Bill Gates Building Nuke Plant for China!

What do you do when you've run out of things to spend money on, and everyone already uses your software? How about developing a nuclear plant with China? Sure! Bill Gates is doing just that, the AP reports. For science?

Although Gates says his baby nuclear energy company, TerraPower, is having "very good discussions" with China regarding the plant, the fact that he's throwing in a billion dollars over 5 years sounds like more than talk. The plant, however, will be a "Generation IV" reactor, which for now exists only on paper—and the tech isn't expected to start materializing until for at least a decade. Gen IV cores are expected to be safer, more efficient, create less waste that fades earlier, and essentially address every possible criticism about nuclear power. Again, on paper.

So why China, Bill? Their society is far more open to nuclear power than ours, especially post-Fukushima. But it's also probably easier to use some remote Chinese backwater as a testbed for an untested form of nuclear energy. When Gates says, with quintessential hubris, that "[the reactor will] require no human action to remain safe at all times," you have every reason to raise an eyebrow. The international forum behind Gen IV nuclear says it's "developing safety design criteria for Generation IV nuclear power plants that reflect
lessons learned from Fukushima." Stripping human oversight from a nuclear reactor doesn't sound like a lesson learned. [CBS]

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The Robot Carer

Many researchers in the US are working to give robots the ability to learn about their environment without the aid of the humans that built them.

Already a robotic pet has been developed which can be fed information about the terrain in front of it by a circle of cameras.

It is not pre-programmed for the task - but makes its own decisions instantly about which route to take.

Once robots can learn they could find a role in many diverse fields.

Japan, for example, hopes to use humanoids as caregivers for an increasingly elderly population.

Alternatively miniature robots might one day crawl through our intestines looking for and fixing medical problems.

One learning robot project at MIT is an ornithopter that has a computer on board. Every time it flies it learns how to fly better. One day this may be the perfect surveillance or search tool.

The Ornithopter

The computer driven ornithopter learns from expereince

MIT PhD student John Roberts said: "There is a lot of computational power which is important because some of the learning algorithms can be relatively intensive.

"We have a number of sensors here that are able to measure the rate it's spinning, the accelerations it is experiencing."

Better batteries, smaller chips and more computing power are helping the project get closer to its ultimate goal which is for the robot bird to mimic the endurance, manoeuvrability and speed of a living creature.

These are the challenges that generations of students and professors at MIT have tackled.

Thousands of hours of painstaking research, hundreds of tiny scientific steps forward slowly creeping in the right direction until eventually, for a lucky few the eureka moment arrives.

Apple reveal updated iPhone 3GS, (Tech, news, report, repair, unlock, Auckland) David Lim

In San Francisco on Monday, Apple unveiled what it calls the "fastest, most powerful iPhone yet" - t

he 3GS. So how does it compare to previous versions?

Some critics say the new incarnation isn't anything that wasn't expected.

They argue that for many iPhone users, the new model may simply do things they expected the original one to be capable of.

It has more speed, more storage, better battery life and a better camera that can record video.

The new model will also be able to send picture messages, allow copy and pasting of text and a full search capability.

Apple is promising the new model will be up to two times faster than the iPhone 3G, and users will be able to take higher resolution photos and capture video using the new 3 megapixel camera.

Video function

But once Apple's marketing boss Phil Schiller had got round to announcing the new iPhone's built-in compass, the audience in California had realised this was not a day that would change the mobile phone market very much.

For many users, the decision whether to buy an iPhone 3GS will come down to its price, regardless of how many new features it has.

Apple has not yet given details of how much the handset will cost in the UK.

In the US it is priced at $199 (£125) for the 16GB model, $299 (£187) for 32GB.

Other tweaks which set the iPhone 3GS apart from previous models include up to 32GB of storage, but that's only the same as the biggest iPod Touch.

Apple said it has sold more than 40m iPhones and iPod Touch devices, but the company is facing competition.

Palm will soon be releasing the new Pre phone in the UK, launched on the 02 network.

Whilst it has not generated as much hype as the iPhone, it has proved popular in the US and is seen as a big rival to Apple's product.

The new iPhone 3GS will be available in the UK from 19 June, 2009.

