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Human-Powered Monorails - The Shweeb (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Starting off as an adventure park ride, the Shweeb may soon become a popular mode of transportation. Designed by Geoffrey Barnett, this high efficiency, no emission urban transport...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 5:39 pm 10 Iran Innovations and Unique Stories - War? Maybe. Interesitng? Yes.(TrendHunter.com) Today, Iran hit the top of the buzz list, largely because Iran has ended cooperation with UN experts probing for nuclear weapons. USA Today reported,"The announcement...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 5:24 pm Luxury Fast Food Interiors - Chic McDonald's Europe Stores(TrendHunter.com) McDonalds has very cool interior designers at work in Europe. European readers may be surprised at my surprise at how cool this McDonalds design is. It seems that McDonalds has...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 5:19 pm Futuristic Cuckoo Clocks - 10,000 Year Clock (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The Long Now Foundation is a small group of folks who like to think... well, long term. The group "hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 5:19 pm Create Your Own TV Commercials - Virgin Wants to know 'What Happens Next?'(TrendHunter.com) Australians have probably seen Virgin Mobile's "All you can eat" campaign in online, TV and print ads, plastered everywhere lately. Virgin has come up with a competition to coincide...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:59 pm How Hot Girls Market a BikiniSometime ago, LG found the perfect excuse to feature scantily-clad hotties, and that was to name its KF600 model the Bikini. Its a great plan actually, which gave the Korean manufacturer the perfect...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 3:12 pm Mobile banking boosts MaldivesThe small Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives has begun setting up a pioneering system which it hopes will make it one of the first countries whose citizens bank primarily using mobile phones, reports...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 3:06 pm iPhone Power StationSpotted on Crunch Gear for emergency backup, the Brando iPhone Power Station that lets you charge your iPhone when youre away from a proper outlet.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:35 pm Bikers, pedestrians seeking better Web maps (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:31 pm Review: Pass on `NCAA Football 09: All-Play' (AP)AP - If the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of "NCAA Football 09" are the starting seniors, then Wii owners might feel like redshirt freshmen with EA Sports' first college football game for Nintendo's popular gaming console.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:28 pm Samsung INNOV8Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:12 pm Reports: AOL cuts XDrive, Pictures, some blogs - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:12 pm Bigfoot vs Unicorn T-ShirtSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:11 pm Pharaonic Boat to Be Excavated, ReassembledPlanks were buried beside the Great Pyramid to be reassembled, Ikea-style, into a boat.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:08 pm China Passes US In Web Population - Digitaltrends.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:08 pm Fortify Your Internet Security Settings Now - Washington Post
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:08 pm Herbal Remedy, Take Me AwayAn herb used for centuries by Native Americans could become as popular as echinacea.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:00 pm Hacked Oyster Card System Crashes AgainBarence sends along PcPro coverage of the second crash of London's Oyster card billing system in two weeks. Transport for London was forced to open the gates and allow free travel for all. "There is currently a technical problem with Oyster readers at London Underground stations which is affecting Oyster pay as you go cards only," explains the TfL website. This follows the first crash two weeks ago, which left 65,000 Oyster cards permanently corrupted. Speculation is increasing that the crashes may be related to the hacking of the Oyster card system by Dutch researchers from Radboud University, though TfL denies any link. Plans to publish details of the hack were briefly halted when the makers of the chip used in the system sued the group, although a judge ruled earlier this week that the researchers could go ahead. During the court action, details briefly leaked on website Wikileaks.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:54 pm Girls Bridge Gender Divide in Math - ABC News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:41 pm Great opening lines from sfIO9's done a roundup of their favorite opening lines from science fiction. Some good reading here (and I'm flattered to have been included):"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." — William Gibson, Neuromancer. People always cite this as a great opening line, and it's easy to see why. It's such a vivid image.Link Thanks, Marilyn!) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:40 pm Microsoft Looks Ahead, Leaves Yahoo Behind - HedgeCo.net
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:27 pm A Point of No Return for Greenland's IceThere is a tipping point beyond which Greenland's ice will be forever lost, researchers say.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:25 pm Google Launches Its Paid Wikipedia Rival - TrustedReviews
