Lucas123 brings news that Bank of New York Mellon Corp. has admitted they lost a box of unencrypted data storage tapes. The tapes contained personal information for over 4.5 million people. From Computerworld: "The bank informed the Connecticut State Attorney General's Office that the tapes ... were lost in transport by off-site storage firm Archive America on Feb. 27. The missing backup tapes include names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and other information from customers of BNY Mellon and the People's United Bank in Bridgeport, Conn., according to a statement by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
By Crable, Ad Around Lancaster County, at least seven old dams have been removed on the Conestoga River and tributaries to aid their swim to a population boom. In Columbia, officials envision a new riverfront park attracting anglers fishing for them. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Con O'Neill I WRITE of the horror and sadness of seeing hundreds of fish dying and gasping for oxygen in the Swanswell Hillfields Pool. It has happened in previous years and surely if I neglected a poor cat or dog, I would be prosecuted, fined or imprisoned. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By La Crosse Tribune, Wis. May 31--Last year, the La Crosse Tribune published two stories about families whose children had been put into the foster care system against their will. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Michael Sluss mike.sluss@roanoke.com (804) 697-1585 Gov. Tim Kaine formally signed legislation Thursday authorizing nearly $1.5 billion in borrowing to finance college and state building projects, including a Roanoke medical school planned by Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Poaching fish is a great way to cook at home. Apart from being a very healthy way of cooking, it's also very simple and mess-free. The key to the success of a dish like this is to find the freshest, best quality ingredients that you can. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
When poaching the salmon, it is important you don't let the liquid boil as this will result in overcooked, dry fish. Try adding a few peppercorns and a bay leaf to the water for a more complex but subtle flavour. (c) 2008 Daily Record; Glasgow (UK). Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Reid Magney, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. May 31--Trout can thank the La Crosse Community Found-ation for cleaner local streams. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By La Crosse Tribune, Wis. May 31--La Crosse County Supervisor Robert "Bobby" Erickson plans to announce Monday he's seeking the Republican nomination to run against state Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, in the 95th Assembly District. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Laurie Edwards Appalachian Power's recent relicensing application took center stage at Tri-County Lake Administrative Commission's monthly meeting on Wednesday. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous California The California National Guard's Camp San Luis Obispo received a Secretary of the Army Environmental Award last month for staving off land erosion and giving endangered species a fighting chance The base is home to three federally endangered species, seven federal species of concern and 13 California Fish and Wildlife Department species of concern. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Craig Hepburn has left his position as global webmaster at STA Travel to join RedDot, a content management system (CMS) specialist. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Clawson, Trevor Analysis It was a textbook example of how web 2.0's growing army of content creators is increasingly making news in the mainstream media. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Americans United for Separation of Church and State has urged the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a California-based ministry whose leader issued a press release endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In a Feb. 4 press release, the Rev. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By John McKie BY day he works in the Terminal Five branch of PC World. By night, Madhu Singh is 50 per cent of Signature, the world's only Bhangra Michael Jackson tribute act, from Britain's Got Talent. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Jim Niemi, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky. May 31--In the wake of a thwarted attempt to build a megachurch outside the urban service area in south Lexington, Quest Community Church will add 46,000 square feet to its worship center off Reynolds Road. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Alex Moore, the former head of business development at digital tmw, is working on a start up that he claims will beat Google on individually tailored search results. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous HIV awareness got a boost as Unicef unveiled a digital campaign based on The Gift, a film drawing attention to the problem of mothers passing the disease to their children. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Jim Niemi, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky. May 31--The Kenwick Neighborhood Association and Victory Christian Church are teaming for a tour of residents' homes and gardens on June 8. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Blythe, Alex Analysis Slide, the leading application provider on Facebook, has just announced that it has appointed UK digital media property developer, Monetise, to help it link up with potential advertisers and sponsors. This throws up some interesting possibilities for UK brands. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Hodson, Mark Review I'm in the doghouse. We have a new addition to the family - our baby son is just seven weeks old and he is not sleeping through the night yet. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 May 2008 | 8:00 am
