As you may have heard, we're big fans of RSS here at ReadWriteWeb. We've covered many RSS readers, aggregators, sites, and services in the past and have provided RSS tips in posts like "Seven Tips for... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 May 2008 | 2:00 pm
Jay writes "Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is out now. If yours didn't auto-update, then get it while it's hot! The release came a bit early with Computer World noting 'The appearance of Firefox Release Candidate 1 (RC1) came earlier than expected. As recently as last Saturday, Mozilla's chief engineer said that although the company had locked down RC1's code, it was planning to publicly launch the build in 'late May.'" My copy just downloaded- restarting after I save this story. God I hope it's better than the last beta.
coondoggie writes to tell us that congressional watchdogs have called on Congress to create a body within the FAA to oversee unmanned aircraft development and integration. The group cited the rapidly growing unmanned aircraft community and is worried about the possible repercussions. "The GAO also called on the FAA to work with the Department of Defense, which has extensive unmanned aircraft experience to issue its program plan. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assesses the security implications of routine unmanned aircraft access to commercial airspace, the GAO said. Even if all issues are addressed, and there are a number of critical problems, unmanned aircraft may not receive routine access to the national airspace system until 2020, the GAO concluded."
By Anonymous Protective Wear Kimberly-Clark Professional has extended its line of limited-use head-to-toe protective gear. The KLEENGUARD V50 contour eye protection with foam fog and particle shield features an integrated fog and particle shield and foam surrounding the lens. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By McPherson, Donna The key is to balance apparel function and form within the scope of a realistic hazard assessment and risk analysis. The chief goal of protective apparel is to protect the wearer from hazards in the work environment. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Anonymous CHEMICAL SAFETY EPA, the National Institutes of Health Chemical Genomics Center and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have collaborated to change chemical testing methods because of the risks the tests pose to humans. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Anonymous As a result of tests funded by the Seattle Post -Intelligencer newspaper, which showed that professional cooks might be exposed to butter flavoring that contains diacetyl, three House of Representatives committee leaders have sent a letter to the director of NIOSH requesting a systematic evaluation of workers exposed to the respiratory hazard. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Anonymous MAY 2008 POWER TRANSMISSION, MOTION CONTROL SALES STRONG. The Chicago-based Power Transmission Distributors Association is reporting that sales trends for distributors and manufacturers in the power transmission and motion control industry are still strong. U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Anonymous NATIONAL SECURITY Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a final list of 300 chemicals that if possessed by a facility in certain quantities trigger a requirement that an assessment-known as a Top Screenbe completed. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Candus Thomson, The Baltimore Sun May 17--ABOARD THE YNOT MABEL -- A massive front-end loader wrestled more than 40 stainless steel New York City subway cars off a barge yesterday, swinging them one by one over the gray, choppy water before releasing them with a splash. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, Albany Times Union, N.Y. May 17--BALLSTON SPA -- A state Supreme Court justice Friday gave the Saratoga County Water Authority two months to appraise some 20 parcels it hopes to condemn through eminent domain in order to complete its $67 million water line. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) ["1st Ld: 46 Injured Need Help as Lake Burst Imminent at China Quake zone" - Xinhua headline] BEIJING, May 17 (Xinhua) - Forty-six seriously injured people are in dire need of help in Beichuan county at the epicentre of the Sichuan quake, where the water level of a lake is rising rapidly and the lake may burst its bank at any time, soldiers at the site has warned. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Stewart, Marilyn E The Red Oaks School in Morristown, NJ, where I am head of school, has a visiting scholar program. It is a key part of our professional development plan for teachers. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Scott Wuerz, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill. May 17---- It made news all across the country this week when a woman was charged in the Internet-related suicide of a St. Charles, Mo., teenager, and authorities say cyber bullying is becoming more prevalent. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By The Kansas City Star, Mo. May 17--The indictment of the Missouri woman whose Internet harassment of a teenager was allegedly a factor in the girl's suicide should stand as a cautionary tale for cyberspace users. Federal prosecutors have charged Lori Drew of suburban St. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Ruth Rendon and Kevin Moran, Houston Chronicle May 17--A part of history came down Friday when a church in Freedmen's Town -- a section just west of downtown established by freed slaves -- was demolished. Bricks started falling off the Mt. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Tryling, David P This month we have a number of interesting new products as the spring product releases are launched. Make sure to check out the manufacturers' Web sites, where more detailed information and other products are usually available. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Journal-World, Lawrence, Kan. May 17--An incident in which Missouri authorities decided not to file charges now has become a federal case -- and a case that should get the attention of Internet users across the nation. Lori Drew, a resident of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., a St. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 11:00 am
deglr6328 writes "The OMEGA EP laser at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics was dedicated today at the Robert L. Sproull Center for Ultra High Intensity Laser Research. The new laser, which has been in design since ~2002 will, at 1 kilojoule per 1 picosecond pulse, be the highest energy petawatt scale laser ever created by far. For a fleeting fraction of a second, it will deliver a beam of infrared light at 1054 nm that is more powerful than the total energy consumption of all human activity on the planet, to a tiny spot the size of the head of a pin. Previous petawatt scale lasers such as the one created at Lawrence Livermore labs in the late 90's (and dismantled in 1999) were capable of only several hundred joules per pulse. The new OMEGA EP laser will be able to manifest power densities sufficient to examine Unruh and Hawking radiation-like phenomena in the laboratory and will have the capability to directly produce nuclear reactions through ultra high electric field initiated photodisintegration."
