Microsoft's next move in its takeover attempt of Yahoo is imminent -- perhaps even today -- the Wall Street Journal reports. Options are the usual suspects, it says: try to pack the Yahoo board or appeal directly to shareholders.
An anonymous reader writes "A good friend of mine had her younger brother apparently commit suicide last week. He was a young, promising CS major who was close to being accepted into a very prestigious school. He was very into Linux as well as PHP/MySQL coding. He left absolutely nothing behind for the family as far as a death note or explanation, and there is some possibility that this was all somehow a tragic accident. The family is in a situation where proof of accidental death would change how this was viewed in terms of paying for parts of the funeral. More importantly, some members of the family are hoping to find something, anything, that might explain why this all went down. Since I'm the most computer-skilled person the family knows, they have asked me if I could help them try to find some information. My possible approaches are: his Linux laptop, his university, Gmail And Hotmail email accounts, and a second MySpace profile that apparently has been tagged as private. How ethical would it be to, say, try to crack his root password in a situation like this? I wouldn't attempt to crack a man's account for his wife because she thinks he is cheating on her, as his life is his own business. In death, would you have the same respect for a person's private thoughts? Secondly, If I contacted places like Google, MSN, the university, and MySpace, what are the odds that they would give me access to any of his accounts? I have links to obituaries and such to prove that he is indeed gone. Would it be a matter of not giving it to me (maybe only to the family), or is this something that they would not do at all? Any opinions on if I should do this and if so, how I should go about it?"
Flickr user Lockwasher collected a bunch of junk to make rayguns out of, and then decided to use the leftover junk to make a stunning collection of junk robots.
Link
(via Neatorama)
Dr Albert Hoffman, who discovered psychedelic drug which 'turned on' the 1960s counterculture, dies after heart attack Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:31 am
By Luke Anderson I am fortunate enough not to have any allergies, but one of my close friends is very allergic to smoke. If we go anywhere that's very smoky, she can't stay for long before her allergies... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:26 am
By Luke Anderson I've always thought about getting a hybrid car, as it would would save some cash, in addition to saving the environment. Unfortunately a new car just isn't in my current budget. If I did... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:22 am
Exercise your interactive fantasies by taking part in our game development experiment. Aleks Krotoski launches 'Spaceship!' Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:11 am
NIGHTTIME FUN Springs Preserve plans Thursday activities Beginning this week, the Las Vegas Springs Preserve will fill Thursday evenings with concerts, a farmers market and a two-for-one ticket offer for the exhibit galleries. The events will run from 4 to 8 p.m. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
D-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumer and business, is now shipping personalized electronic device skins for its most popular home networking products, including Wi-Fi routers and storage enclosures. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo Tokyo, April 30 Kyodo - A tax code bill to reinstate gasoline and other road-related tax surcharges passed the Diet on Wednesday as the ruling camp-controlled House of Representatives approved it in a revote. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Journal-World, Lawrence, Kan. Apr. 30--People with tickets for the Vickers Lecture with Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts tonight must be in their seats by 5:45 p.m. The lecture begins at 6 p.m. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
THOUSANDS of children are breaking rules on social networking sites by signing up before they are 13, the industry has been warned. Among those ignoring the age limit is the daughter of John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the culture committee at Westminster. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Adoption of an Internet Protocol (IP) interface is growing across virtually all TV-oriented consumer electronics devices, according to a new whitepaper recently released by MultiMedia Intelligence (http://www.MultiMediaIntelligence.com). Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
MxToolBox today announced the immediate availability of a hosted Email Continuity service based on version 5.0 of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS). Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Few spices are as treasured and avoided! A clove of garlic is both tasty and healthy, but after you eat it, don't be surprised if even your friends start to give you a wide berth. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
N Brown has continued to outperform, reporting group sales up 16.6% and operating profit up 20.3% for the year ending March 2008. The retailer's clear positioning and the ongoing development of its online operations provide a positive future outlook. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Fabless semiconductor company RMI has released a network accelerator card that offers packet inspection, processing, autonomous security, and a compression engine. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Since the Web 2.0 Expo last week, two parallel questions are being asked about the current era of the Web: a) Are we about to enter into a recession, and if so does that mean an end to the current 'web... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:49 am
2008 could finally see the massively popular online game World of Warcraft face some competition. So which games have the WoW factor? Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:43 am
Here’s the first example I’ve seen of a witness broadcasting live from a news event with a mobile phone on Flixwagon. It’s very rough — extremely rough thanks to a finger on the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:42 am
Emine Saner: According to a new American study, computer-based brain training can improve IQ beyond becoming better at practised tasks Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:33 am
Marine scientists studying the carcass of a rare colossal squid said Wednesday they had measured its eye at about 11 inches across _ bigger than a dinner plate _ making it the largest... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:30 am
Khoi Vinh, the Design Director of NYTimes.com, explains that the Times's much-vaunted cross-platform consistency is down to hand-coding their HTML with a text-editor, not using GUI tools like Dreamweaver:
It’s our preference to use a text editor, like HomeSite, TextPad or TextMate, to “hand code” everything, rather than to use a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) HTML and CSS authoring program, like Dreamweaver. We just find it yields better and faster results.