The Google Checkout/Ebay Paypal wars continue. Ebay Australia currently allows merchants to accept credit cards, direct debit, money orders and checks for purchases, but from June 17 they wants to allow... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 7:27 am
(TrendHunter.com) Trend Hunter is pleased to announce the launch of 97 new flavors of RSS. Now if you only like naughty trends or luxury fashion, you can subscribe to just that flavor. The launch... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 6:25 am
(TrendHunter.com) Every safety device counts when it comes to car collisions. A safety feature that is activated before impact rather than after, as with air bags, would be extremely useful in saving... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 6:15 am
(TrendHunter.com) CCTV cameras could one day be installed on airplanes to combat air rage and detect terrorists on aircrafts. The European Union's Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 6:00 am
doppiodave writes "Hard on the heels of the Net Neutrality bill introduced in Canada's Parliament, a class action suit was filed yesterday against Bell by Quebec's Consumers Union, asking that extensive compensation be paid to all Bell's DSL subscribers for fraudulent advertising and privacy violations. The press release is available in French. The timing of this suit coincides with several other developments that suggest Net Neutrality is finally coming to the attention of the general public and Canada's regulator, the CRTC, which recently required Bell to file responses (by May 29) to an exhaustive list of interrogatories about its traffic-shaping practices."
Daniel Pink, author of many well-regarded business books, wrote his first manga business book, Johnny Bunko, after receiving a fellowship to live in Japan and study manga. Bunko is a quick, funny, and extremely, inspiringly sensible book on career-planning that throws out all the traditional bullshit about getting a straight job to fall back on if your creative gig fails on you. Instead, Bunko makes a convincing case for pursuing your dreams, working to your strengths, throwing out the idea of planning, and persevering rather than relying on talent to make it.
I spent a lot of my life ignoring (with some difficulty), the advice of well-meaning people who wanted me to know that I'd never, ever be able to live on what I made from writing. Instead, I took on a series of careers in fields that hadn't even existed when I was a student, each one bringing me closer to my dream of being a full-time scribbler. If I'd listened to the software aptitude test my high-school guidance counsellor gave me, I'd be a "geriatric nutritionist" (cook in a senior's home) today.
Johnny Bunko is a miserable accounting drone who finds a bundle of magic chopsticks. Every time he separates a pair, a genie emerges to help him navigate his way to career freedom. It's a great little device, and the manga artwork -- from the award-winning Rob Ten Pas -- is simple and clean and often very funny.
Bunko is a refreshingly frank and optimistic (but clear-eyed) story about the perils of choosing a safe, lucrative and hateful job that you'll never be able to afford to leave, and the joys of failing in interesting ways, learning from your mistakes, and making more of yourself. I wish someone had given me a copy when I was 16 or so, and forced me to re-read it every year until I was in my mid-twenties.
Link
Daniel Pink, author of many well-regarded business books, wrote his first manga business book, Johnny Bunko, after receiving a fellowship to live in Japan and study manga. Bunko is a quick, funny, and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 5:43 am
(TrendHunter.com) Supermodel and talk-show host Tyra Banks is featured on the cover of the latest issue of The New York Times Magazine in a cover story profile that shares her secret weapon arsenal of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 5:25 am
(TrendHunter.com) This Chuck Taylor combination of the retro high top sneakers and ankle high boots is kind of odd. The High Heel Converse Style Sport Costume Boots feature wicked six inch heels, pointed... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 5:25 am
In an interesting move, Silicon Valley's Mineta San Jose International Airport adds free on top of paid Wi-Fi: The authority decided to put out $90K for equipment and foot a $41K per year bill for service... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 5:24 am
(TrendHunter.com) Ready to pig out a visual grease feast? While some people may be blown away by the abundance of bacon-inspired products in this cluster, it should be noted there are far more cured... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 5:20 am
(TrendHunter.com) It is very fitting that this last collection of photos from the infamous Victoria Beckham Marc Jacobs ads comes with the announcement that she will not be staring in next season's advertising... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 May 2008 | 5:20 am
This poor guy tried to board a BA flight at Heathrow terminal 5 but was turned back and told to change out of his t-shirt, which featured a Transformer robot carrying a gun -- a robot with a gun that apparently posed a threat to flight safety.
