[H]ardNews 7th Edition - Blair's Ed

Military Playing Video Games:

If the U.S. plans to attack Iraq at some point in the near future, as has been speculated, the Pentagon might want to give advance notice to submarine commanders -- they may be busy playing video games. The Interactive Digital Software Association, a trade group representing the major game publishers, said on Tuesday it has worked with its members to equip all 72 submarines in the U.S. fleet with a game console and about 20 games each.

Bad Copper Interconnects:

Yield and reliability issues threaten the touted dual-damascene copper interconnect structures of leading 130-nanometer processes, having caused both poor yields at wafer sort and unacceptable failure rates over the life of apparently good chips, according to a wide range of industry sources. Some of the mechanisms leading to those problems can be controlled by an unprecedented level of attention to processing steps, and leading foundries have demonstrated such devotion to detail in recent months. But other problems are inherent in the structure of the new interconnect stacks and can be addressed only by design rule changes and by changes in design practice, some reaching clear back to the architectural levels of design.

Unnatural optics:

Optical experiments using arrays of nanowires are demonstrating that the concept of a negative refractive index could be realized in practical systems. The work, done at Purdue University, attempts to reproduce results similar to those shown last year at the University of California at San Diego using microwave radiation. A negative refractive index, which is not found in nature, would allow scientists to construct new types of microscopes with unprecedented resolution and could allow the creation of novel photonic devices.

Bear-y Bad:

A 38-year-old man was in fair condition Monday after a grizzly bear attacked a group of animal rights activists hiking eight miles northwest of here. The victim, who was not identified, and three other members of Buffalo Field Campaign surprised a grizzly sow and two cubs Sunday afternoon. "He got his face mangled," said Ball. "He had two puncture wounds on his knee and two on his right-hand side below the kidney."