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:14 pm It's art, for the Facebook generation (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:08 pm IPhone 2.1 Update to Bring Turn-by-Turn GPS? - Wired News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:08 pm Spam King and Family Dead In Murder-SuicideLt.Hawkins was one of many readers sending in word thatt he escaped spam king discussed yesterday was found dead in Colorado, after apparently killing his wife and 3-year-old daughter. A teenager was injured, and an infant was found alive in the car.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:05 pm Facebook: Movement or Business? - TIME
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 1:01 pm Netflix 2Q profit up 4 pct, beats analyst views (AP)AP - Netflix Inc.'s second-quarter profit edged up 4 percent, beating analyst expectations as the online DVD rental leader signed up 168,000 new customers while spending less money to attract them to the service.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:49 pm Scrabble-Scrabulous standoff spells LAWSUIT - ZDNet
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:43 pm Don’t Switch From Cable Just YetSome couch potatoes have no interest in watching sports or children’s shows. So why should they be paying for it?U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:40 pm Ahead of the Bell: Juniper rises, analysts upgradeShares in Juniper Networks Inc. rose in premarket trading Friday as analysts raised their recommendations, after the maker of networking equipment reported strong earnings.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:38 pm Inquirer celebrates spammer murder-suicide - Register
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:30 pm Abercrombie & Fitch CFO jumps to KellwoodMichael W. Kramer, chief financial officer of teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, is leaving to take the top post at apparel maker Kellwood Co. , according to the companies.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:19 pm MoBo Manufacturer Foxconn Refuses To Support LinuxNoodlenose notes a thread up on the Ubuntu forums, where a user is questioning the practices of hardware manufacturer Foxconn. The user describes how his new Foxconn motherboard caused his Linux install to freeze and fire off weird kernel errors. He disassembles the BIOS and concludes that a faulty DSDT table is responsible for the errors. Even though the user makes Foxconn aware of the problem, they refuse to correct it, as 'it doesn't support Linux' and is only 'Microsoft certified.' The user speculates darkly on Foxconn's motives. Read the forum, read the code, and come to your own conclusions. "I disassembled my BIOS to have a look around, and while I won't post the results here, I'll tell you what I did find. They have several different tables, a group for Windows XP and Vista, a group for 2000, a group for NT, Me, 95, 98, etc. that just errors out, and one for LINUX. The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation.' The worst part is Foxconn's insistence that the product is ACPI compliant because their tables passed to Windows work, and that Microsoft gave the the magic WHQL certification."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:19 pm Happy Sysadmin Day, Ken! Happy Sysadmin Day! Today is the ninth annual sysadmin appreciation day and I'd like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the systems administrators who keep my life running, especially Ken Snider, who is the technical bedrock upon which Boing Boing is built, and Mark Perkel, who hosts my mailing lists, and Chris Smith, who makes our submission queue spam-resistant, and all the other tireless toilers in the bowels of the Internet. You truly rule the Earth, thou latter-day morlocks. Link (Thanks, Jono!) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:15 pm IPhone 2.1 Update to Bring Turn-by-Turn GPS?Looks like the already-overdue iPhone 2.1 software update will extend the functionality of GPS: the device will know not only where you are, but in which direction you are going and how fast you are moving. This is being interpreted by many as the coming of turn-by-turn navigation.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:01 pm IPhone 2.1 Update to Bring Turn-by-Turn GPS?Looks like the already-overdue iPhone 2.1 software update will extend the functionality of GPS: the device will know not only where you are, but in which direction you are going and how fast you are moving. This is being interpreted by many as the coming of turn-by-turn navigation.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:01 pm Did the U.S. Army Arrange a 'Sweetheart' Deal to Sell Russian Helicopters to Iraq?Earlier this year, the Defense Department quietly gave a U.S. company a contract to provide 22 new Russian-made Mi-17 troop transport helicopters to the Iraqi military in a deal worth an eye-brow raising $325 million, DANGER ROOM learns.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:00 pm Chizen, former Adobe CEO, named to Oracle boardBruce R. Chizen, the former chief executive of Adobe Systems Inc. , has been named to the board of another software company, Oracle Corp.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:48 am Infineon posts $928M 3Q loss, plans job cutsChip maker Infineon Technologies AG said Friday it lost more than half a billion euros in the third quarter amid a rising euro and a slowing economy. It plans to cut about 3,000 jobs.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:37 am Netflix 2Q profit up 4 pct, beats analyst viewsNetflix Inc.'s second-quarter profit edged up 4 percent, beating analyst expectations as the online DVD rental leader signed up 168,000 new customers while spending less money to attract them to the service...