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Painful and Long Term: Needle removed from bum - after 31 years

A Chinese pensioner can finally sit in comfort after doctors removed a broken syringe needle which had been stuck in his bottom for 31 years.
Lao Du, 55, of Zhengzhou, said the needle was left in his rear by an 'amateurish' doctor in 1978, reports the Zhongyuan Network.

"I got a cold and went to see an amateurish doctor in my hometown village, but the needle broke off once it pierced my bum," he said.

"I was sent to a provincial hospital immediately. After being hospitalised for nine days, doctors checked me but failed to find the broken needle."

Lao Du said he always believed the broken needle was still in his bottom and four or five years ago he began to feel sharp pains regularly in his rear.

"Even walking has become a suffering to me," he said.

"I sought help from too many hospitals but none of them dared to do the surgery for me as they are not quite sure if they can find a tiny broken needle from 31 years ago."

Du tried his luck one last time at the Zhengzhou People's Hospital where doctors agreed to try to find the broken needle.

Chief surgeon Fu Konglong, who finally found the needle tip after three hours of surgery, said: "It was very detailed work. We had to look for it in every muscle fibre."

Seeking a passport to a new life (China, Chinese, Passport, Citizenship, Migration)

By Jennifer Pak BBC News, Beijing

Many Chinese people were outraged by Gong Li's decision
One of China's most famous actresses has been accused of being unpatriotic after becoming a Singaporean citizen.

Some say Gong Li, star of the film Memoirs of a Geisha, has turned her back on her Chinese fans.
But the actress is not the only Chinese citizen to seek another country's passport.
They do it for convenience, to improve job prospects and as a safety net.
Despite China's increasing economic and political power, a Chinese passport is still seen as restrictive by many of its citizens.

Gong Li, whose husband is from Singapore, is just one of many film stars who have given up their Chinese passport.

According to news reports, Hong Kong film star Jet Li holds US citizenship. And Zhang Ziyi, the star of kung fu movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, holds a Hong Kong residency card.

Gong Li's passport switch led to a commentary in the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper.
"We should think about why our laws, our system and cultural society have churned out so many of these so-called 'super citizens', people who live in China but their hearts are set on being a citizen in another country," it said.

'Still Chinese'

Kong Ting, who was born in China but is now a US citizen, is not surprised that Gong Li switched to a Singaporean passport.

I feel safer when I come back to China and I say certain things that the Chinese government doesn't like Kong Ting"A lot of times when Chinese do things it's for practical reasons, to make life easier and for more financial gain," she said Ms Kong, 36, has lived in the US for 15 years, and became an American citizen two years ago to make travelling to other countries easier. "I don't think getting a US citizenship makes me feel any less Chinese," she said.

With the exception of a few dozen south-east Asian and African countries, Chinese passport holders need to apply for visas in advance to go abroad which are sometimes difficult to get.
Most ordinary Chinese can only go abroad by joining tour groups, sometimes at very high costs.
Some tour companies reportedly charge up to 50,000 yuan ($7,300:£4,880) as a deposit to go to Japan.

This acts as a deterrent for people who are thinking of not returning to China after the trip.
Another reason Ms Kong wanted an American passport was for security reasons.
"Maybe I feel safer when I come back to China and I say certain things that the Chinese government doesn't like," she said. "They can't really hold it against me."

Tax reasons

Wu Hao, from Sichuan Province, has studied and worked in the US, and soon hopes to get his hands on a US passport.

A new passport can bring new freedoms for former Chinese citizensHe said as a student, getting a US passport was the ultimate goal in life.

"For my generation and older, we wanted a foreign passport so bad," said the 36-year-old.
"We grew up in an environment when China was not secure, when things changed so fast in China. Everyone just wanted to get out as soon as we could back in those days," he said.
Mr Wu moved back to China four years ago.

He will be eligible for an American passport in a few years time, but a small part of him hesitates about trading in his Chinese passport.

"I wonder if I really want to abandon my Chinese identity. I don't know," he added.
Mr Wu said many of his friends are much more practical about citizenship.
"I have a friend who recently gave up his American green card status in order not to pay US tax," said Mr Wu.

"A lot of Chinese friends I know who make a decent or relatively high salary in China, they're considering alternatives, trying to evade tax," he said.

Mr Wu said people who were outraged by Gong Li's switch to Singaporean citizenship are blowing it out of proportion. "If they got the chance [to get a foreign passport] they would immediately jump on it."