CYBERZONE

WITH A SIMPLIFIED CODE, PROGRAMMING BECOMES CHILD's PLAY

Scratch, a new programming language released Tuesday by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, gives novices the ability to create dynamic programs without wading through a manual, teaching computer programming concepts while encouraging students to play.  The program is named after the technique hip-hop DJs use to mix music.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/05/15/with_simplified_code_programming_becomes_childs_play/

THIS LINK HAS MORE DETAIL AND A DEMO VIDEO

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/technology/6647011.stm

HANDS ON WITH FUJITSU'S POCKET-SIZE CONVERTIBLE UMPC

Fujitsu unveiled an ultramobile PC that's small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. The machine will first be promoted to corporate users as a secondary PC, suitable for people who need a small, lightweight machine for when they are out of the office.

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=177F06A:ECCF9AA50A17C8DCB80856CE00C3CA8CEFF29049075316B4

GIANT HARD DISK DRIVE BREAKTHROUGH

Hard disks are about to become significantly bigger, thanks to a breakthrough in Hard Disk Drive (HDD) platter surface design by a research team at Fujitsu. The company reckons that their technology can increase the recording capacity of a hard disk by about 600%, to around 800GB sq.inch. The new drives will be available in 2009.

http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20070511D11JF038.htm

FUJITSU SHOWS OFF LATEST COLOR E-PAPER SCREENS

After several years of development, Fujitsu has improved its electronic paper technology to the point where it has begun exploring its commercial use in displays.

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=17829A4:ECCF9AA50A17C8DC6D3EF0FC09B388D6EFF29049075316B4

IRS WANTS DATA ON USERS FROM INTERNET FIRMS

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is sounding an early warning on a proposal in the president's 2008 budget that would require Internet businesses such as eBay and Amazon.com to collect personal data on their customers and share it with the Internal Revenue Service.

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=17669ED:ECCF9AA50A17C8DC29AA9E64DE056A90EFF29049075316B4

WEB SITE IS HELD LIABLE FOR SOME USER POSTINGS

A Web site that matches roommates may be liable for what its users say about their preferences, a fractured three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled yesterday.  The suit was brought by two California fair housing groups that objected to postings on the matching service, Roommate.com. The groups said the site violated the Fair Housing Act by allowing and encouraging its users to post notices expressing preferences for roommates based on sex, race, religion and sexual orientation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/us/16roomates.html?ref=technology

SCIENCE ZONE

SOUNDWAVE STOVE TO COOK FOOD - AND COOL IT

A revolutionary wood-fired stove powered by sound waves is being developed to both cook and cool food, in a move that could help millions in poor countries with scant electricity, British scientists have said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/northland/4057527a28.html

SOFTWARE THAT CAN IDENTIFY YOU BY BROWSING HABITS

Microsoft is developing software that could accurately guess your name, age, gender and potentially even your location, by analysing telltale patterns in your web browsing history. But experts say the idea is a clear threat to privacy - and may be illegal in some places.

http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/mg19426046.400?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19426046.400

CELLPHONES COULD WARN OF IMMINENT LIGHTNING STRIKE

http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/mg19426046.000?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19426046.000

ENVIRONMENT ZONE

CLIMATE CHANGE: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED

A compendium of links covering the truths and the myths.

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn11462

CLIMATE CHANGE A THREAT TO SECURITY

Former military brass foresee instability Massive refugee migrations, bloody conflicts over water and other essential resources, and the U.S. military called in for huge relief efforts or as peacekeepers - this is one global prediction if governments don't take serious action to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.  Because that warning is coming from a growing number of retired generals and security experts, the notion that dealing with global warming is a national security imperative that requires international cooperation is gaining currency as Congress debates legislative remedies.

Using the military's risk-assessment practices, 11 retired generals and admirals issued a recent report that climate change is a "threat multiplier" that makes instability worse in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and could spark a greater refugee flow into Europe.

http://www.mercurynews.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=5915868&siteId=568

The full report from the 11 retired military leaders is available at

http://securityandclimate.cna.org.

