Graphene helps create artificial muscle that acts like the real thing
One of the problems facing the development of more realistic/natural acting robots is the ability to create artificial muscles that mimic all aspects of the real thing. Research currently being carried out at Nankai University has just taken a big step closer to achieving that. Read more...
Internet talks about ‘Occupy Wall Street,’ media listens
First proposed by anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters earlier this year, the Occupy Wall Street movement started gaining notable Internet "buzz" on Sept. 10, NM Incite reports. Much to the consternation of many following the movement, however, it took mainstream media almost a month to start paying attention. When Web traffic suddenly shot up on Thursday, Oct. 6, the world couldn't help but notice.
That's the day when police arrested a mass of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, and videos of officers pepper-spraying citizens went viral. Not long after, the media followed suit. These are the findings of Web analytics company NM Incite and Think Progress, a progressive ideas and policies blog.
Tracking "Occupy Wall Street" in blogs, boards, groups, videos and images, NM Incite registered a drastic spike on Oct. 6, with 13,133 messages across Internet forums on that day. As the chart below reveals, a comparable spike occurred on the following Monday, Oct. 10, accompanying news that GOP candidate Buddy Roemer and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream stated support for the movement. Read more...
Oracle rigs MySQL for NoSQL-like access
Speculation has been running rampant that Oracle may introduce its own NoSQL database at the OpenWorld conference, to be held next week in San Francisco.
While Oracle thus far has been quiet about the rise of the NoSQL database movement over the past few years, its developers have been at work devising ways to bring NoSQL-like speed and flexibility to its MySQL open-source database.
For OpenWorld, Oracle has scheduled a number of sessions and demonstrations (PDF) devoted to something called the Oracle NoSQL Database. The work that the company has done thus far to equip MySQL with NonSQL functionality might provide a clue as to the nature of this new offering.
Oracle's work has focused on combining the responsiveness of NoSQL systems with the full range of options of SQL-based systems such as Oracle's own. Read more...