Japan’s rocket blasts off with land-observation satellite
Japan’s military is planning to launch its own surveillance satellites and an early-warning satellite as part of the missile defense system it is building in cooperation with the US.

“There are four major transformations that are shaping political, economic and world events”
This is a paper presented several weeks ago by Herb Meyer at a Davos, Switzerland meeting which was attended by most of the CEOs from all the major international corporations — a very good summary of today’s key trends and a perspective […]

 Are teens less interested in fashion, or just broke?
Year-to-year teen spending on fashion in the US declined nearly 20% in spring 2008, according to a recent Piper Jaffray survey.
Though fashion accounted for nearly 41% of surveyed teens’ budgets, Piper Jaffray noted this was low compared with previous years.

A Government In Exile
Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags. The factory in Guangdong had been completing Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags. The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Workers said they thought they were […]

 
A witch doctor’s office
Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.
Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in local religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and […]

It looks like a box, but this robotic box is set to revolutionize the strawberry industry
Oldster farmers in Japan face increasingly tough times - few younger Japanese are willing to go into agriculture, and finding a successor to help out on the farm can be very difficult. Video after the jump.

Following an extended world tour in 2007, Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot will show off its skills in 2008 by conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). ASIMO will lead the Orchestra as it performs “Impossible Dream” to open a special concert performance with renowned cellist Yo-Yo M as a way to highlight the DSO’s nationally acclaimed […]

Gartner forecasts that the number of mobile payment users will reach 103.9 million globally in 2011, up from 32.9 million in 2008.

eSolar has raised $130 million in funding for the deployment of its solar thermal power plants. The scaleable, pre-fabricated power plants are designed to cut construction costs and deliver renewable energy solutions tailored to the needs of particular communities.
Large scale solar utility projects can face significant construction costs in addition to requiring large parcels of […]

This Earth Day, Bon Appetit proposed a challenge to every one of us to reduce our carbon “foodprints” by 25 percent, because just our foodprints — all the energy it takes to grow, process, transport and prepare food — are responsible for ONE-THIRD of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Bon Appetit is serious about its […]

 
It appears Goldstriker just can’t help themselves from blinging up every high-end mobile on the market and have just announced another iPhone edition that’s been given their gold-heavy treatment. 

 
Declining dollar reduces Chinese product competitiveness
Textile firms, once an export engine of China, are fighting for their survival this year with rising costs and dismal overseas market hit by the subprime crisis.

Did this little guy loose it’s civil liberties too?”
Plants deserve respect, a group of Swiss experts said on Monday, arguing that killing them arbitrarily was morally wrong - except when it comes to saving humans or maybe picking petals off a daisy.
In a report on “the dignity of the creature in the plant world”, […]

It’s naive to believe the Beijing Games will be just about sports

In January, it was Prince Charles. Last month, it was Steven Spielberg. This month, it’s George Clooney. Next month, bet on Quincy Jones. At issue is the Olympic Games, more specifically China providing weapons to Sudan and buying up […]

Student loans are about to get tougher
Parents will have to navigate unfamiliar and difficult terrain when it comes time to pay for college this year, with student loan companies in turmoil and banks tightening their standards and raising rates on other types of borrowing.

The coming era of “green” plastics
Chemists are investigating ways to use carbon dioxide removed from smokestack emissions to make a raw material for the production of DVDs, CD-ROMs, beverage bottles and other products made from polycarbonate plastics.

Apart from the benefits in terms of combating climate change, using CO2 normally released the atmosphere as a feedstock […]

Data revenues at US mobile service providers surged to $23 billion in 2007 and now account for 17% of all mobile service revenues, according to the CTIA. The total represented a 53% increase over 2006.
Much of that revenue is due to the enormous popularity of text messaging. Nearly 50 billion messages were sent in […]

Meteorite enthusiasts the world over know of the Fukang Meteorite. Discovered in the Gobi desert (near Fukang) in China eight years ago, the extremely rare and beautiful Pallasite meteorite is thought to have originated at the mantle-core boundary of very large differentiated asteroids that were destroyed during the early formation of the solar system over […]

Have you had problems receiving e-mail from Gmail users recently? If so, you’re one of thousands. Over the past month, major anti-spam vendors have had to apply scrutiny to Gmail in a way they haven’t had to before, and the result is reduced delivery performance and sometimes outright blocking of Gmail. Some messaging hosts […]

Scientists in Borneo have been “gasping for air” according to New Scientist. Ironic, as they’ve discovered a frog that doesn’t have any lungs at all, but rather absorbs oxygen through its skin.

While the housing slump has come to dominate American presidential debates and has sent Wall Street into a tailspin, the consequences of millions of foreclosures across the United States are also being felt far overseas. Nowhere is that more true than in Switzerland, the serene land of snowy peaks, ice-cold lakes and staid banks long […]

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond upped the ante for renewable energy today in a lecture to the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. by announcing a $20 million prize for renewable energy that draws from the ocean.

National Geographic’s award-nominated feature on China’s “instant cities” is online. It’s a fascinating feature about the massive coastal manufacturing towns that now house 140 million people who’ve moved from the countryside as part of the largest migration in human history. It’s split across eight screens, and there’s at least one jaw-dropper per screen.

I’m sure all those who love downloading all their entertainment needs via P2P would definitely fall head over heels with OKI’s all-new optical 3R regenerator which re-amplifies and re-shapes the optical signal, capable of hitting data download speeds of up to 160Gbps - that amounts to four full-length movies in a single second. Hopefully this […]

Scientists are working on making teeth regrow the crystals that make up dentin and enamel. This process could eliminate drilling and filling to combat tooth decay. Sally Marshall, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco, is looking for a way to catch decay early and cause teeth to start “remineralizing”.