The government is quietly negotiating to help cell phone customers avoid expensive fees when they cancel contracts with wireless companies, The Associated Press has learned. "Cell phone companies routinely... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 1:01 pm
Following last weeks sour review of Indiana Jones, Seamus123 links us to "A spoiler-free review of the brilliant new Indiana Jones film, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Much has been made of the revival of the series: is Harrison Ford too old, is Shia LeBeouf any good and can it live up to the three previous movies? All these questions — and some surprising answers — are found in Den of Geek's review." Personally I'll see it no matter what.
When I read news this morning that AOL's Platform-A would become the exclusive ad provider for Virgin Mobile's 5 million subscribers, I started to think about where web advertising was headed. While it's... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 12:06 pm
bednarz writes "A group of experts on Tuesday released an open source alternative to the BIND DNS server. The new software — dubbed Unbound 1.0 — is a recursive DNS server. From its first prototype in 2004, Unbound was designed to be a faster, more secure replacement for BIND. Unbound supports DNS security extensions (DNSSEC), which authenticate DNS lookups but are not yet widely deployed because they rely on a public key infrastructure. Unbound was released to open source developers by NLnet Labs, VeriSign, Nominet and Kirei."
By Luke Anderson I always thought that the OLPC project was a wonderful idea. I don't know what I would be like today without technology in my life as a youth. I can't even imagine what it would be like... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 11:49 am
By Luke Anderson The mailman shows up to deliver my mail around 10:30 every morning, and is usually on time. However, it seems that when I'm expecting something rather important, he comes just a bit late... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 11:43 am
Text of report by Iranian state-run provincial TV from Esfahan on 20 May The Science Hub of Nanotechnology Training Workshop on the Environment [Persian: Kargah-e Amuzeshi-ye Qotb-e Elmi va Fanavari- ye Nano dar Mohit-e Zist] began its work at Esfahan University of Technology today. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Paul Nelson, Albany Times Union, N.Y. May 21--NISKAYUNA -- A preservation group fighting to save property it believes is historically relevant from being transformed into a shopping mall has taken its case to the state's highest court. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Pack Notes With a thwang the morning of May 8 in woods near Williamsport, Philip Carroll of Marietta shot a 19-pound gobbler, apparently becoming the first crossbow hunter ever to get a grand slam in Pennsylvania. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
A Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission employee was found dead after an accident Monday in Speedwell Forge Lake. Raymond A. Clemens Jr., 50, Lebanon, was found shortly before 6 p.m. by two fishermen, state police said. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
IRVINE, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- SectorWatch.biz announces the availability of MarketStats for water-related equities in the news and driving markets today. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 20--The South Florida Water Management District has agreed to renew the permit needed to supply water to Royal Palm Beach residents. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Diane Carroll, The Kansas City Star, Mo. May 21--The Leawood City Council has legalized the trapping of coyotes to help stem the recent tide of attacks on household pets. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Tania Valdemoro, The Miami Herald May 21--Places of worship should create a security plan, have their members practice and update that plan and know who to call when they need help from police or firefighters. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Kathleen Wilson, Ventura County Star, Calif. May 21--Santa Paula's free quarterly drop-offs of large items, from green waste to tires to appliances, are popular -- maybe too popular. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 21--Actress and singer Hillary Duff is coming to West Palm Beach on Thursday to help feed the hungry. But she might not know the battle she's stepping into. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Dell has announced the resignation of its CFO Donald Carty. He will be replaced by Brian Gladden, chief executive of SABIC Innovative Plastics, who will take over the role next month. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
