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This Trekkie is Happy
Just back from seeing the new Star Trek flick with the kids and some friends, I have to say that I was not disappointed. Or, as the other mom in our little group put it, “Hey! This is actually a good movie!” The kids, big fans of director JJ Abrams, tell me that [...]
05.08.09 -
Terminator Salvation’s Not for Wussies, Sam Worthington Says
BEVERLY HILLS, California — Sam Worthington, the Australian actor who plays mysterious Marcus in Terminator Salvation, talked tough Friday about taking on the physically challenging role in the upcoming killer robot flick. Pictured above in an exclusive image from the film, Worthington said he didn’t mind getting scuffed up in the course of the grueling shoots, [...]
05.08.09 -
Darker Skin Linked to Nicotine Dependence
Dark-skinned smokers may be at greater risk for nicotine addiction than their paler counterparts, a new study finds. Researchers found that in African Americans, darker skin — specifically that acquired by sun exposure, not genetics — is directly linked to smoking frequency and dependence. “African Americans are known to have a more difficult time quitting and suffer [...]
05.08.09 -
Air Marshals’ Secret Communication Weapon
If you’re a U.S. Air Marshal patrolling the friendly skies, you’ll want to communicate discreetly with fellow on-board marshals, airport ground crew, cockpit crew and flight attendants if you need to thwart an attack. You might also want to tap into the plane’s digital system to know where you are at any time, how far the [...]
05.08.09 -
Science Revises Civilization’s Creation Story
The Middle East, near where the Tigris meets the Euphrates, has long been considered the “cradle of civilization,” but a series of new studies indicate that Chinese river valleys represent a second spot for the emergence of agriculture. Genetic studies, using DNA from charred seeds gathered at the world’s first farms, are slowly rewriting the long-told [...]
05.08.09 -
Star Trek Blowback: Weigh In to Win Hefty Blu-ray Set
The long-awaited relaunch of the U.S.S. Enterprise blasts off this weekend as Star Trek goes global with a release sure to please Trekkies and newbies alike. Or is it? One of the best-reviewed movies of the year, Star Trek has blown critics away with vivid battle sequences, clever banter and strong acting (including Eric Bana’s portrayal [...]
05.08.09 -
Stickman Exodus Crew Sticks It to The Fuzz
Atom.com and Waverly Films won the hearts of the people and the pros with their raunchy, hilarious series Stickman Exodus, which nabbed two Webby Awards earlier this month. Now Waverly has been given the green light by Comedy Central to develop five webisodes for an Atom series called The Fuzz, which could hit prime time [...]
05.08.09 -
Colbert Bugs Out, Donates His Birthday
Hyper-real talking head Stephen Colbert loves himself so much that he wants everything in the world named after him. Thursday, he settled for a beetle with hairy balls. Entomologists Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller announced the naming of Agaporomorphus colberti in a birthday card to Colbert, who turns 45 on May 13. It’s a suitable gift for [...]
05.08.09 -
Could Wolfram|Alpha Sway Google Regulators?
News Analysis — Wolfram|Alpha, a company whose product you have never used, may turn out to be Google’s best friend. For those who haven’t heard yet, Wolfram|Alpha is a much-hyped, badly-named computational search engine that gives real answers to queries such as “internet users in Europe.” It pulls off the techie magic by using structured data [...]
05.08.09 -
Fallout 3’s ‘Broken Steel’ No Longer Broken
Though the PC version of Fallout 3’s “Broken Steel” add-on launched earlier this week with a number of issues, Xbox spokesman Major Nelson offers word that the DLC is now fixed and ready for your weekend gaming. “After receiving reports of errors with the Fallout 3 Game Add-on Broken Steel on Games for Windows – LIVE, [...]
05.08.09
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Hybrids Hit the Track
High performance hybrids is not an oxymoron, and budding automotive engineers from 30 universities gathered at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to prove it. The teams competed in the third annual Formula Hybrid International Competition last weekend and tore up the track in cars they’d spent months building for a race that places as much value on [...]
05.08.09 -
Gadget Musician Directs iPhone, DS Orchestra
I love it when musicians dork out with their gadgets, and the video above demonstrates you can still be a one-man act even with five devices — with the help of a Belkin Rockstar multi-headphone splitter. To create the catchy loop, this hardware DJ ran various music apps on a Nintendo DS, a DSi, an [...]
