Tiny Capsules Float Downstream
A Chicago researcher has created a nano-scale capsule that could literally provide a magic pill for diabetes patients. Tejal Desai, an assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has cured rats with diabetes in tests using the insulin-secreting devices. She could be the first to bring biological microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) into the realm of medical therapies.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,47934,00.html
New Army Soldiers: Game Gamers
Video-gaming armchair generals will soon get the same leadership and command training as combat-ready infantrymen. The U.S. Army, working with a University of Southern California research lab and a team of game-making firms, is developing two games, set on urban battlefields, that will be used both to train grunts and entertain geeks. Players will command a nine-person team in C-Force, which is being developed for one of the "next-generation" gaming systems, like the X-Box, Game Cube or Playstation 2. CS XII, the other game, is a PC title in which players lead a company of about 100.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47931,00.html
Getting a Read on Anthrax
Researchers at the forefront of genome science will map the deadly bacterium's DNA, hoping to discover whether it's been engineered to be more virulent. The National Science Foundation has awarded The Institute for Genomic Research an emergency fund of $200,000 to tackle the project, The Wall Street Journal reported. A map of the entire genome of the anthrax bacterium could give federal investigators and health authorities clues into whether the anthrax found recently in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. has been engineered to resist certain antibiotics.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47967,00.html
Wayback Goes Way Back on Web
Imagine being able to travel back in time to an era when the digital publishing euphoria had just begun and the dot-com boom was in full swing. Now that may be possible with a new digital library tool called the Wayback Machine, which goes "way back" in Internet time to locate archived versions of over 10 billion Web pages dating to 1996. The Internet Archive and Alexa Internet recently unveiled the free service, which provides digital snapshots from its archives that reveal the origins of the Internet and how it has evolved over the past five years.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47894,00.html
Military Shows Off Smart ID Card
Top U.S. military officials on Monday unveiled a new generation of "smart" identity cards, but were still weighing whether to add medical data and other information to the chip-based ID cards. The Defense Department said it expected to issue the chip-based "common access cards" to 4.3 million military personnel -- including active military, selected reserves, civilian employees and some contractors -- within the next 15 months.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47971,00.html
Loony Balloonist Sets Record 
An eccentric Englishman has set a new record for the highest-ever flight powered by ordinary toy balloons. Ian Ashpole, 46, filled 600 toy balloons with helium and sailed gracefully to a new world record of 11,000 feet. As he reached 11,000 feet and the balloons started popping, he cut himself free with a knife and parachuted to the ground. Ashpole broke his own previous record of 10,000 feet, which he set five years ago. He set the new record on Sunday, Oct. 28, near the town of Chatteris in Cambridgeshire, England.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47965,00.html
Streaming But a Trickle in Europe
Arriving at Streaming Media Europe 2001 via the Docklands Light Railway, one can't help but see London's Millennium Dome hovering like a big white elephant in the distance -- a reminder that some things just don't turn out as hoped. This week's trade show, like the dome, is missing some big-name attractions. Since the event is generally a good barometer for the health of the sector, this doesn't portend well for the streaming media sector in Europe. Fear of more terrorist attacks kept some sponsors away, but, as one forlorn-looking exhibitor exclaimed, "I mean, where's Apple, where's Akamai"?
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47884,00.html
Sing a Song of America
A new education program hopes to share a century's worth of classic American songs with kids whose musical knowledge is often limited to pop princess Britney Spears. The Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century" program has chosen 365 American songs like "America the Beautiful," "Take the A Train," "On Top of Old Smokey" and "We Shall Overcome" for the curriculum. The program is designed to develop music appreciation in kids. Teachers are encouraged to pair songs with historical lessons. Songs are classified by decade and divided into categories like The Jazz Age, The War Years and The Sixties.
