News Stories

[aohige]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Police or Samurai? Knife Maniac Taken Down in “Swordfight”
(TL Courtesy of Sankaku)

I think they are doing this all for recruitment's sake. Either that or there ARE otaku in the police force too.

Wish my local policemen do that too.

Well, it looks like they used wooden swords (or just sticks) to take down the maniac.
And I doubt it was for recruitment, as the man initiated the fight by slashing and injuring one of the policeman.

The officer skillfully knocked the knife away to the ground before taking him down too.
Go Nara police!

[Reckoner]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_528172.html

Kyrgyzstan Protests: Opposition Claims Control, At Least 40 People Killed

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Thousands of protesters furious over corruption and spiraling utility bills seized internal security headquarters, a state TV channel and other levers of power in Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday after government forces fatally shot dozens of demonstrators and wounded hundreds.

A revolution in the Central Asian nation was proclaimed by leaders of the opposition, who have called for the closure of a U.S. air base outside the capital that serves as a key transit point for supplies essential to the war in nearby Afghanistan.

The U.S. State Department said transport operations at the Manas base were "functioning normally."

This mountainous former Soviet republic erupted when protesters called onto the streets by opposition parties for a day of protest began storming government buildings in the capital, Bishkek, and clashed with police. Groups of elite officers opened fire.

The Health Ministry said 40 people had died and more than 400 were wounded. Opposition activist Toktoim Umetalieva said at least 100 people had died after police opened fire with live ammunition.

Crowds of demonstrators took control of the state TV building and looted it, then marched toward the Interior Ministry, according to Associated Press reporters on the scene, before changing direction and attacking a national security building nearby. They were repelled by security forces loyal to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, whose whereabouts were a mystery.

The opposition and its supporters appeared to gain the upper hand after nightfall, and an Associated Press reporter saw opposition leader Keneshbek Duishebayev sitting in the office of the chief of the National Security Agency, Kyrgyzstan's successor to the Soviet KGB. Duishebayev issued orders on the phone to people Duishebayev said were security agents. He also gave orders to a uniformed special forces commando.

Duishebayev told the AP that "we have created units to restore order" on the streets. He said Bakiyev may have fled to Osh, the country's second-largest city, where he has a home.

Since coming to power in 2005 on a wave of street protests known as the Tulip Revolution, Bakiyev had ensured a measure of stability, but many observers say he has done so at the expense of democratic standards while enriching himself and his family. He gave his relatives, including his son, top government and economic posts and faced the same accusations of corruption and cronyism that led to the ouster of his predecessor.

Story continues below

Over the past two years, Kyrgyz authorities have clamped down on free media, and opposition activists say they have routinely been subjected to physical intimidation and targeted by politically motivated criminal investigations.

Many of the opposition leaders once were allies of Bakiyev, in some cases former ministers or diplomats.

The anti-government forces in Kyrgyzstan were in disarray until recent widespread anger over the 200 percent hike in electricity and heating gas bills helped unify them and galvanize support. Many of Wednesday's protesters were men from poor villages, including some who had come to the capital to live and work on construction sites. Already struggling, they were outraged by the utility bill hikes and were easily stirred up by opposition claims of corruption in Bakiyev's circle. Kyrgyz are secular Muslims, and Islamist sentiments do not appear to have played a role in the uprising.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. deplored the violence and urged all to respect the rule of law.

"We identify with the concerns that the people of Kyrgyzstan have about their future," but those concerns should be dealt with peacefully, Crowley said, adding that the Manas base was operating normally.

Opposition leaders have said they want it shuttered because it could put their country at risk if the United States becomes involved in a military conflict with Iran. Closing it would also please Russia, which has opposed the basing of U.S. troops on former Soviet turf.

Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov on Wednesday morning accused the opposition of having Russia's support. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied any involvement in the uprising.

"Russian officials have absolutely nothing to do with this," he said in the city of Smolensk. "Personally, these events caught me completely by surprise."

The unrest began Tuesday in the western city of Talas, where demonstrators stormed a government office and held a governor hostage, prompting a government warning of "severe" repercussions for continuing unrest.