HP has expanded its virtualization portfolio with the launch of a new mobile thin client. It said the HP 2533t Mobile Thin Client provides access to virtual computers, and protects corporate data and software applications by storing files on a secure, centralized server. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
JAJAH, the world's most innovative global communication company, today announced its integration with MobileTribe, a service-based application that gives people access to their online social networks at any time from their mobile phone. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Social networking and Internet commerce are compelling smartphone users to spend an average of four hours and thirty-eight minutes per month browsing the mobile Web in the United States and two and a half hours per month in Britain, reports M:Metrics, the mobile media authority. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Center 7, a provider of colocation and hosted business solutions, has announced that it will be providing collocation and network management services to OrangeSoda, a search engine optimization and internet marketing firm. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Habeas, Inc., the world leader in online reputation management services, today released its 2008 study of consumer attitudes towards email and online interaction with businesses. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
Businesses and organizations of all sizes have until June 30 to take advantage of a special "Flip That Switch" offer from D-Link Networks of Canada to upgrade their IT infrastructure and move into the fast lane of true Gigabit performance. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
More than 2,700 children across the country took part in the study, commissioned by the Irish Independent and Prime Time Investigates.The research found that kids as young as 12 are being targeted by bullies via mobile phone calls, text messages and Internet sites.One-in-seven children said they had been subjected to such bullying, with girls more likely to fall victim.One in 11 pupils admitted that they had engaged in cyber bullying through emails, Internet forums, chat rooms and social networking sites. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By BJ Lewis, Victoria Advocate, Texas May 21--DeWitt County Sheriff's deputies arrested 23-year-old Carol Elizabeth Walsdorf of Nordheim on a charge of improper conduct between educator and student. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Al Gibes I asked. You answered. My very informal, unscientific survey of readers of this column, my Tidbits blog and the reviewjournal.com Web site turned up some fun facts about that unique community. You aren't the average Joe, or Joan. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 May 2008 | 11:00 am
The masters of impractical high-tech wristware at TokyoFlash have pulled off another coup of LED wristwatch madness with the Infection watch, which uses seething colored LEDs to simulate a dancing Petri... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 10:37 am
The masters of impractical high-tech wristware at TokyoFlash have pulled off another coup of LED wristwatch madness with the Infection watch, which uses seething colored LEDs to simulate a dancing Petri dish (and tell the time):
Twenty-seven multi-colored LEDs pulsate and move like cells across the curved face to present the time from beneath the attractive mirrored mineral crystal lens.
Finished with a matching leather band and stainless steel clasp, this is a flashy look that’s sure to get you noticed.
Twelve red LEDs indicate hours, eleven yellow LEDs represent the progression of time in groups of five minutes and four green LEDs show single minutes.
Worried that the uremic acid in the shark you just caught makes it unsuitable for consumption? Try "rotten shark" -- putrefied, buried, dried shark jerky, an Icelandic "delicacy" that is even more fun... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 10:35 am
Worried that the uremic acid in the shark you just caught makes it unsuitable for consumption? Try "rotten shark" -- putrefied, buried, dried shark jerky, an Icelandic "delicacy" that is even more fun to read about than it is to eat:
Take one large shark, gut and discard the innards, the cartilage and the head. Cut flesh into large pieces.Wash in running water to get all slime and blood off. Dig a large hole in coarse gravel, preferably down by the sea and far from the nearest inhabited house - this is to make sure the smell doesn't bother anybody. Put in the shark pieces, and press them well together. It's best to do this when the weather is fairly warm (but not hot), as it hastens the curing process. Cover with more gravel and put heavy rocks on top to press down. Leave for 6-7 weeks (in summer) to 2-3 months (in winter). During this time, fluid will drain from the shark flesh, and putrefication will set in.