But really the browser-to-browser consistency that you see (and I have to admit, it’s far from perfect) is the result of a vigilant collaboration between many different groups — the visual designers and technologists in the design team that I lead, their counterparts in our technology staff, and the many, many detail-oriented people who come together to make the site a reality every hour of every day.
Khoi Vinh, the Design Director of NYTimes.com, explains that the Times's much-vaunted cross-platform consistency is down to hand-coding their HTML with a text-editor, not using GUI tools like Dreamweaver:... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:24 am
The brain consumes 20 percent of your body's energy, but what for? Turns out a third of the energy is spent on "housekeeping":
A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA indicates that two thirds of the brain's energy budget is used to help neurons or nerve cells "fire'' or send signals. The remaining third, however, is used for what study co-author Wei Chen, a radiologist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, refers to as "housekeeping," or cell-health maintenance...
"Housekeeping power is important for keeping the brain tissue alive," Chen says, "and for the many biological processes in the brain," in addition to neuronal chats. Charged sodium, calcium and potassium atoms (or ions) are continuously passed through the membranes of cells, so that neurons can recharge to fire. ATP supplies the energy required for these ions to traverse cell membranes. Chen says there must be enough energy to maintain a proper ionic balance inside and outside cells; if too many get stuck inside, it can cause swelling, which can damage cells and lead to strokes and other conditions.
The brain consumes 20 percent of your body's energy, but what for? Turns out a third of the energy is spent on "housekeeping": A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA indicates... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:21 am
I'm the editor of PoopReport.com. I've been living in India for the last six months. While here, I've come across a great cause related to the subject of my site: raising money to build toilets for lowest-caste girls studying at the Pardada Pardadi school in rural Uttar Pradesh.
Today these students are forced to suffer the dangers and humiliation of waking up before sunrise to relieve themselves in nearby fields. This is incredibly unsanitary and quite demeaning -- imagine if you had to wait until the sun was down before you could use the bathroom, no matter how bad you had to go?
But a toilet really can change their lives. It will directly impact the health and the dignity of these students, their families, and their villages as a whole.
A single dual-pit toilet based on the Sulabh model (which converts waste into fertilizer and needs to be serviced only once every five years) costs $250. Every little bit helps -- $1 is enough to cover lunch for four laborers building the toilets. But if you give a full $250, Pardada Pardadi will give you naming rights and send you picture of your toilet and of the girl and the family to whom you've given such a great gift.