Singapore Airlines announced the first-ever flights featuring iPod and iPhone connectivity starting today on its newly reconfigured, all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between New York and Singapore,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 May 2008 | 8:47 am
National Restaurant Association Show, CHICAGO, May 17 /PRNewswire/ - Givex announced today the successful conversion of McAlister's Deli gift cards from their former Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 May 2008 | 8:30 am
CHICAGO, May 17 /PRNewswire/ - (National Restaurant Association Show) - Givex, a global provider of closed loop card technologies, including gift, loyalty and other... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 May 2008 | 8:30 am
By Hurst Laviana, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. May 17--It started at 7:28 p.m. May 4, on what appears to have been a quiet Sunday night in the Sedgwick County Jail. "I DECLARE MYSELF A RECRUIT IRISHMAN," a detention deputy said in an all-caps e-mail to six fellow detention officers. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Westminster Presbyterian Church was organized in Ontario, three years following the birth of the city in 1892. Ontario, which had been desert, populated only with sagebrush and cactus, was rapidly filling with citrus groves and grape vineyards. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Riding a hot streak that has doubled its stock price in the past three years, Hewlett-Packard Co. is rolling the dice on a $13.2 billion acquisition of technology-services provider Electronic Data Systems Corp. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Tom Heinen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel May 17--Several prominent Baptist pastors will speak at a national Seeking the Kingdom Conference that is expected to draw hundreds of laypeople and ministers to Milwaukee's Jeremiah Missionary Baptist Church for a four-night, three-day gathering that begins at 7 p.m. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 May 2008 | 8:00 am
DesScorp writes "Popular Science has a piece on some outrageous ideas for weapons; some came to fruition, and other's didn't. And while some of the weapons (atom bombs, chemical weapons, bats with bombs strapped to them that seek out homes and buildings at night) are truly frightening, some of them are also kind of silly, such as the Gay Bomb, and the Frisbee bomb that was labeled the 'Modular Disc-Wing Urban Cruise Munition.'"
Yahoo Inc., fighting billionaire investor Carl Icahn's bid to take control of its board, said Friday that it agreed to give advertising company WPP Group access to its online advertising auction service... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 May 2008 | 7:00 am
Controversial language is added to the proposal. Opponents of bioengineered food say the White House wants U.S. agribusiness to reap rewards. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 May 2008 | 7:00 am
Megan Meier, 13, hanged herself in 2006. A neighbor's mother was indicted in Los Angeles on Thursday in the case. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 May 2008 | 7:00 am
In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 May 2008 | 7:00 am
Their massive vehicles' low mpg weighs down the bottom line, spurring cultural and technological shifts. If you... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 May 2008 | 7:00 am
The baby stellar blast happened around 1868, astronomers say. Radio and X-ray techniques are combined to pinpoint the object. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 May 2008 | 7:00 am
Researchers speculate that calm conditions in the Pacific altered the route of his ships, which became the first to circle the globe. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 May 2008 | 7:00 am
alphadogg writes to tell us that the NSF is researching chain letters and how they travel. The results aren't quite what one might expect, showing a pattern of more selective and circuitous travel. "One surprising finding was that messages often took meandering routes between people who knew each other, often through as many as 100 intermediaries. Many email users also received copies from multiple social groups. The researchers concluded that because messages come from many directions, there's ample opportunity for the messages to be edited along the way."