The failure of websites such as Facebook and MySpace to translate their global popularity into ad revenue has led one research company to downgrade ad spend forecasts for the social networking sector by... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 May 2008 | 10:25 am
By Andrew Liszewski If someone had come to me and said, "Hey Andrew, I'm thinking about designing a bathroom sink that can also connect to your MP3 player and double as an amplified speaker" I would have... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 10:16 am
Microsoft is to launch a global brand, called Microsoft Advertising, to house all its advertising-related operations. The new brand, unveiled at Microsoft's advance08 advertiser and publisher conference... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 May 2008 | 10:09 am
ITV has hired Trinity Mirror executive Andy Baker to be the managing director of Friends Reunited, as the departing management of the social networking website share a multimillion-pound earn-out bonanza... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 May 2008 | 10:06 am
Friendship offer declined by random self-immolated passerby In Second Life's early years, making Friends was easy: you just had to select Offer Friendship from your menu. Of course, it's still that simple,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 9:40 am
Odinson writes "In late 2005 I released a draft of a science fiction novel under the by-nc-nd CC license. I started accepting edits in the hope of polishing a manuscript for submission to a publisher. A publisher never materialized, but after thousands of comments the draft started getting really solid. So a couple of months ago I decided to buy an ISBN and sell hard copies from Lulu. While doing research for a press release, I was unable to uncover the first community-edited, CC-licensed work of fiction. I strongly suspect that my novel is the first. Can anybody point to a prior example? How about under other licenses? If someone has traveled this road before, I'd like to ask them how it went. I would also like to vet this question here before staking a claim to be the first."
CHESTER, England, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Veewow is a new online video playlist site that has been launched today. It is a free to use service that allows... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:45 am
The cost of calling a mobile phone could drop significantly after the competition appeal tribunal (CAT) yesterday handed down two judgments which open the way for reducing so-called mobile termination... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:41 am
LONG BEACH, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Sea Launch Company today successfully delivered the Galaxy 18 communications satellite to orbit from its ocean-based platform... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:36 am
BEIJING, May 21 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Asian Financial, Inc. ("Asian Financial", "Company"), a leading offset printing equipment provider in China, ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:34 am
American wireless chip giant Qualcomm is hedging its bets on one of the hottest new home networking technologies with an investment in a Cambridge-based company called ip.access. The company is one of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:31 am
European Union lawmaker Guido Sacconi wants to cut average carbon dioxide emission levels for new cars to no more than 95 grams per kilometer by 2020, a press report said here Wednesday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:30 am
PHOENIX, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Freedom Wireless, Inc. announced today that it has settled a patent infringement suit against VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN) pending in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:30 am
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sears Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: SHLD) today announced the grand opening of a new 811,672 sq. ft. direct... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:30 am
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) today announced availability of an integrated Xilinx(R) Automotive (XA) field programmable gate array Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:30 am
BEIJING, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) today announced plans for the TD-SCDMA Evolution and LTE Summit, Shanghai 2008, taking place from May 31... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:30 am
French luxury-goods company Christian Dior SA Wednesday will unveil a line of mobile phones, extending beyond its traditional fashion business to boost sales, particularly with brand-hungry consumers... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:26 am
Microsoft on Tuesday began letting advertisers display banner ads to mobile users of Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail, following other companies already supporting mobile banner ads. PCWorld... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:19 am
mask.of.sanity informs us of a hack that allows old add-ons to work with Firefox 3.0. Short form: in about:config, create a new boolean and set extensions.checkCompatibility to false. "The fix, which requires a little boolean creativity, great for anyone not afraid of taking risks. The idea is to stop Firefox checking it's version history, allowing defunct extensions to work... [Those who do] get the fix working will have to remove the code from the prefs.js file once the stable Firefox comes out, but will enjoy their [favorite extensions] in the meantime."
SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Joytoto USA, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: JYTO.OB) announced plans to distribute online games to consumers in the US to Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:00 am
CHICAGO and MUMBAI, India, May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), a leading global online travel company, today announced a strategic partnership... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 May 2008 | 7:00 am
An anonymous reader writes "A 15-year-old in the UK is facing prosecution for using the word 'cult' to describe the Church of Scientology at an anti-Scientology demonstration in London earlier this month. According to the City of London police at the scene, the teen was violating the Public Order Act, which 'prohibits signs which have representations or words which are threatening, abusive or insulting.' There's a video of the teen receiving the summons from the City of London police at the demonstration (starting about 1 munite in), and now he's asking for advice on how to handle the court case."
buzzardsbay writes "While technologies such as virtualization, multi-threading, and blade servers have made the data center leaner, those who work there are getting... well... not leaner. According to a new study by CareerBuilder.com, 34 percent of IT workers say they have gained more than ten pounds in their current jobs. And 16 percent say they've gained at least twice that. The culprits seem to be the stressful-yet-sedentary nature of tech work coupled with our famously poor eating habits. According to the survey, some 41 percent of IT workers eat out for lunch twice or more per week, making portion and calorie control difficult. Eleven percent buy their lunch out of a vending machine at least once a week."
