Nintendo has announced that it will ship 4 million Wii consoles by the end of the year versus Sony’s announcement of only 2 million units of PlayStation 3.
Ubisoft has a lot riding on Wii. The French publisher is poised to take the lion’s share of third-party software sales when they ship eight Wii games this [...]

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Artist illustration of Eris and Dysnomia. Image credit: IAU
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Provisionally designated 2003 UB313, and nicknamed Xena by its discoverers, this newly discovered dwarf planet has been officially named Eris by the International Astronomical Union. The name was proposed by Mike Brown, a member of the team that made its discovery, and the name was accepted by the committee. In Greek lore, Eris is the goddess of discord and strife. Its moon has been named Dysnomia, the Daimon spirit of lawlessness.

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New solar panels. Image credit: NASA
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The International Space Station got a lot bigger today when it spread out its newly installed solar panel arrays. NASA mission controllers sent commands up instructing the station to open the first panel, and then the second, spanning a total of 73 metres (240 feet). The STS-115 astronauts will have one final spacewalk on Friday; Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper will spend 6.5 hours outside the station working on a variety of tasks. The Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to depart from the station on Sunday, and land on Wednesday.

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Secrets of the Old One
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Imagine that poor, uninformed Neanderthal man who didn’t know to rub two sticks together to make fire. Then compare him to today’s Homo Sapiens who know this secret. Seems like a great disparity. However, though people today know this secret, few have tried it and fewer still know the best wood, twine and grass. The same awareness can be said for the field of physics. Most know of its secrets, some use this knowledge but fewer are experts on the details. Jeremy Bernstein, in his book ‘Secrets of the Old One - Einstein, 1905′ gives an excellent recount of secrets learned by experts over a century ago. Reading it will give a great assist to those wanting to be more informed.

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Astro image: The Iris Nebula Photo by Tom Davis
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Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to have 400 billion stars, give or take 200 billion, but less than 6,000 (also an estimate) are visible from dark locations without telescopic aide- and only part of this number can be seen during any single night. Some are dim but close, others are bright but remote and many are partially hidden behind veils of dust so their splendor only hints at their distance. Therefore, the placement of the stars and their brilliance in the sky creates a completely random distribution of bright pinpoints overhead that people have, nonetheless, grouped into familiar patterns called constellations. This affinity for recognizing or imagining designs also extends to the objects in space that can only be seen through telescopes or in photos with long exposures such as this article’s featured picture that, many believe, resembles a flower.

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Pluto, seen from one of its moons. Image credit: NASA/JPL
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Pluto. It’s a planet, then it’s not. This week we review Pluto’s history, from discovery to demotion by the International Astronomical Union. Learn the 3 characteristics that make up a planet, and why Pluto now fails to make the grade.

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Expanding its highly popular portfolio of folding mobile phones, Nokia today introduced the new Nokia 6085 camera phone at an affordable price. The Nokia 6085 emphasizes ease-of-use, up to date technology and enduring design to create a straightforward, familiar phone. With an estimated retail price of 175 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies, the quadband Nokia [...]

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