Go through security, get pulled to the side. I'm wearing a French Connection Transformers t-shirt. Bloke starts joking with me is that Megatron. Then he explains that since Megatron is holding a gun, I'm not allowed to fly. WTF? It's a 40 foot tall cartoon robot with a gun as an arm. There is no way this shirt is offensive in any way, and what I'm going to use the shirt to pretend I have a gun?
The phenomenal Camille Rose Garcia has a show of new paintings at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery - Berlin. The pieces in this exhibition, titled The Grand Illusion, are insanely beautiful. Seen here, "You'll Be Better Soon I Promise" (acrylic, glitter, and gold mica on wood). Based in Los Angeles, Garcia says her creative influences include Philip K. Dick, William Burroughs, Henry Darger, Walt Disney, and The Clash. I'm a big fan of all of them. And Garcia too. Link (Thanks, Kirsten Anderson!)
Previously on BB:
• Camille Rose Garcia at the San Jose Museum of Art Link
• Camille Rose Garcia: Tragic Kingdom sneak preview Link
bowman9991 writes "Could this be the new Blade Runner? SFFMedia reports that Celluloid Dreams has obtained the movie rights to Philip K. Dick's science fiction masterpiece 'Ubik'. First published in 1969, Ubik's central character is Joe Chip, a technician for a telepathic organization that employs people with the ability to block certain psychic powers so they can secure other people's privacy. In the novel, the dead are kept in 'half-life,' a form of cryogenic suspension, with limited consciousness and communication ability. A mystical substance called Ubik, available in spray-can form, is the only thing stopping reality from disintegrating before Joe's eyes. It'll be hard to film, but fantastic if they get it right!"
Wired is running a story about Christopher Tarnovsky, the man who was accused of working for NDS, a company owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., to sabotage a competitor's satellite TV system. Wired had a chance to speak with Tarnovsky and get his description of how the smart-card hacking war developed. Quoting: "Tarnovsky, who was known online as 'Big Gun,' says Ereiser offered him $20,000 to fix cards that were killed by ECMs, and he agreed. Each time NDS created a countermeasure, Tarnovsky would analyze the code and find a way to circumvent the countermeasure. He did it while working full-time as a software engineer for a semiconductor company in Massachusetts. 'I'd be at work and I'd check the IRC (channel) to see if they'd launched their Thursday countermeasure yet,' he says. 'It was like a chess game for me. I couldn't wait for them to do a countermeasure because I would counter it in minutes.' It wasn't long before NDS came courting. Tarnovsky had a contact at the company to whom he'd begun passing information about holes in its software, even supplying patches to fix them."
French explorer and adventurer Xavier Rosset is about to embark on a 300 day trip to live alone on a remote tropical island in the South Pacific. His adventures will be filmed and used for a 52 minute documentary.
Xavier’s only luggage will be a Swiss army knife, machete[,] video camera, and a solar panel for charging the camera. He will spend 10 months alone on an island to develop another way of life through an exciting adventure, a return to the elemental sources. Xavier will survive alone on an island without human interference and without polluting emissions.
The ambition of this documentary is to make a reflection on our lifestyle, our current system and our relationship to nature. And the most important thing is to put the dream and emotion at the heart of adventure natural.
He will find timber to build a shelter, feed on the rudimentary fishing, plants and the harvesting of rainwater to survive.
Reminds me a bit of one of my favorite books, An Island to Oneself, about a man who lived off and on for years on a tiny South Pacific island.