The opposition called nationwide protests for the next day and police in Bishkek at first used rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons and concussion grenades to try to control crowds of young men clad in black who were chasing police officers, beating them up and seizing their arms, trucks and armored personnel carriers.

Some protesters then tried to use a personnel carrier to ram the gates of the government headquarters, known as the White House. Many of the protesters threw rocks, but about a half dozen young protesters shot Kalashnikovs into the air from the square in front of the building.

"We don't want this rotten power!" protester Makhsat Talbadyev said, as he and others in Bishkek waved opposition party flags and chanted: "Bakiyev out!"

Some 200 elite police began firing, pushing the crowd back from the government headquarters.

Protesters set fire to the prosecutor general's office in the city center, and a giant plume of black smoke billowed into the sky.

Police often appeared outnumbered and overwhelmed, sometimes retreating when faced with protesters – including many armed with rocks and others who appeared to be carrying automatic weapons as they marched.

At one point police fled across the square from a large group of stone-throwing demonstrators. In another street, a small group of police took refuge behind their shields as one of their colleagues lay unconscious at their feet, his face smeared with blood.

In another area, two policemen, their faces bloodstained, tried to escape as a protester aimed kicks in their direction.

Groups of protesters then set out across Bishkek, attacking more government buildings.

An Associated Press reporter saw dozens of wounded demonstrators lining the corridors of one of Bishkek's main hospitals, a block away from the main square, where doctors were unable to cope with the flood of patients. Weeping nurses slumped over dead bodies, doctors shouted at each other and the floors were covered in blood.

Opposition activist Shamil Murat told the AP that Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongatiyev had been beaten to death by a mob in Talas. The respected Fergana.ru Web site reported later that Kongatiyev was badly beaten but had not died, saying its own reporter had witnessed the beating.

Unrest also broke out for a second day in Talas and spread to the southern city of Naryn.

Another 10,000 protesters stormed police headquarters in Talas. The protesters beat up the interior minister, Kongatiyev, and forced him to call his subordinates in Bishkek and call off the crackdown on protesters, a correspondent for the local affiliate of U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said.

Some 5,000 protesters seized Naryn's regional administration building and installed a new governor, opposition activist Adilet Eshenov said. At least four people were wounded in clashes, including the regional police chief, he said.

In the eastern region of Issyk-Kul, protesters seized the regional administration building and declared they installed their governor, the Ata-Meken opposition party said on its Web site.

At least 10 opposition leaders were arrested overnight and were being held at the security headquarters in Bishkek, opposition lawmaker Irina Karamushkina said.

At least one of them, Temir Sariyev, was freed Wednesday by protesters.

The leaders of the four other former Soviet republics in the region were certain to be watching events in Bishkek with concern, but the authoritarian, and in some cases dictatorial, natures of their governments would likely allow them to squash any attempts to challenge their rules.

Looks like we have some fun stuff going on here.

[Xion Valkyrie]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_528172.html



Looks like we have some fun stuff going on here.

Definitely interesting. Kind of amazing that the same kind of protests->revolution was what put the current PM in power in the first place. Despite what the US says, the only way to internally dispose of a despot is through revolution. I think they're pretty successful in that regards.

[Zu Ra]

* Berlin Airport reopens after WW2 Bomb Defused

[monir]

Something less somber:

New Device Could Revolutionize Chips

We've reached the theoretical limitation a while back with how tiny individual transistor can be at chips making. This new innovation, memristor, is apparently going to take that limitation to an entirely new level by at least a factor of two. It also resolves the central issue that limits the transistors at chips making to a certain nano length: over-heating. Who is excited?

[james0246]

^I saw the title of the link and was expecting an evocative article on new potato chip devices (a new ruffle machine, maybe?); instead I get microchips...boring.

[monir]

Originally Posted by james0246

^I saw the title of the link and was expecting an evocative article on new potato chip devices (a new ruffle machine, maybe?); instead I get microchips...boring.

So I've been eating transistors all these days? It explains the crunchiness in every bite... Thanks James!