05.08.09 -
Vevo Watch: Music on Late Night Talk Shows Offers Promise, Complication
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs delivered an electrifying performance on Saturday Night Live last month. Yet despite widespread demand for this video, there’s not a single legitimate place where you can watch it online. NBC’s booming digital TV hub Hulu posted exclusive footage of the band hanging out with SNL’s Fred Armisen backstage, and NBC posted a few [...]
05.08.09 -
Asus EeePC Tablet Coming in May or June
Readers have been asking about the promised EeePC T91, an innovative convertible tablet netbook that Asus showed off in January at CES. Since then there’s been no word from Asus about the availability of what promised to be like a cool, low-cost portable with a touch-sensitive screen. Now there’s a report that the T91 will be [...]
05.08.09 -
Trekker’s Take: Illogical New Star Trek Warps Coherency
J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek is commonly described as appealing to “all audiences.” It’s supposed to be Trek for “the rest of us.” If that means the adventures of the Enterprise crew will now be dumbed down and play on screen with as many clunky plot points and pained coincidences as other studio movies, consider [...]
05.08.09 -
UC Berkeley Suffers Breach of Student Health Data
The University of California at Berkeley sent an e-mail to students on Friday disclosing that hackers had obtained access to secured databases belonging to the university’s health services. The databases contained information about current students and alumni as well as spouses of students and, in some cases, parents or guardians whose health insurance information was [...]
05.08.09 -
Dark Sector Creator Tapped for BioShock 2 Multiplayer
BioShock 2 publisher 2K Games is handing the reins of the game’s multiplayer mode to Dark Sector developer Digital Extremes, according to an announcement made Friday morning. Prior to Dark Sector, Digital Extremes collaborated with Epic Games on the Unreal Tournament series, offering fans of multiplayer gunfights good reason to be excited, despite the fears that [...]
05.08.09 -
I Have a Warm, Affirmative Feeling for anybody anywhere calling themselves "cool tools"
http://www.agriculture.com/ag/category.jhtml?categoryid=/templatedata/ag/category/data/1192590862956.xml&bcpid=18444453001&bclid=18465740001&bctid=22324154001 *Yeah man! Those babes are rockin' it over at SUCCESSFUL FARMER! Way to go with the bottlejack, Laurie and Amy!
05.08.09 -
iPhone App Assesses Your Hearing Loss
UHear is one of those iPhone apps you’ll probably use once and delete — but it’s worth trying anyway. It’s a sound app that features two tests and a questionnaire to evaluate your hearing performance. One test evaluates your hearing sensitivity by prompting you to tap a button whenever you hear tones, which are played at [...]
05.08.09 -
BioWare Unveils The Old Republic’s ‘Trooper’
Developer BioWare has unveiled the latest character class from its upcoming MMO The Old Republic, the Trooper. The game’s official website described the Trooper as “the most advanced fighting force in the galaxy,” saying “they are equipped to face any foe in any environment, but it’s not their gear that makes them tough—it’s their guts.” Though it [...]
05.08.09
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Artist Unveils Images from Duke Nukem Forever
The collapse of Duke Nukem Forever creator 3D Realms most likely killed the game permanently, which art director Tramell Isaac apparently sees as a great reason to show off his work on the title. Via his personal blog, Isaac has issued 8 images from the game. Most of the shots are simple environmental images, but Isaac’s [...]
05.08.09 -
Rumor: Guitar Hero TV Show, Concert Tour Planned
Driving home the point that publisher Activision Blizzard really knows how to exploit a franchise, Reuters claims the Guitar Hero games may be making the leap from gaming stalwart to television series and concert tour. Citing anonymous people familiar with the franchise discussions, Reuters also finds evidence in commentary from CEO Bobby Kotick. Speaking at an [...]
05.08.09 -
Batman: The Brave and the Bold Returns With Babes, She-Males
Its winter hibernation concluded, Cartoon Network’s lighthearted but somewhat subversive animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold returns with 13 new episodes starting Friday. The show returns with babes in tow, female and otherwise. Friday night’s uproarious “Night of the Huntress” debuts not just female costumed crime-fighters Huntress and Black Canary, but also Baby Face’s [...]
05.08.09 -
Why Your Baby’s Name Will Sound Like Everyone Else’s
Emma was the most popular baby girl name of 2008, the Social Security Administration announced today, supplanting Emily, which had held the slot for the past 12 years. Both names, though, reflect a much deeper and largely unnoticed naming trend, which has played out over decades. At the beginning of the last century, names beginning with [...]