In a May 19 story about Napster, The Associated Press mischaracterized music downloads sold by a competitor, the iTunes Music Store. The retailer owned by Apple Inc. sells downloads in the AAC file format,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 May 2008 | 2:24 am
Your leader (May 20) was right to identify the crucial nature of developments in fast broadband to the UK economy, society and consumers. This union's recent policy briefing, Connecting Britain's Future:... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 May 2008 | 12:28 am
For my Internet dollar, no one is funnier than James Lileks, and he's in top form here with his trip report from Disneyworld.
Dinner was large. The portions are huge. They might as well put the plate down and say “here’s more than you can possibly eat, and here’s nine potatoes on the side. Would you like another gallon of high fructose corn syrup? Okay, well, don’t forget to leave room for six pies.” There’s something a bit sad about seeing childless adult Disney fans, lanyards spattered with pins, eating slabs of prime rib thick as a Tolstoi novel, the chairs about to splinter from their enormous fundaments. On the other hand, what gives them happiness? Food and Disney. This is the happiest place on earth after all -- even though there seems to be a subset of Disney nerds who appear immune to the very thing they've come to experience. But that's another story for later.
Off to Downtown Disney, which we hadn’t visited before. Sheer marketing genius: an open-air shopping center designed to extract the last possible penny from every molecule of the Disneyverse. I loved it. As I’m sure I noted last year, you’re either immune to the Mouse or you get it, and if you get it that means the white-gloved hand has closed around something deep in your emotional constitution and squeezed, and squeezed hard. It’s best to get the Mouse and still maintain critical distance, because then you’re not just wallowing in the warm bathos of nostalgia and the murky brew of ersatz Americana, you’re laughing with delight at its innumerable manifestations.
We found the giant World of Disney store, and there (G)Nat was entranced. Me too. Behold the zombie Thumpers, screaming for BRAAAAINS.
Welcome to Wally World says: "The free newspaper Metro (Tuesday 20 May) reports that Paris Metro authorities (RATP) are conducting an inquiry to find out how photographer Jam Abelanet was able to take these arty shots of nekked babes posed in the Metro (for his book, Fantaisies Souterraines - Underground Fantasies). They're worried that people might try to copycat the positions." Link (NSFW)
Johnathon Williams says: "The story that Boing Boing previously covered about the Arkansas woman who was left in a holding cell for four days without food or water when a bailiff forgot about her now has a somewhat happy ending. The prosecutor has dropped the charges against her."
Adrianna Torres-Flores, 38, will not face prosecution for unauthorized copying or sale of recordings because prosecutors have verified her alibi, 4th Judicial District deputy prosecutor Mark Booher said Monday.
Torres-Flores said that she agreed to watch a booth for someone else for about 20 minutes on Dec. 1 when police raided Pleasant Street Flea Market in Springdale, Booher said. Springdale police arrested five adults and four juveniles, and seized thousands of pirated compact discs and digital video discs.
Oddly enough, the bailiff responsible for her ordeal has returned to duty. Link
In a new study appearing online in The FASEB Journal, an international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.
In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity," said Raphael Mechoulam, one of the research study's co-authors. "We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior."
Claire Lui of Print says: "In our Evolution column, we look at decades of covers and ads which have used the 'spread legs' motif, including James Bond and many, many others. Link
The Guardian reports that a 15-year-old boy in the UK was handed a court summons for carrying a placard that called Scientology a dangerous cult.
