2009 October: Technology

2009 October: Technology

Anchor: Base Index
Other months: September November
Other areas: Business climate computing education health international Internet science social Others

Topics: Agriculture airlines architecture barcodes cars communication disabilities energy freight fuel general history horticulture identification innovation manufacturing martial medical mobile phones music nanotechnology patents planes power roads shipping social space television town planning transport video

Agriculture

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Sarah-Jane Collins, Sterile flies to deal with Queensland invaders, The Age, 2009 Oct. 20 (more than 900,000 bright pink sterile fruit flies were released in Melbourne yesterday in a bid to stop the spread of Queensland fruit flies in the inner city)
Philip Hopkins, Indian investors back oil venture, The Age, 2009 Oct. 19 (Indian investors, with US backing, have embarked on a multimillion agribusiness venture in NSW that aims to become a big oilseed processor and exporter, and eventually produce biofuel)
Peter Ker, Watery eyes on Shepparton, The Age, 2009 Oct. 5 (as the world's most populous nation contends with severe drought and water shortages, technology from northern Victoria could soon be part of Chinese efforts to make every drop go further)
Denis Gregory, Rare bee skills not enough to earn visa, The Age, 2009 Oct. 4 (a Chinese apiarist who has developed a successful market for unique bee products from Australian eucalypts may have to leave the country because his work is not considered internationally recognised)

Architecture and Town Planning

(see also in Social)

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Marika Dobbin, Baling out of traditional materials, The Age, 2009 Oct. 17 (an event on new building materials and methods that are said to be quicker, cheaper and greener than traditional construction)
Telegraph, The 'worst building in the world' rises again, The Age, 2009 Oct. 17 (sitting empty and unfinished, the Ryugyong Hotel is regarded as an example of communist folly; it has variously been called “the hotel of doom” and “the worst building in the world”)
Laura Sheeter, Sentient cities may answer back, BBC, 2009 Oct. 16 (rubbish bins that reject certain types of rubbish and benches that tip people off are among projects for future living)
Clay Lucas, Million boost to city off the rails, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (the Transport Department and Melbourne City Council's urban design director, Rob Adams, have been promoting the idea of building more apartments along existing tram and bus routes; they say this could squeeze in at least a million more people without expanding the city's boundaries; but a report published in Monash University's People and Place journal warns that building apartments along tram routes would result in chaos on Melbourne's roads)
Giancarlo Rinaldi, Sheep help retain farmhouse heat, BBC, 2009 Oct. 9 (it is highly unusual for anyone to welcome being "fleeced" during the building of their new home)
Jason Dowling, City an 'obese parody', The Age, 2009 Oct. 7 (Federal Labor MP Kelvin Thomson has savaged the Victorian Government's handling of urban planning in a blistering newsletter to constituents)
Marika Dobbin, On the takeaway menu soon: high-rise flats, The Age, 2009 Oct. 6 (Melbourne developer Jack Haber is poised to ship almost 100 ready-made apartments—complete with kitchen appliances, built-in wardrobes, carpets and fresh paint—from a factory in China to be stacked together for a revolutionary Northcote project)
Kate Lahey, War: car park v refuge for women, The Age, 2009 Oct. 5 (Bentleigh residents are fighting plans to build a block of social housing units for women fleeing domestic violence or at risk of becoming homeless, arguing the project will rob them of parking spaces)
Jessica Donai, Illegal buildings blamed for Sicily's deadly mudslide, The Age, 2009 Oct. 4 (poor drainage caused by illegal construction was blamed for mudslides that killed at least 20 people in eastern Sicily on Friday, with dozens missing and hundreds more injured; the head of the Italian Civil Protection Service, Guido Bertolaso, directly blamed the construction of houses without permits—a practice rampant in Sicily and around Italy—for the deaths)
Royce Millar, Report blasts San Remo development plan, The Age, 2009 Oct. 3 (a contentious plan to triple the size of San Remo near Phillip Island by redrawing town boundaries and developing the neighbouring clifftops is in tatters after an independent planning panel warned the scheme could result in a planning “blight”)

Communication

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Malcolm Maiden, Telstra trying to postpone the inevitable, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (stripped down to its undies, compensation is what the submission Telstra filed with the Senate standing committee yesterday is about)
Ari Sharp, Conroy says win-win possible, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (Telstra has savaged the Government's plan to split it in two, arguing the proposal will reduce competition, harm consumers, destroy shareholder value and make it difficult for the government to achieve its $43 billion national broadband network)
Dan Oakes, NBN Co sparking into action, The Age, 2009 Oct. 7 (the national broadband network company has exploded into action in the past month, hiring dozens of employees and beginning talks with the consumer watchdog over proposed wholesale pricing for the $43 billion network)