05.08.09 -
Pokémon Gold, Silver Remakes Coming To Japan
Like its previous remakes of Pokémon Red and Green, Nintendo has revealed plans to remake Pokémon Gold and Silver for its DS handheld. The duo, which were originally released in 2000, will be renamed Pokémon Heart Gold and Pokémon Soul Silver. As with the remakes of Red and Green, the two games will receive updates to [...]
05.08.09 -
Hey Hack3rs. Check out what it's like to be a fed.
*The leaden ring of authenticity here. Yup, that's the anti-hacker daily grind. A lot more black money in it than there used to be, but running a computer-crime sting hasn't changed much in 20 years. *He pwned the freakin' server....
05.08.09 -
Iron Man Takes a Doughnut Break
Even superheroes dig doughnuts. In a series of 29 exclusive photos from On Location News, taken during a shoot for the Iron Man sequel, actor Robert Downey Jr. lounges in a Los Angeles doughnut shop sign and indulges in some sugary goodness, as seen in the screenshot above. Director Jon Favreau and Samuel L. Jackson, who [...]
05.08.09 -
Robotic Hand Handles Eggs, Runs On Compressed Air
It can’t arm wrestle yet, but a robotic hand developed by students at Virginia Tech is strong enough to lift a can of food and dexterous enough to handle a raw egg. It’s a big step for robotic hands, which have so far been hampered by lack of flexibility, forcing them to merely grab objects instead [...]
05.08.09 -
U.S.: Afghan Airstrike Killed About 30 Civilians (Updated)
American airstrikes killed dozens of civilians during a firefight in western Afghanistan this week, U.S. military investigators have concluded. The death toll — about 50 people, including at least 20 militants — makes the battle in Farah Province one of the bloodiest in recent years. But it’s far lower than initial reports, by the Red [...]
05.08.09 -
Darpa: Heat + Energy = Brains. Now Make Us Some.
The U.S. military’s premiere research agency is already trying to use math to predict human behavior and neuroscience to replicate a primate’s brain. The next step: Lean on the study of energy and heat to create an entirely new theory for how intelligence actually works. The idea behind Darpa’s latest venture, called “Physical Intelligence” (PI) [...]
05.08.09
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M. John Harrison Recommends Genuinely Interesting Science Fiction
*Maybe the best list of its kind I've ever seen. *And I've seen plenty. http://ambientehotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/02/some-interesting-science-fiction/
05.08.09 -
The Grid, Our Cars and the Net: One Idea to Link Them All
Editor’s note: Robin Chase thinks a lot about transportation and the internet, and how to link them. She connected them when she founded Zipcar, and she wants to do it again by making our electric grid and our cars smarter. Time magazine recently named her one of the 100 most influential people of the year. [...]
05.08.09 -
Spano Is Spanish For ‘Ferrari-Killer’
With the economy in the tank and the auto industry on the ropes, you’d think a startup supercar company, especially one building a car that costs $663,000, would wait until things improved before unveiling their exotic machinery. But no. Not GTA Motors. We aren’t complaining. The GTA Spano looks a lot like the Saleen S5S Raptor concept, [...]
05.08.09 -
Robot Chicken Crew to Launch Mecha Spoof Titan Maximum
Robot Chicken’s pop-culture vultures Tom Root, Matt Senreich and Seth Green are priming Adult Swim’s pump for a new stop-motion spoof called Titan Maximum, which is set to premiere in September. But this time, they’re shooting for character and story, instead of cheap gags and shock value. OK, who are we kidding? They’re shooting for all [...]
05.08.09 -
No Jail Time for Army Contractor in Revenge Killing
Don Ayala — the U.S. Army contractor who pleaded guilty to a revenge killing in Afghanistan — won’t be going to prison. Instead, U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton sentenced Ayala, a member of the Army’s Human Terrain social science project, to five years probation and a $12,500 fine. Ayala (pictured, left) began working in Afghanistan [...]
05.08.09 -
Spirit and Opportunity, Still Churning Away
http://planetary.org/news/2009/0430_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update_Spirit.html *Nice to have such a detailed, not to say geeky report on the continued doings of the gamest planetary rovers ever. These are two solar-powered computers-with-wheels, on a freezing, windy, dusty, alien planet, that have been rolling around there...
05.08.09 -
Honda’s Asimo Controlled by the Human Brain
While it may seem that technology takes two steps back before it takes a half step forward (see: talking and singing wall fish,) there is hope for us yet. That is, there is hope that we will soon have our own robots that we can control with our minds! Don’t get too excited. While a future [...]