The Men Who Stare At Goats is a must-read 2005 book by UK journalist Jon Ronson about the US government's interest in very strange stuff, like Jedi powers, psychic spying, subliminal sound weapons, and the potential to kill something (like a goat, or an enemy soldier) just by looking at it. Fact or fiction, or most likely some of both, it's an absolute blast to read. (And Ronson's BBC documentary based on the book, Crazy Rulers of the World, is a lot of fun too! You can find it here on Google Video.) Yesterday, it was announced that Grant Heslov will direct a feature film based on The Men Who Stare At Goats. The star? George Clooney. From Variety:
Script was penned by Brit Peter Straughan ("How to Lose Friends and Alienate People"). The project has been around for some time, but international buyers only just received the script this week as the Cannes fest and market got started. Script topped the 2007 Brit List of best unproduced screenplays.
Link to Variety, Link to buy Men Who Stare At Goats
Previously on BB:
• The Men Who Stare At Goats Link
• Documentary: Crazy Rulers of the World Link
The Men Who Stare At Goats is a must-read 2005 book by UK journalist Jon Ronson about the US government's interest in very strange stuff, like Jedi powers, psychic spying, subliminal sound weapons, and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 May 2008 | 5:15 am
YANGON (Reuters) - With state TV only showing footage of generals handing out food at model tented villages, people in Myanmar are snapping up bootleg video discs of bloated corpses,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 May 2008 | 5:12 am
Making moonshine has gone from a backwoods black art to a high-end hobby practiced by "whiskey geeks" with a taste for top-shelf hooch.
Unlike their bootlegging predecessors, who cooked up big batches of white lightning and distributed the illegal booze out of the backs of cars, today's moonshiners focus on quality rather than quantity.
"It took me years, but with practice and dedication you can make any spirit every bit as good as a commercial distiller," says Dave Robison, 42, owner of Pioneer Spirits, a single-batch distillery in Chico, California. "You might not be able to reproduce it exactly, but it will be as good as anything you can buy on the top shelf."
Home distillation of liquor used to be the province of backwoods bootleggers. Up until 1974, when the world price of sugar skyrocketed, commercial moonshiners throughout the Southeastern United States made enough money making hooch that it was worth the risk of getting caught by federal revenuers.
Today, making your own liquor is as illegal as ever, and a lot less lucrative. In fact, it's considerably cheaper to buy it off the shelf.
As a result, today's home distillers are quintessential do-it-yourselfers. Many are engineers and techies, much like the liquor connoisseurs who attend the Whiskies of the World Expo each year in San Francisco. "We have a whole audience that we refer to as the whiskey geek," event founder and organizer Riannon Walsh says. "I think 90 percent of them are techies."
John Spidell misses the moonshine tradition. A former federal revenuer, the 65-year-old spent the first half of the '70s "busting up" illegal stills in North Carolina. His job sometimes required living in a sleeping bag under a piece of canvas for weeks at a time, watching a big still, waiting for the owner to appear. Smaller stills got less attention.
"A five- or six-hundred-gallon outfit wasn't worth wasting time on," he says. "I'd go back to my vehicle, get the C4 explosives and blasting caps, and I'd blow it up. There were only so many of us, and only so much time."
Spidell was blowing up simple pot stills, which were used to distill mash made from sugar, water, yeast and hog "shorts" (corn feed for hogs). After it was fermented, the mash would go into the boiler, where it was heated.
Because alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, the vapors that rose from the mash contained more alcohol than the mash itself. Those rising vapors traveled through an angled lyne arm to a condenser, traditionally made of copper coil. The condensed spirits were collected and redistilled until they reached a sufficient proof, then bottled in quart-size mason jars or gallon-size plastic milk jugs.
Bootleggers delivered the illicit liquor to "shot houses" in the cities on Wednesdays and Thursdays, ensuring they were stocked for the weekend.