Dave sez, I'm the editor of PoopReport.com. I've been living in India for the last six months. While here, I've come across a great cause related to the subject of my site: raising money to build toilets... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:17 am
Trash talk comes to Capitol Hill Wednesday at a hearing on the disposal and recycling of computers, televisions, cell phones and other scrapped consumer electronic products. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:14 am
German conglomerate Siemens AG said Wednesday that its second-quarter net profit slid 67 percent, weighed down by weaker performance in its major business projects, including a large... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:11 am
Matt Mason, author of The Pirate's Dilemma, sez, "I thought you'd be into this 3-D printed scale model of Cinderellas Castle I received in the mail today. A few weeks back I was speaking at the Disney... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 10:08 am
Matt Mason, author of The Pirate's Dilemma, sez, "I thought you'd be into this 3-D printed scale model of Cinderella’s Castle I received in the mail today. A few weeks back I was speaking at the Disney Imagineering HQ in California, where 3-D printing is used to develop new designs. They made one of these for Bob Iger, one for Steve jobs, and had this one at HQ, which they very kindly sent me as a thank you, after finding out about my obsession with all things 3-D printed. It’s the most detailed thing I’ve seen come out of a prototyping machine yet, this picture doesn’t do justice to the perfect brickwork, spires and columns, nor can you see the corridors that run through the model. It’s pretty nuts. Apparently it took 11 hours to print."
Link
(Thanks, Matt!)
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's first astronaut said she and her fellow crew were rescued by startled nomads after their space capsule thudded far off course into the remote steppes of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 9:53 am
This is the third in a 3-part series, by Bernard Lunn, on the new Web. Part 1 was The Whatchamacallit, Post Recession Phase Transition, Part 2 was The Emerging Main Street Web. The new Web era is about... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 9:46 am
By Andrew Liszewski Over the years there have been many studies on the dangers of radiation and electromagnetic fields from cellphones. Some have said it's perfectly safe, while others feel it's really... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 9:38 am
coondoggie sends us a story from NetworkWorld.com, as is his wont, this one on the FBI opening two new US Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories this week. In these laboratories examiners conduct a growing number of forensic examinations of digital media in support of the investigation and/or prosecution of a federal, state, or local crime. With the addition of the new facilities in Los Angeles and Albuquerque, the FBI will have 16 RCFLs nationwide. And they are needed: "During 2007, RCFL experts conducted 4,634 exams, processing 1,288 terabytes of information. A total of 76,581 digital devices were examined (the most popular media by far — CDs, coming in at 37,424; followed by hard disk drives at 17,378; floppy disks at 11,781; and DVDs at 4,374). The number of CDs, cell phones, and flash media devices examined doubled from the previous year."
By Gresham, Robert M Thanks to the fascinating world of surface chemistry, you might have more options than you think when it comes to combining fluids. According to conventional wisdom, oil and water don't mix. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Meg Kissinger, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Apr. 30--Six U.S. senators, all Democrats, introduced a bill Tuesday to ban bisphenol A from all children's products. The senators also called for an investigation into the safety of the chemical by the U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Min Lee, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HONG KONG - Three pro-Tibet activists, two of them Canadians, who planned to protest during Hong Kong's leg of the Olympic torch relay were deported after they arrived at the territory's airport Tuesday, activists said. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anne Jungen, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Apr. 30--BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. -- State charges will be filed this week against four teens arrested in a string of rural Jackson County mailbox bombs, but the group will not face federal prosecution. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky. Apr. 30-- Anyone who's worked in a factory or office knows that it's impossible to know within six months of starting a job whether you're the victim of wage discrimination. But last year in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous How well ocean reefs recover from the growing damage caused by warming sea temperatures depends both on how much the tiny coral polyps can eat and how healthy they can keep the microscopic algae that live inside their bodies, said researchers who conducted a recent study. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) recently completed the first Chukchi Sea sale since 1991. This offshore lease sale was the most successful in Alaska's history based on the number of bids received and the number of tracts receiving bids. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous An ocean odor that affects global climate also gathers reef fish to feed as they "eavesdrop" on events that might lead them to food. Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is given off by algae and phytoplankton, microscopic one-celled plants that float in the ocean. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By David Blair For more than 40 years, Olin's chlorine production plant has been an important part of the Augusta community. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Hanson Formpave has recently completed its 1000th Aquaf low permeable paving installation at a new Tesco store in Rutherglen, Scotland. An area totalling 7000m^sup 2^ of permeable paving has been laid at the site, providing car parking for the new supermarket. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