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:35 am Elderly woman prohibiting from photographing empty swimming pool "to prevent paedophilia"An 82-year-old woman in Southampton, UK was told she couldn't take photos of an empty wading pool because she might be a paedophile. Because, you know, anything that children touch regularly becomes part of their souls, and if a paedophile looks at those objects, it's just like sexually assaulting a child.Makes me glad, as a father, to live here in the UK, where the clear-eyed, sensible view of paedophilia is doing so much to ensure the safety of my daughter from assaults by strangers (an occurrence that is so rare as to be practically nonexistent) while doing practically nothing to protect her from the people who are statistically most likely to assault her -- her family, her friends' parents, her teachers, and other people known to her, who account for the overwhelming majority of assaults on children. My pool picture ban over paedophile fears (Thanks, Marilyn!) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:27 am Experts Warn of Jellyfish InvasionMillions of jellyfish could be set to swarm Britain's holiday beaches, experts warned yesterday. They said at least seven breeds - including the deadly Portuguese man o'war and the poisonous lion's mane - will be seen.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:15 am Yahoo: Burn Your DRMed Tracks to CD Now (PC World)PC World - Yahoo has become the latest company to abandon customers who bought tracks from its music store encoded with DRM, drawing fire...Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:10 am Free download: Poppy And The Jezebels - UFOReleased on vinyl through their own Gumball Machine label on August 4 2008Related StoriesDeerhoof leak new single in sheet-music formLimit mobile phone use, cancer expert tells staffInternet: Veteran...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:07 am Thief steals Prince Harry's phone in Lesotho (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:07 am Reid Presents Bill Aimed at PolygamyBy Steve Tetreault By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - Sen. Harry Reid on Wednesday introduced a bill in Congress to crack down on polygamous groups, charging that crime is organized and "rampant" within the communities.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Las Vegan Reels in Another AwardBy C.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Have Seaside Fun at a Land-Locked PartyIT WILL be buckets and spades galore at a community beach party in Warwickshire. The party in Lighthorne Heath on Saturday, August 2, celebrates the opening of a new Children's Centre in Stratford Road.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Cisco Pays $120m for Pure NetworksNetwork equipment maker Cisco Systems has agreed to acquire Seattle-based privately held software and services firm Pure Networks for $120m. Cisco said the acquisition will enable it to provide integrated home networking-management applications for the development of new products.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Yahoo! Music Going Dark, Taking Keys With Itiminplaya writes with a link to an excellent article at Ars Technica, extracting from it a few choice nuggets: "The bad dream of DRM continues. Yahoo e-mailed its Yahoo! Music Store customers yesterday, telling them it will be closing for good — and the company will take its DRM license key servers offline on September 30, 2008. Sure, it's bad news and yet another example of the sheer lobotomized brain-deadness that has characterized music DRM, but the reaction of most music fans will be: 'Yahoo had an online music store?'... DRM makes things harder for legal users; it creates hassles that illegal users won't deal with; it (often) prevents cross-platform compatibility and movement between devices. In what possible world was that a good strategy for building up the nascent digital download market? The only possible rationales could be 1) to control piracy (which, obviously, it has had no effect on, thanks to the CD and the fact that most DRM is broken) or 2) to nickel-and-dime consumers into accepting a new pay-for-use regime that sees moving tracks from CD to computer to MP3 player as a 'privilege' to be monetized."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jul 2008 | 10:31 am John Guillebaud on why couples should have fewer childrenProf John Guillebaud discusses his article in the British Medical JournalSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 10:03 am Celebrity Squares: What is it with the iPhone?What's your favourite piece of technology? It may be a bit of a cop-out, but I think I'll have to say my iPhone. I know it's the current bandwagon gadget, but it is so slick I can't stop scrolling and...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:53 am Augmented Reality Coming to Your Desktop Soon (PC World)PC World - A Tokyo-based start-up has taken the wraps off new software that brings to the desktop the world of augmented reality.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:30 am Today on Boing Boing Gadgets Today on Boing Boing Gadgets, we looked at a Mondrian MP3 player and catalogued Congress' fight with evil robots. There was a gorgeous birdsong box automaton and an iPhone 3G that comes in Brownlee's favorite color, whore red. And laboratories at night sure are pretty.
We liked the Periodic Coffee Table, although it couldn't help but get us wondering how much cooler an Periodic Coffee Table of Imaginary Elements would have been. That's a project for you boys and girls at home... don't forget the Cavorite. But we digress. The hirsute and porcine finally lasered off his Zune tattoos. Brownlee really likes Half-Elf Tentacle Assault, surprising no one.
Sprint is bizarrely selling its towers, only to lease them back. A racing game is giving testers epileptic seizures. Corn plastics do not make good water bottles and Toshiba says "this is not the UMPC you are looking for." And Neil Young doesn't understand anything about digital audio.
From Joel, an ode to bacon. From Rob, the skewering of a PS3-loving bumpkin. From John, Elder's Game meets Lord of the Flies at summer camp.
Finally: half a terrabyte of foot fetish porn for your perusal. We were really on a roll today.
