Assorted science news stories
Apr. 15th, 2008 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dracodraconisRobot warriors still in Iraq - Apparently the story of the SWORD robots being pulled from Iraq was an urban legend (even Wired, the source of the original story, was taken in). There were only three incidents of the robot turning on its own troops, and the those were tracked to faults. One was a wiring problem (so now they use redundant wiring), another a broken connection (so now the connections are double-soldered) and the last was a robot pushed past it's safe operating point (several hours grinding up a hill until the motor overheated). Found on Slashdot.
Two ships impounded for cutting cables in Middle East - Satellite imaging was used to identify two ships that were near two of the the undersea cables when they were cut. The cables were apparently damaged when the ships each improperly dropped anchor. Found on Slashdot.
US Satellites to be used for domestic spying - The US government has announced that it plans to open a new domestic satellite surveillance office, and use current spy satellites to monitor hurricane damage, track climate change, and to generate terrain maps, as well as assist law enforcement officials once issues of civil rights and privacy has been dealt with. Found on Slashdot.
Boys need bursts of activity to study - An Auckland-based education lecturer claims that young boys will learn better if they are given periodic 5 to 10 minute bursts of vigorous activity several times each day.
Gender separation not good for education - A study comparing mixed and same-gender classrooms found that both boys and girls performed better when the class population was more than 55% female.
Two ships impounded for cutting cables in Middle East - Satellite imaging was used to identify two ships that were near two of the the undersea cables when they were cut. The cables were apparently damaged when the ships each improperly dropped anchor. Found on Slashdot.
US Satellites to be used for domestic spying - The US government has announced that it plans to open a new domestic satellite surveillance office, and use current spy satellites to monitor hurricane damage, track climate change, and to generate terrain maps, as well as assist law enforcement officials once issues of civil rights and privacy has been dealt with. Found on Slashdot.
Boys need bursts of activity to study - An Auckland-based education lecturer claims that young boys will learn better if they are given periodic 5 to 10 minute bursts of vigorous activity several times each day.
Gender separation not good for education - A study comparing mixed and same-gender classrooms found that both boys and girls performed better when the class population was more than 55% female.