Writing on an anti-Scientology website, the teenager facing court said: "I brought a sign to the May 10th protest that said: 'Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult.'
"'Within five minutes of arriving I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use that word, and that the final decision would be made by the inspector."
A policewoman later read him section five of the Public Order Act and "strongly advised" him to remove the sign. The section prohibits signs which have representations or words which are threatening, abusive or insulting.
The teenager refused to back down, quoting a 1984 high court ruling from Mr Justice Latey, in which he described the Church of Scientology as a "cult" which was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous".
After the exchange, a policewoman handed him a court summons and removed his sign.
Leemeng writes "I'm looking for a simple, free, and F/OSS flat-file database program. I'm storing info about Wi-Fi access points that I come across, maybe 8-9 fields per entry. I've outgrown Notepad. This info is for my own reference only; it is not going on a Web server. Googling was unhelpful, with results skewed towards SQL, Access (MS), and Oracle, all of which would be overkill for my purposes. My criteria are: it must be simple, F/OSS, must work in Windows Vista, preferably use a portable format, must not be an online app, and must not require Java. Does such a beast exist?"
American Public Media recently launched Budget Hero—our newest interactive game that lets people explore the major issues of the election by changing the federal budget to match their stands on issues and their values
Budget Hero tries to bring a level of clarity and simplicity to the federal budget. It is bound to be controversial since the game puts numbers against issues like bringing home troops from Iraq soon or gradually or not at all and providing options on taxes, Social Security and Medicare. American Public Media worked closely with the Congressional Budget Office, GAO and others on the data and devoted months of reporter and researcher time to creating the game.
Word on the street is that Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice is about to try to shove the Canadian version of the US's failed Digital Millennium Copyright Act through Parliament very soon, and very fast. He made plans to do this before, and the overwhelming public outcry caused him to shelve them, but now he figures we're all distracted and we'll let him get away with it (especially since he's made a couple of cosmetic changes to the bill that he'll use to show how much he really, really cares about us poor Canadians, rather than the US government and entertainment companies who are giving him marching orders).
The Tories promised that they wouldn't do any more treaty-law without public consultation, but Prentice stalwartly refuses to have any public consultation on his plans, despite outcry from industry (he's the Minister of Industry, remember?), artists' groups, library groups, educator groups, and public interest groups. He just keeps on ploughing ahead with his half-baked plan to follow the US off the same stupid copyright cliff it leapt off of in 1998 when it passed the DMCA, a law which has done nothing to reduce infringement, but which has screwed up libraries, competition, and education, and has led to lawsuits against tens of thousands of ordinary citizens.
So it looks like we're going to have to do it again: we're going to have to write to Prentice, rally at his office, phone him and let him know that we're still watching and still paying attention, and that we still demand that he listen to the public -- the way his party promised they would -- before he brings down this law.
If the exceptions are undermined by the Canadian DMCA provisions, why is Prentice throwing them in? The answer is pretty clear. Prentice hopes that the media coverage will focus on these new "modernizing" provisions that he will claim benefit consumers, rather than on the DMCA-style anti-circumvention provisions that will lock down consumer products, harm research and security, raise privacy concerns, and create a restrictive new legal environment.
With the bill seemingly only days away, now is the time to again tell Prentice and your local MP that Canadians will not be so easily deceived. Countries such as New Zealand and Israel have recently enacted legislation with far more balance than what Prentice has in mind. It only takes a few seconds to send an email to Prentice, the Prime Minister, and your local MP, letting them know that Canadians won't be deceived by a Canadian DMCA and that Canadian copyright reform should reflect fair copyright principles (and after you click send, print out the email and drop it in the mail without a stamp, addressed to House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A0A6).
hhavensteincw writes "YouTube has declined a request from Sen. Joe Lieberman remove videos from terrorist organizations. Lieberman said that the videos made by groups like Al-Qaeda show assassinations, attacks on US soldiers leading to injuries and death, and weapons training, 'incendiary' speeches, and other material intended to 'encourage violence against the West.' YouTube said that while it removed some of the videos highlighted by the Senator, most were allowed to stay because they did not violate YouTube's community guidelines. YouTube went on to note that they are strong supporters of free speech."
