Titan could have ... well, Titanic surf. It's hoped that ESA's Huygens probe will have an ocean landing when it parachutes into Titan's atmosphere in 2005.
Intel plans (again) to stop designating CPU speeds in GHz. Whether this attempt will be any more successful than their last remains to be seen. Intel says it's intended to clarify speed ratings for buyers, but my guess is it'll succeed only in obfuscating them.
A University of Leicester astronomer says the retirement of the Hubble Space Telescope will be a severe blow to ultraviolet astronomy, and is calling for its replacement with a World Space Observatory. The WSO, according to Prof. Barstow, could be designed, built and launched in about five years.
Meanwhile, Soviet RORSAT nuclear-powered radar-mapping satellites, designed to eject their reactor cores into high orbit at the end of their useful life, have been creating an orbital debris hazard by spewing thousands of droplets of sodium-potassium reactor coolant into space, some drops as large as 2 to 3 inches. The leaked coolant is "the most significant impact hazard for spacecraft operating at [around 560-mile] altitudes."
Speaking of radar, the Pentagon has announced a plan to sell 1.8 billion dollars' worth of advanced defensive early-warning radars to Taiwan. China is, naturally, expected to take a dim view of the deal. (Personally, I say China can take its dim view, fold it until it's all sharp corners, and shove it up its ass sideways.)
Also down on earth, algal blooms are creating deoxygenated "dead zones" in the oceans, creating an increasing threat to already-struggling fisheries. The United Nations Environmental Program has concluded that in the 21st century, oxygen depleted zones will surpass overfishing as the primary threat to ocean life.
Results from a major new statistical study at the University of North Carolina and the Harvard School of Business show that Internet music sharing does not hurt CD sales, and in some cases actually increases sales. The RIAA can of course be expected to heap derision on the result, because their sales decline couldn't possibly be caused by too much of what they're trying to sell being complete crap.
And in the News of the Weird category, UCSF is trying to form a "flash mob supercomputer". Oooooooookay, whatever you say. To beat the slowest supercomputer on the top 500 supercomputer list (the project's goal), the motley crew must collectively muster 403 gigaFLOPs on Linpack.