05.08.09 -
MacBook Users: Turn off This Bluetooth Default Setting Now
Last night I discovered an incredibly dumb — and what I consider to be dangerous — setting enabled by default in my unibody MacBook Pro. In the Bluetooth preferences, it’s the box checkmarked “Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer.” Sounds innocent enough, but it could’ve killed my computer. Here’s what happened: I was in a [...]
05.08.09 -
First Look: Gigapan Epic 100, The Panorama Robot
One of the great things about being a tech blogger is the semi-regular visits from the UPS guy. This week he wore himself out running up and down the stairs to my 5th floor apartment (no elevator), and one of the best new toys is the Gigapan Epic 100. Gigapan makes hefty boxes which take your [...]
05.08.09 -
10 Things Parents Should Know About the New Star Trek
I was able to duck into the 10PM show for Star Trek on Thursday night. Here’s a quick spoiler-free rundown of what you should know before going. 1. Will I like it? You’re reading GeekDad, so that’s an almost-guaranteed yes. If you’ve got any love for any of the past Star Trek series or movies then you’ll like [...]
05.08.09
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RoboGames are Coming!
Billed as “The World’s Largest Robot Competition,” Robogames returns to San Francisco, CA for a 6th year of rampaging robot mayhem. Besides the 3 days of awesome official action, there are a number of special pre-game events all this month that fans and fanatics might want to check out. Mon, May 18th - Terminator:Salvation One of the [...]
05.08.09 -
Mother’s Day Alert! Have Your Got Anything for Your GeekMom Yet?
It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, and if you haven’t picked up anything for your geek-lady, we’re here to help. Yes, this is kind of a cop-out, and not very geeky, but we all know a lovely arrangement of flowers will always brighten our GeekMoms’ day. And there’s at least a little bit of geekiness in [...]
05.08.09 -
Pokemon TCG PreRelease Events Start on May 9th
Image from Pokemon TCG Pokemon trainers will be getting a sneak peek at the next expansion of the Pokemon TCG Platinum series May 9th through May 17th. The expansion is called Rising Rivals and contains over 110 cards featuring new SP and Level X Pokemon. With more powerful trainers added to that mix the battles will [...]
05.08.09 -
The Blessing and Bane of Emulators
With age comes nostalgia, and having grown up on the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, there is a certain level of sentimentality for the games that defined me. Game system and software manufactures recognize this and have begun repackaging and selling us back our memories in the form of emulators and rereleased games. And while these [...]
05.08.09 -
HiRISE Camera Team Releases 1.7 TB of Images to the Public
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), has just begun a monthly image release schedule. In the first of this new, accelerated PDS (Planetary Data System) archival program, they’ve released 64,704 image products totaling 1.7 TB (yes, that’s 10244 or 240 bytes, not bits) of data. Among the [...]
05.08.09 -
Thackara's Latest Doors of Perception
*These sublime emanations will see you through a spring weekend, no question about it. Doors of Perception Report May 2009 With i-Borg in New York by John Thackara i-BORG A new sign on Manhattan Bridge as you enter New York...
05.08.09 -
Next-Gen iPhone Will Contain a Compass
IPhone screenshots are easy enough to fake, and lord knows some odd claims come from the Boy Genius Report, but this seems such an obvious addition to iPhone hardware that we’ll bite. The shot above is from a debugging menu inside the 3.0 beta iPhone OS, and shows options to save logs of a compass, as [...]
05.08.09 -
Interview With Julie Phillipps, Author of Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to Be Noticed
What if you’re a ninja who craves attention? You’re not unskilled–you can catch an arrow in flight and vanish and the like–but you’re mad for acclaim and praise. That’s the predicament found in Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to Be Noticed, the debut book of Julie Phillipps, a West Hartford, CT, artist and mom. In [...]
05.08.09 -
MPAA Proof of Concept: Copy DVDs by Pointing Camera at Screen
It’s hard to believe that this video is real, but apparently it is. What you are seeing is the official, MPAA sanctioned method for teachers to make copies of DVDs for educational purposes. Are you ready? To make a copy you play the DVD and aim a camera at the TV screen. I told you it [...]
05.08.09 -
Free! Two Entire Days of Generative Infoviz Ambient Music
“The Sound of eBay” is an UBERMORGEN.COM project with Stefan Nussbaumer, online at www.sound-of-ebay.com since July 2008. Using eBay user data, The Sound of eBay generates unique songs. By simply entering any eBay username and clicking “generate”, the robots sprawl...
