December
30
Click on the image for fullsize.
Click on the image for fullsize.
December
28
December
15
December
15
A female red-veined darter (Sympetrum fonscolombei), a dragonfly common to southern Europe and, from the 1990s onwards, has increasingly been found in northwest Europe, including Great Britain and Ireland. Adults are red (males) or yellow (females), showing beautiful saturated colours. Juveniles are greenish with black stripes on the thorax and abdomen.
December
7
Intel Corp. founder Gordon Moore and his wife, Betty, have donated 200 million U.S. dollars to build the world’s largest optical telescope. The donation went to Caltech (California Institute of Technology) and the University of California. The telescope will have a mirror nearly 100 feet across and three times the size of the current record holder. The technology will be similar to that used in the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, currently the largest optical telescopes in the world. The new telescope will feature a large central mirror comprising 492 individual hexagon-shaped mirrors, each about 4.8 feet across and about 1.8 inches thick — a little smaller and thinner than those in the Keck telescopes.
The final design for the Thirty-Meter Telescope, as it is called, is expected to be completed by March 2009, with construction to begin soon after and completion expected in 2017. Five sites are being considered for the installation include three sites in Chile, one in Baja California and one on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The plan is to select the site by next May.
December
6
Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor on Wednesday showcased its much-anticipated luxury sedan Genesis at its research and development center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. The event provided an opportunity to test drive the new car along with two other world-class premium sedans, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class 350 and the BMW 530i, for comparison. Genesis is not only Hyundai’s first luxury car built to target the global market but also its first rear-wheel-drive car. Hyundai has high expectations for the car, the name Genesis, meaning “new beginning” or “origin.”
The sedan also boasts a new emblem in the shape of flying wings instead of Hyundai’s usual “H” logo. The new car will officially hit the market on Jan. 8. The company aims to sell 80,000 cars home and abroad. The price has not yet been decided, but will likely be set at around W40-50 million (US$1=W923).
December
6
NHK on Wednesday unveiled a new system to put hidden identifiers into films to trace counterfeit works distributed over the Internet. The system, developed with Mitsubishi Electric Corp, consists of highly detailed electronic signals which are put inside films and other visual works but invisible to the human eye. If a person copies the film at a cinema or in front of a television screen, his or her camera will automatically tape the signal which will stay in the machine’s memory. Automatic software can then search the Internet using the coded signal to find any works that have been illegally copied. The code can also help authorities trace the exact cinema and screening at which the person illegally taped a film.
The signal will stay and can be traced, even if only part of the image is put on line. NHK or Japan Broadcasting Corporation is Japan’s public broadcaster. Today it operates two terrestrial television services (NHK General TV and NHK Educational TV), three satellite services (NHK BS-1, NHK BS-2, and NHK Hi-Vision – High-definition TV), and three radio networks.
December
6
Toyota unveiled today a new robot - violin-playing robot the newest additions to its Toyota Partner Robots being developed to support people’s everyday life. The violin-playing robot, equipped with a total of 17 joints in both of its hands and arms, uses precise control and coordination to achieve human-like dexterity. The robot is able to achieve vibrato on a violin similar to that created by humans.
Toyota violin-playing robot with 1,522mm height weighs 56kg.