Would an orc order pizza? Does a dystopian planet from the future need a pacer drink? Advertisers are missing a trick when it comes to games Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
Superstar games designers are a dying breed - but why? Peter Molyneux, one of Britain's best-known gurus, explains his theory Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:59 am
SAN DIEGO, April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- MojoPages.com ( href="http://www.mojopages.com">http://www.mojopages.com ), a local search Website that ranks businesses ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:53 am
Ling Ling, the only giant panda owned by Japan, died of old age Wednesday at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, where he had been one of the most popular attractions, officials said. Visitors Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:50 am
ALMELO, The Netherlands, April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sensata Technologies B.V. announces results of its operations for the first quarter, 2008. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:46 am
IRVING, Texas, April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EFJ, Inc. (Nasdaq: EFJI) today announced its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2008. Revenues were $33.9 million... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:45 am
BEIJING, April 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Perfect World Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: PWRD) ("Perfect World" or the "Company"), a leading online game developer and Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:36 am
BEIJING, April 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources, Inc. (Amex: SHZ) ("China Shen Zhou", or "the Company"), a... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:30 am
Goobermunch sends in a law.com article going into questions about the validity of recent patent rulings (within the past eight years) by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, due to the unconstitutionality of the method for appointing patent and trademark appeals judges. The problem arises because the patent appeals judges were appointed by the Director of the Patent and Trademark Office, rather than the Secretary of Commerce. Under Article 2, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the power to appoint "inferior officers" of the government may be vested in "in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments." The patent appeals judges are likely inferior officers, and therefore must be appointed by the President, the courts, or a department head. Quoting: "The US Patent and Trademark Office may have a major problem on its hands — the possibly unconstitutional appointment of nearly two-thirds of its patent appeals judges. Such a constitutional flaw, if legitimate, could call into question the hundreds of decisions worth billions of dollars in the past eight years. The flaw, discovered by highly regarded intellectual property scholar John Duffy of George Washington University Law School, could also afflict the appointment of nearly half of the agency's trademark appeals judges."
His accidental experience of 'an extremely stimulated imagination' caused by the drug led to a lifetime of experiments and initiated the psychedelic generation. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
The online component, by Big Fantastic ('Prom Queen'), will play into a new novel by the medical thriller writer. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
Ian Lamont writes "MySpace is preparing to boost its advertising systems, by launching a targeted ad platform called HyperTargeting and creating a Web-based system that lets vendors purchase ads without dealing with human sales teams. HyperTargeting will 'look at a person's interests listed on their public profile and then classify the user into particular interest-specific categories.' MySpace claims that early tests resulted in a 300 percent increase in the number of ad click-throughs. The company apparently learned a lot from Facebook's earlier experiences with Beacon — MySpace members will be able to opt out of HyperTargeting, according to the company."
Race car drivers put in long and grueling workouts to condition themselves to maneuver their speed machines. See what it takes to withstand 150-degree heat, 300 pounds' worth of brake resistance and inertial forces of up to 5 gs.
eldavojohn writes "The design director of NYTimes.com, Khoi Vinh, recently answered readers' questions in the Times's occasional feature 'Ask the Times.' He was asked how the Web site looks so consistently nice and polished no matter which browser or resolution is used to access it. His answer begins: 'It's our preference to use a text editor, like HomeSite, TextPad or TextMate, to "hand code" everything, rather than to use a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) HTML and CSS authoring program, like Dreamweaver. We just find it yields better and faster results.'"
1897: Physicist J.J. Thomson tells a startled scientific audience that he's discovered something smaller than an atom, a particle with a minuscule mass and a negative charge.
Some in the audience at the Royal Institution of Great Britain that Friday evening later told Thomson they thought he was "pulling their legs." The atom, after all, was known to be indivisible. That's what its name meant.
As director of Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, Thomson was researching electrical currents inside cathode ray tubes. He observed that the rays are deflected by an electric field.