Today's home distillers are more likely to build a small reflux still and hide it in the garage. Unlike a pot still, the vapors rise through a column packed with copper wool or another high-surface-area material before being directed into the condenser. A beer keg makes a good boiler, and a homemade column and condenser are within the reach of anyone with basic welding and soldering skills and access to copper pipe.
The packed column makes the reflux still more efficient than a pot still, so it produces a higher-proof spirit on the first distillation. Still, the average home distiller isn't making any money on the endeavor.
"People are trying to keep a tradition alive," Robison says. "They're not selling it. That's looked down on in the home distilling crowd. Most people I know aren't making more than a gallon at a time. Some people on the forum come from the moonshiner tradition, and we've learned a lot from them. But I've never met anyone who makes it for money."
Depending on the efficiency of the still, home-distilled alcohol can vary from 120 to 192 proof, or 60 percent to 96 percent pure alcohol.
The concept may be simple, but high-quality home-distilling isn't exactly easy. The moonshine tradition spawned a lot of misinformation, which Robison tries to rectify on the forum. First and foremost, he makes it clear that home distillation of liquor is illegal in all 50 states and just about every country, save New Zealand.
Besides being illicit, white lightning has earned a reputation for blinding and killing people who drink it. Many sources attribute these effects to methanol ("the heads"), which boils off naturally during an early stage of the distillation process.
"The heads will make you blind if you drink it, but I defy you to try to drink it," says microdistiller Michael Heavener, co-owner of Highball Distillery in Portland, Oregon. "If it doesn’t make you wince when you smell it, it's probably not going to make you go blind."
The real culprit in poison moonshine was usually radiators, according to Spidell. "Copper coils are not the most efficient condenser. If you're making 10,000 to 25,000 gallons at a time, you might immerse a truck radiator in the water. Chemicals in the moonshine leach out lead salts from the soldering. As a result of that, here comes the lead poisoning."
Made properly, home-distilled spirits are as safe to drink as any commercial liquor. Still, Heavener warns, "I'd be more concerned with the danger of explosions."
Most stills are heated with propane burners. Purified ethanol is highly flammable, and its clear blue flame can be difficult to see under certain conditions. Open flame plus high-proof alcohol equals one potentially explosive combination.
Even innocent mistakes -- such as using lead soldering or plastic parts in the still - can lead to serious consequences. So Robison encourages would-be home-distillers to do their homework first and make liquor later.
After all, he says, "This ain't stamp collecting."
Though made for children, Japanese toy robots can catch the eye of even the most discriminating adults.
Iconic graphic designer Tom Geismar, whose firm Chermayeff & Geismar has created memorable logos for Mobil, PBS and other U.S. institutions, has been collecting the shiny bots for decades.
The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle will exhibit toys from Geismar's collection in Robots: A Designer's Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels through Oct. 26. The vintage robots on display reflect Geismar's trained eye. "I've really restricted myself to ones that appealed to me as interesting, imaginative designs," he says.
Left:
"I continue to find the straightforward and somewhat naïve appearance of the early toys to be most appealing," Geismar says of this vaguely Victorian robot.
Photo: Richard Nichol
:
Geismar's fascination with robots began in 1970 while he was working on the U.S. pavilion for the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan. In local stores, he came across zinc die-cast figures like manufacturer Popy's Chogokin King Joe, based on a villain from the Ultra Seven show in the Ultraman series that aired in the late 1960s. "They were all made of metal and painted terrifically. And they were very imaginative," Geismar says. In those days, boxes often featured the names and pictures of the toys' designers. "Obviously they put a lot of effort and care into making these intricate things," he says, "but they were just in stores for kids to play with." The holes in each arm fire black, three-fingered claws and yellow missiles.
Photo: Richard Nichol
:
This DX Tetsujin 28, literally Iron Man No. 28 in English, was based on the 1963 Japanese anime of the same name. Some of the episodes aired in the United States the next year, under the title Gigantor.
"This handsome form is one of my favorites," Geismar says. "As a designer, I tend to like things that are reasonably simple and clear, straightforward." Like many robots, it comes with a small model human, in this case the boy who controls the flying man by remote control in the cartoon.
Photo: Richard Nichol
:
The Takara company's highly articulated Abitate T-10B, also called Blockhead, is a die-cast mecha based on a character from the 1981 Japanese series Fang of the Sun Dougram that never aired in the States. The models did reach U.S. shelves, however, and a smaller-scale version of this body armor, the T-10A, came in a box featuring the intriguing slogan, "We never approve your independence from our federation."
