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Bitstream: Sony Pre-loaded USB Flash with Movies & Music
Dec. 28th, 2008
Bitstream: Sony Pre-loaded USB Flash with Movies & Music
Digital Domain - What Carriers Aren’t Eager to Tell You About Texting - NYTimes.com
The New York Times presents an interesting article on the discrepancy between the apparent and actual cost of text messaging to wireless carriers. In the US, per-message fees doubled from 10 to 20 cents between 2005 and 2008, during which the industry experienced a 10-fold increase in text message use. The article states that text messages must follow two legs of their journey: a portion on hardware and a portion wirelessly. For the hardware portion, is seems, text messages cost an infinitesimal amount of money. On the wireless portion, text messages are limited to 160 characters so that they can fit into the control channel: bandwidth reserved for network operation so is needed whether or not text messages use it. As a result, the wireless per message cost is, essentially, nil because the cost outlay has already been allocated to pay for network upkeep: the text message piggybacks for free and represents pure profit. Certainly food for thought.
the physics arXiv blog » Blog Archive » Do nuclear decay rates depend on our distance from the sun?
In the 1980s, groups in the US and Germany observed that the decay rates of silicon-22 and radium-226 are periodic in synch with the Earth's distance from the sun. Several theories have been proposed, including the possibility that the observations are in err. If true, this could result in some rethinking of how time is measured here on Earth. Consider that our atomic clocks are based on the assumption of a regular decay rate. If the decay rate is influenced by the Earth-Sun distance, then we will need to find either a correction factor or a new way to ultra-precisely measure time.
Scientists plan to ignite tiny man-made star - Telegraph
 Some time in the spring of 2009, scientists in Livermore, California plan to fuse hydrogen nuclei into helium, and in the process generate 10 times as much energy as was used to start the process. If it works, it will be the first step to generating energy from fusion. The facility uses ultra-fast laser pulses, generating one every five hours. The next step would be to shorten the wait between pulses to 1/10th of a second. |
Crimes Of The Future: Teen with Home Chemistry Lab Arrested for Meth, Bombs
 An 18-year-old University of Saskatchewan student is now home after being arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of a meth lab. The teen had built a small chemistry lab in his family's garage, but on a tip from a woman who had sold him some fertilizer the police arrived with a warrant and placed him in jail. Several days later they determined that his chemistry lab was not a meth lab, but kept him in jail until 24 December on suspicion that the materials in his lab could be used to make explosives. The teen was released on bail and is now awaiting a 26 January trial to determine if, in fact, he was using his lab to make explosives. He is no longer allowed to practice chemistry alone, has a curfew, must submit to police and Department of Environment searches, and must inform the UofS chemistry department of the charges against him. In 2005, the police force had evacuated a Salvation Army Centre on suspicion that it contained a meth lab, only to later discover that the lab was only used to develop photographs. |
Things always taster better with lasers.