Researchers had been puzzled by cathode rays until Thomson theorized that the rays were in fact streams of small subatomic particles, the first known. He called them "corpuscles," the Latin for "small bodies."
Thomson figured his negatively charged corpuscles accounted for about one-thousandth of the mass of a hydrogen atom (1/1836 or 1/1837 is the accepted ratio today), matched by a positive charge elsewhere in the atom. Thomson was vague in 1897 but later theorized that the negative electrons swarmed around in a "sphere of uniform positive electrification." (Establishing the nuclear-orbital model of the atom would fall to Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr in later decades.)
Other scientists had proposed that cathode rays were composed of particles and had attempted to establish their relative mass and charge. Thomson's great contribution was estimating that ratio and recognizing that the ratio was universal and didn't depend on the specific materials. That led him to postulate that the particles were one of the building blocks of the atom itself, even though he hadn't fully proved that at the time of his epochal lecture.
Thomson was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize "in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases." He was knighted in 1908.
His 1907 book was titled The Corpuscular Theory of Matter, and he continued to call his discovery "corpuscles" until 1913.
The Iron Man movie will soon fly into a crowded, expensive theater near you. If you're not braving the fan horde to see it on opening night Thursday, you might be following my plan: See if your friends like it, and if they do, catch the flick on Blu-ray.
That leaves you with three to five months to fill while waiting for the Golden Avenger to soar into your living room and leave scorch marks on the wall-to-wall. But is Iron Man really the best use of your iron dollar? Might there be other, equally ferrous, folks who meet or exceed the quality standards over at Stark Industries? I think we should investigate.
Job: Professional wrestler Powers: The Camel Clutch, the Iranian Drop, yelling at the camera Challenge: Hell-in-a-Cell match
No contest here. Even if Iron Sheik fights dirty -- and he will -- folding chairs and trash cans aren't going to do anything against state-of-the-fictional-art powered armor. If the Sheik is lucky, Iron Man will pin him with one finger on each shoulder. If he's not, the second the ref's back is turned, out come the antitank missiles. Winner: Iron Man.
The Iron Giant
Job: Giant robot and underappreciated animated film star Powers: Flight, rockets, heavy-handed moralization Challenge: Fight!
The Iron Giant is, in essence, a 30-foot-tall version of Iron Man with no human inside and defensive weaponry he can't control. I don't think many people have a chance against a bad-tempered, 20-ton version of themselves. Iron Man's only chance is to talk the robot down by appealing to his buried conscience. However, you can't make big, wet cartoon eyes from behind a mask, so it won't work. Iron Man is reduced to a red-and-gold pile of recyclables in about 15 seconds. Winner: Iron Giant.
Iron Maiden
Job: Heavy-metal band Powers: Screaming guitar solos, stage pyrotechnics, skeletal mascot Challenge: Battle of the bands
Iron Man makes a surprisingly good showing here, recruiting fellow Avengers Thor, Hulk and Captain America on lead guitar, drums and bass respectively. Iron Man doubles as lead singer and the most badass amp you've ever heard. They have a respectable showing with covers of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla," but fall way behind in the second set when Hulk insists that they play "Brand New Key." Winner: Iron Maiden.
Iron Chef Japanese
Job: Celebrity chef Powers: Fusion cuisine, excellent knife technique, 3.98-average review on Yelp Challenge: Battle Conger Eel
Tony Stark has people for this sort of thing. Iron Man sits back and sips a Full Throttle through a straw while his "assistants" -- actually top Japanese chefs flown in at great expense -- do the cooking. However, in a managerial screw-up, Iron Man doesn't realize that you can't expect two top chefs to work in harmony. His team falls into fisticuffs while chef Masaharu Morimoto presents an exquisite eel-kidney sorbet over hand-shaped nori crackers. Winner: Iron Chef Japanese.