Reuters - Overstock.com said on Friday it filed
a lawsuit to challenge a New York law requiring Internet
retailers to collect and pay New York state taxes on sales to
New York consumers even if the retailer does not have a
physical presence in New York. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 May 2008 | 12:12 am
TechWeb - InformationWeek - The reason for RIM's success? It's been able to broaden the appeal of the BlackBerry to more than just professionals, an IDC report found. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 May 2008 | 11:57 pm
AP - Amazon.com said Friday that publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. will make 5,000 more books available for the Amazon Kindle wireless reader, bumping to 125,000 the number of titles users can download and read. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 May 2008 | 11:50 pm
Funny word, "smart". Smart bombs. Smart pills. Smarty pants. Smartarse. The verb-form is interesting as well. I make these points in a rather defensive way, I suppose, anticipating that the three smartphones... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 May 2008 | 11:47 pm
Confronted by an all-new Daihatsu Materia, the interested observer finds all manner of relevant questions crowding his or her mind, with varying degrees of urgency, not least, "What in the name of sweet... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 May 2008 | 11:47 pm
I travel regularly and have a lot of US DVDs. On my old computer I ran a couple of programs that let me play discs from any region, but my new laptop won't let me. What can I do? The Region Playback Control... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 May 2008 | 11:47 pm
James Randerson was given exclusive access to one of the most controversial research facilities in the UK, where monkeys are used to investigate the neural basis of diseases such as schizophrenia Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 May 2008 | 11:47 pm
Some of the finest minds spend their time on pastimes such as juggling and board games. So why is it still an uncool subject? Alex Bellos adds it all up Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 May 2008 | 11:47 pm
TechWeb - InformationWeek - New technologies and pricing due by the end of 2008 have the potential to eliminate the problems of embedded wireless 3G notebook purchases, Gartner now suggests. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 May 2008 | 11:40 pm
The Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully deployed its robotic arm and tested other instruments including a laser designed to detect dust, clouds, and fog. The arm will be used to dig up samples of the Martian surface which will be analyzed as a possible habitat for life. A camera on the arm will allow pictures to be taken of the ground directly beneath the lander. The camera has already seen what may be ice, which was exposed when the soil was disturbed by the landing. The data collected by the arm will be compared to recent findings which suggest that water on Mars may have been too salty for most known forms of life.
Reuters - The secret's out: MySpace Music
Secret Shows are a hit. Social networking pioneer MySpace has
created its most successful music program with the intimate
Secret Shows series, whose 150th installment will feature
Gnarls Barkley on June 8 at Irving Plaza in New York.
TechWeb - InformationWeek - The satellite companies have asked a Delaware court to find that their new DVR software does not infringe a TiVo patent. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 May 2008 | 11:16 pm
Wiimotes and other accidentally airborne objects can wreak havoc with delicate HDTV screens. Enter TV-Armor: A heavy-duty acrylic shield designed to protect your TV's sensitive parts.
Wiimotes and other accidentally airborne objects can wreak havoc with delicate HDTV screens. Enter TV-Armor: A heavy-duty acrylic shield designed to protect your TV's sensitive parts.
Fresh from a high-profile civil trial that cleared his former employer of piracy charges, satellite TV hacker Christopher Tarnovsky opens the door of his private lab to show Wired.com how he circumvents security on smart cards. Please don't try this at home.
Lucas123 writes "Seagate CEO Bill Watkins said today that the company plans to put out its first solid state disk drive next year as well as a 2TB version of its Barracuda hard disk drive. Watkins also alluded to Seagate's inevitable move from spinning disk to solid state drives, but emphasized it will be years away, saying the storage market is driven by cost-per-gigabyte and though SSDs provide benefits such as power savings, they won't be in laptops in the next few years. A 128GB SSD costs $460, or $3.58 per gigabyte, compared to $60 for a 160GB hard drive, according to Krishna Chander, an analyst at iSuppli. 'It will take three to four years for SSDs to come to parity with hard drives,' on price and reliability."
