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Daily Top 20 - Red Carpet Fashion, Sexist Advertising, Leaked Britney Spears Music and David Blaine (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) Today's top 20 ranges from red carpet fashion and sexist advertising to Britney Spears 'Womanizer' (leaked music) and David Blaine's 'Dive of Death'. To start from the bottom up, David...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 5:16 pm Paper Wishbones - Wishpaper(TrendHunter.com) Pulling apart chicken wishbones after dinner is a pretty messy affair for making wishes. There is also only one piece per chicken. The Wishpaper solves both problems as it functions...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:39 pm Living Jewelry - Bonsai Rings by Julia Goland (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Julia Goland, an Israeli artist, makes amazing, wearable art jewelry including this bonsai tree. She crafts her art pieces using mostly leather but also includes wire, beads, fake...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:19 pm 40 Makeup Inventions To Make You Gorgeous (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) Cosmetics are a multi-billion dollar industry, so being progressive is key for innovation and marketing. This cluster of make-up trends covers (no pun intended) everything from vibrating...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 3:59 pm Afro Exotic Washrooms - Ceramica Cielo Bathroom Hides (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Cool loo alert! These wild designs are part of the Jungle Collection by Ceramica Cielo. Their Afro Exotic Taste can transforms ordinary bathrooms into ones that any croc hunter would...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 3:39 pm Graphic Apartment Shirts - Skin and the City Fashion(TrendHunter.com) collection. TheSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 3:19 pm Prison-Themed Restaurants - Alcatraz in Tokyo (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Alcatraz is a prison-themed restaurant in Tokyo, Japan. This establishment is a bit too quaint and esoteric for my taste, but if this place holds some allure for you, then you...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 2:19 pm Coin-Operated Lighting - The Corner Lamp(TrendHunter.com) To increase awareness of electrical costs and energy consumption, English designer Jethro Macey designed a lamp that is activated by inserting coins, and is set to turn off at predetermined...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 1:39 pm Savvis: Jefferies Downgrades To Hold; Sees Rising Capex [Voices]By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader DailyJefferies analyst Jonathan Schildkraut this morning cut his rating on Savvis (SVVS) to Hold from Buy, citing “decreasing visibility and a belief the company will need to spend more in capex.” He notes that since the Web hosting company reported Q2 results, its shares have appreciated 8 percent in period in which its peers have fallen by an average 14 percent. Schildkraut says channel checks find that the market for large-scale managed hosting projects “remains lukewarm, as customers continue to drag out the sales cycle.” At the time, he said that based on conversations with other managed hosting providers, he now thinks his old capex estimates for the company were too low. Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 1:37 pm Fan-Created Hate Sites - Britney Spears Leak Sets Fans Ablaze (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Do not mess with the Britney Spears fans. Instead of a thank you, Intern Adams is getting lashed at by Britney Spears fans after he leaked her comeback single, Womanizer. Why,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 1:25 pm US-TECH Summary (Reuters)Reuters - Dell hopes its new retail stores will help it sell to consumers in emerging markets buying their first computer, Chief Executive Michael Dell told a conference on Tuesday. Dell, the world's second-biggest computer maker, has recently switched from a pure online sales model to build an expanding network of retail stores, putting its PCs and laptops within the reach of consumers without Internet access.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Sep 2008 | 1:11 pm Twisted hospital workers post injury photos to MySpace - The Tech Herald
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 1:01 pm Adobe Unveils Creative Suite 4 Apps - The Mac Observer
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 1:00 pm Behold Prim Composer, Converts 3D Studio Max Files To Second Life ObjectsI'm sometimes prone to hyperbole, but I still insist that what you're looking at above is a milestone in Second Life's evolution. It's Prim Composer, an offline building environment that takes objects...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 1:00 pm Unemployment Hits New High In Silicon ValleyThough there may be some degree of cushion for IT workers in the US generally, Slatterz writes "The steadily climbing unemployment rate in Silicon Valley has reached a shocking four-year high of 6.6 per cent. Recent statistics indicate that the percentage of unemployed workers in the sunny state of California has increased to 7.7 in August — up from 7.4 per cent in July. Jeffrey Lindsay of Bernstein Research explained that a number of Internet firms were chronically overstaffed."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:58 pm Brown pledges 300m to give internet access to every UK familyGordon Brown's plans to give families 700 so that all children have internet access at home has been warmly welcomed by teachers and educationalists. But they warn that the estimated 300m to finance the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:49 pm More advertisers seek to block Yahoo-Google pact - MarketWatch
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:36 pm Science and Art Receive MacArthur Grants - eFluxMedia
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:35 pm Underwater Geysers Warm Flowing Sea WaterAn international team of earth scientists report movement of warmed sea water through the flat, Pacific Ocean floor off Costa Rica. The movement is greater than that off midocean volcanic ridges.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:35 pm World Trade Center Site Offers View Into Glacial Past - eFluxMedia
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:30 pm Archaeologists Believe Stonehenge May Have Been Healing Site - eFluxMedia
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:25 pm Microsoft Surprises InvestorsOn Monday, Microsoft Corp announced that it would take on debt for the first time by launching a $40 billion stock buyback plan.The move shows that cash-laden tech companies with good credit are still able to borrow money and enjoy flexibility in the current economy.Hewlett-Packard Co, the largest information-technology company, approved an $8 billion buyback plan on Monday. According to Craig Barrett, Chairman for Intel Corp, the chip-making company is still not feeling a credit crunch."I don't see any slowdown in our technology investment or R&D investment or manufacturing investment going forward," he said.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:20 pm Pandora Has Fans, but Are They Enough? [Voices]By Therese Poletti, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch, Tech TalesPandora, a private company that has created the most popular Internet-based radio service in the U.S., has a lot of zealous fans. In fact, they are a bit like the fanatics who love Apple Inc. and its well-designed products. For its legions of fans, Pandora stands out not just as an Internet radio station but as a gateway to discovering new music. The company’s core technology is based on the Music Genome Project, which essentially matches users’ favorite musicians or songs with other music of similar genres, based on a compilation of hundreds of musical attributes. Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:18 pm International Space Updates, September 2008 - DailyTech
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:15 pm First Palin, Now Bill ... - InternetNews.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:13 pm Mars Rover's Epic Trek For the Crater EndeavorSmivs writes "The BBC reports that NASA is to send its Mars rover Opportunity on a two-year trek to try to reach a crater called Endeavour. The robot will have to move about 11km to get to its new target — a distance that would double what it has already achieved on the planet. Endeavour is much bigger than anything investigated to date, and will allow a broader range of rocks to be studied. Detailed satellite imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will help pick out the best route ahead; and new software recently uploaded to Opportunity will enable the rover to make its own decisions about how best to negotiate large rocks in its path. Opportunity has just emerged from the 800m-wide Victoria Crater. Endeavour, by comparison, is 22km across."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:13 pm LSI Tarari T2000 10G Content Processor Breaks One Watt Per Gigabit Per Second BarrierSets new 10 Gb/s standard for performance and power consumption MILPITAS, Calif., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) today announced the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Workers Share Their Most Unusual Jobs from A to Z in CareerBuilder.com SurveyCHICAGO, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- As an increasing television spotlight is shone on unique jobs -- from the toughest and dirtiest -- CareerBuilder.com has announced its...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Brian Bedol Joins Highwinds Board of DirectorsBroadcast, Cable, and Internet Media Expert Brings Industry Experience to the Highwinds Team Sports Television Pioneer helped bring live events to the Internet ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Axceler Announces ControlPoint 2Features Enhanced Analysis of SharePoint Activity and Site Usage WOBURN, Mass., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Axceler, the global leader in administration...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Hearst Magazines Digital Media and MSN Launch Delish.comMore than just mouth-watering recipes, the site will focus on the culture and people behind the food we eat every day. NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 23...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Verizon Wireless Named as a Working Mother 100 Best Company for the Eighth Consecutive YearOnly Wireless Company Honored for Family-Friendly Benefits BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- For the eighth consecutive year, Verizon Wireless has beenSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Brocade and Oracle Collaborate to Optimize Virtual Machine Performance Over Data Center NetworksCompanies to Demonstrate Oracle VM Capabilities Enhanced through Brocade Adaptive Networking Services SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- At Oracle...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Teranetics Introduces Energy Efficient 10GBASE-T Featuring National Semiconductor's PowerWise TechnologyTeranetics' TN2022 Combines with National's PowerWise Technology to Deliver Significant Power Savings in 10Gigabit Ethernet over Copper Implementations SANTA CLARA,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Sony Unveils World's Lightest Blu-ray Disc NotebookSAN DIEGO, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony today took the wraps off the world's lightest computer with Blu-ray Disc(TM) technology -- the VAIO(R) TT Series notebook.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm INDUS Corporation Awarded Multi-Year BPA by Department of EducationVIENNA, Va., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- INDUS Corporation (INDUS), a leading Federal IT solutions provider, announced today that the Department of Education, Federal...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm Sony Announces Featherweight VAIO TT Ultraportable - PC Magazine
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:55 am Mars rover sets sights on distant crater - Register
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:19 am Get Ready For ... Nanosoccer!DeviceGuru writes "For the past few years, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has been sponsoring nanosoccer — a new team sport for universities with programs in micro-electro-mechanical systems. The soccer nanobots, operated by human players via remote-controlled magnetic fields and electrical signals, slide tiny discs around on a 30mm x 30mm playing field. Two demonstration competitions have already been held, and a third one is slated to take place next summer in Austria at RoboCup 2009."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:18 am Lumidigm Signs Agreement With Brand New TechnologiesLumidigm, Inc., a provider of world-class biometric sensors, announced today that it has signed a reseller agreement with Brand New Technologies, a South African firm that specializes in biometrics security solutions.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Oxea to Build New Amines Plant in ChinaThe global chemical company Oxea and the Chinese listed Chengxing Group signed an agreement with the Changzhou Municipal Government for the approval of a land grant in the Changzhou Yangtze River Chemical Industrial Park in order to build a plant for the production of amines and other chemicals.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Belmont to Vote on Costly Sewage UpgradeBy Jessica Bernstein-Wax The Belmont City Council will decide whether to issue about $45 million in bonds over the next decade to modernize an aging sewage system that serves several Peninsula cities.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Redesigning a Polluted Italian ProvinceBy Elisabeth Rosenthal Before Michele Assunto hauled in his fishing net from the banks of a reed-lined canal here, he used a pole to push the garbage out of the way. "They really need to clean this up," he growled.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am San Mateo County Suing to Gain Land for Crucial Landslide Repair in La HondaBy Julia Scott LA HONDA -- San Mateo County attorneys have begun eminent domain proceedings against a La Honda landowner who has so far refused to sell his property to the county for an urgent local land repair project. The lawsuit, filed Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Burma Takes Measures for Wildlife Conservation - Chinese AgencyText of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) [Xinhua: "Myanmar Takes Measures for Wildlife Conservation"] Yangon [Rangoon], Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am New San Leandro Kaiser Hospital, Nearby Development Would Use Same Amount of Water As 500 HomesBy Karen Holzmeister SAN LEANDRO -- A proposed 65-acre west San Leandro business and residential complex, anchored by a new Kaiser Permanente medical center, would use at least as much water as a 500-home subdivision requires, according to the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which provides water service to the city.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Hayward Increases Parking Fines, Adjusts Building FeesBy Eric Kurhi HAYWARD -- Mind those meters: The cost of a parking ticket just went up by a lot more than chump change.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Flood. Rebuild. RepeatBy Rob Young During moments like these, the country understandably feels sympathy for those who have lost property in the wake of Hurricane Ike. But there is an important question that should be raised while the nation's attention is once again focused on billions of dollars in damage.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am New Belmont Parks and Recreation Director Dreams BigBy Jessica Bernstein-Wax Belmont's new parks and recreation director has big plans for his department -- plans he says could raise property values citywide and help keep local teens out of trouble.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Jacada Announces General Availability of Jacada(R) WorkSpace 5.0Jacada Ltd. (Nasdaq: JCDA), a leading provider of unified desktop and process optimization solutions for customer service operations, today announced the general availability of Jacada(R) WorkSpace 5.0.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am InMage Systems Secures $15 Million in Funding Led By Intel CapitalInMage Systems, Inc.(R) (www.inmage.com) today announced it has secured $15 million in a Series C round led by Intel Capital, Intel's venture capital organization. Additional prominent investors in the round include Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Kumar Malavalli.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Top 5 Reasons Small Businesses Dump Their PC for a MacIRVINE, Calif., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Thanks to Apple's multi-million dollar advertising campaign, a record number of small businesses are tossing their PCs and switching to Macs. According to Jason R.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am IBM Expands in EgyptIBM has signed agreements with the Egyptian government to establish a nanotechnology research center and develop a services science university curriculum.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am IBM Teams With the International DB2 User Group to Launch "The Search for the XML Superstar" Software Competition in China, India and Southeast AsiaIBM (NYSE: IBM) and IDUG(R), the International DB2 User Group, today announced the first global competition to identify the next generation of software developers.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am HP Debuts Solutions to Accelerate Growing Digital Photo and Publishing MarketplaceHP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced the newest additions to its digital photography portfolio, designed to empower customers to do more with their digital assets across the printing ecosystem at retail, online or at home.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am New NASA Supercomputer Will Play Critical Role As Scientists Simulate Climate, Weather and Solar ActivityIBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new supercomputer that NASA scientists will use to simulate and better understand Earth's climate and weather, the planet's relationship with the sun, and the evolution of cosmic phenomena.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Juniper Invests in Packet DesignJuniper Networks has invested $2m in routing analysis and optimization software developer Packet Design.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Ten-Gallon Congrats to Barry Sonnenfeld! [BoomTown]
One of our favorite D: All Things Digital speakers, and now a regular attendee, has been Hollywood director, producer, writer and big-cowboy-hat-about-town Barry Sonnenfeld (pictured here at D6). So, BoomTown extends belated but Texas-sized congratulations to Sonnenfeld for winning an Emmy earlier this week for directing the pilot of “Pushing Daisies,” which is on ABC.
A gadget freak, as well as an entertainment mogul, Sonnenfeld did a very entertaining and insightful interview about Hollywood’s uncomfortable relationship with technology with Walt Mossberg in 2006 at D4 (and which you can find here in photos and video). Backstage at the Emmy Award show, which annually fetes the television industry, Sonnenfeld–who always tries to get Walt and I to ask outrageous questions of speakers at the conference, in exchange for walk-ons on his shows and movies (so far, we have not bitten. although he has gotten off some good ones as an audience member in the Q&A part of the interviews)–gave a typically saucy interview to the press about his win. And, no surprise, Sonnenfeld did manage to deliver one perfect geeky quip, as the music cue started to cut off his speech on Sunday night, which I doubt the glam crowd there got, but was not lost on me: “Love TV and fear the Internet.” Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 10:22 am 10 future shocks for the next 10 years (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - The past 30 years of InfoWorld's existence have seen a series of future shocks, from the ascent of the personal computer to horrifying strains of malware to the sizzling sex appeal of the iPhone. In honor of InfoWorld's 30th anniversary, we've decided to take a playful look ahead at the future shocks that could occur in the next 10 years (30 years seemed a little too sci-fi).Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Sep 2008 | 10:00 am More than half of US drug safety data never sees the light of dayOnly 43% of the evidence of safety and efficacy that the US Food and Drug Administration uses to approve drugs is made publicSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 9:46 am The Entire D6 Interview With TiVo’s Tom Rogers (2 of 4) [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 TiVo President and CEO Tom Rogers about the iconic but often-struggling pioneer and leader in the digital video recorder market. The video of the interview is in four parts, all of which I will post this week. In this second video, Rogers talks about how TiVo can help the television industry instead of disrupting it, what’s popular on the service and what commercials work best, its successful intellectual property lawsuit against EchoStar to protect its ground-breaking technologies, cable partnerships and the shifting of TiVo’s business model, including using the service as the future user interface for television.
Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 9:30 am Windows 7 Beta Screenshots LeakedSlatterz writes "Screenshots of what is said to be the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system have been leaked onto the internet. The ThinkNext.net blog posted a range of screenshots over the weekend which it said represents Windows 7. Overall, the screenshots show a distinctly Vista-like interface, but there is still plenty of time for tweaks and changes to take place."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Sep 2008 | 8:02 am Facing down our newest cyber threat. Really? (CNET)CNET - What really drives me crazy about our government--and it applies to Republicans and Democrats alike--is the blithe insouciance of empowered apparatchiks who run their respective fiefdoms as if they have all the time in the world to get things done.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:01 am Developer Makes $250K from App Store in Two Months [Voices]By Vasanth Sridharan, Blogger, Silicon Alley InsiderSteve Demeter developed the iPhone puzzle game Trism as a side project, but now he’s quitting his day job. Why? Because he says he’s generated $250,000 in profits since he started selling the $4.99 game on iTunes this summer. That’s after Apple has taken its 30% cut of total sales, and after subtracting his initial investment of about $5,000. Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am How Yahoo Could Have Protected Palin’s E-mail [Voices]By Ed Felten, Blogger, Freedom to TinkerLast week I criticized Yahoo for their insecure password recovery mechanism that allowed an intruder to take control of Sarah Palin’s email account. Several readers asked me the obvious follow-up question: What should Yahoo have done instead? Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Why Google Isn’t Enough [Voices]By Dan Woods, CTO, Evolved Media,Web 2.0 has annoyed legions of information technology professionals by providing an experience for consumers that, in many ways, is just plain better than what everyone gets at work. At some point after the year 2000, consumer companies grabbed the ball from business technologists and led the way with innovation. Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Here’s $39 Billion in Recognition for Your Hard Work on the Forthcoming Financial Crisis [Digital Daily]
What’s larger than the gross domestic products of Sri Lanka, Lebanon or Bulgaria and, when divided by 186,000, more than four times higher than the median U.S. household income in 2006? Congratulations on a job well done, folks. You’ve really gone above and beyond the call of duty here. “To many people, it will be shocking and questionable,”Jeanne Branthover, managing director of Boyden Global Executive Search told Bloomberg last year. “People in New York in the world of investment banking will understand it. It’s critical that pay is still there or you’re going to lose really good people.” Of course. God forbid Wall Street’s five largest banks lose any really good people. Who’d be left to manage the government’s $700 billion rescue plan for the financial markets? Something to think about during this period of “rapid and profound change” on Wall Street. Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Battle Over Stolen Goods Sold Online Goes to Washington [Voices]By Brad Stone, Staff Writer, New York TimesDoes the freedom of selling on the Web lure otherwise law-abiding citizens into an addictive world of organized Internet crime? That’s the somewhat overheated assertion being made to support three bills now under consideration by the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on crime, terrorism, and homeland security. Source: All Things Digital | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am MacArthur Foundation awards annual grantsAndrea Ghez of UCLA and Alexei Kitaev of Caltech are among the 25 researchers, artists and doctors honored for exceptional creativity. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Microsoft to take on debt for first timeChaos in the money markets gave Microsoft Corp. an opening Monday to announce that it would take on debt for the first time, launch a new $40-billion stock buyback plan and raise its dividend.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Site gagsSite gags Ben Huh's Pet Holdings Inc. operates a network of humor websites that let users submit funny captions on photos of cats, dogs, celebrities and more. The sites include:Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am His kitty site became a caboodleA Web entrepreneur's Pet Holdings network keeps people entertained. Will it keep making money through the advertising downturn? ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Abortion rate is down, but report cites racial disparityThe decline has been far more dramatic for whites than for blacks and Latinas. Although the overall U.S. abortion...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Mobile big five band together for deal with Internet Advertising BureauThe five biggest mobile operators have struck a ground-breaking deal with the Internet Advertising Bureau in a bid to develop the nascent mobile advertising sector into a serious medium alongside press...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Sep 2008 | 6:10 am The Mobile Internet You'll Be Using In 10 Yearsmr sanjeev writes "After being plagued with project overruns and a scaling back of the final system, the US military's next-generation satellite communications network is another step closer to reality, with completion of the payload module for the third and final Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) satellite ... If GPS and remote imaging (think Google Earth) have proven anything, it is that technology initially developed for military purposes, and extremely expensive for initial civil use, will eventually reach the point where it forms part of our daily lives without us ever being conscious of the massive investment to get to that point."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:51 am News flash MATS!? silkscreen print
Sign of the times: Artist MATS!? has a new silk screen print for sale, called "News-Flash." It's 9 x 12 and costs $25.
MATS!? "News-Flash" print Source: Boing Boing | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:06 am The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen ToDear President _________, Congratulations! Now brace yourself for an avalanche of advice — from the 21 people in your Cabinet, from dozens of advisory councils, hundreds of members of Congress, thousands of lobbyists and pundits, and millions of voters. Everyone's got an opinion on what needs to be done. But the policies that emerge from such groupthink tend to be weird mashups of conflicting interests or warmed-over slabs of conventional wisdom. Enough of that. The country needs fresh directions and crisp action plans on intractable issues like climate change, energy, security, and defense. To help shape your thinking, we've come up with a Smart List of 15 Wired people with big ideas about how to fix the things that need fixing. Hail to the new chief — and please listen up. 1. Parag Khanna Embrace the Post-American Age 2. David Laibson Tweak Human Behavior to Fix the Economy 3. Carolyn Porco Use Big Robots—and Big Rockets 4. Leroy Hood Look to the Genome to Rebuild Health Care 5. Montgomery McFate Use Anthropology in Military Planning 6. Peter Gleick Deal With the Water Crisis Now 7. Jagdish Bhagwati Keep Free Trade Free 8. Ellen Miller Make Washington More Like the Web 9. Ram Shriram Open Up the Airwaves 10. A.T. Ball Wage Smarter War With Agile Army IT 11. Steve Rayner Take Climate Change Seriously 12. Mitchell Joachim Redesign Cities From Scratch 13. Mark Smolinski Detect Epidemics Before They Start 14. Charles Ferguson Beware of New, Easy-to-Make Nukes 15. Robert Dalrymple Get Ready for Extreme WeatherWired.com Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Sept. 23, 1846: Neptune Right Where They Said It Would Be1846: German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, knowing exactly where to look, confirms the existence of an eighth planet in the solar system, Neptune. Galle was not the first astronomer to see Neptune -- Galileo, puzzled by the changing position of what he thought was a fixed star, had sketched the movement in 1613 but never published his findings. Others had seen it, too, but Galle, working at the Berlin Observatory, was the first to observe Neptune while understanding exactly what he was looking at. By the time Galle fixed his gaze upon Neptune, the existence of a planet beyond Uranus was widely predicted and its position had been intensely calculated. In fact, other astronomers were quarreling over who owned the priority of discovery. A Frenchman, Urbain Le Verrier, had worked out a complicated set of mathematical predictions based on anomalies in Uranus' orbit, and those, in fact, were what Galle was using when he spotted Neptune. Le Verrier had also taken care to make his predictions public. Meanwhile, the young British mathematician John Couch Adams, working independently, had reached similar conclusions, but confined himself to sharing the data with colleagues at Cambridge University. The key to their calculations was Uranus. Irregularities had been observed in the planet's orbit, irregularities that suggested possible gravitational interference by another heavenly body. French astronomer Alexis Bouvard first noted this in 1821, when he published observations of Uranus' orbit. By 1846, Le Verrier had not only completed his calculations for an eighth planet, but had determined its mass and orbital path. When his work was met with indifference by the French astronomical fraternity, Verrier sent his data to Galle in Berlin, who -- assisted by his student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest -- discovered Neptune that same night. Galle found Neptune less than 1 degree from the position Le Verrier predicted it would be. Adams was a gracious loser, giving full credit to Le Verrier for the information leading to Galle's discovery. Others in England, however, were less diplomatic, and in addition to some cross-Channel rancor, there was also criticism of those who could have been expected to act as Adams' mentors. A proposal by the suddenly interested Paris Observatory to call the new planet Le Verrier went nowhere, and the name Neptune was eventually selected. Source: VariousWired.com Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am 15th Anniversary: Hooking Google to the Evil MeterFew companies set out to do bad deeds, but most won't rule them out. Google was supposed to be different. When Josh McHugh profiled the young corporation in January 2003, it had one clear and concise rule: "Don't be evil." Ah well, times change. CEO Eric Schmidt recently "clarified" that policy, saying it was simply meant as a conversation starter. "We don't have an evil meter," he groused. Here, you can borrow ours! 7.1 Philanthropy Creating a foundation devoted to fighting poverty, researching renewable energy, and protecting the environment. Two can play at this game, Mr. Gates. 5.3 Coddling Staff Establishing on-site day care for lil' Googlers as an employee perk. (Memo to HR: Keep eyes peeled for particularly bright toddlers.) -2.4 Moral Triage Giving Brazilian police access to private photo albums on Orkut to assist an investigation into child pornography. The lesser of two evils is still pretty lame. -4.8 Immaturity Responding to Privacy International's last-place ranking of Google with "U R BIAS!" -6.7 Screwing Staff Raising the cost of onsite childcare to ridiculous levels in order to have the best day care on Earth. $57,000 per year? Seriously, Sergey? -8.3 Censorship Instituting keyword filters per request of the People's Republic of China. Further "clarification": Google company policies apply only within the continental US.Wired.com Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Mitchell Joachim: Redesign Cities From ScratchDressed in architect black and sporting dreadlocks, Mitchell Joachim isn't your average Whole Foods envirogeek. For one thing, he speaks in an intense staccato punctuated with words like peristaltic and epiphetic. And don't get him started on sustainability. "I don't like the term," he says. "It's not evocative enough. You don't want your marriage to be sustainable. You want to be evolving, nurturing, learning." Efficiency doesn't cut it, either: "It just means less bad." Even zero emissions falls short. "This table does zero damage," he says, thumping the one in his office. "No VOCs, no carbons. Whatever. It doesn't do anything positive." Joachim spent a decade working with architect Michael Sorkin, followed by a short spell with Frank Gehry. He now teaches at Columbia University and is a partner at Terreform 1, a nonprofit focused on ecological design. A kind of Frederick Law Olmsted for the 21st century, he spends most of his time thinking about how to reduce the ecological footprint of cities. It's not a short-term project. "It took 15 to 20 years to get a hybrid car," he says. "To change the basic paradigm for how we make buildings, 40 to 50 years. To change a city? That's 100 to 150 years." If the next president is smart, he'll want to get started sooner rather than later. At the top of the agenda, Joachim says, is mobility and its inefficiencies. Citing US Department of Energy statistics, he says that while 29 percent of the nation's energy expenditure--what he calls "the suck"--now goes toward getting around, "in 50 years that will double." Among the biggest sources of waste, he argues, is the automobile--not only in energy but in the space it occupies (cars, he notes, spend more than 90 percent of the day parked). For nearly a century, Joachim says, "cities have been designed around cars. Why not design a car around a city?" So he did just that. One of his concept vehicles, the City Car , was named to Time magazine's Inventions of the Year list in 2007. His various cars would be less machine than Facebook on wheels. Instead of rpm gauges, there'd be social networking software telling drivers where their friends are and how to get there. Made from neoprene and other soft materials, cars would no longer suffer traffic-fouling fender benders, merely what he calls "gentle congestion"--picture a flock of urban sheep grazing against one other. Like Zipcar vehicles, the cars would be shared. They would "read" potholes and send warnings...Wired.com Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Robert Dalrymple: Get Ready for Extreme WeatherKatrina was just the beginning. The long, hot summer that is global warming will be characterized by rising water levels, unprecedented coastal erosion, and more Category 5 hurricanes. Robert Dalrymple, a coastal engineer at Johns Hopkins University, warns that the nation is woefully unprepared. They said Katrina was a 100-year storm but then, so was Rita a month later, he says. What does that tell you? Dalrymple offers the next president a three-point plan to prepare for the coming era of marine mayhem. How to Avert Disaster 1. Plan the Evacuation If another huge storm strikes tomorrow, we need to know how to beat a timely retreat. Emergency officials say we must be able to empty vulnerable cities like Miami, New Orleans, and Charleston in 24 hours. Most probably couldn't come anywhere close to that goal as recent history demonstrates. The main bottleneck, Dalrymple says, is transportation. Remember the evacuation of Houston during Hurricane Rita? Cars were stuck for miles along the freeway. What's needed, he says, is a reverse-laning system that could be implemented at the push of a button, converting all lanes of traffic into a one-way super-highway out of town. 2. Restore the Wetlands Coastal marshes and swamps provide a natural buffer against ocean storms, absorbing floodwaters like giant sponges. Given that Louisiana has lost more than 1,900 square miles of coastal wetland in the past century, the devastation of New Orleans by Katrina in 2005 was all but inevitable. Because the Mississippi has been so extensively dredged and channelized, it shoots all the sediment needed to sustain these areas right out into the Gulf, Dalrymple says. Current efforts to fortify the city's levees won't be enough. His solution: Reroute the river to aim the waterborne soil where it's needed. That wouldn't be cheap, but the alternative is even less palatable. How to Avert Disaster Click for full-size image. 3. Save the Beaches Beaches are another crucial storm buffer. But those sandy strands are disappearing, putting heavily populated regions like the mid-Atlantic at risk. The erosion is particularly severe around jetties and inlets, which alter shore currents. Seawalls built to fend off the encroaching waters only make things worse. The quickest and often the only practical solution, Dalrymple says, is to just pick up the sand from where it collects and haul it back to where it came from. An operation at the Indian River Inlet...Wired.com Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Carolyn Porco: Use Big Robots — and Big RocketsShe has been criticizing the space program's shuttle-centric approach for years, and now the agency is finally listening to her. Carolyn Porco, 55, leads the imaging team of the Cassini mission to Saturn — which has sent back thousands of snapshots — a project that she says could have been done more quickly and cheaply had it been launched with the kind of big rockets the US quit building after the moon program. Here are the talking points she would bring if she were granted an audience with the president. Porco's talking points for the president Space shuttle program will be retired in 2010. Hooray! · Waste of an estimated $170 billion. Instead of circling Earth, we should be exploring outward. · Ares V rocket (being developed) can carry more than six times the weight the space shuttle can — meaning more equipment and better results. · More launch capacity also means ability to travel huge distances more quickly. Send robots. · Robots will always have to go before humans — don't need to eat, breathe, or be kept safe. Plus, never have to come back. · Also cheap. Cassini's cost: about $3.3 billion. Getting to the moon: An estimated $135 billion. · True, robots are heavy, but Ares is powerful enough to get them to Saturn and beyond with relative ease. Still, need to send humans, too. · End robots-versus-people debate — let both sides win. · NASA aims to return people to the moon and build a research outpost there as base for future exploration. Good. · Sending people is more dangerous and expensive, but putting someone on Mars shows that we have higher ideas and ideals. US can be inspirational again. Carolyn Porco is a Planetary Scientist with NASA.Wired.com Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Street corner science lessons with a Nobel Laureate
In 1988, Leon Lederman shared a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work to understand elementary particles called neutrinos. ScienCentral set Lederman up with a desk on a street corner and encouraged curious passersby to ask science questions. The two-part video was part of SciCentral's Web show series called "Street Corner Science." Lederman talked about time travel, nuclear power, and, particle physics. Street Corner Science with Leon Lederman (ScienCentral, via Eastern Blot) Source: Boing Boing | 23 Sep 2008 | 3:19 am Buy My Shitpile: Hey Washington, can you buy my bad investments, too? Nestled in that Nation post Cory referred to earlier today was this gem: buymyshitpile.com. With our economy in crisis, the US Government is scrambling to rescue our banks by purchasing their "distressed assets", i.e., assets that no one else wants to buy from them. We figured that instead of protesting this plan, we'd give regular Americans the same opportunity to sell their bad assets to the government. We need your help and you need the Government's help! Source: Boing Boing | 23 Sep 2008 | 2:26 am Cisco to buy messaging software company Jabber (Reuters)Reuters - Cisco Systems Inc said on Friday it plans to buy privately held Jabber Inc, which specializes in instant messaging software, to bolster its own line of Internet-based communications products.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Sep 2008 | 2:21 am Hockey stars hit real ice early for videogame (Reuters)Reuters - Hockey fans who can't wait for the opening of the hockey season on October 4 can jump on the virtual ice today, with new videogames hitting stores in time for the start of the NHL training camps.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Sep 2008 | 2:19 am First Google Android phone to cost $199: WSJ (Reuters)Reuters - The first mobile phone to use Google Inc's Android mobile operating software will cost $199, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Wednesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Sep 2008 | 2:17 am Rushkoff HereI, Douglas Rushkoff, happily mutated in the late-1980's, do hereby report for duty.I believe that the reality in which we live is largely if not entirely hackable. We have been fooled into believing that social conventions, law, economics, and nature are hardware - when they are actually software and open to modification. With a little more effort, we can refine the hardware as well. The current culture wars, as I understand them, are between people who look at our circumstances as pre-existing conditions, and those who see them as largely of our own making. Those in the former camp prefer to see reality as confined by the operating system of a Creator, and the human role confined to behaving within the rule sets established by Him. Those in the latter camp recognize the function of evolution, and the opportunity (if not obligation) for human beings to participate in the ongoing construction of our world and its operating systems. Some of this design activity is like software modification. We legislate for bike lanes, tax rebates for solar energy development, or freedom to grow plants. This should be the easy part, but - given the beliefs of those in the Creator camp (and the support they get from the most intransigent members of the corporate capitalist elite) - it's quite hard. It can even get depressing to argue against people who don't believe the rules of the game can or should ever be changed. The other kinds of hacks - the physical hacks - are actually harder. It's hard to figure out how to make traffic flow in a city originally designed for cars, efficient storage for solar cells, or ways to grow organic food or herb on already polluted and demineralized topsoil. But these are the hacks at which Happy Mutants excel, and that are so regularly celebrated on this site. For me, the physical hacks so often chronicled here serve not only as models or instructions for more hacking, but morale-boosting and solidarity-building reinforcements for the social and spiritual hacking required of activists living in a society hell-bent on corporo-fascism, self-destruction, and religious war. In a world governed largely by people who believe (or want their citizens to believe) that the world is going to end on schedule by decree of the Creator, it is imperative that mutants arise to the challenge of changing the landscape from under them. But in order to do this successfully, these mutants must be happy. Uninformed by a spirit of underlying joy, the modifications we make to the core program will be no more enlightened than those of our predecessors. Thus, we BoingBoing.
