News
Softbank to revise or cancel Hokkaido megasolar power plant
May 21, 2013 10:04 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsSoftbank Corp. may revise or cancel its plan to build three megasolar power plants in Hokkaido as Hokkaido Electric Power Co. has rejected its electricity sales application, industry sources said Tuesday. The local utility in April vowed to limit its electricity purchases from solar power plants to 400,000 kilowatts...
iCampus Student Competition yields online tools for improved on campus experiences
May 21, 2013 9:57 am | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | CommentsThe MIT Council on Educational Technology (MITCET) and the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology (OEIT) announced the winner and runners-up for the 2013 iCampus Student Prize competition at the Office of Digital Learning retreat held on May 17. The annual competition is offered each year to all current MIT undergraduates and graduate students (both individuals and groups) to encourage development of technology to improve aspects of MIT’...
S&P downgrades Dell debt rating to 'BBB'
May 20, 2013 6:53 pm | by The Associated Press | CommentsStandard & Poor's Ratings Service lowered its credit rating on Dell Inc. by two notches, reflecting the computer marker's worsening operating performance. Last week, the Round Rock, Texas, company issued a dismal first-quarter report, as it slashed its personal computer prices in response to...
Panel: Apple uses firms outside US to avoid taxes
May 20, 2013 5:00 pm | by The Associated Press | CommentsApple Inc. employs a group of affiliate companies located outside the United States to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes, a Senate investigation has found. The world's most valuable company is holding overseas some $102 billion of its $145 billion in cash, and an Irish...
Idaho couple and Sun Valley land in Twitter tussle
May 20, 2013 4:29 pm | by JOHN MILLER - Associated Press - Associated Press | CommentsAn Internet entrepreneur and former Wall Street derivatives analyst contends central Idaho's Sun Valley resort and the Twitter Inc. social media site heisted his handle. Leonard Barshack, who in the 1990s founded the Internet email listing service Bigfoot, is suing Twitter and the Sun Valley Co.,...
Vigorous athletic activity is safe with implanted arrhythmia devices
May 20, 2013 4:01 pm | by Yale UniversityYale University | CommentsThere has long been concern that people with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) should not participate in any kind of strenuous sports activity for fear that their devices could fail. But a new Yale study finds that many athletes with ICDs can engage in vigorous and competitive sports without physical injury or failure to stop cardiac arrhythmia, despite ICD shocks that may occur to the heart during athletic activities....
MIT students, alumni awarded 2013 Fulbright grants
May 20, 2013 1:50 pm | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | CommentsSeveral MIT undergraduate and graduate students and alumni — Noam Angrist, Marvin Arnold, Dorothy Brown, Hyunjii (Justina) Cho, Deborah Hanus and Marisa Lau — have been awarded Fulbright study/research grants for the upcoming academic year. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the United States government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of th...
Blackstone group offers to take Pactera private
May 20, 2013 1:37 pm | by The Associated Press | CommentsPrivate equity firm Blackstone Group LP, along with Pactera's CEO and other managers, have offered to take Pactera private in a deal that values the Chinese technology consulting and outsourcing firm at $680.4 million. Shares rose 31 percent Monday. Through Friday's close, before news of the...
Bacteria use hydrogen, carbon dioxide to produce electricity
May 20, 2013 11:56 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsResearchers have engineered a strain of electricity-producing bacteria that can grow using hydrogen gas as its sole electron donor and carbon dioxide as its sole source of carbon. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst report their findings at the 113th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
Computational tool translates complex data into simplified 2-dimensional images
May 20, 2013 11:52 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsResearchers at Columbia University and Stanford University have developed a computational method that enables scientists to visualize and interpret "high-dimensional" data produced by single-cell measurement technologies such as mass cytometry.
Kinks and curves at the nanoscale
May 20, 2013 11:46 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsEliminating the defects at the interface separating two crystals, or grains, has been shown by nanotechnology experts to be a powerful strategy for making materials stronger, more easily molded, and less electrically resistant—or a host of other qualities sought by designers and manufacturers.
Disney researchers develop fast, economical method for high-definition video compositing
May 20, 2013 11:35 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsVideo compositing to create special effects, replace backgrounds or combine multiple takes of an actor's performance is an integral, but highly labor-intensive, part of modern film making. Researchers at Disney Research, Zürich, however, have found an innovative way to create these composite videos that is simple, fast, and easy to use.
Yahoo takes big leap with $1.1B deal for Tumblr
May 20, 2013 11:33 am | by MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer | CommentsYahoo is buying online blogging forum Tumblr for $1.1 billion as CEO Marissa Mayer tries to rejuvenate an Internet icon that had fallen behind the times. The deal announced Monday represents Mayer's boldest move yet since she left Google 10 months ago to lead Yahoo's latest comeback attempt.
Robots learn to take a proper handoff by following digitized human examples
May 20, 2013 11:32 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsRecognizing that a person is handing something and predicting where the human plans to make the handoff is difficult for a robot, but the researchers from Disney and KIT solved the problem by using motion capture data with two people to create a database of human motion.
Review: Toshiba brings high-res screen to Windows
May 20, 2013 11:04 am | by PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer | CommentsLast year, Apple added a visually stunning option to its MacBooks: screens with ultra-high resolution. These "Retina" displays reveal four times as much detail as any Windows laptop screen ... until now. Toshiba just released a new laptop line with a Retina-level display.