For Geismar, the most captivating thing about the models is the details, like Blockhead's menacing red hands. "When you go to a very different culture where you can't even read any of the signs, you see things in a very different way," he says. "You see it for what it looks like. Only later did I learn that most of the toys were representations of characters in popular Japanese films and television shows."
Robot toys hit a peak of mainstream popularity when Hasbro introduced the Transformers, but the roots of those bots lie in designs like Popy's Chogokin DX Sun Vulcan Solar Combination from 1981. The transforming robot turns into the triangular Cosmo Vulcan jet and the stocky Bull Vulcan tank. In its humanoid form, the mecha carried a huge sword and shield, and tied into the TV show Solar Squadron Sun Vulcan.
Photo: Richard Nichol
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Another transformer, Popy's Chogokin Goggle V GB-76, turns into a yellow truck and was later reissued in the Etarnal [sic] Heroes Series. This bot's tie-in live-action show was part of the great three-decade lineage of Super Sentai TV series. Check out the Goggle V opening credits and learn from whence the Power Rangers came.
A collector of naïve figures from around the world before he came across robots, Geismar compares models like this to folk art. "In the World's Fair pavilion in Japan, there was a major exhibit of Native American masks, many from the Pacific Northwest. When we went to install them, the workers already knew them and they really related to them. They are very similar to a number of Japanese cultures' masks. I think, in a sense, there are masks involved with these robots. The mask behind a mask, or face within a face."
Photo: Richard Nichol
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Although they usually take a humanlike form, the Japanese robots can take any shape. Take, for instance, this Outer Space Spider. "Whether they were men or bugs or flying saucers or whatever they are," Geismar says, "there seemed to be very few creative barriers to the designers doing them."
Photo: Richard Nichol
:
First starring in Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot went on to appear in everything from a Columbo episode to Earth Girls Are Easy, becoming a popular and endlessly reproduced emblem of robotkind. Once wound up, this Action Planet Robot version of Robby takes clumsy steps and shoots sparks under the red mouth shield below its head grill.
Before the zinc mecha craze began in the 1970s and '80s, Japanese toy robots were simpler. Made of tin or plastic during the country's post-World War II industrialization, they were also more fragile.
Photo: Richard Nichol
:
Some Japanese toy robots, like this one, remain anonymous.
"I would find robots like this in souvenir shops in Times Square," Geismar says. "Very simple windup or battery-operated mechanical men. They weren't based on stories and didn't have names. I always liked their sculptural quality."
Photo courtesy Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
:
The designs of early bots from the 1950s and '60s have been reinterpreted over the years with more sophisticated finishes. When switched on, this Horikawa Silver Astronaut, probably from the 1980s, walks forward, pausing every few steps to spin its torso with its green canons leveled at all attackers.
Photo: Richard Nichol
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It wouldn't be a robot collection without Mechagodzilla, the kaiju monster that aliens built to do battle with the real Godzilla in 1974. Released in 2003, this model comes loaded with features like pop-off knee missiles and an opening mouth and chest hatch.
Photo: Richard Nichol
:
To wring as much profit as possible from their molds, model companies cast the same robots multiple times. Sometimes, as in the case of this Cosmobot, the molds would change hands and models would come out under other brands with only new names or slight differences of detail to distinguish them.
"They'd change the feet or change the color," Geismar says, "or just do anything to say it was a new one. You clearly recognize over many years the same molds with only slight variations." Thanks to a tread on his back, Cosmobot changes into a tank.
Photo: Richard Nichol
:
The Golden Warrior Gold Lightan makes an unusual transformation: From the form of a classic robot warrior, it folds into a small cigarette lighter. Released in 1981 (when else?), it naturally had its own anime series.
"The funny thing about all these images," Geismar says, "is that when they're photographed like this you have no sense of the scale. That lighter is not more than 2-and-a-half inches high." In an effort to replicate the larger-than-life roles these toys have played in children's (and adults') minds over the years, the Science Fiction Museum will include giant enlargements as part of the exhibition.
Geismar approves. "They are scaleless in a sense," he says. "You want to make them human-size."