LinkSource: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:24 am Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Photoactive Protein Nitrile HydrataseBy Kubiak, Karina Nowak, Wieslaw ABSTRACT Nitrile hydratase (NHase) is an enzyme used in the industrial biotechnological production of acrylamide.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Gypsy Moths Force More Chainsawing In Furnace HillsBy Crable, Ad Two game lands in northern Lancaster County will have to undergo clear-cuts of forest because of a devastating attack of gypsy moths this spring.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Liquor, Lots Roil Belmont ShoreBy Joe Segura Towers, parking lots and taco-stand liquor permits raised eyebrows in Belmont Shore this week.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Second Phase Complete in Azusa ProjectBy Brian Day AZUSA - Residents and officials gathered Thursday to celebrate the completion of the second phase of the San Gabriel Canyon Gateway Center project. The newly completed section of the project, located at 1950 N.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Junior Lifeguards to Compete at Seal BeachBy Pamela Hale-Burns They're a vital part of a day at the beach, but even lifeguards want to have fun. For almost 20 years, that fun has come in the form of the California Surf Lifesaving Association Southwest Regional Junior Lifeguard Championships.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Richardson Votes for Housing AidBy John Canalis LONG BEACH - Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, joined the House majority this week in voting for the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Astor Asset Management: 5 Simple Steps to a Safer 401kSmart Ways to Protect your Retirement Assets in an Uncertain Market Astor Asset Management Michael Hovanec Managing Director 312-373-6286 michael@astorllc.com www.astorllc.com If the value of your 401k is dropping at the same rate as the stock market, something is wrong, and it has to be fixed immediately.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am DISH Network and DIRECTV Applaud House Judiciary Subcommittee Vote On State Video Tax Fairness ActDIRECTV, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Hangouts Online Aid Attorneys With CasesPROVIDENCE, R.I. - Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year- old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Yahoo!'s "Primetime in No Time" Taken Over By Reality TV StarsCelebrity Guests to Host Entire Week of the Popular Web Show Starting Tomorrow, July 25 GolinHarris Micha Thomas, 213-438-8794 mthomas@golinharris.com Logo: http://www.yahoo.com The celebs will play when the host is away on Yahoo! TV's original show "Primetime in No Time," as some of the top reality stars covered by host Frank Nicotero take over as guest hosts July 25 through August 1.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am ICANN Extends 'Www' OptionsBy Anonymous Internet regulators have brought the curtain down on the 'dot com' era, paving the way for companies to apply for a wide range of new domain names.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am This Latest Analysis Shows That the Equipment Market for 3D-TSV Manufacturing Tools Will Rapidly Expand Above 1B$ By 2013Research and Markets Laura Wood Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 Logo: http://www.researchandmarkets.com Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ 6551f1/3d_tsv_interconne) has announced the addition of the "3-D TSV Interconnects - Devices & Systems 2008 Report" report to their offering.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am SRS Labs Inks Deal With Flat-Panel TV Maker VizioBy Tolkoff, Sarah Worldwide PC Sales On Track to Grow 13% From 2007; Toshiba Names President for Unit Santa Ana's SRS Labs Inc., which designs software for enhancing the sound of TVs and stereos, signed a licensing deal to get its technology into a flat TV by Irvine's Vizio Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Personal Information of 259 UH Students Exposed OnlineBy Jeannie Kever, Houston Chronicle Jul. 25--The names and Social Security numbers of 259 University of Houston students were inadvertently posted on the Internet for more than two years, removed only after a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group discovered the breach.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Scientists Find Trigger For Northern Lightsdaftna writes "The New York Times (registration required) is reporting that NASA researchers 'have identified the trigger for the colorful electrical storms in the polar regions ... Scientists knew two events that occur in the tail of the magnetic field during substorms, but did not know which event acted as the trigger for the auroras.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jul 2008 | 7:22 am Microsoft executives say they've given up on buying YahooThe software leader will find other ways to gain ground in online search and advertising, investors are told. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Math scores for girls and boys no different, study findsThe analysis of standardized test results for more than 7.2 million students in grades 2 through 11 contradicts a pervasive gender stereotype. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am China says has more people surfing the Web than US (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 6:43 am China Asserts World Domination -- in Web SurfingChina asserts it has the largest internet population in the world, the first time any country has surpassed the United States in that metric. With 253 million people online despite strict government restrictions and blocked sights it deems subversive or pornographic, China's surfers grew more than 50% in the last year alone.