Iron Eyes Cody
Job: Anti-litter symbol, faux Cherokee Powers: A single tear representing the pain and sorrow of indigenous peoples encountering '70s-era fast-food trash Challenge: Impersonation
Tony Stark and Iron Eyes Cody are both men with a secret. Stark dresses up as a flying weapons platform, and Cody pretends to be a Native American to get acting roles. Who's better at putting up a front? Each is challenged to pose as a 14-year-old girl in a chat room to catch child molesters. Stark ends up trading stock tips instead, and Cody sheds a single tear every time anyone makes a LOLcat reference. However, the Recording Industry Association of America sues them both for illegal downloading. Winner: Tie.
- - -
Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a magnate, a magnifico and a magnetar.
Climbers on Mount Everest's south side are surreptitiously blogging a standoff with Nepalese soldiers ahead of China's Olympic torch run on the opposite side of the mountain next week.
With a news blackout in effect since Monday at the Everest base camp -- and no news media at camps farther up the mountain -- the situation is being chronicled only by a smattering of international climber/bloggers.
"We saw lots of military staff and one solider carrying a very sophisticated sniper type of gun," Jim Curtin wrote on his blog Monday.
Curtin has been blogging his ascent of Everest for several weeks but is now stuck at Camp 2, at 21,000 feet.
Over the last several days his blog has chronicled the frustrating wait as Nepalese soldiers block climbers from ascending the mountain.
Nepalese soldiers have closed the summit until the Chinese torch run is made, which is expected between May 1 and May 10, depending on the weather. Italian bloggers captured a picture of Nepalese soldiers on the 27th, seen above.
Soldiers have posted a hand-drawn sign, saying, "Dear Climbers. All of you are not allow to go forward from this point till 10 May 2008. Thank you for your cooperation," according to Curtin, who posted a picture). PeakFreaks also noted the existence of the sign.
"Should someone blow past the sign and start climbing the Lohtse face, the skilled sniper may come into play," Curtin wrote.
Mountain teams are supposed to be under a communications blackout, but a group called Climbers Without Borders have set up an anonymous information service that allows climbers to posts updates to MountEverest.net.
In addition, several climbers have their equipment stashed away, according to a climbing-equipment salesman who requested anonymity to protect clients in the field.
Nepalese soldiers arrived at the mountain on the 20th with the orders from Nepal's Home Ministry to stop pro-Tibet protests by "any means necessary" according to the Associated Press.
One young American climber, William Brant Holland, was found carrying a sign that read "Free Tibet, Fuck China" last Friday, and deported back to the United States. Despite the presence of soldiers, Holland said that he was not scared.
"The soldiers are just plainclothes. They're not carrying machine guns, maybe just have one side-arm," Holland told Wired.com by cellphone Tuesday. "They're not gonna shoot anybody."
A combination of small, high-tech gadgets powered by solar panels are enabling wired climbers to keep blogging and remain in touch with their loved ones.
Luis Benitez, a climber who has ascended Everest six times, said that all the technology necessary to run a blog could be stowed in a tiny bag.
"You need a satellite phone, a PDA, special compression software, one cable and a solar panel and that's it," Benitez said.
Benitez said that despite the blackout, he continues to receive phone calls from friends at Camp 1, where Nepalese authorities do not have a military presence.
"People are hiding sat phones in their socks," he said.
While the bloggers on the mountain have generally refrained from directly criticizing the Nepalese or Chinese governments, Benitez, who has previously run afoul of the Chinese government, was more open.
"The Chinese bribed the Nepalese to make the mountain a police state," Benitez said. "I've been a mountaineer my whole life and I've never seen anything like it."
Ron Guilmette writes "As reported in the Washington Post's Security Fix blog, a substantial hunk of IP address space has apparently been taken over by notorious mass e-mailing company Media Breakaway, LLC, formerly known as OptInRealBig, via means that are at best questionable. The block in question is 134.17.0.0/16, which I documented in depth in an independent investigation. (Apparently, the President of Media Breakaway has now admitted to the Washington Post that his company has been occupying and using the 134.17.0.0/16 block and that front company JKS Media, which provides routing to the block, is actually owned by Media Breakaway.) Remarkably, the president of Media Breakaway, who happens to be an attorney, is trying to defend his company's apparent snatching of this block based upon his own rather novel legal theory that ARIN doesn't have jurisdiction over any IP address space that was handed out before ARIN was formed, in 1997."