05.08.09
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Universal Translator: Marry Any Flash to Any Camera
The Strobists are on a roll. Not only has the first batch of the community-design LumoPro LP120 flashguns sold out (don’t worry — they’ll be back in stock in a couple days), but Moishe of MPX and David Hobby, the Arch-Strobist, have come up with a new accessory, also cheap, also useful and also incredibly open. Named [...]
05.08.09 -
Chemistry in the Kitchen: Five Ingredients to Save Up For
Thanks in no small part to the guru of geeky gourmet Alton Brown, the home kitchen has seen a spectacular rebirth as a haven for science, innovation and gadgetry. And in lean times like these, learning your way around the kitchen can not only give you geek cred, but it can also help you reduce [...]
05.08.09 -
Verizon Mifi: Personal Wi-Fi Coming this Month
After a flurry of interest last December, the Mifi personal Wi-Fi hotspot is about to be delivered and thankfully, it’s coming from network coverage-king Verizon. The Mifi is a tiny, battery powered EVDO modem which sits in your pocket and turns the incoming 3G radio waves into a small Wi-Fi network, enabling you to hook up your laptop, [...]
05.08.09 -
Plug-In Be Bop: It’s a Box. It’s French. It’s Got Batteries.
Renault calls its all-electric Kangoo be bop Z.E. concept “quirky,” but we here at Autopia think it’s cute as a button. The prototype unveiled Thursday at a shareholder meeting has a compact lithium-ion battery under the dashboard and a “circuit board” design motif. Leave it to the French to build a car where even the door [...]
05.08.09 -
Colleagues Mount Quick Defense for DHS Chief Geek Pick
Yesterday, biological defense specialist Dr. Tara O’Toole was tapped by the Obama administration to become the Department of Homeland Security’s geek-in-chief — and was instantly blasted by critics as a bioterror Cassandra. Today, her colleagues fought back, praising her as a public health visionary who helped get the country ready to respond to epidemics like [...]
05.07.09 -
Leonard Nimoy Cracks 10 Star Trek Jokes on Letterman
Leonard Nimoy breaks type to do some comedy shtick during Thursday night’s Late Show With David Letterman. In an appearance pegged to the release of J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie, Nimoy takes the stage of New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater to present the “Top 10 Lines Never Before Said in a Star Trek Film.” The [...]
05.07.09 -
Qore Subscribers Get Early Shot at Uncharted 2 Beta
Good news for gamers who subscribe to Sony’s online magazine Qore: Those lucky gamers are going to have a shot at playing the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves beta before the rest of the world, according to the firm’s PlayStation.Blog. The twelfth episode of Qore, which hit the PlayStation Network Store Thursday, includes a voucher which can [...]
05.07.09 -
Lawmaker Defends Imprisoning Hostile Bloggers
Rep. Linda Sanchez responded Wednesday to Threat Level’s tirade against her proposed legislation outlawing hostile electronic speech. Her answer: “Congress has no interest in censoring.” Sanchez, with the introduction of the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act, clearly has a great interest in censoring. Still, the Democrat from Los Angeles makes several valid points that cyberbullying has lasting [...]
05.07.09 -
Pentagon’s Black Budget Grows to More Than $50 Billion (Updated)
The Pentagon wants to spend just over $50 billion on classified programs next year, newly-released Defense Department budget documents reveal. “That’s the largest-ever sum,” according to Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman, a longtime black-budget seer — a three percent increase over last year’s total. It makes the Pentagon’s secret operations, including the intelligence budgets nested inside, “roughly [...]
05.07.09 -
Not All Automakers Are Suffering
In an era of brand elimination, government bailouts and plant closings, it’s refreshing to hear some positive news about the automotive industry. Unfortunately, we have to travel all the way to Romania to find a factory that’s hiring, and all the way to China to find consumers who are still buying. While plants worldwide are [...]
05.07.09
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MapleStory Tops 92 Million Players
Mega successful kid-friendly, 2-D MMO MapleStory celebrates the fourth anniversary of its U.S. debut this week, and to celebrate publisher Nexon has revealed some figures detailing the success of the online world. To date, the title has hooked “over 92 million worldwide users,” Nexon claims. Of those, around 6 million are located in North America. Pulling down [...]
05.07.09 -
Heartland Breach Cost Company $12.6 Million So Far
Heartland Payment Systems reported on Thursday that the hack it experienced last year has cost the company $12.6 million so far. The amount includes legal costs and fines from Visa and MasterCard, who say the company was not compliant with payment card industry rules. Network World reports that during the company’s financial earnings call, Heartland executives [...]