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 6:43 am Living on the Edge: Danny O'Brien's talk about moving our personal info off Web 2.0 and onto our computersHere's some (way shakycam) video of Danny O'Brien's OpenTech presentation, "Living on the Edge," an extremely provocative and interesting talk about how we might restructure the Internet so that our personal and important moments aren't hosted by YouTube, Flickr, and Blogger, but rather on our own machines. Link, Link to slides Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 6:23 am Post-apocalyptic bookmobile PSAs from MississippiMatt sez, "When I was in fifth grade, Mississippi Public Broadcasting decided to introduce a series of short films to educate children on how to use the library. For some godforsaken reason, the people at MPB decided that the best way to do this would be through a post-apocalyptic science fiction serial with children roaming the blasted earth in a… bookmobile… like a cross between 'Reading Rainbow' and 'Damnation Alley.' Confused? So was I. I loved the library and post-apocalyptic movies and television programs, and even I was completely nonplussed. Apparently someone has uploaded the entire run onto YouTube. The music still gives me the creeps!" Link (Thanks, Matt Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 6:17 am Cameraheads in Seattle protest CCTVs in public placesThe Camerahead Project is a Seattle protest group upset about the growing prevalence of CCTV cameras there -- they're staging a bit of theater tomorrow in Cal Anderson Park, walking around with giant cameras on their heads to get people thinking about what it means to have their public spaces under constant surveillance.I met Paul at one of my signings in Seattle for Little Brother and loved his camerahead outfit -- he says it was inspired by Pablo Defendini's Little Brother poster. Link Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 6:11 am Yahoo Music shutting down its DRM server, customers lose all their paid-for music the next time they crash or upgradeYahoo Music just announced that it's pulling the plug on its DRM server -- that means that as of September 30, everyone who bought Yahoo Music will lose the ability to recover it from backup or transfer it to a new PC. Like I said when MSN Music proposed to do the same thing: "All those years the music industry spent insisting that the only way they'd sell music is with crippling DRM attached managed to totally discredit the idea of buying music at all."Once the Yahoo store goes down and the key servers go offline, existing tracks cannot be authorized to play on new computers. Instead, Yahoo recommends the old, lame, and lossy workaround of burning the files to CD, then reripping them onto the computer. Sure, you'll lose a bunch of blank CDs, sound quality, and all the metadata, but that's a small price to pay for the privilege of being able to listen to that music you lawfully acquired. Good thing you didn't download it illegally or just buy it on CD!DRM still sucks: Yahoo Music going dark, taking keys with it (Thanks, Denver Jewelry Guy!) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 6:07 am Call for steampunk designs to be lasered into moleskinesModofly -- who laser-etch designs into moleskine covers -- are hosting a contest for new designs for the next batch -- one of the themes is steampunk:Link
See also: Dan Hillier's tentacle horrors -- now on moleskine notebooks! Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 5:59 am Oil paintings of computer cables -- show in Asheville, NC Tim sez, "Ruth Whiting show's 'Plug In' is a show oil paintings at the Wedge Gallery in Asheville, NC. Ruth Whiting's paintings create a luscious mythology surrounding the ordinary plugs and cables that connect our technological lives. Liberated from their mundane function and rendered in glowing colors, these every day objects assume an almost sacred quality." Link (Thanks, Tim!)
See also: Oil paintings of giant power-cables Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jul 2008 | 5:56 am Microsoft Engineers Invent Displays That Top LCDs For EfficiencyMechEMark writes with this excerpt from a hope-inspiring article at the IEEE Spectrum, which says "Researchers from Microsoft say they've built a prototype of a display screen using a technology that essentially mimics the optics in a telescope but at the scale of individual display pixels. The result is a display that is faster and more energy efficient than a liquid crystal display, or LCD, according to research reported yesterday in Nature Photonics ... The design greatly increases the amount of backlight that reaches the screen. The researchers were able to get about 36 percent of the backlight out of a pixel, more than three times as much light as an LCD can deliver. But Microsoft senior research engineer Michael Sinclair says that through design improvements, he expects that number to go up — theoretically, as high as 75 percent."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:51 am Review: X-Files Flick Falls Short of Show's Glory Days"The X-Files: I Want to Believe" is little more than a two-hour TV episode -- and not a particularly compelling one at that.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:31 am Japanese Internet mogul found guilty in appeal (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:30 am How to Make Friends With CelebritiesWith most stars you want to befriend, all it takes is simply buying yourself a basketball franchise and offering the VIP courtside seats.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am How to Look Good on TVThe Daily Show's Samantha Bee explains that in order to look good on television, it's okay to come across as a douche -- if you're funny.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Gallery: Comic-Con's Costumed Crusaders : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comSAN DIEGO -- Maybe they should call it Comic-Con Intergalactic. An astonishing number of people dress up like space aliens, superheroes and videogame characters when they attend Comic-Con International, the annual pop-culture convention that draws comics and sci-fi fans from around the globe. The elaborate costumes, many of them handmade, transform the fanboys and fangirls into their favorite pop-culture icons, at least for the day. This year's Comic-Con sold out in advance, with organizers expecting 125,000 people to cram into the San Diego Convention Center through Sunday. Here are some of the more eye-catching costumes spotted at Comic-Con on Thursday.
Name: Demir Oral Age: 23 Hometown: San Diego Times at Comic-Con: Nine Geekiest hobby: Making costumes
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: Web designer Dream job: Inventor
Describe your costume and how you made it:  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comName: Cathy Clark Age: 28 Hometown: Anaheim, California Times at Comic-Con: Seven Geekiest hobby: Attending Comic-Con!
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: Designer Dream job: Artist
Describe your costume and how you made it:  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comName: Amanda Raymond Age: 29 Hometown: Santa Clarita, California Times at Comic-Con: Four Geekiest hobby: Costuming and watching Darkwing Duck.
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: Production secretary Dream job: Producer
Describe your costume and how you made it:  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comName: Zachary Lytle Age: 21 Hometown: Chico, California Times at Comic-Con: One Geekiest hobby: I build combat robots. I'm actually the three-time world champion of RoboGames.