An experiment to develop a salmonella vaccine aboard the US space shuttle Discovery could pave the way for a gush of commercial biotechnology research in space, NASA and biotech industry... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 10:33 pm
Upstart videogame developer Platinum Games goes against the grain, creating a gory Wii game, a complicated space adventure for Nintendo DS and other glorious wonders.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "India is now the third country to appeal the ISO's approval of OOXML, with their appeal arriving just before the deadline last night. According to PC World, this makes OOXML the first BRM process under ISO/JTC 1 to be appealed, which leaves us in uncharted territory. Although there was substantial confusion in the comments on yesterday's story, Brazil is really appealing, not merely disapproving, of OOXML, having sent a letter that begins with 'The Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas (ABNT), as a P member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC34, would like to present, to ISO/IEC/JTC1 and ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC34, this appeal for reconsideration of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 final result.' Groklaw speculates that this may have something to do with Microsoft hedging their bets by supporting ODF 1.1 in Office 2007, though we probably won't see any more countries appeal now that the deadline has passed."
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists are learning more about how zoo animals feel and how a toy or a little training can sometimes help cut the endless pacing and other repetitive behaviors that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 9:54 pm
Amazon.com said Friday that publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. will make 5,000 more books available for the Amazon Kindle wireless reader, bumping to 125,000 the number of titles users can... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 9:43 pm
AP - Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a new model of which is widely expected this summer, took 19.2 percent of the U.S. market for "smart" phones in the first quarter of 2008, according to research firm IDC's vendor survey. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 May 2008 | 9:32 pm
Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a new model of which is widely expected this summer, took 19.2 percent of the U.S. market for "smart" phones in the first quarter of 2008, according to research firm... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 9:32 pm
Linux.com (who shares corporate overlords with Slashdot) is reporting that gNewSense has gone 2.0. For the uninitiated gNewSense is a stripped down version of Ubuntu's Hardy Heron for the free software purist. Removing over 100 pieces of proprietary code and firmware, gNewSense offers a user the ability to run an OS where everything is able to be studied, changed, and redistributed. "gNewSense is a great alternative to Gobuntu, the Canonical-sponsored free derivative of Ubuntu. According to its wiki page, the 8.04 version of Gobuntu hasn't been released due to a less-than-optimal reaction from the community. Gobuntu used the same repositories as Ubuntu, and the Ubuntu live CD can achieve the same installation as Gobuntu by merely selecting the free-software-only option in the installer (press F6 twice at the boot menu). Also, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, has indicated that he would rather focus on gNewSense because the work on that distribution can help the Ubuntu community as a whole. "
Four Palo Alto teens found themselves chased down a street and detained by Apple store security for 2.5 hours after they downloaded a third-party game onto a store phone.
Federal antitrust regulators have cleared activist billionaire investor Carl Icahn's purchase of another $1.5 billion of shares of Internet company Yahoo Inc. Icahn launched a proxy... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 8:44 pm
Apple Core, makers of a third-party Apple TV upgrade, abruptly withdrew its product from the market yesterday, citing unspecified copyright concerns. Company representatives say they were not pressured to do so by Apple or any other party.
Apple Core, makers of a third-party Apple TV upgrade, abruptly withdrew its product from the market yesterday, citing unspecified copyright concerns. Company representatives say they were not pressured to do so by Apple or any other party.
PARIS (Reuters) - A technical hitch scrubbed the launch of an Ariane rocket carrying a British military satellite and a Turkish telecoms satellite hours before its scheduled blastoff, the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 8:33 pm
Erik J writes "Remember about six weeks ago when Motley Crue and Rock Band partnered to release a new single premiering first in the game before anywhere else? Come to find out their song 'Saints of Los Angeles' was downloaded over 47,000 times on the Xbox version alone, beating out digital services iTunes and Amazon who only were only tapped 10,000 times for the single."
A volcano on the largest of the Galapagos Islands has begun erupting, park officials said Friday. Rangers and tour guides spotted lava flowing down the northeastern flank of the Cerro... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 8:12 pm
Is the Apocalypse upon us, or is this just our generation's equivalent of the Nixon-Elvis summit? Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and KISS just happen to be Sweden at the same time -- so naturally she paid a call on the guys. In their hotel room. Said she was thrilled to meet them. It happened: there are pictures.
