Saturday February 04, 2012
Can bells and whistles save the book?
laura Miller
Salon
Enhanced e-books bring images, animation, soundtracks and games to the reading experience -- but don't add much
Almost two years after the launch of the iPad, Apple distributed a free copy of a new iBook, “The Yellow Submarine,” based on the 1968 animated movie by the Beatles.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:43 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Trojan gang targets BT, Talk Talk and Sky customers
John E Dunn
Techworld
Thieves target phone service logins to fool verification checks
Criminals using a dangerous variant of the Zeus bank Trojan have started hacking BT, Talk Talk and Sky phone accounts as a way of redirecting phone calls from bank fraud services away from victims.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Is Anonymous our future?
Nathan Schneider
Waging Nonviolence
The enigmatic Internet-driven collective Anonymous, thank goodness, has an anthropologist in its midst. For a few years now, Gabriella Coleman has been arduously participant-observing in IRC chat rooms, watching Anonymous turn from a prankster moniker to a herd of vigilantes for global justice.
In an extraordinary new essay at Triple Canopy, “Our Weirdness Is Free,” she summarizes what Anonymous is all about this way:
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:32 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
China Looks Both Ways on Iranian Oil
Antoaneta Becker
Inter Press Service
China’s response to calls from the West to join an oil embargo penalising Iran for its nuclear programme so far has been to choose the middle course typical of its non-interfering foreign policy of the last 30 years – denouncing sanctions on one hand yet working to protect its national interests on many fronts.
But the decision by India, another major buyer of Iran’s oil, to continue importing from Tehran despite the Western sanctions, will shine uncomfortable light on the powerful nationalist sentiments among the Chinese public and the internal debate raging in China about the future course of its foreign policy.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Australia -- land of the koala, kangaroo... and elephant
Physorg
Elephants and maybe rhinoceroses could be introduced to Australia to chomp on an invasive African grass that also causes wildfires, according to an idea reported in a scientific journal on Wednesday.
"A major source of fuel for wildfires in the monsoon tropics is gamba grass, a giant African grass that has invaded north Australia's savannas," said David Bowman, a professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Amazing Cathedral Made From 55,000 LEDs Rises at Belgium’s Festival of Lights
Timon Singh
Inhabitat
Talk about seeing the light!
Made up of over 55,000 colored LED lights, the Luminarie Cagna is a massive cathedral that will be on display at the second annual Festival of Lights in Ghent, Belgium.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
New generation of nuclear reactors could consume radioactive waste as fuel
Duncan Clark
The Guardian
The new 'fast' plants could provide enough low-carbon electricity to power the UK for more than 500 years
A generation of "fast" nuclear reactors could consume Britain's radioactive waste stockpile as fuel, providing enough low-carbon electricity to power the country for more than 500 years, according to figures confirmed by the chief scientific adviser to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc).
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Austerity Does Not Grow the Economy
Dean Baker
Counterpunch
The Federal Reserve Board issued new projections for the economy last week, and they are not pretty. It projects the unemployment rate will still be 8.2 percent at the end of this year, 7.4 percent at the end of 2013, and 6.7 percent at the end of 2014.
To put this in context, the unemployment rate peaked at 7.6 percent in the 1990-91 recession and never got above 6.3 percent in the 2001 recession.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Why Chinese workers are getting kidnapped abroad
Peter Ford
Christian Science Monitor
Kidnapped Chinese workers were freed today in Egypt, but as more Chinese workers become easy targets abroad, citizens back home are calling for action.
More than 50 Chinese workers were seized in two separate incidents in Sudan and Egypt in the past four days, forcing the Chinese government to consider the human cost of its drive for greater global presence and influence.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Scorpion Armor Inspires Sand-Resistant Surfaces
Sophie Bushwick
Scientific American
Textured surfaces based on the patterns found on scorpion exoskeletons could help equipment avoid erosion damage. Sophie Bushwick reports
It’s tough to be a machine in the desert: particles of dirt and sand work their way into moving parts, where they abrade turbines, motors, pipes and other equipment.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry