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Very Unlikely Sopkesmodels - Ellen DeGeneres for CoverGirl (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Ellen DeGeneres is not the first name that pops into my head when I think of femininity and beauty product models. However, Ellen DeGeneres has been announced as the new spokesmodel...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 2:37 pm Defending Fallen Disney Stars - Megan Fox: F_ck Disney in GQ (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Who needs hot Sarah Palin photos when Hollywood star Megan Fox is featured on the cover and in a sizzling photo shoot inside the October 2008 issue of GQ Magazine? Megan Fox comes...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 2:31 pm Pop Cultural Differences - Plotting Mickey Mouse's Death (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Its unlikely a Disneyland will make its way to Saudi any time soon. A leading Saudi cleric says Mickey Mouse must die for the good of Islam. The sheik says the mice are the agents...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 1:59 pm Text Lights - Nathan Coley's Floating Text Messages (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) These light text installations are by UK artist Nathan Coley. The messaging in these pieces is neither negative nor positive which is one of the things I love about them. I also love...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 1:39 pm Ride Sharing via iPhone - Carticipate.com (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The high price of fuel means that car pooling and ride sharing are becoming a necessity for an ever increasing number of people. Carticipate now offers the first location-based...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:59 pm DIY Eco-Coolers - Tree Stump Cooler (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) What could you make with a chainsaw, a tree stump, ice, and a garbage bag? If you guessed a place to chill your beer, then thats right! You can make an eco-friendly cooler!...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:39 pm Online Music In Stores - Best Buy Acquires Napster (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Napster is the place where outlaws used to hang. Now they are all cleaned up, and will become a legitimate part of Best Buy. Napster has 700,000 subscribers who now pay to download...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:19 pm SS8 Partners With Fox-IT to Provide State-of-the-Art IP Analysis ToolSS8 continues to expand portfolio; FoxReplay Analyst to be featured at ISS Conference in Prague MILPITAS, Calif., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- SS8 (SS8 Networks, Inc.), theSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:12 pm Western Graphics & Data Receives Visa CertificationWestern's facility displays state-of-the-art security systems PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Graphics & Data, a division of IGH Solutions, has...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:09 pm Precision Discovery Further Enhances Computer Forensics Presence In Northeast CorridorAddition Of High-Tech Investigation Experts Offers Clients Expanded Capabilities NEW YORK, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Precision Discovery, a provider of...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:08 pm Bill To Add Accountability To Border Laptop SearchI Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) has introduced a bill that would add accountability to the DHS searches conducted upon the laptops of those crossing the border. Specifically, it would require the issue of receipts to those who had their property confiscated so that it could later be returned, would limit how long the DHS can keep laptops, would require them to keep the laptop's information secure, and would create a way to complain about abuse. Finally, the DHS would be required to keep track of how many searches were done and report the details to Congress. Rep. Sanchez also has also issued a statement about the proposed bill."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:07 pm Nation's Leading Real Estate Brokers Enter Red-Hot Mobile Space Via Smarter AgentPHILADELPHIA, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale mobile search launches today, accessible to over 50 million AT&T and Sprint customers on 80Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:07 pm Xinet Releases XTensions to Support QuarkXPress 8BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Xinet(R), Inc., the leader in digital asset management ( href="http://www.xinet.com">http://www.xinet.com ), today announcedSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:05 pm Non-Airport Car Rentals Now Available Through Hotwire.comNew Service Gives Consumers Choice in Where to Pick Up Their Rental Car SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- There is nothing that says "America" quite...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:01 pm Blackwell Consulting Services Announces Executive Team ChangesCHICAGO, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackwell Consulting Services, a full service management and information technology consulting firm, today announced the promotion of...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm AT&T and Bristol Senior Center Host 'Cell Phones for Seniors' Training Event in Bristol Township September 19thAT&T Representatives Tutor Mature Adults, Providing Wireless Tips At Free Educational Seminar BRISTOL, Pa., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Imation's 'TDK Life on Record' Offers First 6x Blu-ray Discs to the U.S. MarketBrand Also Introduces New Blu-ray Disc Cleaning and Storage Accessories to Preserve, Clean and Store Precious Data and High-Definition Memories OAKDALE, Minn., Sept. 17Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm InformationWeek Names National Semiconductor Most Innovative Technology OrganizationPublication Recognizes National for Initiatives That Enhance Productivity, Collaboration SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- InformationWeek ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Canon expands PowerShot digital camera line - Macworld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:52 am Chevy Volt Unveiled For Real, Inside And OutBy Colin Ackerman Last week we showed you some leaked photos of the production Chevy Volt, with the good bits mostly obscured by GM execs. Yesterday, the Volt had its official coming out party, with plenty...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:24 am NASA: Arctic sea ice at second record low - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:10 am Is Apple ARMing the iPhone With Home-Brewed Chips? - TechNewsWorld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:02 am New From Nintendo: Super Mario Production Line [Digital Daily]
Sadly for Nintendo’s bullet train-efficient workforce, that astonishing profit-per-employee metric doesn’t translate into profit-for-employee salaries. While the average Goldman worker banked $660,000 in compensation in 2007, the average Nintendo worker pocket just $90,900. “We are not experiencing success,” said one Nintendo prole, “just increased overtime.” Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:02 am Moldy Bags Prevents Your Lunch From Being StolenBy Luke Anderson I’m fortunate to not work in an environment where I have to worry about my co-workers stealing my lunch from the office refrigerator. However, I’ve known a few people to have...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:01 am VCA Technology Selects DaVinci(TM) Technology for Its Leading-Edge Video Analytics SolutionLONDON, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- VCA Technology announced that it has developed the first version of its video analytics software suite, VCAsys, specifically for digital media processors based on DaVinci(TM) technology from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) .Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Lumidigm Multispectral Technology Extended to Whole HandLumidigm, Inc., the award-winning fingerprint biometrics company, has applied its multispectral technology to the capture of multiple characteristics of the hand.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am China to Test All Dairy Products for Melamine After Thousands Fall SickText of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) [Xinhua "Roundup" by tainted baby formula: "China To Test All Dairy Products for Melamine After Thousands Sickened by Tainted Baby Formula"] BEIJING, Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am BASF Podcast: The Chemical Reporter - What is Mother-of-Pearl?LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, September 17 /PRNewswire/ -- While taking a walk along the beach, you might have noticed shells that have inner surfaces that shimmer in colorful patterns when they reflect the sunlight.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Officials, Company Manager Sacked Following Baby Milk Powder Scandal in ChinaText of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) [Xinhua "Roundup" by milk : "Officials, Company Manager Sacked Following Baby Milk Powder Scandal"] SHIJIAZHUANG, Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am North American Pipe Completes Large Diameter PVC Pipe Plant; Plant Strategically Located Next to PVC Resin Site in KYHOUSTON, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- North American Pipe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Houston-based Westlake Chemical Corporation , announced today it has begun shipping products from its newly completed large diameter PVC pipe facility located in Calvert City, KY.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Hawk Mountain Opens For Raptor Watch Cougar Or Fat Cat In Elizabethtown? Antlerless Deer Licenses Here GoneBy Pack Notes Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, that Berks County Mecca for migrating birds of prey, is now open for a 72nd season. Hawk watches are being held daily through Dec. 15.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Volunteers Needed to Help Cleanup Beaches, CreeksBy Julia Scott PACIFICA -- When it comes to Coastal Cleanup Day, Lynn Adams has discovered that it's not enough to pick up trash along the beach once a year. She has taken to scouring streets for cigarette butts, and she once found 600 of them along the sidewalks of a single city block.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Landowners Get Grants to Help Woodland BirdsBy Paul Cook A PIONEERING grant scheme has been launched for landowners to help declining numbers of woodland birds.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am HP Wins $660m BT Contract ExtensionHP has won a seven-and-a-half-year $660m contract extension from BT to continue to provide, deploy, and support BT's servers and storage, as well as offer service desk and end-user services to more than 100,000 BT users in the UK.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Cisco Opens Innovation Center in South AfricaCisco has opened a technology center in Pretoria, South Africa with an investment of $27m. It said the Cisco Innovation Hub Technology Center, CIHTC, will develop local skills, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and development capabilities.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am HP Cuts 25,000 Jobs in Wake of EDS AcquisitionHP has announced plans to restructure its EDS business group that it acquired for $13.9 billion in May. It said this will result in 24,600 job cuts, approximately 7.5% of the combined companies' workforce.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Easy Pickens?By Julene Bair While touting his plan to wean us off foreign oil, Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens makes no bones about being heavily invested in the natural gas he wants us to use in our cars.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am WIldlife Watch: Satellite Technology Keeps an Eagle Eye on Young Birds' Every MoveBy Peter Ranscombe AS THEY soar gracefully high above the cliffs and mountains of Mull, every beat of two young sea eagles' wings will be tracked using the very latest satellite technology.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am As Skies Clear, Some Hurricane Relief in Texas Unsanitary Conditions a Cause for ConcernBy James C. McKinley Jr. Cornelia Dean and Thayer Evans contributed reporting from Galveston, Texas, Staci Semrad from Austin, Texas, and Rachel Mosteller from Houston. * The U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Lenovo Pioneers Next Generation of Display Technology With Six New Energy-Efficient Thinkvision MonitorsAt the Interop show today, Lenovo announced the latest additions to its ThinkVision monitor portfolio that pioneer a new level of energy-efficiency for PC displays.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Intel Launches Six-Core XeonsIntel has launched a family of server processors that includes its first six-core chips. The Xeon 7400s are the last of the company's Penryn chip family before the shift to a new processor architecture called Nehalem later this year.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Inside BusinessConstruction company moves to new address Swayze Construction moved to 70 E. Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 130 in Henderson. *** Lewis and Roca, a law firm, named Linda Norcross associate in its Las Vegas office.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am ProQuo Partners With Council of Better Business Bureaus to Help Prevent ID Theft NationwideProQuo(TM) Inc., a company founded to give consumers meaningful choice over how businesses use their personal information, today announced it has joined with the Council of Better Business Bureaus to help sponsor "Secure Your ID" Day on Sept. 20, 2008 in more than 90 communities nationwide.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am One big thing Zune did right - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am NBC Puts It All Out There Early OnlineBy Gary Levin Web-savvy viewers routinely catch up with missed TV episodes online, but networks are split on screening them before their premiere. For the third year, NBC plans an aggressive campaign to make new series widely available a week before their premieres.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am New HP Keyboard Features Dedicated Ctrl-Alt-Del ButtonBy Luke Anderson It seems like it would be pretty hard to make a keyboard stand out from the crowd these days. Sure, you could put tiny LCD screens on each individual key, but even that’s been done...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 10:59 am Video games are good for kids (seriously) - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 10:31 am Kara Visits Burda’s DLD Luncheon in Silicon Valley! [BoomTown]Yesterday, WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg and I jumped into the BoomTownMini and took a road trip down the lovely 280 to Palo Alto’s MacArthur Park restaurant for a lunch thrown by Germany’s Hubert Burda Media. Burda runs an annual digital conference in Munich, called DLD (Digital, Life, Design), which a lot of U.S. tech types have gone to, including me, even though the media giant is best known for its old-line magazines about fashion, cooking and crafts. But Burda also has been dipping into the digital sector a lot, especially via the tireless tech networking of the company’s Steffi Czerny and Marcel Reichart, who have established a high profile for the company among Silicon Valley denizens. That was in evidence at Burda’s luncheon yesterday by the panoply of techies in attendance, which was hosted by Czerny and also Maria Burda, the wife of CEO and owner Hubert Burda, as well as well-known Israeli investor Yossi Vardi.
Czerny has been taking Maria Burda (pictured here, she is also a famous German television star, better known as Maria Furtwängler) around the Valley on a learning tour this week to meet with companies like Ning, Mozilla, Facebook and venture capitalists. They are also here to attend Google’s Zeitgeist partners’ event, which starts today. Here’s a video of the event, where I was asking everyone about the troubled economic situation and more. It includes chats with Mullenweg and Seesmic’s Loic Le Meur, BillShrink’s Peter Pham, Facebook’s Brandee Barker and Randy Zuckerberg, Wired’s Steven Levy, Vardi and Burda and Czerny:
Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 10:23 am Fancy a $25K Cray on your desk? - Computerworld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 10:18 am Android springs to life next week - Register
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 10:16 am VMware Looks to Spruce Up ... - InternetNews.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 10:07 am Apple Adds an Odd Wrinkle to ... - InternetNews.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 10:07 am The three business tech risks you don't know about (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Business travelers will soon need to carry the name of their corporate lawyer in addition to their passport when returning home to the United States, and they may need to bring with them a different business laptop as well. This is because U.S. Customs can search and confiscate your laptop without any prior cause, according to policies that have been posted online since a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court ruling in April.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Sep 2008 | 10:00 am Durham designers produce Star Trek-style school desksThey look like something out of Star Trek, and they might well land in a classroom near you. They're school desks, but not as you know them, say their Durham University designers.The interactive multi-touch...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 9:55 am iPhone 3G is named gadget of the year (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Sep 2008 | 9:50 am Peru To Be First To Put Windows On OLPC LaptopDa Massive writes "The government of Peru will run the first ever trial of the One Laptop Per Child association's XO laptop running on Windows XP. This puts the nation at the heart of a software controversy that has been raging for years between those who advocate making software and its source code free, such as Linux OS developers, and those who charge for software and keep the development recipes secret, such as Microsoft."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 17 Sep 2008 | 9:32 am Blu-ray Disc Association says it’s too early to lower prices - TG Daily
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 17 Sep 2008 | 9:12 am Driver of the Straight Talk Express spills the beans - satirical MoveOn vid from former Onion editorAdam Green from MoveOn sez, "MoveOn.org's Peter Koechley (formerly editor of the Onion) is the brain behind a new YouTube parody series featuring Billy Merritt, driver of the Straight Talk Express. On Tuesday night, Billy released a new video about John McCain inventing the BlackBerry." Straight Drivin' Express (Thanks, Adam!) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 9:04 am Woman sues city after it orders her to remove a link to the local cops' websiteA woman in Sheboygan,Jennifer Reisinger says the Sheboygan city attorney ordered her to remove from her Web site a link to the city’s police department, in what she believes was retaliation for her support of recalling Mayor Juan Perez, according to the suit filed last week.Sheboygan women files landmark case over Web links (via /.) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 9:04 am Ruth Brownlee steps down as AOP directorThe Association of Online Publishers is to lose its director Ruth Brownlee after just 10 months in the job, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.The appointment of Brownlee to the role in December 2007 was a...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 8:14 am Caspar Melville: The intellectual fireworks over at the New Humanist prove that there's life in the intelligent design debate yetCaspar Melville: Intellectual fireworks over at the New Humanist site prove that there's life in the intelligent design debate yetSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 8:02 am The Entire D6 Interview With Activision’s Bobby Kotick (3 of 3) [BoomTown]We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May. Unfortunately, due to issues too complicated to go into, we have to post all the D6 interviews in several 15-minute parts (I know, I know). But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.
Here’s an interview I did with Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick about the state of the gaming business. The video of the interview is in three parts. It’s a good week to focus on the gaming industry since Electronic Arts (ERTS) abandoned its hostile acquisition bid for Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) over the weekend. EA’s effort was motivated, in part, by Activision’s recent merger with Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft,” one the most popular multi-player games. The merger has made Activision (AVTI), with its own well-known franchises–especially the hugely popular “Guitar Hero,” which debuted version IV at D6–one of the gaming industry’s largest companies. In this third video, Kotick publicly demos “Guitar Hero IV” for the first time, with the help of special guest stars Paula Abdul of “American Idol” and skateboarding star Tony Hawk.
Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:36 am Aide: John McCain Invented the BlackBerry [Voices]By Sam Gustin, Contributor, Tech Observer, Portfolio.comYeah, it’s silly season alright. At a press conference this morning, a top aide to G.O.P. presidential nominee John McCain was asked about the candidate’s computer illiteracy, the subject of a recent attack ad by the Obama campaign. In response, top aide Douglas Holtz-Eakin waved his BlackBerry at reporters. “He did this,” Holtz-Eakin said, according to Politico. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.” Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:04 am Austin Game Event: Lively by Google Could be Expanded to Include Games [Voices]By N. Evan Van Zelfden, Contributing Writer, VentureBeatThe Austin Game Developers Conference featured one of the first official public dissections of the Lively by Google virtual world (or virtual room), and I got a chance to sit down with the project’s creative director, Kevin Hanna, in advance of that talk. One of the news tidbits: Lively could be expanded into the casual game space as Google plans to release guidelines for more interactive components, meaning games, inside Lively spaces. “We’re about to open up the API for interactive gadgets–meaning games,” he said. Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:03 am DHS Report Says Leave Laptops At Home [Voices]By Thomas Claburn, Editor-At-Large, InformationWeekThe U.S. Department of Homeland Security appears to be of two minds about the security of information on portable devices. On the one hand, it defends border searches of laptops as necessary to limit the movements of terrorists, to deter child pornography, and to enforce U.S. laws. “One of our most important enforcement tools in this regard is our ability to search information contained in electronic devices, including laptops and other digital devices, for violations of U.S. law, including potential threats,” said Jayson Ahern, deputy commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in an online post in June. Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:02 am The Future of the Web is 3D, Not Video [Voices]By Ian Lamont, Editor, TheStandard.comYouTube co-founder Chad Hurley has posted an interesting description of his company’s long-term plans and prospects. YouTube’s (and Google’s) goal is to allow anyone to easily upload video to the ‘Net and make that content available on any device. He also makes a bold prediction that online video will be the “most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication” in ten years. I would like to offer a counterpoint to Hurley’s vision. While I don’t dispute the impact of online video and its growing importance to the way people produce and consume media, I believe that online video is limited in several important ways, and will have difficultly competing with emerging graphics technologies that allow better interactivity, customization, and visual appeal. Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:01 am Do ISPs Pose a Bigger Online Privacy Threat Than Google? [Voices]By Jaikumar Vijayan, Senior Editor, ComputerworldThe increased monitoring and profiling of Internet users by companies such as Google and its DoubleClick online advertising subsidiary is widely seen as one of the biggest threats to online privacy. But in reality, said university professor Paul Ohm, the potential for the same kind of activities by ISPs poses a much greater privacy risk. Ohm, an associate professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, published a research paper titled “The Rise and Fall of Invasive ISP Surveillance” late last month. The 77-page document chronicles the different market pressures and technology advances that are shaping the behavior of ISPs and warns of “a coming storm of unprecedented and invasive” surveillance of users by such companies. Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Good news, bad news for Mannkind's inhaled insulin systemCompany releases test results showing that its Technosphere insulin delivery system is as effective for diabetics as injections. But investors are still wary about safety, and Mannkind's stock slumps...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Major League Baseball turns to Google on steroids issueWith funding from the league, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America will pay the Internet search engine for a prominent link to a website that discourages the use of steroids and provides informatio...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Google Phone to be unveiled next weekFor those of you who have been anticipating the so-called Google Phone as if it were the next iPhone, the wait is almost over.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am MannKind founder says inhaled insulin system could be 'blockbuster'The company releases test results showing that its Technosphere insulin delivery system is as effective for diabetics as injections. But investors are still wary about safety; MannKind's stock slumps...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Researchers link BPA exposure to heath concernsIn the first large-scale human study of the chemical, some found with bisphenol A in their urine had more than double the normal risk of heart disease and diabetes. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Researchers link BPA exposure to health concernsIn the first large-scale human study of the chemical, some found with bisphenol A in their urine had more than double the normal risk of heart disease and diabetes. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Breakthrough In Use of Graphene For UltracapacitorsHugh Pickens writes "Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have achieved a breakthrough in the use of a one-atom thick graphene for storing electrical charge in ultracapacitors. They believe their development shows promise that graphene could eventually double the capacity of existing ultracapacitors. 'Through such a device, electrical charge can be rapidly stored on the graphene sheets, and released from them as well for the delivery of electrical current and, thus, electrical power,' says one of the researchers. Two main methods exist to store electrical energy: in rechargeable batteries and in ultracapacitors, which are becoming increasingly commercialized but are not yet well known to the public. Some advantages of ultracapacitors over traditional energy storage devices such as batteries include: higher power capability, longer life, a wider thermal operating range, lighter, more flexible packaging and lower maintenance. Graphene has a surface area of 2,630 square meters, almost the area of a football field, per gram of material."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 17 Sep 2008 | 6:59 am Flaming arrows integral to oil pumping: 1960Amateur flaming-arrow archers (not a phrase that inspires confidence!) kept the fires burning in Alberta's gas towers in 1960:Bow Turns Flame Thrower for Oilmen (Apr, 1960) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 6:48 am CALL YOUR SENATOR: Stop proposal to make taxpayers responsible for MPAA's copyright claims!Alex from Public Knowledge sez,Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee gave the green light to S. 3325, "The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act of 2008." We need you to show them the red light, and quick! Among other things, this intellectual property enforcement bill lets the DOJ enforce civil copyright claims and lets the government do the MPAA and RIAA’s intellectual property rights enforcement work for them—at tax payers’ expense.ACTION ALERT: Tell the Senate to Hold Up the IP Enforcement Bill (Thanks, Alex!) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 6:42 am Pat Cadigan's FOOLS in online discussion groupDead Air sez,Pat Cadigan (Thanks, Dead Air!) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 6:39 am India's superhighwayMarilyn sez, "In a country that until recently had barely 1,000 km of 4-lane roads, with more potholes than roads, suddenly there's the magical Golden Quadrilateral superhighway, linking Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. 'Much as the U.S. interstate highway system mobilized American society and grooved the postwar economy, India hopes the Golden Quadrilateral will push the country's economic engine into overdrive—bringing the benefits of growth in its booming metropolises out to its impoverished villages, where more than half the population lives.'"Fast Lane to the Future (Thanks, Marilyn!) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 6:34 am Neuros open set-top box goes HDJoe from Neuros sez, "Computers becoming open in the early 80s transformed the category from proprietary computing machines to PCs. Can the same thing happen with the TV set? Will an open device that allows content providers and third party software developers (Miro as an example) to access the TV render proprietary set-top devices obsolete as happened in the computer space? This is Neuros's strategy as they enhance their Neuros OSD with HD capability."Open set-top box ships (Thanks, Joe!) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 6:31 am Lamps of Walt Disney World Tavie sez, "Having been to Disney World so many times, I wanted a way to keep the magic fresh, some detail to focus on that would allow me to look at this beloved place in a new way. So a few trips ago, I started snapping photos of lamps and light fixtures. Disney does detail like no other, and the sheer variety and beauty of these ordinary objects continues to amaze me. My collection only comprises a fraction of the lamps in Walt Disney World (with a few from a trip to Disneyland and Tokyo Disney thrown in.) Each time I visit I add more to the collection." Lamps of Disney (Thanks, Tavie!) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 6:28 am Saul Bass's iconic logos Marilyn sez, "I was surprised to discover that 12 famous logos were all designed by the same person, Saul Bell, who is better known for designing movie posters and the opening credits in movies. The logos are: Bell, AT&T, Avery International, Continental Airlines, United Way, Minolta, Girl Scouts, Quaker Oats, Kleenex, Exxon, Warner Communications (when they're all lined up like this you see a similarity in style)." Inspiration: Logos by Saul Bass (Thanks, Marilyn!) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 6:23 am City Sues To Prevent Linking To Its WebsiteMike writes "In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind case, the Sheboygan city attorney ordered Jennifer Reisinger to remove a link to the city's police department from her Web site. The city went further, she claims, launching a criminal investigation of her for linking to the department on one of her sites, and in response she's suing the mayor and the city. 'The mayor decided to use his office to get back at Jennifer for her efforts in the recall and picked this to do it,' said her attorney, Paul Bucher. It appears this will go to court, and the question will be can a city (or any business or Web property) stop people from posting a link to its site?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 17 Sep 2008 | 4:23 am Sept. 17, 1683: Van Leeuwenhoek Gives Us Reason to Brush and Floss1683: Anton van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to Britain's Royal Society describing the "animalcules" he observed under the microscope. It's the first known description of bacteria. Van Leeuwenhoek had a varied career in his hometown of Delft, Netherlands. He earned money with stints as fabric merchant, surveyor, wine assayer and minor city official. He also served as trustee of the estate of painter Jan Vermeer, who died bankrupt. One thing he did not do was invent the microscope, regardless of his glorious association with that instrument. Nor did his well-known contemporary, the Englishman Robert Hooke. The compound microscope (using an ocular and an objective lens in series) was invented in the 1590s, some four decades before their birth. Van Leeuwenhoek, in fact, didn't even use a compound microscope. Despite the eventual superiority of the concept, the compound designs of his time couldn't produce a clear image at much more than 20x or 30x magnification. After seeing Hooke's illustrated and very popular book Micrographia, van Leeuwenhoek learned to grind lenses some time before 1668, and he began building simple microscopes. This jack-of-all-trades became a master of one. His simple microscope design used a single lens mounted in a brass plate. A sharp point held the specimen for examination. One screw moved the specimen into position in front of the lens, and another screw moved it backward or forward into focus. (Fewer than 10 of van Leeuwenhoek's original microscopes survive, but you can use these plans to build a replica if you're so inclined.) Van Leeuwenhoek had to hold the 3- or 4-inch instrument close to his eye. Besides good lighting, it required sharp eyesight and a fair dose of patience. Van Leeuwenhoek had both. He built the best microscopes of his day, achieving magnifications above 200x. Delft's deft optician also had a fair dose of curiosity. He started writing letters to England's Royal Society in 1673, with descriptions of what he saw. One letter in 1674 detailed his observations of lake water, in which he detected green spiral algae. The Royal Society translated van Leeuwenhoek's letters from Dutch and published them in English and Latin. His missive of Sept. 17, 1683, detailed how he took plaque from between his teeth and from four other people, including two who had never cleaned their teeth. It was, he wrote, "a little white matter, which is as thick as if 'twere batter." Continuing:
I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving. The biggest sort ... had a very strong and swift motion, and shot through the water (or spittle) like a pike does through the water. The second sort ... oft-times spun round like a top ... and these were far more in number.
The "unbelievably great company of living animalcules ... were in such enormous numbers," van Leeuwenhoek wrote, "that all the water ... seemed to be alive." These are among the first recorded observations of living bacteria. Van Leeuwenhoek was also the first to see foraminifera fossils in minerals. He discovered blood cells (confirming William Harvey's work on circulation a few decades earlier) animal sperm cells, nematodes and rotifers. Van Leeuwenhoek sent more than just letters to London. He sent specimens, and some of his original samples were rediscovered in 1981 in the strong room of the Royal Society. Astonishingly, they were so well prepared that they could still be examined under modern microscopes. So, van Leeuwenhoek's place in history is not as the inventor of anything, but as a scientist, the founder of experimental microbiology. Source: University of California Museum of Paleontology 
Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Gallery: Sci-Fi-Inspired Concept Ships Show Future of Travel : Image: Nicolas BouvierFuture worlds described by science fiction visionaries like Philip K. Dick, William Gibson and Robert Heinlein often included wildly inventive methods of transportation to other planets, galaxies and dimensions. These brief glimpses into the possible future of travel were left largely to the readers' imaginations, but a flourishing group of dreamers, designers and illustrators are bringing those creations to life -- at least online. The conceptships.org website run by Igo Tkac showcases these artists' renditions of spaceships and other fantastical creations. From retro-futuristic aerial attack machines to automated deep-sea treasure hunters, here are some of the coolest. Left: Nicolas Bouvier has always been fascinated with space travel. Growing up in Cape Canaveral, Florida, he vividly remembers watching shuttles and rockets launch. Now a game designer with credits including Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Assassin's Creed, Bouvier also designs book covers. He fashioned this illustration for a French edition of a collection of Philip K. Dick short stories. See more of Bouvier's work.  : Image: Jeffrey TurleyJeffrey Turley's otherwordly aquatic vessel is an archeologist's -- or treasure hunter's -- dream. The underwater vehicle submerges to unexplored depths to locate lost artifacts and document unusual life forms. Turley, a visual development artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, said he dreams up his concept creations in his spare time. "It was just for fun," said Turley. "I do these warm-ups now and then to keep my art fresh." See more of Turley's work.  : Image: David LevyFor this ship's ethereal design, David Levy decided to upgrade an old concept -- the pirate ship -- with a sci-fi twist. Levy, art director of visual design studio SteamBot Studios, envisioned a space boat voyaging across the universe undetected, thanks to advanced disguise technologies that would keep the craft hidden from enemies. Additionally, the expansive wings of the sleek ship are solar-powered and can be rotated to face the sun as the ship travels. Even the ship's captain has a revamped first mate: "The bird on the shoulders of the pirate is a robot," said Levy. "Which is why it does not need any breathing apparatus." See more of Levy's work.  : Image: Ben MauroAlthough 23-year-old designer Ben Mauro painted this haunting vessel as an assignment for an art class, sketching and illustrating concept ships is an avid pastime of his. Mauro based this ship's bulbous skeleton on shapes formed by musical notes and rhythmic formations. According to Mauro, the cruiser's main purpose would be largely for surveying foreign lands, exploring unknown areas and conducting reconnaissance missions. See more of Mauro's work.  : Image: Michal JelinekIndustrial designer Michal Jelinek came up with this cargo ship concept as part of an instructional lecture for his students. "The main purpose of this ship is to deliver goods across the planet and to outer space," said Jelinek. The carrier, with its powerful jet engines positioned on the hull for maximum steering control, would also be capable of navigating extreme atmospheric conditions, he said. See more of Jelinek's work.  : Image: Joel Carlo AymatMultimedia artist Joel Carlo Aymat pieced together this clover-shaped ship while experimenting with his favorite graphic applications, Photoshop and ZBrush. Aymat pictured it as a perfect vehicle for everyday intergalactic traveling -- though he still needs to concoct a fuel-efficient power source. "It would probably be a pretty snazzy hybrid commuter," said Aymat. "It'd be like the Toyota FT-HS of space travel!" See more of Aymat's work.  : Image: Jake ParkerWhen Jake Parker isn't at his day job developing special effects for big-budget animated films like Ice Age and Robots, he's bringing his own creations to life in comic books. This vessel would compete in aerial death matches, so Parker envisioned a vehicle with superior speed and lethal attack functions. "I love the designs of pre-WWII racers," said Parker, who works as a designer for high-end CGI firm Blue Sky Studios. "Their sleek lines and full shapes always appealed to me." A bright yellow paint job with black racing stripes gave way to the craft's nickname -- The Wasp. See more of Parker's work.  : Image: Theodor WaernSwedish concept artist Theodor Waern took inspiration from dystopian sci-fi thrillers Aliens and Terminator to illustrate a menacing battleship for deploying troops to and from pockets of action. Dubbed the "Ferro," Waern's war machine is equipped with weapons and can carry up to eight passengers and a pilot. See more of Waern's work.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Tesla to open plant for Model S electric sedan (CNET)CNET - Tesla Motors on Wednesday is expected to announce a planned $250 million investment in a facility in San Jose, Calif., to manufacture its Model S all-electric luxury sedan.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Citizens Demand To See Secret ACTA TreatyI Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "One hundred groups of concerned citizens have united to demand a look at the secret ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) treaty and have drafted a letter to their representatives asking for information. We've discussed ACTA before, including what are believed to be parts of ACTA that lawmakers are trying to get a head start on."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 17 Sep 2008 | 2:41 am From NYT: Good at approximation? Maybe you are the next math superstar!Interesting article in the NYT science section on the power of approximation and how those folks who are the best at ball park guessing, may have a natural ability for advanced mathematics.“When mathematicians and physicists are left alone in a room, one of the games they’ll play is called a Fermi problem, in which they try to figure out the approximate answer to an arbitrary problem,” said Rebecca Saxe, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is married to a physicist. “They’ll ask, how many piano tuners are there in Chicago, or what contribution to the ocean’s temperature do fish make, and they’ll try to come up with a plausible answer.” So, I had an expensive lunch today. $10, plus $2 worth of iced tea and a $3 tip. But! Two kebabs, a pile of rice, a Greek salad and two lamb chops! It was late, I completed a big and miserable project and wanted to treat myself. Besides, who has lamb chops for lunch?! Anyway, back to the approximating. My lunch was about $15. AIG's bail-out loan from the Fed is estimated at $85 billion. So, that is about 5.6 billion kebab, lamb chop, Greek salad, rice and iced tea lunches. My beloved San Fernando Valley has about 1.8 million people and, if it was a city, it would be the 6th most populous in the nation. If I got a $85 billion dollar loan from the federal government, I could buy about 3000 lunches for everybody in the San Fernando Valley. From the equine estates of Chatsworth to the Tarzana chicken coop of Mark Frauenfelder, from the handmade carnitas of Carrillo's in San Fernando to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. I could buy 3000 lunches per resident. And let's face it, with two kebabs and two lamb chops, that is a dinner. So, an extremely hearty lunch, a sturdy dinner and I will add two egg McMuffins for breakfast, so, let's see, that would raise the per day costs per resident to about $33. Perhaps that won't get you far in London, but in Los Angeles, that is an ample per diem! At $33 per day, I could buy every resident in the Valley breakfast, lunch and dinner for, hmm, about 3 years? Or I could just buy everybody a new $50,000 Mercedes! NYT: Gut Instinct's Surprising Role in Math (Registration required) Also, from NYT, fun little game to check your mathematic gut instinct (Mister Jalopy is a guest blogger!) Source: Boing Boing | 17 Sep 2008 | 1:56 am Adobe tops Wall St hopes on design tool demand (Reuters)Reuters - Design software maker Adobe Systems Inc posted better-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday and raised its outlook on strong demand for its products, sending shares up nearly 5 percent.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Sep 2008 | 1:35 am McCain Makes Sharp Right Turn on Stem CellsAlthough presidential candidate John McCain has reaffirmed support for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, scientists fear that his actual policies would criminalize their work.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Sep 2008 | 1:30 am Fresh ‘Discoveries’ from iPod, Zune [The Mossberg Solution]
Amid a speech by its CEO and a musical performance, Apple last week unveiled a new version of its iTunes software and some new iPods. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Zune announced via press release that new players in different capacities and colors would be available this week, along with a software update. Despite their different approaches, these two announcements shared a notable common thread: integrated music discovery. Each company’s new software features ways for users to find automatically generated suggestions of music they might like, the way Pandora Media Inc.’s popular personalized music lists do. Of course, music discovery also encourages users to buy more. Apple’s new iPods include a thinner Nano with an accelerometer, which senses the direction a screen is being held in a user’s hands and flips the display horizontally or vertically. These Nanos come in eight- or 16-gigabyte versions for $149 or $199 and are available in nine bright colors. A new, thinner iPod Touch with a built-in speaker was also unveiled, and it comes in eight-, 16- or 32-gigabyte versions for $229, $299 or $399. Microsoft’s two new Zune players come in 16- and 120-gigabyte capacities for $200 and $250, respectively. All Zunes have built-in FM tuners and wireless capability, but the new upgrade allows users to buy and download songs they hear on their Zunes’ radios via Wi-Fi, when available. While Apple’s iPod has been a snowballing success for the company, its companion iTunes software is no slouch. To date, 65 million iTunes store accounts with associated credit cards have been set up on Macs and Windows PCs. But iTunes has always been weak on music discovery and community. Apple calls iTunes 8’s ability to make smart music recommendations the “Genius” feature. The tool can automatically do two things after analyzing a selected song from your music library. First, it can generate a playlist of songs from tunes you own. Second, it can generate a list of songs you don’t own but might want to buy from the iTunes store. Microsoft’s Zune software discovers and recommends music using categories called “Picks,” “Channels” and “Mixview.” The last of the three, Mixview, generates recommendations for other musicians and albums, as well as other Zune users with whom you might like to connect. The suggestions are based on the artist of the song you’re playing and are displayed in an interactive graphic that explains how each is linked — for instance, if your artist was influenced by a band or if a member of Zune’s social network is a top listener of the artist you’re playing. After using the music-discovery software from Apple and Microsoft, I felt like Apple’s Genius tool still had a lot to learn, though the company says it will improve over time as more people start using it. Zune’s software had some similar issues, but it offered recommendations in a richer, more engaging manner, encouraging me to keep digging around and learn more about my music. Though I didn’t happen to have as much time to use Zune’s software as I did Apple’s Genius, I got more out of my Zune experience. Apple offers much more content at its iTunes store than Zune. In all categories, iTunes takes the lead: in songs, 8.5 million songs to Zune’s 4 million; in music videos, 10,000 versus 8,500; in television episodes, 30,000 versus 3,000; and in audio and video podcasts, 125,000 versus 6,000. To analyze and learn from your music, Apple scans the contents of your music library, which may raise privacy concerns for some people. Apple says that the information it collects is completely anonymous, and that it does not and will not associate this information on its servers with you or your account. Some of my Genius playlists were well-crafted, including songs that meshed well with one another. But outliers cropped up, such as when “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by the Clash was stuck in the middle of a list generated from Coldplay’s gentler ballad, “Green Eyes.” Some songs won’t generate playlists if you don’t have enough related songs in your library; this happened to me with the pop hit “Apologize” by Timbaland, featuring OneRepublic. Songs from artists whose content isn’t sold in iTunes, such as The Beatles, won’t generate Genius lists, because Genius makes suggestions based only on what it sells in its iTunes catalog. Genius will soon work with songs beyond those sold in iTunes. Genius has a bigger problem. If you hit “Play” in iTunes, a Genius sidebar appears to offer content related to a selected song. But as play continues, Genius doesn’t continuously generate new recommendations; instead, it’s stuck on the very first song that was selected — which you might have chosen two hours ago. This means music discovery must be a manual process, rather than an as-you-listen convenience. Genius playlists can be made on a computer or iPod and sync back and forth. I synced Genius lists on two iPod touches, but this didn’t work in one test with an iPhone. Apple said it couldn’t replicate this problem and hadn’t had other reports of it. Zune software never scans your music collection. Instead, it knows only the number of times you played a song and how you may have rated a song. Zune’s Mixview adds a real zing to the discovery process. It is a kaleidoscope-like graphic that appears on the screen when a song, artist, album or friend’s Zune Card is selected. The selected item is surrounded by eight to 10 floating squares filled with graphics and text, each holding a related song, album, artist or graphic representation of a Zune listener who’s considered an “expert” on the selection. Each of these related squares includes a line of text explaining its relationship to the center item. For example, as I played “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, Cyril Davies appeared as a related artist; an image of Arthur Alexander appeared as an influencer of the Stones; a Zune community member with the tag “Rreynoso” appeared as the top listener for the band and other Stones albums were displayed. Mixview changes as you explore it. When one of its recommendations is selected, a new Mixview is created around that selection, encouraging discovery. But Mixview has the same problem as Apple’s Genius: When one song ends and another begins, the Mixview graphic doesn’t automatically change; you must manually start Mixview for a new song. Zune says it doesn’t want to change the graphic in case a user is in mid-exploration. Unlike Genius, Mixview shows songs and artists beyond what Zune sells online. But the company says Mixview does “favor” Zune content, and Zune Picks are limited to items sold by Zune. Zune Picks and Channels are more passive ways of discovering music: Picks are generated for you in Zune Marketplace according to your listening habits. Zune Channels bring collections of music to Zune devices and software, but these are useful only for Zune Pass members who pay $15 monthly. Apple’s Genius is a helpful tool when it comes to quickly making a playlist, and its iTunes sidebar might reveal fresh related content. But the Zune software truly allows people to discover more about their own music and that of others. Edited by Walter S. Mossberg
Source: All Things Digital | 17 Sep 2008 | 1:16 am Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise ThousandsElectronic voting machines have been the focus of much controversy the last few years. But another election technology has received little scrutiny yet could create numerous problems and disenfranchise thousands of voters in November, election experts say. This year marks the first time that new, statewide, centralized voter-registration databases will be used in a federal election in a number of states. The databases were mandated in the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which required all election districts in a state or U.S. territory to consolidate their lists into a single database electronically accessible to every election office in the state or territory. But the databases, some created by the same companies that make electronic voting machines, aren't federally tested or certified and some have been plagued by missed deadlines, rushed production schedules, cost overruns, security problems, and design and reliability issues. Last year, in Larimer County, Colorado, election workers got an error message when they tried to access the state's database to process absentee ballots, and had to log off for 20 minutes. In a mock election four months ago, clerks in other counties had trouble accessing the database from polling locations. Those who could connect said the system was sluggish. Election officials in several counties said they didn't trust the system, and planned to load the database to county computers and use printed poll books on Election Day rather than access the central database in real time. "The voter-registration databases are an underlying part of the voting technology revolution that has taken place in this country that has been the least noticed," says Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation. "We don't know how much of a problem (they've) been across the country. My guess is that there have been technical problems with statewide databases all across the country that have gone unreported." This year, during primaries in several states, longtime voters phoned a national voter hotline complaining their party affiliation had changed from Democrat or Republican to unaffiliated, preventing some from casting ballots in states without open primaries. Others complained they weren't on the voter roll, though they'd lived and voted at the same location for years. One Maryland woman said the birth date in her voter record was several decades off her real age. Others were listed as "inactive," although they'd voted in the previous federal election. And one woman who said she voted in 2006 was told she wasn't registered and couldn't cast a ballot. Election officials told her the voter ID number she had belonged to a man. But election experts say the real concern is how states are conducting database matches of new voters under HAVA. The law requires each voter to have a unique identifier. Since 2004, new registration applicants have had to provide a driver's license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number to register (voters who don't have them are assigned a unique number by the state). States are required to try to authenticate the numbers with motor vehicle records and the Social Security Administration database. But databases are prone to errors such as misspellings and transposed numbers, and applicants are prone to make mistakes or write illegibly on applications. The Social Security Administration has acknowledged that matches between its database and voter-registration records have yielded a 28.5 percent error rate. States vary in how they treat applicants whose records don't match, and experts say rules in some states could prevent thousands of eligible voters from casting ballots or having their votes counted in November. Those who don't match in Oregon, for example, can cast a ballot, but their vote for president or any other federal race on a ballot won't be counted. There are currently about 9,500 voters in Oregon who fall into this category, but a state spokesman says matching issues will be resolved with most of them before November so they can vote in federal races. Fewer than 500 voters were affected by this during the state's primary. "One of the big problems is that states just haven't been very transparent about how they're operating their new database," says Dan Tokaji, law professor at the Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. "So it's really hard to tell how this is going to play out. A few states have implemented overly stringent matching rules, the consequence of which could be that some citizens' votes don't get counted." In the 2000 election, about 1.3 million registered voters said they didn't vote due to trouble with their registration, according to a U.S. Census Bureau survey, which didn't elaborate on the nature of the troubles. In an election when record numbers of new voters are expected to participate, experts say the number of voters who find they can't cast a ballot this year could be higher. Voter registration databases are central to the democratic process in every state except North Dakota -- which doesn't require registration. Everywhere else, the registration roll is the gatekeeper determining eligibility to vote in an election. Voter lists aren't used just for elections, however. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, before statewide databases were mandated, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft reportedly ordered that voter registration lists be checked for links to terrorists. Until HAVA, each county or election district in most states maintained its own voter list, which often resulted in duplicate registrations when voters moved and re-registered -- creating opportunities for fraud. States were supposed to consolidate their lists by Jan. 1, 2004, but most got an extension to 2006. Creating a statewide system that interfaces with multiple county registration databases built by different companies proved to be difficult. About a dozen states missed the 2006 deadline, and four were sued by the Justice Department. There have also been a number of issues involving companies that make the systems. Some states built databases in-house; others outsourced to companies like Election Systems & Software (which also makes voting machines), and the Bermuda-based Accenture. Accenture was hired by several states, but lost contracts in all but one for missed deadlines and other issues. Colorado -- a crucial swing state -- completed its $13 million database this year after firing Accenture in 2005. A little-known Oregon company named Saber, which has created databases for 11 states, replaced it. Accenture retained its contract in Pennsylvania, though problems occurred there as well. In 2005, one state official called the $20 million system "seriously if not fatally flawed." HAVA requires databases to have "adequate technological security" but doesn't specify details, such as encryption. And although the databases interface with every county election office, access controls haven't been developed in some states. A 2006 audit of Florida's registration system found that the state hadn't established adequate access levels for various users and had no process for maintaining or monitoring audit logs, making records vulnerable to theft and manipulation. A June 2008 follow-up found some of the same problems. One former election office employee, for example, still had access to the database three months after leaving his job. In 2006 in Denver, electronic poll books made by Sequoia Voting Systems crashed extensively, causing long lines that resulted in an estimated 20,000 voters leaving polls without voting. During Georgia's primary this year problems with e-poll books made by Diebold Election Systems led to voting delays up to three hours long. Despite various issues, Kay Stimson, spokeswoman for the National Association of Secretaries of State, says the registration databases are ready, and states are confident they'll perform well for the election. She acknowledges, however, that issues over HAVA matches are still a concern. "Generally speaking, the uncertainty that hangs over the process, including uncertainty that results from election challenges and litigation introduced shortly before Election Day, creates a greater likelihood for problems or confusion at the polls," she said. HAVA leaves it to states to decide how to conduct matches. Some states require an exact match with the Social Security Administration database and only a substantial match with motor records. Others require an exact match for a voter's Social Security number, first and last name, and month and year of birth. Exact matching, however, could mean that a woman who recently married and changed her name would fail to match government records containing her maiden name. Voters who have double last names or unusually spelled names might also fail. Everything depends on how a state's matching algorithm is designed. Last month Wisconsin, whose database just became operational, conducted a test of 20,000 voter names against motor vehicle records and found 20 percent with mismatches, due mainly to typos and transposed numbers. Among those who failed to match were four members of the state's Government Accountability Board (.pdf), which conducted the test. Thomas Cane, the board's chairman and a retired judge, failed because he was listed by his full name, R. Thomas Cane, in his driver's record. A recent report from the Academies of Sciences noted that "many (if not most) of the matching procedures used by the states have been developed on the basis of intuitive reasoning without further systematic validation or mathematically rigorous analysis, do not reflect the state of the art in matching techniques, and have not been validated in the market, scientifically, or otherwise." Herbert Lin, one of the authors of the report, told Wired.com that the method states use to develop their procedures often involves "a bunch of guys sitting around a table saying 'Let's try this' and 'Yeah that seems reasonable.'" The federal Election Assistance Commission advises states not to leave final matching decisions to algorithms, and to have humans examine records that fail and contact voters to resolve discrepancies. HAVA doesn't say what to do with applicants when matching issues can't be resolved. It says only that first-time voters who register by mail, rather than in person, and whose records can't be matched, must show ID at the poll. Most states will register applicants who fail a match and let them cast a regular ballot after showing ID at the polls. But three states -- Iowa, Louisiana and South Dakota -- won't register applicants who fail. Iowa does, however, permit Election Day registration, which may allow a rejected applicant to reapply for registration at the poll and cast a regular ballot. Louisiana and South Dakota let the rejected applicants vote after showing ID at the poll but only on a provisional ballot, which may or may not be counted, depending on circumstances and state law. A survey of the 2004 general election showed that states varied in the percentage of provisional ballots that were cast and counted. Most states fell in the 30-70 percent range. "Provisional ballots are really problem ballots; we don't want people to use them if there's a way not to," says Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, a voting integrity group. Last week Florida, a battleground state, announced a new policy that voting groups say will likely disenfranchise numerous voters. A state law passed in 2005 initially prohibited applicants whose records didn't match from either being registered or voting. But after some 13,000 voters were blocked for bad matches in 2006, and more were blocked in 2007, the state was sued by several groups, forcing it to change its plan. Beginning Sept. 8, new registration applicants who fail a HAVA match must mail a copy or bring a hard copy of their ID to an election office before Nov. 4 to show that the ID number on their registration application is correct. Officials plan to send a letter to such voters explaining what to do. Voters who forget or never receive instructions can cast a provisional ballot on Election Day, but it will be counted only if they bring or send a copy of their ID to an election office within 48 hours. ID presented at the poll will not be accepted, which could create confusion since Florida law already requires everyone to show ID at the polls. Election experts say the policy places an unfair burden on voters who may fail a match through no fault of their own, especially since most states get huge spikes in registration applications just before registration deadlines, increasing the likelihood that harried clerks will make data-entry errors. "Allowing voters to return within 48 hours is worrisome because, the truth is, a lot of them won't," says Tokaji. "Maybe, if it comes down to Florida deciding the presidency, God help them, they will return. But … the more complicated you make things, the more votes won't be counted." Critics of the policy predict it will affect 10 to 20 percent of new registration applicants. "That's tens of thousands of people in a state that decided a presidential contest by a few hundred votes (in 2000)," says Slater, whose group was one of the parties that sued Florida. Florida's voter-registration list isn't new to controversy, of course. In 2000 a contractor hired to weed out convicted felons used broad criteria to match voter names against correctional records and swept up thousands of the wrong people. The same problem occurred in 2004. Slater cites another troubling trend emerging with the implementation of statewide databases. Several states have begun comparing databases for duplicate records of existing voters, then purging voters they believe have moved and registered in another state. The problem, Slater says, is the methods used can yield false positives, and officials are deleting voters without contacting them to verify that they've moved, or waiting for two federal election cycles to pass, which are requirements under the National Voter Rights Acts of 1993. In 2006, Kentucky's attorney general successfully sued his state's board of elections after officials compared their list to ones from South Carolina and Tennessee and purged about 8,000 voters who appeared to have registered in those states at a later date than their registration in Kentucky and were presumed to have moved. Project Vote is investigating Kansas, Louisiana and South Dakota for similar activity. Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska have also been comparing lists. "That is a trend that will accelerate, but there are inadequate safeguards, and I think it's very, very dangerous," Slater says. To address some of the issues that may arise at polls in November, voting groups are advising voters to double-check their registration status before their state's registration deadline (.pdf), to bring ID to the polls in case questions arise about their eligibility, and call 866.MYVOTE1 to report problems.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am Alt Text: Camping Trip Reveals Joys of 'Data Isolation'When I told my friends I was going camping, the most common reaction was bafflement. It was as if I had warned them that I was about to pupate. I was actually surprised by the news myself. When I try to remember the events that led to my agreeing to camp out, it's all echoes and shadows. I generally consider soft, insect-free beds to be one of the chief virtues of an industrialized society, just above a lowered infant mortality rate. Nonetheless, my girlfriend and I shoved as many artifacts of civilization as we could into the back of the Corolla and headed up the coast. Luckily for me, we had picked a beginner's campsite, the kind that you'd get if LeapFrog Enterprises landed a state park contract. Picnic table, enclosed fire pit, convenient parking mere feet from the camping space, that sort of thing. I was feeling pretty optimistic when I noticed a flier notifying us of ... something about the water. I still don't know exactly what it was trying to say; it seemed to be simultaneously trying to warn and reassure us. Roughly paraphrased, it went like this: WARNING: The water at this campsite does not meet safety standards for drinking. Nonetheless, it is safe to drink, unless you are the sort of person who should not be drinking unsafe water. We hope to upgrade our equipment in the near future to make this water, which is safe to drink, safe to drink. In the meantime, it is not necessary to boil this unsafe water before drinking it. My compromise was to drink the water mainly in the form of whiskey toddies. As surprised as I was to find myself camping, I was even more surprised to find myself enjoying it. In the decade or so since I was last dragged into the woods, technology has made camping much more pleasant, which is to say much less like camping. An inflatable mattress elevated me above the hard, life-sapping ground, some weird sort of drugstore napalm made lighting fires easier than putting them out, and one can never underestimate the soothing power of a Nintendo DS Lite when stuck nearly two miles from the nearest human settlement. The experience was refreshing and enlivening. Most people would credit this to the fresh air or the softly swaying greenery or perhaps the thug-like chipmunks that organized tactical assaults on our marshmallows. You know, nature. I don't think that was it, though. The real pleasure was something I'm going to call "data isolation." Entertainment and information used to be something you would seek out, library card or remote control in hand. We were, as it were, hunters and gatherers of data. Nowadays, though, data is something that seeps into my home from a dozen sources. E-mail and RSS feeds line up like Soviet-era bread-seekers, patiently awaiting my attention. TV shows and movies install themselves on hard drives or waft in with the daily mail. As a result, I've become an immoderate consumer of information. I watch television while browsing the web. I've been known to check my e-mail while playing World of Warcraft. Not just during the long flights from one area to another -- I actually read my mail in battle, while waiting for the 10-second cool-down on my Stormstrike power. I'm at the center of a data glut. So yeah, I brought a videogame with me to the woods, but at least when I played it I was only playing that specific game. When I read a book, I was reading that particular book. I was arguably closer to roughing it in terms of entertainment than I was in terms of physical comforts. I'm trying to figure out how to get that same sense of data isolation without having to sleep near insects. Unplugging the modem one day a week would be a start, but it wouldn't affect the data that's already made its way into my home. Maybe I could rig up all my electronics to one circuit for easy shutdown. I can probably find a way to do it on the web, assuming I don't get distracted. - - - Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to reassure his guildmates that he doesn't do the e-mail thing during raids. Well, at least not during boss fights.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am First Image of a Planet Orbiting a Sun-Like StarSeveral readers including houbou and DigitumDei sent links to what may be the first-ever image of a planet orbiting a sun-like star (research paper). The giant planet, the mass of 8 Jupiters, orbits its star at 330 AU, or 11 times the distance to Neptune's orbit. If the imaged object does turn out to be a planet — and it's not certain it is — then theories of planet formation may have to be adjusted. "The bulk of the material from which planets might form is significantly closer to the parent star... The outermost parts of such disks wouldn't contain enough material to assemble a Jupiter-mass planet at the distance from the star... at which the Toronto team found the faint object."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:10 am Dell shares sink on warning about weak demand (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:08 am SanDisk says rejects buyout offer from SamsungSanDisk Corp. said Tuesday it had rejected a $5.85 billion takeover offer from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd after its board determined the deal was "inadequate in multiple respects."Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 17 Sep 2008 | 12:00 am Microsoft hails open source outreach (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Microsoft continued to make its case on Tuesday that it is a friend to open source, listing a number of efforts it has undertaken in spaces ranging from Linux to virtualization and rich Internet application technology.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Sep 2008 | 11:50 pm They Weren’t Kidding: Samsung Bids for SanDisk [Voices]By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron'sDefying skeptics who had warned that a deal would face significant hurdles, Samsung this afternoon announced that it has offered to buy SanDisk for $26 a share in cash. While Samsung had previously said it might be interested in buying SanDisk, many on the Street were convinced that Samsung was more interested in improving its negotiating position on a renewed license agreement over NAND-related patents than actually buying the company. But today the skeptics on the potential for such a deal–and I count myself among them–have been proven incorrect. This is clearly not a friendly deal. The Samsung announcement notes it is “reiterating” its proposal to acquire Samsung, and includes a lengthy letter to SanDisk’s management that makes it clear that the two companies had been talking for months, but that SanDisk had wanted a higher price. The hostile nature of the offer makes the potential regulatory obstacles to the deal–the combination would own a majority of the global NAND flash production capacity–all the more daunting. Source: All Things Digital | 16 Sep 2008 | 11:25 pm Study Finds Video Games Are Not Bad for Kidsmcgrew writes with news that a study done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found game playing is all but universal among teens, and it provides a "significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement." 97% of teens responding to the survey said they played games (75% played weekly or more often), and roughly two-thirds of teens use games as a social experience. The full report (PDF) and the questionnaire with answer data (PDF) are both available for viewing. From the report: "Youth who take part in social interaction related to the game, such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards, are more engaged civically and politically. Youth who play games where they are part of guilds are not more civically engaged than youth who play games alone."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Sep 2008 | 11:10 pm Adobe 3Q net income down, results beat estimates (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Sep 2008 | 11:03 pm Royal Society "Creationist" ResignsChris_Keene writes in to let us know that the Prof. Michael Reiss, who recently caused a storm with comments about teaching creationism in schools, has resigned from his post as director of education at the Royal Society in the UK. This news coincides with word out of the Anglican church that it is ready to apologize to Charles Darwin, 150 years after it poured scorn on his theory of evolution by natural selection. "The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas. It will call 'anti-evolutionary fervor' an 'indictment' on the Church."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Sep 2008 | 10:28 pm Copyright Board Lawyer Responds On Pandora's Endmattnyc99 writes "A month ago we talked about the impending death of streaming music site Pandora thanks to a very backwards fight over royalties. PopMech follows up with an article that, besides noting how insane it is that Pandora has to pay record labels for the bad songs that users skip, also gets the (three-member) Copyright Royalty Board to try and defend itself about why the government is determining royalty rates for the music industry. Quoting: 'It was uninvited,' says Richard Strasser, senior attorney for the Copyright Royalty Board. 'I don't think anybody was jumping up and down with joy in the government that they have this responsibility, but the former systems just weren't working out.'" No one seems to be trying to defend or explain why Internet radio is being hit so much harder than satellite or broadcast.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Sep 2008 | 9:38 pm Hollywood Control of DVD-Copying at CrossroadsWith the advent of illicit BitTorrent trackers and nefarious open source decryption software, Hollywood has been slowly losing its grip on the encrypted DVD. Now legitimate companies, such as RealNetwoks, are allowing their customers to make copies of their DVDs, and the courts are allowing it. All of which is placing Hollywood's control of the DVD in a crossroads.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Sep 2008 | 9:24 pm First Google-powered phone to be unveiled Sept. 23 (AP)AP - T-Mobile plans to show off the first wireless phone powered by Google Inc.'s much-anticipated Android software system at a Sept. 23 news conference.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Sep 2008 | 9:12 pm How to Build a Simple SMS Notification AppWhat good is a webmonkey's resume these days without some mobile experience to spice things up? We'll show you how to create an SMS notification app using a text service, Google's geocoder API and a bit of server-side programming. For our example, we built a service that delivers local sunrise and sunset times to your phone. We said "simple," didn't we?
Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Sep 2008 | 9:00 pm Zend: PHP set for enterprise growth (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is moving beyond hobbyist and academic realms and into the enterprise, the CEO of Zend Technologies stressed Tuesday during a keynote presentation at the 2008 Zend/PHP Conference (ZendCon) in Santa Clara, Calif.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Sep 2008 | 8:50 pm Congress May Kill NIH Open Access Research RulesSavuka writes "A policy that mandates public, open access to all National Institutes of Health research is in danger. The House of Representatives is considering legislation that would change the open access policy to make it more publisher-friendly, under the false pretense of protecting copyrights. The Ars author paints the new legislation as somewhat reflective of a turf battle in Congress: 'The Intellectual Property Subcommittee clearly felt that it had been ignored during the original passage of the bill that compelled the NIH's open access policy...' The article concludes: 'Currently, the disruptions wrought by the Internet and expectations of open access are too new for a viable alternative to traditional publishing to have emerged. But it doesn't appear that the NIH policy is making a significant contribution to that disruption, and the benefits of the policy appear likely to be significant. If Congress rolls back that policy in response to disagreements with other countries over film piracy, then it could really be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Sep 2008 | 8:49 pm Microsoft, Cray Unleash $25K SupercomputerMicrosoft and Cray team up to release a $25,000 supercomputer that anyone can purchase with a credit card.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 16 Sep 2008 | 8:40 pm Microsoft, Cray Unleash $25K SupercomputerMicrosoft and Cray team up to release a $25,000 supercomputer that anyone can purchase with a credit card.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Sep 2008 | 8:40 pm Gallery: Inside GM's Massive Wind Tunnel : Photo: General MotorsThere's more to designing a car’s exterior than making it look cool. You have to make it aerodynamic as well. The science of smoothing airflow is of increasing importance as automakers strive to make their cars more fuel-efficient and as batteries play a greater role in propulsion systems. The earliest experiments in aero design can be traced to the '20s and '30s, but it wasn't until the '70s that automakers took it seriously. Now most of them develop their cars in wind tunnels. General Motors has the biggest in the industry, and it runs 24/7. Left: This composite shows what the Chevrolet Volt looks like in the wind tunnel. That isn't smoke flowing over the car, it's a stream of propylene glycol. Engineers use it to study airflow over and around vehicles in the wind tunnel.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comAbandon hope all ye poor designs that enter here! GM's tunnel went online in 1980, and these days just about everything the General designs passes this through these doors to be tested. The all-electric EV1 was -- and remains -- the most aerodynamic production car in history when it emerged from these doors in the early '90s.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comMission control. Engineers can monitor and record airflow velocity and pressure and their effect on a vehicle's drag, lift, pitch and yaw. "We're trying to replicate how a vehicle moves through the air," says Nina Tortosa, the engineer who guided the Chevrolet Volt through wind tunnel development. "Drag gets the most emphasis because of its impact on fuel efficiency. But 40 percent of our work is on wind noise -- making the interior quiet."  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comWhatever you do, don't push the red button! Given the size of the wind tunnel -- it's a closed loop 988 feet long with a volume of two million cubic feet -- and its importance in vehicle design, the control panel is remarkably straightforward.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comThe data display tells engineers everything they need to know about the 43-foot fan at the heart of the wind tunnel. It's capable of generating wind speeds of 138 mph. Engineers can make as many as 16 runs during a shift.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comThis platform in the test chamber is where mock-ups -- usually clay models -- are placed for testing. The turntables allow engineers to move the models to measure their behavior in crosswinds. Testing starts on 1:3 scale models, and changes are made one at a time to see how they affect the rest of the car. "It's a dynamic system," Tortosa says. "Make one small change at the back and it completely alters things at the front." Once the design is perfected in 1:3 scale, it's transferred to a full-size mockup and the tests begin anew.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comThe acoustically treated walls of the wind tunnel are a minimum of 18 inches thick. Some 20,000 cubic yards of reinforced concrete were used to build the wind tunnel, which stands on pilings that extend 80 feet into the ground.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comTurning vanes in each of the four corners of the wind tunnel manage airflow through the tunnel, which has a maximum height of 48 feet. The vanes are made of acoustically absorptive material to reduce the noise generated by the massive fan as it spins up to 270 rpm.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comThe flow-conditioning screen at the mouth of the tunnel helps straighten out the air before it flows into the semi-anechoic test chamber. Just prior to the screen, a heat exchanger with 175 aluminum vanes keeps the air at 72 degrees Fahrenheit.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comThe heart of the beast is a 4,500-horsepower, variable-speed, DC electric motor that turns a six-blade fan at up to 270 rpm.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comThe fan has six blades, each weighing one ton. They're 12 feet tall and made of laminated Sitka spruce, which was selected for its high strength-to-weight ratio. With the motor spinning at maximum velocity, the tip speed of the blades is 415 mph.  : Photo: Joe Brown/Wired.comGM’s Nina Tortosa, with her favorite colleague: the fan.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Sep 2008 | 8:00 pm VMWare Fusion 2 Shows Off New Tricks for Running Windows on a MacThe new release of VMWare's Fusion, which lets Mac users run Windows applications on their Mac OS X desktops, has several new features, including support for multiple monitors, folder sharing between operating systems and better support for games. And if you bought an older version of the software, Fusion 2 is a free upgrade.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Sep 2008 | 7:30 pm Forrester boosts 2008 tech spending forecast (AP)AP - For the technology sector, it's a case of good news now and so-so news later.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Sep 2008 | 7:14 pm SLIDE SHOW: Arctic Sea Ice Going, Going ...With Arctic ice at record lows, summers there could soon be reliably ice-free.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Sep 2008 | 6:38 pm Ozone Hole Larger Than Last YearThis year's ozone hole over the Antarctic has surpassed last year's hole in size.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Sep 2008 | 5:56 pm 'Day-Glo' Fish Shine Red LightFluorescent fish that glow red in the deep ocean are shaking some long-held tenets.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Sep 2008 | 5:08 pm Powdered Methane Could Help Harness Energy SourceBy adding silica to methane gas, scientists make the energy resource more stable.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Sep 2008 | 2:35 pm Mega-Tsunami Dumped Tonga's Coral BouldersAre huge boulders on a South Pacific island the result of ancient devastation?Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Sep 2008 | 1:38 pm Review: Just How Good is the MSI Wind?Netbooks. The Dream: a tiny, full featured computer in your bag, a device so small and light you never notice it's there. A machine with a battery life so long you treat it like a cellphone. The reality? Actually closer than you might think.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 16 Sep 2008 | 1:20 pm Bushmeat Ban Not the AnswerA ban on bushmeat hunting ignores the nutritional needs of local people, says a new report.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Sep 2008 | 1:16 pm
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The word “Nintendo” literally translates as ‘leave luck to heaven,’ but another translation might be “leave luck to your employees.” Because Nintendo’s are among the most productive in tech. In fact, 
Join us at the Science Fiction Message Board in the month of October, 2008 for a Group Book Read featuring the novel 
