By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

A FILIPINO engineer who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and her former civil engineering professor have devised a new and potentially effective mapping system of landslide perils of mountainous areas in the Philippines.

The landslide hazard mapping system determines an area’s landslide risks that could be used to improve building codes, zoning policies and disaster mitigation processes in a country that is hit by powerful yearly typhoons.

MIT Civil Engineer Professor Herbert Einstein and his former student Filipina Artessa Saldivar-Sali developed the new system with the northern mountain city of Baguio being its first test subject particularly due to its location and high level of precipitation.

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HAVE you always wanted to build your own robots? Well, now you can take a crack at it.

A professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University wants to start a do-it-yourself revolution by offering open source hardware that would allow people to create their own robots using standard parts that you buy from hardware stores.

Here’s an excerpt from the Scientific American story:

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NOPE, we’re not talking about Spider- Man foe The Rhino, who has yet to make it to the big screen, but about the rare Sumatran rhino.

Here’s an excerpt from the Agence France-Presse story:

KUALA LUMPUR–One of the world’s most endangered animals, the Sumatran rhinoceros, has been filmed in the wild for the first time in a coup that could help save it from extinction, wildlife campaigners said Tuesday.