05.07.09 -
First Image of DJ Hero’s Turntable Controller
Even if you knew it was coming, the turntable peripheral for Activion’s upcoming DJ Hero rhythm game is still a bit surprising. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely looks like a turntable and has a nice selection of the iconic color coded buttons made famous by the Guitar Hero series, but how exactly are you supposed [...]
05.07.09 -
Video: Cowboy Capers in Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar has released the first trailer for Red Dead Redemption, its upcoming sequel to Red Dead Revolver. While the trailer, of course, gives absolutely no indication as to what the gameplay will be like, it is pretty to watch and illustrates that Rockstar seems to be doing just as good a job recreating an open-world Wild [...]
05.07.09 -
Teenage Bomb Threat Suspect Was Internet Prank-Call Star
A 16-year-old North Carolina boy arrested for allegedly making a bomb threat against Purdue University had a secret identity as a superstar in an unusual online subculture — one dedicated to making prank phone calls for a live internet audience, his mother admitted Thursday. “I heard the prank phone calls he made,” says Annette Lundeby [...]
05.07.09 -
Court Upholds Hacking Conviction of Man for Uploading Porn Pics from Work Computer
An Ohio appellate court has upheld the felony hacking conviction of a man who was found guilty of unauthorized access for misusing his computer at work. Richard Wolf acknowledged that his behavior was inappropriate when he used his work computer to upload nude photos of himself to an adult web site and view other photos on [...]
05.07.09 -
Movies: Star Trek Blasts Back Into Theaters
It’s all about the slick new U.S.S. Enterprise and its fresh-faced crew this weekend, as J.J. Abrams’ shiny new Star Trek materializes early in some theaters Thursday night, a day ahead of its official release date. The dazzling movie pits a young, rambunctious James T. Kirk (effectively played by Chris Pine, pictured) against a young [...]
05.07.09 -
Google, Apple and Microsoft Knuckle Under to Telcos
If you think Google, Microsoft and Apple are bad-ass, cutthroat, take-no-prisoner companies, you should meet the nation’s wireless carriers, who have collectively convinced those intensively competitive software giants to cripple their products. Need any more proof that the nation’s four largest wireless carriers - AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile - have too much control over the [...]
05.07.09 -
Flying Lightsaber Zapped, Multiple Kill Vehicle Killed
During the previous administration, the Missile Defense Agency was living large. The agency, which helped develop the rudiments of a U.S. missile shield, had a lavish budget; it could afford to invest in a wide spectrum of technology. But next year, it won’t have so many dollars to throw around. The Department of Defense released the [...]
05.07.09 -
Did Obama Just Boost the Pentagon Budget, or Cut It? Depends on Which Document You Read.
You’re gonna hear a lot of talk, in the days to come, about whether the Obama administration’s newly-unveiled defense budget cuts military spending, or increases it. The funny thing is, the Pentagon’s budget numbers actually fuel both points of view. The “it’s an increase” crowd will point to this briefing from the Defense Department comptrollers’ office, [...]
05.07.09
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Back to the Arctic in a Solar Car
Marcelo da Luz, who set a world record when he drove 14,000 miles to the Arctic Circle in a solar car, is headed back to the Great White North to continue evangelizing about the wonders of solar power. Da Luz and his X of 1 - that’s Power of One - team hit a roadblock when [...]
05.07.09 -
Creationism Dig Violated Student’s Rights
When a high school history teacher told his students that creationism was “superstitious nonsense,” he violated a student’s First Amendment rights, a Federal judge ruled this week. Christian conservatives are celebrating the decision by U.S. District Court Judge James Selna that high school teacher James Corbett violated the establishment clause, which courts have interpreted to mean [...]
05.07.09 -
This Car Is Not the Future
We understand that sometimes it takes a radical re-think to shake up the established order, to realize that tried and true ways of doing things are in fact just old and tired. And we know true change requires being free to dream up unconventional ideas. It’s a road, one trod by the likes of Newton [...]
05.07.09 -
The French edition of "Shaping Things" has appeared
http://fypeditions.com/objets.htm *Just in time for the "Internet of French Things."
05.07.09 -
Sign of the Times: Afghanistan War Costs Higher Than Iraq
The price tag for running the war in Afghanistan will outstrip the cost of the conflict in Iraq next year, according to budget documents released today by the Pentagon. Afghanistan, in the words of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is now supposed to be the Pentagon’s “main effort” and “strategic focus.” This budget makes [...]