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,47922,00.html
Robot See, Robot Kill
Every second of every day, your brain evaluates raw information from your five senses and causes you to react, often involuntarily. A self-aiming camera being developed by scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is learning to respond to audio-visual stimulation in the same way. The camera is able to detect movement and sound, compute the probability that what it's sensing is worth responding to and then turns (or doesn't turn) toward the stimulus accordingly.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47629,00.html
Joint Strike Fighter faces future competition
Lockheed Martin may have won the largest ever military contract to develop the Joint Strike Fighter, but the losers, Boeing, could still have the last laugh. The Pentagon's announcement on Friday that Lockheed Martin had won the $200 billion, winner-takes-all contract was met with jubilation in President's Bush's home state of Texas, where the company is based. But experts are warning that the JSF is unlikely to be delivered on time and could be soon made obsolete by Boeing's programme to build uncrewed combat aerial vehicles (UCAV), the pilotless robotic planes of the future.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991488
Today's Germ War, Yesterday's Weapons
Kadlec is talking about a form of smallpox that doesn't exist yet -- so far as we know. But recent research in Australia on genetically engineered mousepox virus shows that such a Stealth-fighter agent may be simpler to create than Western experts used to think. Genetically modified smallpox adds additional terror to a weapon that's already deadly -- a weapon we now understand could actually be used against us. As we have learned in recent weeks, terrorists have already used biological weapons on our soil: highly refined anthrax delivered in a simple but lethal way. Smallpox would be no harder to distribute: Like anthrax spores, smallpox is durable in the external environment and could easily be dried, turned into powder and enclosed in a letter. But as a weapon it's far more frightening.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...ent%2Dopinions
Dusting for Cancer's Protein "Fingerprint"
Even before researchers finished sequencing the human genome, many shifted their focus to proteomics, the study of the proteins encoded in that sequence. Understanding how proteins work and how to manipulate them could provide new ways to diagnose and treat disease. This summer, proteomics took an important step toward medical application when the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began using proteomic tools as part of human trials for new cancer treatments.
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/n...nnovation2.asp
Digital photos 'endanger the past'
Experienced photographer Jayne West wrote her degree dissertation on the historical impact of digital capture. She argues that the use of digital photography in news reporting means we could lose a valuable pictorial record of history.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1620067.stm
Disputed Dot-Biz Sees Daylight - Injunction Dissolves
A clutch of Web addresses registered in the newly minted ".biz" Internet domain have been cleared to go live after an injunction freezing those domains dissolved this week. Earlier this year a pair of plaintiffs filed suit against NeuLevel - the company chosen to operate .biz - claiming that the system NeuLevel had established to allow Internet users to pre-register .biz addresses constituted an illegal lottery under California law. The judge in the case granted a preliminary injunction forcing NeuLevel to freeze a batch of disputed addresses, but at the same time ordered the plaintiffs to post a $1.6 million bond in the event that they lost the case and NeuLevel suffered financial losses stemming from the injunction.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171573.html
Bankrupt dot-coms ask to sell user data 
As bankruptcies sweep the Internet sector, many Web users are fielding an unexpected request from the dot-coms that once collected their names, e-mail addresses and billing information: Will they allow these companies to sell their data? With no laws or broad court rulings to guide them, defunct e-tailers and Web content sites are trying to navigate a particularly thorny dilemma of liquidation. How can they raise as much money as possible from one of their most valuable assets -- customer and membership lists -- without violating users' privacy?
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/ne...list102901.htm
No Napster Relaunch Until Next Year
Napster will not relaunch until early next year, the company's CEO told technology industry leaders today at conference in Los Angeles. A Napster spokesman confirmed this afternoon reports that Hilbers told attendees of the Webnoize 2001 conference Napster is waiting to get "a critical mass of content" before offering a secure, subscription version to consumers. The delay, in part, is also the result of ongoing music licensing negotiations that are under way with record labels, the spokesman said. Napster, which faces a massive copyright-infringement lawsuit from the five major recording companies, has been offline since mid-summer.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171616.html
High Court To Hear Arguments In Virtual Kiddie-Porn Case
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear opening arguments on Tuesday in a First Amendment challenge to a law that expands the definition of child pornography to include computer-generated images. Congress passed the Child Pornography Prevention Act in 1996 in response to the emergence of technologies that allow pornographers to create images that look like child pornography by digitally superimposing children's faces upon adults engaged in sex acts. The Free Speech Coalition - a group of adult content companies - immediately challenged the law, calling the statute "unconstitutionally vague and overly broad."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171613.html
E-Mail Targets Terrorism With Bursts Of Laughter
Within days of the World Trade Center's collapse, one of the first humorously defiant e-mails began hopscotching around the country. The electronic image showed the trade center complex rebuilt to resemble a giant hand, with the middle tower rising like an upraised finger. Not subtle, but perhaps effective. As the war has been carried to Afghanistan in the weeks since, dozens of e-mail jokesters have pitched in. Some anonymous Web artist, for instance, created Taliban Singles Online, a mock dating service featuring eight burqa-clad women under such headings as "I declare a Jihad on U, Baby." Another contributed the "Taliban TV Guide," with such entries as "Mad About Everything" and "Children Are Forbidden From Saying the Darndest Things."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171587.html
More news later on