(Douglas Rushkoff is a guestblogger) Source: Boing Boing | 23 Sep 2008 | 2:12 am Open Source DemocracyI'll be making two kinds of posts over the next two weeks. The first are meant to explain the little introduction I wrote earlier today, and expand on the many worlds ready for advanced Boingage. The second will be examples of "wonderful things" I'm looking at that convey the spirit of the cyberpunk ethos or, to me, open source reality. This post is of the first kind.Okay, so one area I've been looking at for a while as ripe for open-source intervention is Democracy. Back when everyone was thinking about digital democracy as some sort of voting scheme or mass feedback polling operation, I wrote a short book called Open Source Democracy in an effort to extend people's thinking beyond elections to include participation in civics. Yes, we have representatives, but they're only good as their ability to respond to the needs that come from the bottom up. Then, just this summer, I was invited to deliver an "opening invocation" at the Personal Democracy Forum in NYC. And I took it as something of a challenge: how do we get people past the notion that blogging about a problem is the same as actually doing something about it? Here's an excerpt from my notes: To me, “Personal Democracy” is an oxymoron. Democracy may be a lot of things, but the last thing it should be is “personal.” I understand “personal responsibility,” such as a family having a recycling bin in which they put their glass and metal every week. But even then, a single recycling bin for a whole building or block would be more efficient and appropriate. Democracy is not personal, because if it’s about anything, it’s not about the individual. Democracy is about others. It’s about transcending the self and acting collectively. Democracy is people, participating together to make the world a better place. One of the essays in this conference’s proceedings – the book “Rebooting Democracy”- remarks snarkily, “It’s the network, stupid.” That may go over well with all of us digital folks, but it’s not true. It’s not the network at all; it’s the people. The network is the tool – the new medium that might help us get over the bias of our broadcasting technologies. All those technologies that keep us focused on ourselves as individuals, and away from our reality as a collective. This focus on the individual, and its false equation with democracy, began back in the Renaissance. The Renaissance brought us wonderful innovations, such as perspective painting, scientific observation, and the printing press. But each of these innovations defined and celebrated individuality. Perspective painting celebrates the perspective of an individual on a scene. Scientific method showed how the real observations of an individual promote rational thought. The printing press gave individuals the opportunity to read, alone, and cogitate. Individuals formed perspectives, made observations, and formed opinions. The individual we think of today was actually born in the Renaissance. The Vesuvian Man, Da Vinci’s great drawing of a man in a perfect square and circle – independent and self-sufficient. This is the Renaissance ideal. It was the birth of this thinking, individuated person that led to the ethos underlying the Enlightenment. Once we understood ourselves as individuals, we understood ourselves as having rights. The Rights of Man. A right to property. The right to personal freedom. The Enlightenment – for all its greatness – was still oh, so personal in its conception. The reader alone in his study, contemplating how his vote matters. One man, one vote. We fight revolutions for our individual rights as we understood them. There were mass actions, but these were masses of individuals, fighting for their personal freedoms.... You can find the rest here.
(Douglas Rushkoff is a guestblogger) Source: Boing Boing | 23 Sep 2008 | 2:11 am Sewing tattoo The Dainty Squid's amazing sewing tattoo (which is not yet complete) was spotted in Craft magazine's Flickr pool. Crafty Tattoo Source: Boing Boing | 23 Sep 2008 | 2:00 am Bad Signs For Blu-rayIan Lamont writes "More than six months after HD-DVD gave up the ghost, there are several signs that Sony's rival Blu-ray format is struggling to gain consumer acceptance. According to recent sales data from Nielsen, market share for Blu-ray discs in the U.S. is declining, and Sony and its Blu-ray partners are trying several tactics to boost the format — including free trial discs bundled into magazines and cheap Blu-ray players that cost less than $200."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Sep 2008 | 1:38 am Your chance to mark up the Wall Street bailout billGabriela sez,Congress is moving rapidly to enact a gigantic taxpayer bailout of the financial sector, with a potential cost of $700 billion or more than $2,000 per American citizen. We believe, as Justice Brandeis said, that “Sunlight is the best of disinfectants,” and that all legislation ought to be open to public comment and consideration in real-time, not just after the fact. |
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