Disclaimer: Despite the title above, I don’t know of any relationship between these two stories.
| California farms, vineyards in peril from warming, US energy secretary warns
California’s farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday. In his first interview since taking office last month, the Nobel-prize-winning physicist offered some of the starkest comments yet on how seriously President Obama’s cabinet views the threat of climate change, along with a detailed assessment of the administration’s plans to combat it. |
Whoa! And woe! This is coming from a physicist. And one that won a Nobel Prize at that. Pretty impressive.
Five paragraphs later, though, this: “Chu is not a climate scientist. He won his Nobel for work trapping atoms with laser light.”
Oh.
So what about Google? Well, this:
| Google Offers “Latitude” to Track People
Google is releasing free software Wednesday that enables people to keep track of each other using their cell phones. CNET got a sneak peek at it, and CNET-TV Senior Editor and The Early ShowNatali Del Conte explained how it works on the show Tuesday. She says “Latitude” uses GPS systems and what’s called cell tower triangulation to do the job. The software seeks the closest three cell towers and, with GPS, combines the data to show where someone is. It is designed to work on any phone with Internet capabilities, except the iPhone. “Latitude” is being marketed as a tool that could help parents keep tabs on their children’s locations, but it can be used for anyone to find anyone else, assuming permission is given. |
What’s the history and rationale behind their name choice for this new “tool”?