esocid sends along the news that scientists believe they have found about half the missing matter in the universe. The matter we can see is only about 1/8 of the total baryonic matter believed to exist (and only 1/200 the mass-energy of the visible universe). This missing matter is not to be confused with "dark matter," which is thought to be non-baryonic. The missing stuff has been found in the intergalactic medium that extends essentially throughout all of space, from just outside our galaxy to the most distant regions of space. "'We think we are seeing the strands of a web-like structure that forms the backbone of the universe,' Mike Shull of the University of Colorado explained. 'What we are confirming in detail is that intergalactic space, which intuitively might seem to be empty, is in fact the reservoir for most of the normal, baryonic matter in the universe.'"
An increasing number of digital cameras can shoot in a format known as RAW, which gives you much more control over how your photos turn out. Here's how to use the format to your advantage. In Gadget Lab.
An increasing number of digital cameras can shoot in a format known as RAW, which gives you much more control over how your photos turn out. Here's how to use the format to your advantage. In Gadget Lab.
gadzook33 writes "CNN is reporting that oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is planning to invest billions of dollars in what will probably be the world's largest wind farm. It will eventually generate 4 gigawatts, enough to power 1.3 million homes. The first 600 GE wind turbines are scheduled for delivery in 2010. Pickens says that each turbine will generate about $20,000 in income annually for the landowner who hosts it."
Aerospace researchers in Britain are developing self-repairing composite materials that "bleed" resin when cracked or punctured, creating a "scab" in a process that mimics human healing. They say it could make airplanes safer and foster development of lighter, more efficient -- and therefore less polluting -- aircraft.
The crusty archaeologist doesn't venture far afield from the franchise's whip-cracking action in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But sometimes it's best to stay with the tried and true.
Various reports are confirming that Apple will launch the second version of the iPhone on June 9, and that the phone will be available worldwide the same day.
Various reports are confirming that Apple will launch the second version of the iPhone on June 9, and that the phone will be available worldwide the same day.
Russian presidential candidate and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov was buzzed by a modified remote-control helicopter during a recent press conference. Wired.com has the video, in Gadget Lab.
Russian presidential candidate and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov was buzzed by a modified remote-control helicopter during a recent press conference. Wired.com has the video, in Gadget Lab.
A Swiss researcher has received $5 million from one of the United Arab Emirates to build a prototype for solar power plant islands that could stretch for miles across the ocean and generate hundreds of megawatts of electricity.
Take one large shark, gut and discard the innards, the cartilage and the head. Cut flesh into large pieces.Wash in running water to get all slime and blood off. Dig a large hole in coarse gravel, preferably down by the sea and far from the nearest inhabited house - this is to make sure the smell doesn't bother anybody. Put in the shark pieces, and press them well together. It's best to do this when the weather is fairly warm (but not hot), as it hastens the curing process. Cover with more gravel and put heavy rocks on top to press down. Leave for 6-7 weeks (in summer) to 2-3 months (in winter). During this time, fluid will drain from the shark flesh, and putrefication will set in.
For my Internet dollar, no one is funnier than James Lileks, and he's in top form here with his trip report from Disneyworld.
Welcome to Wally World says: "The free newspaper Metro (Tuesday 20 May) reports that Paris Metro authorities (RATP) are conducting an inquiry to find out how photographer Jam Abelanet was able to take these arty shots of nekked babes posed in the Metro (for his book, Fantaisies Souterraines - Underground Fantasies). They're worried that people might try to copycat the positions." Link (NSFW)
In a new study appearing online in The FASEB Journal, an international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.
American Public Media recently launched Budget Hero—our newest interactive game that lets people explore the major issues of the election by changing the federal budget to match their stands on issues and their values