NASA on Friday set June 5 for the launch of its GLAST space telescope for examining gamma rays to look deep into the universe, two days later than originally planned, the US space agency... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 8:07 pm
Wanna tap e-mail, voice and Web traffic for the government? Here's your chance. Comcast, the country's second-largest Internet provider, is looking for an engineer to handle "reconnaissance" and "analysis" of "subscriber intelligence" for the company's "National Security Operations."
Scientists for the Phoenix Mars Lander are wrestling with a short circuit on the spacecraft. Scientists said Friday that the problem is in a device designed to analyze ice and soil dug Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 7:56 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, May 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overstock.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTK) announced today that it has filed a lawsuit challenging New York's new tax law... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2008 | 7:44 pm
Dr. Jim writes "The good folks over at the Gartner Group have revealed the top 10 technologies that they believe will change the world over the next four years. The usual suspects including multi-core chips, virtualization, and cloud computing are on the list. Multicore servers and virtualization will mean that firms will need fewer boxes, and apps can be easily moved from box to box (and right out the door to an outsourced data center). Workplace social networks and cloud computing means that the need for a centralized IT department will go away. Firms will no longer need to own/maintain the boxes that they use to run their firm's apps. With no need to touch a box, there will be no need to have the IT staff co-located with the boxes."
Bushnell Outdoor Products is launching a contest where the first person to snap a "verificable" photo of Bigfoot with a trail camera will win a million bucks. Details on the contest are "coming soon" but Loren Coleman has more at Cryptomundo including a slew of great trailcam shots. As Loren asks about this 2007 photo taken in the Mt. Hood National Forest, "What is it? Sasquatch? Bear? A person?" How do we know for sure? Link to Cryptomundo, Link to Bushnell's Trail Cam page
A prominent neuroscientist told a crowd at the World Science Festival that the curious phenomenon of synesthesia -- in which some people "taste" colors or "hear" smells -- is simply a consequence of the aptitude humans evolved for abstraction.
This photo released yesterday depicts members of a tribe in the Amazon rain forest firing arrows at an airplane. Apparently, the tribe has never had any contact with humans outside of their own group. And there are likely many other "uncontacted" tribes in the region too. From National Geographic:
"We are very confident the photos are genuine," said Miriam Ross, a spokesperson for Survival International, which estimates that half of the hundred or so uncontacted tribes in the world live in the rain forests of Brazil and Peru.
Some experts say few, if any, tribes have had no outside contact. It's more likely is that previous generations had negative encounters, prompting social taboos that continue to drive clans deeper into isolation.
Due to their vulnerable immune systems, these groups are highly susceptible to diseases borne by outsiders such as missionaries, loggers, or oil workers.
Earlier this week, I posted that Earle Hagen, TV theme composer behind the Andy Grffith Show (aka The Fishin' Hole), Mod Squad, and other classics, passed away. Hagen also wrote the classic Big Band tune Harlem Nocturne, heard in the the Mike Hammer TV show and covered by about a gazillion other musicians. Of those gazillion, WFMU has compiled 42 of the Harlem Nocturne covers for your listening pleasure. Link(Thanks, COOP!)
Previously on BB:
• Earle Hagen, Andy Griffith Show, Mod Squad, I Spy composer (RIP) Link
Over on the always-excellent Architectures of Control in Design blog, Dan Lockton takes special note of an ugly little bit of anti-kid-ism brewing in Sutton, Surrey: the local council, in the name of "cater[ing] for all sections of the local community," is planning to revise a set of steps where kids gather to, you know, sit and talk to each other and hang out in public. The ensuing discussion is, as Dan notes, "a microcosm of the attitudes, assumptions, prejudices and paranoia that define modern Britain’s schizophrenic attitude to its ‘young people’."
