November 2003

Mini-copter Stars At Robot Show

by Haitham Sabbah November 20, 2003

The world’s lightest and smallest robot helicopter has been unveiled at a Tokyo exhibition by the Seiko Epson company. The designers say the 70-mm-tall device could be used as a “flying camera” to enter earthquake-shattered buildings. The prototype four-legged robot weighs 10 grammes and although it flies by remote control, it has to be linked [...]

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China Creates Alternative DVD Format

by Haitham Sabbah November 20, 2003

China, the world’s biggest maker of DVD players, moved on Tuesday to create its next-generation rival, the EVD, a step toward a new national industry standard that would bypass royalty payments to Japanese DVD makers. Beijing E-world Technology, the corporate entity of a government-backed consortium of businessmen and academics, and two DVD manufacturers unveiled the [...]

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Decoded DNA Would ‘Reach to Moon’

by Haitham Sabbah November 3, 2003

Pioneering scientists in the UK have decoded a record-breaking two billion letters of DNA, it has been revealed. The researchers at the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute say that if this DNA was scaled up to the size of a spiral staircase it would stretch to the Moon. The “life code” found in cells contains information [...]

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Israelis Ship Eight Tera-Ops Optical Processor

by Haitham Sabbah November 3, 2003

“Israeli technology Lenslet has begun shipping what it claims is the world’s first optical microprocessor. We should point out that we’re not talking a Pentium or G5 here. Instead, the EnLight 256 is a DSP chip designed to perform a series of simple operations rather than provide a basis for general purpose processing. However, its [...]

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He Wasn’t Elected…God Put Bush There

by Haitham Sabbah November 3, 2003

“Hatred stirreth up strife.” The Holy Bible, Proverbs They had a certain symmetry. Each preached hatred and neither was denounced as promptly as some might have thought appropriate. Mahathir Mohamad gave a speech to the Organization of the Islamic Conference on October 16 in which he made an astonishing declaration. He said, among other things, [...]

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Couple To Exchange Vows By SMS

by Haitham Sabbah November 3, 2003

A Belgian couple are to get married by SMS because text messaging has played such a big part in their relationship. Ronald Bollen, 39, and Ingrid Peeters, 43, will exchange vows by SMS but then sign the registry in the traditional way to make sure the wedding is legal.

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Turn Your Head Into Speakers

by Haitham Sabbah November 3, 2003

A small company based in Iowa has developed products made with a “smart” metal that can turn your walls or your head into speakers. Five of Etrema’s top executives are sitting in a conference room listening to jock rock. The space is drab even by conference-room standards, furnished with an oversized green marble table on [...]

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