Technology

Russian Nuclear Industry to Conquer Country of Pyramids

Russia is ready to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt at its own expense, to manage the plant, and even find markets for the electricity. Early next year Egypt is expected to announce a tender for the construction of nuclear power plant with the capacity of 1 GW 150 km from Alexandria. Russia’s Rosatom will participate in the tender.

A meeting of Russian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission on trade, economic and scientific-technical cooperation was held on Monday. From the Russian side it was chaired by the Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko. (more…)

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Global Rivers Emit Three Times IPCC Estimates of Greenhouse Gas Nitrous Oxide

*Waterways receiving nitrogen from human activities are significant source*

What goes in must come out, a truism that now may be applied to global river networks.

Human-caused nitrogen loading to river networks is a potentially important source of nitrous oxide emission to the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and stratospheric ozone destruction. (more…)

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Windows Phone 7 Sales Off to a Promising Start, First Step in a New Era of Mobile

*Achim Berg, Microsoft’s vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones, discusses the momentum, strengths and challenges of the company’s newly launched Windows Phone 7.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Dec. 21, 2010 – There is one phrase that Achim Berg uses repeatedly to describe the new Windows Phone 7.

“It’s a different kind of phone, fast and easy,” says Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones. It’s a sentence he relates with enthusiasm daily, whether he’s giving a Windows Phone 7 demonstration to a large crowd, or showing off his phone to someone he’s just met. (more…)

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Amazon.ca Closes the Holiday Shopping Season with Exciting Boxing Week Deals

*Beginning Dec. 25, customers can take advantage of a week’s worth of amazing deals*

SEATTLE, Dec 21, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.ca today announced that beginning Dec. 25, customers can take advantage of amazing Boxing Week promotions on everything from electronics and books to home and garden products and men’s watches. Beginning on Christmas Day, customers can explore The Deals Store (www.amazon.ca/deals) to find the full list of Boxing Week special promotions. Customers are encouraged to shop early as these offers are only available while supplies last. (more…)

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Meteorite Just one Piece of an Unknown Celestial Body

Image credit: Carnegie Institution for Science

Washington, D.C.

— Scientists from all over the world are taking a second, more expansive, look at the car-sized asteroid that exploded over Sudan’s Nubian Desert in 2008. Initial research was focused on classifying the meteorite fragments that were collected two to five months after they were strewn across the desert and tracked by NASA’s Near Earth Object astronomical network.

Now in a series of 20 papers for a special double issue of the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, published on December 15, researchers have expanded their work to demonstrate the diversity of these fragments, with major implications for the meteorite’s origin. (more…)

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Free Shipping Day Punctuates Heaviest Week of U.S. Online Spending in History as Four Individual Days Eclipse $900 Million

*Cyber Monday, Which Remains Only Billion Dollar Day on Record , Likely to Become Heaviest Spending Day of the Year for First Time*  

RESTON, VA, December 19, 2010 – comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 47 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $27.46 billion has been spent online, marking a 12-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week (week ending Dec. 17) reached $5.15 billion in spending, an increase of 14 percent versus the corresponding week last year, with four individual days surpassing $900 million, led by Green Monday (Monday, December 13) with $954 million and Free Shipping Day (Friday, December 17) with $942 million. Free Shipping Day achieved a 61-percent increase versus the corresponding shopping day last year, highlighting the appeal and success of the promotion in which more than 1,500 merchants offered free shipping. (more…)

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Study Shows Wind Turbines on Farmlands May Benefit Crops

Wind turbines in Midwestern farm fields may be doing more than churning out electricity. The giant turbine blades that generate renewable energy might also help corn and soybean crops stay cooler and drier, help them fend off fungal infestations and improve their ability to extract growth-enhancing carbon dioxide from the air and soil. (more…)

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