Archive for the 'Journalism' Category
U.S. judges admit to jailing children for money
• February, 2009U.S. judges admit to jailing children for money By Jon Hurdle 12 Feb, 2009 Two judges pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting more than $2.6 million from a private youth detention center in Pennsylvania in return for giving hundreds of youths and teenagers long sentences. Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, entered plea agreements in federal court in Scranton admitting that they took payoffs from PA Childcare and a sister company, Western PA Childcare, between…
Google Earth dives under the sea
• February, 2009Google Earth “Beneath the Surface” BBC Google has lifted the lid on its first major upgrade to its global mapping software, Google Earth. Google Ocean expands this map to include large swathes of the ocean floor and abyssal plain. Users can dive beneath a dynamic water surface to explore the 3D sea floor terrain. The map also includes 20 content layers, containing information from the world’s leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers. Al Gore was at the launch event in San Francisco which, Google hopes,…
ADHD drugs for kids need hallucination warning
• February, 2009ADHD drugs for kids need hallucination warning By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY Visual or tactile sensations of bugs an uncommon, but possible, reaction, study finds. A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended Wednesday that the agency add information about a possible risk of hallucinations in children to the labels of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs. The committee also urged the FDA to develop a consumer-friendly medication guide explaining to parents that they should talk to their child’s doctor about stopping the medication should hallucinations occur.…
French fighter planes grounded by computer virus
• February, 2009French fighter planes grounded by computer virus Kim Willsher in Paris French fighter planes were unable to take off after military computers were infected by a computer virus, an intelligence magazine claims. The aircraft were unable to download their flight plans after databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had already been warned about several months beforehand. At one point French naval staff were also instructed not to even open their computers. Microsoft had warned that the “Conficker” virus, transmitted through Windows, was attacking…
Scientists Not So Sure ‘Doomsday Machine’ Won’t Destroy World
• February, 2009Scientists Not So Sure ‘Doomsday Machine’ Won’t Destroy World Wednesday, January 28, 2009 By Paul Wagenseil Still worried that the Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole that will destroy the Earth when it’s finally switched on this summer? Three physicists have reexamined the math surrounding the creation of microscopic black holes in the Switzerland-based LHC, the world’s largest particle collider, and determined that they won’t simply evaporate in a millisecond as had previously been predicted.
Israël vs Hamas: New weapons used against demonstrators
• February, 2009West Bank: New weapons used against demonstrators Since the start of the massacre on Gaza (27 December 2009), the Israeli army has been testing new types of weapons in several villages around West Bank. There are two new types of bullets and one new type of teargas canister.
Tarantino World War II film to open in N. America
• February, 2009Tarantino World War II film to open in N. America LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Controversial director Quentin Tarantino’s take on World War II will hit movie theatres on August 21 2009 The studios behind the highly-anticipated film called “Inglourious Basterds” said on Wednesday. Tarantino often takes a long time between projects. His last movie was a 2007 combined feature called “Grindhouse” made with director Robert Rodriguez, but he has not single-handedly directed a film since the 2004 “Kill Bill: Vol. 2.”
Coffee Could Fuel You, and Your Car
• February, 2009Coffee Could Fuel You, and Your Car Emily Sohn, Discovery News Coffee can do more than just fuel you through an afternoon slump. It might also power your car. That’s the idea behind a new study that turned used coffee grounds into biodiesel fuel. Coffee will probably never replace petroleum, but discarded cappuccino scraps might someday help reduce our impact on the environment, say the study’s authors. They imagine a day when the byproducts of your latte end up in the gas tank of your…
Earth’s Magnetic Field Changes Climate
• February, 2009Earth’s Magnetic Field Changes Climate Jan. 13, 2009 The Earth’s climate has been significantly affected by the planet’s magnetic field, according to a Danish study published Monday that is unlikely to challenge the notion that human emissions are largely responsible for global warming. “Our results show a strong correlation between the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field and the amount of precipitation in the tropics,” one of the two Danish geophysicists behind the study, Mads Faurschou Knudsen of the geology department at Aarhus University in…
Mars Methane Found, Raising Possibility of Life
• February, 2009Mars Methane Found, Raising Possibility of Life Irene Klotz, Discovery News Scientists have discovered rich plumes of methane on Mars that not only disappear quickly, but are replenished by unknown sources that could be biological or geochemical in origin. “Either way, it’s very interesting,” planetary scientist Michael Mumma, with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told Discovery News. “Mars is not a dead planet.” Mumma and colleagues used infrared spectrometers on three ground-based telescopes to monitor concentrations of methane in Mars’ atmosphere over…
Antarctica’s 15-Million Year-Old Lake -A Living Bio Lab?
• February, 2009Antarctica’s 15-Million Year-Old Lake -A Living Bio Lab? Casey Kazan. Researchers have thawed ice estimated to be perhaps a million years old or more from above Lake Vostok, an ancient lake that lies hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica using novel genomic techniques to determine how tiny, living “time capsules” survived the ages in total darkness, in freezing cold, and without food and energy from the sun.
Israel ‘admits’ using white phosphorus munitions
• January, 2009Israel ‘admits’ using white phosphorus munitions Martin Fletcher in Jerusalem January 21, 2009 The Israeli military came close to acknowledging for the first time yesterday its use of white phosphorus munitions during the war in Gaza… The Israeli military came close to acknowledging for the first time yesterday its use of white phosphorus munitions during the war in Gaza, but continued to insist that it did not breach international law. As fresh evidence emerged of Gazan civilians being burned by phosphorus, Avital Leibovich, the army…
95% of music downloads illegal despite boom
• January, 200995% of music downloads illegal despite boom By Robert Dex, Press Association Friday, 16 January 2009 The digital music business is booming but 95 per cent of downloads are still illegal and not paid for, according to a report published today. Making money from digital music is “the biggest challenge for music companies” at the moment, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) Digital Music Report. It reveals that the digital music business has grown for six years in succession. In 2008,…