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by monir

Something less somber:

New Device Could Revolutionize Chips

We've reached the theoretical limitation a while back with how tiny individual transistor can be at chips making. This new innovation, memristor, is apparently going to take that limitation to an entirely new level by at least a factor of two. It also resolves the central issue that limits the transistors at chips making to a certain nano length: over-heating. Who is excited?

So it stores data via internal resistance? Sounds exciting.

And no James, you got it wrong. You CAN'T eat diodes.

[Haruka_Kitten]

Apple iPhone gets multi-tasking

THE new operating system for Apple's iPhone will allow multi-tasking, letting users run more than one program at a time, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs says.

"We weren't the first to this party but we're going to be the best,'' Jobs said today at an event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, to unveil version 4.0 of the iPhone operating system.

Jobs said iPhone OS 4.0 includes more than 100 new features, chief among them multitasking, which devotees of the smartphone have been clamouring for.

Explaining the delay in bringing multitasking to the iPhone, Jobs said Apple was concerned about slowing down other features or quickly draining the battery.

Apple has figured out "how to avoid those things'', he said.

Other new features include the ability to create playlists on the phone, the addition of a 5X digital zoom to the camera and the ability to use Bluetooth keyboards.

A spell check function was also added to the phone and users now can buy an application and gift it to someone directly through their iPhone.

Jobs said Apple had sold more than 50 million iPhones to date. If you include the iPod Touch, the number shoots up to 85 million, he said.

Jobs also released the latest sales figures for the iPad tablet computer.

He said Apple had sold 450,000 iPads as of today and 600,000 electronic books have been downloaded for the device.

"We're making them as fast as we can,'' Jobs said.

"Evidently we can't make enough of them yet so we are going to have to try harder.''

The Apple chief executive also said iPad owners have downloaded 3.5 million applications to the device as of today.

Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads on Saturday, its first day of availability in the US.

Jeez....finally

Swedish rail worker crashes train network with porn addiction

A SWEDISH rail worker was slammed by his bosses for crippling a train network by looking at porn.

Investigators found that there were so many viruses infecting the rail network's computers in Gavle, 160km north of Stockholm, that they were incapable of running trains safely, The Sun reports today.

His outraged bosses gave the signalman an official warning, saying that thousands of passengers and hundreds of cargo trains were put at risk by his porn addiction.

A report into the scandal also said the 52-year-old worker (whose name was not released) regularly missed his shifts at the network controls because he was too tired to work after being up all night ogling saucy internet images.



One frustrated driver reported that the man slept soundly at his post while he awaited permission for his train to enter the station.

But union bosses said the official warning was "too harsh".

"A letter would have been more appropriate," one union official said.

*facepalm* on the job?

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by monir

Something less somber:

New Device Could Revolutionize Chips

We've reached the theoretical limitation a while back with how tiny individual transistor can be at chips making. This new innovation, memristor, is apparently going to take that limitation to an entirely new level by at least a factor of two. It also resolves the central issue that limits the transistors at chips making to a certain nano length: over-heating. Who is excited?

Nice thing! What is not nice is what is said in here:

Hewlett Packard outlines computer memory of the future

"The processor and memory could be exactly the same thing"

So basicaly CPU cost X, Memory Cost Y. Without taking consideration with the MB if we want to replace one of them we would either pay X or pay Y. With CPU+Memory we would pay X+Y.

[chikorita157]

Originally Posted by Harufox

Apple iPhone gets multi-tasking



Jeez....finally

It seems the iPhone finally caught up with Android, Blackberry and WebOS, which supported multitasking for a while now... but on the other hand with Windows Phone 7, they fell well behind now since they still lack multitasking and copy/paste support... Sad, isn't it. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to cut those features from Windows Mobile 6 for 7...

But then again, nobody can complain about the lack of multitasking now...

[Urzu 7]

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/articl...month/19429753

Awesome.

Happy Confederate Month, y'all!

[FateAnomaly]

Originally Posted by Harufox

Apple iPhone gets multi-tasking



Jeez....finally

Swedish rail worker crashes train network with porn addiction



*facepalm* on the job?