Disabilities

(see also in Health)

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Freight and Shipping

(see also Planes and Transport)

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Leonie Wood, Surprise talks revealed in BHP railway tribunal, The Age, 2009 Oct. 12 (Fortescue, considered by its much bigger rivals BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto as little more than an upstart iron ore producer with big dreams, is trying to gain access to four rail lines in the Pilbara)

General

(see also in Science)

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Identification and Barcodes

(see also in Computing and Social)

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'Phishing' raids in US and Egypt, BBC, 2009 Oct. 7 (police in the US and in Egypt arrest dozens of people accused of links to an alleged identity theft ring targeting US banks)

Martial

(see also in Social)

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Jonathan Pearlman, Gamers wage real war in virtual world, The Age, 2009 Oct. 8 (unlike the US Army, the free online game America's Army has no age or gender limit for its soldiers, who can come from any country and kill from their bedrooms; gamers take on the roles of real-life American war heroes and replay their heroic exploits across Iraq and Afghanistan)

Medical

(see also in Health)

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Nick Miller, Diagnosis to rock the world of mental health, The Age, 2009 Oct. 15 (mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia could soon be diagnosed by plugging an electrode into a patient's ear and rocking them around on a chair)

Mobile Phones

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Battle of the smartphones begins, BBC, 2009 Oct. 15 (smartphones are going mass market, fuelled by the public's "insatiable appetite" for social media, analysts say)
Stephen Cauchi, Watchdog swamped by phone complaints, The Age, 2009 Oct. 4 (consumers are making up to 350 complaints a day to authorities about the high cost of owning new generation smartphones in a phenomenon known as “bill shock”; the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, Deirdre O'Donnell, said customers, confused by caps on downloading emails and data, were being hit with exorbitant charges)
Jane Sullivan, Now screening: a digital book for you, The Age, 2009 Oct. 3 (millions read books on a variety of "twitchy little screens": laptops, e-books, iPods or iPhones; and from October 12, Age readers will be able to read a serialised story on their mobile phones)

Music

(see also in Business and Internet)

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Nanotechnology

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Patents and Innovation

(see also in Business and Computing)

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Barry Park, No backing for electric sports car, The Age, 2009 Oct. 14 (a boutique car maker has hit out at the Federal Government's lack of support for small business after it was refused help to develop Australia's first all-electric production sports coupe)
Tiny 'nuclear batteries' unveiled, BBC, 2009 Oct. 8 (a team of researchers in the US has demonstrated a penny-sized battery powered by the decay of radioactive isotopes)
Children draw own visions of 2020, BBC, 2009 Oct. 7 (labour-saving devices, magic pens and chef robots are among designs for a project asking children to predict future)

Planes and Airlines

(see also Freight and Transport)

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Ari Sharp, Speed-up call for air traffic control, The Age, 2009 Oct. 7 (Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is pressuring the Government to speed up the introduction of a new air traffic control scheme after a recent trial found it reduced flying times, curbed noise and cut carbon emissions)

Power

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Carbon capture plant backed by EU, BBC, 2009 Oct. 16 (the European Commission have backed plans for a carbon capture power station in South Yorkshire)
Adam Morton and Royce Millar, Brumby warned of power shortage, The Age, 2009 Oct. 16 (Victoria could face widespread power disruptions due to the closure of two of its four brown coal power stations in the next decade as Australia reduces its greenhouse gas emissions, according to high-level advice before the State Government; the scenario, one of several possibilities outlined in confidential cabinet documents obtained by The Age, is consistent with a campaign by power generators to win more compensation under the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme)
Ian Munro and Geoff Strong, Australians warm to nuclear power, The Age, 2009 Oct. 13 (Australians are warming to the idea of nuclear power, with almost one in two saying it should be considered as an alternative source of energy to help combat global warming)
Paddy Manning, With green power comes great responsibility, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (Dr David Mills has no doubt wind and solar can power Australia as well as the USA, even though we have a smaller population (concentrated on the coast, where cloud increases) and fewer generators and wind speeds here are lower than in the US)
Barry FitzGerald, BHP keeps eye on the Congo, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (BHP to consider building an 800,000 tonnes-a-year aluminium smelter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the Congo River is said to be the world's largest underutilised source of hydro power)
Tom Arup, Solar panel users hit with higher power bills, The Age, 2009 Oct. 8 (having solar panels has cost some Victorian households more on their power bills after they lost entitlements to cheaper rates because an electricity company has installed different meters without notice)
Paddy Manning, Ceramic Fuel Cells opens German factory, The Age, 2009 Oct. 5 (ASX-listed alternative energy company Ceramic Fuel Cells opened its factory in Germany on Friday, and will begin making its Bluegen solid oxide fuel cell units there; if it gets final safety approvals in February, the company hopes to sell the units for Australian homes from early next year)