Explaining the need for the changes, St Helier Councillor David Callaghan said: “At the moment the steps are like ready-made seats so changes will be made to make the area less attractive to young people...
[Adrian Short responds:] One thing young people and older people have in common is a desire to be left alone to do their own thing, provided that they are not causing trouble to others. People like Emma and her friends are not. They do not want to be told that they can go to one place but not another. They do not want to be cajoled, corralled and organised by the state — they get enough of that at school. They certainly do not want to be disadvantaged as a group because those in charge — you — are unable to deal appropriately with a tiny minority of troublemakers in their midst.
AP - When Tina Meier's 13-year-old daughter committed suicide after being bullied on the Internet, her grief was so encompassing she felt at times she couldn't breathe. She had trouble being around loved ones who reminded her of her child. Even today, recollections of those first holidays after Megan's death are foggy at best.
Daniel Pink, author of many well-regarded business books, wrote his first manga business book, Johnny Bunko, after receiving a fellowship to live in Japan and study manga. Bunko is a quick, funny, and extremely, inspiringly sensible book on career-planning that throws out all the traditional bullshit about getting a straight job to fall back on if your creative gig fails on you. Instead, Bunko makes a convincing case for pursuing your dreams, working to your strengths, throwing out the idea of planning, and persevering rather than relying on talent to make it.
Reuters - The secret's out: MySpace Music
Secret Shows are a hit. Social networking pioneer MySpace has
created its most successful music program with the intimate
Secret Shows series, whose 150th installment will feature
Gnarls Barkley on June 8 at Irving Plaza in New York.
Today on Boing Boing Gadgets we looked at this perfectly silly motorcycle helmet covers; the most ancient phone book, 130-years-old and up for auction; a new fleet of buses with free Wi-Fi and power on the East Coast ($20 from New York to Boston); the Aga Four Oven, made of cast-iron and lauded by commentors; virtual worlds to visit before you die, which prompted me to mention what a bang-up job was done in Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City; Cricket, a folding laptop stand for travelers; Bushnell's Sasquatch bounty, but more importantly, a raccoon riding a wild boar (that's cryptozootainment!); a lovely outdoor shower; more video on DEKA's bionic "Luke" prosthetic arm; handmade keyboards; tiny, knife-missile-sized ornithopter UAVs; the claim that Intelius people search is a scam; multiplayer Pong and Turbografx emulation for the iPhone; the Sony Rolly review (it didn't fare so well; personally I think they're neat, but about $350 too much); a portable digital scale for people, not drugs; the tragic increase in deaths for telephone tower technicians last month; a gallery of vintage transistor radios; a hands-on of the MSI Wind, the heir not-quite-apparent of the Asus Eee mini-laptop; a place to store your porno DVDs...if you owned any; the mysterious captivation of the paper towel dispenser; and a look at the upcoming Google Android smartphone operating system, which really does look like it's going to be a great platform.
Bushnell Outdoor Products is launching a contest where the first person to snap a "verificable" photo of Bigfoot with a trail camera will win a million bucks. Details on the contest are "coming soon" but Loren Coleman has more at Cryptomundo including a slew of great trailcam shots. As Loren asks about this 2007 photo taken in the Mt. Hood National Forest, "What is it? Sasquatch? Bear? A person?" How do we know for sure? 
Earlier this week, I posted that Earle Hagen, TV theme composer behind the Andy Grffith Show (aka The Fishin' Hole), Mod Squad, and other classics, passed away. Hagen also wrote the classic Big Band tune Harlem Nocturne, heard in the the Mike Hammer TV show and covered by about a gazillion other musicians. Of those gazillion, WFMU has compiled 42 of the Harlem Nocturne covers for your listening pleasure.
AP - When Tina Meier's 13-year-old daughter committed suicide after being bullied on the Internet, her grief was so encompassing she felt at times she couldn't breathe. She had trouble being around loved ones who reminded her of her child. Even today, recollections of those first holidays after Megan's death are foggy at best.