OXYGEN SUPPLIES FOR INDIA's POLICE

Police stations across the Indian city of Calcutta are given oxygen supplies to help offices offset the effects of air pollution.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/6665803.stm

CHINA's YELLOW RIVER IS 10 PERCENT SEWAGE

Untreated sewage from factory discharges and urban centres now accounts for 10 percent of the Yellow River's flow, a prominent Chinese non-governmental group said. The volume of waste water flowing into the river, China's second longest, doubled from 2 billion tonnes to 4.3 billion between 1980 and 2005, Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based NGO, told the China Daily. "It now accounts for about one-tenth of its total volume," Ma said. The 5,464-km (3,395-mile) river supplies water to more than 150 million people and irrigates 15 percent of the country's farmland, but has lost a third of its fish species and is 70 percent unfit for drinking or swimming, state media have reported. Fearing environmental degradation could slow China's booming economy, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has made sustainable development a key tenet of central government policy. But growth in heavy industry continues apace along the river's middle reaches. About 400 billion yuan ($52 billion) worth of coal and chemical-based projects were earmarked for construction along an 800-km (500 miles) stretch of the river between China's arid northern regions of Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, the paper said, citing Xinhua news agency. Twenty million tonnes of industrial sewage were discharged into the river every year at Baiyin, a metallurgical industrial base in China's northwestern Gansu province, the paper said, quoting an investigative report by state-run China Central Television.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK261517.htm

THE HIGH ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF BOTTLED WATER

Bottled water, the world's fastest growing beverage, carries a heavy environmental cost, adding plastic to landfills and putting pressure on natural springs. "Bottled water is really expensive, in terms of environmental costs and economically." In addition to the energy cost of producing, bottling, packaging, storing and shipping bottled water, there is also the environmental cost of the millions of tonnes of oil-derived plastic needed to make the bottles. The environmental impact can start at the source, where some local streams and underground aquifers become depleted when there is "excessive withdrawal" for bottled water. In many countries bottled water is scrutinised using lower standards than plain tap water. Bottled water costs from 240 to 10,000 times as much as water straight from the tap. World consumption of bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005, with the United States being the largest consumer.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21711627-5005961,00.html

ASIA PACIFIC ZONE

MILLIONS DISCONNECTED BY NTT BROADBAND OUTAGE

Millions of broadband Internet users across most of eastern Japan were unable to log on Tuesday evening after a problem at the country's largest broadband provider.

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=177F06C:ECCF9AA50A17C8DCB80856CE00C3CA8CEFF29049075316B4

JAPANESE SCIENTISTS IN THE EYE OF THE STORM...WITH GOGGLES

Japanese scientists can now stand in the eye of a typhoon or observe liquid metal movement inside the earth. __ __The virtual reality room at the Earth Simulator Center at Japan Agency for Maritime-Earth Science and Technology uses programs that transform digital data of natural phenomena into three dimensional images.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Japanese_Scientists_In_Eye_Of_Storm_With_Goggles_999.html

JAPAN TO BUILD WIRELESS TEST ZONE

Kyodo News Agency reports that Japan will set up an experimental high-tech wireless zone on one of its islands next year. The zone will use IC tags, or tiny computer chips, to track products and monitor the health of the elderly, among other applications.  The wireless zone will be spearheaded by the Japanese government with the cooperation of wireless operators, electronics manufacturers, automakers and other firms. Although the location of the test zone hasn't been confirmed, the report says that it will likely be on the northern island of Hokkaido or the southern island chain of Okinawa, where there is less radio wave interference. See this

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/business/news/20070514p2g00m0bu016000c.html

WIRELESS ZONE

NEW RFID TECH TO FIGHT RETAIL THEFT

If thieves knew that what they were stealing wouldn't work until purchased, would their motive be removed? Two technology companies think so, and they have created an RFID solution.

http://www.bpm-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=033000JOBXD0&nl=3

SITE CITE

ONE WHEEL WONDER

'Ways which are as winding as the bowels of a sheep will not defeat it.' Ralph Bennett on one of the most elegant and useful tools ever invented by man - the wheelbarrow.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=042007A