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: Machinist Dream job: Robotics engineer
Describe your costume and how you made it:  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comName: Diana Tarlson Age: 23 Hometown: Chico, California Times at Comic-Con: One Geekiest hobby: Collecting Disney movies. My favorite is Sleeping Beauty.
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: I work at Jo-Ann Fabrics. Dream job: To work in a machine shop.
Describe your costume and how you made it:  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comNames: Nick Evans, Jason Sunday and Kyle Sunday (clockwise from top left) Ages: 20, 21 and 19, respectively. Hometowns: Orange, California; Portland, Oregon; and Ashland, Oregon Times at Comic-Con: One Geekiest hobby: We love Star Wars. It's at the top, but nothing is off-limits -- Jason
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: Students Dream jobs: Lawyer (Nick), computer technology (Jason) and chef (Kyle)
Describe your costumes and how you made them:  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comName: Tom Paige Age: 38 Hometown: Los Angeles Times at Comic-Con: Two Geekiest hobby: Music, especially hard-core heavy-metal comedy.
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: I'm a facilities manager in the motion-picture industry. Dream job: Musician
Describe your costume and how you made it:  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comName: Christian Benavides Age: 14 Hometown: Houston Times at Comic-Con: One Geekiest hobby: Dressing up as the Joker and making costumes.
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: Student Dream job: Movie director
Describe your costume and how you made it:  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comName: Raymundo Benavides Age: 25 Hometown: Houston Times at Comic-Con: One Geekiest hobby: Watching movie trailers.
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: Cable guy Dream job: Movie director Describe your costume and how you made it: I'm Tommy, the Green Ranger from the original Power Rangers. I bought the majority of it, and my girlfriend made the rest.  : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comName: Jonathan Corpuz Age: 26 Hometown: San Diego Times at Comic-Con: 15 Geekiest hobby: I'm a videogame nut. Action, RPGs, everything. I was raised on videogames.
What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con? Day job: Photographer Dream job: Videogame designer
Describe your costume and how you made it:
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Gallery: Scenes From Comic-Con 2008 : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comGet ready for the wild incongruity of elaborate costumes and vacuous, sterile hallways that is Comic-Con. At this yearly sci-fi fanfest, convention-goers must use every ounce of their mental stamina as their imaginations are simultaneously piqued and suffocated by their surroundings. In addition to the mental trials, simply attending the convention is a geek triathlon of not sitting comfortably, Mountain Dew-chugging contests and enthusiastic reenactments of nerdy movie scenes. Luckily, Wired.com is bringing all the action to the safety of your computer screen Click through the gallery for the first scenes from this barbaric event. Left: Matthew Kuhlman waits for the elevator at the Los Angeles Convention Center with his parents, Tennille, left, and Thomas during the first day of Comic-Con. His parents are better known to the Comic-Con community as Xyon and Zarah Koreen.  : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comObi-Wan Kenobi, aka Mike Lewer, 20, of Encinitas, California, wheels through the hallways of the Los Angeles Convention Center on his way to the next panel.  : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comJacquelyn Crinnion, 19, of San Ramon, California, dressed as Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon and Samantha Scharlach, 19, also of San Ramon, dressed as Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, take a lunch break.  : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comTaylor Long, 16, of San Diego, right, gets some help from his father/bodyguard Byron Long (not pictured) during a break in the action. "He's roasting," said Byron Long. Comic-Con volunteer Daniel Scott, left, 21, of Camp Pendleton in California checks out who is behind the mask.  : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comRJ Moskop has devised a clever strategy for taking in all the Comic-Con sights as he attends the Stan Lee panel.  : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comJeri Ann Boyd, of Beverly Hills, California, leaps into action to capture the lazy loitering of a few Star Wars characters.  : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comCecelia Bryant, 19, of Chula Vista, California, dressed as Holly Quinn, rides the escalator with Tommy Metropoulos, of Jamul, California, who wonders whether everyone else can see her, too.  : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comJibran Iqbal, 9, of San Diego, and his brother Ameer, 6, attend their first Comic-Con and slowly realize that they are the coolest people there.  : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comWith Wookies in short supply at this year's convention, this stormtrooper apprehended the next best thing.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Are You Internet Famous? Get Your ScoreUsing a nifty, Wired-created widget, find out just how much of a positive web presence you have. Compare your scores with those of your favorite celebs.