05.07.09 -
Infrared Proteins Give Deep View Inside Living Animals
A fluorescent protein found in an extremophile bacteria could give scientists an unprecedented view inside living animals. The proteins, which glow with tissue-penetrating infrared light, could be used to tag cells in living animals, allowing researchers to watch real-time biological processes that have until now been hidden. “Because their wavelengths penetrate tissue well, infrared-fluorescent proteins are suitable [...]
05.07.09 -
Enormous Shark’s Secret Hideout Finally Discovered
After half a century of searching, scientists have finally discovered what happens to the world’s second largest shark every winter: It has a Caribbean hideout. Basking sharks, which can grow up to 33 feet long and weigh more than a Hummer H1, spend the late spring, summer and early fall in the temperate regions of the [...]
05.07.09 -
Business Process Modelling Notation Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.bpmn.org/Documents/FAQ.htm *Just how good IS "business process modelling notation?" Could you write some "stage business" with BPMN? Like, say, a simple Marx Brothers comedy routine where Harpo sets fire to somebody's hat? Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) Information Frequently Asked...
05.07.09 -
Spime Watch: Orchestrating an Internet of Things
http://ercim-news.ercim.org/content/view/560/763/ (...) "Imagine a future in which your fridge announces to you the recipes that can be prepared with the available goods, your TV tells you that your favourite program is beginning, the book you want to start reading is...
05.07.09 -
Officials: Taliban May Have Faked Civilian Slaughter
Did the Taliban stage a slaughter of dozens, to make U.S. forces in Afghanistan look like butchers? That’s what American military officials are implying in response to claims that coalition airstrikes killed dozens of civilians taking shelter from fighting between Taliban militants and international troops in Afghanistan’s Farah Province. The International Committee of the Red Cross [...]
05.07.09
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Look Out, Spock! Pentagon Works on Real-Life Phasers
As J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the Star Trek franchise boldly goes into cinemas, it’s time for us to go looking for real-life phasers. While warp drive and transporters clearly belong to the far future, the American military has been working hard to turn sci-fi’s favorite ray gun into a reality. The famous “set phasers to stun” [...]
05.07.09 -
Dead Media Beat: All Websites and All Online Communities
*Well, that's what Steve Rubel is predicting here -- if his advertising magazine doesn't die even faster than the old-school websites and today's primitive social nets. *It's like living next to the volcano. The closer you get to digital technology,...
05.07.09 -
Virgin America Admits It’s a Dirty Bird
Sometimes, when you do something bad, it’s best to just get it off your chest. That seems to be the vibe at Virgin America, which will be the first US airline to report its greenhouse gas emissions to The Climate Registry, a non-profit multinational that monitors, calculates and reports emissions. It’s a voluntary move, but is [...]
05.07.09 -
Diesel Scirocco Is Fun For Thee, But Not For We
Check this out: Volkswagen is making a performance version of the Scirocco and putting a 44-mpg clean diesel under the hood and offering it at a decent price. That’s great news. But… There’s always a but. And in this case, it’s this: VW has no plans to sell the Scirocco GT TDI in the U.S. We [...]
05.07.09 -
Centipede scandal claims the British psychotherapist
*He'd have been perfectly fine if somebody hadn't hacked his email. *Just goes to show that modern psychological warfare is at the mercy of postmodern cyberwarfare. *The gadfly here has been through this wringer before; he'll be back, only next...
05.07.09 -
Bloggers, TV, Go Nuts Over Misleading ‘Patriot Act’ Arrest Claim
Update: Teenage Bomb Threat Suspect Was Internet Prank-Call Star It’s the false TV news report heard ’round the world. Raleigh, North Carolina’s WRAL-5 reported last week that a 16-year-old bomb hoax suspect was hauled out of his mother’s home by federal agents, and is now being held without any legal rights on the authority of the [...]
05.06.09 -
Big Solar Flare Portends Sun’s Return to Normal
The sun has a new spot, and it could signal the long-awaited beginning of the next solar cycle. Solar flares rise and fall on an 11-year cycle, and last year marked what scientists thought was the solar minimum. But through the beginning of 2009, the sun stayed unusually quiet. That changed yesterday, when a major sunspot [...]
05.06.09 -
Facebook’s E-mail Censorship is Legally Dubious, Experts Say
When The Pirate Bay released new Facebook features last month, the popular social networking site took evasive action, blocking its members from distributing file-sharing links through its service. Now legal experts say Facebook may have gone too far, blocking not only links to torrents published publicly on member profile pages, but also examining private messages that [...]