Those union bosses probably don't take the train so it not their problem.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by monir

Something less somber:

New Device Could Revolutionize Chips

We've reached the theoretical limitation a while back with how tiny individual transistor can be at chips making. This new innovation, memristor, is apparently going to take that limitation to an entirely new level by at least a factor of two. It also resolves the central issue that limits the transistors at chips making to a certain nano length: over-heating. Who is excited?

Either the article is not very scientific, or the chipmaker lacks some decent knowledge in biology. Memristors are not synapses for a simple reason... they cannot freely build up links to neighbouring memristors/synapses, which is a very important ability for the data/processing network in brains.

And the comparison of viruses 100 nm and todays transistors 40-50 nm and memristors 3nm was so stupid... the virus holds a whole RNA full of much more information then any of the listed devices (also RNA is 4-state while a single bit of information in transistors and memristors is usally limited to binary) on the other side it does not work like a synapsis in any way... so what was the purpose of the comparison to begin with?

The final sentence is what is basically the information that I was looking for in that article:

In a phase-change memory, heat is used to shift a glassy material from an amorphous to a crystalline state and back. The switching speed of these systems is slower and requires more power, the H.P. scientists say.

It explains how memristors work (basically like a DVD-RW but more dense and not optical)... and it explain the trade-off: they will increase the storage density at the cost of speed.

I wonder why the noise in the rest of the article is needed.

[killer3000ad]

Yemen child bride dies from bleeding after wedding

God damn it. This after a previous 12-year-old Yemen girl died during childbirth.

[monir]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Nice thing! What is not nice is what is said in here:

Hewlett Packard outlines computer memory of the future

"The processor and memory could be exactly the same thing"

So basicaly CPU cost X, Memory Cost Y. Without taking consideration with the MB if we want to replace one of them we would either pay X or pay Y. With CPU+Memory we would pay X+Y.

Good old capitalism at work here. I'm sure they have hired extra securities and stricter screening process since the publishing of this new findings. And not to mention they can also tell Intel to take a hike while they start their own gig.

God bless America!

Originally Posted by Jinto

Either the article is not very scientific, or the chipmaker lacks some decent knowledge in biology. Memristors are not synapses for a simple reason... they cannot freely build up links to neighbouring memristors/synapses, which is a very important ability for the data/processing network in brains.

And the comparison of viruses 100 nm and todays transistors 40-50 nm and memristors 3nm was so stupid... the virus holds a whole RNA full of much more information then any of the listed devices (also RNA is 4-state while a single bit of information in transistors and memristors is usally limited to binary) on the other side it does not work like a synapsis in any way... so what was the purpose of the comparison to begin with?

The final sentence is what is basically the information that I was looking for in that article:



It explains how memristors work (basically like a DVD-RW but more dense and not optical)... and it explain the trade-off: they will increase the storage density at the cost of speed.

I wonder why the noise in the rest of the article is needed.

The article is indeed ornamental in many ways. It sugarcoats a lot about a technology that has yet to be field tested in any congealed form, and yet the HP is promising there will be some kind of hardware available based on memristor in the next 4 years or so. Optimism at its highest. Like I said in my original post, the article was supposed to be less sobering.

[killer3000ad]

Man strangles wife for being too 'Australian'

[Kamui4356]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8612825.stm

Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash

A plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski has crashed near a Russian airport, officials say.

Russian media reported that 87 people were killed in the crash near Smolensk, and a regional governor was quoted as saying there were no survivors.

Polish officials said Mr Kaczynski was on board along with his wife Maria and several senior government figures.

They were in Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when the Soviets killed thousands of Poles.

Plane 'hit trees'

The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT).

Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said it had been flying from Moscow to Smolensk, but had no details on the identities of those killed.

Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived.

"As it was preparing for landing, the Polish president's aircraft did not make it to the landing strip," he said.

"According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces. There are no survivors in that crash.

Sad news for the people of Poland. Not many details about what caused the crash are known yet.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8612825.stm



Sad news for the people of Poland. Not many details about what caused the crash are known yet.

Smells like the FSB.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Smells like the FSB.

My first thought as well, but just because his plane crashed in Russia doesn't necessarily mean the Russians had anything to do with it.