Apple's iPhone alarm glitch hits users

Many iPhone customers overslept to start the new year, due to a glitch in the gadget's alarm clock feature. Users who set their iPhone alarm for a single wake-up rather than recurring use found the alarm didn't go off with the year's arrival, Apple Inc. said Sunday. A fix is in the works, and all iPhone alarms will work properly starting Monday. The glitch affects iPhones using Apple's latest iOS 4.0 operating system, including earlier versions of the smartphone whose users have downloaded the latest software. It isn't clear what caused the alarm problem, or how many iPhone users were affected. The problem is the second in two months involving the iPhone's alarm clock. The company said in early November that the end of daylight time could cause problems for iPhone users.

Thankfully I do not use the apple I-phone alarm. I only use it on Chapel days but I still use a back up alarm clock just in case. I believe that people over reacted about this. I believe if you want an alarm to wake you up just buy an alarm clock that will never be incorrect.

Beaver dams a model for river restorers

River restorers can learn a lesson from the beaver that will produce a more natural ecosystem and save money, researchers say. Taking out old man-made mill dams on rivers and streams is a popular practice in New England and certain other states but the restorations are "done with blinders on with regard to the role of the beaver," one researcher said. They argues for maintaining dams in river restorations.
Engineers often start with the idea that rivers are naturally free-flowing, so when it comes to removing dams people built to provide water power for mills, they frequently take out the whole structure. That can involve the costly process of removing all the silt that has built up behind a one-or-two-metre dam since the 19th century. "Many of those streams, before humans built dams on them, were dammed by beavers," they said. "Why not mimic what they do?" That suggests restorers could cut a notch in the dam, releasing the water pressure but not letting the silt flow downstream. The ponds and wetlands that built up behind man-made dams resemble the area behind beaver dams.

This makes sense because there were beaver dams all over NA before the Europeans came. It also seams that it would be a cheaper solution but it also makes environmental sense. Thats a change :). This is a US study but hopefully Canadians are doing the same thing.

Facebook raises $500M from Goldman Sachs

Facebook has raised $500 million US from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investment firm in a deal that values the social networking site at $50 billion, the New York Times reported. Goldman invested $450 million and Digital Sky Technologies invested $50 million. Goldman has the right to sell part of its stake, up to $75 million, to the Russian firm. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)is reportedly looking into the booming trade in privately held shares of popular social networking sites. A big reason the SEC may be curious about the trading of these popular private startups' shares is because once a company hits 500 shareholders, it must disclose certain financial information to the public, even if it hasn't filed for an initial public offering.

Well i wish i was an investor in Facebook 10 years ago. But I do not want anyone getting an unfair advantage in any kind of trading like this. The SEC is a lot tougher now since the credit crises. Hopefully they are doing a good job. For capitalism to work investors need to be confident that there are rules and that they are enforced.

Bumblebee species 'in trouble': U.S. study

Four of the 50 species of bumblebees found in the U.S. are "significantly in trouble," a University of Illinois entomology professor said recently. The professor said the analysis only covered eight species, so "this could be the tip of the iceberg." The finding is similar to ones in other reports that documented huge declines in honeybee populations. Using historical records from the late 1800s, they found the relative abundance of the four species decreased by up to 96 per cent since that period, and their geographic range contracted by between 23 and 87 per cent.
The study said that the declining populations had higher infection levels of the pathogen Nosema bombi than unaffected populations. This is a parasite that can render bumblebees helpless and unable to function, and eventually kill them.

This is a huge decline over 200 years and I have even noticed fewer bees in my backyard over the last few years. I never liked bees after being stung by one in our garage attic but I know they are very important in pollination of our crops, flowers and trees. Scientists will have to study this pathogen very closely and develop some kind of a treatment or cure.

Toronto man who killed wife, 2 kids faces life term

The Crown is calling for a Toronto man who shot three members of his family and burned their bodies to be sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 22 years. Bao Mac pleaded guilty in a Newmarket, Ont., court to three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, her 22-year-old daughter, Qian Jenny Zhao and his four-year-old daughter. The Crown Attorney told the judge at Mac's sentencing hearing Tuesday that Mac "brutally and ruthlessly murdered the three people who should have been able to trust him most." The only clue to a motive behind the killings is that Mac's wife wanted out of the marriage, and his stepdaughter wanted to live more independently. The Crown said: "The innocent were slaughtered and the coward spared himself." Mac has been in custody since a warrant for his arrest was executed on Nov. 4, 2007, following a lengthy hospital stay that included a drug-induced coma.

This guy deserves to rot in jail. Who in his right mind would kill their entire family and then try to burn them? Apparently he tried to kill himself but failed. The Crown said he was a coward and she was right. Now we have to pay for his jail term for the next 30 years.

U.S. military expert's body found in dump

A military expert who served three Republican presidents and helped get the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built was found dead in a Delaware landfill, and authorities are trying to piece together when he was last seen alive. The body of John Wheeler III, 66, was uncovered Friday when a garbage truck emptied its contents at a landfill in Wilmington, Del. The truck had collected the trash from around 10 commercial disposal bins in Newark, several kilometres from Wheeler's home. Police said they aren't sure which container his body came from. Friends say they traded emails with around Christmas. Wheeler also had been scheduled to take an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington on Dec. 28, but it's not clear if he ever made the trip, said investigators, who have labelled Wheeler's death a homicide.

The police have called it a homicide but the question is who did it and why? If he was a Republican he may have had some enemies. The first thing you think of when you hear of a murder in a dumpster is the Mafia. I will continue to watch this story to see if any new news breaks on this story.

China able to reprocess nuclear fuel

Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants, potentially boosting the supplies of carbon-free electricity to keep the country's economy booming. The breakthrough will extend by many times the amount of power that can be generated from China's nuclear plants as fissile and fertile materials are recovered to be new fuel. Several European countries, Russia, India and Japan already reprocess nuclear fuel the actual materials used to make nuclear energy to separate and recover the unused uranium and plutonium, and to reduce waste. China overtook the United States as the world's largest energy consumer in 2009, years before it was expected to do so. But it is heavily dependent on coal, a major pollutant it has 13 nuclear power plants.

Hopefully the Chinese will use this new technology for peaceful purposes. Secondly every picture I see of China it is so dirty and smoggy they need to get off the coal because it is polluting the entire country. Finally the Chinese are taking environmental issues seriously.