05.06.09 -
How the Next Kindle Could Save the Newspaper Business
So now we have a Kindle in large and extra large sizes but the response to the new device among journalists, especially those with hopes of magic bullet that will save newspapers, has been mostly small minded. A near universal chorus of doubt has greeted the new device. Much of it has good reason to be [...]
05.06.09 -
Report: FBI Mishandles Terror Watch List
The FBI can’t figure out the right way to add or remove suspected terrorists from the country’s unified terrorist watch list, subjecting citizens to unjustified scrutiny from government officials and possibly putting the country at risk, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog said Wednesday in a new report. “We found that the FBI failed to nominate many [...]
05.06.09
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Rower Makes Lonely Odyssey Across the Sea
World-class rower Paul Ridley was caught in southward current, and it was pulling him farther off course from his planned landfall at Antigua. He was tired, nearing the end of an 87-day trek across the Atlantic to raise money for cancer research. His mother had died of skin malignancy in 2001, while his father had [...]
05.06.09 -
Hobbits May Belong on New Branch of Our Family Tree
Evidence continues to mount that Homo floresiensis, the controversial hominids better known as hobbits, were a distinct member of our ancestral family, rather than pathologically shrunken misfits. According to analyses published Wednesday in Nature, the big toes of H. floresiensis are disproportionately longer than those of either modern humans, formally known as Homo sapiens, or Homo [...]
05.06.09 -
Back when you could literally 'hear the technology' in Japanese pop music
*It's all entirely different nowadays of course. For instance, if you meet a Japanese 11-year-old, he's eager to tell you that it's all been done, and he's culturally exhausted. "I'm eleven now, but when I'm 55, there will have been...
05.06.09 -
Another Swine Bug Raises Scientists’ Concerns
Public health experts worry that another potentially lethal pig-borne disease could establish itself among farmworkers in the United States. Unlike the new swine flu virus, Streptococcus suis doesn’t pass from person to person. But it’s also more virulent, killing about one in 10 people in whom infection progresses to full-blown disease. “There’s potential for that pathogen to [...]
05.06.09 -
Twitter Not For Sale: Biz Stone
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joined the ladies on “The View” today and declared flat out that his company was not for sale. We weren’t watching (today) but Mashable and ComputerWorld were, and their reports are definitive: Asked about stories Twitter was being pursued by the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft, and was near completing a [...]
05.06.09 -
It’s Time to Legalize Personal-Use DVD Copying
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge here Thursday or soon thereafter is likely to conclude RealNetworks’ DVD-copying software is unlawful, and therefore should be permanently barred from distribution. That’s the correct interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Yet we think it’s offensive that the 1998 act produces the absurd result that consumers are considered hackers [...]
05.06.09 -
Op-Ed: Stop Trying to Save the Planet
Nature is gone. It was gone before you were born, before your parents were born, before the pilgrims arrived, before the pyramids were built. You are living on a used planet. From the Fields is a periodic Wired Science op-ed series presenting leading scientists’ reflections on their work, society and culture. Erle has written a response to [...]
05.06.09 -
Prosecutors Seek 3 Years in Prison for Lori Drew
Prosecutors who won misdemeanor convictions against Lori Drew last year have asked the judge to imprison her for the maximum sentence of three years. They rejected a recommendation from probation officers that Drew be given only probation and a $5,000 fine. “Defendant has become the public face of cyberbullying,” prosecutors wrote in their filing to the [...]
05.06.09 -
Urban-scale sand-and-epoxy 3d building printer
*And it's Italian. Almost. http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/217-3D-printing-buildings-interview-with-Enrico-Dini-of-D_Shape.html (...) "Their D_shape technology makes it possible to 3D print 6 by 6 by 1m parts. These parts could either be shipped to the construction site or the entire building could be 3D printed on...
05.06.09 -
Last.fm Launches Visual Radio to Entertain Listeners, Woo Advertisers
Last.fm, the social music site acquired by CBS two years ago, unveiled a major redesign to its interactive radio service on Wednesday in an attempt to keep users where its advertisers can reach them. Visual Radio — now Last.fm’s default radio listening option — launches a full web page with an image and video viewer surrounded [...]
05.06.09
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Goin' Down the Road in Defunct
Car Brands 05.06.09 -
Magic and the Brain: Teller Reveals the Neuroscience of Illusion
05.06.09 -
Block Rockin' Earbuds, Luminous Flashlights, Ultra Cheap LCDs
05.06.09 -
Plug-In Hybrids: More Hype Than Hope?
05.06.09 -
Steven Levy on How Gadgets Lose Their Magic
05.07.09 -
Two for the Price Of One
05.07.09
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