London -- A British inventor has created the Searaser -- a device that uses the motion of waves to pump water uphill to drive hydroelectric generators.
The Times of London reported prototype testing shows the device can pump more than 160 feet of water uphill through a pipe the diameter of a saucer. The full-size device is expected to pump water at least 650 feet.
Inventor Alvin Smith, an engineer, said he designed the device to help Britain end its reliance on fossil fuels. He said the Searaser could also be used to pump desalinated water inland in dry countries. The device could help Britain meet its target of getting 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources, the newspaper said.
The wave pump consists of two floats fitted to a double-acting piston. Water is pumped as the floats are pushed together and then forced apart by the motion of the waves. Smith said one full-size device should be able to pump enough water to keep 470 homes supplied with electricity.
Tel Aviv, Israel -- Israeli scientists say they've created a technique to control the heat generated by carbon dioxide lasers that are used to seal body wounds.
A team of Tel Aviv University researchers has perfected a new device to heat body tissue in a precisely controlled manner. The research team headed by Professor Abraham Katzir said their new technique could change the way surgeons bond cuts on skin and inside the body during surgery.
With the new technology, if the laser begins to overheat and risks burning the tissue, laser power is automatically reduced; if the temperature is too low to complete a closure, laser power in increased.
Katzir is believed the first to apply the carbon dioxide laser, coupled to optical fibers made from silver halide, for wound closure under tight temperature control. The silver halide fibers, developed at the university, deliver the laser's energy to heat the bonded cut and are used for controlling temperature. They also make it possible to bond tissues inside the body.
Tampa, Fla. -- A Florida lawyer says he created the Web site WhoCanISue.com to limit frivolous lawsuits not promote them.
Lawyer Curtis A. Wolfe said he decided to quit a private equity firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in order to produce a Web site that helps connect individuals with a reputable legal claim with a lawyer who can represent them in the country's legal system, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times said.
The Web site, which made its debut in September, allows users to search for their grievance on the site and obtain a list of attorneys suited for such legal claims. The online service provides information on product liability, employment issues and accident claims.
While the site's name may cause some to believe Wolfe is supporting lawsuits simply for the sake of money, he assured the Times he believes the site will only help lawyers' images in the public at large.
Cyber experts in the US government claim to have found out the source from where attacks on the Obama and McCain campaign computer networks originated. As per US officials, China is the place of origin.
Barack Obama and John McCain’s campaign teams had been warned earlier by the Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), regarding the potential threat to their computer networks. It was suspected that they had been hacked.
In a bid to gather information about the policy positions of the candidates, the hackers downloaded huge amounts of data from the campaign networks.
Though the attacks have been found out to have originated from China, it is still unclear if they were done at the behest of the government or were just done by plain unaffiliated hackers.
This news story was first broken by Newsweek which informed that FBI and the Secret Service agents had cautioned Obama’s team about the cyber attack this summer. The report had suggested that technical experts believe that the attacks had started from China or Russia.
Los Angeles -- The video-sharing Web site YouTube is negotiating with a Hollywood studio in an effort to begin a new online movie service, an executive says.
The unidentified executive said YouTube is in talks with at least one studio as part of the company's ongoing efforts to offer feature U.S. movies to its customers, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.
"It's not imminent," the executive said of a related deal. "But it's going to happen. I would say you can expect to see it, if all goes well, sometime within the next 30 to 90 days."
The addition of full-length feature movies to YouTube's current video offerings could be applied to the company's independent film "screening room," the British newspaper said.
The Telegraph said 80 million people use YouTube's various video offerings each month, so the company has been actively seeking ways in which to increase its media offerings.
San Francisco -- There is a possibility the social networking Web site MySpace may one day have its own MP3 player, a top executive with the company said in San Francisco.
MySpace Chief Executive Officer Chris DeWolfe said during the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco that the online group could soon branch out into portable media players as part of its growing interest in the music industry, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.
"It's possible," DeWolfe said when asked about such a MySpace product release.
MySpace has already begun offering a music service in which its clients can buy and share songs, the British newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, the founder of rival social networking site Facebook detailed his plan for his online company.
"Growth is our top priority," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said. "The challenge that we have is to bring people along the whole path, first bring people along to Facebook, and make people comfortable with sharing online. We got people through this really big hurdle of wanting people to put up their full name, picture -- their mobile phone number in many cases."
