Archive for March 20th, 2008
Riding with Robots writes “NASA reports that by using data from the Cassini probe’s radar, scientists established the locations of 50 very special landmarks on the surface of Saturn’s planet-size moon Titan. They then searched for these same lakes, canyons and mountains in the data after subsequent Titan flybys. They found that the features had shifted from their expected positions by up to 30 kilometers. NASA states a systematic displacement of surface features would be difficult to explain unless the moon’s icy crust was decoupled from its core by an internal ocean, making it easier for the crust to move. If confirmed, this discovery would add to the growing list of moons in the solar system that are icy on the outside and warm and liquid inside, providing potential habitats. We’ve previously discussed Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes and potential cryovolcano.”
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Valor1016 writes “Researchers in California have developed an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity. ‘We’ve made an artificial muscle that, when you apply electricity to it, it expands, more than 200 percent, the motion and energy is a lot like human muscles,’ stated Qibing Pei, a scientist at UCLA and study author. The researchers used flexible carbon nanotubes as electrodes. If an area of the carbon nanotube fails, the region around it seals itself by becoming non-conductive and prevents the damage from spreading to other areas. This material also conserves about 70% of the energy you put into it. As the material contracts after an expansion the rearranging of the carbon nanotubes generates a small electric current that can be captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery. The research appeared in the January issue of Advanced Materials.”
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arbitraryaardvark writes “A new mathematical object has been discovered by Bristol University student Ce Bian. The Riemann hypothesis, unproven since 1859, has to do with the distribution of primes and something called L-functions. Bian has demonstrated the first known third-degree transcendental L-function. This apparently opens up a new way to go about looking for proofs of the Riemann hypothesis. There’s an unclaimed $1 million prize for a valid proof. We’ve discussed a couple of earlier attempts to claim the prize.”
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DarkProphet writes “NASA scientists have discovered the first evidence of organic molecules on an extrasolar planet. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, they detected trace amounts of methane on a swirling gas giant about 63 light-years from our own planet. Being a gas giant, there’s almost no chance this discovery represents extrasolar life. A one-of-a-kind find, just the same. ‘HD 189733b, a so-called “hot Jupiter,” located 63 light years away, has proven a boon for scientists studying exoplanets. Its big size and proximity to its star mean that it dims the star’s light more than any other known exoplanet. Combine that with its home star’s high brightness, and scientists find that the system creates the best viewing conditions of any known extrasolar system. At different wavelengths, each atom and molecule has its own telltale footprint, so scientists can convert what are known as absorption spectra into the chemical composition of the object they’re looking at.’”
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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Viacom (VIA), Media World
MTV, a part of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA), revealed to Billboard Thursday that the digital stores for the popular video game Rock Band saw the number of downloadable songs (”levels”) more than double in the last two months. The more than 6 million downloads easily beats the 2.5 million that were purchased between the release of the game in November and when MTV last reported download figures in January.
In an effort to streamline the purchasing process, MTV will also be releasing a new software update to the game this week. The new update grants players to buy downloadable songs from within the game itself, versus exiting the game and using the platform marketplaces. According to Billboard, “the new Rock Band Music Store feature instead allows gamers to browse, preview and purchase tracks through an interface included in the game” and “will be available as a free download later this week.”
Rock Band has enjoyed quick success in the last four months, and with the big sales figures and new changes, the video game indicates a new market the music industry should be able to tap into. The online community within the game can only help spur greater sales as well, with players hoping to connect with new songs that can be added to the store and the game. Another doubled increase might be too much to look toward in the next period, but more growth is certainly bound to happen.
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Filed under: Press releases, Products and services, Consumer experience, Marketing and advertising, Nokia Corp. (NOK)
Reuters reported yesterday that privately held EMI Group plans to join Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and offer songs in Nokia (NYSE: NOK) mobile devices as part of the new “Comes with Music” program. The report comes out of Nokia’s home country, Finland, but since Universal’s commitment bridges international divisions, it is likely the EMI connection will as well.
The “Comes with Music” program was first announced in December 2007, with Universal fully on board to offer unlimited access to millions of Digital Rights Management-free tracks for a year, and any tracks on the phones at the end of the year becoming the consumers’. Clearly, the program has a major upside in that the end of a subscription does not mean music tracks are going to disappear, something that always seems to be at the fore of subscription-based music plans. The tracks will also be available on those consumers’ computers.
As nice as the plan is, the labels won’t lose too much from allowing a subscription plan like that to take off. Nokia and label executives are banking on the size of catalogs to combat fears that it will injured the music industry financially. In the press release for “Comes with Music”, Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Multimedia said, “even if you listened to music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you would still only scratch the surface of the music that we’re making available.”
With two major labels on board, the “Comes with Music” program is sure to be on the right track to succeed when it is launched later this year. The only worry that likely remains is whether any other digital store will initiate a superior or similar plan to increase sales.
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Posted by: admin in Today News
Kuwait Finance States India, China Targets for Bank Expansion - Bloomberg
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Posted by: in Politics News
whoever57 writes “Ed Felton is showing a scan of the summary from a Sequoia voting machine used in New Jersey. According to the paper record, the vote tallies don’t add up — the total number of Republican ballots does not match the number of votes cast in the Republican primary and the total number of Democratic ballots does not match the number of votes cast in the Democratic primary. Felton has a number of discussions about the problems facing evoting, up to and including a semi-threatening email from Sequoia itself.”
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Prescott writes “Given the divisions in the US around subjects like evolution and climate change, scientists face challenges in how to communicate good science to a polarized US public. Speakers at the current AAAS meeting talked about how scientific information is delivered to and understood by a public that interprets it via personal beliefs, religious and otherwise. ‘The talks were organized by Matthew Nisbet, a professor of communications who is a proponent of the framing of science, in which communications techniques borrowed from the political realm are applied to promote scientific understanding. As such, a number of speakers advocated specific frames for publicly controversial scientific issues. Unfortunately, the use of those frames appears prone to generate controversy within the scientific community, and several speakers noted that science faces challenges that go well beyond communicating knowledge to the public. There were some hints of a way forward that might work for both the scientific community and the public, but the challenges appear significant.’”
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Prescott writes “Given the divisions in the US around subjects like evolution and climate change, scientists face challenges in how to communicate good science to a polarized US public. Speakers at the current AAAS meeting talked about how scientific information is delivered to and understood by a public that interprets it via personal beliefs, religious and otherwise. ‘The speaks were organized by Matthew Nisbet, a professor of communications who is a proponent of the framing of science, in which communications techniques borrowed from the political realm are applied to promote scientific understanding. As such, a number of speakers advocated specific frames for publicly controversial scientific issues. Unfortunately, the use of those frames appears prone to generate controversy within the scientific community, and several speakers noted that science faces challenges that go well beyond communicating knowledge to the public. There were some hints of a way forward that might work for both the scientific community and the public, but the challenges appear significant.’”
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