Tech & Science

In the Opening Day of 2008 AutoTronics Taipei (April 9), the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI) invited Jamie C. Hsu (Consultant of Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of the China and Former Management Executive Director of General Motors Global Technology) for a speech in the "Pavilion of Taiwan Automotive Research Consortium (TARC)" to forecast the future of automobile industry in Taiwan, which echoed the "Taiwan Automotive International Forum & Exhibition", held at TWTC Nangang in conjunction with 2008 Taipei

New 'deadly' sexual enhancement products have been found in Singaporean markets and can cause serious side effects on users. The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) announced the presence of the illegal drugs, known as Power 1 Walnut, Santi bovine penis erecting capsule, Zhong Hua Niu Bian and fake Cialis, which have been discovered over the past 3 months. Santi bovine penis erecting capsule has been found to contain high amounts of glibenclamide, a potent drug used to treat diabetes. The tablets also contain sildenafil and tadalafil - potent west

At 11:16 GMT (17:16 local time) this morning, a Russian Soyuz-FG carrier rocket launched from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft, on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Aboard were three cosmonauts; Russians Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, and South Korean Yi So-yeon. Volkov and Kononenko make up the ISS Expedition 17 crew, whilst Yi is flying as a Spaceflight Participant through the Korean Astronaut Programme. All three are making their first trip into space. Two major firsts

Wikinews has learned that the Church of Scientology warned the documents-leaking site Wikileaks.org that they are in violation of United States copyright laws after they published several documents related to the Church. Wikileaks has no intention of complying, and states that in response, it intends to publish a thousand pages of additional Scientology materials beginning Monday. In the letter to Wikileaks, lawyers for the Church's Religious Technology Center (RTC), which oversees the use of the their logos, writings and religious content, st

"Localization of 'SEMI Safety Guideline'", executed by Safety and Health Technology Center of Taiwan (SAHTECH) and supervised by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), was announced today in Hsinchu, Taiwan. This localization included several fields on health and safety of semiconductor manufacturing, certification testing on electrical devices, evaluations on fire or natural diseases, and environmental issues on semiconductor manufacturing devices, etc.. Companies and manufacturers from the semiconductor industry also pa

Many media outlets traditionally deliberately spread hoaxes on April Fools' Day, including notable quality sources such as National Geographic and Science. The popular British tabloid The Sun wrote that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to undergo stretch surgery to make him taller than his wife, Italian artist and model Carla Bruni. The report claimed the 5 foot 5 inch leader would be made 5 inches taller in one year using a method by Israeli professor Ura Schmuck. The Sun noted that during his visit to Britain last week, Sarkozy had high-h

The Cassini–Huygens spacecraft has discovered "organic material" and water spewing from a geyser on one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus. According to NASA, the discovery was made when Cassini flew by the moon on March 12. "A completely unexpected surprise is that the chemistry of Enceladus, what's coming out from inside, resembles that of a comet. To have primordial material coming out from inside a Saturn moon raises many questions on the formation of the Saturn system," said Hunter Waite, principal investigator for the Cassini Ion and Neutral M

A Russian Kosmos-3M rocket has launched the German SAR-Lupe 4 reconnaissance satellite into low Earth orbit. Lift-off, from area 132/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia, occurred at 17:15 GMT. The launch, which was originally scheduled to occur today, was moved up to Tuesday, and subsequently delayed twice due to strong winds at an altitude of 13 kilometres, which prevented launch. SAR-Lupe is a German reconnaissance satellite constellation, consisting of five spacecraft. The first of these was launched in December 2006. The next s

According to an announcement on Monday by United States-based on-line auction website eBay, the option to accept payments via PayPal service will be mandatory for United Kingdom sellers beginning in April 2008, with the exception of auctions relating directly to the sale of motor vehicles. The announcement claims that the move will help improve confidence as well as further reducing the limited amounts of fraud which occur on some types of transaction. Sellers with low feedback, or who list specific items, such as computer software are already

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan. "We believe that about 100 kilometers (62 miles) beneath the ice and organic-rich surface is an internal ocean of liquid water mixed with ammonia," said Bryan Stiles of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. If the findings turn out to be true, this will be the fourth such moon in our solar system found to have some form of water on it. Currently only three other moons, all from

A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket has successfully launched the DirecTV-11 Communications satellite for DirecTV. The Ukrainian-built rocket lifted off from the Norwegian Ocean Odyssey launch platform in the Pacific Ocean at 22:47:59 (UTC) yesterday evening, with spacecraft separation from the carrier rocket occurring at 23:49:03. The mission, which marked the 13th orbital launch of 2008, is the 25th commercial launch to be conducted by the international Sea Launch consortium, the first of which also lofted a DirecTV satellite. This is also the 25

British expatriate science fiction author, futurist, and visionary Arthur C. Clarke died on Wednesday in a hospital in his adopted hometown of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was 90 years old. "Sir Arthur passed away a short while ago at the Apollo Hospital. He had been in hospital for the past four days. He had been in and out of the hospital in recent weeks," said Clarke's assistant, Rohan de Silva. Reports say that after a long 50 year battle with post-polio syndrome, Clarke died at 1:30 a.m. (local time) on Wednesday from breathing complications.