Ecuador’s famous Galapagos Islands could be off-limits for tourists after the country’s President declared them at risk and in the midst of an environmental crisis. Most famous for inspiring Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, the Galapagos Islands attract thousand of visitors annually, making them Ecuador’s top tourist destination. But introduced species, illegal fishing and a rapidly growing human population have placed pressure on the archipelago. President Rafael Correa has promised to urgently address the threats. Signing an emergency decree to prevent further harm to the islands, he has left open the possibility of suspending tourism permits temporarily
Up to 5.9 million children face having their fingerprints taken by schools in another move towards a Big Brother
society. Pupils will have to hand over their biometric details simply to borrow library books or gain access to school dinners. A million children’s fingerprints are believed to have been taken already, some without parental approval and even by con tricks
such as pretend spy games. Freedom of Information data obtained by the Tories reveals a further 4.9 million sets of prints could now be added to school computers after the vast majority of local education authorities sanctioned the practice
The Chinese government is requiring game houses to modify MMOG’s to restrict under 18 users to three hours productive
gameplay per day. This anti-addiction
software must be in place within four months, with games not compliant by 15 July liable to be shut down in China. Net9, Shanda and NetEase will be moving to comply with the government regulations. Users will have to register with their real names and Chinese identity card numbers to be allowed access to the games
A claim by South Korean scientists to have created the first cloned wolves is being investigated by officials at the team’s university. The team is led by a former colleague of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk. The wolf cloning team is suspected of using erroneous data to inflate their claims of having created two cloned wolves, a university statement said. Lee Byeong-chun, a veterinary professor, announced last month that his team had succeeded in cloning the two wolves, named Snuwolf and Snuwolffy. The wolf clones were both born in October 2005.
The internet industry has been plunged into uncertainty as the looming federal election makes Australia’s broadband future a political hot potato. Both Labor and the Coalition have been playing politics on proposals to build the broadband backbone expected to carry the bulk of the nation’s data for years to come. Picking a winner has become too risky for internet service providers, many of which are holding off on infrastructure investments until the smoke clears
Scottish scientists have developed a computer the size of a matchstick head, thousands of which can be sprayed onto patients to give a comprehensive analysis of their condition
Researchers from the Nanomaterials Research Centre at Massey University in New Zealand have developed synthetic dyes that can be used to generate electricity at one tenth of the cost of current silicon-based solar panels. These photosynthesis-like compounds work in low-light conditions and can be cheaply incorporated into window-panes and building materials, thereby turning them into generators of electricity
Microsoft says that it’s dropping DRM from some of the catalog in the Zune store. This is the other shoe-drop we’ve all been waiting for since Apple announced last week that it would sell the entire EMI catalog (albeit at a 30% higher price) without DRM through the iTunes Music Store. Interestingly, Microsoft seems to be implying that it’s going to sell DRM-free tracks from labels other than EMI
The day when you can charge your cell phone or iPod just by going for a stroll around the block could be a step closer, thanks to a nano-generator. About a year ago, Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Tech in the US discovered that, when he disturbed zinc oxide nanowires, they gave off a tiny electrical current, a phenomenon called piezoelectricity. At the time, he had to use the tip of an atomic force microscope — a $250,000 instrument — to create about one-billionth of a watt of power. Not exactly energy efficiency. But with his latest experiment, Wang has improved his design at least a thousand-fold
At least one legal expert is shocked that Hells Angels motorcycle club members may have had as much as 11 days notice about police raids on their clubhouse and homes. An Internet weblog revealed the confidential court documents that gave authorities the power to seize the Hells Angels clubhouse on Eastern Avenue, the Toronto Star reported. The blogger reportedly posted a digital copy of the secret court order on 25 March. That order transferred control of the clubhouse, a home in east Toronto and another in Barrie from the motorcycle club to the federal government
The Gaim project is being renamed. This follows a lengthy and, unfortunately, secret legal process with AOL, which also prevented any code releases except betas. The project will now be known as Pidgin IM. Development is being migrated off of sourceforge.net as well and is now being hosted on developer.pidgin.im
Mozilla’s research group has developed a set of content sharing tools that will allow users to swap links and more efficiently track personal content like blog posts, movies, and photos
Michigan is spending $38 million to distribute an iPod to every child, for learning purposes. The plan included measures to tax soda and satellite TV services to pay for it, among other things, to raise funds. If you recall, Duke University tried something like this with mixed results. How financially strained will Michigan residents feel about paying higher taxes to buy someone else’s kid an iPod?
Although antivirus companies will probably create a hype saying that iPods are prone to infections, a virus called Podloso
is a newly found virus that is just a proof of concept code that can infect iPods running Linux. Once launched, the virus scans the device’s hard disk and infects all executable .elf format files. Any attempt to launch these files will cause the virus to display a message on the screen which says, You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus
Azureus has announced the beta release of Vuze, a reinvention of the one of Internet’s most popular peer-to-peer file sharing applications as a commercial distribution platform for HD content. The Vuze application, formerly called Zudeo, represents a marked change from Azureus’ older P-to-P software, which required some technical proficiency to get running
Hitachi has started to ship its 1TB hard disk drives introduced early this year commercially. But the hard drive that represents a milestone in desktop data storage costs a little less than two times higher compared to slightly less capacious one, which makes it not very affordable
Despite the huge variation in body size and shape, Great Danes and Chihuahuas are both members of the same species: Canis lupus familiaris. Now, a new study conducted by an international team of scientists led by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has identified the gene responsible for this great range of dog sizes. The answer, it seems involve a number of different versions of the gene that encodes for insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). The gene, IGF1, was identified following genetic analysis that began with screening 463 Portuguese water dogs, a breed that has a lot of diversity in size
Telstra has dusted off its project to build a residential broadband network worth at least $4 billion, laying out a proposal for competitor access at a closed industry meeting in Sydney. The updated network plan for a fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network features the latest copper-wire-based broadband technology, VDSL2, which offers speeds of up to 100Mb per second, five times faster than currently available ADSL2+. The plan is also likely to strand up to $500 million worth of investment in ADSL2+ technology by Telstra’s rivals, including Optus, iiNet, Primus and Internode
Microsoft has released an emergency security patch to plug a hole in several versions of Windows — including Vista, which the software maker has touted as its most secure operating system ever. Microsoft was so worried about the hole — which allowed hackers to break into personal computers and install malicious software — that it pushed out the critical security fix a week ahead of a regularly scheduled update
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