mph was shoot down at an altitude of 247 km with a modified SM-3 missile, worth an estimated $9.5 million(US). The whole thing was even captured on video and released to the waiting public on YouTube. Officials announced shortly thereafter that the 2,300 kg satellite was destroyed with the debris posing no risk to those of us on earth, particularly the 450 kg of toxic hydrazine that it carried.

So why does it cost $60 million to shoot down a satellite? Well, two warships, each with a modified SM-3 were on standby in case the first one missed. With each missile worth $9.5 million, the cost in armaments alone could have been as high as $30 million. As it turned out, only one was needed. Each of these missiles was originally designed to hit other missiles, not a satellite that travels at about twice the speed of a missile. Also, they were designed as heat-seekers but this won't work to track a satellite. As a result, new sensors had to be installed and new software written to control it, requiring the expertise of about 200 people. The original system worked 80% of the time in testing, but this time the missile had to hit it first time out, with results being broadcast around the globe, and they had only a 10 second window within which to acquire the target and launch. Now add in keeping three warships on alert, as well as tracking the satellite, and it's easy to add another $30 million to the price tag.

As a side note, the debris caused by the distruction of this spy satellite resulted in the February 29th launch of it's successor being delayed for approximately two weeks until March 11th. No word on what that cost.