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am July 25: Four Women Who Made a DifferenceJuly 25: In science and technology, spheres of society where women are woefully underrepresented, this day in history offers a bountiful exception. Here are the milestones: In 1865, "James Barry," the first woman physician in modern times, compelled to disguise herself as a man in order to practice her profession, dies. In 1920, Rosalind Franklin, the unheralded co-discoverer of DNA, is born. In 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world's first test-tube baby, is born. In 1984, cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space. James Barry Barry, whose actual identity remains unknown, was born somewhere around 1795. After finishing medical school (at the age of 13, and already in disguise), "James Barry" waited a few years before joining the British army in 1813, where "he" served with distinction in a number of colonial postings, including India, South Africa and Canada. While in South Africa, Barry became the first doctor-surgeon in the British Empire to perform a Caesarean section in which both the mother and child survived. Prior to that, C-sections were generally performed only when the mother was dead or dying. Barry rose to the rank of inspector general in the army, but also worked with the Royal Navy, while stationed in Malta and Corfu, to improve the harsh conditions for sailors at sea. It wasn't until Barry died in 1865 that it was discovered at the autopsy that "he" was really a "she." Somehow, Barry had managed to conceal her actual sex (and to give birth to a child herself) for more than 40 years. She was also the first woman to receive a medical degree, although the dons had no idea they were handing their sheepskin to a woman. The first woman to earn a medical degree when her sex was known was Elizabeth Blackwell, who received her diploma barely two months after Barry died. Rosalind Franklin In April 1962, three men -- James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins -- shared the Nobel Prize for their discovery a decade earlier of the structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin, a chemist whose X-ray diffusion photographs of DNA molecules showed their essential structure and paved the way for the trio's work, received nothing. The extent to which Franklin was dismissed by her peers varies in the telling, although it was real enough: In his memoir, Watson wrote unflatteringly of her and downplayed her role in the discovery. Wilkins, a colleague of Franklin's who disliked her feminist attitudes, was equally critical. He'd also provided Watson, without Franklin's knowledge, with her key photograph, which showed -- for the first time -- the double-helix shape that underlies the structure of DNA. The photograph caused Watson to remark later: "The instant I saw the picture, my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." Crick was far more gracious, crediting Franklin with having done "the key experimental work." He also said that Franklin's early critique of their theoretical work caused them to rethink things, helping to set them on the right path. The most recent scholarship, a 2002 biography (Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, by Brenda Maddox), paints Franklin neither as a feminist hero nor a spurned woman. Her role in helping to solve the mystery of DNA is unquestioned, and her place in science history is secure. Unhappily, Franklin died of cancer in 1958, only 37 years old. This has been cited as the reason she was not included with the others: The Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously. Louise Joy Brown Today is Brown's 30th birthday. Brown, a British postal worker, is married and the mother of a 19-month-old boy. She is also the first person ever to be conceived by in vitro fertilization: the world's first test-tube baby. Louise is the daughter of John and Lesley Brown, who had tried for nine years to conceive, before an infertility expert referred them to Patrick Steptoe, a gynecologist. Steptoe, working with physiologist Robert Edwards, had also been trying -- and failing -- to conceive a child since 1966. The difference, of course, is that Messrs. Steptoe and Edwards were hoping to conceive theirs in a laboratory petri dish. ("Test-tube baby" was a media invention, but as long as it's in glass, it's in vitro.) They did succeed, however, in developing the method for fertilizing an egg outside a woman's body, which gave them hope. Enter Lesley Brown, whose fallopian tubes were blocked, a condition that makes it impossible to become pregnant through sexual intercourse. Steptoe surgically removed an egg from one of her ovaries on Nov. 10, 1977, fertilized it in his laboratory and returned two nights later (after a dinner party for his wife's birthday) to find that the egg had evolved into an eight-cell embryo. Steptoe implanted the embryo into Lesley Brown's uterus and hoped for the best. For nearly four years, every attempt at in vitro fertilization had failed, a fact the physicians didn't bother mentioning to the Browns during their interview. But in December, they were able to confirm that their patient was pregnant. The most difficult part of Lesley Brown's pregnancy was dealing with the British tabloid press, which hounded the prospective mother and father unmercifully until the Browns wised up and sold the exclusive rights to their story to one of the jackals. Louise Joy Brown was delivered by Caesarean section at 11:47 p.m. July 25. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces: small, but not exceptionally so. As Steptoe described it: "I laid her down, all pink and furious, and saw at once that she was externally perfect and beautiful." Steptoe died when Louise was 10, but Edwards attended her wedding. She told the Daily Mail earlier this month, "It's nice to have a close relationship. He's like a granddad to me." Svetlana Savitskaya Cosmonaut Savitskaya carried on the socialist egalitarian tradition by becoming the first woman to walk in space. She accomplished this while serving as flight engineer aboard the Soyuz T-12 mission to the Salyut 7 space station. Her EVA, or extravehicular activity, came 19 years after cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to leave an orbiting spacecraft, and she beat American astronaut Kathryn Sullivan out the door by three months. Comrade Savitskaya was, simply, born to be a cosmonaut. Her father was a fighter pilot during World War II, later becoming deputy commander of the Soviet Air Defense, and was twice named a Hero of the Soviet Union. Without her father's knowledge, Savitskaya, who took an avid interest in flying from childhood, learned to parachute. She made 450 jumps by her 17th birthday. She applied to pilot school at age 