Photo courtesy Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
Hundreds of kangaroos will be culled at a former naval site near the Australian capital after the defence department said plans to relocate the animals fell through. The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 May 2008 | 3:58 am
Prague zoo has launched a programme aimed at saving the gharial, an Indian fish-eating crocodile, from extinction with a million-dollar pavilion where keepers hope the creatures will... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 May 2008 | 3:28 am
A group of U.S. Senators are asking the FBI to explain a recent controversial National Security Letter sent to the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive was able to defeat the request with help from the EFF and the ACLU this past April. "The Internet Archive's case is only the third known legal challenge to NSLs, despite the fact that the the FBI issues tens of thousands a year -- more than 100,000 such letters were issued in 2004 and 2005 combined. But despite the lack of legal challenges from recipients at ISPs, telephone companies and credit bureaus, successive scathing reports from the Justice Department's Inspector General have found illegal letters and a willy-nilly culture within the bureau towards tracking their usage."
FM has partnered with Chevy to create a site that pulls together the best of sites on the web covering all things green. I've found it a nice way to stay in touch with a subject I'm increasingly interested... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 May 2008 | 3:14 am
It seems a given that mobile social networking is going to be “the next big thing”, but squinting at tiny text is still a pain on today’s phones. To deal with this issue, Blabnote, a... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 May 2008 | 3:03 am
Wired's posted a photo gallery from the new show of vintage Japanese robots opening at the Sci Fi Museum in Seattle.
Iconic graphic designer Tom Geismar, whose firm Chermayeff & Geismar has created memorable logos for Mobil, PBS and other U.S. institutions, has been collecting the shiny bots for decades.
The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle will exhibit toys from Geismar's collection in Robots: A Designer's Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels through Oct. 26. The vintage robots on display reflect Geismar's trained eye. "I've really restricted myself to ones that appealed to me as interesting, imaginative designs," he says.
Wired's posted a photo gallery from the new show of vintage Japanese robots opening at the Sci Fi Museum in Seattle. Iconic graphic designer Tom Geismar, whose firm Chermayeff & Geismar has created... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 May 2008 | 2:58 am
If you know me, you know I love bookcases built into EVERYTHING. This sofa (the Flexform Oltre) with bookcases in the arms: no exception. Link (via Cribcandy) ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 May 2008 | 2:57 am
If you know me, you know I love bookcases built into EVERYTHING. This sofa (the Flexform Oltre) with bookcases in the arms: no exception.
Link
(via Cribcandy)
Is it a bug in Vista's DRM systems? Did Microsoft and NBC cut a deal? What other receivers out there are going to obey the broadcasters instead of their owners?
esocid writes to tell us that researchers from Taiwan have created a new baseball cap complete with embedded -bio-signal monitoring system. The purpose was to give a neural interface that could be useful in everyday life. "The cap contains five embedded dry electrodes on the wearer's forehead, and one electrode behind the left ear, that acquire EEG signals. Then, the EEG signals are wirelessly transmitted to a data receiver, where they are processed in real-time by a dual-core processor. The BCI system includes Bluetooth transmission for distances of 10m or less (e.g., for driving applications), as well as RF transmission for distances up to 600m (e.g., for potential sports applications). Next, the processed signals are transmitted back to the cap, where the data can be stored, displayed in real-time on a screen, or be used to trigger an audio warning, if necessary."
for surfing social networking websites and are believed to be the first charged under the state's new law that restricts their use of the Internet, authorities said Friday. State... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 May 2008 | 1:27 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rich Nottenburg, Motorola Inc's chief strategy and technology officer, has become the latest senior staff member to exit since activist investor Carl Icahn... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 May 2008 | 1:02 am
HONG KONG, May 17 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Gays.com Ltd ( href="http://www.gays.com">http://www.gays.com ) today announced the launch of a new-generation social ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 May 2008 | 12:01 am
Cable TV, phone and Internet service provider Charter Communications drew concern Friday from two congressmen and a privacy advocate over its plan to experiment with tracking its... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 May 2008 | 11:48 pm
SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. is seeking to conceal large portions of a shareholder lawsuit alleging the Internet company's board improperly thwarted Microsoft Corp.'s US$47.5-billion... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 May 2008 | 11:38 pm
German boutique automaker Gumpert teams up with Lithium Technology Corp. to build the fastest hybrid ever. They're taking it to the 'Ring to prove "green" and "performance" aren't mutually exclusive.