Bob Harris, author of an amazing book about his experiences on Jeopardy! called Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy!, returned from Chile and emailed a bunch on interesting photos to his friends. He kindly gave me permission to post a few of them on Boing Boing. (Click on thumbnails for enlargement).
There are two species of pudu, Northern Pudu (pudu mephistopheles) and Southern Pudu (pudu pudu). These are pics of pudu pudu, perhaps the most fun to say of all species names.
Pudu are the smallest deer species on earth. (There are smaller critters that look deeroid, but they're not.)
It's the mascot of my own site, Bobharris.com, which has a Friday pudublogging section where most weeks I post a new pudu pic that I've either taken myself or received from readers.
A student at Purdue once tried to start a movement to change the school mascot from the boilermaker to the pudu, so they would be the Purdue Pudus. This did not succeed.
These pudus have been hit by cars or wrongly adopted as pets, so without Fernando, they probably wouldn't have survived. When people in these parts hear of such things, they bring the pudus to Fernando's hideaway, where they live out their days with space, safety, food, and comfort. Sometimes they even make babies.
Dibs -- your new way to eat ice cream.
You mean, all over that woman's face and neck, while she passively mimes pleasure as the ice cream pelts her at high velocity?
Yes, this would be new. Usually I just use a spoon.
And our Final Jeopardy clue today is:
These Mediterranean girls had the custom of going up nude on the roof so the influence of the moon would increase the size of their breasts.
Clearly, I have been playing Jeopardy! in the wrong country entirely. Unfortunately, none of the contestants gives the correct response.
I'm 95% sure on my translation, but I can't swear to it. My Spanish is not yet fluent.
I'm a filmmaker in Los Angeles at the helm of project ARTEMIS ('Artemis Eternal') a short, scifi-fantasy film currently in preproduction that is professionally-led, community-funded, cross-platform and supported by an audience of Wingmen who accept the challenge to create a better professional model for film production, distribution and exhibition. Here's a 2-minute clip.
You may have seen us on YouTube Film, MySpace.com main, CurrentTV.com' top 8, io9, and the Globe & Mail... The project is noted for its advanced presentation and packaging and the involvement of many high-profile crewmembers such as celebrated computer artist Greg Martin, who I collaborate with frequently from development to delivery.
We've had tremendous community support already, ranging from Fortune 500 companies like JetBlue (who altruistically has contributed free airfare) to independent craftsman like a renown master bowyer in Hungary to Wingmen who have been working directly with me on various parts of the project.
And, thanks to the Wingmen, everyone can access what we accomplish without a login or payment and we continue to deepen the content each week and add new ideas to the project map on the official site.
This is the best time to come into the project. We are completely prepared to shoot: Everything is booked and packaged and will happen quickly from this point forward. Budget-wise we're halfway there and are looking for the rest of our Wingmen to help us cross the finish line.
The story of the actual film is about questioning what society expects of you and what we accept as normal. Everything we're doing with the overall project fits and explores that theme. As BoingBoing readers ourselves, we're looking forward to sharing the project with other like-mindeds. We won't succeed without you.
Tumbleweed writes "The Cross Platform and Interop team at Microsoft today announced some new beta products for managing Unix/Linux systems from MS Operations Manager 2007, as well as connectors for HP OpenView and IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console. Both betas are available at Microsoft Connect (search for systemcenter), according the blog."
bushleague.tv is a yet-to-be-launched internet video show produced right next door to where we make Boing Boing tv, at the studios of internet video firm DECA. The Bush League people are pretty crazy, and they're fun neighbors to have.
Anyway, tonight at at 5pm LA time, they -- specifically, this one guy on the show named Jim -- will attempt to break a gaming world record by playing the new edition of Grand Theft Auto (GTA IV) for over 25 consecutive hours. That's a lot of whores and cars! I understand they've even hired a real-life nurse to stand by in case the guy like, dies or whatever.