16, but was rejected because of her age. At 17, after jumping from 46,750 feet and free-falling more than eight miles before deploying her chute -- a record at the time -- Savitskaya began training as a pilot. By the time she was 24, Savitskaya was licensed to fly 20 different types of aircraft, including the MiG-21, which she piloted to a speed of 1,667 mph. Savitskaya became a cosmonaut in 1980 and was the second woman to go into space, preceded only by fellow cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Savitskaya was accompanied in her 1984 EVA by cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov. The pair performed external experiments on the Salyut station and remained outside their Soyuz capsule for more than three-and-a-half hours. Following her return, Savitskaya was selected to command an all-female Soyuz crew for a visit to Salyut 7, in observance of National Women's Day. The mission had to be scrubbed, however, because of problems aboard the space station. Source: Various
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Creators of Scrabble knockoff on Facebook sued (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jul 2008 | 3:11 am Debian Maintainer Hints At September Release for LennynerdyH writes "The Debian project's maintainer, Luke Claes, announced in an email Saturday that he will freeze the 'testing' or 'Lenny' tree, in preparation for a new stable release of Debian Linux in ... September! The freeze means that open source software developers have only a couple more days to package any applications that they want to be included in the next release of Debian — and by extension, in the inner sanctum source lists of distributions such as Ubuntu that are based on it. After the freeze starts next week, Debian maintainers will turn their attention to 364 release-critical bugs, and half-a-dozen high-priority goals. Given the work to be done, is September really feasible? Lenny always was a little slow getting back to his right place ..."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jul 2008 | 2:10 am How To Deal With Internet Bullies?creyes123 writes "I run a free website with an online model airplane design calculator. The number of registered users has quickly climbed and I've gotten many compliments. Out of nowhere, a fellow shows up and proceeds to bad mouth the calculator in a posting in one of my forums. After I politely point out that he's mistaken and should have looked at the documentation before posting, he changes the subject and bad mouths a different 'flaw.' The cycle repeats a few more times, with no apparent end in sight. I want to encourage folks to share their opinions, but constructive criticism was clearly not his goal. I feel that the whole episode was just a massive time waster for me. What did I do to deserve this? Could I have handled this better?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jul 2008 | 12:46 am UK Facebook User's Name Appropriation Draws Huge Libel SuitSlatterz links to a story which shows that nowadays, it's sometimes possible to find out whether someone is a dog on the Internet, excerpting: "A freelance photographer is facing a £22,000 bill after setting up a fake Facebook page that libelled a former classmate. Grant Raphael, a freelance photographer, set up a Facebook page in the name of former school friend Mathew Firsht and posted false information about his sexual and political preferences. He also set up another page for Firsht's television company, the latter entitled 'Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?' ... 'The significance of this case is that it shows that what you post is not harmless, but has consequences,' media lawyer, Jo Sanders, of Harbottle & Lewis, told the BBC."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:32 pm Robocars As the Best Way Geeks Can Save the PlanetBrad Templeton writes "I (whom you may know as EFF Chairman, founder of early dot-com Clari.Net and rec.humor.funny) have just released a new series of futurist essays on the amazing future of robot cars, coming to us thanks to the DARPA Grand Challenges. The computer driver is just the beginning — the essays detail how robocars can enable the cheap electric car, save millions of lives and trillions of dollars, and are the most compelling thing computer geeks can work on to save the planet. Because robocars can refuel, park and deliver themselves, and not simply be chauffeurs, they end up changing not just cars but cities, industries, energy, and — by removing dependence on foreign oil — even wars. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords." (More below.)Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 24 Jul 2008 | 10:28 pm Astronaut Chats About Alien BeliefApollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell discusses UFO's and government cover-up.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Jul 2008 | 9:00 pm Northern Lights Mystery ExposedThe dancing northern lights are caused by magnetic explosions between Earth and the moon.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Jul 2008 | 9:00 pm SLIDESHOW: Northern LightsThe eerie flickering of the aurora borealis is caused by explosions of magnetic energy.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:20 pm Girls as Good at Math as Boys, Finds StudyAnalysis of national annual math tests show girls measured up to boys in every grade.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Jul 2008 | 6:52 pm Explorers Map 'Snowy River' CaveA calcite crystal cave is several thousand feet longer than previous records showed.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Jul 2008 | 2:32 pm Whale Playground Sheds Light on Melting ArcticBeluga whales are a "bellwether species" for Russia's melting Arctic.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Jul 2008 | 2:20 pm Asteroid Crash May Have Demagnified MarsAn asteroid may have switched on Mars' magnetic field, and then ended it by crashing.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Jul 2008 | 1:20 pm
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An amateur photographer was told she could not take snaps of an empty paddling pool because she might be a paedophile.