Dr. Eggman writes "Oscar Pistorius, a 21-year-old South African double-amputee sprinter, has won his appeal filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This overturns a ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations, and allows Mr. Pistorius the chance to compete against other able-bodied athletes for a chance at a place on the South African team for the Beijing Olympics. He currently holds the 400-meter Paralympic world sprinting record, but must improve on his time by 1.01 seconds to meet the Olympic qualification standard. However, even if Pistorius fails to get the qualifying time, South African selectors could add Oscar to the Olympic 1,600-meter relay squad."
BB pal and inspiration V. Vale is the publisher of RE/Search, chronicles of underground and fringe culture since 1977. The RE/Search books, from Industrial Culture Handbook and Pranks! to Modern Primitives and Incredibly Strange Music, are essential encyclopedias of alternative thought, art, music, literature, and methods to circumvent "control" in all its manifestations. (Pranks!, Industrial Culture Handbook, and RE/SEARCH #4/5: Burroughs, Gysin, Throbbing Gristle are now available in limited edition hardcover!) Vale attended the recent Maker Faire Bay Area and was blown away by the connections he saw between the hacker/maker/crafter culture and what he suggests are the original, unspoken "principles" of punk rock: DIY, Mutual Aid, Anti-Authoritarianism, and Black Humor. Vale saw all those characteristics embodied at the Maker Faire and, inspired, wrote a wonderful piece about what the Faire meant to him. Here's an excerpt from Vale's RE/Search blog post, "Maker Faire and Punk Rock":
The first, quintessential principle of “Punk Rock” was (obviously) “DO-IT-YOURSELF”… meaning Create All Your Own Culture: music, recordings, record labels, distribution, “Punk Rock” stores, art, graphic art, collages, drawings, interior decor, your clothing, hairstyles, sculpture/installations, social gatherings, community centers, squats or shared housing, art studios, shows — everything that makes your life “meaningful” and “fun.” And this “principle” made EVERYONE at least a naive or “outsider” artist, if not more...
Well, for more than thirty years Punk’s “Do-It-Yourself” signified (to me, at least) Doing It Yourself — but pretty much restricted to the “Arts.” But for the first time we attended last weekend’s Maker Faire and realized that: Why shouldn’t D-I-Y also apply to Science and Technology? (Now, we had ALMOST thought that, years ago, when Survival Research Laboratories began, but — we’re dense.)...
In other words, for thirty years the underlying message of all my publications has remained: “Everyone Is An Artist.” But, now I want to add an additional message: “Everyone Is A Scientist” — or, “Everyone is an Artist/Scientist.” Because, who doesn’t want to figure out how things work? ”
Jerry Yang, Yahoo's chief executive implored his 14,000 staff to stick to their day jobs in spite of an audacious effort by the billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn to unseat the internet firm's entire... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 16 May 2008 | 11:05 pm
The BBC is reporting that Sugar Labs is planning on taking "Sugar", the XO laptop's innovative interface, to the next level and distribute to a broader audience. "Sugar is a user interface that allows children to collaborate even when working on different machines. For example, they can write documents or make music together. The open source software also contains a journal and automatically saves and backs up all data. [...] Sugar Labs will work closely with developers from the open source community to develop the user interface for other computers and operating systems. It has already been bundled with the most recent releases of the Ubuntu and Fedora Linux operating systems."
Writer Vince Gilligan tells about directing the classic X-Files team and working with Will Smith to craft the perfect movie about a dysfunctional crime-fighter.
Buddhist monk THich Dang "Tom" Phap is building a beautiful Buddhist Meditation Center in a very unusual and unlikely location: the barren high desert of Adelanto, California. The centerpiece is a 60-ton marble statue of the saint Quan yin, donated by a Malaysian businessman. Phap bought 15 acres in Adelanto four years ago as a home for the statue and the center that he hopes he can complete if enough donations come in. Right now, the place has no power or water. The Los Angeles Times created a lovely short video visit with Phap to accompany an article on his project. Link to video, Link to article (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)
D Ninja writes "Yesterday, Lockheed Martin was awarded the $1.4 billion Air Force contract to build the next-generation global positioning satellite system. This occurred after a series of delays as the Air Force decided between Lockheed and the competing bidding contractor, Boeing Co. 'GPS III, will give new navigation warfare (NAVWAR) capabilities to shut off GPS service to a limited geographical location while providing GPS to US and allied forces. GPS III will offer significant improvements in navigation capabilities by improving interoperability and jam resistance. The procurement of the GPS III system is planned for multiple blocks, with the GPS IIIA portion currently underway. GPS IIIA includes all of the GPS IIF capability plus up to a ten-fold increase in signal power, a new civil signal compatible with the European Union's Galileo system, and a new spacecraft bus that will allow a growth path to future blocks.'"