Roads and Cars

(see also Transport and its links)

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Reid Sexton, Safety rethink as pedestrian toll stays high, The Age, 2009 Oct. 11 (with pedestrian deaths now accounting for almost 14 per cent of all road deaths—up from 8.3 per cent in 2003, road safety experts and police are calling for a review of speed limits and an urgent pedestrian education campaign)
Julia Medew, Crash risk for nurses, The Age, 2009 Oct. 9 (nurses and other shift workers should be driven to and from work to prevent them from crashing their cars while extremely fatigued, an expert says)
Clay Lucas, Developers' lobby 'shifted' freeway route, The Age, 2009 Oct. 5 (a new ring road planned around outer Melbourne was shifted almost two kilometres west after lobbying by property developers; as a result, grasslands that environment groups say are critical to the survival of key species—and that would have been partially saved under the Brumby Government's original plan—are set to be lost to make way for housing; the Government has rejected suggestions it acted in the interests of property developers, but would not make public the grasslands research upon which its decision was based)

Social

(see also in Internet)

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Space

(see also in Science)

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Jonathan Amos, Europe's Mars plans move forward, BBC, 2009 Oct. 12 (European states agree in principle to a re-shaping of their plans to explore Mars)
Richard Alleyne, Kate Devlin, Rocket hits lunar target: viewers miss spectacle, The Age, 2009 Oct. 11 (a plume of dust and rock 10 kilometres high had been forecast, but, in the end, people watching the crash on television or online saw little evidence of an impact)
'Space clown' hosts global show, BBC, 2009 Oct. 10 (circus entrepreneur Guy Laliberte hosts a global water-awareness performance from on board the International Space Station)
Paul Rincon, Nasa team scours Moon crash data, BBC, 2009 Oct. 9 (Nasa scientists outline preliminary results after crashing two spacecraft into the Moon in a bid to detect water-ice)
——, US spacecraft set for Moon crash, BBC, 2009 Oct. 9 (Nasa is set to crash two unmanned spacecraft into the Moon in a bid to detect the presence of water-ice)
Anatoly Zak, Russia plots return to Venus, BBC, 2009 Oct. 7 (densely clouded in acid-laden mist, Venus used to be the Soviet Union's favourite target for planetary exploration)

Television and Video

(see also in Business)

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Transport

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Clay Lucas, Myki users overcharged, The Age, 2009 Oct. 22 (in the most recent case of overcharging, 47 bus travellers in Seymour were overcharged last week after a computer error; the public relations consultant employed by the Government to be the public face of myki, Jean Ker Walsh, said that a software glitch had caused the overcharging)
Clay Lucas, Commuters face penalty fare of $4.96, The Age, 2009 Oct. 21 (the new myki smartcard will charge passengers who forget to scan their ticket when leaving their train, tram or bus a penalty fare of $4.96, the State Government has revealed)
——, Peak-hour crush puts heat on trams, The Age, 2009 Oct. 21 (the crush on peak-hour trams has become more extreme on the city's busiest routes, with dozens more passengers than the Government's own load limits stipulate cramming on to services each weekday morning)
Clay Lucas and Ben Schneiders, Built to last, The Age, 2009 Oct. 15 (a Government contract to build 50 trams, worth hundreds of millions, may revitalise part of Victoria's manufacturing industry)
Clay Lucas, Crowding on regional lines, The Age, 2009 Oct. 12 (a record 12 million travellers have taken Victorian regional rail services in the past year, as drivers left the car at home and piled on to trains - creating overcrowding problems on the most popular routes)
——, Transport consultants scoop $47m, The Age, 2009 Oct. 12 (as Melbourne's public transport network creaks towards another punishing summer, evidence has emerged of where money that could be spent renewing the train and tram fleet is going: on consultants)
Clay Lucas, Million boost to city off the rails, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (the Transport Department and Melbourne City Council's urban design director, Rob Adams, have been promoting the idea of building more apartments along existing tram and bus routes; they say this could squeeze in at least a million more people without expanding the city's boundaries; but a report published in Monash University's People and Place journal warns that building apartments along tram routes would result in chaos on Melbourne's roads)
——, City 'lost control' of train network, The Age, 2009 Oct. 10 (Melbourne “lost control” of its train system during that heatwave, according to a report for the State Government obtained by The Age under freedom of information; a dispute with rail unions, and breakdowns during a scorching January, caused 85 per cent of afternoon rush-hour trains to be cancelled in one three-day period, the report found)