Robots take to the stage

The Japanese have this thing about robots, trying ever more to make them more socially responsive and acceptable. Now theyŕe taking part in stage plays. To me this isn´t so much cutting edge (programming steps into a computer is nothing new), but the application is interesting.

NASA´s Lost Toolbag

The toolbag that a NASA astronaut dropped while repairing the ISS during a spacewalk has been filmed from earth. The thing is worth about $100,000 dollars so as a result there´ll be some procedural changes to ensure that they remain tethered in the future.

Compulsive Gaming

It´s official. The Smith & Jones addiction clinic in Amsterdam say that people who are compulsive gamers are not true addicts. The virtual world simply provides a method of escape from the cruel, real world and many young people who feel drawn to it do so for social communicative reasons. In the virtual world you can be a hero and feel a sense of belonging and accomplishment, and not be judged or bullied by your physical appearance.

Even the Pentagon isn´t safe from worms

The Pentagon are looking to ban the use USB sticks after having been infected by a worm. It happens to the best of us, though might expect something like The Pentagon to set an example in office network security.

New anti-malaria drugs

Trials start in February 2009 of a new synthetic drugs, based on new sources of artemisinin, the active ingredient in anti-malaria pills. The University of York is using a fast-track breeding program to grow plants and produce a more affordable source of the drug which may in the future help eradicate the disease.

Rats return to Hamelin

Rats are thriving again at a disused allotment site on the outskirts of Hamelin. The land is private property so the local council cannot enter the property and have set up traps in the area instead. Can anyone play a flute?

Syria´s Bombed Reactor

Israeli jets destroyed a facility in Syria in September 2007. Following the attack both the Israelis and Syrians were farely quiet about the purpose of the site. Now the International Atomic Energy Agency have found traces of Uranium and do not exclude the possibility that the site was indeed a nuclear reactor.
With the current state of world instability these are frightening prospects. How long will it be before a middle east nation fires something in a fit of rage and kicks off the next world war.