The local airwaves a little too boring for your tastes? Take matters into your own hands by starting your own radio station. Follow our guide in Wired.com's How-To Wiki.
Did you know archive.org has lots of cool old feature films in the public domain you can download for free? Here's one they just added to the archive that looks promising: The Hoodlum, from 1951.
I'm downloading it now.
(Here's the RSS feed for recent additions to the movie archive.)
Lawrence Tierney ("Reservoir Dogs") plays an unreformed, hardened criminal who has just been released from prison. Working at his brother's gas station, he becomes very interested in the armored car that makes regular stops at the bank across the street.
Here is an old soulful cover of Sam Cooke's "Having A Party" by Greg Dulli, former frontman of one of my all-time favorite modern rock bands, Afghan Whigs. The first national magazine article I ever wrote, for Alternative Press, was about the Whigs, who I knew growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio. And Cooke's "Having A Party" was my wedding song, so this cover has special meaning to me. On hiatus from his current band Twilight Singers, Dulli just put out a killer new record with Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age), under the moniker Gutter Twins. The album, titled "Saturnalia," is some heavy-ass neo-gothic gospel.
Link to Dulli's Having A Party video Link to buy Gutter Twins Link to Summer's Kiss for more on Whigs, Gutter Twins, Twilight Singers
Charter Communications, one of the nation's largest ISPs, says its users can opt out of its plans to spy on their web usage to serve more targeted ads. But what few technical details are available suggest that there's no way to skip the spying part, and raise questions about whether the plan opens a gaping internet security hole.
Marc Andreessen has made two mid-year resolutions: “No more public speaking” and “More blogging.” They both seem related to his dissatisfaction with reporters. But Andreessen, in his widely-read blog, doesn’t exactly say what the problem is, and why now is the time to do something about it. Has he really stepped off the non-virtual stage for the last time?
Two powerful congressmen are asking ISP Charter Communications to put a hold on its proposal to eavesdrop on its customers' web surfing in order to serve targeted ads. The Friday letter questions whether the plan would violate federal privacy law.
It turns out more pixels doesn't equate to a better camera. Casio's latest snapper is only 6 megapixels but is loaded with so many fun features, like 1200 fps video capture, that you won't notice or care.
Strap a weird keyboard to your hand with rubber bands that cut off the circulation -- a feature that keeps you from using too many minutes, perhaps. Speak into your pinky, listen to your thumb. This is a step forward in handset technology? It's a concept ... yeah.
They fought like cats and dogs for a long time but now the OLPC nonprofit that wants to put a $100 laptop in the hands of every poor kid around the world has let Microsoft into the tent. The inclusion of Windows on the meant-to-be Linux box will raise the price (already $188 anyway) but could lead to new hardware design efficiencies that drops the price.
Comment by Carl Pope Executive Director, Sierra Club
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QA Create sells these elegant cufflinks made from Scrabble tiles. You pick the letters! They're $15.99.Lawrence Tierney ("Reservoir Dogs") plays an unreformed, hardened criminal who has just been released from prison. Working at his brother's gas station, he becomes very interested in the armored car that makes regular stops at the bank across the street.
Here is an old soulful cover of Sam Cooke's "Having A Party" by Greg Dulli, former frontman of one of my all-time favorite modern rock bands, Afghan Whigs. The first national magazine article I ever wrote, for Alternative Press, was about the Whigs, who I knew growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio. And Cooke's "Having A Party" was my wedding song, so this cover has special meaning to me. On hiatus from his current band Twilight Singers, Dulli just put out a killer new record with Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age), under the moniker Gutter Twins. The album, titled "Saturnalia," is some heavy-ass neo-gothic gospel.
