For everything from family to computers…
The drought is beginning to really sink its teeth into the Midwest. More than three-quarters of the nation’s corn acres are in a drought zone. In Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, corn crops are burning up and its causing commodity prices to shoot up. Suburban residents are paying to water their lawns, but it isn’t doing much good.
from Morning Edition
That is terrible that Microsoft would charge so much to developers for fixing games! Boo!!!
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Seeing as how so much software is moving to online distribution, the significance of this controversy might extend far beyond gaming and XBLA. For now, however, the spotlight is firmly on Microsoft and the way it charges developers for testing their games and patches, after a well-known developer made an unusually public complaint. In a post on its official blog, Polytron said it would not patch a rare game-saving bug in its popular title Fez, because Microsoft would charge it “tens of thousands of dollars to re-certify the game.” It added that “had Fez been released on Steam instead of XBLA,” the problem would have been fixed “right away” and at no cost to the developer, which strongly hints that it’ll jump to another platform as soon as its XBLA exclusivity expires. Responses to the story over at our sister site Joystiq are decidedly mixed, with some folks outraged that Microsoft’s high maintenance attitude could hold back improvements in this way while others suspect Polytron of blame-shifting.
from Engadget
The price of Bitcoins surged this week, rising above $9 for the first time in almost a year. The increase suggests growing public interest in the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency.
Last month, we marked the one-year anniversary of the Bitcoin bubble popping. We noted that after plunging for the last six months of 2011, the price of Bitcoin had begun to stabilize around $5. But almost as soon as we published that article, the currency began appreciating rapidly. Today, one Bitcoin is worth about $9.20—a 40 percent increase in a month.
The transaction volume of Bitcoins has increased dramatically since April. In April, there were rarely more than 10,000 transactions in a day. In July, there have consistently been more than 20,000 transactions each day.
from Ars Technica
Basically, have a plastic wrap with you at all times if you want to light a fire in emergency. 😛
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If you’re a normal person who happens to find yourself in a desperate need to light a fire and you have, like, no fire lighting equipment… you’re screwed. But wait if you can pee, you’ll be totally fine. The guys at The King of Random figured out how to light a fire with urine. More »
from Gizmodo
Fire, frenemy of humanity since time immemorial. Typical extinguishing methods have involved water, chemicals and even blankets, but DARPA wanted to see if there was another, more pragmatic way. Starting with the understanding of fire actually being a cold plasma, DARPA then explored fire’s electromagnetic and acoustic qualities, and discovered two potential ways to quell the flame, one using electrons, the other, sound. The electron technique creates an oscillating field that separates the fire and fuel dubbed “ionic wind,” the other method creates an acoustic field that increases the air velocity (thinning the the flame boundary) and causes the flames to widen and drop in temperature, dispersing the fire’s energy. The concepts have been proven, but scaling these up to real world solutions is a whole different matter. Light up the videos after the break to see them in action.
Filed under: Science
from Engadget
We’re further along in using science to manually force the weather’s hand than many people suspect. In 2009, for example, the Chinese government used weather manipulation to bring a snowstorm to Beijing, and they aren’t the only nation giving it a try. But using so-called “cloud seeding” techniques as high-tech rain dances is controversial; critics say it’s both ineffective and bad for the environment. A potentially better solution — to this, as to most things! — is to fire up some lasers.
Last year, a paper published in Nature Communications showed it was possible to form water particles using lasers. That’s not the same as creating rain; the particles were about 100 times too small to be rain drops. But it’s somewhat of a proof of concept, and as a recent paper in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics points out, our lasers are only getting better.
The laser technique works by using photodissociation. Photons break down atmospheric compounds, which produces ozone and nitrogen oxides. That causes nitric acid particles to form, and those bind water molecules together, creating rain. A challenge for scientists will be to unravel the details of the process, but there are major benefits compared with a chemical approach, such as sending silver iodide particles into clouds. For one, it’s easier to plan experiments with lasers, since they have an on-off switch that can be toggled and tested for effectiveness. A laser-induced approach could also be less likely to cause unintended problems in the surrounding atmosphere.
We’ll see if it’s a viable approach in the coming years. You can bet if it turns out to work effectively, a lot of governments will be waiting to invest.
[PhysOrg]
from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now
Global banking giant HSBC failed to prevent billions of dollars worth of money transfers that Senate investigators believe were linked to drug cartels and terrorist groups, according to a report released Monday.