A live-cast video feed (and twitter updates) will be at bushleague.tv. I hear a bunch of friends from G4 TV will be in the house. Allison Kingsley from Bush League bought a ton of flowers to counteract the anticipated olfactory menace of eau de wargamer (I am so not kidding).
There's a teaser about their show on the site now, and the live feed will start promptly at 5pm. Bush League is an entertainment site aimed mostly at dudes that launches next week, on May 8th.
Wall Street Journal reports that Mazda decided to destroy "approximately $100 million worth of factory-new automobiles" that had been shipped on a tanker that tilted on route to the US.
The freighter, the Cougar Ace, spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted. The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal -- but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long. Might corrosive fluids seep into chambers where they don't belong? Was the Cougar Ace now full of lemons?
hweimer writes "Remember the heat the Linux Foundation took for allegedly not giving enough attention to Desktop Linux? The latest events at the Foundation's annual summit paint a different picture. Industry heavyweights like Dell, HP, and Lenovo 'announced on stage that they will now include wording in their hardware procurement processes to "strongly encourage" the delivery of open source drivers'. The move specifically targets desktop and mobile products."
Devin sez, "I believe this was the navigation system for several old English bombers (Victor, Vulcan, and Valiant). Very wire-y and cool. Many, many plugs and things all over the place."
Link
(Thanks, Devin!)
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In Atlantic v. Howell, the judge has totally eviscerated the RIAA's theories of 'making available' and 'offering to distribute.' In a 17-page opinion (PDF), District Judge Neil V. Wake carefully analyzed the statute and caselaw, and based on a 'plain reading of the statute' concluded that 'Unless a copy of the work changes hands in one of the designated ways, a "distribution" under [sec.] 106(3) has not taken place.' The judge also questioned the sufficiency of the RIAA's evidence pointing towards defendant, as opposed to other members of his household. This is the Phoenix, Arizona, case in which the defendant is representing himself, but received some timely help from his friends. And it's the same case in which the RIAA suggested that Mr. Howell's MP3s, copied from his CDs, were unlawful. One commentator calls today's decision 'Another bad day for the RIAA.'"
An anonymous reader sends word that Microsoft Windows XP SP3, which had been scheduled to hit the Web today, was pulled back at the last minute. SP3 apparently broke a Microsoft application, Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System. Their solution is to set up a filter to make sure that no system running the affected software will get automatically updated; once the filter is in place, SP3 will be released to the Web. A fix for the incompatibility will follow.
Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey, wants the House to enact legislation before the summer Olympics in China that would ban US tech companies from complying with repressive regimes' censorship requests
"After a while, we started to see how arrogant he was, how little sympathy he had for his wife," says a 61-year-old school teacher who sat on the jury. "He was thinking this out."
I'm the editor of PoopReport.com. I've been living in India for the last six months. While here, I've come across a great cause related to the subject of my site: raising money to build toilets for lowest-caste girls studying at the Pardada Pardadi school in rural Uttar Pradesh.
These pudus have been hit by cars or wrongly adopted as pets, so without Fernando, they probably wouldn't have survived. When people in these parts hear of such things, they bring the pudus to Fernando's hideaway, where they live out their days with space, safety, food, and comfort. Sometimes they even make babies.
Dibs -- your new way to eat ice cream.
And our Final Jeopardy clue today is:
I'm a filmmaker in Los Angeles at the helm of project ARTEMIS ('Artemis Eternal') a short, scifi-fantasy film currently in preproduction that is professionally-led, community-funded, cross-platform and supported by an audience of Wingmen who accept the challenge to create a better professional model for film production, distribution and exhibition. Here's a 2-minute clip.
bushleague.tv is a yet-to-be-launched internet video show produced right next door to where we make Boing Boing tv, at the studios of internet video firm DECA. The Bush League people are pretty crazy, and they're fun neighbors to have. 
